Splat

What a day! I had been busy all day sanding down windows and cabinets, had a bit of time to catch up with family on Skype and finally got down to the kitchen to prepare some dinner.

Mmmmm…what should I have? Out came the frozen trees (broccoli and cauliflower), the carrots and potatoes, ah! There is some topside steak, which will do. Into the microwave it goes to defrost and then on with the oven 180° C. How can I treat this steak? I know, I’ll marinate it a bit to get some of that sauce into the cuts and then into the oven to cook. Yum I can taste it now! Well…out came a few sauces and, ok, some tomato paste in one of those flip top type of bottles from the fridge, that will do it. Hold it over the dish so I don’t spill it …boom!!!

I was dazed for a few seconds. The cap flipped open and when I was able to clean the paste out of my eyes I slowly came to realize that the room suddenly had a new pattern on the walls, my newly painted walls. On further investigation there was not one surface in the room that didn’t have paste blotches on them, walls, ceiling, cupboards, venetians, canisters etc, floor, me and the doors, even the door in the

next room. What a mess!

Well what would you think at such a time? I had a few thoughts, the first one being aaaaah! Then, Oh man! I knew I only had a short time to wash it off before it set and for the next hour and a half I washed and wiped and rubbed until I was as wet with sweat as the walls I was washing.

What did I think? “God has a good sense of humor.” He has such interesting ways of reminding us that the things we own and the things we work for are so temporary. One moment the work is done the next, “splat”, it’s not. It just reminded me that there is nothing in this world that doesn’t start to corrupt the moment we think it is perfect. That is certainly true in this life, the only thing that lasts being those of eternal value, belief in Christ and trust in our heavenly Father. I’d rather put my trust there where it will be kept and actually I can have it now as well as receive it later.

Until next time.

Uroo,

Into the Frey

Well what a blessing Keswick Convention has been all around the world, here too in Western Australia it has been established for about 60 years.

Last weekend I made my way the the Spring convention that they ran but felt rather tentative being there as there were so many people that new me. The trouble was that I usually forget who they are. If you have had the experience of taking meetings in many different places and then they meet you at Keswick after 4 years you will know what I mean, they remember you but you can't recall them out of a multitude of faces. :(

The speaker was Mr. Charles Price senior pastor of the Toronto Peoples Church, Canada. I had heard him speak 18 years ago at the same place when he was 2IC of Capenwray Bible College in England. He taught from Romans 1-7 dealing with man's depravity, God's glory the Law because it shows His character as holy or perfect and then showed how though we are wretched in our flesh we are made righteous by the propitiation. In other words God was righteous and gracious at the same time in Christ. He must meet the law's standard by judging law breakers (all of us) this pulls us down (like gravity) but He showed grace to us by pouring out that judgment on His Son and was satisfied. Therefore His grace was toward us through Christ the one who carried us (in our sinful state) setting us free from law's judgment, counteracting it (like the law of aero dynamics against gravity) one cancels out the other. Romans 8:12 I am so glad we don't have to worry about it ourselves!

It was a wonderful time of renewal and I was very blessed both in teaching and fellowship.

Until next time,
Uroo

Re-entry

Shocks, shocks, everywhere and what will happen next!!

It appears we are living in uncertain or exciting times, depending on how you view the world today. Coming home from a foreign country to learn to live again in an Australian environment certainly adds to that mix and we have certainly felt the brunt of the uncertainty that comes with that. Rising fuel prices, re-enrollment for taxation, gas and water bills, electricity connection, telephone and broadband for the internet let alone the council rates the garbage pick-ups and all that comes with assimilating into our home again. On top of this are the other things of family life and death which is enough to give anyone ulcers. (Not to mentioned Wall St.)

This is the “baggage” that one has to handle on what they call “Re-entry” after having lived in another culture for many years. Is it any wonder that one tends to become a bit of a recluse, trying not to venture too far away from known ground to that dark unknown of the unfamiliar?

This reminds me of what happened to Jonah in ancient times. He, it seems took the long road to where God wanted him to end up. On top of this he was supposed to be involved in preaching a message of warning to a group of “heathen” as he saw them and an undeserving lot at that. Yes he went through a bunch of stuff including a one way trip the wrong way, a violent storm that nearly wrecked their cruse and he ended up having lunch with or should I say being the lunch of a great fish. It was just as well God was the one in control or he may never have reached Nineveh! Oh, hang on, was that a good thing? You might say he was in very unfamiliar territory.

Again we ask ourselves, “Well what is the right direction?” This unfamiliar territory can be quit frightening as it was for Jonah. For him it was foreign and seemed to go against everything he was raised to believe. After all these Ninevites were not God’s people were they? It went against everything he believed in, unfortunately in self righteousness! It does make me think of our own position and attitudes though.

What was God trying to get through to Jonah? After Jonah preached at Nineveh God ended up planting a rather quick growing bush behind him where he sat sulking. God give Jonah shade from the exceeding hot sun he found himself under. Well that was great; you could say that it means, “… my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:19) Trouble is the next day God sent a worm to eat up Jonah’s shade. Well you could surmise that “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return there. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; Blessed be the name of the Lord.” (Job 1:21 - NKJV)

What Jonah was blind to was not God’s provision for his benefit, rather Jonah needed (and WE need) to simply recognize that everything is according to God’s will and NOT ours. God will do whatever He wishes and if we see that as unfair well let me say that there is no way we will be preaching to God or complaining when we stand before Him in eternity!! I think God will be the only one doing the talking, we will only be able to listen.

The bottom line, -- No matter what we do, no matter who we are and no matter what our situation, God alone is in control! In the book of James it reads, “Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.” (James 4:15)

Presently we are doing a whole lot of house renovations and just waiting, perhaps a little impatiently to see what ministry God has for us in future. It would be good to add to this some time soon and tell just how God has directed.
Until then,

Uroo.