Another country Hilary and I have grown to love is New Zealand. It’s Maori name is Aotearoa which means “The land of the long white cloud.”
We were first invited to New Zealand in 2000 by Fred. it was the year 2000, and our 25th wedding anniversary.
I mentioned in the last blog about the importance of protocol. Eccles.8:5.6, says, “…and the wise heart will know the proper time and procedure. For there is a proper time and procedure for every matter.”
Fred is a remarkable man in many ways, not least in that he is a direct descendant of the first white child born in New Zealand at Keri Keri. As such he perfectly represents the ‘pakeha’ (European New Zealander)
When we landed at the airport in Auckland the first thing Fred felt prompted to do was take us to the museum to witness the traditional Maori welcoming ceremony. There were over a hundred people in the room but when they went looking for a representative visitor to welcome, lo and behold, they picked me! Hilary too was invited up to the stage to join with the Maori ladies in their accompanying dance!
We felt both privileged and now prepared, Father having orchestrated the proper protocol for us to enter the country through the appropriate ‘doors’, to now fulfill our assignment.
10 years later in 2010, visiting again on our 35th wedding anniversary, we had been kept busy with people, and so at the end of the trip I said to Hilary, “Why don’t you pick somewhere away from people where we can simply relax.” She ‘stuck a pin on the map.” so as to speak, and we found ourselves in a hotel at ‘The Bay of Islands’.
Our room was on the ground floor with a door leading directly into the grounds, and so I wandered out to explore. Within a few minutes I found myself standing outside a distinctive historic building and reading on a noticeboard about how this was the place where the foundational Treaty of Waitangi had been signed.
At dawn the next morning I again stepped out of our room and walked to the little beach at the end of the freshly mown lawn. As I plunged beneath the water and rose again to the surface the scene in front of my eyes was strikingly familiar. I realized it was the nearest I’d ever seen in ‘real life’ to the painting Colin Davidson had done to illustrate our Good Mornin’ Dad album! As we continued to read, look and listen we came to understand the significance of all this.
That little beach was where the first missionary from Australia had landed. He was known as “The flogging pastor” I suppose that says it all! The man who had come to represent to the indigenous people the “Christian God” was anything but God’s “smiling face.” depicted in the song “Good Mornin’ Dad.”
I said Fred is a remarkable man. Another aspect of this is how he so beautifully expresses the loving, giving, generous nature of God our heavenly Father.”
Hilary and I realized part of God’s plan in issuing the invitation through Fred to bring us to this place at this time was that we might repent on behalf of the church for our failure to truly represent to the people what their loving heavenly Father was really like and to pray for an awakening, that people might see His ‘smiling face’
The Treaty of Waitangi had been revealed to be an example of deceit and theft by the British Crown. (Click on article and links at the top) So on all our visits we knew we had been sent, to acknowledge and to invite the true King of Aoteroa, King Jesus, to come and take his place in this place.
On one occasion we were invited by Les and Barbara from Northern Ireland to visit their church in Marlborough, the famous wine growing region. That Sunday afternoon I remember Les’ eagerness for us to climb to the top of the highest point in the region overlooking the vineyards and sing at the top of our voices, “Lord Jesus We Enthrone You…we proclaim you are King….. of New Zealand.” One of the other tourists, recognizing the song, came over to join us in the proclamation and prayer!
As we sang it again at the church service that evening, a Maori sister had a vision. She said, “I see King Jesus coming……. on a “long white cloud”
It seems that in these days, the spirit of the ‘flogging pastor’ has raised his/her ugly, devilish head once again in Aotearoa!
While the ceremony I participated in on our first visit concluded with a kindly pressing of noses and a loving sharing of breath, welcoming friends, the ‘war haka (peruperu) response to the current tyranny reminds me of Proverbs 30:33″……as twisting the nose produces blood, so stirring up anger produces strife.”
The Hebrew idiom for God being “slow to anger” (Ex.34:6) is he has ‘a long nose’. The flaring of the nostrils marks the beginning of anger that then spreads to be expressed on the whole angry face. We are told God is slow to anger, and when his passion is aroused we know he is never ‘bad tempered’ but his ‘wrath’ is always directed by his essential nature of love.
Yesterday there was a knock on the door. As I opened it our neighbor John burst in, nostrils flaring, and burst out, “Boy is God MAD!!!!” He then described how the evil ‘flogging pastor‘ had just manifested in Australia where the government had used microwave weapons to ‘cook’ their people.
John worked on the farm as a boy and wasn’t able to learn to read, but we have found that as Bob Jones said to Hilary,“You have the same gift I have. – You can smell the devil”
In Australia that is the smell of burning human flesh.
I believe John is right, “God is MAD!!!”
The sign in front of the incensed Maori warriors controlled performance of the ‘war haka’ reads……. “JUSTICE”.
The time has indeed come for the arrogant ‘kings of the earth’ to bow to “the King and Judge of ALL the earth” as Bablyon crumbles, and the King and the Kingdom of God comes….. on earth as it is in heaven!
I realize now the meaning of this number plate that has been in our driveway for a number of years…..
1 The Lord is a God who avenges.
O God who avenges, shine forth.
2 Rise up, Judge of the earth;
pay back to the proud what they deserve.
3 How long, Lord, will the wicked,
how long will the wicked be jubilant?
4 They pour out arrogant words;
all the evildoers are full of boasting.
5 They crush your people, Lord;
they oppress your inheritance.
6 They slay the widow and the foreigner;
they murder the fatherless.
7 They say, “The Lord does not see;
the God of Jacob takes no notice.”
8 Take notice, you senseless ones among the people;
you fools, when will you become wise?
9 Does he who fashioned the ear not hear?
Does he who formed the eye not see?
10 Does he who disciplines nations not punish?
Does he who teaches mankind lack knowledge?
11 The Lord knows all human plans;
he knows that they are futile.
12 Blessed is the one you discipline, Lord,
the one you teach from your law;
13 you grant them relief from days of trouble,
till a pit is dug for the wicked.
14 For the Lord will not reject his people;
he will never forsake his inheritance.
15 Judgment will again be founded on righteousness,
and all the upright in heart will follow it.
16 Who will rise up for me against the wicked?
Who will take a stand for me against evildoers?
17 Unless the Lord had given me help,
I would soon have dwelt in the silence of death.
18 When I said, “My foot is slipping,”
your unfailing love, Lord, supported me.
19 When anxiety was great within me,
your consolation brought me joy.
20 Can a corrupt throne be allied with you—
a throne that brings on misery by its decrees?
21 The wicked band together against the righteous
and condemn the innocent to death.
22 But the Lord has become my fortress,
and my God the rock in whom I take refuge.
23 He will repay them for their sins
and destroy them for their wickedness;
the Lord our God will destroy them.
Even so…… Come quickly Lord Jesus!
P.S. I appreciated the feedback from my Canadian readers after the last blog, including the correction that St. John’s is in Newfoundland, and it is St. John in New Brunswick (Thank you Steve and Paula!)
I would love to get feedback (and more correction) from our dear friends in New Zealand and Australia who read the blog. Our love and prayers go out to you all ‘Down Under’ at this time, that you will all soon be “Up and Over”