The Greatest Gift?

The choices for some people are endless. 

It takes no time at all to find a gift; the problem is which one do you choose? 

For others the choices are not so vast but eventually you come up with something that is just right.  But for a small group of people it seems that there is nothing that really says what you want to say and no single item which achieves what you want to achieve.  Even the trusty gift certificate doesn’t seem to fit! 

What is it about those people? You know them well enough to be wanting to give them a gift, you like them enough to be giving them a gift…is it that they already have too much or that they really don’t have any other interests that you can be part of?  

Whatever the reason, I hope that you don’t give into the temptation to just buy anything as the Christmas Eve desperation begins to loom. 

I hope that you can find the ‘perfect’ gift and not the mass produced set of six china canisters with elves and mushrooms that we received one Christmas! 

This Christmas I hope that you can find the words and the emotion to communicate your love, affection and appreciation for those around you. 

And I hope you can do it with a gift that makes the recipient understand how you really feel. Of course the greatest gift needs to be remembered this Christmas as always, it needs to be cherished as always.  It is a gift fit for every one of us and tailor-made to suit us in every way.   

Enjoy opening your gifts this year and don’t forget the joy, peace and love of the coming of Christ this Christmas!

Just one more!

One person is normal and acceptable, two people if you are willing to help someone out but beyond that seems over the top!  

 I am currently in the Philippines on a missions trip and yesterday I was taken for a ride on the local transport.  There were 5 of us on a small motorcycle with a large sidecar attached.

A Yamaha 125 was never designed to cope with that sort of abuse!   

It was amazing to listen to the straining of the motor as this bike worked well beyond its capacity to struggle up the rocky paths and then fly down the other side at amazing speeds of up to 40km/hr!  

The thought crossed my mind of all the work opportunities we could create if we abandoned our penchant for safety standards – imagine the growth industries of paramedics, health insurance clerks and funeral directors! 

As we drove along the road I was amazed that we actually stopped to pick up more passengers!  It seemed that there was always room for one more.  The reality was that at some point this poor little motorcycle was not going to be able to go on but you had to admire the faith of the driver! 

This little experience made me think about the power of the Gospel – the good news message of Jesus Christ. 

Literally millions of people have taken up the offer to be transported by its power and purpose, to be delivered to a better destination.   

The powerful truth is there is yet room for one more! 

The Gospel has not yet even approached its ‘maximum capacity’ so there is definitely room for you.   

So – jump aboard! 

Gift Certificate

I thought that something was wrong but I couldn’t put my finger on it…it was like I was ‘off balance’ and I couldn’t quite work it out. 

Then I realised…it was my wallet. 

Once again it had done what it does so well and had accumulated dozens of receipts, hand written notes and even a couple of flyers which seemed important at the time – the only thing that doesn’t seem to stay in my wallet is money!   

So, it was time to clear out the ever increasing pile of stuff and it was just as well that I did. 

Hidden amongst the credit card receipts, the ‘shopper dockets’ and the 2 for 1 deal at the drycleaners was a long forgotten gift certificate! 

A gift certificate is a great gift; it gives you an opportunity to buy something that you want, at a store you want, at a time you want.  The only problem is you have to redeem the certificate before it runs out.  Thankfully my gift certificate had a couple of months left but it would have been a waste if I hadn’t got around to clearing out my wallet! 

The Word of God (The Bible) is just like a gift certificate.  It is full of value, potential and powerful promises for anyone who opens it and claims them for themselves.  

There is no ‘valid to’ date on the Bible but many people go through their whole lives failing to claim what is rightfully their’s.  Make sure you don’t miss out on everything the Lord has planned for you!

Passport Photo

“Stand up straight, take off your hat and your glasses, step a little closer and please do not smile.” 

All hope of ever getting a decent looking passport photo has gone! 

It used to be that you would try really hard to look OK because you were ‘stuck’ with your photo for ten years but now you have no choice…you have to follow the rules as laid down.   

The department of Immigration has adopted a ‘face detection’ system.  This enables officers to instantly search through hundreds of thousands of individual photos to check your particular facial features against those on record.

To achieve this, each photo has to follow the same parameters; the size from the top of the head to the chin must be between 32-36mm; you have to have a ‘neutral’ expression (no smiling); no head coverings or glasses and; it must be printed on low gloss paper.   

It is comforting to know that security measures such as these are in place but it is a little bit disconcerting to just be one photo in the midst of such a huge crowd!  But if you had to find a face…this is the system to do it! 

There are many faces you desire to recognise and remember, even after many years you can see someone you used to know and it all comes flooding back.

But I want to remind you of the one face you must never forget, one face you should never stop searching for!  

“You said, “Seek My face” and My heart said to You, “Your face, LORD, I will seek.” Psalms 27:8-9 

All hail the foot woose!

It was the first really hot day of the summer and I thought that I would be fine but the fact is…I am a ‘foot woose’!

You see, I don’t walk anywhere in bare feet and most of the time I am wearing shoes, so trying to walk across the road to Bondi Beach in the middle of the hottest day proved not only to be a challenge which gave me a ‘silly walk’ but it also left a lasting impression. 
I tried to tuff it out and pretend that nothing had happened but the two large blisters on the balls of my feet kept telling me otherwise! 

Blisters are a lasting reminder; every step you take reinforces the fact that something is wrong. Treating a blister takes time and you need to stop the cause and give your feet an opportunity to heal – if not, the problem will get worse and can even escalate into a major issue.  

My blisters will get better pretty quickly and I will be even more likely to avoid any ‘manly’ attempts to show off my ‘foot capacity’ – no one will ever know – except that I have told you!  But for the next couple of days I will remember, with every step, the fact that where I have walked has left a scar. 

Sometimes the places we have gone and the way we walked through them have left lasting impacts. 

Some of these heal pretty quickly but others last for a long time, if not for our whole lives.  

Hopefully you have met and are close to The One who knows the very hairs on your head and cares for every single step your feet will take.

Which way did the worm go?

Some people make a decision based upon the movements of ‘The Worm’, some people list the candidates from 1 to 10 in no particular order.  

I don’t know how you make a decision but the fact is, in a week’s time, we all will decide who leads our country for the next 3 years.   

All over the television and radio, in the papers and magazines, we are being assailed with pictures, promises and poles regarding who or how we should vote.

Passionate people proclaiming policies and presenting plans… but how will you decide?  

You can use the “who is first on the table-cloth sized ballot paper?” approach or you can vote in your traditional way.  You may even want to take your own worm into the ballot box and see which direction it slithers!

The fact is that you will make a choice because it is compulsory to do so. This is an important election, they always are.  This decision will determine the course for our nation for the next three years, so I hope we choose wisely. 
 However, there is another choice that has even more lasting effects.  This decision does not determine just a trio of years or even a decade.  Making the right or wrong choice will impact your whole life and will continue to reverberate into eternity!  

“choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve…” (Joshua 24:15)   

This choice is yours and voting is compulsory and ‘Election Day’ is today!  

I’ve made my choice…how about you? “as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.”

Stiff Neck!

Usually I have no problems at all, if anything I find it easy, but today it was difficult and there was nothing I could do about it.  

You see, I live on a ‘battleaxe’ block at the end of a very long driveway (about 60m).   This driveway is narrow and has fences and plants all the way along and so you have to be careful when you are reversing. 

As I said, this is usually fine but this morning was different because I had pulled a muscle in my neck.  It wasn’t a huge deal but it meant that I couldn’t turn my head fully and so I began to both ‘zig’ and ‘zag’ my way up the drive. 

 I am really glad that I didn’t have to drive very far with my stiff neck because I would have been hopeless and I would definitely have caused major problems.  

 This made me think about how small things, like a pulled muscle, can make a huge difference to the direction you are travelling in. 

If your heart is open to the Lord then you will be Ok but if not…then you’re headed for trouble.   

The Lord calls out to you today and asks you to “cut away the calluses from your heart and stop being stiff-necked”. (Deuteronomy 10:16)

Have a look behind you and check whether there are squashed plants or other indications that you are moving off the right path. 

If so I have found someone who is great at fixing spiritual stiff-necks, all you have to do is ask!

Unleaded, Premium or Ultimate?

I had the choice but it was going to cost me. 

It was that time of the week again and I had to fill up my car with petrol but this time things could be different. There were three fuels that I could choose from – unleaded, premium or ultimate and the brochure attached to the number 7 pump told me that if I used ‘ultimate’ I would have ‘more power, more response and better fuel economy’…but it was going to cost me 10 cents per litre more.    

So I gave it a go… I thought that it might just be a bit of a gimmick or something for people who didn’t have anything better to do with their money but I was really surprised!   

Over the next week I could notice the difference… my car had more power, it was more responsive when I put my foot down and I got an extra 50 kilometres out of the tank. The only downside is that if I continue to use ultimate, it is going to cost me an extra $6 per week.  

This reminded me of a similar offer that Jesus made to anyone who would follow Him. 

He said… “I have come that you might have life and life more abundantly!” John 10:10

He is offering the ‘ultimate’ in fuel for your life and guarantees you more power, more enjoyment and a greater ability to function day by day.  

Best of all…it won’t cost you $6 per week…this is a ‘free offer’ to anyone who will take up the challenge.  So, how is your fuel tank going?

Attached or working loose?

It was in incredibly small thing but because it was missing, it was almost a disaster! 

I was travelling at 110km/hr headed towards Brisbane for our summer holidays and I didn’t realise that the bolt on the top of the trailer had worked its way loose.  When I least expected it, the trailer began a frightening, out-of-control dance as it swung from side to side almost determined to hit the surrounding and on-coming cars.  

My first reaction was to slam on the brakes but I realised that this would only add to the problem, so I took a deep breath and removed my foot from the accelerator and allowed the car to loose momentum.  The trailer continued to swing and sway but as my speed reduced, so too did the wildness of the trailer’s dance.  After what seemed like an eternity (it was probably only a minute), the car was on the side of the road and the trailer was safely at rest.  

It was a very small thing that caused the problem but it was very important.  Small things often are…small words and small deeds can make all of the difference.   

Our lives tend to move at a very fast pace, 110km/hr can seem slow sometimes but when things are moving at that sort of pace it is imperative that you get the little things right.

James said in the Bible “For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all.” James 2:10   

So are you attached to the Lord in the way you are supposed to be or are you a little on the loose side?  Time to pull over and check!

Don’t hide at the back!

I remember deliberately standing at the very back of the line…and this was a first for me! Usually I had the uncanny ability to wend my way to the front, but today, there was method to my madness! From where I stood, this line reached all the way back to the Deputy Principal’s office and it included all of the year 5 boys (about 60 of us).   The Deputy had been brought in to deal with a significant disruption during lunchtime and because he couldn’t find the culprits, he had decided that he would ‘cane the whole lot of them!’ 

I was sure that caning 1student would not require much effort, caning 5 however, would start to become a physical challenge. 

I immediately saw the opportunity and so, I ‘graciously’ offered to take up my position at the rear of the line. 

118 strokes of the cane later my planning paid off and my punishment was delivered by a man covered in sweat whose muscles, I am sure, were screaming at him to stop! 

It was one of the few times I was caned and it hardly hurt at all.   While I can see the funny side of this now, I can also see the massive error that was made at the time.  The problem was that the punishment was delivered ‘en masse’ and, for the most part, it was unfair.  We were accused, sentenced and punished as a group.  

I have spoken to people who believe that this is the way God operates, but I have it on really good authority that the opposite is in fact true.  

The Lord knows you individually and He responds to you individually, He is never harsh or unjust nor does He want you to hide yourself at the back of the line!