Wednesday

The Day my Best Friend Bit Me! - A Dose of Encouragement


When I was young and at primary school I was a "Tom-Boy", wanting to be active, out and about as much as possible and looking for company to play with.


My only sibling is my sister who is 10 years older than me so I didn't have her to play with and sometimes there were not too many other kids around.


I really loved the opportunity to play with the boy who would come to visit his grandparents across the street and the girls from the surrounding streets and stay out as long as possible.




But there were often times when there was no-one around to play with so I found a friend next door.

This friend was often around at the front of the house and he was very easy to chat to so I could go see him a few times a day.

His name was Tim and he was a black, scotty dog.

I used to go and sit on the front step of the house next door and pet him and cuddle him and chat.

He was so familiar with our family that there was never any barking at us just the tail wagging and little jumps of excitement when he thought any of us were going to have time to play with him.


photo credit - Pixabay

My parents were fine with me playing with Tim and knew that I was often on that front step.

I liked dogs and had wanted our family to have a dog as a pet but my sister did not like dogs so I had to be content with Tim next door.

Of course I took Tim for granted and thought he would always be there just when I would feel like going in through the front gate to play with him.


I was sure that he would always be happy to see me, ready to play 
and I would never be "not welcome".


Then there was that one day when I went through that gate and took the two or three steps to the front door to find Tim was lying there quietly not jumping up or wagging his tail at me.  I sat down beside him and put my arm around him but instead of getting the usual happy welcome I felt the pain shoot up my arm as his teeth clamped onto it.

I screamed, jumped up and ran out through that next door gate with Tim hanging from my arm but he let go before I got to our own gate.

I was sore, bleeding (although not too bad because he was an older dog and his teeth apparently weren't too sharp) and so confused that Tim had bitten me.

If I was looking for sympathy I had come to the wrong place because immediately I was questioned by my mother on what had I done to antagonise the poor dog - see how everyone loved him!





Well my arm was bathed and bandaged and I can't remember if I was told to stay inside for a while but I do remember that before long I was back sitting playing with Tim.

The neighbours talked with my parents and were concerned about what had happened and what my parents wanted them to do about Tim.  The result was that none of us wanted anything to happen to him because we all knew the situation had been my own fault.  Who would be so silly as to cuddle a dog that was asleep and wake him suddenly and frighten him especially when in the past few months some teenagers had often been teasing and at times kicking at him through the gate as they walked down our street.

I had not known that Tim, my usually happy friend, had become afraid of these teenagers and hence probably startled by me and reacted out of sudden fear.

Yes it wasn't long before I was back playing with Tim, he was still my friend and I forgave him for biting me but I think there was always just not exactly the same trust there as before.


He was still my friend and I forgave him.

Over the years I have seen friendships ruined over a hasty word, a sudden grumpiness, a searing hurt, a teasing jibe, when people just got so friendly and comfortable that they stopped thinking of situations from the other person's point of view.  Times when people got so careless and thought they could do or say anything just because they thought they were with friends.
Even if the friendships are not ruined they are marred in some way by lack of trust thereafter.

Sometimes we have been the ones to do the hurting and sometimes we are the ones who have been hurt but either way we need to try to consider how the other person felt, what may have been happening to them recently that we did not know about, who had been unkind to them, what had they heard recently, because something had caused a difference on that occasion.

There are two people in a friendship and also two feelings in that friendship and we need to remember to be considerate and kind, honouring the friendship and extending grace to each other in all circumstances.

It may not always come easy but oh it would be great if I could forgive others today as quickly as I forgave Tim.

It is not impossible to do.

As children of God we have the capability of forgiving because we have been forgiven and we have the greatest example of perfect forgiveness in Jesus.


Forgiveness. It is not impossible to do.


What about a letter, a phone call, a little chat?

The practical step needs to be taken to apologise and forgive.

And we can do it!




Tuesday

Grace 1 - The Discipline of Grace





Some time ago I decided to read

        "The Discipline of Grace" by Jerry Bridges

and I have been slowly, very slowly doing so because there is just so much to take in from each chapter.


If I waited until I had read the whole book the notes on it would be extremely long judging by the ones thus far so I've decided to put together here just the notes from my reading of the first chapter to give a taste of what this book has to offer.


Chapter 1

The Holy Spirit transforms us spiritually; we cannot do this ourselves. This is sanctification.
The Pursuit of Holiness is our cooperation and involvement in the sanctification process and it is something we need to be fully committed to.  This must be anchored in the Grace of God.

God's blessing does not depend on our performance.
God's grace through Christ is greater than our sin.
If God’s blessings were dependent on our performance, they would be meager indeed.
Your worst days are never so bad that you are beyond the reach of God’s grace.
And your best days are never so good that you are beyond the need of God’s grace.
Every day of our Christian experience should be a day of relating to God on the basis of His grace alone.
We are saved by grace but also each day of our lives we live by grace because we must look only to Jesus for God's blessings on our lives we cannot earn the blessings ourselves.


God's grace through Christ is greater than our sin.

Grace - God's unmerited favour to those who deserve His wrath.
Although saved we still sin; but we also still receive His grace.
We are neither blessed because we have done good enough to gain His favour or not blessed because we have failed to earn it.
 Our performance rating is not the important thing here.
The Gospel applied to our hearts each day frees us to be honest with ourselves & God.
We can admit we still sin and take responsibility for this instead of blaming our actions on the effects of others.

"So it doesn't matter how I live because God forgives me unconditionally" - no, this is not acceptable as it means that the truth is being abused.

We cannot allow others to lessen the value of the truth for all of us. So they need to be reminded of the Gospel.

What about those who struggle with the fact that we are still sinners and they think they are not committed enough? They also still need to be reminded of the Gospel because it does not pour on guilt but rather brings freedom from guilt to them.


We cannot allow others to lessen the value of the truth for all of us.

To live no longer for ourselves but for God is the essence of discipleship.
Love is what compels us to live for God.

So it is by the Gospel that we must be motivated to live a holy life and not by guilt or duty because it is through the Gospel that we will be conscious of His great love.

God's grace is greater than all our sins.
Repentance is one of the Christian's greatest privileges. A repentant Christian focuses on God's mercy & God's love.
One who draws on God's mercy & grace is quick to repent but also slow to sin.
Are we willing to rely on God's mercy & grace alone instead of on our performance, to boast in nothing save the cross?


If this encourages you to read the book you'll find it on amazon for kindle or in paperback.




I promise that later posts on this book will contain shorter notes on each chapter.  
See Links below:

Grace 2
Grace 3





Sunday

Pondering the Psalms - Psalm 23


Each Sunday I am going to choose a Psalm and write down some brief thoughts on it.



Today I'm looking at Psalm 23 





This is probably the best known Psalm.



I see this Psalm as a Psalm of Praise


     1.  Extolling the Virtues of God

     2.  Stating the good things He has done for us

     3.  Telling God how we trust Him

     4.  Acknowledging that we know God provides everything for us

     5.  Exclaiming that we know the hope we have for the future



A Great Example.
David has given us this fine example of praising God.



Excitement.
You can feel the excitement over the fact that David realizes just what God means to him.



You can feel the excitement.




Not a Word of Thanks.

David did not even need a word of thanks in this Psalm because He is simply caught up in Praising God.


Complete Comfort.

That first verse gives us the complete comfort of knowing that God looks after us in everything so there is no concern for us to dwell on - a simple fact.








To Praise God 

is

not just to thank Him

but

to tell Him what He means to us

and

express how great He is.








We need to Praise God for Who He is as well as Thanking Him for what He has done.







Wednesday

The Day We Had to Say Goodbye - A Dose of Encouragement


Well our life here in Banbridge has changed once again.


For two weeks this year our daughter was home from South Korea and for the first of those two weeks our son was over from Leeds, England.  That meant we had a week in which the whole family (including our other son and daughter-in-law in Belfast) could do some things together, and we did have some nice meals and outings.





With visits there are all the hellos and hugs and lots of chat and catch up but there are also the goodbyes.  So it came that we first had to say goodbye to Jonathan and then last Friday it was goodbye to Linda.  Fortunately this time we have hopes of seeing her at Christmas for a quick visit back here because she really wants to be able to meet her nephew/niece who is due at the end of October.


This all brought back memories of another goodbye.

One which took place in February 2013.........








Our daughter Linda came back from university to live with us in September 2012 and all along we knew it was probably only for about 5/6 months while she decided what she wanted to do after completing her Masters Degree in Creative Writing.

Then on a Tuesday in February 2013 we drove her to Dublin Airport to fly to Dubai and then on to South Korea, where she was going to teach English in a school there for at least a year with the EPIK organisation.




Having had her with us for those months (after having seen her toddle off from our home in Belgium to university in Norwich in 2006 and then stay on there for a couple of years working and then another year at the university) our way of life did change somewhat from living as a couple who are very easy going with regards to when we do things, to three people in the equation of when we are going out, when we are eating, what we are eating, more detailed conversations and a lot more listening from us.

Now that extra dimension in the household had gone again.



Those last few weeks of her time with us had been very busy getting her visa organized, tickets, vaccinations, hospital appointments, dental appointments, shopping, going to certain types of  restaurants she may not have the chance to get to for a long time, visiting friends and family, saying goodbye to people at church, deciding what to pack and trying to sort out all her other stuff that will have to stay here (2 cases with a total of 30kg does not allow for much of her belongings to make the trip with her).





Then I was left with an empty bedroom to Spring Clean and find a space for all the bags and boxes she filled and left there.

If Fred did not work from home I think this would have been a very lonely time but as it was we just had to revert back to the way we were before she arrived, the way we had grown into since we came to Banbridge.

People may have said we should have taken the opportunity to make other changes then instead of going back to our old way.

Were we just going backward or should we have been determined to be different?

I think a lot of time could have been wasted in trying to


         decide what is best 
and analyzing it all about what we may have learned 
from the situation 
and how to use that insight to develop further 


when really we should just be living the way God wants us to live and doing each day what He prompts us to do.  I actually think the analysing and learning and insight bit sounds more like a business situation.

This doesn't have to be a mind changing event or life altering event, it is just something that happened on one day of our lives and was a sad occasion.


Today we are living another day in our lives in our walk with God


The following day, all the days in between and today we are living another day in our lives in our walk with God. There is no point in reading a lot into a situation just to have something to talk endlessly about but in the end do nothing anyway.

Everyone will view a situation differently depending on the type of person they are and how they see their relationship with God.  We cannot expect everyone to be the same as us or the same as others we have known.

We can only look at our own relationship with God and be prepared to make the small or bigger changes He wants us to make when it is right in His plan.


While Linda was back again this year she acknowledged that her move to South Korea had been the right move at the right time and spoke of how God had been helping her to grow in her faith even in a country where she does not understand a lot of the language.

We are thankful that she is happy there and we know that God has given her good friends and a good church family.

Even so it was hard again last week when we had to say those goodbyes again.


Some things change but some things don't - goodbyes are always hard.


But again I am reminded of the plaque we were given in 2004 when we were leaving Northern Ireland to go to live in Belgium





Yes the Lord is with us wherever we go, or wherever we stay 
and he is with you wherever you go or stay 
when you are a child of God, living each day for Him.



The important thing is that wherever we go 
we are living each day for Him.




Sunday

Pondering the Psalms - Psalm 133


Each Sunday I choose a Psalm and write down some brief thoughts on it.







Today I'm looking at Psalm 133


This is quite a short Psalm but very important to take note of God's command here.



This Psalm falls into three parts:


V. 1
This immediately demands our attention with the word "Behold"


V. 2
First picture to give a description of us dwelling together in unity.


V. 3
Second picture to give a description of us dwelling together in unity.






Behold how good and pleasant it is when people dwell together in unity.
Here is the statement that his short Psalm is all about.
The adjectives "good" and "pleasant" are used here to focus us in with easy, clear understanding and no-one could possible say they would not be happy in a good and pleasant situation.



First Description.
Another adjective "precious" is used here to describe the oil on Aaron which signifies an anointing.
So the dwelling together in unity will be anointed.



Second Description.
This illustration of the dew on the mountains reminds us that the blessing will be a daily miracle just as God provides the land with dew daily.







Life can be good and pleasant.


It is important to remember that 
none of this 
can be taken for granted.




We need to be dwelling in unity
and that takes a conscious effort because the devil will just love to throw in those small but annoying hurts to dissolve the unity of the believers. 









Saturday

Christian Songs for Kids - Good News, Good News


Do you find it hard to get visuals and recordings for different kids songs?


I have always found this a problem so I am now sharing songs that I have used with children providing you with









Visuals 
(Powerpoint or Picture or details of how you can make one) 


Words   
(chords also available)


Recording  
(mp3 or video or both to learn the song) 


Then if you would like to download the visual of the song there will be a link provided to my creation, or I will direct you to where else you can find it.   



This month I am taking the theme of



SALVATION




The song I have chosen is 



Good News


Another one that I learnt when I was a teenager and started to help with

This is a short but very to the point song about how salvation is the "Good News" for us.
In a few lines the gospel is presented and the song is so easy to memorize that children very soon have those words etched in their memories telling then that Jesus has died for them.

Of course they all love it when you get to the end and you shout out the word EXTRA.




VISUAL

I have the original fold over card visual which I bought from CEF many years ago and it is still used often in our kid's club in a local school.




Unfortunately I can not find it for sale on the UK CEF website now but a new version with a second verse is available on the US CEF site



More recently I made a powerpoint for projection






To Download a copy of this powerpoint for printing on  A4 card  or  Letter size
CLICK HERE





WORDS


GOOD NEWS


Good News, Good News,

Christ died for me.
Good News, Good News,
If I believe.
Good News, Good News,
I'm saved eternally.
That's wonderful, EXTRA
Good News



To Download a copy of these words with chords for guitar and piano 
CLICK HERE










ACTIONS

Very simple for this song.

For the first section of the song we clap
(up to eternally)
Then we cup our hands over our mouth to be able to shout the word
EXTRA in the second part





RECORDING

For this song we have a sound recording and a video both shown below












Notes:
I believe the Words are by O.G. Lewis and the song is in the public domain
but there is also a second verse which is under the copyright of CEF
More information can be found HERE  




I Hope you enjoy the song and this is a help to you.












Friday

Erecting a New Garden Shed


If you missed the first post about our old wooden shed (which was quite some time ago) then head over to

Demolishing a Garden Shed 

first and if you don't want to read the whole post you can just watch the short time-lapse video.





Then last month ago I posted about the

Preparation for a New Garden Shed  

so you might like to click above and see the work involved there before we tackle the actual process of putting up our new shed.


We got rid of a wooden shed but we have now replaced it with a larger metal shed.

I am not going to say this project was easy, nor am I going to say it was FUNWORK because it wasn't but I am going to say that it was not me who had the hard work to do and we were all happy to see the job completed and also there was a great sense of satisfaction.


We bought a Yardmaster Shed and of course the first thing Fred did was to check up on any videos for tips on erecting one of these.

So to be completely honest about it all

The videos we found made it look easier than it really was!!

One guy seemed to be implying that he did it all himself except for when his wife helped him to lift up and carry over and place on the roof frame.
His shed was the size smaller than ours but after tackling this project we can say without a doubt that two people are needed for more than one part.


All the thanks is due to Fred & Daniel who did all the hard work.




The work was done over four days - not 4 full days due to Daniel having to work part of the time and because of breaks because of rain (we do live in Northern Ireland!).


Day One 

Fred was on his own except for when he asked me to check something with him.


First Stage  -  Organising Materials.

Unpacking of the three boxes, checking everything accounted for, laying out on paved area and patio table.


This kind of thing always takes longer than anyone would think.



Second Stage  -  Building Base Frame.

Reading instructions,  picking out correct pieces,  attaching the various lengths of the base frame together,  placing base frame on the concreted area.



The important thing here was to make sure that the electric and water connections were inside and not too close to any of the frame.



Happily Fred had measured and placed the connections carefully during the pouring of the cement base.



Third Stage  -  Building the Roof.

Reading instructions,  picking out correct pieces,  forming the front and back sections of the roof.




Reading instructions,  picking out correct pieces,  completing the roof framework.

I did have to go out and help here as it was easier for Fred to make the connections while I held parts together for him.




This was all that was completed on the first day.

The next stages would definitely need two good workers.



Day Two

Daniel came for the afternoon and evening to help his dad.


Fourth Stage  -  Frame Uprights.

Reading instructions,  picking out correct pieces,  joining the uprights to the base.



Because (at this stage) the base is not yet pinned down, the uprights can easily tilt and move the frame.  We live at the top of a hill so I had to frequently give a hand with steading the framework when the wind decided to blow through.

This part was rather tedious and time consuming.



Fifth Stage  -  Bottom Wall Panels.

Reading instructions,  checking for top and bottom of the panels,  slotting the panels between the uprights and screwing them in place.





Sixth Stage  -  Attaching Roof Frame.

Lifting and carrying over the roof frame, placing it on in exactly the right position and attaching it to the other framework.

Definitely a two-man job and glad they are both tall guys.




Seventh Stage  -  Side Panels.

Attaching the remaining side panels.

Easier and quicker paced here because they had got the hang of it earlier.




One man inside and one outside really helped here.



Day Three 

Daniel had to work so I had to help Fred but we didn't need any heavy work here.


Eighth Stage  -  Attaching Roof Panels.

Very repetitive job because there are quite a few panels to be placed and many, many screws and washers to be applied.



There are two clear panels to provide light into the shed.




Day Four 

Daniel was back to help for the final stages.


Ninth Stage  -  Attaching Sliding Doors.

Both Daniel and Fred had to work together to attach the sliding doors.






Tenth Stage  -  Securing Shed to Concrete Base.

Holes had to be drilled into the concrete at the corners and along the sides of the shed base frame.

Then the shed was bolted to the base.



Eleventh Stage  -  Filling the Shed.

All three of us then put all the things back into the shed from where we had been keeping them in the garage.

There was so much more room for them in the new shed and now there was more room in the garage again so a very happy result.




Fred of course made a short Time-lapse video this time again each day but we will not bore you with 4 days worth this time.


I don't think even I could describe this job as Funwork over Housework as it was very time consuming and hard work on us all.   But it was a job that had to be done.