I was talking to a lady today and she commented on the drought and dust, saying how she wished it would soon end. I think I shocked her when I said that God was in charge of the weather and if I was Him, I wouldn't end it yet. "Why wouldn't you end the drought yet if you were God?" she asked, somewhat shocked. My reply was: Well, if you were the parent of a couple of children and you told them to not leave their toys all over the living room floor, and their clothes on the floor of their bedroom, and they repeatedly ignored you and even did other things as well, that you had told them not to do, would you not be inclined to either give them a smack or Discipline them by withholding at least part of the pocket money they wanted?
I reckon most parents would do either one of those things.
God is our Heavenly Father and gave us, (His children), an Instruction Book to live by, called the Bible and we are defying his instructions. Some generations have followed it to a reasonable extent and others have not and at the moment we are being very disobedient. Ignoring God's instructions altogether, so what should He do? Why not discipline us by withdrawing some of our privileges?
Each time we reach old age, our generation dies out and another younger generation takes over and they have to decide to follow the instructions and reap the benefits of doing so, (promised by God), or alternatively to disregard them and do things their way, independent of the instructions, and make a mess for the following generation to clean up, if they can.
In the past, when people have created too much mess, God has intervened (the Old Testament has plenty of evidence of this). He even encouraged other nations to overthrow the Israelites for some years until they repented and turned back to Him.
"He is the same, yesterday, today, and forever" so we had better watch out.
Now, we have all bought equipment to use in our house, farm, shop or factory at some time, and there is always an instruction book with it, written by the designer and manufacturer. Experience has shown me that when I read and followed those instructions, things went well. However, being of a mechanical turn of mind, and very independent, I have sometimes ignored reading the instructions fully, and lived to regret it. Not only did I not get the best out of the machine, but I also voided the warranty, and had to bear the burden of repair myself. And that is all rather ridiculous. Worse though is the person who ignores the instructions altogether, and virtually " writes his own". Such a person has no right to blame the manufacturer of the equipment when it doesn't work properly for him. Neither should we blame God when we defy His instructions.
Having lived now for 86 years and 9 months, my life has spanned two generations. As a boy I watched draft horses doing the work that tractors and trucks do now. We lived without electricity and all the gadgets that it powers. Even the dentist drilled my teeth with a foot pedaled machine (as illustrated), that drove the drill, and as he had arthritis, the drill rotated very slowly and without the cooling squirt of water we have today.
So I am not saying that it was all beneficial living back then. But Morally it was, as people respected the Bible as their instruction book. (Well 99.9% of them did).Consequently, we never locked out houses, cars had no wind up windows, and most had no boot, so we just left the groceries on the back seat and no-one ever stole them. We walked home from the dance hall or picture theatre late at night and were never molested. There were very few police and they never carried a hand gun or wore protective clothing. They didn't need it. There were no surveillance cameras. Women dressed modestly and men respected them. No one lived with a "partner" unless they were married. The things that Israel Folau spoke of recently as sins, were never done because they are forbidden in the Bible. along with so many other things that are ignored today. People went to church and were aware of these things. Children were not taught the ridiculous rot that there is no sign of intelligent life in the universe and that they just evolved from a monkey, but understood that they were Created in the image and likeness of God. This does make a difference; when I looked at my wife I didn't see her as a sort of animal (just a few generations from a monkey), but as one of God's beautiful creations that had inherited eternal life from her Heavenly Father. Droughts are normal, this one is excessive, and is probably the belting we deserve, so we should repent and "pull our socks up" before He allows something worse than a drought to happen to our Nation. Remember, pride comes before a fall. Regards, Tom
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