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.