Month: May 2018

Reflection on 1 John 5:9-13

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Scripture

Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have God’s Son does not have life.

Observation

We believe human testimony, so how much more should we believe God’s testimony? God has testified about His Son, If we know the Son we know God’s testimony is true. Those who don’t believe call God a liar.

God’s testimony is that He has given us eternal life in the Son. If we have the Son we have life, and if we don’t have the Son we don’t have eternal life.

Application

Jesus is life. If we have Jesus then we have life. If we don’t have Jesus we don’t have life.

Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. If we want to come to the Father to receive eternal life, we must go through Jesus. There is no other name by which we may be saved.

We cannot go through Mohamed or Buddha, through the Torah or through living a good life.

There is one way to the Father and that is Jesus.

If we have Jesus our eternal life is assured. We don’t have to do anything to make ourselves right with God. There is no law that can add to what Jesus did on the cross.

That’s good enough for me.

When I am tempted to doubt my salvation, I need to remember that God has declared that I am righteous. His judgement is all that counts.

Prayer

Thank you Lord for this assurance of my salvation. I don’t need to impress you with my good deeds. All I need is Jesus. Thank you for making it so simple. Amen.

Three Cheers For Smart Water Meters

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Water-meter

These are our smart water meters.

I decided last week to register my meter on the narrabri.miwater.co web site, just to see how much water my household uses. Two days later I got a text that said “Possible leak at your property. 55 l/hr” It seemed a bit unlikely that they would know that, so I got it checked. Sure enough, there was a small leak under the house.

55 l/hr isn’t much in the scheme of things, but it adds up when you multiply it over 24 hours every day. At the current cost of 97 c/kl that was costing me $1.28 per day. Again it’s not much, but over 3 months that adds up to an extra $116 per bill.

I love Narrabri Shire, but I can do better things with my money than pay for wasted water.

So if you use water you need to go to the web site with your water bill in your hand. Sign up and you might end up saving money.

Congratulations to the Shire for making this service available. If we have to have water meters, we might as well have ones that work for the customers.

 

Reflection on Acts 1:15-26

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acts1

Scripture:

Then they cast lots, and Matthias was selected to become an apostle with the other eleven.

Observation:

It is in the gap between the return of Jesus to heaven and the day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit comes.

One day, when 120 of the believers are present in the one place, Peter tells them that they need to replace Judas as an apostle.

They nominate two men, Matthias and Justus. After praying they cast lots, and Matthias is added to the eleven.

Application:

It seems an odd way to choose an apostle, that is by casting lots. To our way of thinking it seems a little casual to make such an important appointment in this way.

Both Matthias and Justus meet the criteria that were established and both were equally qualified for the position.

If we believe that God directs the courses of nations, then it should not be too hard to believe that He directs the selection of the apostles.

After Pentecost, we do not read of this method of selecting ministers again. We have the Holy Spirit, God Himself, dwelling in us. Surely we can believe that He will lead us in every important decision.

The important factor of course is prayer. When we pray and include listening in the prayer process, then God will lead us in every decision that we submit to Him.

Prayer

Lord God, please help me to submit every decision to you, and please lead me into the right choices. Amen.

Photos

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The last month has been full of ups and downs. My birthday was 5th April (as it is every year) and for my 60th, my offspring bought me a Canon 800D camera. Very sweet!

Alas I was too busy to use it, apart from at The Big Family Gathering which was a Combined Churches community fun day on April 7th. I had a lot of fun on that day taking a bazillion photos, but it was all point and click with no real thought abut the camera and the fantastic capabilities that it has.

Then we received some news that rocked our emotions somewhat. And my fish tank sprung a leak and we had to do an emergency fish transplant and buy a new system, which I might have enjoyed more if it hadn’t been so dramatic.

I don’t think I mentioned the termites that we discovered in the church.

And we bought a car (a brand new Hyundai Tucson) but there was no space in my emotions to get excited- not even about the awesome technology that it has.

Saturday night we had our “official” 60th party, and it was good to get together with some great friends.

So today, my day off, I thought it was time to give the new camera a test out. These photos are straight from the camera, unedited and unimproved. The full album is on my Google photos page: