Our Provider

 

The bible refers to God specifically as our Father and “Jehovah-Jireh” (our provider). Being our Father and provider is very special; traditionally fathers are the provider. Oh I know that the traditional roles in the family are sometimes reversed now, but when we talk of God, the question arises: is He really our provider? Well all I can say is that if we take away all the things He has provided, (which includes our planet), you and I would be floating in space without even our bodies! The book of Genesis clearly describes how God created everything there is and looking at what He created He saw that “it was very good” and so it is good! Everything we have was planned to perfection, whether we look through a telescope or use a microscope we see the same mathematical precision and ingenious designs. The Earth is just the right distance from the Sun, air just right for us to breathe, water is just right for our needs, gravity has just the right pull to hold things on our planet (including us). The Earth’s rotation around the sun is just right so we have seasons. Fertile soil is just right to grow crops and trees. There are cattle for milk and meat and the pastures to graze them and Sheep for meat & Wool to keep us warm. How about the varieties of meat, oysters, fish abalone, and fruit and grain like Quondongs and Nardoo, and the Emu eggs that God provided for the nomadic Aboriginal folk. (Each egg is the equivalent of 10 to 12 hen eggs). What a variety of crops and fruit God invented, just right to supply our needs; everything to make our mouths water and to sustain us. Yes, the Oceans and rivers are stocked with fish. Also all types of metals and oil and gas, just to name a few of these provisions. Interestingly, we had the lot handed to us on a plate and even then we “lost the plot,” like a child given a lump of play dough and 4 buttons and asked to make a toy car. Instead of doing the obvious he rubs the dough into the computer keyboard. Well we have repeatedly done the equivalent of that and God was left with the mess to clean up. Instead of giving up on us though, (because of His great love), He sent Jesus to pay the price of our sin and now all we have to do is believe on Him, say sorry, accept His kind offer of forgiveness and live the way He has instructed. In Australia this principle has been reasonably well practiced compared with other places because when our Constitution was drawn up the population was mostly Christian, therefore Christian ethics were automatically written into our laws. In a Christian country like this, we have a tendency to take all the good things we inherited for granted, things like: Equality for all, (whether male or female), education for all, freedom to work where we like, and dress as we choose, wages in line with the cost of living, unemployment relief, pensions for the aged or unwell, nursing homes, Medicare for all, meals on wheels, community transport, paid annual leave, and so on. All these are the automatic results of Christian love being put into practice and are not common in countries of other faiths; Think about it, do you hear of Australians paying a lot of money to People Smugglers to take them in a leaky boat to one of these other countries? No you don’t. Why not? It’s because we live in the world’s best country, that’s why not. How come? Well, together with what is mentioned above thousands of Australian Christians pray to God daily, and prayer is also repeated at the beginning of parliamentary sessions. One of the phrases in the Lord’s Prayer is: “Thy kingdom come, “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven, give us this day our daily bread”. John points out that: “If we ask anything in accordance with His will then we know that He hears us, and if we know that He hears us then we know that we have the thing we asked for” and He has sure provided “our daily bread”. (1 John 5:14) many Aussies have stopped praying now and that is disastrous, so please accept Jesus offer of salvation, (if you haven’t done so already), and pray in faith for yourself, our Government and our country and its citizens. This matter is urgent if we want to maintain this way of life for future generations of Australians, and be blessed right now ourselves.    Best wishes, Tom.