Rejected

For the farmer harvest time is the most important time there is because it is then and only then that he can be sure of how much grain his crop will yield and therefore how much income he will have to carry on for the next 12 months.

The grain we see there being transferred from the header to the truck bin is clean because the header does not only harvest the crop but is designed with a fan that blows the poorly developed grain and husks out the back whilst the heavy grain falls through a sieve and is stored in a bin on the header until the bin is ready to be emptied.

The bible frequently talks about this separating of the grain from the husks and in most cases is referring to God’s followers as the grain and makes it clear that they are the ones who inherit the Kingdom of God, whilst those who ignore God are the husks and will be rejected.  A typical example of how it works in practice is what happened to me in Honolulu.

I was standing on the edge of a roadway inside the campus of the University of Hawaii handing out copies of The New Testament to students as they came past in their cars or on foot. One car pulled up and the young lady asked what I was giving away so I told her and offered her a copy. She was a strikingly beautiful looking girl; blond, beautifully groomed and dressed, and to finish the picture she was driving a brand new biscuit coloured open Dodge convertible with white leather seats. You couldn’t have added anything to improve the picture, unless of course you placed a young Elvis Presley in the passenger seat. However when I handed her a Testament she gave me a condescending smile and said: “It’s Okay” and drove off without taking it.

My guess is that this young lady was probably quite a nice person, brought up in a wealthy family by parents that doted on her and she had everything in life that she needed, therefore she probably felt that religion, and Christianity in particular, had no relevance as far as her life was concerned and might just spoil the life she was enjoying. Jesus summed it up by saying in Matthew 19:24 “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man (person) to enter the Kingdom of God”. Mind you it is not only rich people who refuse the gospel but they don’t feel the need for it as much as the poor people do because the rich tend to reverence money and put their faith in it.

The next day I was involved again with the bible distribution in a different part of the University grounds, standing beside a footpath that had a hedge of lovely Azaleas, when along came an African American; a powerfully built young man taller than me and having very black skin. He was wearing Jeans, a denim jacket and a denim cap. He stopped and looked at me and said with a very deep American drawl, “Are you giving away bibles?”  “Yes” I replied, “I’m giving away New Testaments supplied by the Gideon organisation”. He then took my left wrist in his left hand and turned my hand so the palm was facing upwards and brought his right hand down and clapped my hand with a resounding “whack”, as he did so, he said, at the top of his voice, “Well praise the Lord” and then asked if he could have one copy for himself and two more for two friends he knew. What a different reaction to that of the young lady! This chap was walking and probably came from a family that didn’t have a lot of money, but he knew the Lord Jesus and wasn’t content to leave it at that either but, thinking of others, he took the opportunity to obtain copies of the written word of God to give to his friends. Jesus told us to spread the Good News and he was doing just that. Romans 10: 15 Says “How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!”

The interesting thing is that the grains and husks illustrated in these photos had no control over their destiny, however each of us can choose to be husk or grain (Just like those two young people I met at the university) because “God so loved the world (us) that He gave His only begotten son (Jesus) that whosoever believeth on Him shall not perish but inherit Eternal Life” (John Chapter 3 Verse 16). What a colossal privilege you and I have in being offered the opportunity to decide our own Eternal Future!      Best wishes,  Tom.  

The End Result

When I was a young man I worked for the New Occidental Gold Mining Company in Cobar in Western N.S.W. At that time the mine shaft was 1500 feet deep (about 500 meters) and that was a long haul to bring the ore to the surface for processing and a large amount of what came to the surface was valueless rock in which the gold was imbedded.

The Poppet Head (left of centre in the photo) is located over the shaft. There is a steel rope that goes from the “Winder” (in a shed nearby ) over a pulley on the top of the Poppet Head and straight down the shaft and normally has a “Cage” on the end that takes the miners down to where they are working and brings them up at the end of their shift. When ore is to be brought to the surface the Cage is replaced by a large Kibble which is a type of large bucket which brings the ore to the surface.

The broken rock containing the Gold is tipped into a Crusher (a very noisy machine that breaks it up into small pieces). These small pieces are then placed into a very large cylindrical container which looks a bit like one of those fuel tanks on the petrol semi-trailers. This container is called a Ball Mill because lots of steel balls larger than a Baseball are placed in it with the ore and as it rotates these balls crush the ore into a powder. This powdered ore is introduced to a cyanidation process which separates the Gold from the “mud” which is dumped on a heap that you can see on the right in the photo

whilst the Gold is melted and made into Gold Bricks that can be comfortably handled and stored, and later made into jewellery or placed in The Bank of England to secure the value of our currency.

In the Book of Zachariah Chapter 13, God, when talking about His people, says that “I will refine them as Silver is refined, and will try them as Gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, it is my people: and they shall say, the Lord is my God.” There are a number of other places in the Bible where this “Refining” is spoken of. The general gist of it is that we need to go through times of testing which are often very difficult in order for us to realise what is truly valuable and worthwhile and separate ourselves from valueless things that only pollute and deprive us of the life we were designed for. Paul tells young Timothy to “study to show himself approved”, now study isn’t easy; ask anyone doing a University Course, they have to decide on what their priorities are and drop many things they liked doing previously.

 Why? Well they don’t need any unnecessary distractions, that’s why. The same sort of thing applies to a person who joins the army they give up their freedom for a life of strict discipline and rigorous training, and that can be very heavy going but they feel that it is not too high a price to pay to defend the way of life they believe in, therefore they look on it as a privilege. We must think seriously about our life too and make a choice, as there is no avoiding it.  We are challenged by the alternatives that God gave Joshua to present to the people under his care, as recorded (for our decision) in Joshua chapter 24 verse 15: “Choose you this day who ye will serve.” We have a free will so therefore have a choice and that choice is to either ignore God, do our own thing and end up in Hell (which doesn’t look very attractive to me) or we can accept God’s offer of forgiveness, do things the way He instructs in the New Testament, be guided by Him and end up in Heaven with Eternal Life (a far better option). The New Testament instructions are rather like that Cyanidation process I spoke of above, and mean that we have to separate ourselves from many of the questionable things we are now involve in as the gold separates from the mud. Paul, when writing to the Christians in Rome puts it like this: “I beseech you therefore brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.” (Romans 8:1).  Food for thought.   Best wishes, Tom.  

God’s Problem

  The items we see here and millions of others we observe each day, are so wonderfully designed and made that you would have to ask “Who on earth made those wonderful things?” and the answer is of course that “no one on earth made them because no one on earth has the ability to create living things”. “Well then they must have made themselves”. You’re kidding! How can a non intelligent thing create itself and work out all the intricate details? Impossible!  I’m sorry if it offends anyone, but as the Old and New Testaments tell us it was “The Word of God” that spoke everything into

existence. The New Testament is the record of Jesus life on earth and “In the beginning” it was Jesus in the person of the “Word of God” who actually did the speaking (John chapter 1).

Why did God create all these wonders? Well I’m pleased to say He did it for our enjoyment and made the lovely fruit and other food for our sustenance and the

timber and minerals etc for our use. You see God’s problem is that He loves us “with an everlasting love” (Jeremiah 31:3 & John 15). Now for a parent to be loving like that is no problem if their children behave themselves but if the children don’t behave, and get into trouble, the parent just has to somehow get them out of the mess they have made. Many loving parents have found themselves in that situation and it has cost them dearly.

Our life on earth is a sort of training ground for us, and when we complete our assignment here we should be qualified to enter the Kingdom of God. However the reality is that, although there are billions of us and we have a world that God fitted out with everything we need to make us happy, we all, through selfishness and breaking the 10 commandments, “have sinned and come short of the Glory of God” and “there is none righteous, no not one”. Therefore our Heavenly Father was faced with a dreadful dilemma: Should He let all these children He loved go to Hell? Or should He step in and pay the dreadful price of their forgiveness himself?  Thanks be to God He chose the second option and sent “The Word of God’ in the form of Jesus “who was tempted on all points like as we are, and yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:15) to be crucified for our sin. Just imagine the love Jesus must have for us. So now all we have to do is believe on him with the faith of a little child as Jesus said in Luke 18:17 “Whosoever shall not receive the Kingdom of God as a little child shall in no wise enter therein” and in Matthew11:25 He said “O Father Lord of heaven & earth thank you for hiding these things from those who think themselves wise & clever and for revealing them to the childlike”. To those who choose to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ in that way the rewards are endless: “The Lord shall direct our paths” (Proverbs 3:6). The Holy Spirit will comfort and assist us (John 14:16&17). Angels will protect us (Psalm 91). God “will supply all our needs” (Philippians 4:19). And Eternal Life awaits us (John 3:16). Now you just can’t improve on that! You see, becoming a Christian is a “complete package deal” and we become eligible to claim all of God’s promises.

If you decide to get a Drivers Licence in N.S.W. you will need to obtain, and study, the book provided and written by the Roads and Maritime Services. It will provide all the information you will require and whilst you keep to what it says you will have no problems. No other books on the subject are necessary and may just confuse you (particularly if they are written by some well meaning person from another country like the U.S.A. where they drive on the opposite side of the road). Likewise as Christians we need to study the New Testament and later the Old Testament (when we know what the New Testament is saying). No other books on the subject are necessary as they can also confuse. This I know because when I became a Christian and had read the New Testament I then read a Commentary by a Doctor of Divinity and also a set of Commentaries by an Ordained Minister: Beautifully presented books written with authority. However these books watered down my understanding of the Bible, ruining my Christian walk for many years until I found that their statements were incorrect. Please don’t make the mistake I made. There is really only one book that we need and it was written “by Holy men of God who were guided by the Holy Spirit” (2Peter 1:20 & 21) and of course much of the New Testament just quotes the words of Jesus and there is no higher authority.  As Jesus said “I and the Father are one”. Best wishes. Tom.

 I

Unseen Assistance

 

Butterflies, they are amazing, not just because of their beauty but because of the way they are created: the caterpillar becomes completely encased in a sealed “room” and in a few days emerges as a beautiful butterfly. There is no way a brainless grub could transform itself into a magnificent butterfly like that without the intervention of a super intelligent scientific God. Our “God  works in mysterious ways, His wonders to perform”. We don’t see Him working, we just see the result of His work, and this has always been the case.

A good example of this was when many years ago a man called Joshua, who was in charge of the Israelites, was told by God to capture the walled city of Jericho. As he approached it he met a man with drawn sword who said he was the Captain of the Lord’s Armies (Joshua 5:14). Now those armies were invisible to Joshua however after Joshua had obeyed instructions to march around the city for 7 days the walls just collapsed. Who was it pushed those walls down? Joshua’s people didn’t even touch them! Unseen assistance.

There was also a man named Elisha, a real man of God, but the king of Syria hated him and sent a great force of soldiers to surround the city of Dothan where Elisha was staying. Elisha’s servant was dismayed by the size of the Syrian army however Elisha said “Fear not for they that be for us are greater than those that be against us” and he then prayed to God to “open the servant’s eyes so he could see” and then the servant saw that the hills were “filled with horses and chariots of fire.” Consequently there was an excellent outcome and no one was even hurt. (2 Kings 6:15) Unseen assistance!

Then there was a young man named Gideon (Judges 6) who was told by an angel (who apparently just looked like an ordinary man), that he was chosen to remove the hordes of marauding Mideonites with just 300 men to help him as God wanted to show that in the finality He was the one in charge. When Gideon’s men blew their trumpets in the night God caused the Mideonites to panic and they attacked each other. In short, 120,000 of them died, the rest ran away and Gideon didn’t lose one soldier. The bible documents many occasions when God intervened like this to assist His followers. In Acts 16:26 Paul and Silas were imprisoned, the church prayed for their release and there was a great earthquake which opened the prison doors and miraculously their bands were loosed so they were able to escape. However they chose to delay leaving so that they could first help the jailor become a Christian.

In Acts 5:19 the Apostles were released by an angel for whom the doors of the jail opened by themselves and the apostle’s chains fell off and he guided them out into the street. We are talking here of helpers from the Heavenly realm who may or may not be visible but assist those who love the Lord to achieve outcomes that would normally be impossible. Thankfully “God is the same yesterday, to-day and forever” (Hebrews 13:8). However Faith and Prayer are the “keys” needed to unlock these resources. Mark 6:5 states that Jesus could do no mighty works in His “hometown” of Nazareth because of the people’s lack of faith.  In recent times I have been looking at Australia and thinking, and (worse still) saying, that I believed that within 20 or 30 years this will be a sorry place for my Grandchildren and Great Grandchildren and others agreed with me. I now want to apologise for my part in that fatalistic attitude and believe we should ask God to intervene as he did for the people mentioned above. Jesus taught us to affirm with God (in the Lord’s Prayer) that “Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven” which is what we want. Some people may think that quote refers to the earth after Jesus returns (because that certainly will be the case then) but that is a pre-planned “done deal” and will eventually happen whether we pray or not, so I think that prayer is  a request to change things for us now. We should always be ready for Jesus return of course; however it may be a long time before that eventuates (2 Peter 3:8). During the last 2000 years there have been many occasions when people thought the end was close, meanwhile it would be nice to have God’s “will done on earth as it is in heaven” wouldn’t it?. Jesus also said in Matthew 21:22 “All things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive”. I believe we are to use the “Lord’s Prayer” like that so God will instruct His angels to intervene and make some needed changes for us.  Best wishes, Tom.

 )

Giving

This map of Israel shows the Sea of Galilee, the Jordan River and the Dead Sea. The Sea of Galilee at the top is fed by a river & the overflow goes down the Jordan River into the Dead Sea at the bottom of the map. Because of this “flow through” of water the Sea of Galilee is a “living Sea”, well stocked with fish, The water in the Jordan River is healthy too because it is flowing, however the Dead Sea which receives “in flow” from the Jordan has no “out flow” so is dead, as its name implies.

This is just a parable of life; In the New Testament, Jesus said, (as recorded by Luke in chapter 6 and verse 38) “Give and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over...” That is the Authorised version. To put it into modern English the New Living Translation expresses it like this: “Give and you will receive. Your gift will return to you in full—pressed down, shaken together to make room for more, running over....” These are translations of Jesus words which describe a God given principle that applies to everything including the Sea of Galilee, the Jordan River the Dead Sea and You and Me!

I started thinking about this after a lady came to me in the Mall and told me that she has become the carer for her father who has lost his ability to care for himself, and she said what a blessing that has been to her, you see she is giving her time and ability out of loving concern and is therefore blessed. When we talk of giving we often think of money, but there are lots of things to give and lots of ways to give that don’t necessarily involve money and are probably a far greater blessing to the receivers, and interestingly Jesus said (Acts 20:35)“It is more blessed to give than to receive”.  I’m not ignoring money as it too can be used to bless someone but it certainly isn’t the only thing nor is it the most important. Paul tells young Timothy in 1 Timothy 6:10 that “the love of money is the root of all evil.” Oh I know it can be a wonderful thing if we are generous with it however it can also become a “god”, there are scores of people stacking it away selfishly. Peter and John were going to worship in the temple when a crippled man lying there asked them for money however these two apostles had probably already given away all they had so Peter said “I don’t have any Silver or Gold but what I do have I will give you; In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk” and he took him by the right hand and the man stood up completely healed (Acts 3:6).  Now my guess is that the man who was cured didn’t give their lack of money one more thought as “he went walking and leaping and praising God”. Never feel inadequate if you haven’t any money to share, give what you do have, things like friendship, time to listen, encouragement and so on. We can all do that.

A man was on his way to church with his family and was running late when he came up to another man who had a flat tyre on his car and was having trouble changing it.  One of the children said “dad can’t we stop and help him, he looks to be in trouble” but Dad replied “I would like to son, but we are already late for church ”so he kept going. Now it was lovely that he was taking his family to church to worship Jesus, however it was Jesus who said we should “love our neighbour as we love ourselves” and if we even “give a cup of water in his name as far as he is concerned it is the same as if we did it to him” and 1 John 3:17 says that he who has the wherewithal to help someone and doesn’t do so “how dwells the love of God in him?”.

When writing to the Ephesian Christians, Paul clarifies an interesting point here when he says in chapter 2 verses 8 & 9: “God saved you by His grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things He planned for us long ago”. Wherever I go I see lonely people. We shouldn’t be too busy to stop and have a chat. Some day if you and I are old and looking at the ceiling, for hours on end, in an Aged Care Home we will wonder why people are too busy to come and have a chat with us, and how it was that we couldn’t spare a few minutes to have a chat to those lonely people we saw. According to Jesus, five minutes spent in loving concern would not be 5 minutes lost, but 5 minutes invested that will return with interest.

“Give and it shall be given unto you”. Some food for thought. Regards, Tom.