Our Choice

Freedom of choice is one of the greatest privileges we have in our society. We take it for granted here in Australia because this is a Democracy founded on Christian principles, but it is something we should cherish because a large part of the world’s population doesn’t have that freedom.

With that freedom comes a great responsibility though, because we can easily make the wrong choices, and that is why it is so desirable that we seek God’s guidance in our everyday lives, after all He has a “panoramic view” of the possibilities we will face and has an “army” of angels who He can deploy to assist us if we request it, and if we also seek the guidance of The Holy Spirit we will be a long way ahead of those who “go it alone”.

I was looking at this young Magnolia at the corner of my daughter’s house; it is very beautiful and in the early Spring concentrates all its efforts into producing flowers. Oh yes it will produce leaves and wood during the year but producing flowers and seeds is really what it lives for. God “programmed” it to do that therefore it really has no choice. Of course it has no mind like we have so if it wasn’t programmed it would produce nothing!

Fortunately, we do have minds and being free to choose we need to decide what

our aim in life is or we will produce nothing worthwhile either. What are our choices? Well we could be like Chloe Esposito in the photo here who won the gold medal for Australia, in the pentathlon at the Olympic games at Rio. The pentathlon as you know consists of five disciplines which are: fencing, swimming, show jumping, shooting and running. Chloe may have favoured one of these disciplines over the rest but she could not concentrate on it at the expense of the other four, but had to keep her mind on her ultimate goal which was the medal. Having made that her choice, her whole life had to be directed towards succeeding in all five disciplines. From the time she woke early each morning, she had to shower to invigorate her body, (not sleep in as she may have wished), go for a jog, (whether she felt like it or not), have a healthy breakfast (no “fast food”) and then do strenuous training in each of the disciplines. In the evening it was a matter of not going out to parties as she might have liked to, but to get the appropriate rest that her body required. So, although she was an Australian she had to live a life that was different to that of most Australians in order to achieve her goal.

Christians are instructed to live lives that are different too. In 2 Corinthians 6:17 Paul says God will look on us as his sons and daughters if we separate ourselves from things that are not acceptable to Him. You see, once we realise that God loved us so much that He sent Jesus to “nullify” or “delete” the consequences of our sin (and bearing in mind that “all have sinned and come short of the glory of God”) (Romans 3:23), we should be grateful and delighted to ask Him in prayer to be the “Lord of our life” as that reinstates us as sons and daughters of God. Our aim in life should then be to accept His invitation to spend eternity with him in Heaven.

Now, having made that choice we should then adjust our lives in a similar way to how Chloe adjusted hers, and therefore “pass up” many of the “worldly” things that we might otherwise have done.  Is this worthwhile? Well Chloe thought it was worthwhile in order to win a gold medal, but that pales into insignificance when we compare it with what we will gain by “Presenting our bodies as a living sacrifice, Holy, acceptable unto God” which Paul, in Romans 12:1, describes as a reasonable thing to do considering what God is offering us. Did you say “Exactly what is He offering us”? Well in addition to Salvation from the consequences of sin, He is offering us a position as “joint heirs” in the greatest “estate” in the universe where Jesus himself has gone to “prepare a place (accommodation) for us.” (Romans 8:17 & John 14:2)

I ask you: “Is it worth ignoring God’s offer just so we can “enjoy” a few earthly “pleasures” that will not last?”

Please do yourself a favour and examine the facts. To do that you may have to turn off your T.V. and Face book for a couple of evenings and read the New Testament where all the information is laid out clearly. Actually, if you haven’t got a New Testament book, you can find it on your iphone.  Having done that you will at least be able to make an “informed” choice whilst bearing in mind that Jesus said “narrow is the way that leads to life and few there be that find it”. Make sure you are one of those “few”.   Best wishes with that, Tom.

God’s Requirements

I was born on a Merino sheep grazing property and grew up spending lots of time in the work shed repairing things. Most of the items I had to repair didn’t have an instruction book with them so I just used the natural mechanical ability I had.  As a teenager, I pulled the engine out of this Land Rover and put new rings and bearings in it and that was O.K. except that through lack of knowledge I bent one of the valve stems and had to dismantle the motor a second time to straighten it, because I found that the engine was running roughly.  Now if there had been an instruction book or repair manual with that engine (or even someone to show me), I wouldn’t have made the mistakes that I did make. 

It is interesting that not long before I realized that I needed an instruction book in order to look after the Land Rover correctly, my sister had given me a new leather- bound,

New Testament and told me that it was the instruction book for humans, and if I wanted to run my life successfully I would have to follow its instructions. Furthermore, I learned that God was offering me forgiveness for sin because of Jesus sacrifice. I therefore accepted that offer by prayer and then read the book, and re-read it, so many times, in order to “down-load” all that information into my brain, that the pages came away from the cover, as you can see.  It also encouraged me to talk to God on a regular basis so ever since then I have been constantly asking for His guidance in prayer.

 Years later, when I was working for a machinery sales company, the Manager, (who knew that my wife and I owned a sheep property), showed me a new product that the company was going to sell.  It was a sheep handler, made by a West Australian man named Harrington, and was designed to make crutching sheep easier. The Manager got me to take it to our property and use it until I became familiar with it and had learned to use it efficiently.

 After that I demonstrated it at Hawkesbury and Tocal Agricultural Colleges and field days all over the state, and considered myself an expert on this machine.  However it had one fault which I couldn’t overcome.  When a sheep was being crutched, whilst lying on its back, you had to watch it didn’t kick as you could easily cut its Hamstring badly if it did.

 One day I was demonstrating it at the Orange National Field days (where it had won a new implement award) and when I had finished my demonstration, a young man came up and said “Can I show you something?” I thought to myself, “This will be good, him show me something” but (with a friendly smile) I said “sure go ahead.” Well, isn’t that what you would have done?

 He took the hand piece and did a remarkable job that astounded me, and as he crutched the dangerous back leg he showed me that if I pressed my finger on a pressure- point beside the tail the sheep stretched its leg out and couldn’t kick so there was no fear of cutting it. I was absolutely amazed, and humbled, then he said, “I’m from W.A. my name is Harrington, I invented this sheep handler”.

  I instantly learned a wonderful lesson there, and that is that you can’t beat getting instruction from the maker and inventor.  Sure you can muddle along without it, and even think you are doing a good job, but for best results you need those instructions. And who knows better than the inventor and maker?  That is where you and I are blessed, because we can talk to our maker, God, at any time and ask His help and guidance? We don’t have to, of course, and can just muddle along “doing our own thing”. However, Jesus described that as “The broad way that leads to destruction,” and that is not what I want, and I guess that you don’t want to risk that either.

These days everything is becoming increasingly complicated.   For example, a while ago I bought a seemingly simple digital camera.  It has a rechargeable battery and you have to read the instruction book to charge it.  It has a memory card instead of a film so you also have to read the instruction book in order to know how to transfer the photos on to your computer, or get them printed onto paper.  All very complicated, but if you follow the instructions it is easy and turns out well.

Similarly, life is becoming increasingly complicated, however God said to Moses that His name is “I Am” which implies, as the bible says, that He is the same “Yesterday, today and forever”. (Not old fashioned, but completely up-to-date).  So men like Bill Gates (the man behind the Microsoft computer organization) have the modern ability that they have because they were “made in the image and likeness” of our ultra modern God and inherited their ability from him.

This inheriting of abilities applies to all of us in one degree or another, as the bible puts it “We all have gifts, differing according to the grace given unto us”.

This includes our Spiritual life as much as it does our physical life, of course, and when you think about it, the Spiritual life really matters most because it continues beyond the grave and forever, so we should not neglect it. 

 God’s word gives us clear instruction when it says “Labor not for that meat which perishes, but for that which endures to eternal life”.  In other words, God is not as impressed by the worldly things we may have achieved over the years, as He is by our Spiritual achievements.  Such things as our love for Him and our neighbors, our efforts to be Holy and our keeping in touch with Him in prayer. These are the things He is looking for, because these are the only things, that we can take with us into Eternity!  All the rest perishes right here with our earthly bodies.  That’s a sobering thought, isn’t it? Best wishes, Tom.

Delete Daily

When I come to write one of these articles and find my computer is still displaying something I have written before, I have two choices: either to save it if it is worth keeping and file it away in a “folder” for later reference, or if it isn’t worth keeping to delete it and replace it with something that is worthwhile.

Likewise, when we finish our day we often find that we have been surrounded by so much turmoil that our “computer brain” is full of mistakes that have depressed us, things that have frustrated us (like my new computer) and people that have annoyed us, and that can form into resentment, after all they should not have said that, or done that, should they? then there was the gossip we heard or entered into, and something we did that was just plain selfish. In that situation the thing we must not do is press our “save” key, even though it is tempting to do so (talking of “tempting” who do you think is tempting you to “save” those things in your mind?)

Certainly not God because Paul had all this sort of thing in mind, no doubt, when he said “Be angry and sin not; don’t let the sun go down on your wrath” (Ephesians 4:26). In other words, it is normal enough for us to get upset at times but we must “delete” those thoughts and certainly not carry them over into tomorrow. Jesus statement in Matthew 6:34 confirms that idea, where He says: “Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof”.  So we must ask God, in Jesus name, to delete all those thoughts or they will become strongholds of unforgiven sin, that will “clog”our memory bank and undermine us.

Linked up to this is the “Lord’s Prayer”: the disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray so He gave them the “outline” of a prayer that most of us know, and have often repeated, if we are Christians. It goes like this: “Our Father, who art in Heaven, Hallowed be thy name, thy Kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven, give us this day our daily bread” (So far so good); but just look at the next verse: “and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us….” Now that shows how very important it is to forgive others because in that prayer we are asking for forgiveness for ourselves that is conditional on whether or not we are prepared to forgive others.

From my school days I remember our Head Master (who taught me English Literature) quoting some well renowned writer as saying: “It is a Prince’s part to pardon”. I would like to “name drop” by telling you who that writer was, so that you

would think me well educated but you see I went to Cobar Public School, and that photo is of Cobar’s main street in the days when I was a student there; and the school was no more advanced than that street; so full credit to me that I can remember the quote, let alone remember the writer’s name.

But what did the writer mean when he, or she, said those words? Well, for example, if you were caught taking drugs into Indonesia you may well be condemned to death. However, the President could grant you a pardon if he wished; and so it is in many countries. Therefore, we see that pardoning someone (forgiving them) is not a sign of weakness but (as that writer implied), is a sign of strength and authority, and for us to not pardon or forgive someone is a sin by which we sign our own “death warrant”, (see Matthew 18: 35).

It doesn’t matter if you go to church weekly, say prayers ten times daily and help old people to cross the road. None of that pulls any weight with God if you have not forgiven others for the things they have done. No! I’m not being unreasonable, in Matthew 6:15 Jesus said that if we don’t forgive others God won’t forgive us. It is as simple as that. I heard a lady say “I just cannot forgive my mother for what she did”. Well according to the Lord’s prayer and Matthew 18: 23 to 35, if she doesn’t change her attitude, she will have eternity in Hell to regret that un-forgiveness and she may not be the only unforgiving person there, because this is a mistake we can all easily make if we are not careful.

It cost Jesus his earthly life to arrange our forgiveness, whilst it merely costs us a loss of pride to forgive others. But think of what we gain! (or lose if we don’t)

Best wishes, as you come to terms with that and “delete” before night fall. Tom.

Isn’t Christianity challenging and exciting?

Being Saved

I was talking to a young woman at the Mall the other day who is quite well known to me as I have been giving her a copy of the articles I write whenever I see her, and she appears to look forward to receiving them. However, this time she was somewhat depressed and told me she was dejected because she is trying to live a perfect Christian life and seems to often fail.

I assured her that it was fairly normal for us to feel like that, at times, but the main thing is that we keep striving towards our goal.  For sure, the Apostle Paul did say, in Hebrews 12:14, “Follow peace with all people and holiness, without which no person will see the Lord.” And that does seem to have a dreadful finality about it. However, that word “Follow” is the important word in that statement as it indicates “ongoing” determination on the part of the person involved.

  When I was farming, foxes frequently killed our baby lambs so when I went around the ewes that were lambing out in the paddock, I always took a rifle with me in case I saw a fox.

If I did see one I would follow it with great stealth and determination and often kill it. However even if I failed to get it; the fact that I followed or pursued it whilst ever I could, showed my determination, and if the sheep could have possibly known what I had been doing to protect their babies, I know they would have given me full credit for my sincerity, determination and tenacity.

Pursuing a fox is a negative thing because that is what foxes are, as far as sheep graziers are concerned. On the other hand, pursuing holiness is a very positive occupation, as far as we are concerned, but I used that illustration because the principle is the same no matter what we are following; whether it be our chosen job qualification or profession, happiness in our marriage, or rearing our family, and it is for sure that sincerity, determination and tenacity are needed when we follow peace and holiness. However, we are not alone in this as God has committed His Holy Spirit to help us from the outset. Therefore, right from the beginning of our quest for holiness the attributes of love, joy, peace, patience, faith, gentleness, kindness, goodness and self- control, will become more apparent in our lives because these are the “fruits” of The Holy Spirit who is helping us. You see, after we come to Jesus and ask Him to be our own personal Lord and Saviour we certainly are not instantly “Holy”; on the contrary, we are sinners freshly forgiven by the grace of God. The beauty of Christ’s sacrifice on the cross, as far as we are concerned, is that He deleted all our sin by taking it all on Himself. Of course, once we have committed our lives to Jesus we should then want to behave the way He has set out for us in the New Testament and if we are sincere God’s Holy Spirit will help us achieve that behaviour pattern.

 When I told that young lady that it was “normal” for us to feel disappointed that we have not achieved the standard of “perfection” that we would have wished to, I was thinking of the Apostle Paul when he was writing to the Philippian Christians about his goal of Christian perfection, because he was quick to comment: “I don’t mean to say that I have already…reached perfection. But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me. No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus is calling us.” (Philippians 3: 12-14 New Living Translation). So somehow (in a backhanded sort of way) it is reassuring to know that Paul, the man who was one of the greatest of Christ’s followers, admitted that he had to keep working hard to try to attain the Christian Perfection he desired.

I told the story before about how one morning our two little daughters brought tea and biscuits to Audrey and I whilst we were still in bed.

Some outsider (if present), might have criticised them because the tea had too much milk and sugar, and the S.A.O. biscuits had too much butter and Vegemite, but such critics would have been overlooking the fact that these children had done this with Love and done it to the very best of their ability, so what they had done was just “Perfect” as far as Audrey and I were concerned!

God is a very loving parent, as evidenced by the fact that He sent Jesus to die for us and thus “delete” our sin, therefore, when He sees that we sincerely endeavour to do His Will, He will also see past any mistakes we might make as we “follow after Holiness” and look on our behaviour as “Perfect” too.

Keep working towards that.  Best wishes, Tom. 

Spiritual Backup

When Moses died, God appointed a man called Joshua as his successor to lead the “Children of Israel” across the Jordan River into the Promised Land at a point not far from the walled city of Jericho. Having accomplished this crossing, Joshua was approaching Jericho when he met a man with a drawn sword, which was very

confronting and would have been the equivalent of the soldier we see in this photo. Joshua challenged the man by demanding to know “are you friend or foe?” His reply was most unexpected: “Neither one”, he said “I am the commander of the Lord’s army.” This answer must have baffled Joshua somewhat; it certainly baffled me when I first read it, (how could the Lord’s soldier be neutral?) and then I remember seeing a German soldier’s belt from the first world war and on the clasp were the words: “Got mitt uns” (I think that was how it was spelt) which in English would be “God is with us”. However the English and French claimed that God was with them. Now, you can't have it both ways. Or can you?

 In the finality it is not a matter of asking whose side God is on, but we should be asking “whose side are we on?” In other words have we accepted God’s  offer of forgiveness for sin, and in what we are doing now, are our thoughts and behaviour patterns in keeping with the instructions given to us in the Bible, (which would then place us on God’s side), or  could it be that we are deceiving ourselves by "doing our own thing" and asking God to  bless what we are doing? and then wonder why God doesn't answer our prayer.  When Joshua realised who the man was, he “fell with his face to the ground in reverence. ‘I am at your command’, Joshua said. ‘What do you want your servant to do’? The commander of the Lord’s army replied, ‘take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy’. And Joshua did as he was told.” (Joshua 5:14). Now the Lord’s Envoy in saying that was really asking for an outward and visible sign of an inward and Spiritual cleansing commitment. Removing our dirty shoes should also remind us to remove unholy thoughts.

We seem to often have the attitude that God is there to serve us and that we can "walk" straight into His Holy presence, bringing with us all our physical and Spiritual dirt, without even apoligising. We probably have this attitude because we treated our parents that way and got away with it. However with God we are approaching the King of the universe who is Holy, and can only approach Him because of His grace. Paul in the 12^th chapter of his letter to the Romans expressed it this way: “I beseech ye therefore brethren by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service, and be not conformed to this world but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” Whereas our attitude is often like the little boy who prayed: “my name is Jimmy and I will take all that you can gimme”. Thus, like Jimmy, we come to prayer with a long “shopping list” of things we want God to do for us which is really just like “shopping on line”.

 However if we are His servants we should first humbly ask Him in prayer to forgive us (in Jesus name) for any sin of thought, word or deed we have committed (so we are then clean to approach Him), and ask Him to show us who He wants us to help today and to show us how we can best achieve that? Then we can make our personal requests (almost as an afterthought). Indeed Jesus is quoted in Matthew 6:33 as saying “Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you”. So just as Joshua didn’t have any trouble conquering the city of Jericho when he showed humility to the commander of the Lord’s Army, so we are assured by Jesus that if we get our priorities right everything else will fall into place for us too.

 We need the help and guidance of God’s Holy Spirit to achieve this, and the good thing is that God wants our bodies to be fit Temples for His Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19 & 20); how good is that?, but if we are going to invite a Holy guest like Him to live in our body so that we will be able to project the “Fruit of the Spirit”, (Galatians 5: 22)“Love, joy, peace, faith, longsuffering, gentleness, kindness, goodness and self-control”), we had better first remove the rubbish from our “temple” as Jesus did when He cleaned out the Temple of God in Jerusalem. “Pursuing holiness” is essential (Hebrews 12:14). After all, we don’t expect a guest to stay in a dirty room, do we? And of course we should then endeavour to keep our “temple” clean.     Best wishes with that,  Tom.