DEVOTION with the Notice of the Auckland Central/West Joy Ministries Sunday 14 April 2013 service
I (Malcolm Dixon) hope you all had a great Christmas and summer holidays during January. We have been blessed with lovely fine weather. My wife and I had 3 weeks holiday away from Auckland in January, the first 10 days spent with my sister Kathleen and her husband David, at their place in Otaki Forks (near Wellington), 14 km from the main highway
– no mains power, no phone, no internet, no mobile phone, no Facebook, no TV – “cold turkey” (that means – all access to what we think is important was SUDDENLY cut off!). So the holiday became a HOLYday.
- God can speak to us in the little things.
- We are more likely to be able to hear from God when we slow our life down.
- Do we need to live life in the fast lane all the time?”
Question: Do you regularly take a break? The apostle Paul said in Hebrews chapter 4, we are to “enter into God’s rest”.
In their eco house, they harness energy from the sun (using solar panels), a small waterfall (with a small hydro), and the wind (with a wind turbine shaped like an aircraft propeller) – and store the power in batteries. When it gets cold, they have a wood furnace, heating water that flows through pipes in the concrete floor of their lounge.
Question: What source of POWER is in our life? – Jesus, the Bible (reading and meditating on what God is saying to you), prayer, the Holy Spirit, meeting regularly with other believers (church, home group, Joy Ministries), taking communion?
I SLEPT heaps. I didn’t know I needed so much, but my body did! It was catch-up time. Do I have to live life so close to the edge the rest of the year? Do I have to be involved in so many things? Do I have to go to bed so late when I’m at home?
I had very vivid DREAMS, and in colour too. I also read BOOKS, from David and Kathleen’s LIBRARY, written by well-known and respected Christian authors.
One book challenged me – about eating properly – for my “inner man”, my spiritual life. How does it get fed?
By JUST going to church, and hearing the sermon preached once a week, or a weekend conference at church?
By JUST reading or hearing a Devotion that someone has written – after meditating on some verses in the Bible?
By JUST going to the monthly Joy Ministries service?
I thought of a baby seagull being fed by its mother seagull – the mother seagull had already chewed the food (fish), then brought it back up to feed the baby seagull. Most of us have Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner – 3 meals a day.
After we got back from holiday, a pastor from Adelaide at a conference at Horizon Church said to me, “I see you have started eating properly again”. How did he know?