Psalm 95:3-5 ESV

³ For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods. ⁴ In his hand are the depths of the earth; the heights of the mountains are his also. ⁵ The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land.

When Lynda and I climbed up the steps at the isthmus on Bruny Island, the view and visibility was remarkable. I thought of the majesty and wonder of God’s creation – looking out to sea on the western side, it was inviting you to stare straight to NZ, such was the clarity and breathtaking scenery on that day. For me it was a great reminder of these verses from Psalm 95, with the sea and the land so close together in this scene.

And then way down below, I noticed the man-made walkway. To me the contrast was almost humorous – ‘look at what man can do’ vs ‘look at what God has already done’…I mean seriously, the best we can do is put up a very temporary structure on a breathtaking creation. As well, our structure needs ongoing maintenance whilst Jesus does not have to get up every morning and wind up the wave machine again so that they will keep arriving on the shoreline!

Sometimes I think it’s important to keep perspective and literally “be still and know that I am God” in Psalm 46:10a.

And yet, this same individual that made the sea (and obviously everything in it!!) and formed the dry land with His hands, wants, effectively, to be our best friend (please read the following verses slowly and deliberately):

2 Corinthians 6:16 English Standard Version - ¹⁶ What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, “I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. (Underline mine)

Ephesians 1:3-14 - ³ Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, ⁴ even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love ⁵ he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, ⁶ to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. ⁷ In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, ⁸ which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight ⁹ making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ ¹⁰ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. ¹¹ In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, ¹² so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. ¹³ In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, ¹⁴ who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.

You are much more important to Jesus, our precious Holy Spirit and to Father God than you will ever realise. We all are – and that’s why we must treat each other the same way Jesus treats us. I think Paul's words of Ephesians 4:32 need to be very loud in our ears - ³² Be kind to one another, tender hearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.

Every person is precious. Treat them that way. Every person is flawed. Forgive them always. Every person is vital. Love them with that understanding. Every person is accepted and forgiven by Jesus when they truly repent. Respect them, honour them and support them in their journey. Walkways are useful but people are eternal.

What else is there to say from mans perspective, apart from thankyou, thankyou, thankyou Jesus. 

Christmas Blessings

Lynda and I pray that you enjoyed a wonderful and safe time with loved ones and were able to keep the Lord at the centre of your Christmas. Whilst its critical that each year we make sure that Jesus is preached well and truly at Christmas time especially, of late it seems that the “covid message” seems to triumph all.

It's very important that we maintain focus, maintain correct priorities, maintain grace and compassion towards each other and keep the main thing the main thing, whilst the government leaders and officials continue down their paths of, quite obviously, “no idea whatsoever in what to do and how to manage our nation”. 

Quite literally Christmas came and went for our household, in a blur. We pray that it was more restful and peaceful and your home. We were praying for you - may the Lord kept you safe at that time as well as all times. 😊. 

2021 - The Last Quarter

The last quarter of last year was probably the toughest I’ve had at work, or certainly can recall. Lots of very long hours – however praise the Lord, I did manage to get some significant results for the Kingdom of God which was truly a blessing. It took its toll though. Personally, both Lynda and I finished the year well, but tired. Praise God 2021 is gone – I’m not sorry to see it go either!

My sincere apologies for my lack of communication throughout the last period. I did manage to catch up on some things across the brief / interrupted two weeks I had off but with borders opening for the holidays and moving goalposts in the covid arena it was important to try and stay across things. Very little was done for Living Success across that last quarter, which added greatly to my personal frustration and annoyance.

While navigating through the last few months, the Lord quickened to my spirit Proverbs 24:19-20  ESV,

¹⁹ Fret not yourself because of evildoers, and be not envious of the wicked, ²⁰ for the evil man has no future; the lamp of the wicked will be put out. 

Ultimately, God’s got this – we just need to get on with what we need to do and keep perspective on what’s going on around us. Jesus doesn’t need my help in running the Universe, He does however welcome and enjoy my participation when it comes to assisting others…to such a degree that my final judgement will (partially) include my efforts for others. 

Remember – when fatigue moves in, faith and focus often move out.

That said, we have resolved to implement many changes in 2022, which have already started.

2022 – Yay! – Our Year of Progress!

1 Timothy 4:15-16 ESV

¹⁵ Practice these things, immerse yourself in them,^[c] so that all may see your progress. ¹⁶ Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers. (Underline mine…)

Such powerful instruction on keeping the main thing, the main thing – and a real warning about personal disciplines.

So far in 2022:

• Our podcasts are currently being vetted and summaries written,
• the new intros and outros for the radio program are underway,
• more work is already being done on our website
• filming the video clips for the website has started
• I’ve been working on the transition from LSCC NSW incorporation to a Tasmanian incorporation as the legal entity. Bit involved there but we are into it.

and I am much more at peace with how things are shaping for moving forward.

The ‘much more strict boundaries’ that are in place are working, my time management is much better and “No – I’m not available” or “I’m already booked up” is working really well so far.

2022 has been a breath of fresh air, so far at least. Oh no doubt there will be challenges but a great start to the year certainly helps with releasing a momentum to build upon.  I am really looking forward to the year end when we can look back and be astounded over what the Lord has done in 2022.

You can tell I’m very excited about this year – both mentally and deep in my spirit.

The Weather Cleared up and We Got Some Firebreak Work Done  

Finally! We got the Positrack back and managed to do some maintenance work on the fire trails on the block. Just a day, but it did manage to get us access to a couple of big trees that had come down across them which was great.

So important to reduce fuel for bushfires and very importantly to make use of the timber that is down. We can now get on with so much more seeing that there is a bit of access through the property. Very importantly the Rural Fire Brigade has access now for their vehicles should they need it. However, there has been good rain so far in January for a few days and the fire threat this year is greatly reduced praise the Lord. 

I’ll start some slabbing very soon now we have some access and get some benches etc ready for our builds as they progress over the next year or two. By the time we need them, the slabs will have dried out sufficiently and the movement stopped.

What isn’t suitable will be turned into firewood.

Radio

The next program into the dropbox will be program 928. We have 72 programs / weeks to go to 1000 weeks of radio. 72 More programs is Sunday 4^th June 2023 – that’s when program no. 1000 will air with God’s grace.

Lets pray that will unfold in the natural course of things with the Lords guiding hand. Thank you for your love and support in this, across the last 18+ years.