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Aardbeving in Christchurch New Zealand

9 sep 2010, 19:43

The text of a mail I received from my brother Robert who lives in Christchurch New Zealand along with more than the half of my family.

We have had a number of emails wondering how life is in Chch
so I thought I should do a bit of a group email.

After our initial 7.1 earthquake which caught us napping at 4.35 in the morning, we have slowly come to grasp the significance of it all,
It all depends on where in Chch you live.
Most affected is the older central city which tends to be non residential.
Residential areas affected tend to be those on softer ground where liquefaction seems the big issue. St Albans, and toward New Brighton closer to rivers.
The most visible damage is loss of chimneys.
- I don't think any have come down in our street.
Our new Pastor Rusty is in rented accommodation at present - he lost a chimney.
1-2 others in the church lost chimneys.
One family have had major disruptions to their house such that the floor is no longer level, but hopefully it will be fixable and not be condemned. Some areas with severe damage to newer houses involve houses with concrete floors - when they snap there is little that can be done except - start again.

We now appreciate our engineers and engineering standards. We appreciate our city's infrastructure and systems. We appreciate a roof over our heads and simple pleasures of water supply and electricity !

Most of us have felt 30 -50 after shocks since Saturday. We are getting quite accurate at detecting their severity. More short sharp jolts some around 5, centred closer to Christchurch and only 6-7 km down. Today there has been a bit of a let up.

This is all beginning to wear people down a bit. Life has slowed right down, peoples thinking is a bit clouded and we all need time to recover.
Some it the church have become quite stressed out with this notable to stay in their own home at night. - Interestingly some of these have been in war situations in the past.

There are spiritual lessons.
On the Friday before the quake our newspaper triumphed an article by Steven Dawkins that science has proven God is dead.
However on Saturday, even our Prime Minister and Mayor are saying 'it is a blessing' that no one was killed, rather than "fortunately."
there is more of an acknowledgement of the existence of God.
As a Cambodian lady said in church on Sunday morning; "we feel closer to each other and closer to God."

God teaches us through experiences and through his Word. The best way is through his Word - if only we would listen! Some times experiences can be a real learning opportunity.
For me an initial thought was that this must be the closed thing to the return of Christ that I have experienced.
Overwhelming, How small are we. How big is God! How dependent we are on Him.

We need to learn again the might of God the power of God, that he is the Judge of all the earth. how awesome is our God
Psalm 33:8 Let all the earth fear the LORD; Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him.

But we do not come just to a powerful god but one to whom we can run, we can know of his love.
Psalm 33:20. Our soul waits for the LORD; He is our help and our shield.
21 For our heart shall rejoice in Him, Because we have trusted in His holy name

Whoi needs the 10 Commandments?

6 jun 2010, 13:49

In the class room:

Upon summarizing the 10 commandments this last week with the 2nd form classes we set out to explain the purpose of the 10 commandments.
In the first place they were the conditions which God had set for His covenant with His people, Israel. Kind of like the ‘small letters’ in a contract.
In the second place they have also been the basis of our western, Christian / Jewish set of cultural ethics and law. God created us and therefore He certainly knows what’s good for His creation.
By way of a ‘side step’ it was then explained how the Pharisees in the time of Jesus’ sojourn on this earth believed that there were basically 2 preconditions in order to enter heaven. In the first place one was to be a descendant of Abraham, because he was the ‘Father of all believers’, and because they were descendants of Abraham, they fitted this precondition. The problem here is as follows: Water is a fluid, but not all fluids are water! (Believers at that time were Jews, but not all the Jews were believers.) In the second place they also believed that should they maintain and obey all the 10 commandments, then and only then would they be accepted by God to enter Heaven.
The pupils were unanimous on this: This wasn’t possible!
This issue, is often referred to by Christians as attaining salvation by way of the law. And, in actual fact, should anyone ever achieve this, during all his or her days here on earth, then it can safely be said that he or she would have salvation.
But, and that is an enormous ‘but’, the law of God lets us see that we can’t possibly attain the high standard set for us by God.
We then set out to make clear that we are born as sinners and that is why we sin. Not the other way round. Using a positive illustration we say an appel tree grows appels because it is an appel tree. Even before it brought fruit into existence, it was already an appel tree! In the same way we are all sinners.
Sin finds its origin in our hearts. To hate someone is a transgression of the 6th commandment: Thou shalt not kill. To desire an other mans wife with lustful thoughts, is also a transgression of the commandments.. To covet, in your heart, is a transgression. Agreed, the deed has not yet taken place, but never the less, you were ‘aiming your heart in the wrong direction’.
These 10 commandments simply let us see how we stand before God.
Everybody seems to think that they are basically good. Al Capone, who smashed the skull of some one who he ‘didn’t like’ with a baseball bat, said, later on in life, that he wasn’t a bad man.
O.K. we all make one or two mistakes, no one is perfect.
Just like a roentgen photo shows us where the bone is broken, which is causing all the pain, Gods commandments show us where we are at fault.

Once there was this king who had an enormous estate with in the middle of the grounds a beautiful palace. Every weekend he opened the grounds for the public. The people came in hundreds to view his castle. They parked their cars along the side of the road and walked across the grass to the castle. This despite the fact that there was a beautiful wide lane leading right up to the main doors.
At a great expense the king designed and made a beautiful archway through which the visitors could enter the grounds and walk along the wide lane up to the castle. Despite this great ‘investment’ on his part, the subjects just kept coming across beautifully mown grass lawn. It was then that the king decided to build a fence around the outer perimeter of his property. It was a boundary with 10 stretchers of wall. Should anyone have the mind to just step out of his or her car and cut across the lawn, then he or she would be brought to an abrupt stand still when bumping into this wall Walking along the wall he or she would eventually come to the beautiful archway through which they could then enter into the garden of the king. At first the people thought that the wall gave an unfriendly and negative impression. But once they had been through the beautiful gateway, they understood why the king had built it, and to what expense he had gone to build this archway. It had even been more expensive than the price of his castle, which the people had come to view.
Now that is what is meant when, as some people say, Jesus had fulfilled the law. You see, Gods commandments lead us eventually to Jezus, the ‘archway’. Only by way of Jezus can we ever appear as justified people in the presence of God.

Thank God for His 10 commandments!

Les Miserables

27 nov 2008, 23:40

Jean Valjean, de held van Les Miserables, was een misdadiger die aan het vluchten was van zijn gruwelijk verleden en van de volhardende inspecteur Javert. Hij krijgt een buitengewone kans om te ontsnappen van zijn verleden en Javert voor altijd als een andere misdadiger, Champmathieu, die ten onrechte geïdentificeerd als Jean Valjean voor de rechter wordt gesleept. Drie gevangenen zweren in de rechtzaal dat Champmathieu, Jean Valjean is, dus het staat vast dat hij vals veroordeeld is en gestraft zal worden. Jean Valjean wordt hierdoor verzocht om de man te laten lijden in zijn plaats, Per slot van rekening, redeneert hij, is Champmathieu een crimineel en verdient het sowieso gestraft te worden. Jean Valjean kan nu zich vrij maken van de achtervolging van Javert – Vrij om het goede waar te maken, waar hij naar verlangt, zoals zorg voor de verlaten Fantine en haar dochter Cosette, en te blijven werken om zijn stad te doen bloeien; goede dingen die niet zullen gebeuren als hij de rechtszaal in zou lopen, de naam van Champmathieu zou zuiveren en zichzelf over zou leveren aan de wet.
Maar de gedachte dat een andere mens in zijn plaats zal lijden is teveel voor hem. Jean Valjean is overrompled door zo’n groot onrecht en realiseert zich dat als deze zielige man zijn straf op zich zou nemen, was hij bezig om nog eens een dief te worden, en dan de meest weerzindwekkend dief dan ook! Hij was een ander man aan het beroven van zijn bestaan, zijn inkomen, zijn vrede en zijn plek onder de zon.
Hij was een sluipmoordenaar aan het worden, hij was aan het doden, hij was een verstoten man aan het vermoorden; zo stuurde hij hem naar een afschrikwekkende levende dood, de dood van de 'open lucht’, zoals ze het noemden in de galeien. Ondanks alles wat hij stond te winnen, Jean Valjean kon Champmathieu niet laten lijden in zijn plaats.
Het onrecht van een mens, lijdend onder een ander zijn misdaad laat ons geweten branden.
Toch als u in de kerk was opgegroeid, verwacht ik dat het eerste wat u leerde was ‘Jezus stierf voor onze zonden’. (1 Korintiërs 15:3)
En ik hoop dat op een gegeven ogenblik in je leven je de zin “Christus is gestorven voor mij” bijzonder voor je word. Maar als dat zo is, dan ga ik er ook van uit dat de zin “Christus is gestorven voor onze zonden” niet iets nieuws voor je is. Bedenk, wij hebben iets verschrikkelijk fout gedaan, en iemand is daar het slachtoffer van geworden. Doet dat jou iets?

Wat is jouw reden om niet naar de kerk te gaan?

27 nov 2008, 23:23

Voordat je antwoordt, lees de 10 redenen waarom “IK ME NOOIT WAS”.

1) Ik werd gedwongen om me te wassen toen ik een kind was.
2) Mensen die zich wassen zijn allemaal hypocrieten.
3) Er zijn zoveel verschillende soorten zeep: Ik kan gewoon niet kiezen
welke de beste is voor mij.
4) Ik was gewend me te wassen, maar toen ik het saai vond worden ben ik ermee gestopt.
5) Ik was me alleen voor speciale gelegenheden zoals kerst en Pasen.
6) Geen van mijn vrienden wassen zich.
7) Ik zal me gaan wassen als ik ouder en viezer wordt .
8) Ik heb geen tijd om me te wassen.
9) De badkamer is nooit warm genoeg in de winter of koel genoeg in de
zomer.
10) Bij de mensen die zeep maken gaat het alleen om je geld!

Klinkt het bekend in de oren?.

Hier gaat het allemaal om

11 okt 2007, 20:26

 

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