Lockdown (Page 6)

The Jaguar Man. My many experiences hitchhiking in the 1970s incorporate the array of stories that mothers everywhere use to dissuade their children from asking strangers for rides. My 650 Yamaha was giving me troubles while stationed for work in Tamaranui in the summer of 1978. So, I put my thumb out and was transported on those occasions to my destination by various drivers, ranging from the best of humanity, to the down-right bad. One day I was standing beside…

Family Resemblance. I worked with my brother, Ray, off and on for 4 years between 1978 and 1981 and no one ever seem to have picked us as being bothers. Some, surprised to find out, still couldn’t see a resemblance. 40 years later, things have changed. As I watch myself preach on Facebook Live during this Lock-Down, I can see that I not only bear the family resemblance, but I have words and gestures that are unmistakably his; I have…

Cover to cover. I was in New Plymouth on a Campaign for Christ (door-to-door evangelism) in the winter of 1984. One evening Ian Terry and I went to the house of a nice lady who had asked us to return to talk further about setting up a Bible study. We were invited into the home, but not by her. Instead we were greeted by her husband. From the start he sounded like a husband that had been told to be…

It’s a Dog’s life! Oscar only wants to know two things: what are you eating and where are you going? His appetite is insatiable and his energy boundless. So, he is a typical three year old, all would agree. Green vegetables he will not abide, but nothing else will he reject. He will go where you go, and as he goes, he will do what he does best: learn by discovery. You might think that Oscar will be pleased one…

Was Jesus alone in the Garden?Jesus may as well have been alone in the Garden of Gethsemane, for all the practical use his disciples were to him. Whatever their reasons for falling asleep, Jesus didn’t excuse them. He had spelled out, on more than one occasion, what his end would be—“He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised up on the third day” (Mt.16:21; 20:18).…

YHWH’s command was enough! I have no idea what was going through the mind of Abraham as he was leading his son to slaughter. YHWH’s command was enough! He wasn’t about to question the wisdom of his God. With Job he would simply exclaim, “the LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD” (Job 1:21). I, for one, do not want to ever be tested like this. My fear of failure is as…

The Necessaries of LifeAdmit it. Doomsday Preppers are having their day in the sun. While the hoi polloi were stacking their trolleys high in supermarket raids, Preppers Sam and Mable Smith were sitting on a basement full of…well, everything! No one wants to undergo any form of deprivation. It’s natural to want to be surrounded by the necessaries of life, and even more so to make sure you are not going to run out. Jesus disciples went into town to…

Time—It’s telling you a story. Time marches on! No man can stay its steps or slow its pace. This Lock-Down, too, is caught up in its momentum. Time’s path is a series of steppingstones. Each stone being a moment of time – one moment being laid down in front of the last into eternity. It’s the wise that add goodness to each moment. Caleb knew that value. He boasted that he was as strong at 85 as he had been…

Music is powerful. If your heart is breaking by the end of Tracy Chapman’s song, ‘Fast car,’ and all your emotions driven along by Queens’, ‘Bohemian Rhapsody,’ and your spirits lifted by Neil Dimond’s, ‘Sweet Caroline,’ then I am speaking to you. Our worship music is designed to drive these same emotions…and more. In fact, God has designed even greater things – music for the soul that longs to walk with the Lord. Our ‘Psalms, hymns and spiritual songs’ issue…

Ecclesiastes is raw. Its issues are cut to the bone and exposed to the harsh light of ‘Life under the Sun.’ Daily routines and schemes are subjected to the elements of time, chance, and cause and effect. I have always felt better to preach that this was Solomon’s last will and testament. A legacy of plain speaking to future generations who might foolishly follow his example into the futility of excess. All the things that men long for were on-tap…