Tuesday, July 30, 2019

Own it

During my stint of a few years at boarding school it was common practice to make application for leave to go to things like appointments, extra activities, sports practices and the like.
The process was that at lunchtime you completed a form and then after school you looked on a special board to see if your application got accepted.
Lots of my fellow students would lie and put fake details down just so they could try and meet a girl in the local park. Invariably they would get caught. Get in trouble. Found it harder to get leave later.

In the course of time I too wanted to meet a young lady in the local park.
Instead of making up a story and risk getting caught out, I thought why not just be honest, stipulate on the form what I was really going to do, and see what happens. The worst they could say was no.
To my surprise when I checked the leave board later in the day my leave was accepted.

This was a practice I used for nearly a year.
Every time I was just honest.
And every time I got my leave accepted.
It used to drive the other guys crazy because they were always getting turned down.
Eventually I asked the Boarding Manager why I was always given leave. His answer was "you are the only one who told the truth so I accepted your applications".

Lately I have had some interactions with people that have left me a little cold. Some people have lied to my face recently.
While the truth would be potentially difficult for either of us, it would have been so much better.

Scripture tells us that the very first occurrence of sin happened as a result of a lie.
The devil acting a serpent said to Eve, "Did God really say..." and "you will certainly not die" in reference to tempting her with fruit from a tree in the Garden of Eden.
The lie hurt everyone involved. Nothing good came from it.

Lying is a short term reaction that actually restricts you later.
Many people from childhood learn that lying can potentially get you out of a fix. But it doesn't most of the time. It robs you of relationship. It restricts you going forward.
I have noticed that we use lying as a protection mechanism. But yet again it only restricts us further.
Truth is the only thing that will set us free!

Check out this simple and yet 'true' statements from Scripture for a moment...

Proverbs 12:22 niv
The Lord detests lying lips,
but he delights in people who are trustworthy.

Colossians 3:9 niv
Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices.

My heart for you is that you are able to enter into everything that God has for you. Lying won't help your cause.
Please be brave and honest and then you will more and more free!

Something to think about...

Wednesday, July 24, 2019

Bring It

Where ever you go.
Where ever you end up.
It is never an accident!
And God has designed it to bring His blessing.

Jeremiah 29:7 says...
Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the LORD for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper. NIV

You are pretty amazing in Christ!
You have the divine opportunity to make somewhere far better than the way you found it. Even it feels kind of like a place of exile to you, God is with you, and wants you to begin to pray for its transformation.

God isn't asking you to publish its faults on Social Media in a vain hope to bring change.
God isn't asking you to do all you can to escape your current locale.
What God wants to do today is encourage you to pray for His blessing, His mercy, His grace, His goodness to be poured so much into it and onto it, that it actually begins to prosper.
Your prayer today will begin a course of chain reactions that sees heaven move and transformation begin.
Super exciting isn't it when you think about it?
Amazing that God is waiting potentially on you before He moves...

So right now, are you happy in the place you are?
Does it appear to be prospering?
Your marriage, your job, even your Church might not be all you hoped and dreamed it could be...
Your task right now my friend is to just pray.
Please know that prayer will make all the difference!

Something to think about...

Sunday, July 21, 2019

Looking for your feedback/advice...

Hi everyone!
Before I mention what feedback / advice I am looking for, please know I am super honoured to have you visit and check out my 'Simple Thoughts'.
I am constantly staggered by how many of you are from countries I could only dream of being able to visit.

Recently I looked and discovered this blog began very humbly and without much of a plan over 14 years ago. In that time we have produced over 700 'Simple Thoughts' just like what you have seen each week.
I have been seriously thinking about the future of this blog and wondering whether I could make it even better for you? Could and should I leap into the world of video blogging along with this traditional model? Or do I continue with the status quo?

So here is what I would truly love to have from you...I would like your feedback...
Either by leaving a comment below or by sending me an email to locky@taupoelim.nz.

  • If I started a video blog would you check it out? Maybe prefer it?
  • Do you like my current format or want something different?
  • Would you consider supporting my work via Patreon or similar system?

I will sign off now and wait for your response.
Thanks for sharing the joining with me.

Much love to you all!
Locky

Saturday, July 20, 2019

#FaithPix (20 July 2019)


So here is the deal...
Let's post 1 positive and encouraging faith based picture and/or Bible Verse each day for 5 days.
Let’s spread the 'good news' around a digital world…

Share your #FaithPix along with me and let's see what God does with it...
July 16th - July 20th 2019.

Something to not just think about but do...

*Please don't share stuff to condemn or purposely upset others. Let's share what will build others up. Let's share what will bring someone else hope. Let's share about who we really believe God to be*

Friday, July 19, 2019

#FaithPix (19 July 2019)



So here is the deal...
Let's post 1 positive and encouraging faith based picture and/or Bible Verse each day for 5 days.
Let’s spread the 'good news' around a digital world…

Share your #FaithPix along with me and let's see what God does with it...
July 16th - July 20th 2019.

Something to not just think about but do...

*Please don't share stuff to condemn or purposely upset others. Let's share what will build others up. Let's share what will bring someone else hope. Let's share about who we really believe God to be*

Thursday, July 18, 2019

#FaithPix (18 July 2019)


So here is the deal...
Let's post 1 positive and encouraging faith based picture and/or Bible Verse each day for 5 days.
Let’s spread the 'good news' around a digital world…

Share your #FaithPix along with me and let's see what God does with it...
July 16th - July 20th 2019.

Something to not just think about but do...

*Please don't share stuff to condemn or purposely upset others. Let's share what will build others up. Let's share what will bring someone else hope. Let's share about who we really believe God to be*

Wednesday, July 17, 2019

#FaithPix (17 July 2019)


So here is the deal...
Let's post 1 positive and encouraging faith based picture and/or Bible Verse each day for 5 days.
Let’s spread the 'good news' around a digital world…

Share your #FaithPix along with me and let's see what God does with it...
July 16th - July 20th 2019.

Something to not just think about but do...

*Please don't share stuff to condemn or purposely upset others. Let's share what will build others up. Let's share what will bring someone else hope. Let's share about who we really believe God to be*

Tuesday, July 16, 2019

#FaithPix (16 July 2019)


So here is the deal...
Let's post 1 positive and encouraging faith based picture and/or Bible Verse each day for 5 days.
Let’s spread the 'good news' around a digital world…

Share your #FaithPix along with me and let's see what God does with it...
July 16th - July 20th 2019.

Something to not just think about but do...

*Please don't share stuff to condemn or purposely upset others. Let's share what will build others up. Let's share what will bring someone else hope. Let's share about who we really believe God to be*

#FaithPix


In the vain of wanting to change things up a little this week with my Blog, plus do something that might help others...I am launching #FaithPix.
Even if it only helps one person in their moment of needing some hope, that is ok with me!

Right now my digital world is either filled with advertisements for many things I either don't want or can't afford.
It is filled with people hating others over their political leanings.
It is filled with people sharing how offended they are.
Let's change that a little for 5 days!

So here is the deal...
Let's post 1 positive and encouraging faith based picture and/or Bible Verse each day for 5 days.
Let’s spread the 'good news' around a digital world…

Share your #FaithPix along with me and let's see what God does with it...
July 16th - July 20th 2019.

Something to not just think about but do...

*Please don't share stuff to condemn or purposely upset others. Let's share what will build others up. Let's share what will bring someone else hope. Let's share about who we really believe God to be*


Tuesday, July 09, 2019

Trying to Breath?

Have you ever had that sensation where you were out of breath?
If you have you will know it is not the most pleasant!

I remember having croup as a young kid, waking up in a panic struggling to breath, finding it nearly impossible to call out to my mum for help.
I remember getting 'winded' playing sport, lying on the ground struggling to get another breath of air in. Like my body had forgotten how to breath on its own.
In the last few years I learned I have the occasional sleep apnea, where I stopped breathing properly, walking up panicked gasping for air.

I have been thinking today about this for a very specific and different reason.
As someone doing all I can to follow Jesus, I need to breath.
And I am not just talking about the natural breath we take for granted that will naturally flow in and out. I am referring to the very Spirit of God in my life.

God's Word speaks clearly that the Spirit of God is like a wind.
Both the Old and New Testaments speak in those terms with the ruwach and pneuma to describe the Spirit of God.
The Holy Spirit is to your walk with Christ like the very air your breath. Without air your struggle to survive and I would say it is the same with the Spirit of God. It is hard to follow Jesus, impossible to see His power in and through us, without the abiding breath of God.
Just as God breathed life into Adam on the day he first came alive, God wants to breath upon you by His Spirit so that you in turn come alive.

Can I encourage you this week to ask the breath of God to fill you each and every moment of each and every day?
Ask Him in the morning before you rise.
Ask Him in the evening before you retire.
You don't have to continue to struggle to breath any longer!

Something to think about...

Wednesday, July 03, 2019

Opinionators

All around the world we have 'opinionators'.
They are maybe a precursor to the fictional terminators of the movie franchise fame?
Without robot and AI enhanced skills, they show the same dogged determination to attack what they are programmed to attack.

The most important thing to an opinionator is their opinion.
And you better watch out if your opinion doesn't match their opinion!
Their strategy for dealing with an opinion or philosophical position different to them is simple...
Don't like someones idea. Attack.
Don't agree with someones faith. Attack.
Can't relate to someone else's values. Attack.

Everyone can have an opinion.
But having an opinion doesn’t make you any more right about an issue or a subject.
Opinions are not always fact.
Opinions can change at any time if something else convinces it otherwise.

Listen, opinions and the dealing with them is as old as humanity itself.
Every generation has had issues pertaining to differences of opinion.
I don't want to focus on it today, but the dam that held the extreme reactions at bay for a number of generations has been removed. Manners, respect, decorum are nearly extinct in many quarters, so the flood has arrived.
So what can you and I do to operate the best in a world of rampant opinionators?

Jesus asked his friend, his disciples a strange question one day.
"Who do people say I am?"
Essentially he was eliciting a response to all the opinions swelling around about Him at the time for a very pointed reason.
One by one they fire off their answers back to Jesus.
"Some say John the Baptist".
"Others say Elijah". 
"And still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets".
If you have read this before, did you notice they all referred to Jesus as a dead guy?
They said He was like any number of dead people. Weird!
It is just my opinion, but I can't help wonder whether they knew something was special about Jesus but didn't want to acknowledge it fully? All they felt comfortable doing was forming opinions on Him based on the history they understand around a bunch of dead guys.

Jesus then does something truly important and key to this issue. He turns to Peter, looks him right in the eye and directs His question on a truly personal level.
“But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”
Peter is being most pointedly asked by Jesus to say who he thinks Jesus is. To forget about the opinionators and their biased thoughts on who He is.

Today I want to encourage you to put some blinkers on as it were to the world of raging and swirling opinions. They have become a polluted ocean. A cesspit of anger. Devoid of hope.
If you want to know Jesus, want to understand the Kingdom, get connected to the source of it all.
What you think and understand on a personal level is what God is most interested in.
Build your own relationship with God.
Do you own research.
Go back to the source of life and I believe you grow far beyond opinion.

Something to think about...