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A FEW PERSONAL THOUGHTS If you are visiting this site for the first time, you have probably come through an interest in Genealogy or Matchbox Toys! This page is intended to say something about the "bottom line". Genealogy could go - after all, does it really matter who my great-great-great grandfather was? It is interesting to know but it will hardly change my life (or anyone else's for that matter) when (if) I find out. Matchbox Toys could go, too. (I sense a range of reactions to that remark!) But they are only toys. Yes, I even said that in the heyday of my collecting in the 1970s. As I have had to explain more than once, I don't push them around on the floor any more than a stamp collector sticks his collection on envelopes and pushes them through letter-boxes! The common denominator is the Hunt, be it a hunt for people, things or information. Then sort it all out and if others want to know, tell them too. But, get it right. Yes, I am a perfectionist, but not as much as I was half a lifetime ago! One does learn - a little! That goes, too, with the Maths teaching - problem-solving can be very satisfying. But there is only one certainty in Life - and that's Death. Thank God, Death is not the End - or it needn't be (John 3: 16-18). Life begins at ... the point where one discovers the Living God, shown to us in His Son, Jesus Christ. Only those of you who know it for yourselves can appreciate, with me, what it is to have sin forgiven (Romans 3: 23, Romans 6: 23). Knowing a God (unlike the gods we are all tempted to worship) who is big enough to love and care for anyone and everyone who is willing to respond to that love is an amazing thing. All four of my grand-parents made that discovery for themselves a hundred and fifty years ago, give or take a decade or two. They pointed their children in the same direction and both my parents took Jesus on board. They showed me the Way, too. There's nothing automatic in all this. This is a God who loves a sin-sick world. He doesn't want automatons. People have chosen to go their own way. He doesn't set right every wrong! But He is a Friend indeed. Some of you, I know, would happily assert that in Christ there is a dimension to life that is not known in any other setting. (Acts 4: 12) Praise God, it's true! I guess some of you have already said (or thought), "I don't expect preaching on a web site". Surprise! Surprise! But it would be a con if I didn't tell you where I stand. Links to a separate page will take you to the text of the Bible references I have given. We Christians didn't think this up ourselves! Also, there, you will find a little more about my grand-parents who, although I only ever knew one of them, must have played a significant part in my own life. A public forum such as this is not the place to say more! Below are links to one or two useful web sites, including that of my own Church (and some sermon notes). Possibly - just possibly - someone will check up on all this and be pleased with what they find. A few years ago, M. in our Church discovered a Bible hidden in some corner of her house. It had a marker in it. When she looked again later, the marker had moved. It went on moving as her husband, T., read, and read and read. He came to know Christ as his Saviour. Yes, M. was praying as well as watching! Then there was K. whose mum, X., followed her to Christ but would her dad, L., go the same way? Never!? But he did and that was way back in the 'eighties ....... I've coded their initials, although I reckon they'd all be only too happy to share testimony to any and all! I hope you are not offended by any of the above. It is sometimes called 'the offence of the gospel'. I get embarrassed by much of what I have said, but I've got to say it .... Unless the LORD builds the house, its builders labor in vain. So says Psalm 127: 1. Geoffrey Go Top of PageIf you have stayed as far as this, maybe you should go further. Christ died for all (2 Corinthians 5: 15). That must include you, just as much as anyone else. He makes the first move, but what next ...? Take a look at one of these ... My Church It could begin here Billy Graham |
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