Answers to Depression

One day as a teenager, I was feeling really depressed, I had a decision to make regarding my future and couldn’t seem to come up with an answer. Feeling very flat I asked a mature religious family friend “What is life all about, I mean what is the point of it?” and I expected to get a helpful answer from her experience, but she just smiled and in a sort of sympathetic tone of voice said “Oh dear heart”, that was all, nothing else. Now that wasn’t very helpful.

To-day there are lots of teenagers who get depressed. I think life expects so much and they find it hard to cope; some are bullied like I was, some just feel inadequate and so on. It isn’t just a teenager’s problem either. There are many marriages and defacto relationships breaking up too, leaving at least one partner depressed. Age is no exemption; I often talk to older folk who are having difficulty coping as either their husband or wife has died leaving them very much alone. Like the bird on Arnott’s biscuit pack they feel very much left out.

Many of the problems mentioned above are there because people are organising the world and ignoring God’s directions. God never meant it to be like this: Originally it was a “Garden of Eden” with everything perfect for its inhabitants who were expected to “walk with God”. Wouldn’t you know it? They weren’t satisfied and destroyed that relationship (Genesis 3:17-20). Thus we live in a world of turmoil with sinful selfishness causing unhappiness.

To rectify this mess God decided to make it possible for us to reconcile ourselves to Him (2 Corinthians 5:18) by sending Jesus to delete that sin and make it possible for us to be “Renewed in the spirit of our mind” and “have life and have it more abundantly” (John 10:10). However this fantastic gesture by God, through Jesus, cost Jesus His earthly life, but He can now with open arms say “Come unto me all ye who labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11: 28) He also inspired Paul to say “don’t worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God, and the peace of God that passeth understanding shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus”. (Philippians 4:6).

To fully understand the situation and how to be overcomers  we must realise that this world is Satan’s domain now, and that Christians are people who have became “fed up” with life like it is; with all its turmoil and lack of assurance of an eternal life so have therefore entered “God’s Embassy” and asked for “Asylum”. Such “refugees” don’t get turned back like boat people either because Jesus has a “welcome mat” at the door and says (as recorded in John 6:37), “he that cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out”. So we who do accept that offer now become “Citizens of the household of God”, (Ephesians 2:19), and even though we still live in the world for now, we are not left out like that parrot on the biscuit pack but “Have an Advocate with The Father, Jesus Christ the righteous” and “He shall give His angels charge over us to keep us in all our way” (Psalm 91). This is not just a theory: I speak from experience.

If your life is hampered by a “garbage bin” of hurt, unhappiness, resentment, loneliness or whatever negatives there are, then “empty it at Jesus feet” by “Casting all your care upon Him for He careth for you” (1 Peter 5:7).

Don’t let it build up like this one at the Mall instead kneel down and in prayer ask Him to take over your life. Then claim all the bible promises I have quoted above. That way you can say “good bye” to depressing thoughts providing you are willing to accept a reasonable amount of behavioural change. You see, The Kingdom of Heaven is just that: A Kingdom ruled by a perfect King, it is not a Democracy and it is not a Multicultural society. It is like Australia used to be in that regard, new comers have to “assimilate” and that is why God gave us the New Testament to read and learn to live by its rules before we leave these earthly bodies. Depending on what you have been doing you may have to change your appetite for certain T.V. programs for example. Sin, lust and horror are foreign to God’s Kingdom and just as Ms Corby found that people carrying drugs are not welcome in Indonesia so it is that people who want to bring their garbage into Heaven won’t make it either. So asking for God’s cleansing and then refilling our life with “garbage” is like a pig that is washed returning to its mud (2Peter 2:22). We need to constantly say “Create in me a clean heart Oh God and renew a right spirit within me” (Psalm 51:10) and “Think on whatsoever things are lovely.....” (Philippians 4:8) Best wishes....Tom..

Wings and Things

When I was a boy I was fortunate enough to live on a property that had this magnificent dam a couple of hundred meters from our front yard (That is the bank of the dam in the middle of the photo and you can see the water on the right). The windmill on the bank supplied the house with water. When the dam was full it held 50,000 cubic yards of water which in to-days metric measurements is 40 Mega litres. It was massive and had very large areas of reeds on the right of the photo. The dam was constructed about 1880 by bullock drays that carted the soil from an 11,000 Cubic yard escavation.

We children spent many wonderful hours paddling around in the shallows looking at the eggs in the Dog bird’s nests and admiring how God had created them with brown markings on the shells so they were cleverly camouflaged. We covered our heads with waterweed and were able to swim close to the ducks, swans and pelicans and admire their waterproof feathers and wonderful webbed feet (so cleverly designed for what they had to do). The Snipes, Ibis and Dog birds didn’t need any waterproofing for their feathers because they had long legs and long beaks so they could wade in the shallows, and reach down in the water for food without even

getting their eyes wet (marvellous designs). The Ibis foraged in the deeper water as they had longer legs and longer beaks, further out, where the water was too deep for the Ibis, was the Ducks domain. Still further out the Swans enjoyed themselves and the Pelicans chased the Murray Cod fish that dad had introduced to the dam from the Darling River.

 Seeing all these birds so wonderfully designed and outfitted for their place in the scheme of things helped us appreciate the incredible mind of our creator God. Indeed the more we saw of them the more we marvelled, for example if a duck had ducklings and we went near them the parent would run a couple of meters away and flap around as if it had a broken wing and if we went near to pick it up it would “recover” just enough to run or fly another couple of meters and then repeat the same deception as before. This pretence would continue until we were well away from the ducklings at which time the duck would fly away. Obviously God, who designed her, programmed her to behave like that as she could never have figured it out herself. Then there was the “Diver” which is a tiny replica of a swan with a body no bigger than a cricket ball. This delightful little water bird makes a floating nest about the size of a dinner plate out of grass and weeds and lays its eggs in a dent on top, however if you approach it she will stand up and very quickly cover the eggs with waterweed and stomp it down, having done that she dives into the water and swims below the surface for about five meters. Then she comes up and watches until you have moved on. Here again I just marvel at the God who thought of everything when He programmed them.

There were lots of insects there too; one of my favourites was, and still is, the Dragon Fly. I took this photo of one that collided with my car the other day:  

If, as some suggest, this insect designed itself well it must be an Aeronautical Engineer to have got the wings right, and be an Industrial Chemist to have invented the clear plastic type material to cover the wings, and it must have a laboratory somewhere to put all this together. As well it can fly at speed or adjust its wings to hover. Frankly I find it easier to believe the bible that says God, with Jesus as “the word of God”, made all this on the week of creation (John1:3) and according to Jesus (John3:15&16) if we don’t “believe” we “perish.” Confronting isn’t it?  Anyway think it through. Best wishes,  Tom.

 

 

We Need Instructions

In this picture of Jesus you will notice that the children with Him are modern day children, judging by their clothing, and that is how the artist meant it should be. You see, “Jesus is the same yesterday, to-day and forever”(Hebrews 13:8) He is not a “has been”; He is the “I am” and wants to guide every one of us. In Matthew 28:20 Jesus says “I will be with you always even unto the end of the world”. Jesus is a Spirit and like His angels is not visible to us in our normal daily routine however if we keep in touch by prayer and have an attitude of expecting His guidance we become aware of His intervention in our lives as we see that “All things work together for good for those who love God”.

Thomas, one of Jesus disciples, found it hard to believe that the risen Jesus had appeared to the other disciples inside a locked room whilst he was absent, and that is understandable, but we modern day people should have no such problem as our whole lives revolve around things that come through the walls and materialise; things like T.V. pictures and voices, text messages, photos and so on. Why only this week my daughter drove from a house near Newcastle on the coast the 379.1 kilometres to her home in Dubbo and was guided all the way by the satellite navigation system on the dash of her car which constantly received messages from a satellite in space telling her what streets to drive down, what speeds to drive at, how long it would take and even revised the time estimate if she stopped for a coffee.

Surely then we should have no trouble believing in Jesus, The Holy Spirit and Angels being available to help us, guide us, warn us and encourage us. Trust Jesus in prayer if you don’t already do so. After all we do need His “Satellite Navigation System” to negotiate the “Jungle” around us that is becoming more and more complex and challenging by the day.

This week I heard a Politician say that he was going to move a motion regarding Same Sex Marriage and he wanted to hear people’s comments but not Religious comments. Why not? Does he believe God is against it? Well if that is the case he had better not go ahead with it because it would be a fatal mistake to defy God. The bible is “The Word of God” and we should be endeavouring to find out what it says and obey it to the letter rather than ignore it just because we don’t agree with it. Jesus is the main focus of it so I thought it might be good to remind ourselves about what authority He has.

Hundreds of years before Jesus was born on earth the Prophet Isaiah predicted his coming in chapter 9 verse 6 where he says “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon His shoulder: and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace”. His birth was arranged by God who sent an angel to a virgin named Mary and told her she was chosen to have a son and she was to call him Jesus. His birth was also heralded by angels who appeared to shepherds near Bethlehem and wise men from the East were alerted to His imminent arrival so they also came to worship Him. Therefore you see this is no ordinary person we are talking about. John points out in the gospel he wrote, that Jesus did not originate at His birth in Bethlehem either: the very first verse says “In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him; and without Him was not anything made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men”. Then in verse 10 John says: “He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not”.

In Colossians chapter 1 verse 15 He is described as the “image of the invisible God, the first born over all creation. For by Him were all things created that are in Heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. In Him all things consist”.  Logically then it would be a good idea to seek His opinion, as recorded in the New Testament, when we are planning anything.

Isn’t it exciting being a Christian watching bible prophecy being fulfilled? Well it’s exciting when you know you have joined the winning team and Jesus “Has gone to prepare a place for you and will come again and receive you unto himself, that where He is there you may be also”. (John 14:2). I trust I will see you there one day. After all, there is an “Entry Visa” written out in your name waiting to be claimed if you haven’t already claimed it.     Best wishes, Tom.

 

Sheep Need a Shepherd

Jesus said: If you place a stumbling block in the path of one of these little ones, it would be better for you if you were never born”. Recently I have come down rather heavy in my criticism of atheists who are “placing a stumbling block” in our children’s way by undermining their faith in God through writing biased textbooks and setting curriculums that deliberately exclude the mention of God creating the universe and everything in it and promoting the idea that it all happened by “chance”. It annoys me because it is the deliberate preaching of atheism which they have no right to do. Atheists have a right to believe whatever they like but no one has the right to impose their beliefs on children unless they present fairly the other side of the debate as well. Because of this biased approach several generations of young people have now grown up without the knowledge that God is responsible for all we are and all we have.

 This lack of knowledge prevents them from looking to Jesus for guidance, and He wants to guide us as a Shepherd guides his sheep. Indeed, when referring to us, Isaiah said: “we all like sheep have gone astray and turned each one to his own way, and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all”(Isaiah 53:6).  You may think that a sheep on its own, away from the shepherd, would have a great time, but no. My folks had a sheep grazing property near Cobar in western N.S.W. and later near Bourke; the first had a paddock that was 14 thousand acres and the second had a paddock of 11 thousand acres. If one sheep was missed in the muster you might think “lucky sheep” to have all that country to itself but that wasn’t so because it would grow too much wool and become wool blind, it would then get blown, it would wander into seedy grass and the spiky seed would make it itchy, lice would attack it and so on. Sheep need a shepherd to look after them. When viewing the crowds Jesus said: “They are like sheep without a shepherd” (Matthew 9:26). Later He said: “I am the good Shepherd, I know my sheep and my sheep hear my voice and follow me” (John 10:27). He also said: “the Good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep (John10:11), and of course He did just that so that “whosoever believes on Him shall not perish but inherit eternal life” (John3:16).

One result from all this Atheistic teaching is that our Government and other so called Christian governments around the world are forfeiting their Christian identity by replacing Christian behaviour with “Political Correctness” and passing laws that are directly opposed to the Bible’s instructions. In Daniel’s day, (back in Old Testament times), the people of Israel who God had been blessing tried leaving God out of the equation too and God sent a heathen nation, the Babylonians (Daniel1:1) to take their country and keep them captive for many years. So there is a precedent to the situation we are now creating. The question in my mind is “who will God allow to take over our country?” At a quick glance it looks like the Muslims because they are already fairly well established and are determined. However there are a lot of Chinese, Indonesians and Indians not far away either, so who knows? But we better move quickly if we don’t want this to happen.

The only way we can stop this is if our nation turns back to God and seeks His help. The Old Testament is full of instances where this happened and saved the day for Israel and God doesn’t change. However I don’t think our nation realises the seriousness of the situation. So what are the alternatives? Well there are a couple of things you and I can do: We can pray and hope that the “Rapture” or the second coming of Jesus will soon eventuate. That would certainly save the situation for anyone who is ready. However that is a long shot as God is not in any hurry to do that as 2Peter3:9 indicates. Still it is worth a prayer request. However the blessed assurance we do have is that even when the Babylonians took the people captive the “Good Shepherd” looked after His own sheep (Daniel 1:6&7). To fit into that category of “sheep” we need to repent of our sin, believe in Jesus and be following Him by building our lives on His word. Thus we can be assured of His protection and claim the promise from Psalm 91 that even though “a thousand shall fall at thy side and ten thousand at thy right hand it shall not come nigh thee”.  Now look back at that picture and imagine you are that sheep holding Jesus hand because that is exactly how it should be, and you have the power to make it happen. Wow!

Best wishes, Tom.