OzThoughts –Tuesday 6th May, 2008
[See Note about Gold Coast Temple Band visit to Tamworth Corps, New South Wales, during the past weekend below]
In the days following the resurrection and then the Ascension of Jesus in Heaven, the Disciples and his other followers obeyed him by waiting. I imagine that they had mixed feelings as they waited.
There would be anxiety about the future. Some would probably be guessing what might happen next. There would be those who told them they were foolish. There would be those who tried to convince them they were wrong.
Some of the Disciples and followers would recall individually and together the things that Jesus had taught them.
Quite a few years ago I listened to an Officer Teacher who most times she spoke to us, which was several times a week, exhorted us to sort out our ‘priorit-trees’.
‘Prioritrees’ or priorities is the subject Jesus speaks about often. In Luke Chapter 16 Jesus says
If you're honest in small things, you'll be honest in big things; 11 If you're a crook in small things, you'll be a crook in big things. 12 If you're not honest in small jobs, who will put you in charge of the store? 13 No worker can serve two bosses: He'll either hate the first and love the second Or adore the first and despise the second. You can't serve both God and the Bank. (Luke 16 10-13).
Jesus says clearly that we have to make choices about how we live and who we serve. Here Jesus is talking about money and how our financial affairs can detract us from God.
If we want to live for God then God will be our priority. It will be what God wants, not what we want that controls our lives.
PRAYER:
Father God, help me to live according to your plan today. There are lots of things and people who will distract me from your purposes. I pray that the Holy Spirit of Jesus might give me power to live in a way that pleases you. Amen.
MEDITATION:
I bring my heart to Jesus, with its fears,
With its hopes and feelings, and its tears;
Him it seeks, and finding, it is blest;
Him it loves, and loving, is at rest.
Walking with my Saviour, heart in heart,
None can part.
I bring my life to Jesus, with its care,
And before his footstool leave it there;
Faded are its treasures, poor and dim;
It is not worth living without him.
More than life is Jesus, love and peace,
Ne'er to cease.
I bring my sins to Jesus, as I pray
That his blood will wash them all away;
While I seek for favor at his feet,
And with tears his promise still repeat,
He doth tell me plainly; Jesus lives
And forgives.
I bring my all to Jesus; he hath seen
How my soul desireth to be clean.
Nothing from his altar I withhold
When his cross of suffering I behold;
And the fire descending brings to me
Liberty.
Author: Herbert Howard Booth (1862-1926)
The Salvation Army Song Book: Song Number: 420
Gold Coast Temple Band visit to Tamworth Corps Thank you to all who supported the visit of the Gold Coast Temple Band to Tamworth Corps in New South Wales over this past weekend. The visit went very well and I am sure our goals of encouraging the Officers and Soldiers and taking the gospel to those in need of Christ was met. It was good to see people kneeling at the mercy seat at the end of the Sunday Morning Meeting.
Tamworth Corps has a Mission Statement based on the word "Others". Hanging at the rear of the Sanctuary was a black banner with the word "Others" spelt out in large white letters. Then under it were the words also in white: Redeem, Restore, Renew in the name of Jesus Christ.
At the end of the visit each bandsman was presented with a small torch with the word "Others" on it. As it was presented to us it was a reminder of the Corps motto and also the fact that Tamworth was the first town in Australia with electric light.
Two of our bandsmen live in Melbourne but join our band for some months during winter on the Gold Coast and at other times when on the Gold Coast. They travelled to the Gold Coast from Melbourne for final rehearsals then travelled to Tamworth with us. One actually made two return air trips (1700 kms or 2 hours each way) to attend rehearsal nights before arriving on the Gold Coast by car in time for the final two rehearsals. Another Officer who was transferred away from us in January also joined us for the weekend.
We praise God for his guidance and presence during our preparation, travels, and the weekend events
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