God Whispers

  WooHoo! Celebration time. June marks fifty years since, after a series of undeniable ‘God incidents’, I said ‘Yes’ and became a Christian. I was twenty-five.   I’m amazed to find myself so old and so Christian. It’s all happened very fast – well, so it feels.   If you’d seen me fifty- one years ago, before I became a Christian, you would never have dreamt it. I was the girl least likely to become a Christian. In fact, one friend said, ‘If Jeanette becomes a Christian, I’ll believe it all.’ She figured she was safe as an unbeliever. Hah!     Early Hints There were hints during my childhood and teenage years. Chinks in the solid wall that kept me focussed on the material world, rarely dreaming there was anything more. One such chink occurred when I was fourteen.        A Chink It was a hot Brisbane summer day. A skinny fourteen year old, I sat on the verandah of our lovely old Queenslander, my legs stretched out over ...

  A few Sundays ago after church I had a cup of coffee with Joyce and Dan Naidoo. I was sitting in the presence of a miracle. I had been involved with Joyce’s writing of Dan’s story. It’s amazing and I’d like to share it.                            Dan Naidoo   Pains and the diagnosis In 1985 Dan began to get severe stomach pains. Tests revealed he had a malignant condition needing urgent treatment. Joyce and Dan tried another doctor but unfortunately his condition was confirmed – it was cancer needing surgery.   Prayer The Naidoos’ family and friends began a prayer chain, so there was constant prayer for Dan. Joyce and Dan prayed and cried. Every night when they prayed together, they were so traumatised they just clung to each other and wept, finally saying ‘amen’.   On the night before Dan’s operation, the surgeon phoned Joyce to tell her there were fourteen lymph nodes outside his stomach need...

    This is a true story. I had stopped driving my own car when this occurred several years ago, so I often used taxis. This story could be called Prayer really does work.   ‘ Your taxi’s here,’ my sister called. I was leaving from their place to have dinner with friends at Rochedale. I hurried out to the front and sure enough, headlights shone through the early winter darkness. I waved to Arlene and hastily climbed into the back seat. I was running a bit late but the evening promised to be fun. ‘Rochedale, please,’ I said to the driver and told him the address. He lurched the car out of the driveway and set off down the street. ‘We have to go via the airport,’ he announced in a slightly slurred voice. ‘No, we don’t . Just go down Old Cleveland Road and turn off to Rochedale,’ I said. Surely a taxi driver knew where Rochedale was?   The Accident He muttered something inaudible about the airport and set off down Old Cleveland Road, speeding. ...

  In this challenging year, 2020, people have varying ideas and ways of doing almost everything. It’s as if someone has picked up the world and shaken it and everything is all over the place. There is rarely the type of unity that might cause God to intervene in the way we need. The type we experienced in our often-quoted New Zealand Holiday.   Photo - four of us plus friends we met  On our New Zealand holiday, back when we were young, the five of us were a close, unified group and – perhaps as a result of this – we received an amazing amount of God’s provision. He looked after us like His very special kids. (Well, aren’t we all His special kids! And we were very tired kids after a year in a live-in Bible College for the others and a year’s teaching and other work for me. We all needed this holiday.) On our holiday we often received ‘miraculous’ provision and protection.   God sent strangers to give us  meals we craved but could not buy , exciting places...

In this extraordinary year, 2020, I'm so glad I  learnt this secret all those years ago. Not that my  life has been free of testing by any means, but so  far I have not been the panicking mess I was in  the first anecdote below.    When I thought I was going under “I thought all those scary things were over!” I all but shouted at God.  He’d rescued me from drowning - I knew He really had, but . . . I’d been terrified.  That seed of terror left me with a question.  Hadn’t God’s protection worked that time? He'd allowed Jenny and me to be washed right out to sea among giant, sinister waves. Terrifying waves, for me. (See Stories of Life book, A Chicken can make a Difference – my story When I Think I’m Going Under also my blog post When I think I’m going under on godwhispersjgt.blogspot.com) I’d always expected that now I was a Christian, all my narrow escapes (and I seemed to specialise in them) would be over. Surely it was part...

The pandemic and the shutdown A strange silence broods over the land. It is early April 2020 and Australia is in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic. Attempting to halt the movement of the virus, the government has placed severe restrictions on everyone. Night after night, television brings news of more severe restrictions. Even families can no longer get together. Anything to protect us ‘oldies’. Shopping must be done alone, for necessities only, and we must keep one point five metres between us and the next shopper. And this is after the initial panic buying, when frightened shoppers grabbed armfuls of all necessities. Toilet paper ran out in most stores! Fear is etched on people’s faces. The news each night tells of multitudes of deaths in various countries, statistics growing nightly. Health workers are catching the virus as they help the sick. Some die. Businesses fold as restrictions have forbidden shoppers, tourists and others, so alarming numbers are out of work, with...

It was a quiet, hot day, almost mesmeric. Cheryll and I were on holidays at Coolum.   We’d driven to Lake Cootharaba, hired a little motorboat and crossed the lake to the other side. There we walked along a narrow track leading to the coloured sands.  I was completely absorbed in the beautiful sunlit scenery as I followed Cheryll along the track.  My thoughts began to drift while I enjoyed the shimmering hot countryside covered with a profusion of wildflowers – mauve, white and yellow. Suddenly Cheryll leapt backwards and grabbed my hand, saying, ‘Nettie! Nettie! A snake!’ I looked down and sure enough, a huge, long brown snake opened its oh-so-wide jaw about six centimetres from my ankle and hissed. There was no doubt about its intentions. My mind froze. Time stopped. Random, illogical ideas filled my thoughts. Cheryll must be scared. She’s holding my hand. This seemed to last for ages. I...