These Lively Oracles

It’s another lovely warm evening, and I take a look outside at the night sky once again. I sit there for a few moments and watch the stars glisten overhead. Faint satellites are sliding by. Aircraft move overhead with their navigation lights flashing. It’s all too easy to get very comfortable here in the quiet and the solitude. But pretty soon my mind wanders to other things. I think of friends and family overseas. And I say a quick prayer to God to keep them in His hand. I think of past friends who I knew over the years and wonder how their lives have fared. I think of other friends who are dealing with long term and short term sicknesses. I say another prayer for them. And I continue to look at the sky in wonder at the majesty of God. And how insignificant we seem to be on this planet… Psalm Ch 8 (3)When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, The moon and the stars, which You have ordained. (4)What is man that You are mindful of him, And the son of man that You visit him?...

When I was an apprentice I was taken to a building site with another guy to start wiring up a small factory unit. We were the first electricians on site and the only other people in that factory unit were two painters who were painting the steelwork around the ceiling from a portable scaffolding. At some point during the working day I heard some shouts followed by some loud bangs and the clanging of metal on metal. I turned around and just saw the very final seconds of an accident happening. The scaffolding had fallen against a wall, one guy had fallen onto some debris and another guy had climbed out of the scaffolding frame and started to painfully walk around. I turned to my workmate and told him to go and phone for an ambulance while I checked with the guy walking around. He was dazed but was ok. The other guy had hurt his back but could talk and didn’t seem in any further distress. The ambulances duly came and took them away to hospital. The two guys weren’t seriously hurt and were...

Many years ago I worked on building site which was building high-end houses. Very expensive, very large and fitted out with all the latest materials. A certain customer walked into the company’s offices one day and asked to see a plan of the new house being built. The builder showed him the plans which showed the various road layouts and where each house would be built on each road. The customer pointed to one of the buildings and said that he wanted to buy that particular house and that he wanted construction to start on it right away. The house couldn’t be built right away as the roadway hadn’t been constructed nor any of the other dwellings built yet. The customer said that he had the cash and that he could pay in full right away. And so the builder started work. The roadway was laid first and the various water, electrical and communication cables were all laid. Within a few days the roadway was built and the ground site cleared to start laying the foundations. After they were layed...

I use colour highlighters in my bible. I write notes on the side margins and on the front and back flyleafs. It got so involved that I invented my own colour scheme so that I would find it easy to remember what it all meant. Red for verses relating to salvation, blue for verses relating to heaven. Gold for God’s promises, etc. And so it went on with the various colours, yellow, green, purple, etc. It got so bad that my little bible started to become cluttered up and tear apart at the seams. Note:- “If you see a bible that’s “worn out” you know it belongs to someone who is not”. After many years I decided to buy a new bible. But this time I was looking for one with larger margins and plenty of writing spaces around the pages. I went into the little bible shop and asked if I could see some bibles with large margins. The shop assiatant found some and showed me one in particular. My eye fell on it right away and I decided that it was the one that I wanted. Large margins on both sides and a...