Easter

I picked up these 2 abandoned “temporary residences” on the edge of the shrubbery beside the footpath on my way to the Mall in Dubbo. They are a type of temporary accommodation where a particular species of caterpillar resides before it turns into a moth, at which time it abandons this old accommodation and goes out fitted with wings to explore a world full of wonders that it hardly imagined existed when it was confined to moving about on legs. The bible assures us that we will do something similar one day too if we “Believe in the Lord Jesus”. The actual words are: “Eye has not seen nor ear heard nor has it entered into the heart of man, the things which God has prepared for them that love him”. So what is out there for us must be incredible if we have never seen anything like it, never heard anything like it or never imagined anything so spectacular. (1 Corinthians 2:9)

These “homes” that are left behind by these caterpillars that have “graduated” are remarkably made, being carefully woven with many meters of silken thread and carefully camouflaged with lots of twigs that are cunningly fastened to the outside to act as reinforcements and also protection. However although these caterpillars went to a lot of trouble to construct these homes and were probably very proud of the end result (not that I think caterpillars are really capable of being proud), I’m sure they didn’t think one more thought about what they had left behind when they flew out over the gardens and in amongst the beautiful trees. You see God “programmed” them to do all that and they therefore got their priorities right. If we came upon a collection of caterpillars that were so busy decorating their temporary homes that they forgot to turn into moths or butterflies then we would shake our heads in disbelief that anything could be so stupid, and yet we run the risk of doing just that ourselves by ignoring the fact that Jesus said “In my father’s house are many mansions....I go to prepare a place for you....and I will come again to receive you unto myself”. So we need to be sure that we have our priorities right too and have prepared our Souls so that we too will be ready when our time comes to depart these bodies that are our “temporary accommodation.”

Don’t get me wrong; I don’t mean that we should neglect things here: certainly not! But we must not forget that Eternal things are much more important than temporary things. You know this change from a caterpillar into a moth inside a closed “room” is very similar to Clark Kent going into a closet and emerging as Superman and then flying away to rescue someone on the top of a high building. It is really impossible because that caterpillar would have to be made of all the ingredients that make a moth; it can’t find something missing and nip down to Bunning’s to get it, and it wouldn’t know how to make a moth anyway. No the only answer is that the remarkable mind of God prearranged it all. Similarly, when we close our eyes for the final time and are going to leave these bodies (which could be today for any one of us) we need to be sure that we have acquired all the “ingredients” necessary for us to fly on up to Heaven; if we haven’t got it all together it will be too late to say “hang on a minute whilst I read the New Testament, or go to church or whatever.”  No, when we close our eyes the decision is final; we either have accepted God’s forgiveness through believing in Jesus redemptive act at Calvary and go up to Him, or else we will be like Superman with a hunk of Kryptonite (the equivalent of sin for him), strapped to his back and go down, down, down.

At Easter God made the being “born again” experience and Eternal Life available to each of us but we need to claim that offer before it is too late.

Best wishes, Tom.

 

Don’t Blame God

 “Has Audrey been to England in the past 20 years”? “No”, I replied. “Well that rules out B.S.E.” (Bovine Spongiform Encephalitis). This was 12 years ago and the questioner was a Psycho-Geriatrician endeavouring to find a reason for my wife’s “Lewey Body” dementia. “Well then, did she have much to do with farm chemicals whilst you were farming and grazing?” “She certainly did” I replied. “Audrey was always assisting me as we attended to the needs of the animals using chemicals to prevent fly-strike, lice, internal parasites and weeds”. “Well then that is what would have caused it.” She replied. In the past 12 years that have elapsed since that interview neither the questioner nor anyone else has even been interested enough to find out what chemicals might have been involved, and yet there are 340,000 people with dementia in Australia and the number is increasing by one every 6 minutes, (over 1700 per week) and the next one might be you or me. In my 40,000 hours spent as a carer in the Nursing Home I have seen scores of dementia cases; people from all walks of life, so the question arises: what sort of chemicals did they come in contact with that affected them? (If chemicals are the cause as the Geriatrician claimed). We should be pushing our Governments for more scientific research. “Shortage of money” they say. Rubbish; they have just got their priorities wrong! Why, recently I heard a local member say that the Government was offering a Shire a million dollars if they agree to unite with an adjoining shire and he suggested they could build a new sport’s oval or such. We need another sports oval like we need a hole in our head; let us put that money, and other moneys that are being allocated to debatable projects, into Scientific Dementia research. There are several types of dementia; Alzheimer’s is the most common, but Lewey Body, which Audrey has, accounts for about 15%, or 255 people each week.  I have heard some people say: “How could a caring God allow such a debilitating illness to turn an active person into a cripple like that?” Well if chemicals are the cause we could well ask: “How could a Federal department of health allow the registration of chemicals for use in our food chain or such without the necessary testing to ascertain if they have any side affects?” Or they could at least find out what my wife has in common with all the other “Lewey Body” dementia sufferers that might have caused it. Actually the Government has banned the use of a lot of chemicals like D.D.T. Aldrin, Dieldrin, and Diazinon etc fearing they cause cancer and placed withholding periods on lots of others which is good, but I went into Woolworths recently and their “Select” brand of frozen vegetables is packed in China and I know that lots of caterers use this cheap product in the meals they prepare. I will guarantee the growers there don’t have the same restrictions on the chemicals they use. Aldi sell the “Farm Fresh” brand of frozen vegies and they are packed in Belgium from local and imported products. So there again we haven’t got a clue as to what chemicals may have been used on them.

As we don’t know what is responsible for the 1700 people being diagnosed with dementia in Australia each week then it is time we found out. We are all different you know; for example I eat peanuts daily and enjoy them whilst some people would be dead in 24 hours if they copied me. We all know about the allergic reaction some people have to things like peanuts; so what chemical affects you may have no affect on me. Couldn’t we find out what caused Audrey to lose her mental ability so quickly? We will never know unless there is more research and there will never be more research unless we pay researchers. (Currently we just build more nursing Homes to house people, Dubbo has 5 homes and another 90 bed one is under construction and the Governments subsidy for just one of those homes is $12 million annually). Very knowledgeable people are being removed from the work force prematurely by dementia, and it is costing families and the nation very dearly. We don’t blame God if some person doesn’t fence their swimming pool and a child drowns! We rightly blame the owner of the pool for not fencing it. Similarly we must not blame God for Dementia but blame ourselves for our lack of research in this field; we need to pressure our Government representatives to arrange that extra research. Meanwhile we must stop importing food that we cannot guarantee as “chemical free”: Free trade is no excuse.      Best wishes. Tom.

 

Pruning

It is an interesting fact of life that if we have a grape vine or a fruit tree and want to increase the quality and amount of fruit produced then we must prune it considerably. My dad had been employed on fruit orchards at Leeton in the N.S.W. Riverina and he showed me how to prune the trees and vines at home. Very briefly, with grapes, last year’s growth had to be cut off about 4 centimetres from where it had branched off the main stem. With the peaches, nectarines etc, last year’s growth had to be cut off to within about a pencil length of the previous year’s wood. Thus we had stacks of lovely large fruit. If we had failed to do this there would still be fruit but it would be smaller, there would be less of it and the long thin branches would break under the weight of the fruit they did produce.

Jesus put us right in this picture by describing himself as the vine and us as the branches and God as the one in-charge of the vineyard. Of course branches are dependent on the vine. He made the scary statement that any branch that didn’t bear fruit would be cut off and burnt (I’m sure I don’t want to be one of those branches, do you?).

 In this context, to “bear fruit” means to spread the Gospel and thus encourage others to become Christians; you see, we were “bought with a price,” (1Corinthians 6:20) and have a Spiritual job to do, and like any employee if we don’t do our work sincerely and to the best of our ability we run the risk of being sacked; it is as simple as that. On the other hand Jesus said that if we do “bear fruit” then he will prune us to bear even more fruit. (John 15). So just as the gardener doesn’t want the vine to spend too much energy in growing foliage, likewise God doesn’t want us to get sidetracked into spending too much time and energy on material things and neglect the Spiritual.

Is that fair? It certainly is when you consider the facts: You see “God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself” So if we accept his gift of forgiveness and endeavour to obey His commandments, we become citizens of the Kingdom of God and this was achieved at great cost to God and Jesus. Now when it comes to “bearing fruit,” as mentioned above, there is often a misunderstanding because Jesus said the 2 most important commandments were to “Love God and love your neighbour as you love yourself”. The first of these commandments should be automatic because when we consider how Jesus sacrifice has saved us from Hell, it is logical for us to love Jesus and God. Secondly, if we love our neighbour then surely when we find this treasure of forgiveness (that has a value beyond anything in the world), we should share it with our neighbours and not keep it to ourselves! If we don’t share it we become one of the “unfruitful branches” mentioned above and therefore forfeit our citizenship in the Kingdom by breaking the second commandment.

Actually, to not share this knowledge of Salvation would be the most selfish and thoughtless act one could perform; lots of people do it though, simply because they have never thought much about it at all or have possibly never read these relevant texts, and assume that spreading the gospel is the duty of the Minister, Priest or Pastor. But I’m afraid it goes much wider than that as Jesus was talking to his followers generally when he said: “Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature...” As I have said before Jesus points out in Matthew 25:22 that we don’t all have the same ability, nevertheless, Jesus also makes it very clear that He expects us to do our best!

Recently I have come across people who seem to have a half-hearted attitude to their own salvation too, having a “She’ll be  right mate” attitude, but that won’t do either; Jesus when talking to John about the Christians at Laodicea said that because they were “Luke warm” he would reject them (words to that effect)(Revelations 3:16). Now if you are not a Christian please don’t adopt the attitude that this doesn’t apply to you, because it certainly does, you have just heard what a remarkable thing God has done for you and what He expects you to do for others. Therefore this is your opportunity to ask God’s forgiveness through Jesus sacrifice and turn and follow those two commandments and His directions as outlined in the New Testament which is also available on line for your convenience.   Best wishes with this food for thought,  Tom.

Mobile Phones

When I was in my late teens, it was a very romantic era: There was a weekly dance in the local hall and the girls came dressed modestly in their prettiest dresses and the boys dressed in their very best too. There was also a C of E Ball, a Catholic Ball, a Show Society Ball, a Masonic Ball, and a C.W.A. Ball with wonderful music and great suppers. There was no Television so simple Ballroom dancing was one of the ways young people got together to enjoy themselves which was different from the “Strictly Ballroom” we see on T.V. now, which is mostly a form of gymnastics by scantily clad females. The songs they sang back then were romantic too and I still refresh my wife’s memory by singing to her with songs like: “With someone like you; a pal that’s good and true, I’d like to leave it all behind and go and find, some place that’s known to us alone, just a spot we’d call our own. We’d build a sweet little nest somewhere out in the West and let the rest of the world go by.” You see Audrey and I did “build a little nest out in the West”.

It was a one bedroom house and I got the builders started on it before we went on our Honeymoon and when we arrived back, there it was, as you see in the photo. The Mailman who used a 10 ton truck (instead of a motorbike), on his weekly mail delivery, had delivered our furniture too, so all we had to do to complete the picture was to put the furniture in place and settle in. We were very fortunate to have such a lovely start to our married life weren’t we? Particularly seeing that we had both accepted God’s forgiveness and had learned to “text” God with prayer.

Now before any young person reading this gets jealous let me point out that this house was 90 km from Bourke (the nearest town) and there was no Television in that part of the world. We had a radio but there was no Telephone and Mobile phones hadn’t been invented yet. Therefore if Audrey wanted to find out how her family and friends were (for example) she would have to write a letter and give it to the mailman and expect to get a reply in about 2 weeks. If there was a serious accident well “bad luck” as there was no “000.” There was no electricity either, just kerosene lamps and a kerosene refrigerator and a wood burning stove. Thousands of Australians have lived under worse conditions, not having a nice house as we did, and we had the added “bonus” of being in love, so we were privileged.  Of course there are lots of newlyweds today that are in love, but they would not like to give up their Mobile phones,T.Vs and electricity with all the useful gadgets that are available like air conditioning; not to mention the security of having the availability of “000”, and shops  and Doctors within walking distance.etc.

Strangely though a very large percentage of these young people who avail themselves of these wonderful material benefits that they have to-day, are still “living out the back of Bourke” with primitive conditions as far as their Spiritual lives are concerned. They don’t realise that there are hundreds of “text messages” from God stored in the Old and New Testaments that they have not yet opened; that would make their lives so much less stressful, more relaxed and complete. It is comforting for Christians to know that they have an Eternal future in Heaven when their days here are over of course, but let’s face it, (depending on your age), that may be many years away, and help right now would be very much appreciated by most people. So I recommend that you do as I do and check the bible’s text message “In box” throughout the day where you will find messages like this text from Paul saying “don’t worry about anything, instead, pray about everything. Tell God what your need, and thank Him for all He has done. Then you will experience God’s peace”; and Paul should know because his life was very difficult. One such “text” that I claim every morning is the one where God says: “I will be with you in trouble, I will deliver you and honour you, and with long life I will satisfy you and show you my salvation.” Now that is the sort of “back up” you really shouldn’t ignore, because it is addressed to all those who are prepared to “believe on Him”. There are stacks of others: “He shall give his angels charge over you to keep you in all your ways” is also very reassuring. There is a “text” covering every situation so, if you haven’t done so, you need to read the New Testament and at least the Psalms in the Old Testament, in order to see how your Heavenly Father has catered for your needs.       Best wishes, Tom.