More about Christmas

What a great time Christmas is; there is no other time in the year when families come from all over the country to be together. Relatives who have not seen each other for a long time make the effort to visit, presents are exchanged, a good meal is enjoyed and there is great fellowship. The spirit of love and friendliness is everywhere. On Christmas Eve any stranger you pass will wish you a happy Christmas and you will be only too happy to do the same .

  Seeing this Agapanthus bud opening absolutely amazes me. These flowers in all their completeness and colourful designs were completed inside the closed bud. The things you or I would say were impossible, are no problem at all to a God who can program a plant to do that. For example we are told in Chapter 1 of Luke’s Gospel in the New Testament that the Angel Gabriel came to a young virgin named Mary and told her that God’s Holy Spirit would arrange for her to become pregnant; and that her baby would be called Jesus and be the saviour of the world as had been predicted hundreds of years before. No problem for God!

The Angel also appeared to Joseph, the man Mary was engaged to, and explained the situation to him. I am pleased to say that Mary and Joseph accepted the responsibility of becoming the earthly parents of the most remarkable child that was ever born. It is interesting that God chose an ordinary carpenter’s home for Jesus to grow up in. That way Jesus can relate to you and me because he understands how ordinary people live and what it means to be short of money at times and all that sort of thing.

When Mary was 9 months pregnant, Caesar Augustus (the Roman emperor) decreed that all people had to return to their place of birth for a census to be taken, so Mary and Joseph returned to Bethlehem. However they didn’t phone ahead and make a booking at the motel for two reasons: Firstly phones hadn’t been invented yet and secondly there were no such things as motels either. Therefore they had to take “pot luck” that there would be a room at the Inn, however they were late arriving as Mary was just about to give birth and riding side saddle on a donkey was a bit rough and slow. By the time they got there the other visitors had taken all the rooms. Of course God had arranged this so Jesus would be born in a humble stable and would use a feed trough as his basinet. That way no one would ever be able to say Jesus had it better than them.

There was great rejoicing that night as a host of angels appeared to the shepherds nearby singing “Glory to God in the highest, good will to men” and told them about Jesus birth, so they went and worshiped him. Shortly afterwards 3 wise men from the East followed a star that they knew would lead them to the Saviour and after expecting to find him in Herod’s palace finally found him in the stable at Bethlehem.

And they presented Him with presents of gold, frankincense and myrrh. Herod had asked them to return and tell him where the baby was when they found him, however they were warned by God that Herod wanted to kill the child so they returned home another way. God then warned Joseph about the assassination plot too, so Joseph, Mary and Jesus took refuge in Egypt until they were informed that King Herod had died.

Because of all this Jesus has no difficulty empathising with refugees either as He and His parents had to flee for their lives. Our Jesus is adequate for any situation and therefore offers salvation to anyone who believes as He said himself: “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth on Him shall not perish but have everlasting life”. And ultimately that is what Christmas is all about.

Jesus is the reason for the season so I do trust that you have a lovely Christmas.

Best wishes,   Tom.

 

Healing

My mother was living in Sydney and she was limping because she had arthritis in the knee and it was swollen. Christian hands were placed on either side of the knee and the words Peter & John said, when they healed a crippled man, were quoted: “In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, be healed”. Well it worked for Peter and John and it also worked for mum’s knee as it was healed instantly as she felt heat flow into her knee. Many people reading this will shake their heads in disbelief, and I can understand that.  Some time ago, in an article titled “God’s Problem”, I mentioned that “my Christian walk” had been somewhat weakened because, as a new Christian, I had read and believed a commentary on the New Testament by a Doctor of Divinity. You see he said that miracles like that don’t happen now, and because of my inexperience and his qualifications I believed his every word. However when I saw that happen to my mother, before my own eyes, it tended to spoil his theory as far as I was concerned, and as a lady asked me recently “Did Jesus heal everybody?” I thought we might have a brief look at this subject just to whet our appetites.

I suggest therefore that we put aside the commentaries of “learned men” for a few minutes and see what the New Testament says. I mean you can always come back to their theories if you want to. Well for starters, Jesus did heal everyone who asked Him for healing (Matthew 12:15 says “Great multitudes followed Him and He healed them all”.) And so it went throughout his ministry; there was not one occasion where He said “no I won’t heal you because your sickness will make you a better person”, and Paul said that his “Thorn in the flesh” problem was “a messenger of Satan” to control his pride because he had visited Heaven (2 Corinthians 12:7). Jesus said we

must have “the faith of a little child” and told his disciples to “teach all nations....to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you and lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world” (Matthew 28:20). So you see Jesus is still very much with us. Those disciples have passed on but the end of the world, He referred to, has not yet arrived.  The implication is that the “baton” has now been passed on to other believers like you and me. I say “Baton” because our lives (and Christian lives in particular), are like a relay race; when an athlete has run his leg of the relay he hands the baton to the next athlete who to the best of his ability duplicates or improves on what the athlete before him accomplished and then he too passes the baton to the next in line and this is repeated until the race is completed. Likewise in the Christian “Relay race” the first runners did a remarkable job and “turned the world upside down” (Acts 17:6). However many of those who took over from them were ill-equipped because they failed to receive and use the gifting that became available to Jesus followers at Pentecost. Gifts like healing (1 Corinthians 12:9).  Jesus saw this gifting as very important to the extent that although these Apostles had been with Him for a long time and certainly believed in Him, He nevertheless told them to wait for the gifting from the Holy Spirit before they set out to spread the Gospel. (Acts chapter 1)

Paul says in Romans 12:4, that just as our physical bodies have many parts and they don’t all do the same thing but are dependent on each other, so we being many make up the “body of Christ” and “have gifts differing according to the grace given to us”. We should not be satisfied to blindly accept somebody else’s opinion of what the New Testament is saying but should study it ourselves. Information passed on verbally can lose its original meaning. During a battle an officer realised they needed more soldiers so he said “Pass this message down the line: ‘Send reinforcements, we are going to advance’”. However by the time the message had been repeated many times the officers at the rear were told: “Send three and four pence, we are going to a dance”. There is no substitute for the written word being read and acted on with the “faith of a little child”. Jesus said things like: “Your faith hath made you whole” or “According to your faith be it done unto you”. Now “faith comes from hearing and hearing from the word of God,” so we know how to acquire faith. The other requirements are Righteousness and Holiness needed by the person proclaiming the healing: Doctors don’t walk in off the street and start operating without “washing up” and making sure everything is clean, not just “more or less” clean, do they? Likewise, If we want to be fit vessels to convey God’s healing power we must “Present our bodies....Holy” (Romans 12:1). Not just “more or less” Holy, either because this type of healing is a form of “Spiritual Surgery” Jesus said: The works that I do shall ye (believers) do also. (John14:12),    Food for thought?    Regards,   Tom.

Dinosaurs

It seems that all children love dinosaurs and are fascinated by them. I wonder if they inherit this fascination from God, their Heavenly Father who designed and made these creatures. When God was talking to a man named Job, thousands of years ago as recorded in the Old Testament of the bible, in the last half of the 40^th chapter and the whole of chapter 41 of Job. God expressed a certain fascination and delight with the Behemoth and Leviathan. We don’t call them those names now because our Archaeologists only discovered their fossils in recent times and called them dinosaurs and they probably weren’t familiar with the bible either.

Obviously some of these animals were still around in Job’s day so it is interesting to hear this firsthand account of their features. For example (reading from the New Living Bible translation) where God is speaking to Job: “Take a look at Behemoth which I made, just as I made you. It eats grass like an Ox. See its powerful loins and the muscles of its belly. Its tail is as strong as a cedar.....its bones are tubes of bronze, its limbs are bars of iron.....it lies under the lotus plants hidden by the reads in the marsh” and so on. Then talking about Leviathan, God says : “....If you lay a hand on it you will certainly remember the battle that follows, you won’t try that again! No it is useless to try to capture it, the hunter who attempts it will be knocked down.....I want to emphasise Leviathan’s limbs and its enormous strength and graceful form...its breath would kindle coal, for flames shoot from its mouth. The tremendous strength in Leviathan’s neck strikes terror wherever it goes ...no sword can stop it, no spear, dart or javelin. Iron is nothing but straw to that creature”. And so it goes, all of which is a fascinating eyewitness account of creatures that no longer exist. (unless there is one in Scotland's Loc Ness of course).

Dinosaurs further testify to the greatness of God in that they laid eggs. As I have said before, the makeup of an egg is beyond human understanding (whether it be a fowls or a dinosaurs). In either case the mother has to pack every element necessary for the making of the complete baby into the egg in a semi liquid form, and then seal it before placing it in a nest. She has to do this inside herself without looking, which is a completely impossible task unless she had a Science Lab, to weigh up all the ingredients or else the assistance of an incredible God. People trying to be smart ask “what came first, the chicken or the egg?” Well the bible is clear on that; God made the adult birds and animals first and told them (or programmed them) to reproduce after their kind.  If you are an Atheist you have a responsibility to yourself to explain how that fertilised molten mass inside that shell can possibly contain all the necessary ingredients to make a baby dinosaur and how it can form into a complete dinosaur without the intervention of a super intelligent God. Unfortunately there are  people who would believe anything, no matter how illogical it may be, in preference to believing in God and Jesus and the wonderful gift of salvation (from the consequences of sin) that he offers to all those who do believe. Now, to not believe in something doesn’t always matter, however in this case it is very serious as those who don’t believe in God and Jesus, forfeit their right to Eternal Life, (John 3:16) and that is tragic. 

Anyway, best wishes as you think that through, Tom.

P.S. Don’t leave this page in the sun or those other 2 eggs might hatch and you will have your own “Jurassic Park” to cope with! (Well they do look real, don’t they? ).

Good Foundations

Everybody has heard about the leaning tower of Pisa and many go to see it, but it is famous for all the wrong reasons. Admittedly a lot of work and planning went into its design and construction but it has gained notoriety because it is leaning. Likewise a young man may gain notoriety by being arrested because he has done wrong but if he (like that tower), hadn’t leaned the wrong way he wouldn’t be in the news either. The thing that the tower and the young man have in common is that their foundations were not properly laid; the tower contractors failed to dig down to solid rock and start building from there and in the case of the young, man you can be fairly sure that his parents failed to establish his life on what Jesus described as the rock of his word, because Proverbs 22:6 says: Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it”.

You see this little boy? Well as a typical baby he has a brand new brain just waiting to be programmed with information; he will accept whatever information his parents & others give him, whether it is good or bad and that will be the foundation upon which he will build his life, and a very substantial amount of that information will also come from what he observes people doing.

A man told me once that he wouldn’t push his boy to go to church but would leave it for the boy to decide for himself when he reached the age of 15 or 16. Well that father was kidding himself because by the time the child reaches that age he will have already learned what to do on the Lord’s Day from watching the parent’s example; his young computer brain will already be “programmed” by then, to look on that day either as a day when you get up late and go to the football or cricket or just lie on the lounge and watch the T.V. Or on the other hand go off to church and worship God. Once his mind is set in either of those patterns that will be the foundation for his life and it would take something very drastic to alter it.

Does it really matter which way he is programmed? Well yes, because in life to-day we are constantly confronted with choices like whether to get involved with dishonest dealings, whether to bully others,  whether to do immoral things, whether to steal, whether to binge drink with your mates, whether to get involved with drugs whether to tell lies, and so on and so on.

The young person who gets their grounding whilst watching T.V. or even the Football will have no hard and fast rules as to what is right and what is wrong; indeed they will feel that it is all relative to the situation in which they find themselves. On the other hand the young person who has a good understanding of God’s rules and principles from being taught from the bible will know exactly what is right and what is wrong and their Christian ethics will not let them down because they will know that right and wrong are not negotiable. They will also temper all their decisions with the “love your neighbour as you love yourself” commandment. From that commandment alone they will know that they cannot do anything that would hurt any other person and of course the main bonus is that if he or she believes in the Lord Jesus, then their accommodation in Heaven is assured and also guidance whilst here is readily available through claiming God’s promises by prayer.

If we have anything to do with bringing up a little child then we obviously have a great responsibility; there is an old saying “the hand that rocks the cradle is the hand that rules the world”. And that is our hand!  With that hand we should also lead them to a bible believing Christian church where they have what they call a “children’s church” or a “Sunday school” and a youth group. We should pray with them at home and read bible stories to them and we will be blessed as we see them grow into responsible lovely young people.  Don’t forget that  to-days babies will run tomorrows world.

If you need any bible story books or such like, to help you teach them, the Christian Bookshop at the top end of Talbragar St. in Dubbo has a wonderful range to choose from.

Best wishes with that.    Regards, Tom.

 

Symbols

“The last time I saw Paris her heart was warm and gay, I could hear the laughter of her voice in every street cafe’. The last time I saw Paris her trees were decked for spring, and lovers walked beneath those trees and birds found songs to sing...... The last time I saw Paris her heart was warm and gay, no matter how they’ve changed her I remember her that way.” (“gay” there being an old word meaning “happy”). So goes the delightful song we used to sing.

Paris was always considered to be a city worth visiting if you were travelling abroad, it being among a group of cities like Vienna, Venice, and Rome which have great historical value and buildings of architectural significance and in peace time were considered very safe, but not as safe now since these Muslim extremist murderers have spread around the world. Indeed nowhere is safe now; they have killed and maimed innocent people in country after country; even in Australia people have been killed and we have frightfully expensive and elaborate precautions in place here. What is the answer then? Well I’m not sure that, humanly speaking, there is an answer, however the nation’s leaders are all trying preventative measures so hopefully that will help a little.

One thing I do know though is that if there is (for example) a fire bug running around your town burning houses then it is common sense to make sure your house is insured! Similarly then seeing there are terrorists about (killing people) it is time we stopped being complacent about our eternal future in case our life here is cut short, and make up our mind now, as to whether we are prepared to repent of our sins and follow Jesus directions; and thus be assured of our place in Heaven when ever our life here is over. Or alternatively to stay on “The broad way that leadeth unto destruction” (Matthew 7:13). This is a choice that we all have to make, and the sooner the better, as there is no dodging it because the scriptures tell us that “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23) and “the wages of sin is death” Romans 6:2). Young healthy people in the past have often felt that there was no urgency to think about their eternal future, but that is not the case now because being young and healthy has no bearing on how long you will live (well it never did really, with car accidents etc). But it is much more risky now! In the photo I placed a cross over Paris because that is the Parisian citizen’s option too: Jesus died to offer salvation to every single one of them no matter what they might have done and the same applies to the people in the town or city where you live or even if you are out on a farm.

If you and your family would like to migrate to Heaven when your time on earth is over then the choice is yours; make that decision by silent prayer right now, where you are standing, or sitting  and the deal is done: Jesus already sealed his side of the bargain with His blood that was shed on Calvary for you. The question is: “do you want to accept the “Passport” He is offering you or not”? I have already accepted mine and it is a jolly nice feeling to know that my accommodation is waiting for me when I leave here. You may have already done this too, I sure hope so. If not, for Heaven’s sake do it; tomorrow might be too late!

You will note that the cross that I placed in the photo is studded with diamonds, this is to symbolise that what it offers is priceless; in John14:6 Jesus said “I am the way the truth and the life, no man cometh unto the Father but by Me” and He also said in John 6:37: “He who cometh unto me, I will in no wise cast out” and in John 14:2 said: “In my Father’s house are many mansions....I go to prepare a place for you and will come again and receive you to myself that where I am there you may be also”. (So it’s not what you know, but who you know and believe in that assures you of Eternal Life). (John 3:16).

Looking forward to seeing you there, best wishes. Tom.

Circumstances

I have been watching this thistle growing in a crack in the concrete just outside of Woolworths shop at the Mall. Now if this seed that germinated into this plant had been you or me we would probably have said “this is ridiculous we can’t grow here”. Well it did grow, and I suggest that we take a good hard look at it and learn a lesson in making the most of our circumstances no matter what they are or how they may change. 14 years ago my lovely wife and I had just settled into a new farm with nice sheep and cattle, good pasture and a nice home when suddenly Audrey succumbed to dementia followed by 3 small strokes and I had to “drop everything” and go and look after her in a Nursing Home. All we had worked hard for and all we had planned disintegrated over night. I cried and felt very depressed until I thought about the Apostle Paul’s statement where he said: “I have found that in whatsoever situation I find myself, therein to be content” and he was in prisons and dungeons most of the time because the authorities didn’t like his Christian teaching. He could have just got “the pigs” and sat in the prison and sulked and said “why me? Poor old me”. However he realised that there was Christian work to be done there so he preached Christ to the guards and the authorities whenever he got the chance. I bought this watering can from

“Typo” in the Orana Mall yesterday because it sums up the situation perfectly. (The inscription reads: “Grow where you are planted”).

 If Paul hadn’t been in those positions we wouldn’t have the instructions he wrote from there telling Christians how to behave; for example there are millions of copies of his letter to the Philippian Christians scattered around the world in many languages where he tells us to “Rejoice in the Lord always” and says “finally brethren whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; If there be any virtue, if there be any praise, think on these things” (what wonderful positive instruction from inside a jail). By Following Pauls statement above I have found that if I “Rejoice ever more, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks” God then turns what looks like defeat into victory. The well known example of this in the New Testament was when Paul and Silas were whipped and placed in the inner dungeon. Did they moan and groan? No “they sang praises to God at midnight”. And didn’t that change the situation? Within the hour they were released miraculously, their wounds dressed and the Jailor and his family had become Christians, none of which would have happened if they hadn’t trusted in God.

In my own case, after looking to God I felt His definite guidance to write these articles which I give to people and place on a “Blog” on the internet and they have been looked at by people in Australia, the U.S, Russia, India, France, South Korea, Ukraine, Singapore, China, Germany, Canada, Netherlands and Romania I assume people are being encouraged and it is for sure that I would never have done this if my circumstances hadn’t changed the way they have. I am now a Cert 1V Aged Care Nurse & attend to Audrey’s every need when she is not asleep in bed. She cannot move or talk but enjoys a Donut for morning tea at the Mall in her wheelchair & occasionally gives a big smile. The full picture is this: Jesus has prepared a mansion in Heaven for you therefore there is no real need for you to do the same down here. Let me put it like this: Years ago I had a friend who was a Methodist minister. The church paid him a modest salary and supplied a modest house. He ministered in Wilcannia, Cobar, Nyngan and in the Hunter valley. When he retired they supplied him with a nice home in a retirement village in Sydney. Our life is similar to that; we have a nice home awaiting us in Heaven for when we retire from this earth, meanwhile whilst we do our chosen occupation down here our main aim should be to assist others in all sorts of ways but particularly to know that Jesus died for their forgiveness so they need to believe on Him.  Now if for some reason you lose your job or your business collapses or such, that is not the be all and end all; God is still our sponsor and assures us that “All things work together for good to those that love God, the called according to His purpose”. At such times we should pick ourselves up, brush off the dust and say “What now Lord?”    Some food for thought. Best wishes,  Tom.

Stumbling Blocks

This combination motor vehicle shed and workshop under construction here on my dad’s property about 90 kilometres from Bourke in 1954 is one of the reasons that I don’t drink alcohol. You see the man building it was destitute because of alcohol addiction and he arrived at our place looking for work just when we needed a shed. At first Dad was reluctant to employ him as he looked so hopeless. However we soon found out that Jack had been employed as Foreman of a construction company that had constructed one of the largest factory complexes in Melbourne. Jack quickly demolished dad’s abandoned shearers hut and built this excellent shed. He had lost his Foreman’s position because he became an alcoholic and when he finished dad’s shed he spent all the money at the Pub. This can happen to anyone who drinks.

I’m writing this article to warn young people not to treat alcoholic drink as a joke; actually it is more like a snake lying in wait to catch the unwary.

When I was very young I went to town with dad to get a shearer: The man was drunk in the pub when dad located him, half way home we had to stop so he could lean out and be sick. When we arrived home he opened the car door and just fell out on the ground and made no effort to get up. This did not impress me as something that I would like to get involved in when I was older. Another man employed as a fencer would work hard for a month and then take his cheque and give it to the hotel keeper and stay there drinking until it was all used up at which time the keeper would buy him a pair of boots and trousers and send him out with the mailman; this didn’t impress me favourably either.

 A young man I worked with in Nyngan had a hangover and told me he was worried because the night before he had been drinking at the pub with others and when he woke up the next morning he found himself in bed with a girl that he would not normally even mix with, so he ran out of her house as fast as he could but had no memory of how he got there, and that didn’t impress me either. Another young chap here in Dubbo told me he woke up in his own bed but had no recollection of how he got there and was baffled by a note left by a girl whose name he didn’t recognise saying that she had brought him home and put him to bed. All the above may seem amusing but it amounts to brain damage and loss of self respect. The only way to avoid that is to avoid the alcohol. Otherwise we also may regret our actions for the rest of our life.

The bible doesn’t say you can’t drink but it does make interesting comments: For example Ephesians 5:18 says “Do not be drunk with wine wherein is excess, but be filled with the Spirit” (Meaning the Holy Spirit where you get the Joy without the hangover). Jesus said that “if we place a stumbling block in the path of one of these little ones it would be better for us if we had never been born”. And Romans 14:21 says : “It is good neither to eat flesh, nor to drink wine nor anything whereby your brother stumbleth”. And this brings to mind the story of the prisoner on death row in the U.S.A. who asked to see a clergyman. When the clergyman came in the prisoner said: “You! You are the reason I’m here; when I was a young man I was in a youth group lead by you and I revered you. One day I saw you drinking so I thought it must be all right, but I became an alcoholic and in a drunken brawl I killed a man and now I’m going to the electric chair”. So that clergyman had placed a stumbling block in that young man’s path which is exactly what Jesus said not to do.

I was at a Show committee meeting in Nyngan with about 10 other men and after the meeting concluded they said they would adjourn to the Overlander Hotel for a drink, they were my friends so to be sociable I went along and had a squash. I was teaching High School Scripture at the time and the next week when I entered the classroom one of the older boys said “Mr V, I saw you going into the pub on Saturday night”. I explained the situation to him and vowed (to myself) that in view of what happened to that clergyman, I would not do that again.  I have been speaking from a man’s point of view but it is even worse for a young woman when her self-respect is compromised because alcohol has impaired her judgment. She also would be best to stay with soft drink. Our motto should be; Think Before You Drink.      Best wishes, Tom.