Author Archives: Pieter Stok

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About Pieter Stok

I am passionate about faith, marriage and family. My interests include reading, video editing, travel and Lego. Also, I find the older I get, the more reflective I become. Whereas once I had answers for everything and everyone, now I have more questions.

50 Things We Learnt …

50 Things We Learnt From Our Father

One of my favourite possessions is a framed poster made by two of my daughters when I turned 50 … that is, a long time ago. This poster has hung in my study ever since. They called it, “50 Things We Learnt From Our Father.” It contains a whole range of ideas from the humorous to the serious. Some of the lessons came from their own experience and some are dated. An example, “Don’t dance near the record player.”

My favourites include:

  • “You can’t have enough of a good cheese”
  • “Horizontal and vertical stripes do go together” (A dig a their father’s lack of fashion sense)
  • “How to make toasted cheese sandwiches”
  • “Breadboards make the best plates”
  • “All meals can be prepared … and eaten, with a frying pan and a fork”
  • “There is always room for another book in your collection”
  • “Anything can be turned into a sermon illustration”

But there are others which are more serious:

  • “Girls can do anything”
  • “Don’t be afraid to try something new”
  • “Lookout for your sisters”

My favourites, which bring a lump to my throat are:

  • The joy of living for Christ”
  • Faith in the Living God”

Family life is a treasure of the big and small, the mundane and spectacular. All of it is a wonderful stage to grow a family. If you are starting out with your children remember that everything you do is being observed, from your fashion sense to your faith!

 

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A Quote: What We Owe God

For, until men feel that they owe everything to God, that they are cherished by his paternal care, and that he is the author of all their blessings, so that nothing is to be looked for away from him, they will never submit to him in voluntary obedience; nay, unless they place their entire happiness in him, they will never yield up their whole selves to him in truth and sincerity.

John Calvin Institutes of the Christian Religion,Signalman Publishing. Kindle Edition.

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Creation: God’s First Missionary

The title above was a sign at the 30 metre round Wilpena Pound Panorama in Hawker, S.A.

View From Tanderra Saddle near St Mary’s Peak, Flinders Ranges

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Enigma and the Body

Yesterday I commented on the amazing work done during WW2 by the people at Bletchley Park as they worked on deciphering German Enigma messages.

The brilliance of the work at Bletchley was the fact that a team of people with a range of different skills were brought together in one place for one task. There were maths geniuses, people who had an eye for patterns and how they repeated, there were engineering and scientific experts who knew their fields as well as stenographers and radio operators. Further afield there were brave men who boarded enemy submarines and ships as they were sinking to retrieve code books and enigma machines and there  were spies in enemy territory risking their lives by the minute.

It is not unlike the picture that Paul gives us in Romans and 1 Corinthians as to how the body of Christ is called to work with its gifts and talents in order to  further the Kingdom of God. At the risk of repeating myself, if this can be done in wartime for the common good, the body of Christ has an even greater good to promote by using its many gifts in a unified effort.

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The Enigma Code

I have just completed reading Enigma by Hugh Montefiore. It details the history of the attempt by the Allies to decrypt the messages of the German military, just before, and during WW2.

It is a tale of spies, subterfuge, boffins and hours of hard, and often fruitless, work in which the unlocking of a message that could save or cost thousands of lives. This tale of daring do was brought home to me when we lived in Bletchley, UK. One of the first visits I made was to Bletchley Park – the home of decryption in the war.

The unlocking of the Enigma Code played an enormous role in WW2, possibly changing the outcome but certainly shortening its length.

The passion and sacrifice of these men and women to defeat Hitler’s ambitions was staggering. Human lives, especially in the UK and on the high seas, depended on their work.

There is an even greater battle that we face on a daily basis. It is evil and life denying. It is the person and power of Satan. The battle may not seem so obvious but it is even more deadly than that fought in WW2.

Hearts and lives are at stake – the health of our children, families and society. Psalm 1 reminds us that our natural inclination and direction is evil. It challenges us to (in God’s strength) choose wisely and be anchored in the life giving soil and life that comes from God, (in Christ) alone.

The Enigma tale has reminded me that if we understand the dangers we can also find the passion and zeal to withstand and conquer them – through a faithful God.

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The Light of Christ

When we travel we like to listen to our favourite music. Having been on the road for the last week we listened to a lot of music. Michael Card is one singer/song writer whose songs we both like.

In the song, “For F.F.B.” he sings of his grandfather with the words, “In you I learned the kind of faith that looked up to the mountains. In you I saw just what I’d like to be. Oh, Grandad, I wish you could be here to tell me what to do, ‘cause I first saw the light of Christ through you.”

The phrase, “‘cause I first saw the light of Christ through you” made me think of those who first allowed me to see the light of Christ. When we were impressionable children who were those people through whom Christ shone? Parents? Grandparents? Family? Friends?

This is such a profoundly important concept, than for no other reason than the eternal faith of our children, our aim as adults should be to grow in Christlikeness.

Just after our fist child was conceived we received a visit from our pastor who reminded us that a child is conceived into an eternity of heaven or hell. Very blunt! But his point was simple, nothing is more important than the faith of our children and as parents we must do everything we can to prepare our children for an eternity with God. Or in Michael Card’s words to allow our children to see “the light of Christ through” us.

Categories: christian, Devotional, Faith, Family, Reflections | Tags: , , , , | 4 Comments

What Am I Doing Here?

There are moments in your life when you think, “What am I doing here?” My wife and I had that thought half way up to a place called “The Saddle” on our way to St Mary’s Peak in the Flinders Ranges. On the way up, there were a few “don’t look down” moments.

The walk had gone from a strenuous hike, to a scramble over rocks, through to white knuckle clasps on protruding rocks, while inching ones way along a ledge. My wife later told me that she should have taken more notice of the rock climbing instructors when she took her girls’ group to the rock climbing centre. When we finally got to the Saddle the views were spectacular. It was worth the angst.

To be perfectly honest, we took this route because it was half the distance of the other route. We thought we would save ourselves 7 kms.

We took the longer route back. It didn’t take us much longer but it was a lot safer!

There are so many lessons in this story. I’ll let you work them out for yourselves.

P.S. I wish I had a photo of us half way up because I don’t think our children will believe us!

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Wilpena Panorama

It are the unexpected joys that one encounters on a trip that are often the highlights. We encountered one this morning. (In fact I wrote this two days ago but we were wireless less)

In the small South Australian town of Hawker, just south of the Flinders Ranges is a beautiful panorama of Wilpena Pound. Painted by local artist, Jeff Morgan, it is a picture of the area from St. Mary’s Peak. It is well worth visiting the website and Jeff’s own page. If you are ever in the area a visit to the actual panorama is a must!

http://m.wilpenapanorama.com/Wilpena-Panorama.html

One sign declared, “Creation, God’s First Missionary.”

That about says it all.

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We Find It Everywhere

The last enemy to be destroyed is death. 1 Corinthians 15:26

A Cemetery in Alesund Norway

One of my more macabre pastimes is to visit cemeteries. They are a fount of history and stories. We can learn much about places and people from headstones.

But the point is, they are everywhere. There is no escaping them. Towns, villages, cities and rural areas all have them. They can be found on the outskirts of town, next to churches, in churches and even in prisons. I have found these sober reminders of our mortality in all sorts of places. Simply put, millions have gone before us.

Why is it that so many of us live as though death doesn’t exist, or that it doesn’t matter?

A Pilgrims’ Cemetery on the Camino to Santiago

1 Corinthians 15 is the Apostle Paul’s wonderful exploration and apologetic for the reality of the resurrection. He declares that for the believer “death has lost its sting”. Sadly, for many, the sting hasn’t been removed from death because they refuse to rely on Christ – the sting remover.

Cemeteries are a constant reminder for me of what Christ has done but also a challenge to seek and find the lost before it is too late.

Burial Mounds at Gamla Uppsala Sweden

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The Simpler Life … continued

Some of my recent posts have stirred up more old memories. They made me think about how we entertained ourselves as children in the 1950s and early 60s. Here are a few of things that I remember doing:

Courtesy: Google Images

My dad was a green grocer with a huge stack of fruit boxes. These could be constructed into the most wonderful cubby houses – in fact they became a cubby city with tunnels and streets. I remember doing a similar things in a haystack on a farm I visited regularly. Many Saturday and summer hours were whiled away here.

When I was 10 or 11 I constructed my first crystal set to pick 3GL the Geelong station. Construction was a regular pastime – model “Airfix” planes which I would hang from my bedroom ceiling, and later balsa and paper planes powered by tiny 2.5 cc motors and guided by control wires.

Walking the streets of our town was never an issue – even at night. People looked out for each other and their children. In fact, if I did do something naughty it would usually get back to my parents. We would take walks along the beach collecting cuttlefish and other “treasures” or tramp through the bush behind our town known as Cuthbertsons. If we were sick of walking there were always bike rides to neighbouring towns.

Courtesy: Google Images

On a couple of occasions we went to the local airstrip to look at the planes and on at least two occasions we went up for a gratis joy ride. I can’t imagine that happening today without eyebrows being raised – to say the least.

Camping at a friends farm, playing sports at the local football and tennis clubs, playing cricket and football on the unpaved street, “cowboys and Indians” in the scrub, marbles, swapping comics, playing with a chemistry set (do you remember Ron?)… are just a few more of the things that come to mind.

Finally, as we didn’t have a TV set until I was in my mid teens, I spent some time in the evening listening to the serials on the radio or crystal set. Biggles, Dad and Dave, No Holiday for Halliday are just a few I remember.

What do you remember doing as a child in the “olden days”?

Categories: Family, Reflections | Tags: | 2 Comments

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