The True Life Giver

Prelude Why did I start this blog? Most of you who know us , would also know that for the past 40 years Lyn and I have been Christian believers.  Through that time God has truly blessed us as a family, in our business and kept us in good health. We have tried not to load our beliefs on our friends and family excessively, because we didn't want to spoil the relationships. But as we are getting older the years seem to fly past more quickly and we can see that finish line ahead, so there is a sense of urgency in relating our beliefs, whatever the cost. Ezekiel was an old testament prophet in The Bible and God spoke to him (Ezekiel Chapt 33) and said he is to warn the people of the destruction that is coming. If he doesn't warn them, their blood is on his head, but if he does warn them, their blood is on their own. So I decided it is time to share what The Bible says to be true.  I may lose some friends, but may help save some too. So hopefully I can encourage you to look at the p...

A Life Changing experience About 40 years ago, I had a life changing experience – I discovered the world of horticulture. This discovery came from a route of educational and career choices that ultimately led to the occupation of landscaper and finally to the opening of a plant nursery.   I found there was something almost magical in the process of planting a seed that had been sitting dormant and seeing it burst into life. Or cutting a piece off an existing plant, placing it into a potting media and seeing new roots develop and ultimately cloning a new plant. And there was the intricacy and beauty of leaves and flowers. Intricate patterns of leaf veins and their amazing colour palette. Colours that I personally would describe as undesirable in for example an item of clothing or a car, would by contrast look stunning to me in the garden.   You might well ask – what has this got to do with a blog entitled The True Life Giver Read on and I will tell you!!  

  The Ultimate Life Changer reveals Himself I mentioned how the plant world had become a life changing experience. What I didn’t know was that about the same time I was about to have an encounter which was about to change my life forever in a far more dramatic way than horticulture. I was about to get to know the Creator that made all the wonder of nature possible. Some friends that my wife had met through her work environment had decided to move to Sydney. They invited us to a going away barbecue in the Noosa National Park and suggested we could go in the morning to the small Christian church they attended and then go to the lunch after.   That day ended up being the ultimate life changer. We went to church that morning – and then the next Sunday and the next…….

  The Journey Begins My wife and I had always had a leaning to what the world call ‘The New Age’. We knew there was more to life than these mortal bodies of ours and the mind that resided in it – there was something spiritual involved. But something happened on that first day in church that we were not expecting. We experienced The Holy Spirit. The spirit that was common to God the Father and Jesus the Son. We didn’t understand it, but we knew we wanted more.   As we attended church over the coming months, we listened to the teaching on Gods eternal plan for mankind and Jesus as our saviour and began to delve into The Bible. My wife responded almost immediately in declaring Jesus as her Lord and Saviour. As for me - I was more hesitant. It had to make sense to me. It was some months later that I would reach that point of not trying to understand it all, but as they say – step out in faith. I asked God to forgive me of my sins, I acknowledged my belief in the ...

 Father, Son and Holy Spirit Three in one As a new believer one of the first things, I had to get my head around was the idea of a God that was three in one – often described as the Trinity, or a Triune God One analogy that I could personally relate to is that of the Sun. If we imagine that Father God is like the physical body of the Sun that we see out in space. Jesus can be depicted as the light that comes from it. It’s something we can see and relate to and when we turn a switch on in a room – it chases away darkness. The Holy Spirit is like the heat that comes from the Sun. We can’t see it, but we can feel it’s presence. The light and heat working together create life. Life can’t exist without them. The opening line of the Bible is 'In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.' God here in Hebrew is plural - Father, Son and Holy Spirit. They all share the same divine nature  They were not created but have always existed. Always working together, but ...

The Sin in My Life In one of the earliest posts, I mentioned that before I received Jesus as my saviour I had asked God to forgive me from my sin. No, I didn’t have dark secrets from my past. I hadn’t lived an evil life and I would have described myself as a generally ‘good person’. What I had come to realize is that I had a ‘sinful nature’ that revolved around me and what I wanted for my life. What the world would describe as ‘looking after number one’. Even more so I recognised in my life what God would describe as the greatest sin and that is pride. The pride of independence – believing I could live my life without acknowledging the One who created me and how He would want me to live my life. And so we come to that word ‘repent’. The word repent means a change of heart and mind where we feel genuine regret and desire to turn away from sin. It’s often described as a complete change of direction from actions that please us, toward those that honour and please God. So, I had come to ...

  Making Wise Choices People who do not follow God seem to be the first ones to blame Him when things don't go the way they would like. Or blame Him for the death and destruction on earth. What they need to realize is that  God did not create us to be puppets, where he could control us by pulling all the right strings and so He gave us choice in every area of our life and with choices come consequences. God loves us like parents love their children and like a parent it’s His desire that we love Him in return and want to live our lives in a way that pleases Him. So He gave us the choice to love Him, the choice to obey Him, the choice to be guided by Him and to want to please Him. Unfortunately from the very beginning man made some really bad choices. God’s first created couple were Adam and Eve, and their early disobedience had consequences for all the generations that would follow (more on this later) Fortunately He gave us an antidote to poor choices and that is recognize t...

  You came with a manual. When you buy an appliance, it comes with a manual. It usually has safety directions, operational directions, often trouble shooting tips and at the end warranty conditions. The good news is that when God made us, we came with a manual – it’s called The Bible.  It's a manual and 'so much more',  but the term manual gives an insight into the wealth of guidance, wisdom and moral and ethical guidelines it contains. Follow the instructions and things will work out for good. Don’t follow them and you will see your life head in a negative direction.   As for the warranty – follow God’s instructions and you get a lifetime warranty. It's the 'so much more' that is important and I want to go over. The Bible is called The Word of God. It was written by 40 men over a period of 1500 years through the inspiration of The Holy Spirit. You could say it has 40 authors with a divine editor - God It’s is also described as a ‘Living Word’ because it is not ...

The Good As a new believer, one of the first things I came to appreciate was that I had a Heavenly Father that loved me and I was so valuable to Him. In the Bible, God says - I made you. You were planned by Me even before you were in your mother’s womb a nd I will never leave you or forsake (give up) on you. In the book of Isaiah God says "Fear not I have redeemed you (rescued you from sin), I have called you by name, you are mine. I was fortunate to have wonderful parents and now as a Christian parent myself I realize that parents  were intended to be God’s agents on earth to love, protect and guide us in those early years and hopefully be a reflection of His character. I also know that all children are not so fortunate to have such loving parents, but they do have a heavenly Father that adores them and has a plan for them. God declares "For I know the plans I have for you. Plans to prosper you and not to harm you. Plans to give you a hope and a future". (Jeremiah 29:11...

  The Bad Life seems to be a world of opposites. Where we have hot, we have cold, with light we have dark, with high we have low and unfortunately with the Good we have the Bad. So, the Bible introduces us to Satan. Originally called Lucifer, he was one of God’s head angels supposedly in charge of worship. Angels were heavenly beings created by God to worship in heaven, be protectors, act as messengers between God and man, and generally serve God and carry out his will. Lucifer, however, became full of pride and not content to worship, wanted to be worshipped. So, in the Book of Isaiah (Isaiah 14:12) it describes five ‘I will’ statements from him, including I will be like the ‘Most High’ (God) and I will exalt my throne above the stars of God. In the Book of Revelation it says God casts him out of heaven, because of his rebellion and one third of the angels go with him. No longer residing in heaven and no longer with his heavenly name, Satan starts to take dominio...

  The Ugly We love to think of Heaven as a glorious place, that we will go to after death. Many however who do not follow God and do not believe on Jesus as their Saviour, still like to think of Heaven as their final resting place. So, while they love to believe in Heaven, they either don’t believe in the idea of the place called Hell or if they do, certainly don’t believe they will go there. The Bible though makes it quite clear, that Hell is real and says who will go there. Jesus used the word Gehenna to describe hell. Gehenna was a refuse dump deep down outside of Jerusalem. Full of rubbish, maggots and fire and where we get the image of a lake of fire. Jesus said it would be “an outer darkness, where there would be weeping and gnashing of teeth” So we have the image of a place of loneliness, separated from God where one would be in spiritual darkness for an eternity, suffering the regret of knowing that they could have gone into heaven with God, but turned it down...

  The Good News of The Kingdom The word Gospel means Good News and when Jesus started His early ministry at around age thirty, His message was “Repent for the Kingdom of God (or Kingdom of Heaven) is at hand (at hand also means has come or has arrived). This is called the Gospel of the Kingdom.  The word Kingdom coming from the two words Kings domain. So Jesus is revealing that there is another Kingdom that we can't see, but operates with much greater authority than this earthly existence that we can relate to. What's more it will last forever whereas this Earth as we know it will one day pass away. Jesus was saying ‘repent for not acknowledging God’s rule and reign’, because now with my arrival it has become a reality that you can no longer resist or ignore’. Gods purposes and plan operating in Heaven were now going to become evident on earth and  Jesus would start to reveal this with authority and power. Hundreds of years before in the Old Testament it was prophes...

  The True Life Giver My whole motive for starting this blog was to introduce Jesus as the True Life Giver. Most people know the name Jesus, but only Christian believers have the revelation that Jesus came to earth to speak  Life into the lives of man and that through Him they could have eternal Life. All through the Bible are scriptures relating to the life and the light that comes through Jesus,  whereas Satan only bought death and darkness. Jesus says in John 10:10 “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.”  Satan has been the thief in their lives, but Jesus has come to give Life .   “The words I speak to you are spirit, and they are life” John 6:63 “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness but have the    light of life". John 8:12   ‘In Him was life and the life was the light of men’ John ...

  The Good News of Salvation - 'It's all about 'The Cross' This is where we get to the ‘nitty gritty’ and what I came to know of and believe in as a Christian.   The Bible tells is that Jesus came to earth, so that we could be saved. It was God’s plan to restore relationship with Him, that had been broken by the sin of mankind.  Through Jesus’ life, His death on the cross and His resurrection He paid the penalty for our sin and enabled us to life forever. The precious blood of Jesus, shed on the cross washed us clean, so that we are now regarded as being holy. Holy in God’s eyes now, but also holy enough at our death to live with God in His heavenly kingdom forever. But only to those who acknowledge Christ crucified on their behalf.  Isaiah 53:6 says 'All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned every one to our way and God has laid on Jesus the sin of us all. Jesus' complete willingness and obedience to the Father to go through the agony of crucifixion ...