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...

What an eventful weekend that had been all those years ago. On the Friday, the day before the Sabbath... Darkness was over the land for three hours – Matthew 27:45, Mark 15:33, Luke 23:44-45, There was an earthquake – Matthew 27:51,  The Veil in the Holy Temple was torn in two – Matthew 27:51, Mark 15:38, Luke 23:45 Jesus was now dead. Joseph of Arimathea had went to Pilate and secured the release of Jesus’ body. Nichodemus had gone to get the spices and materials needed for a ritual burial. Pilate had posted Roman guards to stand watch over the tomb, and possibly to keep a watch on those mourners who had come to the tomb to weep over the body during the time of mourning. This was a custom kept by the Hebrew people since ancient times… Job Ch21 (32) Yet he shall be brought to the grave, And a vigil kept over the tomb. And on the Sunday, the day after the Sabbath... Angels appeared again – Matthew 28:2, Mark 16:5, Luke 24:4-6. There was another earthquake - Matthew 28:2 The stone...

The foot of the Cross on that hillside outside Jerusalem was a messy place. Golgotha, as it was known, was a place of execution. A grissly place. Roman soldiers where everywhere. Condemned prisoners. Families and friends of the prisoners lamenting their executions. Victims of the prisoners gloating and wanting to see revenge. Street gamblers. Sightseers. It was a hustling, bustling, messy place. At the centre of it all on that Friday morning was a man. He was beaten up. Bloodied. Exhausted. And in agony. His back, arms and legs were a criss-cross of whip marks and lashes. The rough wood of the cross against these open wounds would have been sheer agony. He was innocent. And His name was Jesus. He was so weak that He wasn't able to carry His own cross to the site of execution. At some point along the way Jesus stumbled and fell. He was so weak, tired and in pain that He was unable to lift the cross again. The task was given to Simon of Cyrene to carry the cross behind Jesus.And so t...

I have been listening to audio sermons for many years. It started many years ago with listening to old recordings of the American Radio Bible Broadcasts. Then the cassette tape came along and all church sermons were able to be recorded and passed around with ease. Nowadays we have internet audio and video streaming we can have all the sermons we want on our smartphone, tablet or computer. But I want to share some thoughts about old preachers who were in the middle of the gospel spotlight but then fell from grace at the end. You see, I am thinking of two preachers in particular whose audio sermons were spread quite widely. I listened to a lot of the preaching and teaching and learned a lot from these men. I’m referring to a preacher from Northern Ireland called Willie Mullan and an American preacher who came from India, Ravi Zacharias. These men were great speakers in their respective days. I learned a lot from listening to their ministries both on audio cassette and internet streaming ...

I knew a guy once. He was one of the guys I looked up to when I was very young in the faith. He was smartly dressed, clean cut, and had a zeal for his church life, his Bible, his faith and for his God. He had a big bible which he read often and cross referenced with colours, markings and annotations.  He and his chum were inseparable when it came to church life and services. They were a great team to watch. I always loved going up to them and saying Hi and sharing a laugh. I always truly believed that there was a calling for them both to move into full time ministry within God’s church. Then one day he vanished. Not vanished in the sense that he went missing from society. But he wasn’t seen at that church ever again. I was in a transition phase between churches of my own and so I never gave it much attention of him being missing. But as time went on I began to wonder about him. What happened? Why did it happen? How could it happen? Surely there was a call on his life? Did I get it ...

Many years ago I was sent out to fix an electrical fault in a small sports pavilion. Apparently they had extended the outside lighting around the carpark area and now the circuit fuse protection had started failing. I immediately went out and started to look for the obvious electrical problems.  Was the fuse rating too small for the load capacity? etc. But everything looked ok. However, the fuse kept on failing. After a few hours of inspecting, testing and looking around I managed to isolate the fault to one particular section of cable. Unfortunately it ran underground from the building to the carpark. I suspected that some groundwork had been done to the grassy area and the cable damaged during the process. But the staff assured me that no one had been working around that area. Still, I started to dig a small trench close to the building to see if I could see anything. Lo and behold I quickly found a damaged section of cable. After some testing I decided that this was the cause o...