When Pauline and I first arrived in Canada it was a struggle. We lived in a little cottage in the Big Woods and barely survived our first two winters.
I had a single pair of shoes in which I worked and then polished up on Sundays to preach. I got another pair of preaching shoes but I continued to work in my first pair. At the end of year three (1977) this is what they looked like.
I could have thrown them in the trash but I felt that they deserved to be bronzed and handed to my grand-children as a remembrance of the early years when Pauline and I were still "colonists".
If ever I am tempted to become complacent or unthankful for God's blessings in my life I can always take a trip to the basement and remind myself of the road that Pauline and I started down nearly forty years ago.
Moses did something like that when he kept a pot of manna from the forty year journey in the wilderness.
Perhaps the Lord was saying:
"If you forget me when you are eating well in the land of milk and honey I can always put you back on bread and water!"
Maybe you are going through your own hard times. Don't stop trusting God, look for a memento and, in a few years time, you will have a story to tell.
Ian
Here is a shot of "Chez Nous" taken by a neighbour before a thunderstorm broke.
The rainbow goes right through the roof. The pot of gold is the family who live under it.
In the ancient world God made a covenant with Noah and said that He would seal the deal with a "Bow in the sky"
That same covenant is good to this day.
The secret is to stay under the arch of God's presence and protection when the storms of life are seeking to blow you everywhere else.
Why don't you read proverbs 3:5-6 this morning and believe the Lord will put His rainbow of blessing over your own house?
Jubilate.
Ian
Here is a text that we have on our dining room wall. It is taken from Psalm 48:13-14.
When Pauline and I were married we had this text engraved upon our wedding bands. Our kids knew about this and presented us with the verse beautifully scripted in copper plate handwriting for our fortieth wedding anniversary.
You will notice that the prelude to the verse reads :
"That you may tell it to the generation following."
That phrase is crucial to the perpetuation of the Christian faith to our children.
The Jewish people were commanded to put the Word of God upon the portals and walls of their houses. In this way their children would learn the Word and be able to recall the gracious dealings of God with them and with their ancestors.
When a generation is allowed to grow up without God, His Word and the testimony of their forbears, irreparable damage is done.
The church, ever since it's birth at Pentecost, has always been one generation from extinction. Nothing simply happens of itself; nothing good that is.
Parents stay with the programme and put the Word of God on the walls of your children's minds.
If you don't, Hollywood and Much Music will be only too happy to make them infidels.
Ian
Yesterday I posted the sign "Straight Street", nailed to the 60 foot high oak tree in my back-garden.
Today we have a picture of the two fish which are painted on the front curb of my property on Florence Park Road.
As you can see, we have a brown one which the city officials use to denote the flow of the sewers. The other is a white one swimming the opposite direction. I put that there myself.
Which ever way the sewer of society is flowing my family is going against it.
One of my early mentors was a an extra-ordinary individual called Ken TerHoven, a South African evangelist.
I remember him saying:
"Any dead fish can float down stream; it takes a live one to swim against the current."
I've carried that principle with me for the past forty five years, and endeavoured to live by it.
Thus the two fish on my curb-side.
Today's thoughts are dedicated to the memory of Ken TerHoven and the thousands of young lives that he influenced for Jesus Christ.
Ian
This week I'm doing a series which I've titled "Our House".
It is not intended to be a royal tour, but each of our homes has some unique aspect to it. Here are five that come from mine in Canada.
We live on a road called Florence Park. The sign is on the front lamp standard. In the back garden I have nailed a second sign
"Straight Street" to an oak tree.
For the distance of ten houses we have no fences built so our back gardens have a park-like effect and run in a straight line.
More importantly the sign "Straight Street" is where Paul the Apostle was sent after his conversion on the way to Damascus.
I was preaching on that subject to a men's meeting. I said that each person who comes to Christ should immediately go to an address called "Straight Street" and live there for the rest of their lives. For Christians crooked living is OVER, period.
At Christmas that year, one of the men who works for the city of Barrie presented me with the sign made by the roads department and autographed by all the men who heard the message.
Neat eh!
Ian
