Australian Thoughts at the Weekend 1st and 2nd November 2008
This weekend I am in Sydney for a nephew’s wedding, so I am publishing Australian Thoughts at the Weekend early. This ATAW is different. It is a radio interview with a friend and fellow chaplain and he talks about his recently published book.
“I WISH I WERE A LEPER”
I do not work on a Thursday, so this week I took the opportunity to listen to one of our team of Chaplains at Greenslopes Private Hospital tell ‘his story’ on radio in the Conversation Hour with Richard Fidler. Vince O’Rourke’s story is of his journey with his wife and her early onset Alzheimer’s disease.
I had hoped to be able to give you a website where you could listen to the broadcast. However, at the time I write this it is not available. However, there is another earlier broadcast where he is interviewed by another broadcaster on the same radio station, ABC Radio 612 Brisbane.
Here is the introduction from the ABC radio network’s website:
Vince's story
Jun 18, 2008
How would you feel if your partner introduced you to their new best friend and that new best friend happened to be themself....let me explain.
Vince O'Rouke's wife Margaret had alzheimers.
As the disease progressed she eventually didn't recognise anyone and strange as it seems she found a very good friend and that was the reflection of herself in her mirror.
One day she was so excited because she was able to introduce her husband Vince to her best friend..... herself.
Can you possible imagine how he felt?
If it wasn't so sad you'd laugh.
Vince O'Rourke has written a diary about his and Margaret's journey with Alzheimers .
From the time of diagnosis Margaret lived for 8 years. She passed away in October of 2006.
Vince's book is called I WISH I WERE A LEPER.
We've had lots of requests from listeners to hear Vince's story again since it went to air .
So here he is speaking with Madonna King:
http://blogs.abc.net.au/queensland/files/vince_orourke.mp3
Here is a review of Vince’s book which was published by the Catholic Weekly (Sydney):
http://www.catholicweekly.com.au/article.php?classID=3&subclassID=20&articleID=4833&class=Features&subclass=Books
…………………………………………………
Thank you for your prayers and support for OzThoughts Internet Ministry.
To unsubscribe send an email (without a message) to :
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OzThoughtsInternetMinistry-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.au (Tell them to check their junk box for the reply if it does not seem to come).
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You can also receive OzThoughts from the following groups (which you are welcome to join):
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Writer (Only): OzThoughts@yahoo.com.au
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Australian Thoughts at the Weekend 1st and 2nd November 2008
Australian Thoughts at the Weekend 1st and 2nd November 2008
This weekend I am in Sydney for a nephew’s wedding, so I am publishing Australian Thoughts at the Weekend early. This ATAW is different. It is a radio interview with a friend and fellow chaplain and he talks about his recently published book.
“I WISH I WERE A LEPER”
I do not work on a Thursday, so this week I took the opportunity to listen to one of our team of Chaplains at Greenslopes Private Hospital tell ‘his story’ on radio in the Conversation Hour with Richard Fidler. Vince O’Rourke’s story is of his journey with his wife and her early onset Alzheimer’s disease.
I had hoped to be able to give you a website where you could listen to the broadcast. However, at the time I write this it is not available. However, there is another earlier broadcast where he is interviewed by another broadcaster on the same radio station, ABC Radio 612 Brisbane.
Here is the introduction from the ABC radio network’s website:
Vince's story
Jun 18, 2008
How would you feel if your partner introduced you to their new best friend and that new best friend happened to be themself....let me explain.
Vince O'Rouke's wife Margaret had alzheimers.
As the disease progressed she eventually didn't recognise anyone and strange as it seems she found a very good friend and that was the reflection of herself in her mirror.
One day she was so excited because she was able to introduce her husband Vince to her best friend..... herself.
Can you possible imagine how he felt?
If it wasn't so sad you'd laugh.
Vince O'Rourke has written a diary about his and Margaret's journey with Alzheimers .
From the time of diagnosis Margaret lived for 8 years. She passed away in October of 2006.
Vince's book is called I WISH I WERE A LEPER.
We've had lots of requests from listeners to hear Vince's story again since it went to air .
So here he is speaking with Madonna King:
http://blogs.abc.net.au/queensland/files/vince_orourke.mp3
Here is a review of Vince’s book which was published by the Catholic Weekly (Sydney):
http://www.catholicweekly.com.au/article.php?classID=3&subclassID=20&articleID=4833&class=Features&subclass=Books
…………………………………………………
Thank you for your prayers and support for OzThoughts Internet Ministry.
To unsubscribe send an email (without a message) to :
OzThoughtsInternetMinistry-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com.au
If you invite friends to subscribe they do it by sending an email (without a message) to :
OzThoughtsInternetMinistry-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.au (Tell them to check their junk box for the reply if it does not seem to come).
`````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
You can also receive OzThoughts from the following groups (which you are welcome to join):
SalvationArmy3: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/salvationarmy3/
Poems from the Lord by Ailsa Yates: http://groups.msn.com/PoemsfromtheLordbyAilsaYates
Subscribe: OzThoughtsInternetMinistry-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.au
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OzThoughts
Writer (Only): OzThoughts@yahoo.com.au
This weekend I am in Sydney for a nephew’s wedding, so I am publishing Australian Thoughts at the Weekend early. This ATAW is different. It is a radio interview with a friend and fellow chaplain and he talks about his recently published book.
“I WISH I WERE A LEPER”
I do not work on a Thursday, so this week I took the opportunity to listen to one of our team of Chaplains at Greenslopes Private Hospital tell ‘his story’ on radio in the Conversation Hour with Richard Fidler. Vince O’Rourke’s story is of his journey with his wife and her early onset Alzheimer’s disease.
I had hoped to be able to give you a website where you could listen to the broadcast. However, at the time I write this it is not available. However, there is another earlier broadcast where he is interviewed by another broadcaster on the same radio station, ABC Radio 612 Brisbane.
Here is the introduction from the ABC radio network’s website:
Vince's story
Jun 18, 2008
How would you feel if your partner introduced you to their new best friend and that new best friend happened to be themself....let me explain.
Vince O'Rouke's wife Margaret had alzheimers.
As the disease progressed she eventually didn't recognise anyone and strange as it seems she found a very good friend and that was the reflection of herself in her mirror.
One day she was so excited because she was able to introduce her husband Vince to her best friend..... herself.
Can you possible imagine how he felt?
If it wasn't so sad you'd laugh.
Vince O'Rourke has written a diary about his and Margaret's journey with Alzheimers .
From the time of diagnosis Margaret lived for 8 years. She passed away in October of 2006.
Vince's book is called I WISH I WERE A LEPER.
We've had lots of requests from listeners to hear Vince's story again since it went to air .
So here he is speaking with Madonna King:
http://blogs.abc.net.au/queensland/files/vince_orourke.mp3
Here is a review of Vince’s book which was published by the Catholic Weekly (Sydney):
http://www.catholicweekly.com.au/article.php?classID=3&subclassID=20&articleID=4833&class=Features&subclass=Books
…………………………………………………
Thank you for your prayers and support for OzThoughts Internet Ministry.
To unsubscribe send an email (without a message) to :
OzThoughtsInternetMinistry-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com.au
If you invite friends to subscribe they do it by sending an email (without a message) to :
OzThoughtsInternetMinistry-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.au (Tell them to check their junk box for the reply if it does not seem to come).
`````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
You can also receive OzThoughts from the following groups (which you are welcome to join):
SalvationArmy3: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/salvationarmy3/
Poems from the Lord by Ailsa Yates: http://groups.msn.com/PoemsfromtheLordbyAilsaYates
Subscribe: OzThoughtsInternetMinistry-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.au
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OzThoughts
Writer (Only): OzThoughts@yahoo.com.au
OzThoughts Friday 31st October 2008
OzThoughts Friday 31st October 2008
As you focused on the Suffering Servant and his cruel death on the cross, and read again, and maybe listened to some appropriate hymns, did you hear the words coming as a constant intrusion: “He is not here; he has risen!” Luke 24:6(NIV).
The Disciples were convinced Jesus was alive. They saw him. They talked with him. They ate with him. They saw him ascend into heaven. Jesus had fulfilled his promise and sent the Holy Spirit. They had felt and shown the power of the Holy Spirit in many ways.
Paul, too, was preaching “Jesus and him crucified” but no one could think that Paul’s message came to a dead halt at the cross. Paul’s message was Jesus was alive and he was proof of that. Paul writes to t he Ephesians which shows how “Jesus crucified” was God plan for us .
Ephesians 2:1-10 (The Message)
1-6 It wasn't so long ago that you were mired in that old stagnant life of sin. You let the world, which doesn't know the first thing about living, tell you how to live. You filled your lungs with polluted unbelief, and then exhaled disobedience. We all did it, all of us doing what we felt like doing, when we felt like doing it, all of us in the same boat. It's a wonder God didn't lose his temper and do away with the whole lot of us. Instead, immense in mercy and with an incredible love, he embraced us. He took our sin-dead lives and made us alive in Christ. He did all this on his own, with no help from us! Then he picked us up and set us down in highest heaven in company with Jesus, our Messiah.
7-10 Now God has us where he wants us, with all the time in this world and the next to shower grace and kindness upon us in Christ Jesus. Saving is all his idea, and all his work. All we do is trust him enough to let him do it. It's God's gift from start to finish! We don't play the major role. If we did, we'd probably go around bragging that we'd done the whole thing! No, we neither make nor save ourselves. God does both the making and saving. He creates each of us by Christ Jesus to join him in the work he does, the good work he has gotten ready for us to do, work we had better be doing.
[Listen: http://www.salvoaudio.com/audio/music/mus_752.mp3 ]
O boundless salvation! deep ocean of love,
O fullness of mercy, Christ brought from above.
The whole world redeeming, so rich and so free,
Now flowing for all men, come, roll over me!
My sins they are many, their stains are so deep.
And bitter the tears of remorse that I weep;
But useless is weeping; thou great crimson sea,
Thy waters can cleanse me, come, roll over me I
My tempers are fitful, my passions are strong,
They bind my poor soul and they force me to wrong;
Beneath thy blest billows deliverance I see,
O come, mighty ocean, and roll over me!
Now tossed with temptation, then haunted with fears,
My life has been joyless and useless for years;
I feel something better most surely would be
If once thy pure waters would roll over me.
O ocean of mercy, oft longing I've stood
On the brink of thy wonderful, life-giving flood!
Once more I have reached this soul-cleansing sea,
I will not go back till it rolls over me.
The tide is now flowing, I'm touching the wave,
I hear the loud call of the mighty to save;
My faith's growing bolder, delivered I'll be;
I plunge 'neath the waters, they roll over me.
And now, hallelujah! the rest of my days
Shall gladly be spent in promoting his praise
Who opened his bosom to pour out this sea
Of boundless salvation for you and for me.
Author: William Booth (1829-1912)
The Salvation Army Song Book: Song Number: 298
Thank you for your prayers and support for OzThoughts Internet Ministry.
To unsubscribe send an email (without a message) to :
OzThoughtsInternetMinistry-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com.au
If you invite friends to subscribe they do it by sending an email (without a message) to :
OzThoughtsInternetMinistry-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.au (Tell them to check their junk box for the reply if it does not seem to come).
`````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
You can also receive OzThoughts from the following groups (which you are welcome to join):
SalvationArmy3: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/salvationarmy3/
Poems from the Lord by Ailsa Yates: http://groups.msn.com/PoemsfromtheLordbyAilsaYates
Subscribe: OzThoughtsInternetMinistry-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.au
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OzThoughts
Writer (Only): OzThoughts@yahoo.com.au
As you focused on the Suffering Servant and his cruel death on the cross, and read again, and maybe listened to some appropriate hymns, did you hear the words coming as a constant intrusion: “He is not here; he has risen!” Luke 24:6(NIV).
The Disciples were convinced Jesus was alive. They saw him. They talked with him. They ate with him. They saw him ascend into heaven. Jesus had fulfilled his promise and sent the Holy Spirit. They had felt and shown the power of the Holy Spirit in many ways.
Paul, too, was preaching “Jesus and him crucified” but no one could think that Paul’s message came to a dead halt at the cross. Paul’s message was Jesus was alive and he was proof of that. Paul writes to t he Ephesians which shows how “Jesus crucified” was God plan for us .
Ephesians 2:1-10 (The Message)
1-6 It wasn't so long ago that you were mired in that old stagnant life of sin. You let the world, which doesn't know the first thing about living, tell you how to live. You filled your lungs with polluted unbelief, and then exhaled disobedience. We all did it, all of us doing what we felt like doing, when we felt like doing it, all of us in the same boat. It's a wonder God didn't lose his temper and do away with the whole lot of us. Instead, immense in mercy and with an incredible love, he embraced us. He took our sin-dead lives and made us alive in Christ. He did all this on his own, with no help from us! Then he picked us up and set us down in highest heaven in company with Jesus, our Messiah.
7-10 Now God has us where he wants us, with all the time in this world and the next to shower grace and kindness upon us in Christ Jesus. Saving is all his idea, and all his work. All we do is trust him enough to let him do it. It's God's gift from start to finish! We don't play the major role. If we did, we'd probably go around bragging that we'd done the whole thing! No, we neither make nor save ourselves. God does both the making and saving. He creates each of us by Christ Jesus to join him in the work he does, the good work he has gotten ready for us to do, work we had better be doing.
[Listen: http://www.salvoaudio.com/audio/music/mus_752.mp3 ]
O boundless salvation! deep ocean of love,
O fullness of mercy, Christ brought from above.
The whole world redeeming, so rich and so free,
Now flowing for all men, come, roll over me!
My sins they are many, their stains are so deep.
And bitter the tears of remorse that I weep;
But useless is weeping; thou great crimson sea,
Thy waters can cleanse me, come, roll over me I
My tempers are fitful, my passions are strong,
They bind my poor soul and they force me to wrong;
Beneath thy blest billows deliverance I see,
O come, mighty ocean, and roll over me!
Now tossed with temptation, then haunted with fears,
My life has been joyless and useless for years;
I feel something better most surely would be
If once thy pure waters would roll over me.
O ocean of mercy, oft longing I've stood
On the brink of thy wonderful, life-giving flood!
Once more I have reached this soul-cleansing sea,
I will not go back till it rolls over me.
The tide is now flowing, I'm touching the wave,
I hear the loud call of the mighty to save;
My faith's growing bolder, delivered I'll be;
I plunge 'neath the waters, they roll over me.
And now, hallelujah! the rest of my days
Shall gladly be spent in promoting his praise
Who opened his bosom to pour out this sea
Of boundless salvation for you and for me.
Author: William Booth (1829-1912)
The Salvation Army Song Book: Song Number: 298
Thank you for your prayers and support for OzThoughts Internet Ministry.
To unsubscribe send an email (without a message) to :
OzThoughtsInternetMinistry-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com.au
If you invite friends to subscribe they do it by sending an email (without a message) to :
OzThoughtsInternetMinistry-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.au (Tell them to check their junk box for the reply if it does not seem to come).
`````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
You can also receive OzThoughts from the following groups (which you are welcome to join):
SalvationArmy3: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/salvationarmy3/
Poems from the Lord by Ailsa Yates: http://groups.msn.com/PoemsfromtheLordbyAilsaYates
Subscribe: OzThoughtsInternetMinistry-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.au
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OzThoughts
Writer (Only): OzThoughts@yahoo.com.au
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
OzThoughts Thursday 30th October 2008
OzThoughts Thursday 30th October 2008
To meditate on the Suffering Servant, Jesus on the Cross of Calvary brings to my mind a number of hymns. Isaac Watts must have either been meditating himself or trying to get others to understand what he saw when he wrote:
See, from his head, his hands, his feet,
Sorrow and love flow mingled down;
Did e'er such love and sorrow meet,
Or thorns compose so rich a crown?
Similarly, Stuart K. Hine, as he translated Carl Boberg’s wonderful hymn must have had a vision of Calvary:
And when I think that God, his Son not sparing,
Sent him to die, I scarce can take it in;
That on the cross, my burden gladly bearing,
He bled and died to take away my sin:
More recently Stuart Townend wrote:
[Listen: http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=Voawjjqg8zw&feature=related]
or:
http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=UjD0lv8hx5o&feature=related
How deep the Father's love for us
How vast beyond all measure
That He would give His only Son
To make a wretch His treasure
How great the pain of searing loss
The Father turns His face away
As wounds which mar the chosen One
Bring many sons to glory
Behold the Man upon a cross
My guilt upon His shoulders
Ashamed, I hear my mocking voice
Call out among the scoffers
It was my sin that held Him there
Until it was accomplished
His dying breath has brought me life
I know that it is finished
I will not boast in anything
No gifts, no powr's, no wisdom
But I will boast in Jesus Christ
His death and resurrection
Why should I gain from His reward?
I cannot give an answer
But this I know with all my heart
His wounds have paid my ransom
Written by: Stuart Townend
It is Paul when writing to the Philippians who captures the essence of Jesus suffering and tells us to apply it to our living:
Think of yourselves the way Christ Jesus thought of himself. He had equal status with God but didn't think so much of himself that he had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter what. Not at all. When the time came, he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human! Having become human, he stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process. He didn't claim special privileges. Instead, he lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death—and the worst kind of death at that—a crucifixion. Philippians 2:5-8 (The Message).
[ Listen”: http://www.salvoaudio.com/audio/music3/mus_4788.mp3 ]
When I survey the wondrous cross
On which the Prince of Glory died,
My richest gain I count but loss,
And pour contempt on all my pride.
Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast
Save in the death of Christ, my God;
All the vain things that charm me most,
I sacrifice them to his blood.
See, from his head, his hands, his feet,
Sorrow and love flow mingled down;
Did e'er such love and sorrow meet,
Or thorns compose so rich a crown?
Were the whole realm of nature mine,
That were a present far too small;
Love so amazing, so divine,
Demands my soul, my life, my all.
Author: Isaac Watts (1674-1748)
The Salvation Army Song Book: Song Number: 136
[Listen: http://www.salvoaudio.com/audio/music/mus_321.mp3 ]
O Lord my God, when I in awesome wonder
Consider all the worlds thy hands have made;
I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder,
Thy pow'r throughout the universe displayed:
Chorus
Then sings my soul, my Saviour God, to thee;
How great thou art, how great thou art!
Then sings my soul, my Saviour God, to thee:
How great thou art, how great thou art!
When through the woods and forest glades I wander
And hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees,
When I look down from lofty mountain grandeur,
And hear the brook and feel the gentle breeze:
And when I think that God, his Son not sparing,
Sent him to die, I scarce can take it in;
That on the cross, my burden gladly bearing,
He bled and died to take away my sin:
When Christ shall come with shout of acclamation,
And take me home, what joy shall fill my heart!
Then I shall bow in humble adoration,
And there proclaim, my God, how great thou art!
Author: Stuart K. Hine
The salvation Army Song Book: Song Number: 37
Thank you for your prayers and support for OzThoughts Internet Ministry.
To unsubscribe send an email (without a message) to :
OzThoughtsInternetMinistry-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com.au
If you invite friends to subscribe they do it by sending an email (without a message) to :
OzThoughtsInternetMinistry-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.au (Tell them to check their junk box for the reply if it does not seem to come).
`````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
You can also receive OzThoughts from the following groups (which you are welcome to join):
SalvationArmy3: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/salvationarmy3/
Poems from the Lord by Ailsa Yates: http://groups.msn.com/PoemsfromtheLordbyAilsaYates
Subscribe: OzThoughtsInternetMinistry-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.au
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OzThoughts
Writer (Only): OzThoughts@yahoo.com.au
To meditate on the Suffering Servant, Jesus on the Cross of Calvary brings to my mind a number of hymns. Isaac Watts must have either been meditating himself or trying to get others to understand what he saw when he wrote:
See, from his head, his hands, his feet,
Sorrow and love flow mingled down;
Did e'er such love and sorrow meet,
Or thorns compose so rich a crown?
Similarly, Stuart K. Hine, as he translated Carl Boberg’s wonderful hymn must have had a vision of Calvary:
And when I think that God, his Son not sparing,
Sent him to die, I scarce can take it in;
That on the cross, my burden gladly bearing,
He bled and died to take away my sin:
More recently Stuart Townend wrote:
[Listen: http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=Voawjjqg8zw&feature=related]
or:
http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=UjD0lv8hx5o&feature=related
How deep the Father's love for us
How vast beyond all measure
That He would give His only Son
To make a wretch His treasure
How great the pain of searing loss
The Father turns His face away
As wounds which mar the chosen One
Bring many sons to glory
Behold the Man upon a cross
My guilt upon His shoulders
Ashamed, I hear my mocking voice
Call out among the scoffers
It was my sin that held Him there
Until it was accomplished
His dying breath has brought me life
I know that it is finished
I will not boast in anything
No gifts, no powr's, no wisdom
But I will boast in Jesus Christ
His death and resurrection
Why should I gain from His reward?
I cannot give an answer
But this I know with all my heart
His wounds have paid my ransom
Written by: Stuart Townend
It is Paul when writing to the Philippians who captures the essence of Jesus suffering and tells us to apply it to our living:
Think of yourselves the way Christ Jesus thought of himself. He had equal status with God but didn't think so much of himself that he had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter what. Not at all. When the time came, he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human! Having become human, he stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process. He didn't claim special privileges. Instead, he lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death—and the worst kind of death at that—a crucifixion. Philippians 2:5-8 (The Message).
[ Listen”: http://www.salvoaudio.com/audio/music3/mus_4788.mp3 ]
When I survey the wondrous cross
On which the Prince of Glory died,
My richest gain I count but loss,
And pour contempt on all my pride.
Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast
Save in the death of Christ, my God;
All the vain things that charm me most,
I sacrifice them to his blood.
See, from his head, his hands, his feet,
Sorrow and love flow mingled down;
Did e'er such love and sorrow meet,
Or thorns compose so rich a crown?
Were the whole realm of nature mine,
That were a present far too small;
Love so amazing, so divine,
Demands my soul, my life, my all.
Author: Isaac Watts (1674-1748)
The Salvation Army Song Book: Song Number: 136
[Listen: http://www.salvoaudio.com/audio/music/mus_321.mp3 ]
O Lord my God, when I in awesome wonder
Consider all the worlds thy hands have made;
I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder,
Thy pow'r throughout the universe displayed:
Chorus
Then sings my soul, my Saviour God, to thee;
How great thou art, how great thou art!
Then sings my soul, my Saviour God, to thee:
How great thou art, how great thou art!
When through the woods and forest glades I wander
And hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees,
When I look down from lofty mountain grandeur,
And hear the brook and feel the gentle breeze:
And when I think that God, his Son not sparing,
Sent him to die, I scarce can take it in;
That on the cross, my burden gladly bearing,
He bled and died to take away my sin:
When Christ shall come with shout of acclamation,
And take me home, what joy shall fill my heart!
Then I shall bow in humble adoration,
And there proclaim, my God, how great thou art!
Author: Stuart K. Hine
The salvation Army Song Book: Song Number: 37
Thank you for your prayers and support for OzThoughts Internet Ministry.
To unsubscribe send an email (without a message) to :
OzThoughtsInternetMinistry-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com.au
If you invite friends to subscribe they do it by sending an email (without a message) to :
OzThoughtsInternetMinistry-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.au (Tell them to check their junk box for the reply if it does not seem to come).
`````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
You can also receive OzThoughts from the following groups (which you are welcome to join):
SalvationArmy3: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/salvationarmy3/
Poems from the Lord by Ailsa Yates: http://groups.msn.com/PoemsfromtheLordbyAilsaYates
Subscribe: OzThoughtsInternetMinistry-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.au
Unsubscribe: OzThoughtsInternetMinistry-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com.au
OzThoughts
Writer (Only): OzThoughts@yahoo.com.au
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
OzThoughts Tuesday 28th October 2008
OzThoughts Tuesday 28th October 2008
Did you meditate yesterday on the prophecy from Isaiah 53 of the suffering servant? Then meditate further on the old hymn, often associated with Easter, “Man of Sorrows”?
As I read through the words again, I thought ‘how often do we sit and consider an empty cross’? I thought that most of my readers would worship, and identify with, churches which use the symbol of an empty cross. A lesser number would readily identify themselves as members of churches which use the cross with Christ on it as a reminder of Jesus’ suffering and death for us.
I thought, too, that I have two copies of the movie “The Passion of the Christ”(one on video and one on DVD) which I have never watched. Why? To be honest I have no real desire to be confronted with a portrayal of the brutality and suffering Jesus endured to the death.
But I remember the words of Paul:
“You'll remember, friends, that when I first came to you to let you in on God's master stroke, I didn't try to impress you with polished speeches and the latest philosophy. I deliberately kept it plain and simple: first Jesus and who he is; then Jesus and what he did—Jesus crucified.” (1 Corinthians 2: 1-2 The Message)
“Jesus crucified”. What does that mean to us? Is that the message of our church today? Maybe you’re thinking “Ah wait, there is more”. Yes, but it was enough for Paul.
[Listen: http://www.salvoaudio.com/audio/music/mus_117.mp3]
Jesus, the name high over all,
In Hell or earth or sky;
Angels and men before him fall,
And devils fear and fly.
Chorus
We have no other argument,
We want no other plea;
It is enough that Jesus died,
And that he died for me.
Jesus, the name to sinners dear,
The name to sinners given;
He scatters all their guilty fear;
He turns their hell to Heaven.
Jesus the prisoner's fetters breaks,
And bruises Satan's head;
Power into strengthless souls he speaks,
And life into the dead.
O that the world would taste and see
The riches of his grace;
The arms of love that compass me
Would all mankind embrace.
His glorious righteousness I show,
His saving truth proclaim;
'Tis all my business here below
To cry: Behold the Lamb!
Happy, if with my latest breath
I may but gasp his name,
Preach him to all, and cry in death:
Behold, behold the Lamb!
Author: Charles Wesley (1707-88) (verses)
The Salvation Army Song Book: Song Number: 60
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Did you meditate yesterday on the prophecy from Isaiah 53 of the suffering servant? Then meditate further on the old hymn, often associated with Easter, “Man of Sorrows”?
As I read through the words again, I thought ‘how often do we sit and consider an empty cross’? I thought that most of my readers would worship, and identify with, churches which use the symbol of an empty cross. A lesser number would readily identify themselves as members of churches which use the cross with Christ on it as a reminder of Jesus’ suffering and death for us.
I thought, too, that I have two copies of the movie “The Passion of the Christ”(one on video and one on DVD) which I have never watched. Why? To be honest I have no real desire to be confronted with a portrayal of the brutality and suffering Jesus endured to the death.
But I remember the words of Paul:
“You'll remember, friends, that when I first came to you to let you in on God's master stroke, I didn't try to impress you with polished speeches and the latest philosophy. I deliberately kept it plain and simple: first Jesus and who he is; then Jesus and what he did—Jesus crucified.” (1 Corinthians 2: 1-2 The Message)
“Jesus crucified”. What does that mean to us? Is that the message of our church today? Maybe you’re thinking “Ah wait, there is more”. Yes, but it was enough for Paul.
[Listen: http://www.salvoaudio.com/audio/music/mus_117.mp3]
Jesus, the name high over all,
In Hell or earth or sky;
Angels and men before him fall,
And devils fear and fly.
Chorus
We have no other argument,
We want no other plea;
It is enough that Jesus died,
And that he died for me.
Jesus, the name to sinners dear,
The name to sinners given;
He scatters all their guilty fear;
He turns their hell to Heaven.
Jesus the prisoner's fetters breaks,
And bruises Satan's head;
Power into strengthless souls he speaks,
And life into the dead.
O that the world would taste and see
The riches of his grace;
The arms of love that compass me
Would all mankind embrace.
His glorious righteousness I show,
His saving truth proclaim;
'Tis all my business here below
To cry: Behold the Lamb!
Happy, if with my latest breath
I may but gasp his name,
Preach him to all, and cry in death:
Behold, behold the Lamb!
Author: Charles Wesley (1707-88) (verses)
The Salvation Army Song Book: Song Number: 60
Thank you for your prayers and support for OzThoughts Internet Ministry.
To unsubscribe send an email (without a message) to :
OzThoughtsInternetMinistry-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com.au
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OzThoughtsInternetMinistry-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.au (Tell them to check their junk box for the reply if it does not seem to come).
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You can also receive OzThoughts from the following groups (which you are welcome to join):
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Monday, October 27, 2008
OzThoughts Tuesday 28th October 2008
OzThoughts Tuesday 28th October 2008
Allow God, the Holy Spirit to speak to you as you quietly meditate on these words. If you find your mind wanders, read the words aloud.
Isaiah 53:4-12 (The Message)
2-6 The servant grew up before God—a scrawny seedling,
a scrubby plant in a parched field.
There was nothing attractive about him,
nothing to cause us to take a second look.
He was looked down on and passed over,
a man who suffered, who knew pain firsthand.
One look at him and people turned away.
We looked down on him, thought he was scum.
But the fact is, it was our pains he carried—
our disfigurements, all the things wrong with us.
We thought he brought it on himself,
that God was punishing him for his own failures.
But it was our sins that did that to him,
that ripped and tore and crushed him—our sins!
He took the punishment, and that made us whole.
Through his bruises we get healed.
We're all like sheep who've wandered off and gotten lost.
We've all done our own thing, gone our own way.
And God has piled all our sins, everything we've done wrong,
on him, on him.
7-9 He was beaten, he was tortured,
but he didn't say a word.
Like a lamb taken to be slaughtered
and like a sheep being sheared,
he took it all in silence.
Justice miscarried, and he was led off—
and did anyone really know what was happening?
He died without a thought for his own welfare,
beaten bloody for the sins of my people.
They buried him with the wicked,
threw him in a grave with a rich man,
Even though he'd never hurt a soul
or said one word that wasn't true.
10 Still, it's what God had in mind all along,
to crush him with pain.
The plan was that he give himself as an offering for sin
so that he'd see life come from it—life, life, and more life.
And God's plan will deeply prosper through him.
11-12 Out of that terrible travail of soul,
he'll see that it's worth it and be glad he did it.
Through what he experienced, my righteous one, my servant,
will make many "righteous ones,"
as he himself carries the burden of their sins.
Therefore I'll reward him extravagantly—
the best of everything, the highest honours—
Because he looked death in the face and didn't flinch,
because he embraced the company of the lowest.
He took on his own shoulders the sin of the many,
he took up the cause of all the black sheep.
````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
Man of sorrows! what a name
For the Son of God, who came
Ruined sinners to reclaim;
Hallelujah! What a Saviour!
Bearing shame and scoffing rude,
In my place condemned he stood,
Sealed my pardon with his blood;
Hallelujah! What a Saviour!
Guilty, vile and helpless we,
Spotless Lamb of God was he;
Full atonement--can it be?
Hallelujah! What a Saviour!
Lifted up was he to die;
It is finished was his cry;
Now in Heaven, exalted high;
Hallelujah! What a Saviour!
When he comes, our glorious King,
All his ransomed home to bring,
Then anew this song we'll sing:
Hallelujah! What a Saviour!
Author: Philip Paul Bliss(1838-76)
The Salvation Army Song Book: Song Number: 118
Thank you for your prayers and support for OzThoughts Internet Ministry.
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OzThoughtsInternetMinistry-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.au (Tell them to check their junk box for the reply if it does not seem to come).
`````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
You can also receive OzThoughts from the following groups (which you are welcome to join):
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Allow God, the Holy Spirit to speak to you as you quietly meditate on these words. If you find your mind wanders, read the words aloud.
Isaiah 53:4-12 (The Message)
2-6 The servant grew up before God—a scrawny seedling,
a scrubby plant in a parched field.
There was nothing attractive about him,
nothing to cause us to take a second look.
He was looked down on and passed over,
a man who suffered, who knew pain firsthand.
One look at him and people turned away.
We looked down on him, thought he was scum.
But the fact is, it was our pains he carried—
our disfigurements, all the things wrong with us.
We thought he brought it on himself,
that God was punishing him for his own failures.
But it was our sins that did that to him,
that ripped and tore and crushed him—our sins!
He took the punishment, and that made us whole.
Through his bruises we get healed.
We're all like sheep who've wandered off and gotten lost.
We've all done our own thing, gone our own way.
And God has piled all our sins, everything we've done wrong,
on him, on him.
7-9 He was beaten, he was tortured,
but he didn't say a word.
Like a lamb taken to be slaughtered
and like a sheep being sheared,
he took it all in silence.
Justice miscarried, and he was led off—
and did anyone really know what was happening?
He died without a thought for his own welfare,
beaten bloody for the sins of my people.
They buried him with the wicked,
threw him in a grave with a rich man,
Even though he'd never hurt a soul
or said one word that wasn't true.
10 Still, it's what God had in mind all along,
to crush him with pain.
The plan was that he give himself as an offering for sin
so that he'd see life come from it—life, life, and more life.
And God's plan will deeply prosper through him.
11-12 Out of that terrible travail of soul,
he'll see that it's worth it and be glad he did it.
Through what he experienced, my righteous one, my servant,
will make many "righteous ones,"
as he himself carries the burden of their sins.
Therefore I'll reward him extravagantly—
the best of everything, the highest honours—
Because he looked death in the face and didn't flinch,
because he embraced the company of the lowest.
He took on his own shoulders the sin of the many,
he took up the cause of all the black sheep.
````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
Man of sorrows! what a name
For the Son of God, who came
Ruined sinners to reclaim;
Hallelujah! What a Saviour!
Bearing shame and scoffing rude,
In my place condemned he stood,
Sealed my pardon with his blood;
Hallelujah! What a Saviour!
Guilty, vile and helpless we,
Spotless Lamb of God was he;
Full atonement--can it be?
Hallelujah! What a Saviour!
Lifted up was he to die;
It is finished was his cry;
Now in Heaven, exalted high;
Hallelujah! What a Saviour!
When he comes, our glorious King,
All his ransomed home to bring,
Then anew this song we'll sing:
Hallelujah! What a Saviour!
Author: Philip Paul Bliss(1838-76)
The Salvation Army Song Book: Song Number: 118
Thank you for your prayers and support for OzThoughts Internet Ministry.
To unsubscribe send an email (without a message) to :
OzThoughtsInternetMinistry-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com.au
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OzThoughtsInternetMinistry-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.au (Tell them to check their junk box for the reply if it does not seem to come).
`````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
You can also receive OzThoughts from the following groups (which you are welcome to join):
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Sunday, October 26, 2008
OzThoughts 27th October, 2008.
OzThoughts 27th October, 2008.
I will extol the LORD at all times;
his praise will always be on my lips.
2 My soul will boast in the LORD;
let the afflicted hear and rejoice.
3 Glorify the LORD with me;
let us exalt his name together.
4 I sought the LORD, and he answered me;
he delivered me from all my fears.
5 Those who look to him are radiant;
their faces are never covered with shame.
6 This poor man called, and the LORD heard him;
he saved him out of all his troubles.
7 The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear him,
and he delivers them.
8 Taste and see that the LORD is good;
blessed is the man who takes refuge in him.
9 Fear the LORD, you his saints,
for those who fear him lack nothing.
(Psalm 34:1-9 New International Version)
What wonderful words for the commencement of the new work/school week. Not only is the Lord good, but we are blessed if we take refuge in him. “The Message” version of this passage finishes with wonderful words. Read the whole passage for the full promise:
Psalm 34:1-9 (The Message)
1 I bless GOD every chance I get;
my lungs expand with his praise.
2 I live and breathe GOD;
if things aren't going well, hear this and be happy:
3 Join me in spreading the news;
together let's get the word out.
4 GOD met me more than halfway,
he freed me from my anxious fears.
5 Look at him; give him your warmest smile.
Never hide your feelings from him.
6 When I was desperate, I called out,
and GOD got me out of a tight spot.
7 GOD's angel sets up a circle
of protection around us while we pray.
8 Open your mouth and taste, open your eyes and see—
how good GOD is.
Blessed are you who run to him.
9 Worship GOD if you want the best;
worship opens doors to all his goodness.
[Watch and Listen: http://www.salvoaudio.com/video/ill_go_in_the_strength_of_the_lord.wmv
Listen: http://www.salvoaudio.com/audio/music2/mus_3713.mp3 ]
I'll go in the strength of the Lord,
In paths he has marked for my feet;
I'll follow the light of his word,
Nor shrink from the dangers I meet,
His presence my steps shall attend,
His fulness my wants shall supply;
On him, till my journey shall end,
My unwavering faith shall rely.
Chorus
I'll go, I'll go in the strength,
I'll go in the strength of the Lord
I'll go, I'll go in the strength,
I'll go in the strength of the Lord.
I'll go in the strength of the Lord
To work he appoints me to do;
In joy which his smile doth afford
My soul shall her vigor renew.
His wisdom shall guard me from harm.
His power my sufficiency prove;
I'll trust his omnipotent arm,
And prove his unchangeable love.
I'll go in the strength of the Lord
To conflicts which faith will require,
His grace as my shield and reward,
My courage and zeal shall inspire.
Since he gives the word of command.
To meet and encounter the foe,
With his sword of truth in my hand.
To suffer and triumph I'll go.
Author: Edward Turney (1816-72)
The Salvation Army Song Book: Song Number: 734
Thank you for your prayers and support for OzThoughts Internet Ministry.
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You can also receive OzThoughts from the following groups (which you are welcome to join):
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I will extol the LORD at all times;
his praise will always be on my lips.
2 My soul will boast in the LORD;
let the afflicted hear and rejoice.
3 Glorify the LORD with me;
let us exalt his name together.
4 I sought the LORD, and he answered me;
he delivered me from all my fears.
5 Those who look to him are radiant;
their faces are never covered with shame.
6 This poor man called, and the LORD heard him;
he saved him out of all his troubles.
7 The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear him,
and he delivers them.
8 Taste and see that the LORD is good;
blessed is the man who takes refuge in him.
9 Fear the LORD, you his saints,
for those who fear him lack nothing.
(Psalm 34:1-9 New International Version)
What wonderful words for the commencement of the new work/school week. Not only is the Lord good, but we are blessed if we take refuge in him. “The Message” version of this passage finishes with wonderful words. Read the whole passage for the full promise:
Psalm 34:1-9 (The Message)
1 I bless GOD every chance I get;
my lungs expand with his praise.
2 I live and breathe GOD;
if things aren't going well, hear this and be happy:
3 Join me in spreading the news;
together let's get the word out.
4 GOD met me more than halfway,
he freed me from my anxious fears.
5 Look at him; give him your warmest smile.
Never hide your feelings from him.
6 When I was desperate, I called out,
and GOD got me out of a tight spot.
7 GOD's angel sets up a circle
of protection around us while we pray.
8 Open your mouth and taste, open your eyes and see—
how good GOD is.
Blessed are you who run to him.
9 Worship GOD if you want the best;
worship opens doors to all his goodness.
[Watch and Listen: http://www.salvoaudio.com/video/ill_go_in_the_strength_of_the_lord.wmv
Listen: http://www.salvoaudio.com/audio/music2/mus_3713.mp3 ]
I'll go in the strength of the Lord,
In paths he has marked for my feet;
I'll follow the light of his word,
Nor shrink from the dangers I meet,
His presence my steps shall attend,
His fulness my wants shall supply;
On him, till my journey shall end,
My unwavering faith shall rely.
Chorus
I'll go, I'll go in the strength,
I'll go in the strength of the Lord
I'll go, I'll go in the strength,
I'll go in the strength of the Lord.
I'll go in the strength of the Lord
To work he appoints me to do;
In joy which his smile doth afford
My soul shall her vigor renew.
His wisdom shall guard me from harm.
His power my sufficiency prove;
I'll trust his omnipotent arm,
And prove his unchangeable love.
I'll go in the strength of the Lord
To conflicts which faith will require,
His grace as my shield and reward,
My courage and zeal shall inspire.
Since he gives the word of command.
To meet and encounter the foe,
With his sword of truth in my hand.
To suffer and triumph I'll go.
Author: Edward Turney (1816-72)
The Salvation Army Song Book: Song Number: 734
Thank you for your prayers and support for OzThoughts Internet Ministry.
To unsubscribe send an email (without a message) to :
OzThoughtsInternetMinistry-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com.au
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OzThoughtsInternetMinistry-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.au (Tell them to check their junk box for the reply if it does not seem to come).
`````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
You can also receive OzThoughts from the following groups (which you are welcome to join):
SalvationArmy3: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/salvationarmy3/
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Saturday, October 25, 2008
Australian Thoughts at the Weekend 25th and 26th October, 2008.
Australian Thoughts at the Weekend 25th and 26th October, 2008.
Albert was just one of many teenagers who regularly gathered in the city centre to see what fun they could have. Often they had to make their own fun as nothing much was happening. The city was Adelaide, the Capital of South Australia. Albert was eighteen.
One night the best opportunity for some fun was the local Salvation Army Street Meeting down on the corner. They had listened before and knew the routine. There was one Salvationist who loved to sing solos but his singing was interrupted by his coughing. On this night as he stood in the centre of the circle singing and coughing his way through the song, Albert moved into the circle and stood behind him.
Albert caused much laughter among his friends and other onlookers as he mimicked the Salvationist’s every movement, his singing and especially his coughing. His eyes watched for movement to copy, and he listened carefully to the words that were being sung. However, as he listened so he could accurately mimic the words, he heard the words as he had never heard them before.
The words became clear and he knew that God wanted something more than a good laugh from comic actions. The young man confessed his sin to God and that day began a commitment to God that never wavered.
Albert went home and told his parents he had got saved and joined the Salvation Army. This roused such anger in his father that he was thrown out of the house. It is interesting that Albert’s grandparents had left their home in Germany to find freedom from religious persecution in this new country.
His sister, a life-long devout Catholic many years later said her brother Albert got a faith that really meant something. She said there were two things he had hated. One was paying his weekly board on pay day and the other was chopping wood for his mother’s kitchen stove and the open fire. After he gave his life to Jesus, on each pay day Saturday afternoon, when his father was at the races, Albert came home and paid his board and chopped some wood for his mother. He knew the family needed that board money although he was living away from home.
Albert with his young wife, Evelyn, a son and daughter* and another child on the way entered the Training College from Adelaide Congress Hall Corps. After six weeks training at the College in Melbourne he was made a Cadet-Lieutenant and posted to a Corps .This was the beginning of a long period serving in the leadership of many Corps until he was posted to Headquarters with the responsibility of “Special Collector” visiting and receiving donations from major supports. He served in this way in Victorias and Tasmania for seventeen years until his retirement.
Two stories are told of the days at Headquarters. As Albert was required to travel extensively he was provided with an ‘Army’ car. When it was noticed that he was not coming to work at HQ on Saturday mornings, as all HQ Officers and staff were required to do, this was officially queried. He pointed out that to keep the car in the appropriate clean condition, he spent Saturday morning cleaning it.
On another occasion, he was asked to see the Commissioner at his office. Not wanting to keep the Commission waiting, he arrives a few minutes early and waited for the summons to enter on chairs provided. About 2 minutes before the appointed time the Commissioner arrived back at his Office. He saw Albert sitting there and inquired why he was there. When Albert replied I have an appointment with you, the Commissioner sternly replied that the appointment time had not yet arrived and added “Always be on time. Don’t be early you are wasting your own time. Don’t be late, you are wasting my time. Always be in time in future”. Albert told colleague Officers of this and they said that’s why we wait in the Trade (SA supplies and book shop) downstairs until the appropriate time.
I sat and chatted with Albert after his retirement in the company of a Corps Officer. Albert stressed the importance of visitation. I am not sure whether it was unique in those days but he told us he never stayed for a cup of tea with the Soldiers he visited. He said it was a time waster and staying too long soon led to talking about people rather than spiritual things. He limited his visits to about 20 minutes and read a Scripture and prayed with every one he visited.
He told of one Corps where he was newly appointed and on Tuesday morning after his Monday “day off’ he set out to visit Soldiers. He delivered a War Cry to a shut in Soldier in the street behind the quarters to be told by the Soldier “Oh, you don’t have to bring the War Cry. Just post it like the other Captains did”.
Albert and his wife raised 5 children during their Corps Officer years. They were known for their care for others. Many benefited from Evelyn’s skill with sewing and knitting machines. However, they found room for a child from a Salvation Army and after caring for her for many years, they officially adopted her. One story that is told of young Joyce is that when she stayed overnight for the first time, she was shown the various bedrooms. When she was shown the main bedroom with its double bed and told Albert and Evelyn slept there, her reaction was “I’ll tell Matron on you!”
A singer with a persistent cough was used by God to bring at least one man into God’s Kingdom. Many of that one man’s family in the 100 years since his conversion in an Adelaide Street in 1908 have served God faithfully as Soldiers and Officers in both Australian Salvation Army Territories.
*It was the Promotion to Glory of Albert and Evelyn’s oldest daughter, Mavis, in Adelaide this week that reminded me of this story of my grandfather, Albert Reese which I had written two years ago.
Thank you for your prayers and support for OzThoughts Internet Ministry.
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OzThoughtsInternetMinistry-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.au (Tell them to check their junk box for the reply if it does not seem to come).
`````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
You can also receive OzThoughts from the following groups (which you are welcome to join):
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OzThoughts
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Albert was just one of many teenagers who regularly gathered in the city centre to see what fun they could have. Often they had to make their own fun as nothing much was happening. The city was Adelaide, the Capital of South Australia. Albert was eighteen.
One night the best opportunity for some fun was the local Salvation Army Street Meeting down on the corner. They had listened before and knew the routine. There was one Salvationist who loved to sing solos but his singing was interrupted by his coughing. On this night as he stood in the centre of the circle singing and coughing his way through the song, Albert moved into the circle and stood behind him.
Albert caused much laughter among his friends and other onlookers as he mimicked the Salvationist’s every movement, his singing and especially his coughing. His eyes watched for movement to copy, and he listened carefully to the words that were being sung. However, as he listened so he could accurately mimic the words, he heard the words as he had never heard them before.
The words became clear and he knew that God wanted something more than a good laugh from comic actions. The young man confessed his sin to God and that day began a commitment to God that never wavered.
Albert went home and told his parents he had got saved and joined the Salvation Army. This roused such anger in his father that he was thrown out of the house. It is interesting that Albert’s grandparents had left their home in Germany to find freedom from religious persecution in this new country.
His sister, a life-long devout Catholic many years later said her brother Albert got a faith that really meant something. She said there were two things he had hated. One was paying his weekly board on pay day and the other was chopping wood for his mother’s kitchen stove and the open fire. After he gave his life to Jesus, on each pay day Saturday afternoon, when his father was at the races, Albert came home and paid his board and chopped some wood for his mother. He knew the family needed that board money although he was living away from home.
Albert with his young wife, Evelyn, a son and daughter* and another child on the way entered the Training College from Adelaide Congress Hall Corps. After six weeks training at the College in Melbourne he was made a Cadet-Lieutenant and posted to a Corps .This was the beginning of a long period serving in the leadership of many Corps until he was posted to Headquarters with the responsibility of “Special Collector” visiting and receiving donations from major supports. He served in this way in Victorias and Tasmania for seventeen years until his retirement.
Two stories are told of the days at Headquarters. As Albert was required to travel extensively he was provided with an ‘Army’ car. When it was noticed that he was not coming to work at HQ on Saturday mornings, as all HQ Officers and staff were required to do, this was officially queried. He pointed out that to keep the car in the appropriate clean condition, he spent Saturday morning cleaning it.
On another occasion, he was asked to see the Commissioner at his office. Not wanting to keep the Commission waiting, he arrives a few minutes early and waited for the summons to enter on chairs provided. About 2 minutes before the appointed time the Commissioner arrived back at his Office. He saw Albert sitting there and inquired why he was there. When Albert replied I have an appointment with you, the Commissioner sternly replied that the appointment time had not yet arrived and added “Always be on time. Don’t be early you are wasting your own time. Don’t be late, you are wasting my time. Always be in time in future”. Albert told colleague Officers of this and they said that’s why we wait in the Trade (SA supplies and book shop) downstairs until the appropriate time.
I sat and chatted with Albert after his retirement in the company of a Corps Officer. Albert stressed the importance of visitation. I am not sure whether it was unique in those days but he told us he never stayed for a cup of tea with the Soldiers he visited. He said it was a time waster and staying too long soon led to talking about people rather than spiritual things. He limited his visits to about 20 minutes and read a Scripture and prayed with every one he visited.
He told of one Corps where he was newly appointed and on Tuesday morning after his Monday “day off’ he set out to visit Soldiers. He delivered a War Cry to a shut in Soldier in the street behind the quarters to be told by the Soldier “Oh, you don’t have to bring the War Cry. Just post it like the other Captains did”.
Albert and his wife raised 5 children during their Corps Officer years. They were known for their care for others. Many benefited from Evelyn’s skill with sewing and knitting machines. However, they found room for a child from a Salvation Army and after caring for her for many years, they officially adopted her. One story that is told of young Joyce is that when she stayed overnight for the first time, she was shown the various bedrooms. When she was shown the main bedroom with its double bed and told Albert and Evelyn slept there, her reaction was “I’ll tell Matron on you!”
A singer with a persistent cough was used by God to bring at least one man into God’s Kingdom. Many of that one man’s family in the 100 years since his conversion in an Adelaide Street in 1908 have served God faithfully as Soldiers and Officers in both Australian Salvation Army Territories.
*It was the Promotion to Glory of Albert and Evelyn’s oldest daughter, Mavis, in Adelaide this week that reminded me of this story of my grandfather, Albert Reese which I had written two years ago.
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Friday, October 24, 2008
OzThoughts Friday 24th October 2008
The Psalmist David faced the record of his past. He knew he must confess. He looked at his sheet of paper and it was black with sin. He knew while he stared at the paper this was in fact his life.
Today can we pray with the penitent Psalmist?
Psalm 51 (The Message)
A David psalm, after he was confronted by Nathan about the affair with Bathsheba.
1 Generous in love--God, give grace!
Huge in mercy--wipe out my bad record.
2 Scrub away my guilt,
soak out my sins in your laundry.
3 I know how bad I've been;
my sins are staring me down.
4 You're the One I've violated, and you've seen
it all, seen the full extent of my evil.
You have all the facts before you;
whatever you decide about me is fair.
5 I've been out of step with you for a long time,
in the wrong since before I was born.
6 What you're after is truth from the inside out.
Enter me, then; conceive a new, true life.
7 Soak me in your laundry and I'll come out clean,
scrub me and I'll have a snow-white life.
8 Tune me in to foot-tapping songs,
set these once-broken bones to dancing.
9 Don't look too close for blemishes,
give me a clean bill of health.
10 God, make a fresh start in me,
shape a Genesis week from the chaos of my life.
11 Don't throw me out with the trash,
or fail to breathe holiness in me.
12 Bring me back from gray exile,
put a fresh wind in my sails!
13 Give me a job teaching rebels your ways
so the lost can find their way home.
14 Commute my death sentence, God, my salvation God,
and I'll sing anthems to your life--giving ways.
15 Unbutton my lips, dear God;
I'll let loose with your praise.
16 Going through the motions doesn't please you,
a flawless performance is nothing to you.
17 I learned God--worship
when my pride was shattered.
Heart-shattered lives ready for love
don't for a moment escape God's notice.
18 Make Zion the place you delight in,
repair Jerusalem's broken-down walls.
19 Then you'll get real worship from us,
acts of worship small and large,
Including all the bulls
they can heave onto your altar!
[Watch and Listen: http://www.salvoaudio.com/video/video_074.WMV
Listen: http://www.salvoaudio.com/audio/music3/mus_4156.mp3 ]
O boundless salvation! deep ocean of love,
O fulness of mercy, Christ brought from above.
The whole world redeeming, so rich and so free,
Now flowing for all men, come, roll over me!
My sins they are many, their stains are so deep.
And bitter the tears of remorse that I weep;
But useless is weeping; thou great crimson sea,
Thy waters can cleanse me, come, roll over me I
My tempers are fitful, my passions are strong,
They bind my poor soul and they force me to wrong;
Beneath thy blest billows deliverance I see,
O come, mighty ocean, and roll over me!
Now tossed with temptation, then haunted with fears,
My life has been joyless and useless for years;
I feel something better most surely would be
If once thy pure waters would roll over me.
O ocean of mercy, oft longing I've stood
On the brink of thy wonderful, life-giving flood!
Once more I have reached this soul-cleansing sea,
I will not go back till it rolls over me.
The tide is now flowing, I'm touching the wave,
I hear the loud call of the mighty to save;
My faith's growing bolder, delivered I'll be;
I plunge 'neath the waters, they roll over me.
And now, hallelujah! the rest of my days
Shall gladly be spent in promoting his praise
Who opened his bosom to pour out this sea
Of boundless salvation for you and for me.
Author: William Booth (1829-1912)
The Salvation Army Song Book: Song Number: 298
`````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
OzThoughtsInternetMinistry@yahoogroups.com.au; salvationarmy3@yahoogroups.com; phantomfan46@hotmail.com, robyn.collins@aue.salvationarmy.org; Vicki.Clarke@aue.salvationarmy.org, raeehoward@hotmail.com; heidinordhagen@hotmail.com; dgodby@tpg.com.au; abentham@bigpond.net.au
Thank you for your prayers and support for OzThoughts Internet Ministry.
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OzThoughtsInternetMinistry@yahoogroups.com.au; salvationarmy3@yahoogroups.com; phantomfan46@hotmail.com, robyn.collins@aue.salvationarmy.org; Vicki.Clarke@aue.salvationarmy.org, raeehoward@hotmail.com; heidinordhagen@hotmail.com; dgodby@tpg.com.au; abentham@bigpond.net.au
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To unsubscribe send an email (without a message) to :
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The Psalmist David faced the record of his past. He knew he must confess. He looked at his sheet of paper and it was black with sin. He knew while he stared at the paper this was in fact his life.
Today can we pray with the penitent Psalmist?
Psalm 51 (The Message)
A David psalm, after he was confronted by Nathan about the affair with Bathsheba.
1 Generous in love--God, give grace!
Huge in mercy--wipe out my bad record.
2 Scrub away my guilt,
soak out my sins in your laundry.
3 I know how bad I've been;
my sins are staring me down.
4 You're the One I've violated, and you've seen
it all, seen the full extent of my evil.
You have all the facts before you;
whatever you decide about me is fair.
5 I've been out of step with you for a long time,
in the wrong since before I was born.
6 What you're after is truth from the inside out.
Enter me, then; conceive a new, true life.
7 Soak me in your laundry and I'll come out clean,
scrub me and I'll have a snow-white life.
8 Tune me in to foot-tapping songs,
set these once-broken bones to dancing.
9 Don't look too close for blemishes,
give me a clean bill of health.
10 God, make a fresh start in me,
shape a Genesis week from the chaos of my life.
11 Don't throw me out with the trash,
or fail to breathe holiness in me.
12 Bring me back from gray exile,
put a fresh wind in my sails!
13 Give me a job teaching rebels your ways
so the lost can find their way home.
14 Commute my death sentence, God, my salvation God,
and I'll sing anthems to your life--giving ways.
15 Unbutton my lips, dear God;
I'll let loose with your praise.
16 Going through the motions doesn't please you,
a flawless performance is nothing to you.
17 I learned God--worship
when my pride was shattered.
Heart-shattered lives ready for love
don't for a moment escape God's notice.
18 Make Zion the place you delight in,
repair Jerusalem's broken-down walls.
19 Then you'll get real worship from us,
acts of worship small and large,
Including all the bulls
they can heave onto your altar!
[Watch and Listen: http://www.salvoaudio.com/video/video_074.WMV
Listen: http://www.salvoaudio.com/audio/music3/mus_4156.mp3 ]
O boundless salvation! deep ocean of love,
O fulness of mercy, Christ brought from above.
The whole world redeeming, so rich and so free,
Now flowing for all men, come, roll over me!
My sins they are many, their stains are so deep.
And bitter the tears of remorse that I weep;
But useless is weeping; thou great crimson sea,
Thy waters can cleanse me, come, roll over me I
My tempers are fitful, my passions are strong,
They bind my poor soul and they force me to wrong;
Beneath thy blest billows deliverance I see,
O come, mighty ocean, and roll over me!
Now tossed with temptation, then haunted with fears,
My life has been joyless and useless for years;
I feel something better most surely would be
If once thy pure waters would roll over me.
O ocean of mercy, oft longing I've stood
On the brink of thy wonderful, life-giving flood!
Once more I have reached this soul-cleansing sea,
I will not go back till it rolls over me.
The tide is now flowing, I'm touching the wave,
I hear the loud call of the mighty to save;
My faith's growing bolder, delivered I'll be;
I plunge 'neath the waters, they roll over me.
And now, hallelujah! the rest of my days
Shall gladly be spent in promoting his praise
Who opened his bosom to pour out this sea
Of boundless salvation for you and for me.
Author: William Booth (1829-1912)
The Salvation Army Song Book: Song Number: 298
`````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
OzThoughtsInternetMinistry@yahoogroups.com.au; salvationarmy3@yahoogroups.com; phantomfan46@hotmail.com, robyn.collins@aue.salvationarmy.org; Vicki.Clarke@aue.salvationarmy.org, raeehoward@hotmail.com; heidinordhagen@hotmail.com; dgodby@tpg.com.au; abentham@bigpond.net.au
Thank you for your prayers and support for OzThoughts Internet Ministry.
To unsubscribe send an email (without a message) to :
OzThoughtsInternetMinistry-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com.au
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OzThoughtsInternetMinistry-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.au (Tell them to check their junk box for the reply if it does not seem to come).
`````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
You can also receive OzThoughts from the following groups (which you are welcome to join):
SalvationArmy3: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/salvationarmy3/
Poems from the Lord by Ailsa Yates: http://groups.msn.com/PoemsfromtheLordbyAilsaYates
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OzThoughtsInternetMinistry@yahoogroups.com.au; salvationarmy3@yahoogroups.com; phantomfan46@hotmail.com, robyn.collins@aue.salvationarmy.org; Vicki.Clarke@aue.salvationarmy.org, raeehoward@hotmail.com; heidinordhagen@hotmail.com; dgodby@tpg.com.au; abentham@bigpond.net.au
Thank you for your prayers and support for OzThoughts Internet Ministry.
To unsubscribe send an email (without a message) to :
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You can also receive OzThoughts from the following groups (which you are welcome to join):
SalvationArmy3: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/salvationarmy3/
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Wednesday, October 22, 2008
OzThoughts Thursday 23 October 2008
OzThoughts Thursday 23 October 2008
[Thanks to for those who pass OzThoughts by email or as a printed sheet to their friends. Thanks, too, to everyone who invites their friends to be a member of OzThoughts].
Lines down the page and lines across the page. It all seems a bit confusing. The whole point is the Christian is different to the person who is not a Christian. Paul and other New Testament writers make it clear that the difference is the work of Christ.
Former Australian Prime Minister of Australia, Gough Whitlam described himself, when asked about his faith, as “a fellow traveller with Christianity”. When pressed further, Gough said he accepted the ethics and ideals of Christianity and believed it was a force for good but was not into the religious part of it. I imagine there are lots who would be like Gough.
John in his first letter asks us all to look clearly at our page.
5 This, in essence, is the message we heard from Christ and are passing on to you: God is light, pure light; there's not a trace of darkness in him.
6 If we claim that we experience a shared life with him and continue to stumble around in the dark, we're obviously lying through our teeth--we're not living what we claim.
7 But if we walk in the light, God himself being the light, we also experience a shared life with one another, as the sacrificed blood of Jesus, God's Son, purges all our sin.
8 If we claim that we're free of sin, we're only fooling ourselves. A claim like that is errant nonsense.
9 On the other hand, if we admit our sins--make a clean breast of them--he won't let us down; he'll be true to himself. He'll forgive our sins and purge us of all wrongdoing.
10 If we claim that we've never sinned, we out-and-out contradict God--make a liar out of him. A claim like that only shows off our ignorance of God. (1 John 1 The Message).
PRAYER:
Heavenly Father, thank you for the cleansing that comes to my life through Jesus’ sacrificed blood. Help me to live worthy of that sacrifice, today and enjoy the shared life with you. Amen.
[Listen: The Salvation Army Pasadena Tabernacle Songsters: http://www.salvoaudio.com/audio/music/mus_2381.mp3
Would you be free from your burden of sin?
There's power in the blood, power in the blood!
Would you o'er evil a victory win?
There's wonderful power in the blood!
Chorus
There is power, power, wonder-working power,
In the blood of the Lamb.
There is power, power, wonder-working power,
In the precious blood of the Lamb.
Would you be free from your passion and pride?
There's power in the blood, power in the blood!
Come then for cleansing to Calvary's tide;
There's wonderful power in the blood!
Would you be whiter, yes, whiter than snow?
There's power in the blood, power in the blood!
Sin stains are lost in its life-giving flow;
There's wonderful power in the blood!
Would you do service for Jesus your King?
There's power in the blood, power in the blood!
Would you live daily his praises to sing?
There's wonderful power in the blood!
Author: Lewis Edgar Jones (1865-1936)
The Salvation Army Song Book: Song Number: 281
`````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
Thank you for your prayers and support for OzThoughts Internet Ministry.
To unsubscribe send an email (without a message) to :
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`````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
You can also receive OzThoughts from the following groups (which you are welcome to join):
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Writer (Only): OzThoughts@yahoo.com.au
[Thanks to for those who pass OzThoughts by email or as a printed sheet to their friends. Thanks, too, to everyone who invites their friends to be a member of OzThoughts].
Lines down the page and lines across the page. It all seems a bit confusing. The whole point is the Christian is different to the person who is not a Christian. Paul and other New Testament writers make it clear that the difference is the work of Christ.
Former Australian Prime Minister of Australia, Gough Whitlam described himself, when asked about his faith, as “a fellow traveller with Christianity”. When pressed further, Gough said he accepted the ethics and ideals of Christianity and believed it was a force for good but was not into the religious part of it. I imagine there are lots who would be like Gough.
John in his first letter asks us all to look clearly at our page.
5 This, in essence, is the message we heard from Christ and are passing on to you: God is light, pure light; there's not a trace of darkness in him.
6 If we claim that we experience a shared life with him and continue to stumble around in the dark, we're obviously lying through our teeth--we're not living what we claim.
7 But if we walk in the light, God himself being the light, we also experience a shared life with one another, as the sacrificed blood of Jesus, God's Son, purges all our sin.
8 If we claim that we're free of sin, we're only fooling ourselves. A claim like that is errant nonsense.
9 On the other hand, if we admit our sins--make a clean breast of them--he won't let us down; he'll be true to himself. He'll forgive our sins and purge us of all wrongdoing.
10 If we claim that we've never sinned, we out-and-out contradict God--make a liar out of him. A claim like that only shows off our ignorance of God. (1 John 1 The Message).
PRAYER:
Heavenly Father, thank you for the cleansing that comes to my life through Jesus’ sacrificed blood. Help me to live worthy of that sacrifice, today and enjoy the shared life with you. Amen.
[Listen: The Salvation Army Pasadena Tabernacle Songsters: http://www.salvoaudio.com/audio/music/mus_2381.mp3
Would you be free from your burden of sin?
There's power in the blood, power in the blood!
Would you o'er evil a victory win?
There's wonderful power in the blood!
Chorus
There is power, power, wonder-working power,
In the blood of the Lamb.
There is power, power, wonder-working power,
In the precious blood of the Lamb.
Would you be free from your passion and pride?
There's power in the blood, power in the blood!
Come then for cleansing to Calvary's tide;
There's wonderful power in the blood!
Would you be whiter, yes, whiter than snow?
There's power in the blood, power in the blood!
Sin stains are lost in its life-giving flow;
There's wonderful power in the blood!
Would you do service for Jesus your King?
There's power in the blood, power in the blood!
Would you live daily his praises to sing?
There's wonderful power in the blood!
Author: Lewis Edgar Jones (1865-1936)
The Salvation Army Song Book: Song Number: 281
`````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
Thank you for your prayers and support for OzThoughts Internet Ministry.
To unsubscribe send an email (without a message) to :
OzThoughtsInternetMinistry-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com.au
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OzThoughtsInternetMinistry-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.au (Tell them to check their junk box for the reply if it does not seem to come).
`````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
You can also receive OzThoughts from the following groups (which you are welcome to join):
SalvationArmy3: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/salvationarmy3/
Poems from the Lord by Ailsa Yates: http://groups.msn.com/PoemsfromtheLordbyAilsaYates
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Tuesday, October 21, 2008
OzThoughts Wednesday 22nd October 2008
OzThoughts Wednesday 22nd October 2008
My counsel is this: Live freely, animated and motivated by God's Spirit. Then you won't feed the compulsions of selfishness. For there is a root of sinful self-interest in us that is at odds with a free spirit, just as the free spirit is incompatible with selfishness. These two ways of life are antithetical, so that you cannot live at times one way and at times another way according to how you feel on any given day. Why don't you choose to be led by the Spirit and so escape the erratic compulsions of a law-dominated existence? (16-18)
19-21 It is obvious what kind of life develops out of trying to get your own way all the time: repetitive, loveless, cheap sex; a stinking accumulation of mental and emotional garbage; frenzied and joyless grabs for happiness; trinket gods; magic-show religion; paranoid loneliness; cutthroat competition; all-consuming-yet-never-satisfied wants; a brutal temper; an impotence to love or be loved; divided homes and divided lives; small-minded and lopsided pursuits; the vicious habit of depersonalizing everyone into a rival; uncontrolled and uncontrollable addictions; ugly parodies of community. I could go on.
This isn't the first time I have warned you, you know. If you use your freedom this way, you will not inherit God's kingdom.
22 But what happens when we live God's way? He brings gifts into our lives, much the same way that fruit appears in an orchard--things like affection for others, exuberance about life, serenity. We develop a willingness to stick with things, a sense of compassion in the heart, and a conviction that a basic holiness permeates things and people. We find ourselves involved in loyal commitments,
23 not needing to force our way in life, able to marshal and direct our energies wisely. Galatians 5 (The Message).
This is like Paul has drawn a line down the centre of the page. On one side is the old life with all its faults and sinful ways. On the other is the new life in Christ with its good and helpful fruit.
I have been thinking of Paul’s line as one that is down the centre of the page. However is this an accurate picture of what it is like to live as a Christian? Paul suggests to the Corinthian church that
Now we look inside, and what we see is that anyone united with the Messiah gets a fresh start, is created new. The old life is gone; a new life burgeons! Look at it! 2 Corinthians 5:17 (The Message)
I see the line there not separating the page into two vertically but Paul drawing a line across the page. It as if Jesus rules off the old life and gives a new start.
Sometimes it might seem better if we had a new page or a complete new book. But that is what we do have in Christ! Listen to the confident testimony we share with Charles Wesley:
He breaks the power of cancelled sin,
He sets the prisoner free;
His blood can make the foulest clean,
His blood avails for me.
Yes ! the line is across the page !
PRAYER:
Heavenly Father, thank you for the new life we have in Jesus. Help me to live today in the freedom of the new life you give. Amen.
[Watch and Listen: http://www.salvoaudio.com/video/video_035.WMV
Listen: http://www.salvoaudio.com/audio/music2/mus_3717.mp3 ]
O for a thousand tongues to sing
My great Redeemer's praise;
The glories of my God and King,
The triumphs of his grace!
My gracious Master and my God,
Assist me to proclaim,
To spread through all the earth abroad
The honors of thy name.
Jesus! the name that charms our fears,
That bids our sorrows cease;
'Tis music in the sinner's ears;
'Tis life and health and peace.
He breaks the power of canceled sin,
He sets the prisoner free;
His blood can make the foulest clean,
His blood avails for me.
Authors: Charles Wesley (1707-88)
The Salvation Army Song Book: Song Number : 64
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My counsel is this: Live freely, animated and motivated by God's Spirit. Then you won't feed the compulsions of selfishness. For there is a root of sinful self-interest in us that is at odds with a free spirit, just as the free spirit is incompatible with selfishness. These two ways of life are antithetical, so that you cannot live at times one way and at times another way according to how you feel on any given day. Why don't you choose to be led by the Spirit and so escape the erratic compulsions of a law-dominated existence? (16-18)
19-21 It is obvious what kind of life develops out of trying to get your own way all the time: repetitive, loveless, cheap sex; a stinking accumulation of mental and emotional garbage; frenzied and joyless grabs for happiness; trinket gods; magic-show religion; paranoid loneliness; cutthroat competition; all-consuming-yet-never-satisfied wants; a brutal temper; an impotence to love or be loved; divided homes and divided lives; small-minded and lopsided pursuits; the vicious habit of depersonalizing everyone into a rival; uncontrolled and uncontrollable addictions; ugly parodies of community. I could go on.
This isn't the first time I have warned you, you know. If you use your freedom this way, you will not inherit God's kingdom.
22 But what happens when we live God's way? He brings gifts into our lives, much the same way that fruit appears in an orchard--things like affection for others, exuberance about life, serenity. We develop a willingness to stick with things, a sense of compassion in the heart, and a conviction that a basic holiness permeates things and people. We find ourselves involved in loyal commitments,
23 not needing to force our way in life, able to marshal and direct our energies wisely. Galatians 5 (The Message).
This is like Paul has drawn a line down the centre of the page. On one side is the old life with all its faults and sinful ways. On the other is the new life in Christ with its good and helpful fruit.
I have been thinking of Paul’s line as one that is down the centre of the page. However is this an accurate picture of what it is like to live as a Christian? Paul suggests to the Corinthian church that
Now we look inside, and what we see is that anyone united with the Messiah gets a fresh start, is created new. The old life is gone; a new life burgeons! Look at it! 2 Corinthians 5:17 (The Message)
I see the line there not separating the page into two vertically but Paul drawing a line across the page. It as if Jesus rules off the old life and gives a new start.
Sometimes it might seem better if we had a new page or a complete new book. But that is what we do have in Christ! Listen to the confident testimony we share with Charles Wesley:
He breaks the power of cancelled sin,
He sets the prisoner free;
His blood can make the foulest clean,
His blood avails for me.
Yes ! the line is across the page !
PRAYER:
Heavenly Father, thank you for the new life we have in Jesus. Help me to live today in the freedom of the new life you give. Amen.
[Watch and Listen: http://www.salvoaudio.com/video/video_035.WMV
Listen: http://www.salvoaudio.com/audio/music2/mus_3717.mp3 ]
O for a thousand tongues to sing
My great Redeemer's praise;
The glories of my God and King,
The triumphs of his grace!
My gracious Master and my God,
Assist me to proclaim,
To spread through all the earth abroad
The honors of thy name.
Jesus! the name that charms our fears,
That bids our sorrows cease;
'Tis music in the sinner's ears;
'Tis life and health and peace.
He breaks the power of canceled sin,
He sets the prisoner free;
His blood can make the foulest clean,
His blood avails for me.
Authors: Charles Wesley (1707-88)
The Salvation Army Song Book: Song Number : 64
`````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
Thank you for your prayers and support for OzThoughts Internet Ministry.
To unsubscribe send an email (without a message) to :
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Monday, October 20, 2008
OzThoughts Tuesday 21st October 2008
OzThoughts Tuesday 21st October 2008
In the early verses of Chapter 12 of Romans Paul tells us how different our lives as Christians are or alt least should be. Paul has outlined in the early Chapters we are all sinners but Jesus through the cross has paid the penalty for us and set us free.
He says we are what we are in God’s sight because of God’s love for us and warns us, as we considered yesterday, not to live as the world wants us to. He says when we live as God wants then our life will prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
It is clear that we may know what the good and acceptable and perfect will of God is, but you can’t prove it in your life apart from the transforming work of the Holy Spirit.
So it is through that constant communion with the Holy Spirit that our life comes into line with what God requires of us. Brother Lawrence actually referred to that constant communion as “Practicing the Presence of God.” He stated he felt as close to god doing the chores of the kitchen, and the garden and in the marketplace as he did in the holiest moment of the Lord’s Supper. That’s the type of communion God makes himself available to us for.
PRAYER:
Heavenly Father, thank you for your love and your plan for my life. May I know your constant presence through your Holy Spirit with me in everything I do. Amen.
Spirit of eternal love
Guide me, or I blindly rove;
Set my heart on things above,
Draw me after thee.
Earthly things are paltry show,
Phantom charms, they come and go;
Give me constantly to know
Fellowship with thee.
Chorus
Fellowship with thee,
Fellowship with thee,
Give me constantly to know
Fellowship with thee.
Come, O Spirit, take control
Where the fires of passion roll;
Let the yearnings of my soul
Center all in thee.
Call into thy fold of peace
Thoughts that seek forbidden ways;
Calm and order all my days,
Hide my life in thee.
Thus supported, even I,
Knowing thee forever nigh,
Shall attain that deepest joy,
Living unto thee.
No distracting thoughts within,
No surviving hidden sin,
Thus shall Heaven indeed begin
Here and now in me.
Author: Albert Orsborn (1886-1967)
The Salvation Army Song Book: Song Number: 630
Romans 12 ( The Message)
Place Your Life Before God
1 So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life--your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life--and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him.
2 Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.
3 I'm speaking to you out of deep gratitude for all that God has given me, and especially as I have responsibilities in relation to you. Living then, as every one of you does, in pure grace, it's important that you not misinterpret yourselves as people who are bringing this goodness to God. No, God brings it all to you. The only accurate way to understand ourselves is by what God is and by what he does for us, not by what we are and what we do for him.
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In the early verses of Chapter 12 of Romans Paul tells us how different our lives as Christians are or alt least should be. Paul has outlined in the early Chapters we are all sinners but Jesus through the cross has paid the penalty for us and set us free.
He says we are what we are in God’s sight because of God’s love for us and warns us, as we considered yesterday, not to live as the world wants us to. He says when we live as God wants then our life will prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
It is clear that we may know what the good and acceptable and perfect will of God is, but you can’t prove it in your life apart from the transforming work of the Holy Spirit.
So it is through that constant communion with the Holy Spirit that our life comes into line with what God requires of us. Brother Lawrence actually referred to that constant communion as “Practicing the Presence of God.” He stated he felt as close to god doing the chores of the kitchen, and the garden and in the marketplace as he did in the holiest moment of the Lord’s Supper. That’s the type of communion God makes himself available to us for.
PRAYER:
Heavenly Father, thank you for your love and your plan for my life. May I know your constant presence through your Holy Spirit with me in everything I do. Amen.
Spirit of eternal love
Guide me, or I blindly rove;
Set my heart on things above,
Draw me after thee.
Earthly things are paltry show,
Phantom charms, they come and go;
Give me constantly to know
Fellowship with thee.
Chorus
Fellowship with thee,
Fellowship with thee,
Give me constantly to know
Fellowship with thee.
Come, O Spirit, take control
Where the fires of passion roll;
Let the yearnings of my soul
Center all in thee.
Call into thy fold of peace
Thoughts that seek forbidden ways;
Calm and order all my days,
Hide my life in thee.
Thus supported, even I,
Knowing thee forever nigh,
Shall attain that deepest joy,
Living unto thee.
No distracting thoughts within,
No surviving hidden sin,
Thus shall Heaven indeed begin
Here and now in me.
Author: Albert Orsborn (1886-1967)
The Salvation Army Song Book: Song Number: 630
Romans 12 ( The Message)
Place Your Life Before God
1 So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life--your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life--and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him.
2 Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.
3 I'm speaking to you out of deep gratitude for all that God has given me, and especially as I have responsibilities in relation to you. Living then, as every one of you does, in pure grace, it's important that you not misinterpret yourselves as people who are bringing this goodness to God. No, God brings it all to you. The only accurate way to understand ourselves is by what God is and by what he does for us, not by what we are and what we do for him.
`````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
Thank you for your prayers and support for OzThoughts Internet Ministry.
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Sunday, October 19, 2008
OzThoughts Monday 20th October 2008
OzThoughts Monday 20th October 2008
Many of us can quote at least the first part of J B Philips translation of Romans Chapter 12 verse 2. “Don't let the world around you squeeze you into its own mould, but let God re-mould your minds from within, so that you may prove in practice that the Plan of God for you is good, meets all His demands and moves towards the goal of true maturity..”
The Living Translation says for the same verse: “Don’t copy the behaviour and customs of this world, but be a new and different person with a fresh newness in all you do and think. Then you will learn from your own experience how his ways will really satisfy you.”
That is a challenge for this week. We have influences and fashions all around us. Even in church there are pressures on us from the people around us. But this verse not only deals with what is the negative for Christians (as God always does) but takes the positive. It says very clearly God has a plan for us and it is good.
We have an opportunity this week to prove it is not only good but best for us.
PRAYER:
O God, my Heavenly Father, I pray for each friend who this week steps out seeking a new relationship with you and a new revelation of your plan for them. I pray that this week I will not only know but also live your plan for me and that your Holy Spirit will show me the things that are likely to distract me from you. This week I pray that your love, joy and peace will be shared with others. Amen.
[Listen: http://www.salvoaudio.com/audio/music/mus_902.mp3 ]
Chorus
I'm in his hands, I'm in his hands;
Whate'er the future holds
I'm in his hands,
The days I cannot see
Have all been planned for me;
His way is best, you see;
I'm in his hands.
What though I cannot know the way that lies before me?
I still can trust and freely follow his commands;
My faith is firm since it is he that watches o'er me;
Of this I'm confident: I'm in his hands.
I shall not fear though darkened clouds may gather round me;
The God I serve is one who cares and understands.
Although the storms I face would threaten to confound me,
Of this I am assured: I'm in his hands.
In days gone by my Lord has always proved sufficient,
When I have yielded to the law of love's demands;
Why should I doubt that he would evermore be present
To make his will my own? I'm in his hands!
Author: Stanley E. Ditmer
The Salvation Army Song Book: Song Number: 732
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Many of us can quote at least the first part of J B Philips translation of Romans Chapter 12 verse 2. “Don't let the world around you squeeze you into its own mould, but let God re-mould your minds from within, so that you may prove in practice that the Plan of God for you is good, meets all His demands and moves towards the goal of true maturity..”
The Living Translation says for the same verse: “Don’t copy the behaviour and customs of this world, but be a new and different person with a fresh newness in all you do and think. Then you will learn from your own experience how his ways will really satisfy you.”
That is a challenge for this week. We have influences and fashions all around us. Even in church there are pressures on us from the people around us. But this verse not only deals with what is the negative for Christians (as God always does) but takes the positive. It says very clearly God has a plan for us and it is good.
We have an opportunity this week to prove it is not only good but best for us.
PRAYER:
O God, my Heavenly Father, I pray for each friend who this week steps out seeking a new relationship with you and a new revelation of your plan for them. I pray that this week I will not only know but also live your plan for me and that your Holy Spirit will show me the things that are likely to distract me from you. This week I pray that your love, joy and peace will be shared with others. Amen.
[Listen: http://www.salvoaudio.com/audio/music/mus_902.mp3 ]
Chorus
I'm in his hands, I'm in his hands;
Whate'er the future holds
I'm in his hands,
The days I cannot see
Have all been planned for me;
His way is best, you see;
I'm in his hands.
What though I cannot know the way that lies before me?
I still can trust and freely follow his commands;
My faith is firm since it is he that watches o'er me;
Of this I'm confident: I'm in his hands.
I shall not fear though darkened clouds may gather round me;
The God I serve is one who cares and understands.
Although the storms I face would threaten to confound me,
Of this I am assured: I'm in his hands.
In days gone by my Lord has always proved sufficient,
When I have yielded to the law of love's demands;
Why should I doubt that he would evermore be present
To make his will my own? I'm in his hands!
Author: Stanley E. Ditmer
The Salvation Army Song Book: Song Number: 732
Thank you for your prayers and support for OzThoughts Internet Ministry.
To unsubscribe send an email (without a message) to :
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Saturday, October 18, 2008
Australian Thoughts at the Weekend 18th and 19th October, 2008.
Australian Thoughts at the Weekend 18th and 19th October, 2008.
[Revised from an ATAW published 3rd October, 2004]
I have met some great Old Timers over the years. It has been great to sit and listen to their yarns of old times. They have not so much gathered many stories but have lived them. The stories they tell the best are the stories that they were personally involved in. These stories live in their memory and as they paint their word pictures and highlight them with their emotions, my imagination has to work overtime to reach back to times and conditions so foreign to my experience.
I lived in a country town in Central New South Wales for a couple of years, and I had opportunity to listen to Old Timers there who had spent a life time in the bush. One of these was a neighbour, who lived with his sister and her husband just across the way from where I lived. I first learnt of his existence when I heard an accordion being played loudly, tunefully and persistently for hours at night. This happened about once a week.
After a few nights, I made my way across to him and introduced myself. I found the accordion was a simple button accordion but it was played with a passion that came from deep within the player. His enthusiasm was catching and the tunes and rhythms soon had my blood pumping as I listened. However, I learnt to value the times when he put down the accordion and began to talk about times past. He had been a bush worker who did what ever was necessary in the way of work to exist. He had learnt music at an early age and was really self taught on his instrument of choice, the button accordion.
He told me Saturday nights were his big night, because that’s when the bush dances were held. They were held in halls, hotels, even wool sheds which in another season would be used in the shearing of thousands of sheep. I asked about the music for the dances and he said often there was a piano, often mouth organs. Sometimes a fiddle. There were those who played a gum leaf. I asked about drums. No he said we didn’t need drums, a couple of musicians in their work boots can knock out a pretty good rhythm on a wooden floor as they play. The real rhythm is in the music he would say.
As I listened to him playing long and loud at night, often a Saturday night, I longed for more stories, but I knew as he sat on the seat outside his home and played the accordion, he was reliving those Saturday dance nights of long ago.
Another Old Timer, got a far away look in his cataract marked eyes as I asked him when did he first come to the bush. He looked back to his earliest memories of the beginning of last century. He was born in the bush. As he said “I grew up helping me family. Things were tough. All of us kids had to.” I can still here him saying “Me mum learnt me to read and write and do me sums. They took me to school once but I didn’t stay at that. I come home for lunch and never bothered going back.” It seems his formal schooling lasted half a day.
“Us kids use to pick up sticks” he said. His father in those days was a fencing contractor. Mum looked after the babies and the very little kids and the other kids picked up sticks. Picking up sticks was clearing all the debris from a bit of land that had just been cleared of trees. Some of the trees were selected for the fence posts or in some cases loaded on a dray to be taken back to the ‘big house’ where the property owner or manager lived. The kids moved the small bits of stick and some of the rocks that were left. The sticks were mostly thrown in a heap to be burnt with the other scrap trunks and branches.
My friend told me how he longed to be a fencer. He loved to watch his dad and his mate digging holes, splitting trees for posts, drilling holes for the wire to pass though. He liked to help running the wire and then watching as they tightened the wire using a horse. He thought his life was made when his dad said to him he could help with the fencing. His dad said he was big enough and old enough to be a man so he should earn his keep with the men.
He told of the new lessons in fencing that taught him that his hands would be blistered and sore. His back, his arms, his legs, in fact his whole body would ache. It was tough work digging holes in the rocky ground. Even when there were no rocks, the ground seemed to be rock hard. The trees which had to be cut, split and drilled to become posts seemed to be made of the hardest timber possible. His hands ached from shovel, saw, axe, adze and auger bit. He decided he did not want to be a fencer, so one day he just got on his horse and never came back.
He told me of different jobs he had. He had been a drover with sheep and cattle, at one time he worked with a camel team. He had managed a property. In the Depression of the 1930’s things got so tough with a wife and a child to support, he even took a job as a fencer. He said in those days he thought a lot about his father and the things he had shown him. When I met this Old Timer, he was working driving his horse drawn Cobb and Co Coach at a large tourist attraction in Central Queensland. He would have been a great Coach driver, if his driving matched his stories of the Australian Bush in days gone by.
There is real skill in making stories come alive. Jesus was a great story teller. He reached out to people and talked about the things they knew with real knowledge and authority. At the end of the Sermon on the Mount Matthew records:
“When Jesus concluded his address, the crowd burst into applause. They had never heard teaching like this. 29It was apparent that he was living everything he was saying--quite a contrast to their religion teachers! This was the best teaching they had ever heard”. (Matthew 7: 28,29. The Message).
[Listen: Chatswood Salvation Army Singing Company :
http://www.salvoaudio.com/audio/music2/mus_3646.mp3
The London Citadel Songsters Canada : http://www.salvoaudio.com/audio/music/mus_2760.mp3
Tell me the stories of Jesus
I love to hear;
Things I would ask him to tell me
If he were here:
Scenes by the wayside,
Tales of the sea,
Stories of Jesus.
Tell them to me.
First let me hear how the children
Stood round his knee;
And I shall fancy his blessing
Resting on me;
Words full of kindness,
Deeds full of grace,
All in the love-light
Of Jesus' face.
Tell me, in accents of wonder,
How rolled the sea,
Tossing the boat in a tempest
On Galilee;
And how the Master,
Ready and kind,
Chided the billows
And hushed the wind.
Into the city I'd follow
The children's band,
Waving a branch of the palm tree
High in my hand;
One of his heralds,
Yes, I would sing
Loudest hosannas:
Jesus is King!
Show me that scene, in the garden,
Of bitter pain;
And of the cross where my Saviour
For me was slain;
Sad ones or bright ones,
So that they be
Stories of Jesus;
Tell them to me.
Author: William Henry Parker (1845-1929)
The Salvation Army Song Book: Song Number: 848
Twilight Of Our Lives
Old age is full of wisdom
That youth can never know
Though eyesight now is failing
Our gait is getting slow.
Old age is like a harvest
That started as a sprout
Now ready for the reaping
Our crop has mellowed out.
Old age is like the autumn
It doesn't make a sound
A time of sweet reflection
As leaves come tumbling down.
Old age is like the sunset
Its color brings the light
As evening shadows gather
It fades into the night.
Old age is like a pirate
Who steals our youth away
He takes the sail and anchor
Our ship begins to sway.
Old age is like a typhoon
The seas may get too ruff
But God doth gently whisper
He’ll say, “we’ve had enough.”
Old age is like a bright light
More brilliant than the sun
We’ll find a lovely rainbow
When life on earth is done.
Old age is like the red grapes
Turned into sparkling wine
Its fruit, aged to perfection
Has ripened on the vine.
Old age is like collateral
Tis money in the bank
Our debts have been forgiven
We have our God to thank.
Old age is like a promise
Our souls will never die
When Jesus comes to claim us
Across the eastern sky.
[ Author/Written By:
Marilyn Ferguson ©2006
ferguson@adams.net
http://www.marilynspoetry.com/
This writing may be used in its entirety, with credits in tact,
for non-profit ministering purposes. ]
Let my mouth be filled with thy praise and with thy honour all the day. Cast me not off in the time of old age; forsake me not when my strength faileth. For mine enemies speak against me; and they that lay wait for my soul take counsel together,
( Psalm 71:8-10 )(KJV).
Thank you for your prayers and support for OzThoughts Internet Ministry.
To unsubscribe send an email (without a message) to :
OzThoughtsInternetMinistry-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com.au
If you invite friends to subscribe they do it by sending an email (without a message) to :
OzThoughtsInternetMinistry-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.au (Tell them to check their junk box for the reply if it does not seem to come).
`````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
You can also receive OzThoughts from the following groups (which you are welcome to join):
SalvationArmy3: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/salvationarmy3/
Poems from the Lord by Ailsa Yates: http://groups.msn.com/PoemsfromtheLordbyAilsaYates
Subscribe: OzThoughtsInternetMinistry-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.au
Unsubscribe: OzThoughtsInternetMinistry-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com.au
OzThoughts
Writer (Only): OzThoughts@yahoo.com.au
[Revised from an ATAW published 3rd October, 2004]
I have met some great Old Timers over the years. It has been great to sit and listen to their yarns of old times. They have not so much gathered many stories but have lived them. The stories they tell the best are the stories that they were personally involved in. These stories live in their memory and as they paint their word pictures and highlight them with their emotions, my imagination has to work overtime to reach back to times and conditions so foreign to my experience.
I lived in a country town in Central New South Wales for a couple of years, and I had opportunity to listen to Old Timers there who had spent a life time in the bush. One of these was a neighbour, who lived with his sister and her husband just across the way from where I lived. I first learnt of his existence when I heard an accordion being played loudly, tunefully and persistently for hours at night. This happened about once a week.
After a few nights, I made my way across to him and introduced myself. I found the accordion was a simple button accordion but it was played with a passion that came from deep within the player. His enthusiasm was catching and the tunes and rhythms soon had my blood pumping as I listened. However, I learnt to value the times when he put down the accordion and began to talk about times past. He had been a bush worker who did what ever was necessary in the way of work to exist. He had learnt music at an early age and was really self taught on his instrument of choice, the button accordion.
He told me Saturday nights were his big night, because that’s when the bush dances were held. They were held in halls, hotels, even wool sheds which in another season would be used in the shearing of thousands of sheep. I asked about the music for the dances and he said often there was a piano, often mouth organs. Sometimes a fiddle. There were those who played a gum leaf. I asked about drums. No he said we didn’t need drums, a couple of musicians in their work boots can knock out a pretty good rhythm on a wooden floor as they play. The real rhythm is in the music he would say.
As I listened to him playing long and loud at night, often a Saturday night, I longed for more stories, but I knew as he sat on the seat outside his home and played the accordion, he was reliving those Saturday dance nights of long ago.
Another Old Timer, got a far away look in his cataract marked eyes as I asked him when did he first come to the bush. He looked back to his earliest memories of the beginning of last century. He was born in the bush. As he said “I grew up helping me family. Things were tough. All of us kids had to.” I can still here him saying “Me mum learnt me to read and write and do me sums. They took me to school once but I didn’t stay at that. I come home for lunch and never bothered going back.” It seems his formal schooling lasted half a day.
“Us kids use to pick up sticks” he said. His father in those days was a fencing contractor. Mum looked after the babies and the very little kids and the other kids picked up sticks. Picking up sticks was clearing all the debris from a bit of land that had just been cleared of trees. Some of the trees were selected for the fence posts or in some cases loaded on a dray to be taken back to the ‘big house’ where the property owner or manager lived. The kids moved the small bits of stick and some of the rocks that were left. The sticks were mostly thrown in a heap to be burnt with the other scrap trunks and branches.
My friend told me how he longed to be a fencer. He loved to watch his dad and his mate digging holes, splitting trees for posts, drilling holes for the wire to pass though. He liked to help running the wire and then watching as they tightened the wire using a horse. He thought his life was made when his dad said to him he could help with the fencing. His dad said he was big enough and old enough to be a man so he should earn his keep with the men.
He told of the new lessons in fencing that taught him that his hands would be blistered and sore. His back, his arms, his legs, in fact his whole body would ache. It was tough work digging holes in the rocky ground. Even when there were no rocks, the ground seemed to be rock hard. The trees which had to be cut, split and drilled to become posts seemed to be made of the hardest timber possible. His hands ached from shovel, saw, axe, adze and auger bit. He decided he did not want to be a fencer, so one day he just got on his horse and never came back.
He told me of different jobs he had. He had been a drover with sheep and cattle, at one time he worked with a camel team. He had managed a property. In the Depression of the 1930’s things got so tough with a wife and a child to support, he even took a job as a fencer. He said in those days he thought a lot about his father and the things he had shown him. When I met this Old Timer, he was working driving his horse drawn Cobb and Co Coach at a large tourist attraction in Central Queensland. He would have been a great Coach driver, if his driving matched his stories of the Australian Bush in days gone by.
There is real skill in making stories come alive. Jesus was a great story teller. He reached out to people and talked about the things they knew with real knowledge and authority. At the end of the Sermon on the Mount Matthew records:
“When Jesus concluded his address, the crowd burst into applause. They had never heard teaching like this. 29It was apparent that he was living everything he was saying--quite a contrast to their religion teachers! This was the best teaching they had ever heard”. (Matthew 7: 28,29. The Message).
[Listen: Chatswood Salvation Army Singing Company :
http://www.salvoaudio.com/audio/music2/mus_3646.mp3
The London Citadel Songsters Canada : http://www.salvoaudio.com/audio/music/mus_2760.mp3
Tell me the stories of Jesus
I love to hear;
Things I would ask him to tell me
If he were here:
Scenes by the wayside,
Tales of the sea,
Stories of Jesus.
Tell them to me.
First let me hear how the children
Stood round his knee;
And I shall fancy his blessing
Resting on me;
Words full of kindness,
Deeds full of grace,
All in the love-light
Of Jesus' face.
Tell me, in accents of wonder,
How rolled the sea,
Tossing the boat in a tempest
On Galilee;
And how the Master,
Ready and kind,
Chided the billows
And hushed the wind.
Into the city I'd follow
The children's band,
Waving a branch of the palm tree
High in my hand;
One of his heralds,
Yes, I would sing
Loudest hosannas:
Jesus is King!
Show me that scene, in the garden,
Of bitter pain;
And of the cross where my Saviour
For me was slain;
Sad ones or bright ones,
So that they be
Stories of Jesus;
Tell them to me.
Author: William Henry Parker (1845-1929)
The Salvation Army Song Book: Song Number: 848
Twilight Of Our Lives
Old age is full of wisdom
That youth can never know
Though eyesight now is failing
Our gait is getting slow.
Old age is like a harvest
That started as a sprout
Now ready for the reaping
Our crop has mellowed out.
Old age is like the autumn
It doesn't make a sound
A time of sweet reflection
As leaves come tumbling down.
Old age is like the sunset
Its color brings the light
As evening shadows gather
It fades into the night.
Old age is like a pirate
Who steals our youth away
He takes the sail and anchor
Our ship begins to sway.
Old age is like a typhoon
The seas may get too ruff
But God doth gently whisper
He’ll say, “we’ve had enough.”
Old age is like a bright light
More brilliant than the sun
We’ll find a lovely rainbow
When life on earth is done.
Old age is like the red grapes
Turned into sparkling wine
Its fruit, aged to perfection
Has ripened on the vine.
Old age is like collateral
Tis money in the bank
Our debts have been forgiven
We have our God to thank.
Old age is like a promise
Our souls will never die
When Jesus comes to claim us
Across the eastern sky.
[ Author/Written By:
Marilyn Ferguson ©2006
ferguson@adams.net
http://www.marilynspoetry.com/
This writing may be used in its entirety, with credits in tact,
for non-profit ministering purposes. ]
Let my mouth be filled with thy praise and with thy honour all the day. Cast me not off in the time of old age; forsake me not when my strength faileth. For mine enemies speak against me; and they that lay wait for my soul take counsel together,
( Psalm 71:8-10 )(KJV).
Thank you for your prayers and support for OzThoughts Internet Ministry.
To unsubscribe send an email (without a message) to :
OzThoughtsInternetMinistry-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com.au
If you invite friends to subscribe they do it by sending an email (without a message) to :
OzThoughtsInternetMinistry-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.au (Tell them to check their junk box for the reply if it does not seem to come).
`````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
You can also receive OzThoughts from the following groups (which you are welcome to join):
SalvationArmy3: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/salvationarmy3/
Poems from the Lord by Ailsa Yates: http://groups.msn.com/PoemsfromtheLordbyAilsaYates
Subscribe: OzThoughtsInternetMinistry-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.au
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OzThoughts
Writer (Only): OzThoughts@yahoo.com.au
Australian Thoughts at the Weekend 18th and 19th October, 2008.
Australian Thoughts at the Weekend 18th and 19th October, 2008.
[Revised from an ATAW published 3rd October, 2004]
I have met some great Old Timers over the years. It has been great to sit and listen to their yarns of old times. They have not so much gathered many stories but have lived them. The stories they tell the best are the stories that they were personally involved in. These stories live in their memory and as they paint their word pictures and highlight them with their emotions, my imagination has to work overtime to reach back to times and conditions so foreign to my experience.
I lived in a country town in Central New South Wales for a couple of years, and I had opportunity to listen to Old Timers there who had spent a life time in the bush. One of these was a neighbour, who lived with his sister and her husband just across the way from where I lived. I first learnt of his existence when I heard an accordion being played loudly, tunefully and persistently for hours at night. This happened about once a week.
After a few nights, I made my way across to him and introduced myself. I found the accordion was a simple button accordion but it was played with a passion that came from deep within the player. His enthusiasm was catching and the tunes and rhythms soon had my blood pumping as I listened. However, I learnt to value the times when he put down the accordion and began to talk about times past. He had been a bush worker who did what ever was necessary in the way of work to exist. He had learnt music at an early age and was really self taught on his instrument of choice, the button accordion.
He told me Saturday nights were his big night, because that’s when the bush dances were held. They were held in halls, hotels, even wool sheds which in another season would be used in the shearing of thousands of sheep. I asked about the music for the dances and he said often there was a piano, often mouth organs. Sometimes a fiddle. There were those who played a gum leaf. I asked about drums. No he said we didn’t need drums, a couple of musicians in their work boots can knock out a pretty good rhythm on a wooden floor as they play. The real rhythm is in the music he would say.
As I listened to him playing long and loud at night, often a Saturday night, I longed for more stories, but I knew as he sat on the seat outside his home and played the accordion, he was reliving those Saturday dance nights of long ago.
Another Old Timer, got a far away look in his cataract marked eyes as I asked him when did he first come to the bush. He looked back to his earliest memories of the beginning of last century. He was born in the bush. As he said “I grew up helping me family. Things were tough. All of us kids had to.” I can still here him saying “Me mum learnt me to read and write and do me sums. They took me to school once but I didn’t stay at that. I come home for lunch and never bothered going back.” It seems his formal schooling lasted half a day.
“Us kids use to pick up sticks” he said. His father in those days was a fencing contractor. Mum looked after the babies and the very little kids and the other kids picked up sticks. Picking up sticks was clearing all the debris from a bit of land that had just been cleared of trees. Some of the trees were selected for the fence posts or in some cases loaded on a dray to be taken back to the ‘big house’ where the property owner or manager lived. The kids moved the small bits of stick and some of the rocks that were left. The sticks were mostly thrown in a heap to be burnt with the other scrap trunks and branches.
My friend told me how he longed to be a fencer. He loved to watch his dad and his mate digging holes, splitting trees for posts, drilling holes for the wire to pass though. He liked to help running the wire and then watching as they tightened the wire using a horse. He thought his life was made when his dad said to him he could help with the fencing. His dad said he was big enough and old enough to be a man so he should earn his keep with the men.
He told of the new lessons in fencing that taught him that his hands would be blistered and sore. His back, his arms, his legs, in fact his whole body would ache. It was tough work digging holes in the rocky ground. Even when there were no rocks, the ground seemed to be rock hard. The trees which had to be cut, split and drilled to become posts seemed to be made of the hardest timber possible. His hands ached from shovel, saw, axe, adze and auger bit. He decided he did not want to be a fencer, so one day he just got on his horse and never came back.
He told me of different jobs he had. He had been a drover with sheep and cattle, at one time he worked with a camel team. He had managed a property. In the Depression of the 1930’s things got so tough with a wife and a child to support, he even took a job as a fencer. He said in those days he thought a lot about his father and the things he had shown him. When I met this Old Timer, he was working driving his horse drawn Cobb and Co Coach at a large tourist attraction in Central Queensland. He would have been a great Coach driver, if his driving matched his stories of the Australian Bush in days gone by.
There is real skill in making stories come alive. Jesus was a great story teller. He reached out to people and talked about the things they knew with real knowledge and authority. At the end of the Sermon on the Mount Matthew records:
“When Jesus concluded his address, the crowd burst into applause. They had never heard teaching like this. 29It was apparent that he was living everything he was saying--quite a contrast to their religion teachers! This was the best teaching they had ever heard”. (Matthew 7: 28,29. The Message).
[Listen: Chatswood Salvation Army Singing Company :
http://www.salvoaudio.com/audio/music2/mus_3646.mp3
The London Citadel Songsters Canada : http://www.salvoaudio.com/audio/music/mus_2760.mp3
Tell me the stories of Jesus
I love to hear;
Things I would ask him to tell me
If he were here:
Scenes by the wayside,
Tales of the sea,
Stories of Jesus.
Tell them to me.
First let me hear how the children
Stood round his knee;
And I shall fancy his blessing
Resting on me;
Words full of kindness,
Deeds full of grace,
All in the love-light
Of Jesus' face.
Tell me, in accents of wonder,
How rolled the sea,
Tossing the boat in a tempest
On Galilee;
And how the Master,
Ready and kind,
Chided the billows
And hushed the wind.
Into the city I'd follow
The children's band,
Waving a branch of the palm tree
High in my hand;
One of his heralds,
Yes, I would sing
Loudest hosannas:
Jesus is King!
Show me that scene, in the garden,
Of bitter pain;
And of the cross where my Saviour
For me was slain;
Sad ones or bright ones,
So that they be
Stories of Jesus;
Tell them to me.
Author: William Henry Parker (1845-1929)
The Salvation Army Song Book: Song Number: 848
Twilight Of Our Lives
Old age is full of wisdom
That youth can never know
Though eyesight now is failing
Our gait is getting slow.
Old age is like a harvest
That started as a sprout
Now ready for the reaping
Our crop has mellowed out.
Old age is like the autumn
It doesn't make a sound
A time of sweet reflection
As leaves come tumbling down.
Old age is like the sunset
Its color brings the light
As evening shadows gather
It fades into the night.
Old age is like a pirate
Who steals our youth away
He takes the sail and anchor
Our ship begins to sway.
Old age is like a typhoon
The seas may get too ruff
But God doth gently whisper
He’ll say, “we’ve had enough.”
Old age is like a bright light
More brilliant than the sun
We’ll find a lovely rainbow
When life on earth is done.
Old age is like the red grapes
Turned into sparkling wine
Its fruit, aged to perfection
Has ripened on the vine.
Old age is like collateral
Tis money in the bank
Our debts have been forgiven
We have our God to thank.
Old age is like a promise
Our souls will never die
When Jesus comes to claim us
Across the eastern sky.
[ Author/Written By:
Marilyn Ferguson ©2006
ferguson@adams.net
http://www.marilynspoetry.com/
This writing may be used in its entirety, with credits in tact,
for non-profit ministering purposes. ]
Let my mouth be filled with thy praise and with thy honour all the day. Cast me not off in the time of old age; forsake me not when my strength faileth. For mine enemies speak against me; and they that lay wait for my soul take counsel together,
( Psalm 71:8-10 )(KJV).
Thank you for your prayers and support for OzThoughts Internet Ministry.
To unsubscribe send an email (without a message) to :
OzThoughtsInternetMinistry-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com.au
If you invite friends to subscribe they do it by sending an email (without a message) to :
OzThoughtsInternetMinistry-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.au (Tell them to check their junk box for the reply if it does not seem to come).
`````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
You can also receive OzThoughts from the following groups (which you are welcome to join):
SalvationArmy3: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/salvationarmy3/
Poems from the Lord by Ailsa Yates: http://groups.msn.com/PoemsfromtheLordbyAilsaYates
Subscribe: OzThoughtsInternetMinistry-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.au
Unsubscribe: OzThoughtsInternetMinistry-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com.au
OzThoughts
Writer (Only): OzThoughts@yahoo.com.au
[Revised from an ATAW published 3rd October, 2004]
I have met some great Old Timers over the years. It has been great to sit and listen to their yarns of old times. They have not so much gathered many stories but have lived them. The stories they tell the best are the stories that they were personally involved in. These stories live in their memory and as they paint their word pictures and highlight them with their emotions, my imagination has to work overtime to reach back to times and conditions so foreign to my experience.
I lived in a country town in Central New South Wales for a couple of years, and I had opportunity to listen to Old Timers there who had spent a life time in the bush. One of these was a neighbour, who lived with his sister and her husband just across the way from where I lived. I first learnt of his existence when I heard an accordion being played loudly, tunefully and persistently for hours at night. This happened about once a week.
After a few nights, I made my way across to him and introduced myself. I found the accordion was a simple button accordion but it was played with a passion that came from deep within the player. His enthusiasm was catching and the tunes and rhythms soon had my blood pumping as I listened. However, I learnt to value the times when he put down the accordion and began to talk about times past. He had been a bush worker who did what ever was necessary in the way of work to exist. He had learnt music at an early age and was really self taught on his instrument of choice, the button accordion.
He told me Saturday nights were his big night, because that’s when the bush dances were held. They were held in halls, hotels, even wool sheds which in another season would be used in the shearing of thousands of sheep. I asked about the music for the dances and he said often there was a piano, often mouth organs. Sometimes a fiddle. There were those who played a gum leaf. I asked about drums. No he said we didn’t need drums, a couple of musicians in their work boots can knock out a pretty good rhythm on a wooden floor as they play. The real rhythm is in the music he would say.
As I listened to him playing long and loud at night, often a Saturday night, I longed for more stories, but I knew as he sat on the seat outside his home and played the accordion, he was reliving those Saturday dance nights of long ago.
Another Old Timer, got a far away look in his cataract marked eyes as I asked him when did he first come to the bush. He looked back to his earliest memories of the beginning of last century. He was born in the bush. As he said “I grew up helping me family. Things were tough. All of us kids had to.” I can still here him saying “Me mum learnt me to read and write and do me sums. They took me to school once but I didn’t stay at that. I come home for lunch and never bothered going back.” It seems his formal schooling lasted half a day.
“Us kids use to pick up sticks” he said. His father in those days was a fencing contractor. Mum looked after the babies and the very little kids and the other kids picked up sticks. Picking up sticks was clearing all the debris from a bit of land that had just been cleared of trees. Some of the trees were selected for the fence posts or in some cases loaded on a dray to be taken back to the ‘big house’ where the property owner or manager lived. The kids moved the small bits of stick and some of the rocks that were left. The sticks were mostly thrown in a heap to be burnt with the other scrap trunks and branches.
My friend told me how he longed to be a fencer. He loved to watch his dad and his mate digging holes, splitting trees for posts, drilling holes for the wire to pass though. He liked to help running the wire and then watching as they tightened the wire using a horse. He thought his life was made when his dad said to him he could help with the fencing. His dad said he was big enough and old enough to be a man so he should earn his keep with the men.
He told of the new lessons in fencing that taught him that his hands would be blistered and sore. His back, his arms, his legs, in fact his whole body would ache. It was tough work digging holes in the rocky ground. Even when there were no rocks, the ground seemed to be rock hard. The trees which had to be cut, split and drilled to become posts seemed to be made of the hardest timber possible. His hands ached from shovel, saw, axe, adze and auger bit. He decided he did not want to be a fencer, so one day he just got on his horse and never came back.
He told me of different jobs he had. He had been a drover with sheep and cattle, at one time he worked with a camel team. He had managed a property. In the Depression of the 1930’s things got so tough with a wife and a child to support, he even took a job as a fencer. He said in those days he thought a lot about his father and the things he had shown him. When I met this Old Timer, he was working driving his horse drawn Cobb and Co Coach at a large tourist attraction in Central Queensland. He would have been a great Coach driver, if his driving matched his stories of the Australian Bush in days gone by.
There is real skill in making stories come alive. Jesus was a great story teller. He reached out to people and talked about the things they knew with real knowledge and authority. At the end of the Sermon on the Mount Matthew records:
“When Jesus concluded his address, the crowd burst into applause. They had never heard teaching like this. 29It was apparent that he was living everything he was saying--quite a contrast to their religion teachers! This was the best teaching they had ever heard”. (Matthew 7: 28,29. The Message).
[Listen: Chatswood Salvation Army Singing Company :
http://www.salvoaudio.com/audio/music2/mus_3646.mp3
The London Citadel Songsters Canada : http://www.salvoaudio.com/audio/music/mus_2760.mp3
Tell me the stories of Jesus
I love to hear;
Things I would ask him to tell me
If he were here:
Scenes by the wayside,
Tales of the sea,
Stories of Jesus.
Tell them to me.
First let me hear how the children
Stood round his knee;
And I shall fancy his blessing
Resting on me;
Words full of kindness,
Deeds full of grace,
All in the love-light
Of Jesus' face.
Tell me, in accents of wonder,
How rolled the sea,
Tossing the boat in a tempest
On Galilee;
And how the Master,
Ready and kind,
Chided the billows
And hushed the wind.
Into the city I'd follow
The children's band,
Waving a branch of the palm tree
High in my hand;
One of his heralds,
Yes, I would sing
Loudest hosannas:
Jesus is King!
Show me that scene, in the garden,
Of bitter pain;
And of the cross where my Saviour
For me was slain;
Sad ones or bright ones,
So that they be
Stories of Jesus;
Tell them to me.
Author: William Henry Parker (1845-1929)
The Salvation Army Song Book: Song Number: 848
Twilight Of Our Lives
Old age is full of wisdom
That youth can never know
Though eyesight now is failing
Our gait is getting slow.
Old age is like a harvest
That started as a sprout
Now ready for the reaping
Our crop has mellowed out.
Old age is like the autumn
It doesn't make a sound
A time of sweet reflection
As leaves come tumbling down.
Old age is like the sunset
Its color brings the light
As evening shadows gather
It fades into the night.
Old age is like a pirate
Who steals our youth away
He takes the sail and anchor
Our ship begins to sway.
Old age is like a typhoon
The seas may get too ruff
But God doth gently whisper
He’ll say, “we’ve had enough.”
Old age is like a bright light
More brilliant than the sun
We’ll find a lovely rainbow
When life on earth is done.
Old age is like the red grapes
Turned into sparkling wine
Its fruit, aged to perfection
Has ripened on the vine.
Old age is like collateral
Tis money in the bank
Our debts have been forgiven
We have our God to thank.
Old age is like a promise
Our souls will never die
When Jesus comes to claim us
Across the eastern sky.
[ Author/Written By:
Marilyn Ferguson ©2006
ferguson@adams.net
http://www.marilynspoetry.com/
This writing may be used in its entirety, with credits in tact,
for non-profit ministering purposes. ]
Let my mouth be filled with thy praise and with thy honour all the day. Cast me not off in the time of old age; forsake me not when my strength faileth. For mine enemies speak against me; and they that lay wait for my soul take counsel together,
( Psalm 71:8-10 )(KJV).
Thank you for your prayers and support for OzThoughts Internet Ministry.
To unsubscribe send an email (without a message) to :
OzThoughtsInternetMinistry-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com.au
If you invite friends to subscribe they do it by sending an email (without a message) to :
OzThoughtsInternetMinistry-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.au (Tell them to check their junk box for the reply if it does not seem to come).
`````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
You can also receive OzThoughts from the following groups (which you are welcome to join):
SalvationArmy3: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/salvationarmy3/
Poems from the Lord by Ailsa Yates: http://groups.msn.com/PoemsfromtheLordbyAilsaYates
Subscribe: OzThoughtsInternetMinistry-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.au
Unsubscribe: OzThoughtsInternetMinistry-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com.au
OzThoughts
Writer (Only): OzThoughts@yahoo.com.au
Thursday, October 16, 2008
OzThoughts Friday 17th October, 2008
OzThoughts Friday 17th October, 2008
For about a year I drove a taxi. Friday night was chaos. As the offices closed in the city, the roads were blocked with traffic. People wanted to get home. They wanted to get to the airport. They wanted to be with family and friends. Any place they wanted to be seemed to be behind the line of cars, buses and trucks ahead. Meanwhile the meter ticked over.
Later in the night it was party time. People were going to their mate’s place. Others were going out for dinner, to their clubs, to a movie and to any other place where people gathered. Friday is very much people day. Friday night is time for friendship and sharing activities with friends and often strangers.
Later in the night, as I drove people home many would tell of a good night out. Others asked me why they bothered to go out, they had not found love or even friendship. Some I took home in such condition that they often didn’t know where they lived and had little idea of where they had been.
I often reflected on how different my life was through God’s grace. Friday is traditionally a “people” day. Sunday however was and is the highlight of my week. It is the day of joy and fellowship as I meet with god’s people in His house on His day.
On Friday, today, I enjoy the company of friends in the workplace, and like them I look forward to the weekend. There are many opportunities for social and other activities during the weekend but Sunday is the highlight. Friends are important. How much more important is it to worship God and spend time in fellowship with Him.
PRAYER:
Heavenly Father, thank you for today and the joy of family and friends around me. Father bless my friends whom I contact through email and on the internet. Thank you for their encouragement and prayers. May we all be prepared in hearts and minds to come before you on your day with love and joy. Amen
[Listen: http://www.salvoaudio.com/audio/music2/mus_3614.mp3
Fill thou my life, O Lord my God,
In every part with praise,
That my whole being may proclaim
Thy being and thy ways.
Not for the lip of praise alone,
Nor e'en the praising heart
I ask, but for a life made up
Of praise in every part!
Praise in the common words I speak,
Life's common looks and tones,
In fellowship at hearth and board
With my beloved ones;
Not in the temple crowd alone
Where holy voices chime,
But in the silent paths of earth,
The quiet rooms of time.
Fill every part of me with praise;
Let all my being speak
Of thee and of thy love, O Lord,
Poor though I be, and weak.
So shalt thou, Lord, from me, e'en me,
Receive the glory due;
And so shall I begin on earth
The song forever new.
So shall each fear, each fret, each care
Be turned into a song,
And every winding of the way
The echo shall prolong;
So shall no part of day or night
From sacredness be free;
But all my life, in every step,
Be fellowship with thee.
Author: Horatius Bonar (1808-89), alt
The Salvation Army Song Book: Song Number: 7
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Romans 12 (The Message)
9Love from the center of who you are; don't fake it. Run for dear life from evil; hold on for dear life to good.
10Be good friends who love deeply; practice playing second fiddle.
11Don't burn out; keep yourselves fueled and aflame. Be alert servants of the Master, 12cheerfully expectant. Don't quit in hard times; pray all the harder.
13Help needy Christians; be inventive in hospitality.
14Bless your enemies; no cursing under your breath.
15Laugh with your happy friends when they're happy; share tears when they're down. 16Get along with each other; don't be stuck-up. Make friends with nobodies; don't be the great somebody.
`````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
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For about a year I drove a taxi. Friday night was chaos. As the offices closed in the city, the roads were blocked with traffic. People wanted to get home. They wanted to get to the airport. They wanted to be with family and friends. Any place they wanted to be seemed to be behind the line of cars, buses and trucks ahead. Meanwhile the meter ticked over.
Later in the night it was party time. People were going to their mate’s place. Others were going out for dinner, to their clubs, to a movie and to any other place where people gathered. Friday is very much people day. Friday night is time for friendship and sharing activities with friends and often strangers.
Later in the night, as I drove people home many would tell of a good night out. Others asked me why they bothered to go out, they had not found love or even friendship. Some I took home in such condition that they often didn’t know where they lived and had little idea of where they had been.
I often reflected on how different my life was through God’s grace. Friday is traditionally a “people” day. Sunday however was and is the highlight of my week. It is the day of joy and fellowship as I meet with god’s people in His house on His day.
On Friday, today, I enjoy the company of friends in the workplace, and like them I look forward to the weekend. There are many opportunities for social and other activities during the weekend but Sunday is the highlight. Friends are important. How much more important is it to worship God and spend time in fellowship with Him.
PRAYER:
Heavenly Father, thank you for today and the joy of family and friends around me. Father bless my friends whom I contact through email and on the internet. Thank you for their encouragement and prayers. May we all be prepared in hearts and minds to come before you on your day with love and joy. Amen
[Listen: http://www.salvoaudio.com/audio/music2/mus_3614.mp3
Fill thou my life, O Lord my God,
In every part with praise,
That my whole being may proclaim
Thy being and thy ways.
Not for the lip of praise alone,
Nor e'en the praising heart
I ask, but for a life made up
Of praise in every part!
Praise in the common words I speak,
Life's common looks and tones,
In fellowship at hearth and board
With my beloved ones;
Not in the temple crowd alone
Where holy voices chime,
But in the silent paths of earth,
The quiet rooms of time.
Fill every part of me with praise;
Let all my being speak
Of thee and of thy love, O Lord,
Poor though I be, and weak.
So shalt thou, Lord, from me, e'en me,
Receive the glory due;
And so shall I begin on earth
The song forever new.
So shall each fear, each fret, each care
Be turned into a song,
And every winding of the way
The echo shall prolong;
So shall no part of day or night
From sacredness be free;
But all my life, in every step,
Be fellowship with thee.
Author: Horatius Bonar (1808-89), alt
The Salvation Army Song Book: Song Number: 7
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Romans 12 (The Message)
9Love from the center of who you are; don't fake it. Run for dear life from evil; hold on for dear life to good.
10Be good friends who love deeply; practice playing second fiddle.
11Don't burn out; keep yourselves fueled and aflame. Be alert servants of the Master, 12cheerfully expectant. Don't quit in hard times; pray all the harder.
13Help needy Christians; be inventive in hospitality.
14Bless your enemies; no cursing under your breath.
15Laugh with your happy friends when they're happy; share tears when they're down. 16Get along with each other; don't be stuck-up. Make friends with nobodies; don't be the great somebody.
`````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
Thank you for your prayers and support for OzThoughts Internet Ministry.
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Wednesday, October 15, 2008
OzThoughts Thursday 16th October 2008.
OzThoughts Thursday 16th October 2008.
I have been thinking again about the verse: “With God… all things are possible. Mark 10:27”
God can do all things. We can’t! I used to be an athlete. People now laugh at that thought when they look at me. We soon learn our limitations. Like many people I take medication to increase the possibilities of what I can do. No not so I can perform like an athlete but so I can just live a normal life.
I find an interesting verse in Romans chapter 6.1 where Paul poses the question:
“What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?”
(NIV)
“So what do we do? Keep on sinning so God can keep on forgiving?
(The Message)
Paul answers the question in the next verses:
2By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? (NIV)
2I should hope not! If we've left the country where sin is sovereign, how can we still live in our old house there? 3Or didn't you realize we packed up and left there for good? (The Message)
God grace is sufficient but we don’t have to keep proving it by sinning and seeking forgiveness. God can help us to live without sinning. We are, as Paul says, dead to sin.
PRAYER:
Heavenly Father, I am glad you can do all things and that your grace, your love for me is sufficient for today and everyday. I pray that today I will know that grace and love in a special way as I interact with others.
I pray, too, for friends. Some of them are in hospital, others are suffering grief because of the loss of a loved one. I pray for them all that your love will surround them and comfort them. Amen.
[Listen: International Staf fBand: Wonderful Healer (Dean Goffin):
http://www.salvoaudio.com/audio/music/mus_1095.mp3
Lord, here today my great need I am feeling;
Wilt thou not visit my soul once again?
I long to feel thy sweet touch and its healing;
Wonderful Healer, touch me again.
Chorus
Touch me again, touch me again,
Wonderful Healer, touch me again.
Often I've pressed through the throng for the blessing
Which, through my doubting, I've failed to obtain;
Here once again to thy feet I am pressing;
Wonderful Healer, touch me again.
Only in thee can I find liberation,
Cleansing and freedom from sin's hidden stain;
Only in thee can I find full salvation,
Wonderful Healer, touch me again.
Author: William Henry Woulds (1874-1940)
The Salvation Army Song Number: 610
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I have been thinking again about the verse: “With God… all things are possible. Mark 10:27”
God can do all things. We can’t! I used to be an athlete. People now laugh at that thought when they look at me. We soon learn our limitations. Like many people I take medication to increase the possibilities of what I can do. No not so I can perform like an athlete but so I can just live a normal life.
I find an interesting verse in Romans chapter 6.1 where Paul poses the question:
“What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?”
(NIV)
“So what do we do? Keep on sinning so God can keep on forgiving?
(The Message)
Paul answers the question in the next verses:
2By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? (NIV)
2I should hope not! If we've left the country where sin is sovereign, how can we still live in our old house there? 3Or didn't you realize we packed up and left there for good? (The Message)
God grace is sufficient but we don’t have to keep proving it by sinning and seeking forgiveness. God can help us to live without sinning. We are, as Paul says, dead to sin.
PRAYER:
Heavenly Father, I am glad you can do all things and that your grace, your love for me is sufficient for today and everyday. I pray that today I will know that grace and love in a special way as I interact with others.
I pray, too, for friends. Some of them are in hospital, others are suffering grief because of the loss of a loved one. I pray for them all that your love will surround them and comfort them. Amen.
[Listen: International Staf fBand: Wonderful Healer (Dean Goffin):
http://www.salvoaudio.com/audio/music/mus_1095.mp3
Lord, here today my great need I am feeling;
Wilt thou not visit my soul once again?
I long to feel thy sweet touch and its healing;
Wonderful Healer, touch me again.
Chorus
Touch me again, touch me again,
Wonderful Healer, touch me again.
Often I've pressed through the throng for the blessing
Which, through my doubting, I've failed to obtain;
Here once again to thy feet I am pressing;
Wonderful Healer, touch me again.
Only in thee can I find liberation,
Cleansing and freedom from sin's hidden stain;
Only in thee can I find full salvation,
Wonderful Healer, touch me again.
Author: William Henry Woulds (1874-1940)
The Salvation Army Song Number: 610
Thank you for your prayers and support for OzThoughts Internet Ministry.
To unsubscribe send an email (without a message) to :
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Tuesday, October 14, 2008
OzThoughts Wednesday. 15th October 2008.
OzThoughts Wednesday. 15th October 2008.
In various ways people say we should know ourselves. There are all types of questionaries, assessments, and methods of understanding our thoughts, our motivations. Many have theories which claim to show what we are is a product of what we have been and what we will become is directed by these things.
Others will put themselves to tests of endurance, and undertake physically and mentally demanding courses. It may be a contest against others or against oneself. At the end of it will come a declaration that “I learnt al lot about myself during that time”
Paul was a tentmaker not a psychologist. He was a Rabbi not a psychiatrist. He was a Pastor not a Guru. Whatever he was Paul says it was all because of God. In the same way he says we must look at ourselves by knowing God (We are made in his image) and through a knowledge of what God does for us. As Christians we can parade titles and badges but we are only what God allows us to be and what God makes us.
Prayer:
Heavenly Father, help me to know you and in that way to know myself. Help me to look to your Spirit within me that I may become what you want me to be. Help me today as I relate to others. Amen.
Meditation:
Romans 12 (The Message)
The only accurate way to understand ourselves is by what God is and by what he does for us, not by what we are and what we do for him.
4 In this way we are like the various parts of a human body. Each part gets its meaning from the body as a whole, not the other way around.
5 The body we're talking about is Christ's body of chosen people. Each of us finds our meaning and function as a part of his body. But as a chopped-off finger or cut-off toe we wouldn't amount to much, would we? So since we find ourselves fashioned into all these excellently formed and marvellously functioning parts in Christ's body,
6 let's just go ahead and be what we were made to be, without enviously or pridefully comparing ourselves with each other, or trying to be something we aren't.
Make me a captive, Lord,
And then I shall be free;
Force me to render up my sword,
And I shall conqueror be.
I sink in life's alarms
When by myself I stand;
Imprison me within thine arms
And strong shall be my hand.
My heart is weak and poor
Until it master find;
It has no spring of action sure,
It varies with the wind.
It cannot freely move
Till thou hast wrought its chain;
Enslave it with thy matchless love
And deathless it shall reign.
My will is not my own
Till thou hast made it thine;
If it would reach a monarch's throne
It must its crown resign;
It only stands unbent
Amid the clashing strife,
When on thy bosom it has leant
And found in thee its life.
Author: George Matheson (1842-1906)
The Salvation Army Song Book: Song Number: 508
(Note that the reference to “wind” in verse 2 is not the strong breeze that blows but the winding of a clock. It is the imagery of a cheap clock where the fast or slow time happens at various stages of the “wind”. Also “spring of action sure” and “wrought its chain” refer to the imagery of a clock like a grandfather clock that is wound by a chain with weights on the end. “Wrought” is an archaic past tense of the word “work”. We know it from “wrought iron” which is iron worked by a blacksmith, etc.).
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In various ways people say we should know ourselves. There are all types of questionaries, assessments, and methods of understanding our thoughts, our motivations. Many have theories which claim to show what we are is a product of what we have been and what we will become is directed by these things.
Others will put themselves to tests of endurance, and undertake physically and mentally demanding courses. It may be a contest against others or against oneself. At the end of it will come a declaration that “I learnt al lot about myself during that time”
Paul was a tentmaker not a psychologist. He was a Rabbi not a psychiatrist. He was a Pastor not a Guru. Whatever he was Paul says it was all because of God. In the same way he says we must look at ourselves by knowing God (We are made in his image) and through a knowledge of what God does for us. As Christians we can parade titles and badges but we are only what God allows us to be and what God makes us.
Prayer:
Heavenly Father, help me to know you and in that way to know myself. Help me to look to your Spirit within me that I may become what you want me to be. Help me today as I relate to others. Amen.
Meditation:
Romans 12 (The Message)
The only accurate way to understand ourselves is by what God is and by what he does for us, not by what we are and what we do for him.
4 In this way we are like the various parts of a human body. Each part gets its meaning from the body as a whole, not the other way around.
5 The body we're talking about is Christ's body of chosen people. Each of us finds our meaning and function as a part of his body. But as a chopped-off finger or cut-off toe we wouldn't amount to much, would we? So since we find ourselves fashioned into all these excellently formed and marvellously functioning parts in Christ's body,
6 let's just go ahead and be what we were made to be, without enviously or pridefully comparing ourselves with each other, or trying to be something we aren't.
Make me a captive, Lord,
And then I shall be free;
Force me to render up my sword,
And I shall conqueror be.
I sink in life's alarms
When by myself I stand;
Imprison me within thine arms
And strong shall be my hand.
My heart is weak and poor
Until it master find;
It has no spring of action sure,
It varies with the wind.
It cannot freely move
Till thou hast wrought its chain;
Enslave it with thy matchless love
And deathless it shall reign.
My will is not my own
Till thou hast made it thine;
If it would reach a monarch's throne
It must its crown resign;
It only stands unbent
Amid the clashing strife,
When on thy bosom it has leant
And found in thee its life.
Author: George Matheson (1842-1906)
The Salvation Army Song Book: Song Number: 508
(Note that the reference to “wind” in verse 2 is not the strong breeze that blows but the winding of a clock. It is the imagery of a cheap clock where the fast or slow time happens at various stages of the “wind”. Also “spring of action sure” and “wrought its chain” refer to the imagery of a clock like a grandfather clock that is wound by a chain with weights on the end. “Wrought” is an archaic past tense of the word “work”. We know it from “wrought iron” which is iron worked by a blacksmith, etc.).
Thank you for your prayers and support for OzThoughts Internet Ministry.
To unsubscribe send an email (without a message) to :
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OzThoughtsInternetMinistry-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.au (Tell them to check their junk box for the reply if it does not seem to come).
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Monday, October 13, 2008
OzThoughts Tuesday 14th October 2008.
OzThoughts Tuesday 14th October 2008.
A week or so ago, I commented on one of the two texts recently replaced after the complete interior repainting of the Temple. That text is: “With God… all things are possible. Mark 10:27” The other text that confronts us as we sit in worship is:
Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise. Psalm 100:4.
These two texts act as a challenge to us to come to worship full of praise for God. That’s included in the “Enter” bit. There is also a reminder here that it is “His” place.
I remember speaking to the Minister of a country church situated in a picturesque small town. In lots of places it would probably be considered a village but we don’t use that term a lot. I remarked on the simple classic style of the timber church with its high spire with a cross on top. I said simply it is a lovely church and was a lovely sight as I came down the hill into the town. He told me it was built by a family many years ago and now the extended family considered it “their” church. He said he felt it would be good for all if they did as their forebears who built the church did and handed it over to God and recognised it as God’s House of Worship.
PRAYER:
Heavenly Father, I thank you for your House of prayer and worship. Help me to come into your house with thanksgiving and praise. May I come knowing not only is it your house but may I come expecting to find joy and yet challenge too, as I engage in praise and thanksgiving. I pray today, although I am not in your House, that I may constantly be before you in praise and thanksgiving, waiting on you. Amen.
Isaiah 56 (The Message)
1 GOD's Message:
"Guard my common good:
Do what's right and do it in the right way,
For salvation is just around the corner,
my setting-things-right is about to go into action.
2 How blessed are you who enter into these things,
you men and women who embrace them,
Who keep Sabbath and don't defile it,
who watch your step and don't do anything evil!
3 Make sure no outsider who now follows GOD
ever has occasion to say, "GOD put me in second-class.
I don't really belong.'
And make sure no physically mutilated person
is ever made to think, "I'm damaged goods.
I don't really belong.'"
4 For GOD says:
"To the mutilated who keep my Sabbaths [This refers to eunuchs – OzThoughts]
and choose what delights me
and keep a firm grip on my covenant,
5 I'll provide them an honoured place
in my family and within my city,
even more honoured than that of sons and daughters.
I'll confer permanent honours on them
that will never be revoked.
6 "And as for the outsiders who now follow me,
working for me, loving my name,
and wanting to be my servants--
All who keep Sabbath and don't defile it,
holding fast to my covenant—
7 I'll bring them to my holy mountain
and give them joy in my house of prayer.
They'll be welcome to worship the same as the "insiders,'
to bring burnt offerings and sacrifices to my altar.
Oh yes, my house of worship
will be known as a house of prayer for all people."
[Listen: Portsmouth Citadel Songster Brigade http://www.salvoaudio.com/audio/music/mus_2369.mp3 ]
In the secret of thy presence,
Where the pure in heart may dwell,
Are the springs of sacred service
And a power that none can tell.
There my love must bring its offering,
There my heart must yield its praise,
And the Lord will come, revealing
All the secrets of his ways.
Chorus
In the secret of thy presence,
In the hiding of thy power,
Let me love thee, let me serve thee,
Every consecrated hour.
More than all my lips may utter,
More than all I do or bring,
Is the depth of my devotion
To my Saviour, Lord and King.
Nothing less will keep me tender;
Nothing less will keep me true;
Nothing less will keep the fragrance
And the bloom on all I do!
Blessed Lord, to see thee truly,
Then to tell as I have seen,
This shall rule my life supremely,
This shall be the sacred gleam.
Sealed again is all the sealing,
Pledged again my willing heart,
First to know thee, then to serve thee,
Then to see thee as thou art.
Author: Albert Orsborn (1886-1967)
The Salvation Army Song Book: Song Number: 591 ……………………………………………….
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Poems from the Lord by Ailsa Yates: http://groups.msn.com/PoemsfromtheLordbyAilsaYates
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A week or so ago, I commented on one of the two texts recently replaced after the complete interior repainting of the Temple. That text is: “With God… all things are possible. Mark 10:27” The other text that confronts us as we sit in worship is:
Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise. Psalm 100:4.
These two texts act as a challenge to us to come to worship full of praise for God. That’s included in the “Enter” bit. There is also a reminder here that it is “His” place.
I remember speaking to the Minister of a country church situated in a picturesque small town. In lots of places it would probably be considered a village but we don’t use that term a lot. I remarked on the simple classic style of the timber church with its high spire with a cross on top. I said simply it is a lovely church and was a lovely sight as I came down the hill into the town. He told me it was built by a family many years ago and now the extended family considered it “their” church. He said he felt it would be good for all if they did as their forebears who built the church did and handed it over to God and recognised it as God’s House of Worship.
PRAYER:
Heavenly Father, I thank you for your House of prayer and worship. Help me to come into your house with thanksgiving and praise. May I come knowing not only is it your house but may I come expecting to find joy and yet challenge too, as I engage in praise and thanksgiving. I pray today, although I am not in your House, that I may constantly be before you in praise and thanksgiving, waiting on you. Amen.
Isaiah 56 (The Message)
1 GOD's Message:
"Guard my common good:
Do what's right and do it in the right way,
For salvation is just around the corner,
my setting-things-right is about to go into action.
2 How blessed are you who enter into these things,
you men and women who embrace them,
Who keep Sabbath and don't defile it,
who watch your step and don't do anything evil!
3 Make sure no outsider who now follows GOD
ever has occasion to say, "GOD put me in second-class.
I don't really belong.'
And make sure no physically mutilated person
is ever made to think, "I'm damaged goods.
I don't really belong.'"
4 For GOD says:
"To the mutilated who keep my Sabbaths [This refers to eunuchs – OzThoughts]
and choose what delights me
and keep a firm grip on my covenant,
5 I'll provide them an honoured place
in my family and within my city,
even more honoured than that of sons and daughters.
I'll confer permanent honours on them
that will never be revoked.
6 "And as for the outsiders who now follow me,
working for me, loving my name,
and wanting to be my servants--
All who keep Sabbath and don't defile it,
holding fast to my covenant—
7 I'll bring them to my holy mountain
and give them joy in my house of prayer.
They'll be welcome to worship the same as the "insiders,'
to bring burnt offerings and sacrifices to my altar.
Oh yes, my house of worship
will be known as a house of prayer for all people."
[Listen: Portsmouth Citadel Songster Brigade http://www.salvoaudio.com/audio/music/mus_2369.mp3 ]
In the secret of thy presence,
Where the pure in heart may dwell,
Are the springs of sacred service
And a power that none can tell.
There my love must bring its offering,
There my heart must yield its praise,
And the Lord will come, revealing
All the secrets of his ways.
Chorus
In the secret of thy presence,
In the hiding of thy power,
Let me love thee, let me serve thee,
Every consecrated hour.
More than all my lips may utter,
More than all I do or bring,
Is the depth of my devotion
To my Saviour, Lord and King.
Nothing less will keep me tender;
Nothing less will keep me true;
Nothing less will keep the fragrance
And the bloom on all I do!
Blessed Lord, to see thee truly,
Then to tell as I have seen,
This shall rule my life supremely,
This shall be the sacred gleam.
Sealed again is all the sealing,
Pledged again my willing heart,
First to know thee, then to serve thee,
Then to see thee as thou art.
Author: Albert Orsborn (1886-1967)
The Salvation Army Song Book: Song Number: 591 ……………………………………………….
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