How a 20 year old slip of paper saved my life

I was always a 'good' boy!

Loved my mum and dad and always stuck by the rules - never really got into trouble (well maybe just a little) and nearly always did what I was told.

When my parents said to do something I would snap to and do it - from music practise to washing up  -  I was your boy.

School was always a drag but then I guess I didn't have that on my own. All of my efforts were put into pleasing my parents and basking in the security that they offered.

I was very fortunate in having a Mum and Dad who loved Jesus and believed strongly in His leadership. As a family we were hauled off to church each week and I knew all the Bible stories and heaps of verses.

Mum prayed with us often and encouraged us to give our lives to Jesus and I guess at an early stage in my life I did just that. Not that it meant any sort of change in my life and in some ways I took Jesus and His amazing work totally for granted.

So here I was growing up on a type of merry-go-round of church, school and youth group and all the while never really thinking that Jesus' message really meant me.

I was the 'good' boy, never really changing, life travelling along OK, meeting kids my own age and generally enjoying life as it was. Getting a job and meeting the girl of dreams just added to my idyllic lifestyle. Just another day in Paradise you could say.

I guess it may have been the Vietnam War and Australia's decision to conscript 20 year old males into the army that I first had a real change in my life - During my 19th year I had heaps of time to think about what life would be like in the army or even warfare in Vietnam.

It was during this time I had my first real confrontation with God (if I could put it that way). I was concerned about being drafted into the army and I suppose during that time I tried praying - really praying for possibly the very first time in my life. Did it make a change in my life? I doubt it. But I was quietly pleased when the conscription ballot finally fell and I had missed out.

Did I think of God after that - unfortunately No. It wasn't until we had a couple of children and we were attending an old historic church, cold, drafty and full of 'old' people that God worked an amazing miracle in my life.

I was on a roster of welcoming people to church and this particular rota fell on a night service. Grumbling about driving into town on a cold winters night, I felt a fraction better leaving the family at home all warm and cosy. I remember thinking that no-one will be in church on such a cold, wet and windy night - I should stay at home.

And cold, wet and windy it was - the church was pretty much vacant - You could hear the wind whistling through the big old doors as I walked up the steps to do my duty.

As I walked in the wind picked up and blew a piece of old yellowing paper onto the floor at my feet. I picked it up and not thinking anything about it got onto welcoming the very few church members.

As I stood there and the service started - I glanced down at the paper - it was an old Christian tract written 20 years before. As I turned it over in my hand these words leaped out at me - "I will never leave you or forsake you".

That's all....That amazing verse in Hebrews had the most awesome effect on me. GOD MEANS ME!!! ME - HE MEANS ME! HE REALLY REALLY MEANS ME.

I couldn't believe it - The God I had 'talked' to for years was actually talking back to me - He was never going to leave me.

Right there and then I asked Him into life - As I stood in that old windy porch clutching onto an old yellow piece of torn paper. GOD MEANS ME!

My life has changed so much since then  - God has seen me though some horrible and nasty times - times when I doubt I would have made it except for his great love and patience.

I still sin, I always will until I finally get to glory and I have a new mind and body - but Jesus died to renew my relationship with Him not to condemn me for the past and future sins.

Have you been convicted of your need to have Jesus take control of your life?

We all have our different stories of how we feel about Jesus or what we have done with Him. We all need to make a decision one way or another - either accept Jesus as Lord or reject Him ... but hey He will never turn you away.

All you need to do is to pray a prayer just like this:-

Dear God,

I know I have sinned against you and I have fallen short of your standards.

Thank you for not leaving me in this state and I believe that You sent Jesus to 

die as a payment for my sins.

Please forgive me for all of the sins I have done.

I want to live for you and not for myself - please come and take 100% control of my life. Amen.

If you prayed that prayer, please contact us or another Christian person so that we can pray and encourage you in your Christian walk.

God and the bully

Ever been bullied?

Not nice is it - been there done that I hear you say - and when It comes right down to it I guess we have  all felt it to some degree or at least known about it - Heaven forbid we have even been a bully!

Bullying is not something new - been around for generations and had disastrous effects.

Bullying was certainly around at the time of Jesus - the Pharisees were the "Kings of bullying" in his time - they bullied everyone and certainly didn't like it when someone like Jesus came along - someone different with a message different to theirs - a message of love, hope and forgiveness instead of laws, rules and damnation.

So here we are in the 21st century and bullying has reached an all time peak or so it seems - we read about it constantly - we see it on Youtube and you just have to look at the net for countless ways of coping with and dealing with bullying.

So what are the hallmarks of a bully?

A bully is someone who in some ways I guess resembles a predator. a person who is on the lookout for someone who is weaker or someone who can be 'taken down'.

Look at the big cats of prey - what do they do - they are on the lookout for the weak or the vulnerable of the herds - they watch and wait for just the right moment - then they separate them from the crowd, wear them down with constant chasing and then when the moment is right attack.

It is like that with bullies - they love to separate their victims. Turning others against their victim is probably one the basic rules of being a bully - if they can get the victim to feel isolated, alone and vulnerable then they are ripe for the picking.

The aggression caused by a bully can be physical - like fisty-cuffs, pushing biting etc or verbal - name calling, ridicule, insults, intimidation, nasty glances etc or today through cyber space - quietly undermining the victims confidence.

Bullying like all sorts of abuse is perpetrated a lot of the time by predators who in fact are cowardly. They bully to get noticed and to 'win' certain friends. they bully to put others down and to isolate them from friends and relatives.

I personally have been bullied; unfortunately mine was with a sibling - being the youngest I was always more sensitive, cautious and far more quieter than my siblings. I also had a negative view of violence, I was non-aggressive and withdrew from confrontations, I cried often if attacked and had an anxious vulnerability, often gripped with fear and so was certainly a prime subject for the bigger more aggressive sibling predator/bully.

In so doing the bully/sibling took great delight in putting me down - making me feel unworthy and incapable of achieving. These negative feelings of a bully's victim can follow all through life and can affect the victim constantly.

No one likes a bully but no one really likes a continual victim either! - we need at some stage to stick up for ourselves and put those times behind us - or else we can become what I like to call an 'eternal victim' - forever the one picked on and having negative views of themselves and their abilities.

So what is the answer and where do we go to from here?

"Turning the other cheek" is great - and Jesus Himself said so but it is interesting to note that when He was facing his accusers before His vile crucifixtion he was slapped in the face by one of the brutish soldiers. What did he do? He didn't turn the other cheek so that the coward could slap him again but rather responded by asking the bully what it was that he had done so wrong  (John 18:19-23)

Jesus, here, actually defended himself verbally. He confronted a bully and demanded an answer.

Jesus never contradicted Himself so why here? C.S. Lewis, explains it quite well "Jesus does not want his followers to be neither motivated nor consumed by revenge - He doesn't want His followers to return insult for insult."

I feel when a christian is confronted with something like bullying, self-defence is not the same as revenge. Lewis' essay "Why I am Not a Pacifist" hits the nail on the head when he says that "one can defend themselves while at the same time not abuse or demean another person."

Being the victim of bullying certainly doesn't mean that you have to remain a victim - God is our hope and strength in times of trouble that's for sure. With Him we are never alone and there is no need to  'throw in the towel', curl up into a foetal position and become a 'forever victim'.

Jesus Himself, after everything He went through, was NOT a victim. The cowards, predators and bully's however paid the price - just like they will today.

It is not up to us to seek revenge - If we love the Lord, He has got us covered in every situation. We need, however,  to take control of the bullying situation, we need to take appropriate steps to defend ourselves and our loved ones.

Look to Jesus, He is the perfect example of how to cope with bullies.

Don't worry - just pray

For years and years I have had a policy of worrying!!

I worry about just about everything - you name it - I will worry about it.

It drives my family bonkers to say the least. I would worry about the slightest things - the things that most people wouldn't even think about.

When I was a child - and exams at school came around - I was almost prostrate with worry and anxiousness - with the result exam marks went down and school work suffered.

I worried about my job, my family even my health and even sleeping habits - can you believe it???

I tried everything from relaxing music to naturopathy to hypnotherapy - all to no avail - a lost cause a total write off.

But hey!! a little worry and anxiety can be good for you - it can prepare you for important issues like a job interview - it can keep the adrenaline pumping through to your heart and keep you alive and awake - ready to take on the world.

BUT.... excessive worriers like me react differently to the norm -we see things from different parallel to most and all it takes is a trigger to set us off.

Even thinking about a situation can cause chronic distress and disability. Excessive worrying or ongoing fear can cause some to become irrational so that people like me can't focus on reality.They can think of nothing else but the anxiousness that they are feeling and have HUGE difficulties on shaking off their worries.

So how do we cope in situations like this? - I must admit it takes it out of you when the Constancy of on-going worry makes you unable to cope with the slightest problem and hiccup along life's way.

Joyce Meyer once said - "Worry is like a rocking chair  - it's always in motion but it never takes you anywhere" - How true that is - but when you are in the midst of your cycle of never-ending worry - how do you get out??

It wasn't until I had an amazing turn of event that changed my life completely  - It made me see things from a different angle and made me aware of the awesomeness and righteousness of God - GOD IS ALIVE and willing to help us out of all our troubles - even this one - believe it or not!!!

When we worry - we actually do Satan's job for him - we take the trust out the relationship with God and instead of 'casting our cares upon Jesus' we take the the burden of our worries upon ourselves and forget the trust angle all together.

We play straight into the hands of the Accuser whose main aim is to get us to to STOP trusting God and rely on ourselves. We need to trust God and to humble ourselves to His will - forget about ourselves and believe what he says and look to the example of Jesus in everything we do.

If we don't humble ourselves and trust God then He can't really help us - Our need of Him and total trust in Him must come from a humble and contrite heart. We still need to do what we can do and trust God for those things that we can't do.

God has given us the amazing gift of life - don't throw it in the curb because of worry and anxiousness. If you are stuck in the middle of the never-ending cycle of worry and there seemingly is no way out - why not give God's way a chance.

We so need to stop putting ourselves in the drivers seat - stop snatching the wheel away from God and let Him take control. And what would make us do this? Only our desire to please Him and not ourselves. That's what it means to 'humble' ourselves before God.

So where do you sit in the 'worry' scale? Are you like I was, burdened with anxiousness and worry - having just enough faith to have asked for forgiveness and received salvation in the first place but not walking daily with God - every hour - every moment?

God is amazingly and spectacularly faithful - what he says He will do - He said "I will never leave you" and he means it! All we need to do is to trust Him completely to do what he says.

Try it - I know His ways are best and true and in so doing you will be prepared for just about anything that comes along.

Of course we will continue to be concerned when life throws us a wobbly but with God on our side anxiousness, stress and constant worry have no real power in our lives.

Here is a link to good old song by Evie Tonquist - just about to sums it up I feel. Enjoy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6k5DKcmKAwI