Shadow and Shade

 

It was 40 degrees when I took this photo at my son’s farm and noticed these sheep making the most of a lovely shady Plane Tree in front of the house.

These ticular sheep are rather special as the mothers are pets that belong to my son and his family. Now they and their lambs are not human nevertheless they all think that they are part of his family and naturally expect to be treated as such; therefore they are given special treatment and enjoy special treats that other sheep never have and don’t even know about.

Being a committed Christian is like that; the 91^st Psalm says that if we dwell in a close relationship with God “we shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty” and that is a lovely place to be; if these sheep didn’t come near to the trunk of the tree they wouldn’t be covered by its shade. Likewise, if we don’t draw near to God we won’t receive His protecting benefits either, and as the sheep learn to trust their owner (or shepherd) with the equivalent of the “faith of a little child” that Jesus spoke about, then all sorts of benefits and privileges follow.

 For us, this “close relationship” is with God and comes about by our accepting His forgiveness as we believe in Jesus and then follow His commandments. Having done that we feel the confidence the sheep in the photo have as they consider themselves to be part of my son’s family. The question that arises in some people’s minds is: “can we really have a relationship like that with God?” And the answer is: “we sure can” because when God created people it was His original intention for them to have that close relationship with Him, but we forfeited that right by letting  sin come between Him and us . Interestingly the bible says “All we like sheep have gone astray and turned each one to his own way, and the Lord has laid on himself the iniquity of us all”. However even though we are beneficiaries under His New Testament the benefits are not ours until we claim them by the “simple act” of repenting and believing in Jesus which reinstates us as “children of God, and if children, then heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ”. (Well when I say “simple act”, God made it simple for us but it was very costly for Jesus). Then of course, with that forgiveness and reinstatement comes the assurance that “all things work together for good for those that love God” and also His promise that He “will be with us in trouble, deliver us and honour us, with long life He will satisfy us and show us His salvation”.

If you haven’t already made a commitment like we’ve been discussing above, and are thinking of making a New Year’s Resolution, you couldn’t do better than to decide to do what is outlined there and thus assure yourself of Eternal Happiness and Contentment starting right now and lasting forever.

Best wishes as you ponder this. Have a very happy and blessed New Year.

Regards, Tom.

 

Bible references used: Isaiah 53:6, Romans 8:17, Psalm 91, Romans 8:28.

More about Christmas

What a great time Christmas is; there is no other time in the year when families come from all over the country to be together. Relatives who have not seen each other for a long time make the effort to visit, presents are exchanged, a good meal is enjoyed and there is great fellowship. The spirit of love and friendliness is everywhere. On Christmas Eve any stranger you pass will wish you a happy Christmas and you will be only too happy to do the same .

  Seeing this Agapanthus bud opening absolutely amazes me. These flowers in all their completeness and colourful designs were completed inside the closed bud. The things you or I would say were impossible, are no problem at all to a God who can program a plant to do that. For example we are told in Chapter 1 of Luke’s Gospel in the New Testament that the Angel Gabriel came to a young virgin named Mary and told her that God’s Holy Spirit would arrange for her to become pregnant; and that her baby would be called Jesus and be the saviour of the world as had been predicted hundreds of years before. No problem for God!

The Angel also appeared to Joseph, the man Mary was engaged to, and explained the situation to him. I am pleased to say that Mary and Joseph accepted the responsibility of becoming the earthly parents of the most remarkable child that was ever born. It is interesting that God chose an ordinary carpenter’s home for Jesus to grow up in. That way Jesus can relate to you and me because he understands how ordinary people live and what it means to be short of money at times and all that sort of thing.

When Mary was 9 months pregnant, Caesar Augustus (the Roman emperor) decreed that all people had to return to their place of birth for a census to be taken, so Mary and Joseph returned to Bethlehem. However they didn’t phone ahead and make a booking at the motel for two reasons: Firstly phones hadn’t been invented yet and secondly there were no such things as motels either. Therefore they had to take “pot luck” that there would be a room at the Inn, however they were late arriving as Mary was just about to give birth and riding side saddle on a donkey was a bit rough and slow. By the time they got there the other visitors had taken all the rooms. Of course God had arranged this so Jesus would be born in a humble stable and would use a feed trough as his basinet. That way no one would ever be able to say Jesus had it better than them.

There was great rejoicing that night as a host of angels appeared to the shepherds nearby singing “Glory to God in the highest, good will to men” and told them about Jesus birth, so they went and worshiped him. Shortly afterwards 3 wise men from the East followed a star that they knew would lead them to the Saviour and after expecting to find him in Herod’s palace finally found him in the stable at Bethlehem.

And they presented Him with presents of gold, frankincense and myrrh. Herod had asked them to return and tell him where the baby was when they found him, however they were warned by God that Herod wanted to kill the child so they returned home another way. God then warned Joseph about the assassination plot too, so Joseph, Mary and Jesus took refuge in Egypt until they were informed that King Herod had died.

Because of all this Jesus has no difficulty empathising with refugees either as He and His parents had to flee for their lives. Our Jesus is adequate for any situation and therefore offers salvation to anyone who believes as He said himself: “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth on Him shall not perish but have everlasting life”. And ultimately that is what Christmas is all about.

Jesus is the reason for the season so I do trust that you have a lovely Christmas.

Best wishes,   Tom.

 

Healing

My mother was living in Sydney and she was limping because she had arthritis in the knee and it was swollen. Christian hands were placed on either side of the knee and the words Peter & John said, when they healed a crippled man, were quoted: “In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, be healed”. Well it worked for Peter and John and it also worked for mum’s knee as it was healed instantly as she felt heat flow into her knee. Many people reading this will shake their heads in disbelief, and I can understand that.  Some time ago, in an article titled “God’s Problem”, I mentioned that “my Christian walk” had been somewhat weakened because, as a new Christian, I had read and believed a commentary on the New Testament by a Doctor of Divinity. You see he said that miracles like that don’t happen now, and because of my inexperience and his qualifications I believed his every word. However when I saw that happen to my mother, before my own eyes, it tended to spoil his theory as far as I was concerned, and as a lady asked me recently “Did Jesus heal everybody?” I thought we might have a brief look at this subject just to whet our appetites.

I suggest therefore that we put aside the commentaries of “learned men” for a few minutes and see what the New Testament says. I mean you can always come back to their theories if you want to. Well for starters, Jesus did heal everyone who asked Him for healing (Matthew 12:15 says “Great multitudes followed Him and He healed them all”.) And so it went throughout his ministry; there was not one occasion where He said “no I won’t heal you because your sickness will make you a better person”, and Paul said that his “Thorn in the flesh” problem was “a messenger of Satan” to control his pride because he had visited Heaven (2 Corinthians 12:7). Jesus said we

must have “the faith of a little child” and told his disciples to “teach all nations....to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you and lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world” (Matthew 28:20). So you see Jesus is still very much with us. Those disciples have passed on but the end of the world, He referred to, has not yet arrived.  The implication is that the “baton” has now been passed on to other believers like you and me. I say “Baton” because our lives (and Christian lives in particular), are like a relay race; when an athlete has run his leg of the relay he hands the baton to the next athlete who to the best of his ability duplicates or improves on what the athlete before him accomplished and then he too passes the baton to the next in line and this is repeated until the race is completed. Likewise in the Christian “Relay race” the first runners did a remarkable job and “turned the world upside down” (Acts 17:6). However many of those who took over from them were ill-equipped because they failed to receive and use the gifting that became available to Jesus followers at Pentecost. Gifts like healing (1 Corinthians 12:9).  Jesus saw this gifting as very important to the extent that although these Apostles had been with Him for a long time and certainly believed in Him, He nevertheless told them to wait for the gifting from the Holy Spirit before they set out to spread the Gospel. (Acts chapter 1)

Paul says in Romans 12:4, that just as our physical bodies have many parts and they don’t all do the same thing but are dependent on each other, so we being many make up the “body of Christ” and “have gifts differing according to the grace given to us”. We should not be satisfied to blindly accept somebody else’s opinion of what the New Testament is saying but should study it ourselves. Information passed on verbally can lose its original meaning. During a battle an officer realised they needed more soldiers so he said “Pass this message down the line: ‘Send reinforcements, we are going to advance’”. However by the time the message had been repeated many times the officers at the rear were told: “Send three and four pence, we are going to a dance”. There is no substitute for the written word being read and acted on with the “faith of a little child”. Jesus said things like: “Your faith hath made you whole” or “According to your faith be it done unto you”. Now “faith comes from hearing and hearing from the word of God,” so we know how to acquire faith. The other requirements are Righteousness and Holiness needed by the person proclaiming the healing: Doctors don’t walk in off the street and start operating without “washing up” and making sure everything is clean, not just “more or less” clean, do they? Likewise, If we want to be fit vessels to convey God’s healing power we must “Present our bodies....Holy” (Romans 12:1). Not just “more or less” Holy, either because this type of healing is a form of “Spiritual Surgery” Jesus said: The works that I do shall ye (believers) do also. (John14:12),    Food for thought?    Regards,   Tom.

Dinosaurs

It seems that all children love dinosaurs and are fascinated by them. I wonder if they inherit this fascination from God, their Heavenly Father who designed and made these creatures. When God was talking to a man named Job, thousands of years ago as recorded in the Old Testament of the bible, in the last half of the 40^th chapter and the whole of chapter 41 of Job. God expressed a certain fascination and delight with the Behemoth and Leviathan. We don’t call them those names now because our Archaeologists only discovered their fossils in recent times and called them dinosaurs and they probably weren’t familiar with the bible either.

Obviously some of these animals were still around in Job’s day so it is interesting to hear this firsthand account of their features. For example (reading from the New Living Bible translation) where God is speaking to Job: “Take a look at Behemoth which I made, just as I made you. It eats grass like an Ox. See its powerful loins and the muscles of its belly. Its tail is as strong as a cedar.....its bones are tubes of bronze, its limbs are bars of iron.....it lies under the lotus plants hidden by the reads in the marsh” and so on. Then talking about Leviathan, God says : “....If you lay a hand on it you will certainly remember the battle that follows, you won’t try that again! No it is useless to try to capture it, the hunter who attempts it will be knocked down.....I want to emphasise Leviathan’s limbs and its enormous strength and graceful form...its breath would kindle coal, for flames shoot from its mouth. The tremendous strength in Leviathan’s neck strikes terror wherever it goes ...no sword can stop it, no spear, dart or javelin. Iron is nothing but straw to that creature”. And so it goes, all of which is a fascinating eyewitness account of creatures that no longer exist. (unless there is one in Scotland's Loc Ness of course).

Dinosaurs further testify to the greatness of God in that they laid eggs. As I have said before, the makeup of an egg is beyond human understanding (whether it be a fowls or a dinosaurs). In either case the mother has to pack every element necessary for the making of the complete baby into the egg in a semi liquid form, and then seal it before placing it in a nest. She has to do this inside herself without looking, which is a completely impossible task unless she had a Science Lab, to weigh up all the ingredients or else the assistance of an incredible God. People trying to be smart ask “what came first, the chicken or the egg?” Well the bible is clear on that; God made the adult birds and animals first and told them (or programmed them) to reproduce after their kind.  If you are an Atheist you have a responsibility to yourself to explain how that fertilised molten mass inside that shell can possibly contain all the necessary ingredients to make a baby dinosaur and how it can form into a complete dinosaur without the intervention of a super intelligent God. Unfortunately there are  people who would believe anything, no matter how illogical it may be, in preference to believing in God and Jesus and the wonderful gift of salvation (from the consequences of sin) that he offers to all those who do believe. Now, to not believe in something doesn’t always matter, however in this case it is very serious as those who don’t believe in God and Jesus, forfeit their right to Eternal Life, (John 3:16) and that is tragic. 

Anyway, best wishes as you think that through, Tom.

P.S. Don’t leave this page in the sun or those other 2 eggs might hatch and you will have your own “Jurassic Park” to cope with! (Well they do look real, don’t they? ).

Good Foundations

Everybody has heard about the leaning tower of Pisa and many go to see it, but it is famous for all the wrong reasons. Admittedly a lot of work and planning went into its design and construction but it has gained notoriety because it is leaning. Likewise a young man may gain notoriety by being arrested because he has done wrong but if he (like that tower), hadn’t leaned the wrong way he wouldn’t be in the news either. The thing that the tower and the young man have in common is that their foundations were not properly laid; the tower contractors failed to dig down to solid rock and start building from there and in the case of the young, man you can be fairly sure that his parents failed to establish his life on what Jesus described as the rock of his word, because Proverbs 22:6 says: Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it”.

You see this little boy? Well as a typical baby he has a brand new brain just waiting to be programmed with information; he will accept whatever information his parents & others give him, whether it is good or bad and that will be the foundation upon which he will build his life, and a very substantial amount of that information will also come from what he observes people doing.

A man told me once that he wouldn’t push his boy to go to church but would leave it for the boy to decide for himself when he reached the age of 15 or 16. Well that father was kidding himself because by the time the child reaches that age he will have already learned what to do on the Lord’s Day from watching the parent’s example; his young computer brain will already be “programmed” by then, to look on that day either as a day when you get up late and go to the football or cricket or just lie on the lounge and watch the T.V. Or on the other hand go off to church and worship God. Once his mind is set in either of those patterns that will be the foundation for his life and it would take something very drastic to alter it.

Does it really matter which way he is programmed? Well yes, because in life to-day we are constantly confronted with choices like whether to get involved with dishonest dealings, whether to bully others,  whether to do immoral things, whether to steal, whether to binge drink with your mates, whether to get involved with drugs whether to tell lies, and so on and so on.

The young person who gets their grounding whilst watching T.V. or even the Football will have no hard and fast rules as to what is right and what is wrong; indeed they will feel that it is all relative to the situation in which they find themselves. On the other hand the young person who has a good understanding of God’s rules and principles from being taught from the bible will know exactly what is right and what is wrong and their Christian ethics will not let them down because they will know that right and wrong are not negotiable. They will also temper all their decisions with the “love your neighbour as you love yourself” commandment. From that commandment alone they will know that they cannot do anything that would hurt any other person and of course the main bonus is that if he or she believes in the Lord Jesus, then their accommodation in Heaven is assured and also guidance whilst here is readily available through claiming God’s promises by prayer.

If we have anything to do with bringing up a little child then we obviously have a great responsibility; there is an old saying “the hand that rocks the cradle is the hand that rules the world”. And that is our hand!  With that hand we should also lead them to a bible believing Christian church where they have what they call a “children’s church” or a “Sunday school” and a youth group. We should pray with them at home and read bible stories to them and we will be blessed as we see them grow into responsible lovely young people.  Don’t forget that  to-days babies will run tomorrows world.

If you need any bible story books or such like, to help you teach them, the Christian Bookshop at the top end of Talbragar St. in Dubbo has a wonderful range to choose from.

Best wishes with that.    Regards, Tom.

 

Symbols

“The last time I saw Paris her heart was warm and gay, I could hear the laughter of her voice in every street cafe’. The last time I saw Paris her trees were decked for spring, and lovers walked beneath those trees and birds found songs to sing...... The last time I saw Paris her heart was warm and gay, no matter how they’ve changed her I remember her that way.” (“gay” there being an old word meaning “happy”). So goes the delightful song we used to sing.

Paris was always considered to be a city worth visiting if you were travelling abroad, it being among a group of cities like Vienna, Venice, and Rome which have great historical value and buildings of architectural significance and in peace time were considered very safe, but not as safe now since these Muslim extremist murderers have spread around the world. Indeed nowhere is safe now; they have killed and maimed innocent people in country after country; even in Australia people have been killed and we have frightfully expensive and elaborate precautions in place here. What is the answer then? Well I’m not sure that, humanly speaking, there is an answer, however the nation’s leaders are all trying preventative measures so hopefully that will help a little.

One thing I do know though is that if there is (for example) a fire bug running around your town burning houses then it is common sense to make sure your house is insured! Similarly then seeing there are terrorists about (killing people) it is time we stopped being complacent about our eternal future in case our life here is cut short, and make up our mind now, as to whether we are prepared to repent of our sins and follow Jesus directions; and thus be assured of our place in Heaven when ever our life here is over. Or alternatively to stay on “The broad way that leadeth unto destruction” (Matthew 7:13). This is a choice that we all have to make, and the sooner the better, as there is no dodging it because the scriptures tell us that “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23) and “the wages of sin is death” Romans 6:2). Young healthy people in the past have often felt that there was no urgency to think about their eternal future, but that is not the case now because being young and healthy has no bearing on how long you will live (well it never did really, with car accidents etc). But it is much more risky now! In the photo I placed a cross over Paris because that is the Parisian citizen’s option too: Jesus died to offer salvation to every single one of them no matter what they might have done and the same applies to the people in the town or city where you live or even if you are out on a farm.

If you and your family would like to migrate to Heaven when your time on earth is over then the choice is yours; make that decision by silent prayer right now, where you are standing, or sitting  and the deal is done: Jesus already sealed his side of the bargain with His blood that was shed on Calvary for you. The question is: “do you want to accept the “Passport” He is offering you or not”? I have already accepted mine and it is a jolly nice feeling to know that my accommodation is waiting for me when I leave here. You may have already done this too, I sure hope so. If not, for Heaven’s sake do it; tomorrow might be too late!

You will note that the cross that I placed in the photo is studded with diamonds, this is to symbolise that what it offers is priceless; in John14:6 Jesus said “I am the way the truth and the life, no man cometh unto the Father but by Me” and He also said in John 6:37: “He who cometh unto me, I will in no wise cast out” and in John 14:2 said: “In my Father’s house are many mansions....I go to prepare a place for you and will come again and receive you to myself that where I am there you may be also”. (So it’s not what you know, but who you know and believe in that assures you of Eternal Life). (John 3:16).

Looking forward to seeing you there, best wishes. Tom.

Circumstances

I have been watching this thistle growing in a crack in the concrete just outside of Woolworths shop at the Mall. Now if this seed that germinated into this plant had been you or me we would probably have said “this is ridiculous we can’t grow here”. Well it did grow, and I suggest that we take a good hard look at it and learn a lesson in making the most of our circumstances no matter what they are or how they may change. 14 years ago my lovely wife and I had just settled into a new farm with nice sheep and cattle, good pasture and a nice home when suddenly Audrey succumbed to dementia followed by 3 small strokes and I had to “drop everything” and go and look after her in a Nursing Home. All we had worked hard for and all we had planned disintegrated over night. I cried and felt very depressed until I thought about the Apostle Paul’s statement where he said: “I have found that in whatsoever situation I find myself, therein to be content” and he was in prisons and dungeons most of the time because the authorities didn’t like his Christian teaching. He could have just got “the pigs” and sat in the prison and sulked and said “why me? Poor old me”. However he realised that there was Christian work to be done there so he preached Christ to the guards and the authorities whenever he got the chance. I bought this watering can from

“Typo” in the Orana Mall yesterday because it sums up the situation perfectly. (The inscription reads: “Grow where you are planted”).

 If Paul hadn’t been in those positions we wouldn’t have the instructions he wrote from there telling Christians how to behave; for example there are millions of copies of his letter to the Philippian Christians scattered around the world in many languages where he tells us to “Rejoice in the Lord always” and says “finally brethren whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; If there be any virtue, if there be any praise, think on these things” (what wonderful positive instruction from inside a jail). By Following Pauls statement above I have found that if I “Rejoice ever more, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks” God then turns what looks like defeat into victory. The well known example of this in the New Testament was when Paul and Silas were whipped and placed in the inner dungeon. Did they moan and groan? No “they sang praises to God at midnight”. And didn’t that change the situation? Within the hour they were released miraculously, their wounds dressed and the Jailor and his family had become Christians, none of which would have happened if they hadn’t trusted in God.

In my own case, after looking to God I felt His definite guidance to write these articles which I give to people and place on a “Blog” on the internet and they have been looked at by people in Australia, the U.S, Russia, India, France, South Korea, Ukraine, Singapore, China, Germany, Canada, Netherlands and Romania I assume people are being encouraged and it is for sure that I would never have done this if my circumstances hadn’t changed the way they have. I am now a Cert 1V Aged Care Nurse & attend to Audrey’s every need when she is not asleep in bed. She cannot move or talk but enjoys a Donut for morning tea at the Mall in her wheelchair & occasionally gives a big smile. The full picture is this: Jesus has prepared a mansion in Heaven for you therefore there is no real need for you to do the same down here. Let me put it like this: Years ago I had a friend who was a Methodist minister. The church paid him a modest salary and supplied a modest house. He ministered in Wilcannia, Cobar, Nyngan and in the Hunter valley. When he retired they supplied him with a nice home in a retirement village in Sydney. Our life is similar to that; we have a nice home awaiting us in Heaven for when we retire from this earth, meanwhile whilst we do our chosen occupation down here our main aim should be to assist others in all sorts of ways but particularly to know that Jesus died for their forgiveness so they need to believe on Him.  Now if for some reason you lose your job or your business collapses or such, that is not the be all and end all; God is still our sponsor and assures us that “All things work together for good to those that love God, the called according to His purpose”. At such times we should pick ourselves up, brush off the dust and say “What now Lord?”    Some food for thought. Best wishes,  Tom.

Stumbling Blocks

This combination motor vehicle shed and workshop under construction here on my dad’s property about 90 kilometres from Bourke in 1954 is one of the reasons that I don’t drink alcohol. You see the man building it was destitute because of alcohol addiction and he arrived at our place looking for work just when we needed a shed. At first Dad was reluctant to employ him as he looked so hopeless. However we soon found out that Jack had been employed as Foreman of a construction company that had constructed one of the largest factory complexes in Melbourne. Jack quickly demolished dad’s abandoned shearers hut and built this excellent shed. He had lost his Foreman’s position because he became an alcoholic and when he finished dad’s shed he spent all the money at the Pub. This can happen to anyone who drinks.

I’m writing this article to warn young people not to treat alcoholic drink as a joke; actually it is more like a snake lying in wait to catch the unwary.

When I was very young I went to town with dad to get a shearer: The man was drunk in the pub when dad located him, half way home we had to stop so he could lean out and be sick. When we arrived home he opened the car door and just fell out on the ground and made no effort to get up. This did not impress me as something that I would like to get involved in when I was older. Another man employed as a fencer would work hard for a month and then take his cheque and give it to the hotel keeper and stay there drinking until it was all used up at which time the keeper would buy him a pair of boots and trousers and send him out with the mailman; this didn’t impress me favourably either.

 A young man I worked with in Nyngan had a hangover and told me he was worried because the night before he had been drinking at the pub with others and when he woke up the next morning he found himself in bed with a girl that he would not normally even mix with, so he ran out of her house as fast as he could but had no memory of how he got there, and that didn’t impress me either. Another young chap here in Dubbo told me he woke up in his own bed but had no recollection of how he got there and was baffled by a note left by a girl whose name he didn’t recognise saying that she had brought him home and put him to bed. All the above may seem amusing but it amounts to brain damage and loss of self respect. The only way to avoid that is to avoid the alcohol. Otherwise we also may regret our actions for the rest of our life.

The bible doesn’t say you can’t drink but it does make interesting comments: For example Ephesians 5:18 says “Do not be drunk with wine wherein is excess, but be filled with the Spirit” (Meaning the Holy Spirit where you get the Joy without the hangover). Jesus said that “if we place a stumbling block in the path of one of these little ones it would be better for us if we had never been born”. And Romans 14:21 says : “It is good neither to eat flesh, nor to drink wine nor anything whereby your brother stumbleth”. And this brings to mind the story of the prisoner on death row in the U.S.A. who asked to see a clergyman. When the clergyman came in the prisoner said: “You! You are the reason I’m here; when I was a young man I was in a youth group lead by you and I revered you. One day I saw you drinking so I thought it must be all right, but I became an alcoholic and in a drunken brawl I killed a man and now I’m going to the electric chair”. So that clergyman had placed a stumbling block in that young man’s path which is exactly what Jesus said not to do.

I was at a Show committee meeting in Nyngan with about 10 other men and after the meeting concluded they said they would adjourn to the Overlander Hotel for a drink, they were my friends so to be sociable I went along and had a squash. I was teaching High School Scripture at the time and the next week when I entered the classroom one of the older boys said “Mr V, I saw you going into the pub on Saturday night”. I explained the situation to him and vowed (to myself) that in view of what happened to that clergyman, I would not do that again.  I have been speaking from a man’s point of view but it is even worse for a young woman when her self-respect is compromised because alcohol has impaired her judgment. She also would be best to stay with soft drink. Our motto should be; Think Before You Drink.      Best wishes, Tom.

 

A Generous God....

The one thing that is obvious to us when we look at these photos is the abundance of flowers. We have here a Wisteria vine growing over a Paperbark tree, then a Paperbark tree with its own flowers. Top right we have a climbing Rose, below it is a Jacaranda and then a Star Jasmine with a Wattle beside it. There are thousands of varieties around us all with their own distinctive features, colours, and perfume.

As we look at this we get a small insight into the wonderful mind of the God who designed them all. I guess the first question that arises in our minds is why is there such a profusion of flowers on each tree or vine? Well there are three reasons that come to mind immediately: Firstly if we observe the world around us we will realise that God just loves beautiful things and we were made in “The Image and Likeness of God” so we automatically appreciate what He appreciates and love beautiful things too. This brings us to the second reason for His creating so much beauty: He did it for us to enjoy! The third reason is that He is being true to His word where He said: “If you sow sparingly you will reap sparingly”. And this is one of His laws of life, you will remember Jesus parable of the sower where a sower went forth to sow and quite a lot of his seed was eaten by birds and some plants died because of the difficult conditions, and some were choked out by weeds. Therefore if he hadn’t sown his seed generously he would have ended up with a very poor crop. This principle of generosity follows through in all things as it is an integral part of the character of God as the scripture says: “give and it shall be given unto you; pressed down, shaken together and running over is how men shall give unto you” and this follows on automatically as we comply with Jesus first two commandments; “Love God, and Love your neighbour as you love yourself”. Jesus went even further by telling us to “love your enemies and do good to those who persecute you and say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake”. Therefore we must be generous with our forgiveness as well as our love.  He pointed out that even a cheating tax collector can love his friends but we (His followers) must follow Jesus example by hating the sin but loving the sinner, as He did when he said “Father forgive them for they know not what they do” as He was nailed to the cross.

Unfortunately when people drift away from God they overlook those two commandments, I just mentioned, and selfishness takes over and then they make the love of money and possessions their God. As I write this the banks are raising their loan rates to squeeze more money out of their customers; the first of these banks to do this is already making a profit of 8 billion dollars and I believe their C.E.O. takes home a salary of 8 million. At the same time they are installing more and more automatic machines to eliminate as many tellers as they can. But this selfishness is everywhere; I even know of a case in a nursing home where last week they reduced a resident’s daily pad allocation by one to save $1 per day, (bad luck if that person has to sit in a wet chair). Both of these decisions are based on the same principle: loving money more than people.

Jesus said “you cannot serve two masters....God and Money”. He tells us to be content if we have food and clothing, but He means, of course, that we should have a close relationship with Him too, because that creates true contentment and helps us love others. The people who achieve this will go happily on to Eternal Life whilst those who worship money and possessions or stack it away will depart this life spiritually destitute and have Eternity to regret it.

Be generous with your smiles, be generous with your friendship, be generous with your compliments, be generous with your kindness, constantly tell, and show, your children that you care, show your husband that you care about him, show your wife that you care about her, (forget yourself) and be generous like God who made this Bogan Villa for your enjoyment “and my God shall supply all your need” (Philippians 4:19). Wow what a way to live! Best wishes, Tom.

 

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Sheep

 You probably don’t know these sheep by name, but I have it on good authority that the one on the left with the toothy grin is shorn. My wife and I spent a large part of our life looking after sheep. Don’t ever call them silly though because the bible reckons we are very much like them! For example Isaiah, in the 53^rd chapter of the book he wrote (with the inspiration of God) said “We all like sheep have gone astray and turned everyone to his own way and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all”. (The highlighted words there refer to Jesus forgiveness of our sin if we believe in Him).

To fully understand what is wrong with “going astray”, we have to realise that the sheep he was talking about would have normally been under the guidance and protection of a Shepherd who would lead them to good pasture and cool water during the day and protect them from predators and keep them from swampy areas where they might pick up Liver Fluke or whatever. In the evening they would follow him back to a “fold”, or as we would say “a sheep yard”, where he would lock them in safely until morning. Now that sort of protection takes all the stress out of their lives, whereas if they had chosen to go astray and “do their own thing” they could be attacked by wolves or dingoes or wild dogs (depending on where they lived) and also be attacked by more subtle things like internal parasites such as worms, also blowflies, and grass seeds penetrating their skin, foot rot, lice, scabby mouth, and skin cancers (just to name a few). With no one there to help them.

Jesus is adamant that we are all in the same boat as those sheep, constantly being attacked one way or another: e.g. the drug pusher, isn’t he the equivalent of a wolf or dingo? And is being attacked by blowflies any better than the ad in the paper tempting some person to visit a brothel? Is being hooked on drugs any better than a sheep’s stomach worms? The answer is NO! And the list goes on, how about selfishness that ruins our relationships? And resentment that eats away our happiness? We desperately need Jesus (The Good Shepherd) to clean away all our sin. After all His prayer says “Deliver us from evil” and His saving grace does that, so that we can say with David, (the shepherd boy who became king), and wrote the 23^rd Psalm: “The lord is my shepherd, I shall not want, He makes me to lie down in green pastures, He leads me beside the still waters, He restores my soul, He leads me in the paths or righteousness for His names sake; even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil for you are with me, your rod and your staff they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies, you anoint my head with oil, my cup overflows; Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever”. Let’s face it that is the way to go!

Proverbs 3:5&6 says to: “trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not unto your own understanding, in all your ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct your paths” Now that’s not a bad deal either! Is it? In Matthew 11:28 Jesus said “Come unto me all you who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest”. Most of us could do with that too!

The world is in a mess, God wants us to live in this world but not to participate in its shoddy degrading behaviour and not to be stressed out by fears and worries either; that is why Paul said in Philippians 4:7 “Don’t worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God, and the peace of God which passeth understanding will keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus”. Now   that is the way to enjoy life. We don’t constantly worry about our house burning down do we? Because we have asked the Insurance Company to take care of that; well then God wants to be our Insurance Company and look after our lives. So relax then, ask His forgiveness, follow His directions and live above the circumstances like those sheep following their Good Shepherd; surely they aren’t smarter than we are! Are they?

Best wishes as you prove that you are as smart as them.  Regards, Tom.

Good Fuel

The road to the farm house next door to where I was staying passed within a 100 metres of us, so we could often see people coming and going. On the day in question, I knew the neighbours were not home so I took particular notice of a car that drove up toward their house and sheds. A short while later I observed it returning, well you couldn’t really miss it as the engine sounded like a chaff cutter and the car was completely enveloped in smoke. When they were adjacent to us they stopped and (although very embarrassed) asked for assistance to drain their petrol tank and also asked us to supply them with some petrol. You see the neighbour had an overhead fuel tank, so he could easily refuel his tractor, and these people thought they would top-up their car with petrol from it whilst he was away. Unfortunately for them though his fuel was diesel, not petrol, and they were lucky to be able to even make it back as far as our place. Vehicles require the fuel they were designed for and these people learned that the hard way!  I’ll come back to that in a minute.

You see this nice new car of mine? Well I always drove my previous car with my lights on during the day for safety reasons so naturally I did the same with this one and on the second day after I bought it, I parked it and left the lights on by mistake because it has a different system. Returning to it at 8.30pm I found the battery completely flat. (Very handy).

The two episodes above illustrate two very important principles that also apply to our lives: Firstly, cars, (like people), were designed to operate on a particular fuel and secondly they, (like us), also require their batteries to be re-charged on a regular basis: In the car if we want to use the headlights then we need to see to it that the Alternator is refilling the battery or the lights won’t last long and nothing else will work either. Likewise we were designed to be people who are loving, helpful, joyful, peaceful, patient, gentle and kind but without the Holy Spirit’s help we will never achieve that goal. Actually we are told to “pray without ceasing” as prayer connects us to God, the source of all life and power. Now if you haven’t been doing that it may sound a bit much, however just as the alternator never stops generating current for the battery whilst the engine is running, so we need to continually keep in touch with our power source who is our Heavenly Father as He has promised to guide and sustain us and give us wisdom. Furthermore if we commit our lives to Christ Jesus, God has assured us that His Holy Spirit will use our bodies as His temple, thus we don’t have to go far to find help. I’m not pushing some theory here but am writing from my own experience from following bible teaching.

Now you see these two young people? They are at the age when the “world is their Oyster”: Healthy young bodies and living in Australia where they have all the freedom and opportunities to achieve anything they wish. Then what is their problem? Well the girl may be just homeless due to Domestic Violence or such, but the boy has obviously chosen the wrong fuel for his body (like the people who drove their car to our neighbours place). It is so sad; he is surrounded by a world of lovely things and yet chose drugs. He may get help through “Life Line” and a period of rehab of course, but this situation should never have arisen. Nor should the girl be in that situation either.

If you are a parent or grandparent with the responsibility of bringing up young children and want them to avoid the situations illustrated above then you need to follow the instructions given by the one who designed them. Proverbs 22:6 says: “Bring up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he shall not depart from it” and thus they will learn to choose the right “fuel” and learn how to keep in touch with Jesus who said “I came that they might have life, and have it more abundantly” (John 10:10).  The first 5 or 6 years are the most important and we need to pray with them, read them bible stories, take them to church and introduce them to Christian youth groups, because Deuteronomy 11:19 says (when talking of God’s commandments) “Teach them to your children. Talk about them when you are sitting at home, when you are out walking, at bedtime, and before breakfast!....so as long as there is sky above the earth, you and your children will enjoy the good life awaiting you....”.

Moses was guided by God to write these instructions thousands of years ago and they cannot be improved.  Best wishes with that,  Tom.

 

Domestic Violence

 In response to the ever increasing Domestic Violence in our society the Australian Government has just allocated $100,000,000 to endeavour to combat that problem, however all the ideas they have suggested, although helpful, are just the equivalent of “Band Aids” and don’t address the root cause.

Band Aids are very handy of course, if we accidentally cut our finger or similar but it is far better if possible to remove any potential hazards before we do hurt ourselves. This applies equally to Domestic Violence so I would therefore like to mention problems in our society that need to be addressed:

The first and most influential is the concept being taught in our public schools, mainly through the theory of evolution where children are “brain washed” into believing that we humans, and all the marvels surrounding us, are the products of “chance” and there is no sign of “Intelligent Design” in the universe. This gross deception by those who write the curriculum is inexcusable; they are people who are either so anti- God that they would lie “like a pig in mud” in order to deceive others or else they are “brain washed” themselves, because the evidence of “Intelligent design” is everywhere! Believing there is no God is a foundation for Domestic Violence because we then have no one to answer to except ourselves. A person educated that way could look at others including their wife, husband, or partner and see nothing more than a descendent of a monkey, just an animal really, that has no Soul and is of no more value than the dog or cat and whose life ends at the grave.

On the other hand, a Christian (being a believer in God) looks at people and sees God’s greatest creation; human beings “created in the image and likeness of God”, people with Souls that have Eternal life, “Children of God” (and if these people believe in Jesus)...“heirs of God, and if an heir then a joint heir with Christ” (Romans 8:17). I see my wife like that so I know from experience (60 years of marriage) that there is no possible way that I could deliberately hurt her. Unless I was under the influence of alcohol (this can’t happen though because I don’t drink) however this is the excuse used by many people to justify their violence, and I am sure it is a legitimate problem because the police say that the consumption of alcohol impairs our judgement. Now this brings me to our next basic problem: The Government considered cigarettes to be bad for people’s health so stopped them being advertised and put them in plain packages with photos of the damage they do on the packet and hid them from public view. This didn’t deprive the people from having them, but it did decrease their sales by taking the temptation factor away. Now seeing that alcohol is a major problem in our society, and particularly in the Domestic Violence scene, isn’t it hypocritical to allow its manufacturers to spend millions of dollars advertising it everywhere in an effort to tempt people to drink? Logically it should be treated the way cigarettes are treated!

The next basic problem is the availability of violent D.V.D.s. To-day whilst walking past the shop that sells them in the Mall there was a rack out the front where people walk, put there to attract everybody’s attention, containing twenty-one D.V.D.s; 20 of them were rated MA15+and stated that they contained “nude scenes, violence, strong horror, blood and gore, coarse language, drug use and sex scenes”. The 21st one was rated R18+. Woolworths & others display them too. Now if this is the best our censorship board can do they should all be sacked! Because allowing such rubbish to be placed where it will tempt people is tantamount to saying O.K. to domestic violence, rape and sexual harassment. I hold the members of Government who are supposed to represent us, as responsible for failing in their “Duty of Care”. Add the three of these together:  Atheism, Alcohol and D.V.Ds with that content, and you have the perfect recipe for Domestic Violence. The Government has laws to protect the Quoll, rehabilitate the Tasmanian devil and protect the Green tree frog and yet allows our young people to be surrounded by all the rubbish I have mentioned above that will ruin their relationships and promote violence. There are plenty of private member’s bills to protect the environment or to change the constitution to allow same sex marriage or similar but aren’t we getting ahead of ourselves by not first putting forward a bill to reform our education system to include the biblical creation view point, and to ban the advertising of alcohol and unacceptable D.V.Ds? All of which are creating an environment that is causing at least one murder in the home each week, not to mention the abuse that doesn’t end in death but just ruins lives!  If you care, please email, (or copy and post,) this letter to your local member using your name or mine.              Best wishes Tom.