Back in the 1960s I bought a nice A554
International tractor, it was made in Australia. That was back in the good old
days when we made Chamberlain tractors here too, as well as Holden cars.
Unfortunately, one day the A554 Engine just stopped and I found that the
Crankshaft had snapped in the middle so would no longer rotate. Now that meant
that the tractor could no longer operate at all, and unless I could repair that
engine and give it new life I would no longer be able to farm the country that
I was hoping to farm.
Let us consider a hypothetical case: suppose
that I had no money to repair that motor and a friend came along and said that
he had been talking to my father and mentioned my difficulty, and my father had
then contacted the Tractor repair garage in Tottenham (our nearest town) and
paid the proprietor for the repair in advance so all I had to do now was take
the tractor to him and he would “rebirth” the engine making it as new. The
friend who told me this, would be expecting me to be thrilled by an offer like
that, and would be amazed if I said: “I haven’t been speaking to my father for
years and I am therefore not interested”. He would also be amazed If I said
that my pride wouldn’t let me accept the offer anyway because if I cannot do it
myself then I’m not prepared to accept charity, even from my father. Either of
these actions by me would have been very foolish, to say the least, and I am
pleased to say they never happened. Yet they are quite common in our society,
and unfortunately, in the Spiritual realm of our lives they are even much more common.
You see, the “engine” that drives us
is our Soul and the scriptures tell us that “all have sinned and come short of the
glory of God” (Romans 3:23) and “all” includes you and me, but worse still
we have been told that “the Soul that
sinneth, it shall die” (Ezekiel 18:4) because “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23), how dreadful is that?
However, just like in the scenario above, our Heavenly Father has paid the
price for the rebirth of our Souls, through Jesus sacrifice, so “the gift of God is Eternal life through
Jesus Christ our lord” (Romans 6:23), what a relief, does this mean then that all people have
Eternal Life? No it doesn’t unfortunately: Jesus himself clarified this point
by saying that “as many as received him to them he gave the power
to become children of God” (John 1:12). And John 3:15&16 confirms this
where Jesus said that “whosoever believeth
in him shall not perish but have eternal life”. So how many people
will make it to Heaven? I don’t know, but it won’t be as many as it should be
because even though “It is not His will
that any person shall perish” (2Peter 3:9), many of us behave like I did in
the above hypothetical scenario and either don’t speak to our Heavenly Father
or are too proud to accept His offer of help. Of course there are some who
haven’t even heard of His offer and it is up to us to tell them.
You see, unless our “Engine” (Soul)
is rebirthed (Born again) we are like that tractor that would end up on the
scrap heap if its engine is not rebirthed. Whether or not the tractor looks
nice, has new tyres, and a newly upholstered seat etc. is irrelevant. Likewise,
it makes no difference how nice we seem to be or what good things we do either,
because our Soul has sinned and it must be rebirthed before those things are of
any value. This was clarified by Jesus when a very sincere religious leader of
the Jews named Nicademus came to visit him, this man would have obeyed every
law written in the Old Testament to the letter. He started to compliment Jesus
on the miracles he had done and so on, but Jesus made no comment on that but
came straight to the point by saying: Nicademus, “you must be “born Again” or you cannot
enter the Kingdom of God”,
(John 3: 3&5) and went on to explain that he wasn’t talking about a
physical rebirth but a Spiritual rebirth, and this comes about when we believe
in Jesus, repent, and follow His ways. Then, and then alone, are we qualified
to enter Heaven. This, of course is what Easter is all about. We can have God’s
forgiveness because Jesus “gave his life
as a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:28). You and I are part of those “ransomed”
“many” when we accept that gift of God by prayer.
May God richly bless you and yours
this Easter and forever more,
From Tom and Audrey.
For many decades Australians had the assurance, from the
Government, that when they reached retirement age, and didn’t have enough money
saved to live on, that an Age Pension would be available to them. That was a
wonderful arrangement and took a lot of the stress and concern out of the lives
of retirees because people felt confident knowing that they would have an
amount of money paid into their bank account each fortnight that would be
sufficient for them to live on for the next 14 days if they manage it
carefully. You needed to have faith in “Centerlink” to the extent that you
believed they would provide the cash on a continuing basis, of course. Because,
without faith, people could worry themselves sick towards the end of each
fortnight wondering where the next money to live on was going to come from,
which would be stupid. FAITH: how very important that is. 
I was thinking about this when I was repeating the “Lord’s
Prayer” that Jesus taught his disciples, where He says “Give us this day our daily bread”: Why did he mention Just one
day’s bread? Why not “Give us all the bread that we will need for the next 12
months”? Well, we can be assured that Jesus didn’t make statements that weren’t
well thought out, He had a very good reason. As far as the Government is
concerned, they wouldn’t give a lump sum because they know that some people
cannot handle money properly and would waste it on something unnecessary and
then starve. In Jesus case it is different, He wants us to live one day at a
time in His company involving him in our work and trusting him to see that all
our needs will be supplied. In Philippians 4:6 we are told to not worry about
anything, but let God know our problems and be assured that he will fix them.
(check Philippians 4:6 for yourself, it is in the New Testament). It is like
the situation a farmer finds himself in each year when he would like to sow a
crop of wheat, but he knows that there is only enough moisture in the soil to
germinate the seed and maintain it for a few weeks, however it will take 6 or 7
months, and a certain amount of rain each month, to grow the crop and then some
nice fine hot weather to harvest it. Well then, is he gambling if he sows without
that certainty? It certainly looks like
it. However, Solomon, (or some other wise king) who had “been there, done that”
wrote the book of Ecclesiastes thousands of years ago and made the observation in
chapter 11 verse 4 that “anyone who looks
at the wind shall not sow and anyone looking at the clouds will not reap”.
Which is exactly right. Nevertheless, my observation from being personally
involved as a farmer, and also studying the bible, is that we need a personal
relationship with our Heavenly Father. If we do have that relationship and are
prepared to have faith, we can relax in the promise that “My God shall supply all your need” (Philippians 4:19), so then
there is no gamble associated with it. Just as Centerlink doesn’t supply a lump
sum and people trust them to make regular payments, so we need to trust God.
Now this is not “Kismet” or fatalism (“whatever will be will be” type of
thinking). Certainly not! It is faith
born of “hearing and hearing from the
word of God”. “Faith, without which no person will please God.” And
realising that God alone knows what is best for us we can rest assured as
Romans 8:28 says that “All things work together for good for those who love God, the called 
