One Day at a Time

For many decades Australians had the assurance, from the Government, that when they reached retirement age, and didn’t have enough money saved to live on, that an Age Pension would be available to them. That was a wonderful arrangement and took a lot of the stress and concern out of the lives of retirees because people felt confident knowing that they would have an amount of money paid into their bank account each fortnight that would be sufficient for them to live on for the next 14 days if they manage it carefully. You needed to have faith in “Centerlink” to the extent that you believed they would provide the cash on a continuing basis, of course. Because, without faith, people could worry themselves sick towards the end of each fortnight wondering where the next money to live on was going to come from, which would be stupid. FAITH: how very important that is.

I was thinking about this when I was repeating the “Lord’s Prayer” that Jesus taught his disciples, where He says “Give us this day our daily bread”: Why did he mention Just one day’s bread? Why not “Give us all the bread that we will need for the next 12 months”? Well, we can be assured that Jesus didn’t make statements that weren’t well thought out, He had a very good reason. As far as the Government is concerned, they wouldn’t give a lump sum because they know that some people cannot handle money properly and would waste it on something unnecessary and then starve. In Jesus case it is different, He wants us to live one day at a time in His company involving him in our work and trusting him to see that all our needs will be supplied. In Philippians 4:6 we are told to not worry about anything, but let God know our problems and be assured that he will fix them. (check Philippians 4:6 for yourself, it is in the New Testament). It is like the situation a farmer finds himself in each year when he would like to sow a crop of wheat, but he knows that there is only enough moisture in the soil to germinate the seed and maintain it for a few weeks, however it will take 6 or 7 months, and a certain amount of rain each month, to grow the crop and then some nice fine hot weather to harvest it. Well then, is he gambling if he sows without that certainty?  It certainly looks like it. However, Solomon, (or some other wise king) who had “been there, done that” wrote the book of Ecclesiastes thousands of years ago and made the observation in chapter 11 verse 4 that “anyone who looks at the wind shall not sow and anyone looking at the clouds will not reap”. Which is exactly right. Nevertheless, my observation from being personally involved as a farmer, and also studying the bible, is that we need a personal relationship with our Heavenly Father. If we do have that relationship and are prepared to have faith, we can relax in the promise that “My God shall supply all your need” (Philippians 4:19), so then there is no gamble associated with it. Just as Centerlink doesn’t supply a lump sum and people trust them to make regular payments, so we need to trust God. Now this is not “Kismet” or fatalism (“whatever will be will be” type of thinking). Certainly not! It is faith born of “hearing and hearing from the word of God”. “Faith, without which no person will please God.” And realising that God alone knows what is best for us we can rest assured as Romans 8:28 says that “All things work together for good for those who love God, the called

according to His purpose.” How about the Shearers or the Shop Assistants and such, do they have to be concerned about the continuity of their jobs and their wages? Well, here again the answer is “yes”, unless they develop a Father/Child relationship with God and thus become “joint heirs with Christ” (Romans 8:17). Having made that commitment Philippians 4:19 says “my God shall supply all your need” so they will always be looked after, of course they may not remain serving behind a counter or shearing a sheep or whatever, but the world is full of satisfying occupations that would be ideal for their natural gifting. It really amounts to this: Do we want our lives to be under the guidance of Jesus and God’s Holy Spirit or do we want to be independent and “Paddle our own canoe” without any guidance?    More “food for thought”, Best wishes, Tom.

Easter and Engines

Back in the 1960s I bought a nice A554 International tractor, it was made in Australia. That was back in the good old days when we made Chamberlain tractors here too, as well as Holden cars. Unfortunately, one day the A554 Engine just stopped and I found that the Crankshaft had snapped in the middle so would no longer rotate. Now that meant that the tractor could no longer operate at all, and unless I could repair that engine and give it new life I would no longer be able to farm the country that I was hoping to farm.

 Let us consider a hypothetical case: suppose that I had no money to repair that motor and a friend came along and said that he had been talking to my father and mentioned my difficulty, and my father had then contacted the Tractor repair garage in Tottenham (our nearest town) and paid the proprietor for the repair in advance so all I had to do now was take the tractor to him and he would “rebirth” the engine making it as new. The friend who told me this, would be expecting me to be thrilled by an offer like that, and would be amazed if I said: “I haven’t been speaking to my father for years and I am therefore not interested”. He would also be amazed If I said that my pride wouldn’t let me accept the offer anyway because if I cannot do it myself then I’m not prepared to accept charity, even from my father. Either of these actions by me would have been very foolish, to say the least, and I am pleased to say they never happened. Yet they are quite common in our society, and unfortunately, in the Spiritual realm of our lives they are even much more common.

You see, the “engine” that drives us is our Soul and the scriptures tell us that “all have sinned and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23) and “all” includes you and me, but worse still we have been told that “the Soul that sinneth, it shall die” (Ezekiel 18:4) because “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23), how dreadful is that? However, just like in the scenario above, our Heavenly Father has paid the price for the rebirth of our Souls, through Jesus sacrifice, so “the gift of God is Eternal life through Jesus Christ our lord” (Romans 6:23), what a relief,  does this mean then that all people have Eternal Life? No it doesn’t unfortunately: Jesus himself clarified this point by saying that “as many as received him to them he gave the power to become children of God” (John 1:12). And John 3:15&16 confirms this where Jesus said that “whosoever believeth  in him shall not perish but have eternal life”. So how many people will make it to Heaven? I don’t know, but it won’t be as many as it should be because even though “It is not His will that any person shall perish” (2Peter 3:9), many of us behave like I did in the above hypothetical scenario and either don’t speak to our Heavenly Father or are too proud to accept His offer of help. Of course there are some who haven’t even heard of His offer and it is up to us to tell them.

You see, unless our “Engine” (Soul) is rebirthed (Born again) we are like that tractor that would end up on the scrap heap if its engine is not rebirthed. Whether or not the tractor looks nice, has new tyres, and a newly upholstered seat etc. is irrelevant. Likewise, it makes no difference how nice we seem to be or what good things we do either, because our Soul has sinned and it must be rebirthed before those things are of any value. This was clarified by Jesus when a very sincere religious leader of the Jews named Nicademus came to visit him, this man would have obeyed every law written in the Old Testament to the letter. He started to compliment Jesus on the miracles he had done and so on, but Jesus made no comment on that but came straight to the point by saying: Nicademus, “you must be “born Again” or you cannot

enter the Kingdom of God”, (John 3: 3&5) and went on to explain that he wasn’t talking about a physical rebirth but a Spiritual rebirth, and this comes about when we believe in Jesus, repent, and follow His ways. Then, and then alone, are we qualified to enter Heaven. This, of course is what Easter is all about. We can have God’s forgiveness because Jesus “gave his life as a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:28). You and I are part of those “ransomed” “many” when we accept that gift of God by prayer.

May God richly bless you and yours this Easter and forever more,

From Tom and Audrey.

Strengthened by Difficulties

Nine months ago I took this photo of a Palm Tree beside the walk way at the Mall, and I mentioned in an article I wrote at the time, that the gardeners had just cut its top off and said they were going to destroy it as it was in the wrong place. My interest at that stage was to observe how beautifully folded the leaves were (like a Chinese fan), and how tightly packed the unopened leaves were. To me that was evidence of God’s designing and programming.  For some reason they didn’t destroy the tree but it looked very unhappy for a while and I thought it would die. However, it has now revived and looks more robust than ever as you can see in this next photo. I am sure the tree didn’t enjoy the rough handling it had but its roots were
firmly established in good soil so it was able to cope with the problems it was faced with and overcame them.

Throughout life we are also confronted with difficult problems that often seem as if they will defeat us and it is then that we appreciate the prayerful hope that Paul expresses in his letter to the Ephesian Christians: “That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye being  rooted and grounded in love, (just as that tree is well rooted in good soil), may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye may be filled with all the fullness of God”.(Ephesians 3:17), What a colossal “backup” is available to us if we choose to avail ourselves of it.  Indeed, without that “backup” and supply of strength to draw upon we can be easily defeated, just as that Palm tree wouldn’t have survived if it hadn’t been for the good soil and adequate moisture that was there for it to draw upon. I am afraid that we often don’t ask for help in time of need but face it alone because we either don’t know that our Heavenly Father is the King of the universe or we are too proud to ask Him for help: Victorious living comes from faith and “faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God”, (Romans 10:17), and that really means repeatedly hearing. Somehow I feel that the comma after the first word “hearing” is in the wrong place and should be after the second “hearing,” because we need to hear and hear.

When John Wesley (the famous evangelist who “turned England upside down”) first heard of “Salvation by faith” he had a problem believing it so one of his friends said: “Preach it until you believe it, and then preach it because you believe it.” And he did, with fantastic results.

People say to me: “I don’t understand why God allows sickness, or the death of babies”. Well God doesn’t want either, and Jesus proved this by healing every sick person He met and even raised the dead who had died prematurely and then handed the responsibility over to us when He was leaving by saying: “The works that I do shall you do also, and greater works than these shall you do because I go to the Father,” (John 14: 12) to those who accept Jesus forgiveness there is a long list of Spiritual gifts that are available. So those who want to, can live victoriously and help others. All we need is FAITH and Romans 10:17 tells us how to get that. (You don’t get it by reading books about the New Testament, you must read and re-read the actual words). Audrey and I were living in town and went out to our property for a visit and found lots of large “Cat-head” burr plants in our orchard (the seed must have come in hay we bought). Audrey was very upset and recalling what Jesus said we could do, when He killed the fig tree, she turned to these burr plants and said, in a loud voice, “I curse you Catheads, in the name of Jesus die” (secretly I thought to myself “she has overdone it this time”) but when we returned to the orchard a few days later I was astounded to see that every plant had died. On another occasion, whilst handling cattle, I got a dreadful chest pain that I recognised as a heart attack so I went and lay on the bed. Audrey came and prayed for me constantly for 2 days, quoting God’s promises in the scriptures (I wasn’t game to move), other friends she phoned prayed too and the pain gradually departed, leaving me weak. After many days though, I returned to normal and felt quite well. Years later I had more pain so went to St Vincent’s Hospital where they gave me a Coronary Angiogram and the Specialist said I needed some by-passes, but added “you had a severe heart attack some years ago”. I said “yes, how did you know?” He replied “I can see where your heart made its own by-pass”.   Best wishes for more faith, Tom.

Are You Ready

 

“Are you ready”? is a question that we get asked constantly from childhood: “Are you ready to get up?” “are you ready for your shower”? “are you ready for Breakfast”? “Are you ready for school”? and so it continues through our life; we always have to be ready for something. But what a dreadful feeling it is if someone reminds us, at the last minute, about something important we forget to get ready for. At such a time we understand the meaning of the word “Panic”, but unfortunately panicking does not always solve the problem, does it?

When I was a little boy back in the 1930s we had no electricity on our farm so at night

mum always kept a “Hurricane Lantern” lit (like the one in the photo), so we had a light “always ready” in case we had to go and close the chook yard gate after dark, or tie the dog or even go from the kitchen to the bedroom, it helped us find our way easily and as I was scared of the dark, it was also very comforting to see that there was nothing to be frightened of lurking in the shadows. Well there could have been a snake. Our neighbour, Jack, at “Wilgareena” got bitten by a snake near the dog kennel. My sister found one in the bedroom, aimed the 12-gauge Shotgun at it, pulled the trigger and drove the snakes head through the floor, and received a bruised shoulder, all at once.

 For anyone who may not be familiar with this type of light, you filled the bottom section with Kerosene or as some call it “Paraffin” which is a fuel oil made from a mixture of liquid hydrocarbons. A wick of absorbent material, controlled by a winder, sucked up the Kerosene by capillary action and you lit the wick with a match.  The light which was inside that glass was protected from the wind and lasted for hours before you had to add more Kerosene, providing that you turned the wick down low with the winder. Therefore, it was always “ready”. The other lamps used in the house worked on a similar principle.  In Biblical times they had a lamp that looked like a teapot except that the spout was shorter and turned upwards and a wick went down inside the spout and into the oil that was in the body of the lamp, it worked well but it had a “naked” flame with no winder to adjust the wick so it used a considerable amount of “oil” and needed frequent refilling.

Jesus told a story about “ten bridesmaids” in Matthew 25, (New Living Translation), who had to attend an evening wedding so they each took a lamp with them (probably like the last one I just described). Now I don’t understand the customs of their day, but apparently they had to wait outside the place where the wedding was to take place until the Groom arrived and then they could go in with him. In this particular case the Groom was delayed for some reason and didn’t arrive until midnight. Meanwhile the girls had dosed off and woke with a start when it was announced that he had arrived. Five of them had neglected to bring spare oil with them so were not ready and had to run and get some because their lamps had gone out, but unfortunately for them when they returned they found that the other five who had brought extra oil and were ready, had gone in with the Bridegroom and the doors were now shut.

The Groom in this story represents Jesus himself, and the Bridesmaids represent people like us and the hall where the wedding was to be held represents the Kingdom of Heaven. You see Jesus was talking about the time when he will “come again” to receive those of us who are prepared and ready. Of course if we die before he comes again, then the same thing still applies: those who are prepared and ready will be accepted into Heaven but sadly, those who are not prepared and ready will be “cast out into outer darkness: where there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth” for eternity. (Matthew 22:13 & 25:30). (What a dreadful and unnecessary alternative that would be).

Exactly then what do we have to do in order to be prepared and ready? Well, briefly it amounts to this: We prepare by “repenting”, which means asking God’s forgiveness for sin, and deciding to follow Jesus directions in future (as outlined in the New Testament). The 10 Bridesmaids would have fulfilled the equivalent of that preparation, but 5 of them were like some of us who fail to “update that commitment” which is something we need to do on a daily basis. 

Take my case for example: On the 10^th of January in 1950, I made that commitment and if I had died on the 11^th (the next day) I would have gone to Heaven because I was ready. However, I didn’t die so I must continue to live the way Jesus directed, asking God’s forgiveness for sinful thoughts and concentrate on “Loving my neighbour as I love myself” and so on, because these things keep me ready as they confirm my original commitment and are the equivalent of “topping up” my lamp with oil so I have light for my path and am ready.  Best wishes as you think about that, if you haven’t already done so.   Tom.

Faith or Stress

“You are not a candidate for a Heart Attack, you are not over weight, as a farmer you spend your time in the open air, and get plenty of exercise: For you to have had a heart attack you must have had a lot of stress”. This was the Cardiologist at St Vincent’s Hospital in Sydney talking to me. How ashamed he made me feel, a professing Christian, having a heart attack through stress, of all things: how faithless

and ridiculous.

 Said the robin to the sparrow, I should really like to know, why these anxious human beings rush about and worry so. Said the sparrow to the robin, friend, I think it must be, that they have no Heavenly Father, such as cares for you and me.

But we do have a Heavenly Father who cares about us, only, we have our priorities wrong: In Matthew 6: 24 to 34, Jesus said: “You cannot serve both God and Money…. That is why I tell you not to worry about every-day life…. Look at the birds…your heavenly Father feeds them. And aren’t you far more valuable to him than they are? Can all your worries add a single moment to your life.... Look at the lilies of the field

how they grow…. Solomon in all his glory was not dressed as beautifully as they are…. Your heavenly Father already knows all your needs. Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need. (New Living Translation).

Does this mean then, that we don’t have to work but just trust God and all our needs will be supplied? No! it certainly doesn’t, if he did that for us it wouldn’t be long before we would be bored out of our minds. If he had meant that, he wouldn’t have designed the world with all the wonderful supply of commodities for us to use to build things and so on. Nor would he have given us the natural abilities like carpentry, mechanics, engineering etc. Certainly he gave us a world supplied with fruit and vegetables and foods of many types and in the Garden of Eden we had all these without the weeds and thistles. If people had not sinned it could have been Heaven on earth. However, in a sense we pawned our birthright of fellowship with God by yielding to the temptations of Satan, who is “the god of this world”, (2 Corinthians 4:4), and we are under his influence. If you visit a Pawn Broker and pawn some jewellery or the like, that item is his until you return with the money, plus interest, and “Redeem” it, at which time it is legally yours again. This is exactly what God did for us: he sent Jesus to pay the price of our “Redemption”: We were “Redeemed by the blood of the lamb” of God, or as Ephesians 1:7 and Colossians 1:14 put it: “in whom we have Redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace”. 1 Peter chapter five verses six and seven says: “Humble yourselves therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time: casting all your care upon him; for He careth for you.” If God has offered to take all my care upon Him, why was I foolish enough to carry it myself?  To do that was very stupid of me, (of course you wouldn’t do that, would you?)

 The fact of the matter is that when we accept God’s forgiveness through that “Redemptive” act we are automatically reinstated as “children of God” and citizens of His Kingdom with “Passport and Visa” ready so that when we finish our time here we can return home to God where our names are in “the Book of Life” (Revelation 20:12). Meanwhile, like any citizen of another Kingdom, we can work here and enjoy ourselves and if we put God’s directions first in everything we plan, think, and do we can then expect that “He will give His Angels charge over us to keep us in all our way” (Psalm 91).  We can then go forward in quiet confidence that no matter what happens “All things work together for good for those that love God, the called

according to His purpose”. We need to take a lesson from the eagles: they hardly ever flap their wings, instead they make use of the thermal up-drafts of air provided by God’s design, whilst some other birds flap constantly and wear themselves out. So we must not ‘flap’ too much, instead we must do as Proverbs 3:5 says and “Trust in the Lord with all our heart and lean not to our own understanding; in all our ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct our paths”.(Proverbs 3:5). Best wishes with that, Tom.

The alternative: “He rushed through life, people said ‘he’s a wizzard’ but he died at 40 with a burned out gizzard”. (Now that’s not really a good way to live or die, is it?)

The Real Thing

I am always fascinated by trees. There are thousands of hectares of trees like these of various varieties in the Great Dividing Range along the East coast of Australia and also 
in Tasmania and Western Australia. They are part of the resources given to us as a gift for us to use, and of course, if managed properly would keep replacing themselves as they are a renewable resource. This particular type was designed to be used for telephone and electricity poles and bridges, or any construction that requires long straight planks. To save them wasting their time whilst they are growing or waiting to be used, the one who invented them, allotted them the task of purifying the air we breathe by absorbing carbon and respiring oxygen through their leaves. (He
didn’t overlook anything). I wrote about this once before mentioning the great variety of trees. Such as hard woods, soft woods, fodder trees for animals to eat, like Mulga, Rosewood and Kurrajong, and there are lots of decorative trees too, like the acacias, but as well as looking pretty they also filter the air for us. Terrific planning went into all this, and they were all made so that the bees can pollinate their flowers, and as a payment for that they were designed to supply the bees with the ingredients to make honey with varying flavours. The honey shop: “M.S. Honey”, in West Dubbo near I.G.A. have a colossal variety like those in the photo.

 When Audrey and I got married we had a
small house built for us to live in: it didn’t just accidentally evolve whilst we were on our Honeymoon either. On the contrary, we designed it before the builder commenced construction, consequently it was “purpose built” having the necessary rooms in the right places with such things as a stove, a stainless steel sink and the necessary cupboards in which to store things, and friends said it was “a nice little house and well thought out”.  

If we use our brains as we look about us, it becomes very obvious that this world is a “nice place, purpose built, and well thought out” too. We should then understand what the Bible means when it states that we have no excuse for not believing in God, as his handiwork is all around us and the closer we look the more amazed we become: It is not an inhospitable place like the Moon or Mars or Jupiter. Certainly not: it is obviously “purpose built” for us to inhabit, as it has everything we could possibly need, whether it be Iron Ore to manufacture steel, or Lavender flowers to make perfume. Walk into any Supermarket and the variety of fruit and vegetables is incredible, there are dozens of different types, each having a unique flavour and a recognisable shape and colour which we take for granted, but without those different shapes and colours selecting them would be a nightmare. They were all designed by our loving Heavenly Father so that our sojourn on Earth would be very pleasant and interesting, and if you have observed these fruits developing on the tree or vine you will have also noticed that until they are ripe they are the same colour as the leaves on the tree or vine that produces them which is very clever camouflage, (He thought of everything). We must not overlook the herbs He put there for our enjoyment either, and the berries, Strawberries, Blue berries, Raspberries etc. It is incredible to me that some people cannot see that God’s intelligent mind was necessary in order
for a brainless tree to be programmed to produce this luscious piece of fruit; to deny that God was involved, as some do, is ridiculous and implies that the brainless house we built could have invented its own stove. After all, if a tree without brains, could make fruit that is so very complex, without God’s intervention, then (using that logic) a similarly brainless house should be able to make a stove? However, it can’t. The fact is that the entire earth and everything in it was deliberately designed for our use and enjoyment by our God as recorded in the book of Genesis, and his intelligence staggers the imagination. Can you think of anything we need that He hasn’t catered for? If we had the common sense to just abide by Jesus second commandment to “Love our neighbour as we love ourselves” we would all enjoy this planet because it is only selfishness and lack of love that causes all the upset in the world. In so many countries people are too busy fighting to attend to their crops and gardens and wonder why they are hungry. This sort of stupidity can start in our family relationships too, and just spreads like an infection so we need to “nip it in the bud” and show forgiveness and love because if we don’t forgive those who trespass against us, God will not forgive us our trespasses.     Best wishes, Tom.

He Cares

When we look at babies we see the most beautiful little things, innocent, with brand

new brains that as yet contain very little knowledge. Aveline, this little Great Grand Daughter of mine (Ava, for short), lives in our English speaking Australia, and English is not a very easy language to learn, but by the time Ava is about six years old she will have a very good grasp of the language. However, Australia is a fairly isolated country and we hardly ever hear other languages spoken so if she hears another language she will not understand it, unless she studies it at school, of course.

Likewise, she was born into a devout Christian family so will visit a church to worship God every Sunday, will say grace at meal times, and pray for family and loved ones as well as lots of other people before going to bed at night or to school each day. Therefore, by the time she is about six years old she will not only understand English, but will also look on Christianity as a normal part of her life and if she hears someone say that Jesus was the “Son of God”, she will have no problem accepting that.

I know all this is true because I was brought up in a similar manner. However, in recent times there have been a lot of people from foreign countries coming to live in Australian and these people, in many cases, don’t speak or understand the English language very well, and to complicate the matter still further they often don’t understand the Christian way of thinking, so if they hear me talk of Jesus as “the Son of God” or talk about Him being “Divine” they may well think I am being sacrilegious, and even deserve to die for making such a statement about a person, after all, (when you think about it), it was the very religious Jews who arranged for Jesus to be Crucified because he made such a claim, and people don’t change: for example, the war in Syria at the moment is between two religious groups who just have two different interpretations of the same religion. Considering all the above and its importance to the future of peace and understanding within our land, I will attempt to explain, very briefly, why Christians believe the way they do and what backing they have for their beliefs, (obviously I will have to leave a lot out or this will become a book). Of one thing you can be certain though: I love my God and would never be sacrilegious.

Firstly, then, Jesus was born to a virgin and I am pleased that the Muslims believe this too. Virgin birth does occasionally occur.  It happens under a process which is called parthenogenesis. However, on her own a woman cannot produce a male baby, only a female. That is why when the Angel Gabriel appeared to Mary (as recorded in Luke 1 verse 26) He said in verse 35 “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the highest will overshadow you therefore also the Holy One who is to be born will be called The Son of God”. A deliberately arranged virgin berth would be miracle enough, but a male baby as well, requires God’s intervention.                                                                                                                           At 12 years of age Jesus showed that he knew who His Real Father was: on a visit to Jerusalem he became parted from his family and when they found him he was “in the temple, sitting in the midst of the doctors, (religious leaders), both hearing them and asking them questions, and all that heard him were astonished at his understanding and answers”. When Mary said they had been looking for him everywhere, he replied, didn’t you realise “that I must be about my Father’s business”. (Luke 2: 49).

When he reached manhood he had many followers, but the closest ones were the 12 disciples who were with him constantly: they saw him feed five thousand men plus women and children with 5 loaves and 2 small fish and collect 12 baskets full of leftovers, and later feed four thousand in a similar manner. They saw him walk on water, heal mentally and physically sick people. Raise the dead, one of which had been dead for 4 days and whose body was putrid. But when he said “Lazarus come forth” he came out of his tomb perfect. They heard him tell a raging storm “peace be still” and it stopped immediately. They heard him preach wonderful sermons, and when he asked these disciples who they thought he was, Peter replied immediately: “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God” and his reply was: “Flesh and blood has not revealed this unto you but My Father in heaven”. Then speaking to Phillip he said: “he who has seen me has seen the Father, for I and the Father are one”. For this sort of statement, the Jews had him crucified and he went along with that because it was the reason he came to earth (to die for the sins of all of us so God could forgive us and accept us into heaven, if we repent and believe on Jesus (John 3:16)). Of course that wasn’t the end of him. After 3 days he rose from the dead and mingled with the disciples and others for many weeks; just appearing in locked rooms but nevertheless having a body that was solid to the touch (not like a ghost).

I have run out of room, so I will continue next week, or you can read the New Testament. It is all there.  Best wishes, Tom.