The Easter Question....Have you any Room for Jesus

There is a hymn that “spells out” the Easter message like this:

“On a hill far away, stood an old rugged cross the emblem of suffering and shame, and I love that old cross where the dearest and best for a world of lost sinners was slain. I will cherish the old rugged cross, till my trophies at last I lay down; I will cling to the old rugged cross and exchange it someday for a crown”.

How awesome it is that Jesus was willing to pay the price of our sins, as recorded in John chapter 3 and verse 16, so that we can go free, (provided we are willing to repent and “believe” in Him). Jesus, referring to the door of our heart says: “Behold I stand at the door and knock If any man hears my voice, and opens the door, I will come in to him, and sup with him, and he with me”. (Revelation 3: 20). The artist, Holman Hunt, illustrated that statement Jesus made, as we see in his painting here, where the Risen Saviour is bringing with Him our pardon from sin and the light of life, what a challenge that is for us because as God’s children we are all included as beneficiaries in Jesus “Last Will and Testament”. (Called the “New Testament”) This begs the question: “Have you any room for Jesus? He who bore your load of sin, as He knocks and asks admission, loved one won’t you let Him in? Room for Jesus, King of Glory, hasten now His word obey, swing your heart’s door widely open, bid Him enter whilst you may?” You see, it is up to us to decide because God can do no more without removing our freedom of choice. As the beneficiaries we have to decide whether or not to claim our inheritance. How about you then? Have you told God yet that you want to claim your inheritance?  which amounts to the forgiveness of your sins and eternal life shared by Jesus plus fellowship and guidance of the Holy Spirit.

A friend of Holman Hunt (the man who painted that picture) said to Holman “you forgot to put a handle on the door”. Holman Hunt replied: “No I didn’t forget. The handle to open our heart’s door is on the inside; Therefore, we are the only ones who can open the door and invite Jesus in”. Now, if we do that, (or have already done so), then we will have a happy Easter and the words of the following hymn become relevant to us as a prayer: “Into my heart, into my heart, come into my heart Lord Jesus, come in to-day, come in to stay, come into my heart Lord Jesus. Out of my heart, out of my heart, shine out of my heart Lord Jesus, shine out to-day, shine out alway, shine out of my heart Lord Jesus”.

 In that way we obey Jesus instruction as recorded in Matthew 5:16, where He says “Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify my Father who is in Heaven”. We will then be very comfortable singing “I serve a risen Saviour, He’s in this world to-day, and I shall always serve Him no matter what men say, I see His hand of mercy, I feel His tender care, and every time I need Him He’s always there. He lives, He lives, Christ Jesus lives to-day, He walks with me and talks with me along life’s narrow way, He lives, He lives salvation to impart, you ask me how I know He lives; He lives within my heart”.  Easter is the Pivotal point in all our lives, whether we are an Atheist, a Christian, or whatever, because how we respond to Jesus death and resurrection determines how our life on earth will “pan out” and where we will spend Eternity! “Neither is there Salvation in any other name” (Acts 4:12).

The “Easter Bunny” is merely a commercial gimmick and has absolutely no religious significance.  Not so the Easter egg though, as it symbolises the “new birth,” mentioned to us above, which is available to us through Jesus crucifixion and resurrection (if we repent of past sin and ask for forgiveness).  If you buy an unlabelled egg make sure you tell others that it is an “EASTER” egg, and that it represents NEW LIFE.       

Have a happy Easter. Best wishes, Tom.

Life is a Training Ground for Souls

In the fairy tales we are told that the prince and princess “got married and lived happily ever after”. Judging by the current divorce rate that is not always the case to-day. Nevertheless, it is God’s plan for a man and woman, who love each other, to get married. He wants us to have a very special friend to share our life with, and that is also the way He populates the world.  However, people need to be reasonably sure that they are compatible before they marry. To have had a short “courtship” Just based 
on attraction and romantic feelings is risky. Real love needs to be given a chance to grow and deepen as people get to know each other reasonably well before they marry, and even then they should be encouraged to take those vows: “For better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health until death us do part.” Unfortunately, not everybody takes those vows and often those who take them lack the commitment to follow them through and therefore never know the “oneness” that comes from that deep and abiding love and devotion that real commitment earns. When Audrey and I got married and acquired a small grazing property of our own, we soon found that the vows we took on our wedding day were also applicable to running a sheep grazing property. In the first photo you will see that we had a good season with lovely grass for our sheep (“for richer”). In the second photo we were in the middle of a drought that lasted for years and even the sheep were depressed (“for poorer”). In the third photo (below), I cut scrub for them so they could eat the
leaves but that wasn’t enough to keep them healthy (“in sickness”). Then we bought grain and fed them daily by pouring it out on the hard bare ground to keep them “in health” as you see in the last photo. That was difficult as we had very little money to start with so that could have been the end of our grazing enterprise if it wasn’t for determination to succeed and a strong faith in God, (I believe that a lot of marriages fail due to a lack of that 
faith in God and the commitment and determination to succeed.)  Audrey and I were “Good Shepherds” to our sheep, they learned to recognise our voices and come when called, many of them became real pets and we grew to recognise them as individuals and love them. Of course there were those who remained “Hoity Toity” and kept us at a distance, but their pride was not to their advantage in the long run. One of our Prime Ministers (Malcom Frazer), said that “life wasn’t meant to be easy”. Actually that is all that I remember him saying, but I believe he was right in saying that. When we are young we often feel that the world is our Oyster and all we have to do is get a good job, marry someone nice, get a good home, travel the world and enjoy life. Which is the, “and they lived happily ever after” syndrome. Well I have news for anyone thinking that way: Happiness is certainly what we should aim for but it doesn’t come in that way. I have met many people who have all that we just mentioned but somehow they don’t have Happiness.  We are Spiritual beings with the prospect of eternal life, Jesus likens us to sheep and He wants to be our Good Shepherd, so just as Audrey and I looked after our sheep through thick and thin, He wants to do that for us. We therefore, need to start by accepting Jesus love and forgiveness as the foundation of our life and let Him guide us as we build our lives on that foundation of His eternal love.  The media tell us that our world is full of pitfalls but the Bible told us that, long before the media was thought of. However, the media offers no lasting solutions whilst God says “I will be with you in trouble, I will deliver you and honour you”. That is if we are prepared to let Him be our Shepherd and don’t stand off like those proud “hoity toity” sheep I mentioned above. Accepting God’s forgiveness and Lordship is where true happiness commences and just as our sheep were    fed by us, so we need to feed on God’s word, particularly the New Testament. God understands us. He has been shepherd to millions of people like you and me and every one of those millions have had the same basic needs as we have, so all we have to do is co-operate with God’s instructions and everything else will fall into place. “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, lean not unto your own understanding, in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths”. (Proverbs chapter 3 verse 6). It is an interesting concept, and it works.  Think about it, if you haven’t already done so.  Best wishes, Tom.
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
    
 

Learning to Walk

How we love to see our children, grandchildren or great grandchildren taking their
first steps as they learn to walk. The reason they try to walk is twofold, firstly they have a natural instinct to want to walk and secondly they copy everything they see their parents do. How delighted they are when they take their first steps. Not to mention how delighted and proud their parents are to see them walk. However, they invariably look back at us with a huge smile on their face and then fall over because they have stopped concentrating on what they were doing. Sometimes they will get straight back up and keep going, other times they will cry because they have either hurt themselves or just got frightened by falling. Either way they don’t give up and we don’t give up on them either, instead we just say “Ups a Daisy” or something like that, dust them off, put a “Band Aid” on any scratch they might have acquired, and encourage them to keep trying.

We behave like that because they are part of our family, we love them and want them to achieve more and more independence so they can enjoy the world around them. Walking without falling too frequently, is what we would like them to achieve, however we know that no matter how good they become at walking they will fall at some time, because we all do. But our aim is not to fall.  

The same goes for our Spiritual life. The aim of every Christian should be to learn to walk in the light of the Gospel and “Pursue Holiness” as the Bible puts it; indeed, it is not an option as we are instructed to “pursue holiness without which no one will see the Lord”. Now that sounds like a rather severe statement. The bible also orders men to “love their wives”, and that sounds severe too, however, seeing that I married my wife because I was in love with her I was delighted to obey God’s command, so I thought it might be a good idea if we have a look at this “holiness” issue also, and try to understand what is expected of us. Perhaps “expected” is the wrong word though because “expected” implies that we are doing something because it is our “duty” as was implied when I was told to “love my wife” (which turned out to be what I wanted to do anyway). Likewise, the reason we are endeavouring to be holy should be because we want to please Jesus as we begin to appreciate what He has done for us. Just as our children want to copy us and walk the way we do. The dictionary describes “holiness” as “high moral and Spiritual excellence coming from devotion to God”. So, wishing to please God, we endeavour to behave as we believe God or Jesus would behave if they were in our position or circumstance. A big ask, one might say, well “yes” and “no”. Certainly it is a “big ask” if we try to achieve Holiness “under our own steam”, so to speak, especially if we have been living a life divorced from God so may have been a thief, a liar, immoral, a cheat, spending our life on all sorts of stupidities, being resentful and unforgiving, having no real love for anyone but ourselves. Now if we have had all, or even some of those faults, we may also be surrounded by “peer group pressure” and will not find a sudden change easy. Just like our baby learning to walk, we will often “fall”. However, if we have repented, (decided that we really want to change and be true followers of Christ in this life and on into Heaven) then to succeed is not such a big ask. This applies to all of us because, the Holy Spirit will help us achieve this aim. Audrey’s father used to say that “the person who hasn’t made a mistake, hasn’t made anything,” and I believe that is true, so if we make a mistake we don’t give up, just “dust ourselves off”, and in prayer, ask the Holy Spirit to help us overcome those things that hinder our walk towards Holiness.

We will never achieve the Holiness of God, of course, and achieving it would not, on its own, earn us a place in heaven either. Believing in Jesus and accepting His saving grace, alone does that, but we are told to pursue holiness nevertheless, so we will learn to improve our behaviour. Pursuing anything is to follow it with undivided attention.

 With a rifle under my arm, I have often pursued a fox across a paddock where our

sheep were lambing. To do so takes a lot of concentration you can’t take your eye off him for one minute or you might lose sight of him in the grass. That way, by keeping your mind on the job, you get closer and closer. Similarly, we need determination, singleness of mind and dependence on God to achieve a walk towards Holiness. The secret is don’t mark time or give up or allow yourself to be distracted by lesser issues because the end result is too important.

May God bless us all as we endeavour to achieve this aim.   Kind regards, Tom.  

A New Creation

It was 1953, I was 20 years old and living on a property half way between Bourke and Cobar, on what is now known as the “Kidman Way”, which sounds nice, but it was just a rough dirt road in those days. 153 miles (about 300 kms) of dirt road separated me from a property at Nyngan, where the girl I hoped to marry lived. Her 20^th birthday was on the 30^th of August, about a month away, and I had a desire to give her something nice. Woodwork was my best subject at school so I thought I would make  her a wooden Jewellery box for her to keep her broaches and necklaces in. Obviously I needed some nice timber. There was none in the machinery shed so I wandered around the back of it where there was a pile of rubbish waiting to go to the tip and be burnt.  

 Among other rubbish I noticed an old wooden gauze door, it was  broken and must have been about 100 years old as the house it had belonged to had long been demolished. It was badly weathered and didn’t deserve a second glance except I noticed that where it was broken recently, (when thrown on the heap), the wood was a lovely red colour. Red Cedar, no less. Wow! what a find, so after work, for the next few days I was very busy removing its weather beaten surface and cutting it to size. I also had some sheets of wooden veneer that I had acquired some time before, so put a design on top as you see in the 2nd photo. However, I was disappointed as I wanted it to be very special; so I made another box and worked her initials into the veneer as you see in the third photo. AW (Audrey Wye) It is now 64 years since I made these, and the old gauze door frame, I made them out of, was about 100 years old at the time and the tree it was cut from was probably 200 years old. If that is so these boxes are 364 years old now. Another century won’t affect them much either because the timber is of a very high standard.

This transformation from something battered and scared into a thing of beauty reminds me of the poem about the “Old Violin” that was in a similar condition  to the old door, and the Auctioneer only wanted $1 for it until a master musician played a tune on it after which it brought $3,000.

When we look at an old door, an old violin or a person of any age, we should look past the outward appearance, as God does, and recognise just what they are made of. This door was Red Cedar, the Violin was probably an old Stradivarius, and irrespective of how a person looks they were “made in the image and likeness of God”. Therefore, I can fix the door, the Musician can fix the Violin and God can transform the person. You see, “many a person, with their life out of tune, and battered and scared through sin, is offered cheap to the thoughtless crowd, much like the old violin; a bowl of pottage, a glass of wine, a game and they travel on, they’re going, going, and almost gone, but the Saviour comes and the thoughtless crowd can never quite understand the worth of a soul and the change that is made by the touch of the Master’s hand.”

There are millions of accounts of how God has rebirthed people. Jesus describes it as “being born again” indeed He made no bones about it when He said “you must be born again or you shall not enter the Kingdom of Heaven”. Now that is plain enough for anyone, isn’t it? If that old screen door had not been rebirthed by me and I had just tied it in a bundle and given it to my sweetheart I somehow doubt if she would have said “thank you darling” and placed it on her dressing table. What do you think? Similarly, if we present ourselves before Jesus, when our bodies die, and are still carrying our bundle of sin, we won’t be welcomed into Heaven any more than a suicide bomber is welcomed in a public place.

The bible is adamant that “we have all sinned and fall short of the glory of God” and “the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord”. That gift of God mentioned there is the privilege of “being born again” which is the free gift we receive when we accept the forgiveness of sin that God offers us through the sacrifice Jesus made on our behalf at Calvary. It cost me considerable effort to transform that old door into something Audrey would happily accept. Likewise, it will cost you and me some effort if we repent and decide to follow God’s ways; we each have a free will you see, therefore He won’t “gate-crash” so we have to ask Him to intervene and forgive our sin, after which we have to endeavour to follow His directions as laid out in the New Testament. “If any man be in Christ he is a new Creature, old things have passed away, behold all things have become new.” (2 Corinthians 5:17). Regards, Tom.