Christian Helps

(an Easter Poem) by Gerald Gossage

 

The tearful women lit their candles

Moving silently in soft trod sandles.

Each had planned what they would find

And went collecting each item in mind.

Water for washing poured into a skin,

The towels, and a garment to wrap Him in.

Two basins, one to wash the blood away

Ointment and scent, to last many a day.

So many things they have to carry;

It would soon be dawn, so they must hurry.

Wrapping up warm they went into the night

Through darkened streets that showed no light.

As dawn broke, City gates opened wide

Pass shadowy soldiers they try to hide.

Down to the Garden, and down to the tomb,

How would they open that great door stone ?

Would anyone help them ? Dare they ask ?

Could they accomplish their compassionate task ?

Then descending the steps: They stood there in shock.

The door was open, they’d moved the rock.

Where was their Jesus ? There’s no one inside.

The grave clothes were there, but nothing beside !

Tears get worse if you think He’s not risen

So this Easter capture a quite new vision.

Don’t work and live as if He was dead

There’s a glorious future with Him ahead.

He made you, He loves you, get to know Him as friend

And He will be with you right up to the end.

____________________

There are things that your friends get up to that you may never have known about. I would never have guessed that a friend of mine was interested in archery until it came out in conversation. Keen on telling me about his hobby I discovered that he had several bows, and belonged to a group who practiced every week.

He showed me how to hold a bow, but seemed very reluctant to let me use an arrow. However I wanted to “have a go” and finally shot an arrow, missing the tree I had aimed at; the arrow disappeared, and my friend was cross at the loss of his arrow. “You never shoot unless you have a proper target” he told me, and I have remembered that ever since..

As Christians sometimes we lack a “Proper Target” . It is not just going to church, Communing with God, Reading God’s Word. Turning our Faith into action.

We need to “Look where we are going”. Those who are committed to -, believe on,- the Lord Jesus Christ are on a journey to Heaven, That is your target, look to it, aim for it. This world is just a testing ground to prepare us for this our desired destination.We are only here for a short period of time, Heaven is forever and ever and so wonderful. Yet vast numbers of people are only interested in having a shoot, and they will end up hitting nothing. And loosing everything. They need a proper target, Our target is to be with Jesus now and forever.

“Forever with The Lord, Amen so let it be. Life from the dead is in that word = immortality. Here in this body penned, absent from Him I rove, yet nightly shift my moving tent a day’s march nearer Heaven.” (hymn)

Although the Bible tells us that we are made in the image of God, the real you is not your earthly body, which will be lost when we die. The real you is spirit which goes on after we die (Like “God is a Spirit” ) We shall be given a new and different body when Jesus comes back again. So Heaven is a spiritual place, it is real but does not have the disadvantages of our present world.

The Bible has lots of information about Heaven, and what it is like. No more tears, sickness or death. no need of lighting for God is light. And much else.

Jesus said “I go to prepare a place for you”. We have no idea what that place will be like, but like Christmas presents I feel sure that we will be thrilled when the unwrapping takes place. Instead of the problems of this world, think about your eternal future, Heaven.

Being welcomed home by The Father, seeing Jesus, praising God in the Spirit. Being one with all the saints as your mass of friends. Oh! What a future you have before you. What a target we aim for. Forever with The Lord .

See You There…. Gerald Gossage.

I was only fifteen when I was employed at a Motor-bike garage to deal with customers and help out with clerical work. One of my first tasks every morning was to put the kettle on and make a cup of tea for the boss and their only mechanic when they arrived. I arrived one bitterly cold morning to find the taps frozen up and no water to make tea. When the boss arrived I told him, and he calmly told me to go upstairs and get the kettle. There was a tap in the yard fixed to the wall, and I came back with the kettle to see the boss draping pieces if old oily rags over the outside tap, after which he poured what I thought was water, but soon smelt was petrol all over the rags. He made me stand well back, and said “you don’t see me doing what I am doing, and don’t ever do this yourself”.

Lighting a match he allowed it to burn briefly then threw it onto the petrol soaked rags. With a great ‘woomph’ it fired the rags, and burned for several minutes. Then knocking the burning rags off with a tyre lever, he used another old rag to turn the tap, and out flowed the water for our kettle and cupper ‘

Without the boss we would not have had our morning tea. All through my life I have remembered this Bible text “Without Me” said Jesus “you can do nothing”.

In Mark ch4 and Luke 5 we have the story of Jesus teaching the crowd by the lake side. When the people pressed close upon Him He looked around, and saw two fishing boats. So He got into the one, which was Simon’s, and Jesus could now sit and continue to teach the people. It seems that Jesus always knows the best solution to a situation. When Jesus finished teaching He told Simon to pull away from the shore and start fishing. Simon, and every fisherman right up to today knows that the fish can only be caught in the dark, at night. Simon did not want to let his nets down at this time, they had not even caught anything fishing all that night. But when the boss says something, you do it, even though you think it’s a crazy idea. The result was that Simon caught so many fish his boat was full up and nearly sinking under the weight, they called the other boat to come and help, and that too was filled right up and almost sinking.“Without Me you can do nothing” Jesus says. That is true ! but With Him the Results are just fantastic ! How can I say this ? Well, I have seen for myself so many real miracles just likethis one and they were all done by His gracious hand, while I could do nothing, theyleave me just full of wonder and praise.And I want others to know how great your God is.

Sincerely yours Gerald Gossage

The Bible is a place where we all discover things that intrigue and Bless us on our Christian way. You will know that the New Testament was translated from the Greek, but even that can bring us Christian Help.

Take the Greek alphabet for example, The second letter is BETH.
(Aleph (A) Beth (B) Gimel C) ABC. The letter Beth is shaped rather like a house, and that is what it means – House. There are a number of places in the Holy Land starting with the name Beth. Here are three :- Bethel, Bethlehem, Bethsaida. The Beth part is House.
Bethel = Beth means “The House of. EL is the name used for God, Bethel means “The House of God “. Remember the story of Jacob, cheating his brother of the birthright, running away from the angry brother who may be after him ? He rested his head on a stone, slept and dreamed of a ladder set up from where he was to God in heaven, with angels going up and down it. Do you recall what he thought when he woke up ?
“Surely The Lord is in this place, and I didn’t know it, This is The House of God”. and He worshipped God there, .and he became a changed man starting to walk with God, and giving a tenth of all God would give him. always The House of God is a place of worshiping God and today where we can be with like minded people and learn Christian living Bethel got it’s name from Jacob. Attending your place of worship should be where you can meet with God and you communicate with Him. Jacob-
.A sinner on the run, meeting with God, repenting and giving his life to God.
But the house of God is not always used as it should be, and today anyone can walk into God’s house without the experience of knowing God as Jacob did that day. And it is God who will judge others, not us. Later Bethel was to be the place where we believe a golden calf was set up for worship, and Jehu continued to worship the calf later there too.

Bethlehem means The House of Bread..(Bethlehem Ephrata= House of bread that is fruitful). David was born there, Ruth and Boaz resided there. And God went to great lengths to see that Jesus was born there. Did not Jesus say “I am the bread of life” (John 6v35) He is the gift from The Father to feed His people. Being in Christ means we will never go hungry.
Someone once said to me that if we could only see what was in the cupboard under the stairs or in the loft we would find countless things that once were the delight of the people living there and now no longer of interested to them. From childhood upward we want things but when we get what we thought so wonderful we soon loose interest and want something else. Always hungering for something, never satisfied.
In Jesus the bread of life we never need be hungry again. He can fill us with satisfaction.
Bethsaida means “The House of Fish” North of Jordan and near where Jesus fed over five thousand followers. and a blind man came seeing. Home to the fishermen who were called to catch men rather than fish.
After Jesus returned from the dead He met with His disciples for a cooked breakfast on the sea shore. He asked “Do you love me?” Only when you truly love Jesus and other people can He use you to “catch men” . Eating bread and fish is one thing, influencing others, needs the power of the risen Christ The Son of God. The House of God, The House of bread, The House of fish all have their message to you. Without Him you can do nothing.

God’s Blessing on you
Gerald Gossage.

I remember my Grandfather when he was an old man, But the world he was born into was very different to the world of today. Street transport was all by horse. I remember the horse troughs in every road so that the horses could stop and drink, and there were carts and carriages pulled by all kinds of horses , plus people riding everywhere on horseback. Little wonder that from an early age my Grand dad wanted to be a ‘Vet and work with horses.

Money was tight and to attend a college to train as a vet was expensive, but he worked hard to save every penny he could make all through his childhood, and when he left school at 11 or 12 years of age. he could put even more in the box for vet college.

He also accumulated many friends who shared his consuming interest in horses. One day when they were talking about racehorses and what made for winners my Gran dad became quite sure he knew which horse would win one of the races,that his friends told him that seeing he was so sure he should put all the money he had saved on this horse to win, he could then go to college at once.

It seemed a wonderful idea and he placed all his savings on this horse to win.

It lost ! And he was never able to achieve his life’s ambition to be a vet. He went to work handling the horses for the London Buses. After the first world war, in the 1920’s the London horse buses were replaced with motor buses and he never worked with horses again.

When I was a very young man I became a Civil Servant for a little while, working in a large office. One of the men came to me saying that everyone in the office was joining in to a “Fun Sweep-stake” for the horse race, The Derby. The tickets were only a shilling each, and as I had just four shillings in my pocket I had four, then forgot all about it.

Each ticket had the persons name written on it and put into one hat, the names of the horses were put into the other hat, and as there were more people than horses many people did not get a horse at all on the draw out.

On the day of the race some of the staff listened to the race on the radio, and soon it was all over. A small crowd came to me to know how I had done it, I had got four horses and they had come in first, second, third, and forth. I went home with a bit of extra cash in my pocket that day !

I was told that there was another race called The Oakes and people wanted me to tell them which horse would win as they thought I knew something that could help them win lots of money. That day I wanted to believe that I could make money by gambling, that I had some sort of luck with me.

But I told myself I would never in all my life use money in this way again. Whatever money we have is a gift from God and it was given as a stewardship. We are all responsible for what we do with what we have. And in the days ahead there may be many people who are in great need, for some are losing their work, and are in great need of what we could give them. It is good to remember that “The love of money is the root of all evil”. And what we have is a gift from God. Don’t gamble with any thing ! It is selfish and makes you a loser

I have never had a need since I made that decision. Try it – Gerald Gossage.