Just last week I was privileged to bring a short Easter message to my local Rotary Club. I made it very simple with the question, 'What does Easter mean to you? Are you in one of three groups?...
Holidaymaker? (Easter has no spiritual significance)
Chocy egg eater? (Recent news flash: Chocolate is actually good for you!)
Spiritually inclined? (Easter is the most important date on the church calender)
Or hopefully all three?
As for me, Easter speaks of...
Sacrifice (our Saviour Jesus Christ’s Calvary sacrifice)
Forgiveness (God's forgiveness of our rebellion and independence)
Relationship (getting back into meaningful friendship with our creator through Jesus).
I then gave a challenge...
Is there someone you can bless and help this Easter by sacrificing something for him or her (or them for that matter)?
Is there someone you need to forgive this Easter and stop carrying bitterness? (Bitterness, retained anger and unforgiveness are all very dangerous and can lead to sickness and a wasted life).
Is there someone you can start developing a meaningful relationship this Easter over, say, even just a cuppa? (Relationship with God? Try prayer…the word just means to talk. It’s that simple).
Food for thought and words of encouragement!
Have a good rest, have a good week
About Us
- Robert and Maureen McQuillan - Life Focus Ministries
- Inspirational speakers Drs Robert and Maureen McQuillan are regular warmly welcomed guest speakers at churches as well as at business gatherings and leadership sessions. Many ministers, especially those younger, inexperienced or struggling,appreciate their ‘pastor’s heart’ to mentor. Willing to travel extensively, blessing, challenging and inspiring churches, pastors and potential leaders, they have a reputation of (if available of course) 'being willing to come along at the drop of a hat.' Their special retreats are 'Moving in the Spirit' and 'Marriage - The Real CSI!'
Sunday, March 27, 2005
Wednesday, March 16, 2005
Circumstances
Sometimes calamities hit us like a storm and we just cannot put a finger on the reason.
Life is life and unfortunately things do go wrong. Accidents happen, people get sick. Evil occurs, people get hurt. A wrong word spoken in anger, a nasty reaction, a hasty decision and string of unsatisfactory events follow.
Usually we moan when things go wrong, when circumstances turn contentment and joy into bewilderment and a lack of peace. Come on! We do! Admit it! Often it’s ‘Why did this happen to be me?’
And in the main we find someone or something to blame!
But…what if the problem is our fault and we’re not recognising it as such? As often as not people blame God. (Funny how we have this reaction of always wanting to blame someone else!)
But what if God is real and what if he has allowed (note: allowed, not caused) the incident - perhaps something to go amiss - just to get our attention because we haven’t been listening to him or flowing his way (the right way)? Maybe we’ve strayed into unhealthy attitudes, negative thinking and relying on our intellect alone instead of his guidance. Maybe we’re allowing ourselves to separate from friendship with our friends and from seeking a meaningful daily relationship with God and worshipping him.
Perhaps too, we’ve been stepping out of line and drifting from biblical principles of right living, wholesome speech and living as Jesus Christ would. Huh?
Doesn’t mean God doesn’t care or has stopped loving us…when things go wrong and his blessings aren’t quite flowing as they use to. But, like any good parent, he wants us to get back on track.
Consequently, sometimes when things go amiss it’s God using the circumstances to give us a smack on the rump! For, because he loves us, he delights in us putting it right and getting back on track and starting afresh as it were.
God always has an eye on our future and wants to see us living a useful, productive life. Yes, we miss it at times – perhaps many times – but God will give further opportunities.
Jesus emphasised this parental principle in Luke 13: 6-9 where the vineyard carer persuades the boss to give yet another chance to a tree that had been playing up and was out of line with its owner’s wishes.
Those listening to Jesus would have been aware of the eastern ‘recipe’ for curing barren trees. The disappointed owner takes a hatchet and goes with a friend to threaten the tree with being cut down. The friend strongly restrains the owner from doing so – ‘Have patience with it.’ The owner reluctantly agrees but gives the useless tree’s stem three sharp thumps with the back of the axe ‘just to remind it that it’d better shape up’ by the following year!
Could it be that when we get a sudden jolt to the system, it’s God giving us a swift smack on the rear to startle us into getting our priorities right? And all because he cares about our life, happiness and future.
Maybe…just maybe!
Consequently, maybe instead of moaning or blaming someone else we should be asking, ‘What’s really going on here? What’s’ the bigger picture? What is God trying to tell or teach me?’
If what went wrong happened because we were out of line, then we need to repent and ask God to help us afresh. He is the God of fresh starts! And we’re more valuable to him than any tree. We Christians have a secret inner advantage over other people - we have God’s Holy Spirit within to help, restore and get us going again! The other good news is that when we repent and put him first, God can then work good out of our mistakes and calamities.
Life is life and unfortunately things do go wrong. Accidents happen, people get sick. Evil occurs, people get hurt. A wrong word spoken in anger, a nasty reaction, a hasty decision and string of unsatisfactory events follow.
Usually we moan when things go wrong, when circumstances turn contentment and joy into bewilderment and a lack of peace. Come on! We do! Admit it! Often it’s ‘Why did this happen to be me?’
And in the main we find someone or something to blame!
But…what if the problem is our fault and we’re not recognising it as such? As often as not people blame God. (Funny how we have this reaction of always wanting to blame someone else!)
But what if God is real and what if he has allowed (note: allowed, not caused) the incident - perhaps something to go amiss - just to get our attention because we haven’t been listening to him or flowing his way (the right way)? Maybe we’ve strayed into unhealthy attitudes, negative thinking and relying on our intellect alone instead of his guidance. Maybe we’re allowing ourselves to separate from friendship with our friends and from seeking a meaningful daily relationship with God and worshipping him.
Perhaps too, we’ve been stepping out of line and drifting from biblical principles of right living, wholesome speech and living as Jesus Christ would. Huh?
Doesn’t mean God doesn’t care or has stopped loving us…when things go wrong and his blessings aren’t quite flowing as they use to. But, like any good parent, he wants us to get back on track.
Consequently, sometimes when things go amiss it’s God using the circumstances to give us a smack on the rump! For, because he loves us, he delights in us putting it right and getting back on track and starting afresh as it were.
God always has an eye on our future and wants to see us living a useful, productive life. Yes, we miss it at times – perhaps many times – but God will give further opportunities.
Jesus emphasised this parental principle in Luke 13: 6-9 where the vineyard carer persuades the boss to give yet another chance to a tree that had been playing up and was out of line with its owner’s wishes.
Those listening to Jesus would have been aware of the eastern ‘recipe’ for curing barren trees. The disappointed owner takes a hatchet and goes with a friend to threaten the tree with being cut down. The friend strongly restrains the owner from doing so – ‘Have patience with it.’ The owner reluctantly agrees but gives the useless tree’s stem three sharp thumps with the back of the axe ‘just to remind it that it’d better shape up’ by the following year!
Could it be that when we get a sudden jolt to the system, it’s God giving us a swift smack on the rear to startle us into getting our priorities right? And all because he cares about our life, happiness and future.
Maybe…just maybe!
Consequently, maybe instead of moaning or blaming someone else we should be asking, ‘What’s really going on here? What’s’ the bigger picture? What is God trying to tell or teach me?’
If what went wrong happened because we were out of line, then we need to repent and ask God to help us afresh. He is the God of fresh starts! And we’re more valuable to him than any tree. We Christians have a secret inner advantage over other people - we have God’s Holy Spirit within to help, restore and get us going again! The other good news is that when we repent and put him first, God can then work good out of our mistakes and calamities.
Never Give Up!
Most people are aware of Sir Winston Churchill’s famous three-word speech to a graduation class…invited to the podium, the great old man solemnly looked over the student body. A long speech, full of wisdom and challenge was expected but instead Churchill simply said, ‘Never give up.’ And then repeated the phrase with emphasis as only he could do, in his unique attention-grabbing tone.
And what profound wisdom and challenge there is in those three words!
How often do we give up, especially just short of victory!
Even in simple things, such as the other day when we were looking for a particular destination. After some minutes driving down a dusty country road we were convinced that we were on the wrong road and turned back. After wasting precious time trying other roads, we had to return to the original one –the right one – and …guess what!…the place we were looking for proved to be just round the next corner from where we had turned!
Again…how many times do we miss out in life because we give up all too soon?
How often do we miss a great opportunity to achieve, to do something new, to strike a bargain, to exercise our talents and giftedness, to help someone in need, to honour our faith, to accomplish a desire or goal, to fulfil a promise, to further our destiny, to…whatever. Probably more than we care to admit.
In Luke 11:9-10, Jesus spoke strongly about not giving up: ‘Ask and you’ll get; Seek and you’ll find; Knock and the door will open.’ Most folk understand that the verb tense he used indicates to go on asking, seeking and knocking. Someone, years ago, blocked a lot of people from fulfilling this direction and achieving in life through wrongly teaching that one should only ask God once for something and that was enough. Sounds spiritual – after all, God isn’t deaf. But we ‘re human and we need to persevere and go on asking, seeking and knocking to see our prayers answered otherwise we can easily give up and miss out. Does a child only ask once for something, especially coming up to a birthday or Christmas? Not likely! Even the most patient child subtly drops reminders.
I, along with millions of others across the world, believe in the reality of a caring God with whom we can have a living relationship.He's fantastic! He has revealed himself as a father – the heavenly Father! He has an incredible father-heart. He just loves us to climb up on his knee (as it were) in our prayer time and knock on the door of his heart and ask away. In his wisdom he may not always grant every request but in time we learn to ask according to his will (This comes about through meditating on his Word – the Bible, and though talking with him – prayer). But he is a generous Father and he loves to favour and bless us. After all, we’re his kids, spiritually born into his family though Christ. So…persevere! God’s timing is always perfect!
Then there’s the life example of Jesus, God’s Son to consider. Despite all the hindrances thrown at him by Satan, jealous religious leaders, misunderstanding listeners and doubtful disciples, he persevered in fulfilling his destiny. He overcame every obstacle to become our Saviour.
Once again, this Easter, Christians will be remembering his sacrifice on Calvary. It was an awful, horrific and torturous thing he went through on our behalf. Memories of Mel Gibson’s The Passion come flooding back. Anyone else would have given up but not Jesus. He suffered - terribly, but he kept on the road to Calvary (Actually, the road to Calvary is more important than any ‘road to Christmas’)!
We live in a very uncertain world…and there’s talk about things getting blacker. But security, peace and a purpose in life can be found in Jesus Christ! The real message of Easter is not bunnies and eggs, but that God so loved the world that he gave his Son, Jesus, to be its Saviour and everyone who accepts him can have eternal life, sins forgiven and peace and the favour of God.
And that spells good news indeed!
Easter is also about not giving up. God didn’t (and doesn’t) give up on us. We should not give up on others, nor should we give up on life!
So …what about that project you started? Don’t give up! Or that dream to find the right life partner?
Don’t give up. Or searching for and applying for that new job? That new car or house?
Whatever!
Never give up!
And what profound wisdom and challenge there is in those three words!
How often do we give up, especially just short of victory!
Even in simple things, such as the other day when we were looking for a particular destination. After some minutes driving down a dusty country road we were convinced that we were on the wrong road and turned back. After wasting precious time trying other roads, we had to return to the original one –the right one – and …guess what!…the place we were looking for proved to be just round the next corner from where we had turned!
Again…how many times do we miss out in life because we give up all too soon?
How often do we miss a great opportunity to achieve, to do something new, to strike a bargain, to exercise our talents and giftedness, to help someone in need, to honour our faith, to accomplish a desire or goal, to fulfil a promise, to further our destiny, to…whatever. Probably more than we care to admit.
In Luke 11:9-10, Jesus spoke strongly about not giving up: ‘Ask and you’ll get; Seek and you’ll find; Knock and the door will open.’ Most folk understand that the verb tense he used indicates to go on asking, seeking and knocking. Someone, years ago, blocked a lot of people from fulfilling this direction and achieving in life through wrongly teaching that one should only ask God once for something and that was enough. Sounds spiritual – after all, God isn’t deaf. But we ‘re human and we need to persevere and go on asking, seeking and knocking to see our prayers answered otherwise we can easily give up and miss out. Does a child only ask once for something, especially coming up to a birthday or Christmas? Not likely! Even the most patient child subtly drops reminders.
I, along with millions of others across the world, believe in the reality of a caring God with whom we can have a living relationship.He's fantastic! He has revealed himself as a father – the heavenly Father! He has an incredible father-heart. He just loves us to climb up on his knee (as it were) in our prayer time and knock on the door of his heart and ask away. In his wisdom he may not always grant every request but in time we learn to ask according to his will (This comes about through meditating on his Word – the Bible, and though talking with him – prayer). But he is a generous Father and he loves to favour and bless us. After all, we’re his kids, spiritually born into his family though Christ. So…persevere! God’s timing is always perfect!
Then there’s the life example of Jesus, God’s Son to consider. Despite all the hindrances thrown at him by Satan, jealous religious leaders, misunderstanding listeners and doubtful disciples, he persevered in fulfilling his destiny. He overcame every obstacle to become our Saviour.
Once again, this Easter, Christians will be remembering his sacrifice on Calvary. It was an awful, horrific and torturous thing he went through on our behalf. Memories of Mel Gibson’s The Passion come flooding back. Anyone else would have given up but not Jesus. He suffered - terribly, but he kept on the road to Calvary (Actually, the road to Calvary is more important than any ‘road to Christmas’)!
We live in a very uncertain world…and there’s talk about things getting blacker. But security, peace and a purpose in life can be found in Jesus Christ! The real message of Easter is not bunnies and eggs, but that God so loved the world that he gave his Son, Jesus, to be its Saviour and everyone who accepts him can have eternal life, sins forgiven and peace and the favour of God.
And that spells good news indeed!
Easter is also about not giving up. God didn’t (and doesn’t) give up on us. We should not give up on others, nor should we give up on life!
So …what about that project you started? Don’t give up! Or that dream to find the right life partner?
Don’t give up. Or searching for and applying for that new job? That new car or house?
Whatever!
Never give up!