14 February, 2009

Twelve years ago in the week leading up to Valentine’s Day I was sitting quietly reflecting on the beautiful life and tragic death of my aunty who was killed in a senseless car accident – a drunk driver who was on the wrong side of the road.  Not everything makes sense in this life.  But all will be clear one day.  Let me share with you the song that was born out of those quiet moments that week.  Along with my Uncle Merv, I can’t wait ’til Jesus comes and I’ll get to see Aunty Joy again.  1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 is just all the more precious to me.

HIS ONE VALENTINE

In loving memory of Joy Paxinos nee Barritt 19/09/20-04/12/97

The question on these lips of mine
When I was just a child
Was that of pain and suffering
And why the good must die
Why the good must die

I see things a whole lot clearer now
But just as soon as I do
My mother’s eldest sister is killed
A car crash, a car crash … a husband left blue

She was always my uncle’s sweetheart
His life-long companion and friend
Their lives had blended together as one
That one now leaves half left to mend

So half of that union goes on alone
Facing each hour of each day
The love of his life beside him no more
Oh, when will his tears go away
Please make them go away

Now here comes the fourteenth of February
There’s love in the air as it nears
The whole world will shower its lovers with gifts
But he’ll shower her grave with his tears

Heaven is longing to hold him
To reach out and make his day shine
But how is that possible I question again
As she was his one Valentine

16 December, 2008

Right now there are some 6 billion people, all longing for something … something more … something better.

Why?

Right now in the affluent West, the minority largely oblivious to the needs of the majority, also long for something more … something better.

Christmas to me is about family.  Togetherness, lots of laughter, good food and good times.  At least that’s what it was like when I was younger.

Now I am so much more aware.

Aware of the pain experienced by so many; aware of disease, crime, war, famine, and the ravages of poverty; aware of hatred, jealousy, deception, insincerity and insecurity; aware of how little this world really has to offer – and how discontent those are who have it all.

It’s ironic that the more we have the less content we are with it.

Christmas is about giving – and receiving.  Two sides of the same coin, distinct yet inseparable.

Christmas, despite its crass commercialism and obscene excess, is a time that reminds us you cannot give without having first received.  How many – this Christmas – are empty, and sensing the void within?  With hollow hearts we place our gifts beneath the tree …

Christmas reminds me that we all long for home … a quiet place where we find meaning and purpose, and peace – lasting peace – within.

Our celebration of Christmas is all together transient … the tinsel is packed away for another year, the tree taken down, wrapping paper and cards are ‘recycled’ … the melting snow – a metaphor of this world’s inability to satisfy soul hunger.

Christmas to me is about Jesus – the Christ – God’s perfect gift to a world longing for love.

As our thoughts turn to the gifts placed under the tree, my challenge to you is to think of the Gift that was nailed on a tree. Yes, to marvel at the great condescension – God with us … in the form of a helpless little babe.  But always to remember Jesus hung from a crude and cruel cross, His arms outstretched … inviting you to come to the Source … to drink deeply of the fountain that flows from His wounded side.  To realise that nothing – no thing – satisfies.  Why?  Because we crave in our lives the very presence of God.

Christmas is so much a fantasy world.  With its fat Santas, its stuffed stockings and stuffed stomachs … a place where we pretend that all is well with the world.

But it can be so much more.

How can we truly give when we are so empty within?  What have we to give?  Such a thin veneer conceals the vacuum within.

Christmas is firstly a time to receive. An opportunity to accept the most precious gift ever offered.  Jesus offers to come into your life, bringing joy and peace and purpose.  He said I am come that you may have life.

Give me some of that!  Not just a thready pulse and a blip on the cardiac monitor – but real life … meaningful, directed, abundant, overflowing, and infectious!

Fill me up Jesus!  Fill me up … then let me overflow!

(3ABN Television Christmas Special – Sandra Entermann, 2003 … written by David Entermann)

19 November, 2008

Flashes of lightning streak across the night sky and threaten to come right through my bedroom window.  In perfect precision peels of deafening thunder follow immediately behind.  Here I sit nestled in my bed, in the middle of a severe electrical storm.

Driving home from my mid-week Bible study this evening proved somewhat challenging.  The hour was late.  The roads were isolated and lonely.   I crept along at a snail’s pace, barely seeing what was in front of me. Torrential rains made for bad visibility, and the wind was doing its best to move my car in directions I didn’t wish to travel.

At one point a flash of lightning struck so bright in front of me that I was momentarily blinded!  For a few seconds I couldn’t see where I was driving! All I could see was white light.

All the while, I was reminded of the helpless disciples on the sea of Galilee, crying out to Jesus “Master, carest thou not that we perish?”

You know what … storms of the severest type will continually find their way into our lives.  My question to you is: Are you ready to face them?  Christ is waiting to hold your hand, to take the wheel, to speak peace into your life … if you’ll only just ask Him to.   Jesus is the perfect gentleman; He would never force His way into your life.  He’s just waiting for you to invite Him.

Please don’t battle the storms alone.  Call out to Christ and let Him stand up and say, “Peace, be still”, and then you just sit back and watch Him go to work!

– Sandra

5 November, 2008

Friends in Jesus, welcome to my very first blog.  I am not sure just how often I will write anything here, but I have just arrived back in Australia (this very day) from five weeks in the USA, and what a truly wonderful time I had!  Thank you to all of you whom I had the pleasure of singing to.  I came to be a blessing, yet I came away the blessed one.

I have stepped in just in time to hear the results of the US presidential election!  This is truly an amazing time in American history.  I can’t help but be reminded of the words in Daniel chapter 2:   “Blessed be the name of God for ever and ever: for wisdom and might are His. And He changeth the times and the seasons: He removeth kings, and setteth up kings: He giveth wisdom unto the wise, and knowledge to them that know understanding.”

Sure, Barack Obama is not my president – I am not a US citizen; but I feel a strong sense of urgency to uphold this man in prayer.  We live in incredible times, and I am convinced that Jesus is coming soon … so no matter what part of this globe we come from, all our national leaders need our prayers.  They’re working for our good.  Let’s not forget them in our personal time of prayer.

– Sandra