Strengthened by Difficulties

Nine months ago I took this photo of a Palm Tree beside the walk way at the Mall, and I mentioned in an article I wrote at the time, that the gardeners had just cut its top off and said they were going to destroy it as it was in the wrong place. My interest at that stage was to observe how beautifully folded the leaves were (like a Chinese fan), and how tightly packed the unopened leaves were. To me that was evidence of God’s designing and programming.  For some reason they didn’t destroy the tree but it looked very unhappy for a while and I thought it would die. However, it has now revived and looks more robust than ever as you can see in this next photo. I am sure the tree didn’t enjoy the rough handling it had but its roots were
firmly established in good soil so it was able to cope with the problems it was faced with and overcame them.

Throughout life we are also confronted with difficult problems that often seem as if they will defeat us and it is then that we appreciate the prayerful hope that Paul expresses in his letter to the Ephesian Christians: “That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye being  rooted and grounded in love, (just as that tree is well rooted in good soil), may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye may be filled with all the fullness of God”.(Ephesians 3:17), What a colossal “backup” is available to us if we choose to avail ourselves of it.  Indeed, without that “backup” and supply of strength to draw upon we can be easily defeated, just as that Palm tree wouldn’t have survived if it hadn’t been for the good soil and adequate moisture that was there for it to draw upon. I am afraid that we often don’t ask for help in time of need but face it alone because we either don’t know that our Heavenly Father is the King of the universe or we are too proud to ask Him for help: Victorious living comes from faith and “faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God”, (Romans 10:17), and that really means repeatedly hearing. Somehow I feel that the comma after the first word “hearing” is in the wrong place and should be after the second “hearing,” because we need to hear and hear.

When John Wesley (the famous evangelist who “turned England upside down”) first heard of “Salvation by faith” he had a problem believing it so one of his friends said: “Preach it until you believe it, and then preach it because you believe it.” And he did, with fantastic results.

People say to me: “I don’t understand why God allows sickness, or the death of babies”. Well God doesn’t want either, and Jesus proved this by healing every sick person He met and even raised the dead who had died prematurely and then handed the responsibility over to us when He was leaving by saying: “The works that I do shall you do also, and greater works than these shall you do because I go to the Father,” (John 14: 12) to those who accept Jesus forgiveness there is a long list of Spiritual gifts that are available. So those who want to, can live victoriously and help others. All we need is FAITH and Romans 10:17 tells us how to get that. (You don’t get it by reading books about the New Testament, you must read and re-read the actual words). Audrey and I were living in town and went out to our property for a visit and found lots of large “Cat-head” burr plants in our orchard (the seed must have come in hay we bought). Audrey was very upset and recalling what Jesus said we could do, when He killed the fig tree, she turned to these burr plants and said, in a loud voice, “I curse you Catheads, in the name of Jesus die” (secretly I thought to myself “she has overdone it this time”) but when we returned to the orchard a few days later I was astounded to see that every plant had died. On another occasion, whilst handling cattle, I got a dreadful chest pain that I recognised as a heart attack so I went and lay on the bed. Audrey came and prayed for me constantly for 2 days, quoting God’s promises in the scriptures (I wasn’t game to move), other friends she phoned prayed too and the pain gradually departed, leaving me weak. After many days though, I returned to normal and felt quite well. Years later I had more pain so went to St Vincent’s Hospital where they gave me a Coronary Angiogram and the Specialist said I needed some by-passes, but added “you had a severe heart attack some years ago”. I said “yes, how did you know?” He replied “I can see where your heart made its own by-pass”.   Best wishes for more faith, Tom.

Are You Ready

 

“Are you ready”? is a question that we get asked constantly from childhood: “Are you ready to get up?” “are you ready for your shower”? “are you ready for Breakfast”? “Are you ready for school”? and so it continues through our life; we always have to be ready for something. But what a dreadful feeling it is if someone reminds us, at the last minute, about something important we forget to get ready for. At such a time we understand the meaning of the word “Panic”, but unfortunately panicking does not always solve the problem, does it?

When I was a little boy back in the 1930s we had no electricity on our farm so at night

mum always kept a “Hurricane Lantern” lit (like the one in the photo), so we had a light “always ready” in case we had to go and close the chook yard gate after dark, or tie the dog or even go from the kitchen to the bedroom, it helped us find our way easily and as I was scared of the dark, it was also very comforting to see that there was nothing to be frightened of lurking in the shadows. Well there could have been a snake. Our neighbour, Jack, at “Wilgareena” got bitten by a snake near the dog kennel. My sister found one in the bedroom, aimed the 12-gauge Shotgun at it, pulled the trigger and drove the snakes head through the floor, and received a bruised shoulder, all at once.

 For anyone who may not be familiar with this type of light, you filled the bottom section with Kerosene or as some call it “Paraffin” which is a fuel oil made from a mixture of liquid hydrocarbons. A wick of absorbent material, controlled by a winder, sucked up the Kerosene by capillary action and you lit the wick with a match.  The light which was inside that glass was protected from the wind and lasted for hours before you had to add more Kerosene, providing that you turned the wick down low with the winder. Therefore, it was always “ready”. The other lamps used in the house worked on a similar principle.  In Biblical times they had a lamp that looked like a teapot except that the spout was shorter and turned upwards and a wick went down inside the spout and into the oil that was in the body of the lamp, it worked well but it had a “naked” flame with no winder to adjust the wick so it used a considerable amount of “oil” and needed frequent refilling.

Jesus told a story about “ten bridesmaids” in Matthew 25, (New Living Translation), who had to attend an evening wedding so they each took a lamp with them (probably like the last one I just described). Now I don’t understand the customs of their day, but apparently they had to wait outside the place where the wedding was to take place until the Groom arrived and then they could go in with him. In this particular case the Groom was delayed for some reason and didn’t arrive until midnight. Meanwhile the girls had dosed off and woke with a start when it was announced that he had arrived. Five of them had neglected to bring spare oil with them so were not ready and had to run and get some because their lamps had gone out, but unfortunately for them when they returned they found that the other five who had brought extra oil and were ready, had gone in with the Bridegroom and the doors were now shut.

The Groom in this story represents Jesus himself, and the Bridesmaids represent people like us and the hall where the wedding was to be held represents the Kingdom of Heaven. You see Jesus was talking about the time when he will “come again” to receive those of us who are prepared and ready. Of course if we die before he comes again, then the same thing still applies: those who are prepared and ready will be accepted into Heaven but sadly, those who are not prepared and ready will be “cast out into outer darkness: where there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth” for eternity. (Matthew 22:13 & 25:30). (What a dreadful and unnecessary alternative that would be).

Exactly then what do we have to do in order to be prepared and ready? Well, briefly it amounts to this: We prepare by “repenting”, which means asking God’s forgiveness for sin, and deciding to follow Jesus directions in future (as outlined in the New Testament). The 10 Bridesmaids would have fulfilled the equivalent of that preparation, but 5 of them were like some of us who fail to “update that commitment” which is something we need to do on a daily basis. 

Take my case for example: On the 10^th of January in 1950, I made that commitment and if I had died on the 11^th (the next day) I would have gone to Heaven because I was ready. However, I didn’t die so I must continue to live the way Jesus directed, asking God’s forgiveness for sinful thoughts and concentrate on “Loving my neighbour as I love myself” and so on, because these things keep me ready as they confirm my original commitment and are the equivalent of “topping up” my lamp with oil so I have light for my path and am ready.  Best wishes as you think about that, if you haven’t already done so.   Tom.

Faith or Stress

“You are not a candidate for a Heart Attack, you are not over weight, as a farmer you spend your time in the open air, and get plenty of exercise: For you to have had a heart attack you must have had a lot of stress”. This was the Cardiologist at St Vincent’s Hospital in Sydney talking to me. How ashamed he made me feel, a professing Christian, having a heart attack through stress, of all things: how faithless

and ridiculous.

 Said the robin to the sparrow, I should really like to know, why these anxious human beings rush about and worry so. Said the sparrow to the robin, friend, I think it must be, that they have no Heavenly Father, such as cares for you and me.

But we do have a Heavenly Father who cares about us, only, we have our priorities wrong: In Matthew 6: 24 to 34, Jesus said: “You cannot serve both God and Money…. That is why I tell you not to worry about every-day life…. Look at the birds…your heavenly Father feeds them. And aren’t you far more valuable to him than they are? Can all your worries add a single moment to your life.... Look at the lilies of the field

how they grow…. Solomon in all his glory was not dressed as beautifully as they are…. Your heavenly Father already knows all your needs. Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need. (New Living Translation).

Does this mean then, that we don’t have to work but just trust God and all our needs will be supplied? No! it certainly doesn’t, if he did that for us it wouldn’t be long before we would be bored out of our minds. If he had meant that, he wouldn’t have designed the world with all the wonderful supply of commodities for us to use to build things and so on. Nor would he have given us the natural abilities like carpentry, mechanics, engineering etc. Certainly he gave us a world supplied with fruit and vegetables and foods of many types and in the Garden of Eden we had all these without the weeds and thistles. If people had not sinned it could have been Heaven on earth. However, in a sense we pawned our birthright of fellowship with God by yielding to the temptations of Satan, who is “the god of this world”, (2 Corinthians 4:4), and we are under his influence. If you visit a Pawn Broker and pawn some jewellery or the like, that item is his until you return with the money, plus interest, and “Redeem” it, at which time it is legally yours again. This is exactly what God did for us: he sent Jesus to pay the price of our “Redemption”: We were “Redeemed by the blood of the lamb” of God, or as Ephesians 1:7 and Colossians 1:14 put it: “in whom we have Redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace”. 1 Peter chapter five verses six and seven says: “Humble yourselves therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time: casting all your care upon him; for He careth for you.” If God has offered to take all my care upon Him, why was I foolish enough to carry it myself?  To do that was very stupid of me, (of course you wouldn’t do that, would you?)

 The fact of the matter is that when we accept God’s forgiveness through that “Redemptive” act we are automatically reinstated as “children of God” and citizens of His Kingdom with “Passport and Visa” ready so that when we finish our time here we can return home to God where our names are in “the Book of Life” (Revelation 20:12). Meanwhile, like any citizen of another Kingdom, we can work here and enjoy ourselves and if we put God’s directions first in everything we plan, think, and do we can then expect that “He will give His Angels charge over us to keep us in all our way” (Psalm 91).  We can then go forward in quiet confidence that no matter what happens “All things work together for good for those that love God, the called

according to His purpose”. We need to take a lesson from the eagles: they hardly ever flap their wings, instead they make use of the thermal up-drafts of air provided by God’s design, whilst some other birds flap constantly and wear themselves out. So we must not ‘flap’ too much, instead we must do as Proverbs 3:5 says and “Trust in the Lord with all our heart and lean not to our own understanding; in all our ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct our paths”.(Proverbs 3:5). Best wishes with that, Tom.

The alternative: “He rushed through life, people said ‘he’s a wizzard’ but he died at 40 with a burned out gizzard”. (Now that’s not really a good way to live or die, is it?)

The Real Thing

I am always fascinated by trees. There are thousands of hectares of trees like these of various varieties in the Great Dividing Range along the East coast of Australia and also 
in Tasmania and Western Australia. They are part of the resources given to us as a gift for us to use, and of course, if managed properly would keep replacing themselves as they are a renewable resource. This particular type was designed to be used for telephone and electricity poles and bridges, or any construction that requires long straight planks. To save them wasting their time whilst they are growing or waiting to be used, the one who invented them, allotted them the task of purifying the air we breathe by absorbing carbon and respiring oxygen through their leaves. (He
didn’t overlook anything). I wrote about this once before mentioning the great variety of trees. Such as hard woods, soft woods, fodder trees for animals to eat, like Mulga, Rosewood and Kurrajong, and there are lots of decorative trees too, like the acacias, but as well as looking pretty they also filter the air for us. Terrific planning went into all this, and they were all made so that the bees can pollinate their flowers, and as a payment for that they were designed to supply the bees with the ingredients to make honey with varying flavours. The honey shop: “M.S. Honey”, in West Dubbo near I.G.A. have a colossal variety like those in the photo.

 When Audrey and I got married we had a
small house built for us to live in: it didn’t just accidentally evolve whilst we were on our Honeymoon either. On the contrary, we designed it before the builder commenced construction, consequently it was “purpose built” having the necessary rooms in the right places with such things as a stove, a stainless steel sink and the necessary cupboards in which to store things, and friends said it was “a nice little house and well thought out”.  

If we use our brains as we look about us, it becomes very obvious that this world is a “nice place, purpose built, and well thought out” too. We should then understand what the Bible means when it states that we have no excuse for not believing in God, as his handiwork is all around us and the closer we look the more amazed we become: It is not an inhospitable place like the Moon or Mars or Jupiter. Certainly not: it is obviously “purpose built” for us to inhabit, as it has everything we could possibly need, whether it be Iron Ore to manufacture steel, or Lavender flowers to make perfume. Walk into any Supermarket and the variety of fruit and vegetables is incredible, there are dozens of different types, each having a unique flavour and a recognisable shape and colour which we take for granted, but without those different shapes and colours selecting them would be a nightmare. They were all designed by our loving Heavenly Father so that our sojourn on Earth would be very pleasant and interesting, and if you have observed these fruits developing on the tree or vine you will have also noticed that until they are ripe they are the same colour as the leaves on the tree or vine that produces them which is very clever camouflage, (He thought of everything). We must not overlook the herbs He put there for our enjoyment either, and the berries, Strawberries, Blue berries, Raspberries etc. It is incredible to me that some people cannot see that God’s intelligent mind was necessary in order
for a brainless tree to be programmed to produce this luscious piece of fruit; to deny that God was involved, as some do, is ridiculous and implies that the brainless house we built could have invented its own stove. After all, if a tree without brains, could make fruit that is so very complex, without God’s intervention, then (using that logic) a similarly brainless house should be able to make a stove? However, it can’t. The fact is that the entire earth and everything in it was deliberately designed for our use and enjoyment by our God as recorded in the book of Genesis, and his intelligence staggers the imagination. Can you think of anything we need that He hasn’t catered for? If we had the common sense to just abide by Jesus second commandment to “Love our neighbour as we love ourselves” we would all enjoy this planet because it is only selfishness and lack of love that causes all the upset in the world. In so many countries people are too busy fighting to attend to their crops and gardens and wonder why they are hungry. This sort of stupidity can start in our family relationships too, and just spreads like an infection so we need to “nip it in the bud” and show forgiveness and love because if we don’t forgive those who trespass against us, God will not forgive us our trespasses.     Best wishes, Tom.