Are you thinking about cleaning up your life?

 

Around the House

It's funny but true that most of us like to get things cleaned up regularly. Maybe some of us leave it a little longer than others but eventually, we feel the need to get into action. It might be washing the car, tidying the garden or cleaning the house.

The East Sussex Maze

 

All photos courtesy of Unsplash

‘Did you hear about’ the Christian farmer in East Sussex who spent years planting and pruning thousands of willow trees to create a Bible verse that can be read on from the sky? Peter Gunner, who is 63, has been at it from the 1990s on his farm near Whitesmith, East Sussex, where he lives with his wife, with the appropriate name Faith.  He chose John chapter 14 verse 6 to patiently cultivate. The willow trees spell out words spoken in answer to Thomas’s question, ‘How can we know the way’, Jesus replies, ‘I am the way, the truth and the life’. As well as a message, his carefully spaced trees form a maze. Peter and faith had help from friends to plant the ‘many thousands’ of willow trees.

 

The maze has been used by friends and members of their local church and although Peter and Faith knew that their maze was well set out, it was only after a number of years they were shown a picture of it taken from above from a helicopter. Peter said that every time he sees a plane going over, he offers up a little prayer that people will see the verse!

 

So, close up it’s a maze with people trying hard to find their way through, but from above it’s an easily read message. Sometimes people find Bible truth like that, but if they move their standpoint, all becomes clear. For instance, take the person of Jesus Christ. From an earthly point of view, many people try to understand Him and what He said, and in doing so they have difficulties and have to discount so much of what the Bible states that He did and said – it’s a maze. They, having pared away what they don’t want, they have cut their own way through the maze to produce a teacher Who, for instance, taught the golden rule – ‘do unto others as you would have them do unto you’, etc. 

Bridging the Gap

One aspect of history that always captures my interest is the story of the Titanic. If there was ever an enduring picture of a disastrous end, it is the story of the Titanic. The Titanic had a great start. It was the greatest ship ever built and had all the latest security features. It was said of the Titanic that "God could not sink her!"  The whole world knew about this man-made wonder, and still do today, and yet she sailed for only 5 days. However, the Titanic was doomed as it left for New York. This is because normal shipping practices were disregarded and this eventually led to tragedy. All the warnings and words of wisdom were ignored.  Captain Edward John Smith, remembered for his stoicism and fortitude in the face of adversity, sadly is remembered more for his failure to reach the destination of New York"

One of the fads of 1970s America was the motorcycle jump. This trend reached its high (and low) point on September 8, 1974. Thousands of spectators gathered around the Snake River Canyon in Idaho to see if Evel Knievel could jump across the chasm in a specially designed “sky cycle.” In the end, however, it was unsuccessful. Knievel made it only part of the way across the gulf before his parachute deployed and he dropped to the canyon floor below. Some spectators asked, “How far across the canyon did he get?” But that wasn’t the point. He didn’t make it all the way across, so he fell short of his goal.

Big Brother is watching!

 

Photos courtesy of Unsplash

In this busy world, where so many prying eyes are frequently upon us, it is difficult to escape the surveillance that we are so often under. Transactions carried out, using our credit cards, mean that we can be easily tracked and our movements monitored. CCTV cameras are everywhere and with sites like Google Earth, very little remains secret; complete strangers can visit our homes and move down our streets, undetected. "Big Brother Is Watching!"