When do The Twelve Days of Christmas begin?

According to one Web site, “The Twelve Days of Christmas is probably the most misunderstood part of the church year among Christians who are not part of liturgical church traditions. Contrary to much popular belief, these are not the twelve days before Christmas, but in most of the Western Church are the twelve days from Christmas until the beginning of Epiphany (January 6th; the 12 days count from December 25th until January 5th).”
Thus, “The Twelve Days of Christmas are the festive days beginning Christmas Day (25 December). This period is also known as Christmastide. The Twelfth Day of Christmas is 5 January, with the celebrations of Christmas traditionally ending on Twelfth Night and is followed by the Feast of the Epiphany on 6 January.”
Wikipedia states: “As in olden days, Twelfth Night to Epiphany morning is then the traditional time to take down the Christmas tree and decorations.”
And for those who don’t know or have forgotten, “Epiphany is a Christian festival, observed on January 6, commemorating the manifestation of Christ to the gentiles in the persons of the Magi or wise men. In the Western church, Epiphany is usually celebrated as the time the Wise Men or Magi arrived to present gifts to the young Jesus (Matt. 2:1-12). Traditionally there were three Magi, probably from the fact of three gifts, even though the biblical narrative never says how many Magi came. In some cultures, especially Hispanic and Latin American culture, January 6th is observed as Three Kings Day, or simply the Day of the Kings (Span: la Fiesta de Reyes, el Dia de los Tres Reyes, or el Dia de los Reyes Magos; Dutch: Driekoningendag). Even though December 25th is celebrated as Christmas in these cultures, January 6th is often the day for giving gifts. In some places it is traditional to give Christmas gifts for each of the Twelve Days of Christmas. Since Eastern Orthodox traditions use a different religious calendar, they celebrate Christmas on January 7th and observe Epiphany or Theophany on January 19th.”
So now you know when the twelve days of Christmas are, and when to take down your Christmas decorations and why! And also why some give Gifts on Jan 6th and why others don’t Celebrate Christmas until January 7th. So with that, I will close here by wishing you and yours, a very Merry Christmas, no matter where, when or how you celebrate it.

Ichthus again.

I have talked about this Christian symbol of a fish before but thought it worth looking at again here On Christmas Day.
Although the fish symbol has been used in other cultures before the Christian Community at large adopted it, most of those cultures had had no contact with one another, and it thus these generally "homegrown" meanings, meant different things to the people of these different cultures.
For the Christians, they believe that the link between their religion and the fish symbol is seen in the Greek word for fish (ictus, spelled: Iota Chi Theta Upsilon Sigma). Thus making it an acrostic for "Jesus Christ, of God, the Son, the Savior" [Iesous (Jesus) CHristos (Christ) THeo (of God) Uiou (the Son) Soter (the Savior)].
An acrostic is an "arrangement of words in which the first letter of each line ordinarily combines with others to form a word or words or the alphabet." Put this way, it would read:
Iesous (Jesus)
CHristos (Christ)
THeou (God)
Uiou (Son)
Soter (Savior)
Adding to its common and wide acceptance, the symbol was simple to draw and was often used among Christians as a type of password during times of persecution by the Roman government. If two strangers met and were unsure whether each other was a Christian, one would draw an arc in the earth like: ). If the other were a Christian, they would complete the symbol with a reverse arc: (), forming the outline of a fish.
Thus that is how the fish symbol both came into being and its original usage as a secret sign of Belonging to Christ. However it is now no longer a secret sign and is openly displayed everywhere from letterheads, to Fridge Magnets and stickers for your car.
So now you know both what Icthus and the fish symbol means, what does it mean to you especially now at Christmas? Does it point you to Jesus Christ as God’s son and your Saviour? Or is it just another pretty symbol to you with absolutely no other significance? Just like the Christmas tree and all its baubles – pretty to look at but pretty useless too. Over to you now for true reflection on Jesus and all He’ is as Jesus the Christ and God’s own Son and Saviour.

My Acrostic poem about God.

Another beautiful day in paradise.
But only for those who truly love the Lord God of all.
Come, come and join us now.
Don’t delay.
Escape your past.
Freedom awaits.
Great is your reward in Heaven.
Hell however is horrible.
Individually you must come.
Just as you are, but through the blood of Jesus.
Kinship with God awaits you.
Leave your sin and past behind you.
Move fully into the Kingdom of God.
Now is the hour, and the time to do so if you have not already.
Oh, that you would join us even now.
Please do consider that now.
Quickly and quietly now, while there is still time for the correct decision.
Resistance to God is futile.
So stop resisting now.
Time is at hand, so run to God now
Under His protection, you will be safe forever.
Victory is only for those in the Blood of the Lamb, Jesus.
Why wait?
Xylophones make sweet sounds for the Lord, and so can you!
{Or, Xhosas praise the Lord, why not join them too?}
You must go to Him now.
Zinnias and Zebras display God’s greatness, so why not you too!

Well! I didn’t say it was a good poem! Just that it was mine!
Now it is your turn to see what you can come up with.

Let’s all be Amaranthine in at least one sense?

Don’t know why, but it seems I am attracted to words that appear to have more than one clear meaning.
Amaranthine, the Word of the Day for Tuesday, August 9, 2011, is also one of them as we see by these three meanings:
1. Unfading; everlasting.
2. Of or like the amaranth flower.
3. Of purplish-red color.
Now of course, all these meanings actually revolve around, and arose from, the one source. And that source was and is the amaranthius plant.
Which according to Wikipedia: “Amaranth is a reddish-rose color that is a representation of the color of the flower of the amaranth plant. The color normally considered amaranth, but there are other varieties of amaranth that have other colors of amaranth flowers.
The color amaranth is similar to printer's magenta (pigment magenta) (but redder). It is the color of the flower of those amaranth plants that have amaranth red colored flowers.
The first recorded use of amaranth as a color name in English was in 1690.”
Thus we see that all 3 meanings of being amaranthine is in fact connected to the one source! But today I am not asking if you are a flower. Or even if you are red? No! What I am asking is, are you amaranthine in the aspect of being everlasting and unfading in your everyday life? Or do you come across in fits and starts, and always changing from day to day?
Of course to be really amaranthine, as in unfading band everlasting for evermore, one can only truly do that though through accepting Jesus Christ as your own personal lord and saviour. If you wish to learn more about that, please just ask.
In the meantime, as much as it is possible for you now though, do try to be everlasting and unfading in your everyday life, rather than volatile and ever changing. Again, over to you for now.

Goodbye is a common religious phrase?

Yes, did you know that every time you say goodbye, you are in fact, using a once common religious phrase, and blessing?
According to a popular blog site (Hot blog), “Of the many ways to say farewell — peace, so long, later, skater, ciao — goodbye is the most common. And a form of good-bye has been spoken since the sixteenth century. It comes from godbwye, which is a contraction of “God be with ye.” The phrase was also influenced by good day and good evening, and although an abbreviation itself, it can also be abbreviated further to either, bye, or bye-bye.
Interestingly, a common Spanish term of farewell also now commonly used in English is Adiós. Which also means good bye and is also a contraction of a similar religious phrase.
Thus Adios, is contraction” of ‘A’, which means “to,” and ‘Dios’, which means “God.”
Well that’s your interesting discovery for today. What are some other common religious terms that you know off that are also so common in everyday speak that they have, for all intents and purposes, lost their original religious connections?
Well, till I hear from you that’s all from me, so “God be with you = goodbye”!

A Child of the Manse is not necessarily a Child of God!

In an earlier blog, (Why is a Manse called a Manse?) on my main blog site, I mentioned that any house occupied by a Church minister of religion, and particularly those from a Presbyterian, Methodist, Baptist or United Church background, is called a manse; and even then for only as long as it is occupied by a practising Church minister.
I used Wikipedia for my source material and after explaining all about a Manse, it then added this:
“Many notable Scots are referred to as a "son (or daughter) of the manse", as a parent was a Presbyterian minister, and they were therefore brought up in a manse.
Among those to whom the epithet has been applied are:
Douglas Alexander, Secretary of State for International Development
Wendy Alexander (sister of Douglas), Labour MSP; former leader of the Labour Party group in the Scottish Parliament (2007–2008); former minister in the Scottish Executive (1999–2002)
John Logie Baird, engineer and inventor of the world's first working television system
Richard Baker MSP, Shadow Justice Minister in the Scottish Parliament
Frankie Boyle, comedian
Gordon Brown, former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
John Buchan, novelist and Unionist MP, served as Governor General of Canada
Peter Fraser, advocate; former Lord Advocate (1989–1992); former Conservative and Unionist MP
James Gray, Conservative MP
William "Captain" Kidd, pirate
Andrew Bonar Law, former Prime Minister (1922–1923)
Eric Liddell, athlete and rugby internationalist, winner of the 400 metres at the 1924 Olympic Games; missionary to China; portrayed in the film Chariots of Fire
Sheena McDonald, broadcaster
Michael Moore, Liberal Democrat MP
John Reith, founder of the BBC
William Ritchie Sorley, philosopher
David Steel, former leader of the Liberal Party and the Social and Liberal Democrats; former Presiding Officer of the Scottish Parliament
William Montgomery Watt, Islamic studies scholar and Orientalist
John Witherspoon, signatory of the United States Declaration of Independence”.
Now when you look at some of those names above (Such as Gordon Brown, William ‘Captain” Kidd, Michael Moore and even William Montgomery Watt, just to name a few, it is easy to see that although they were indeed sons of the Manse, they have not all necessarily followed in their father’s footsteps in regard to both belief and a personal walk of faith in Jesus Christ as their own personal Lord and saviour!
Just once again showing that just because your parents or grandparents are/were Christians, it doesn’t mean you are too! No indeed not! In fact, as another old saying says: God doesn’t have grand children! Only Children!”
So it is not enough to be a child of the manse, or of any Christian for that matter! No! Instead you and I, all, need to be a child of God too! And that is a personal thing that not only each one of us must do personally, but also something that only we can do and personally too, if we want to inherit the Kingdom of God.
If you would like more information on how to do that please just ask. Only too happy to help, if I can.

Are You Puissant For God?

The Word of the Day for Friday, September 11, 2009, was “puissant” which is a fancy and difficult to pronounce { \PWISS-uhnt; PYOO-uh-suhnt; pyoo-ISS-uhnt\,} word for “Powerful; strong; mighty; as, a puissant prince or empire.”
Now true as it may be that you and I are most unlikely to ever use, let alone pronounce puissant properly, the word did inspire in me the opening question of our title. Yes, are we mighty or powerful for God?
True, we may be a powerful or mighty source in our families, our Jobs, or even our communities, but does that powerfulness extend past ourselves and into our Christian walk with our Lord?
Again I only have the question and not the answer. That is for you to decide now, if you will!

Are you more a bibliophile or a bibelot?

This question was /is inspired by the Word of the Day for Thursday, January 21, 2010, which, surprise, surprise, was “bibelot”. Which, if you didn’t know (Like me) is “a small decorative object without practical utility; a trinket.” Yes, it doesn’t mean a lot of Bibles as some might have jokingly implied! Nor of one who has lots of Bibles! (Who is looking at me now?) The word for one who is a lover of Books in General (and not just the Bible) is Bibliophile.
Again, Bibelot has absolutely nothing what soever to do with the Bible (as I had first and mistakenly thought,) but in fact is derived from the Old French beubelot, or beubelet, "a small jewel, a trinket," from a reduplication of bel, "beautiful," from Latin bellus, "pretty, handsome." It is related to bauble.”
So once again what looks like on paper, (but pronounced “bibelot \BEE-buh-loh\,) had absolutely nothing to do with Bibles. Just once again showing the need for us always to check out what we think we know with an authoritative source, doesn’t it? For words, this will mean checking out our Dictionaries more often before we voice our opinions, won’t it?
For life in general, and particularly for Christians however, it will mean checking out our Bibles more often too! Otherwise, instead of speaking authoritatively on the subject, we will simply become small decorative objects without any practical use! Yes, just mere trinkets!
Is that what you really want to be, a mere useless trinket or bibelot? Or a useful and effective child of god and a genuine Bibliophile?

Are You Preparing For Success?

Here is some wisdom from the “Wise Words” selection that I receive daily. This one from 01/09/08 and called: “Are you preparing yourself?”
It says: “It's wise to have 'safety nets' such as savings, insurance and investments. Rainy days come unexpectedly. But - what are you doing to prepare for success? God says He can "Open the windows of Heaven and pour out blessings so great, you won't have enough room to take them in" (See Mal 3:10). If God pours out His blessings on you, will you be ready to handle them? Are you preparing yourself for greater things, or just settling for the status quo?
After fishing all night without success, Jesus told Peter, "Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets" (Luke 5:4). Explaining that the fish weren't biting, Peter says, "Nevertheless at Your word I will let down the net" (Luke 5:5). Observe; Jesus said, "Let down your nets" (plural). Peter responded, "I will let down the net" (singular). Clearly, Jesus was thinking bigger than Peter! That night they caught so many fish, "their net was breaking." Next we read, "They beckoned unto their partners, which were in the other ship, that they should come and help them. And they came, and filled both the ships, so that they began to sink. When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees" (Luke 5:7-8). Peter needed more than one net and one boat to handle what God had in mind. Getting the idea?
If you're praying for greater success, are you taking steps to prepare yourself for it? Are you furthering your education? Are you sharpening your skills and developing new ways of doing things? Are you open to working with others? Are you willing to fall at the feet of Jesus, acknowledging Him as the source of all blessing, and sovereign Lord of your life?”
This is one of those articles where I feel there is little left for me to say than, “Are you?”
So are you preparing yourself and others for success, and if not will you? Yes, how much longer will you still hang on to your safety nets?

What is your life’s Leitmotif?

Leitmotif was the Word of the Day for Tuesday, May 31, 2011, and has two general meanings.
Firstly, in music drama, it is a marked melodic phrase or short passage which always accompanies the reappearance of a certain person, situation, abstract idea, or allusion in the course of the play. In other words it is a sort of musical label.
The second meaning is, as a dominant and recurring theme. And it is with that second meaning that my mind wandered to my own life and to what was its dominant and re-occurring themes.
Before I became a Christian I don’t know that there was any re-occurring theme in my life except perhaps my Family. Before I became a Christian at 29, I had no real direction or purpose in my Life, let alone a re-occurring theme; but after I became a Christian I had both purpose and direction.
Looking back at my post Christian life, I find that whenever I was in difficult circumstances and needed someone to confide in, no matter where I was, whether in this country or in South Africa, God brought along the right person for that time and circumstance, even if I haven’t seen that person since.
Of course he has blessed me in so many other ways too, but my Leitmotif is that God has continually blessed me with giving me the right human encouragement at the right time.
Well, that’s my Leitmotif! What’s yours?

Are you untestable or just Intestable?

The Word of the Day for Thursday, June 2, 2011 was intestable, and when I first saw it, I thought it read, “Untestable”, so my mind started to wonder if in fact any human could in fact be untestable. Maybe some things mathematically may be untestable, some may even claim that God is untestable, but I don’t know any true believer that believes that based on our own personal experience of Him and His blessings to us.
Getting back to us humans here, some might think themselves untestable but all of us are testable, even if only before God on Judgement Day! For as Second Corinthians 5: 10 says: “For all of us must appear before the judgement seat of Christ, so that each may receive recompense for what has been done in the body, whether good or evil.”
So here it makes it quite clear that each and every one of us, is indeed testable and testable by God’s standards and not our own too. Again despite what many may think, none of us are untestable to and by God.
However getting back to the word of the day then, it didn’t actually read untestable but instead read, intestable, which it then explained meant, “Someone not legally qualified to make a will, such as an infant or a lunatic.”
Thus my closing thought is, that any and every one who really thinks that they are untestable is really intestable! However, if they are so only because they are infants, then they have a chance to grow out of it, but if it is because they are lunatics, then there is no hope for them. No hope outside of Christ that is! If you would like to discuss this further, please feel free to e-mail me here.

Not how many Bibles, but …

My son was around the other night and wanted some specific biblical information about a certain subject. Information that I didn’t have off the top of my head, but believed I had written down earlier and placed in one of my bibles.
So I started looking for it and upon having no success, said, it wasn’t in that Bible. Well by the time I had said that for the third time, he piped in, with, “How many Bibles do you have?”
Well!!! The actual answer to that question is a little hard to answer as one bible has 3 separate versions in the one Book. But with different bibles and versions in separate books, I have at least 9.
That then led me to this thought: “It is not a matter of how, many bibles one has, but rather a matter of how often one looks at any of them?”
Yes, you can have one or a hundred Bibles, but if you never look into them or open them, then you have, for all intents and purposes, no Bible at all. Yes, a closed Bible is no different from not having even one.
Although I do truly believe that the best book of all is the Bible, and even if that was the only book you had, you would not need any other! However true as that is, it is only true if you actually open and read it with an open mind and Heart.
Will you do that now? Yes open a Bible and reads it with an open heart and mind? Will you?

Whose Rules Do You Play By

Was recently reading an extract from an interview Michael Parkinson did with the Poet W.H. Auden. There, as part of his presentation, although actually talking about the rules of poetry, Mr Auden said: “After all, everyone knows if you play a game, you can’t play it without rules. You can make the rules you like, but your whole fun and freedom comes from working within them. Why should poetry be any different?”
This of course is very true of everything in life, and my mind went back to earlier days when we used to play backyard Cricket. Either as a kid myself or with my kids. Before every game, one had to define or at least declare, the rules, which sometimes changed depending where you played and depending on how much space you had to play in. {Generally, the basic rules were “tippity run” (hit it and you have to run); in the wood pile, 4 runs; over the fence or in the creek, 6 runs and you are out; lost ball, 6 runs and out etc.}
Again, although the rules would occasionally change because of different circumstances, once those rules were established, we usually had lots of fun. I said usually, because although we had pre-agreed rules, there were often disputes about who applied the rules during the game. Often with one player saying the other is out and the other saying no.
Funny isn’t it, how we can agree to the rules before the game, but as the game progresses, we want to modify, and even in some cases nullify the rules when it suits us, and only follow them fully when it benefits us most.
Sadly many who call themselves Christian do the same thing. They claim to live and play within God’s rules and by His rulebook the Bible, but then as their lives progress, they (Should I say we,) often want to change the rules and the word of God, at least for our own relief and benefit, even if not for others.
So today I would encourage us all to truly decide whose rules we are really going to live by now? God’s or our own? Over to you now.

Holding on to your Call.

(The following is a Talk I gave to Deep Creek Uniting early April, 2003.)

Although I was Christened as a baby and had a few months of Sunday school when I was 12, as well as having had Religious Instruction during both my primary and Secondary School years , I really came from a non Christian Background and so when I finally , at 29, accepted that there was a God and that Jesus was his son and the Bible was His words to us and that I was a sinner in need of His forgiveness, I still knew nothing much about this God I now accepted as mine.

I don’t know about you but I was not happy with my limited knowledge of the one I now claimed to follow; and so I set about learning as much as I could about this God that I now called Father. So I started attending a Regular Bible Study and regularly read my Bible as well as attending all the seminars about prayer and the Bible that I could.

During this time I felt the Lord calling me to Missionary service. At first I resisted this call! Not because I didn’t want to go but because in those days I thought being a Missionary was something special and I wasn’t really sure if it was God calling or simply my pride as a new Christian.

Eventually my wife and I decided that it was God calling us and not our own desires and we approached a Mission society offering ourselves for service, expecting to be accepted almost straight away as the need for Missionaries was so great. Now of course that did not happen and it was a bit of a shock to us to say the least.

How we were led to that particular society is a long story in itself, but we did feel that God had definitely called us to Africa for 20 years or so with them, which is why we approached them and said here we are.

However we never heard from them for a long time and when we checked up with them we found that they apparently had lost our original application, and so we had to apply all over again. During this second approach, we were told that it was Missionary policy that all applicants have hat least one or two years of Bible collage experience behind them and they suggested we go to a Bible Collage in NSW for two years.

Now we were happy to go to Africa for 20 plus years but not happy about going to NSW for two Years. However we felt sure that God had called us to that Society and if that was what they wanted then that was what had to be. Others in our Church were not so sure and wanted us to go to BCV out at Lilydale.

Anyway we applied to NSW and much to my joy but utter amazement we were knocked back, as there, the wife must also do the course and they felt that with 3 small kids, Martha would not cope. Personally they totally misjudged her, but at least we got out of going to NSW. For a while at least! And ended up at BCV.

Now I don’t believe in doing something just for the sake of going through the motions of fulfilling their requirements, so I started looking at what I would do there and the only course that appealed to me was a 3 or 4 year course. Now it was bad enough having to do two years but to spread it out to 4 was pushing it a bit. Never the less I decided to apply for it but was told that as I didn’t have my Matriculation Certificate (Now the VCE, I believe!) Anyway whatever it was, I didn’t have it, so I wasn’t qualified for the course I wanted to do. There were two others I could have done but not the one I felt strongly about.

We were told that as I was a mature aged student that I may be eligible to try the first year and see how I went, but they weren’t sure. So we ended up at BCV a week before the year started still not knowing what course I would be doing. To cut a long story short I did the course, passed the first year and graduated 3 years later with a Bachelor of Theology.

But still things were not made easy. Half way through the course, we were told that this was great but now the Mission wanted us/me to have some practical Church experience, so during our last year at Collage I was helping the Minister at Wandin Uniting Church where I preached for the first time. When we finished at BCV we went, finally to NSW, to be Associate Minister at the Wagga Ashmont Baptist Church. Soon after our arrival there, their was a mass departure of the leadership and although I was supposedly the Associate pastor learning from others above me, soon I found I was the only one in leadership, with half the Elders and Deacons we started with.

It really wasn’t my fault, they all just took the opportunity of a new Pastor to leave. Anyway, we were there for 12 months and it was a sharp and difficult but ultimately a good learning curve. The mission wanted us to get some Church experience and believe me we got it in spades during our time there. Yet we still look back at that time with fond memories.

During our time there the Mission finally accepted us for Missionary service in Madagascar. It had only taken some 6 years and a couple of applications to get that far. So we returned to Melbourne for a few months expecting to head for the Mission field within 12 Months. Again it is another long story that I won’t go into here but it was two years later and to a completely different part of Africa that we finally went to.

During our time in Transkei and South Africa, we had our own litany of travails. The Apostle Paul lists his in second Timothy 11. Well ours may not be as impressive as we have never been whipped, shipwrecked or imprisoned but we did have a stone thrown through the car windows hitting the wife on the back just missing her head. Our house was petrol bombed twice. The Car was stolen, never to be returned although we did see it once. I have been mugged at knife point and had at least 3 pick pocket attempts, the fence cut and the dogs let out in an attempt to break into the house. There are a few other incidence, but these were the main ones.

Throughout all this we felt strongly God’s protection for us there and rather than being hindrances to our ministry, these attacks against us actually helped our ministry as people saw that we both believed and practiced what we preached about our trust in God and his concern for all who believe and follow him.

We did not stay there the 20 plus years that we expected but ended up leaving after only 12 years as God again made it clear to us that our time there was at end and it was time to leave there.

And so, 4 years later, here we are with you tonight. Still following God’s call for us. It is no longer in Africa but in darkest Croydon, but God is still calling and we are still walking in His call to us. It hasn’t always been easy, but it has never been too hard, and there have been many, many good times too. It’s just that the good times don’t make as good a story as the bad things do they?

To sum up, I would encourage you to make the most of every opportunity to learn as much as you can about your father God and be as involved with your church as much as you can and follow God’s call at the speed He calls you. If you have to make detours, even to NSW, to get the needed experience, do so. Don’t rush God’s call to you, but don’t drag your feet either.

Thank you and good night

The use of Christian words in a non-Christian setting.

In reply to my recent blog” Coca-Cola Evangelism, I received this reply: “I am not very sure about using evangelization for advertisement because to me the former pertains to preaching the gospel (the death, burial and resurrection of God in the person of my Saviour and Lord Jesus Christ). No comparison Walt!”
Now I don’t wish to be pedantic here, nor to get hung up on semantics but while my friend may be right from a Christian perspective, his understanding is based on the content of the message of Christian evangelising, and not on the act of proclamation, which is technically what evangelism is. Not the message itself, but the act of proclaiming that (or any other) message
Another thing I could add here, is that while Christians may have qualms about using religious terms (which themselves originated out of non-religious terminology) in a secular environment, secular people don't have the same qualms about using religious terms in their secular world, thus often words accepted as normal Christian words, words like, evangelism and Bible, are often used by secular people to describe their non-biblical activities. Thus, I at least, feel my other friend’s use of Evangelism in his opening statement, instead of using " Spreading the word" (which also has strong Religious implications) or “advertising”, was appropriate when trying to reach a wide audience of both Christian and non-Christian alike. Which is the aim of these blogs, as well as to encourage all to think more carefully about spiritual things and eventually Christ.

Also, Jesus often did the same thing when on earth, where in his parables and public proclamations, he used the language that people were familiar with and told stories that they could relate to and understand, to convey his spiritual message.

Anyway, don't know if this has cleared things up a little or just muddied the water further. Either way, please feel free to discuss this further if you feel you have something to add: Walter

Coca-Cola Evangelism.

Coca-Cola Evangelism. 11/5/2011
Just as an aside here, I appreciate and welcome any and all comments on my Blogs. I may not respond or reply to all of them, but I do promise to take the serious ones seriously, and to at least ponder on what you say.
It is with that thought in mind that I post the following reply to my recent: "Good old Coca-Cola,” Blog. It is from an American friend currently living in South Africa and he wrote:
“It is interesting to me how successfully Coca-Cola has evangelized the world. Wherever you go in the world you will find Coke. People everywhere like it and want it. One day when we drove from our house to our church our kids identified over twenty Coke ads on the way (billboards, shops, taxis) etc. Yet Coke is just sugar and water and a few ingredients—nothing that ultimately satisfies and meets real needs.”
He is right you know! Haven’t been to the States, but we have lived for a time in South Africa, and in recent years, briefly cruised through parts of the South Pacific and parts of Europe, and Coke is available everywhere there too.
Mind you, the Christian Church has not done a bad job of evangelism either, and in all the above places that I mentioned I have visited, we have seen many churches there too. On one South pacific Island, some people from our boat went to the left and others to the right. Later , on meeting up in a McDonalds (!) one, who went to the right, asked of one who went to the left, what was there, only to be told, “Dozens of stray dogs and dozens of Churches!” Something we found, from our own observations of going to the right, was also true there too.
So yes the Christian Church, like the Coca-Cola Company, has done a good job of evangelism in the past, but? But, just like when you can go into some establishments that sell Coke, you can get Coke that is already previously watered down, or else have your cup half filled with ice, reducing the amount of Real coke that one gets, whilst thinking that we are getting the full deal, the same is true for some churches and even church Denominations too.
Don’t wish to get into an argument about that here but simply wish to point out that Christ is more substantial than Coke, but sadly many churches and self-called Christians, have in fact, not only watered Christ down, but have so done so much so, that many outside observers have never, ever experienced the real thing. Which is a terrible thing indeed!
But that is them! What about our own personal evangelism here? (And here I am talking specifically to Christians.) Yes in our own presentations of Christ to those around us, are we producing the Real Thing or just a watered down version of the original? Again, something to think on seriously! What say you?

Does what do you really say, reflect your father?

This reflection and challenge is from a recent personal incident involving our youngest daughter.

Although a mature young lady and about to be married soon, I had occasion to council her recently on the death of a beloved pet. And of course, me being me, did it in my own unique style, which seemed to work okay.

A bit later, over lunch, I had the occasion to overhear her side of a telephone conversation. At that stage I had no idea who was on the other end, except to conclude that they must have been very, very wise indeed! Just like me! Because all I kept hearing on this end, was, “That’s what dad said!” “That’s what dad said!” Must have heard it three or four times at least, not that I was counting!

Anyway, later I found out that the party on the other end, was in fact our very own first-born daughter! And it seems even if I hadn’t taught her much, I had at least taught her to be like me.

Now, whether that is a good thing or not, I will leave that with you to decide, but it does point to the fact that those closest to us, do both see and imbibe, even if by osmosis, what they see and hear in and from us. So one always needs to be careful of the example we are leaving with others and especially those closest to us, don’t we?

So as Children of God now, who is learning what from you right now? And is it something that you would be proud to hear them say, “That’s what ****** said"?

So today, and as we start another New Year, are you too truly repeating to the world what our Father God in Heaven said? Or are we still exhibiting our old ways from the evil One? And if so, is that what your Father in Heaven really said and wants said?