Thursday 16 November 2017

No Access

My daughter and I had arranged a few week ago to have a trip over to Three Shire Heads. I had seen photographs on Pinterest and thought how beautiful it was, and that I would be able to get some lovely photos. We also decided that if the weather was in our favour we would take the dogs with us, my daughter has two Chihuahuas. The scenery on the way there was beautiful, I must admit I am bias when it comes to Derbyshire, there are some amazing places. And although the sun wasn’t shining, still it did not detract from the beautiful scenery we were passing through. We were relying on Satnav for directions, and we stopped at a village called Harlington, with the usual Derbyshire stone featuring in the buildings, it had a lovely B and B called Parson’s House, which I took a photo of for future reference, thinking that I might have a couple of nights stay there and explore the village and surrounding countryside.


We set off again after stretching our legs, the puppies included, and continued on our journey to Three Shire Heads, or so we thought! But it was not to be, we found ourselves on a dirt track, the only traffic scramble bikes. We did park up and let the puppies have a walk, but we were not to see the Three Shires Heads. We did however have a lovely walk along Cromford Canal before returning home, we even found three treasure rocks, which we now have to re-hide. I couldn't understand why we couldn't find our way, after all we had the sat nav and I had looked on Google. But I hadn't done a thorough search, I had taken the first thing I read, there was much more to this journey than I thought.

I was reminded of the passage of scripture where the Lord Jesus, says to some, "l know you not, depart from me you workers of iniquity." They were false converts, they were people who had chosen a different path than that on which the Lord commands we must go. They could not enter heaven via the route they had taken. Many people have a false idea of going to heaven, they ignore the fact that Jesus said that there is only one way to the Father, and that is through Him. Salvation and eternal life cannot be bought, earned, worked for, and neither does any man deserve it. 

We have clear instructions on how to receive forgiveness, salvation and eternal life from God, in His word, the Holy Bible. Repent of your sin, everyone is a sinner, everyone has broken Gods laws, and therefore we a condemned. But Christ took our punishment on the cross. When we break the law of our land, then we are judged, found guilty and punished, so too with the law of God, we have broken Gods laws, we are guilty and will be punished. No one can escape Gods justice, our only hope is Jesus, He took our place, He was punished so that we would not have to be. 



Friday 3 November 2017

Investment

I recently went to Liverpool for an overnight stay, I have never been before and I must admit I was pleasantly surprised, it wasn't at all as I imagined. We had called at Chester on the way there, which is another lovely city with a wealth of history going back to Roman times, I spent a few hours there and walked along the city wall, and explored the amphitheatre.

I didn't explore Liverpool until the following day, armed with my Google map I went down to the docks and spent a couple of hours in the various museums, and took lots of photos of the Mersey.  As I came from the quayside an open top bus was about to leave on a tour of the city, and so I spent the next fifty-five minutes sightseeing from the top of a bus, and being told interesting facts by the tour guide about the various sights.


After that it was over to the Cavern club to see where the Beatles began. Then it was time to go for the coach home. What you may well ask, has any of this got to do with the title of this blog, investment? Absolutely nothing, unless you count the time and money invested in this overnight stay, no, it has more to do with something someone said to me as we were having dinner in the hotel. They asked if I had seen this weeks episode of Strictly Dancing, my reply being, no, as I don't own a TV. The lady suggested that I should invest in a television, mmmmm, I didn't ponder on this long it wasn't an investment I was interested in. I decided I would look up exactly what the definition for investment was:
The act of putting money, effort, time, etc. into something to make a profit or get and advantage, or the money, effort, time, etc. used to do this: 

What I wondered, would be the advantage of having a television, my decision, none. It would more likely be a hindrance and distraction to the things that I do. Would I be more likely, I wondered, to sit in front of the TV rather than sit and study the Word of God. My time would be better invested in studying God’s Word, and doing His will. The benefits of this are for my wellbeing, spirit, soul and body. Not only in the here and now but for eternity. I am not saying that there is anything wrong with owning a TV, but if it interferes with our walk with the Lord Jesus, and our spiritual growth, then we have a problem. Of course, this doesn’t just apply to the TV, but to anything. The internet, the kind of books we read, the music we listen to, the places we go, and the company we keep, all have an impact on our lives and how we invest our time, gifts and talents. How we invest our time etc. is important, we only have one natural life, there is no practise run, so we must invest wisely.


Colossians 3:23 And whatever you do, do it heartily, 
as to the Lord and not to men.