The Easter Question....Have you any Room for Jesus

There is a hymn that “spells out” the Easter message like this:

“On a hill far away, stood an old rugged cross the emblem of suffering and shame, and I love that old cross where the dearest and best for a world of lost sinners was slain. I will cherish the old rugged cross, till my trophies at last I lay down; I will cling to the old rugged cross and exchange it someday for a crown”.

How awesome it is that Jesus was willing to pay the price of our sins, as recorded in John chapter 3 and verse 16, so that we can go free, (provided we are willing to repent and “believe” in Him). Jesus, referring to the door of our heart says: “Behold I stand at the door and knock If any man hears my voice, and opens the door, I will come in to him, and sup with him, and he with me”. (Revelation 3: 20). The artist, Holman Hunt, illustrated that statement Jesus made, as we see in his painting here, where the Risen Saviour is bringing with Him our pardon from sin and the light of life, what a challenge that is for us because as God’s children we are all included as beneficiaries in Jesus “Last Will and Testament”. (Called the “New Testament”) This begs the question: “Have you any room for Jesus? He who bore your load of sin, as He knocks and asks admission, loved one won’t you let Him in? Room for Jesus, King of Glory, hasten now His word obey, swing your heart’s door widely open, bid Him enter whilst you may?” You see, it is up to us to decide because God can do no more without removing our freedom of choice. As the beneficiaries we have to decide whether or not to claim our inheritance. How about you then? Have you told God yet that you want to claim your inheritance?  which amounts to the forgiveness of your sins and eternal life shared by Jesus plus fellowship and guidance of the Holy Spirit.

A friend of Holman Hunt (the man who painted that picture) said to Holman “you forgot to put a handle on the door”. Holman Hunt replied: “No I didn’t forget. The handle to open our heart’s door is on the inside; Therefore, we are the only ones who can open the door and invite Jesus in”. Now, if we do that, (or have already done so), then we will have a happy Easter and the words of the following hymn become relevant to us as a prayer: “Into my heart, into my heart, come into my heart Lord Jesus, come in to-day, come in to stay, come into my heart Lord Jesus. Out of my heart, out of my heart, shine out of my heart Lord Jesus, shine out to-day, shine out alway, shine out of my heart Lord Jesus”.

 In that way we obey Jesus instruction as recorded in Matthew 5:16, where He says “Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify my Father who is in Heaven”. We will then be very comfortable singing “I serve a risen Saviour, He’s in this world to-day, and I shall always serve Him no matter what men say, I see His hand of mercy, I feel His tender care, and every time I need Him He’s always there. He lives, He lives, Christ Jesus lives to-day, He walks with me and talks with me along life’s narrow way, He lives, He lives salvation to impart, you ask me how I know He lives; He lives within my heart”.  Easter is the Pivotal point in all our lives, whether we are an Atheist, a Christian, or whatever, because how we respond to Jesus death and resurrection determines how our life on earth will “pan out” and where we will spend Eternity! “Neither is there Salvation in any other name” (Acts 4:12).

The “Easter Bunny” is merely a commercial gimmick and has absolutely no religious significance.  Not so the Easter egg though, as it symbolises the “new birth,” mentioned to us above, which is available to us through Jesus crucifixion and resurrection (if we repent of past sin and ask for forgiveness).  If you buy an unlabelled egg make sure you tell others that it is an “EASTER” egg, and that it represents NEW LIFE.       

Have a happy Easter. Best wishes, Tom.

Life is a Training Ground for Souls

In the fairy tales we are told that the prince and princess “got married and lived happily ever after”. Judging by the current divorce rate that is not always the case to-day. Nevertheless, it is God’s plan for a man and woman, who love each other, to get married. He wants us to have a very special friend to share our life with, and that is also the way He populates the world.  However, people need to be reasonably sure that they are compatible before they marry. To have had a short “courtship” Just based 
on attraction and romantic feelings is risky. Real love needs to be given a chance to grow and deepen as people get to know each other reasonably well before they marry, and even then they should be encouraged to take those vows: “For better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health until death us do part.” Unfortunately, not everybody takes those vows and often those who take them lack the commitment to follow them through and therefore never know the “oneness” that comes from that deep and abiding love and devotion that real commitment earns. When Audrey and I got married and acquired a small grazing property of our own, we soon found that the vows we took on our wedding day were also applicable to running a sheep grazing property. In the first photo you will see that we had a good season with lovely grass for our sheep (“for richer”). In the second photo we were in the middle of a drought that lasted for years and even the sheep were depressed (“for poorer”). In the third photo (below), I cut scrub for them so they could eat the
leaves but that wasn’t enough to keep them healthy (“in sickness”). Then we bought grain and fed them daily by pouring it out on the hard bare ground to keep them “in health” as you see in the last photo. That was difficult as we had very little money to start with so that could have been the end of our grazing enterprise if it wasn’t for determination to succeed and a strong faith in God, (I believe that a lot of marriages fail due to a lack of that 
faith in God and the commitment and determination to succeed.)  Audrey and I were “Good Shepherds” to our sheep, they learned to recognise our voices and come when called, many of them became real pets and we grew to recognise them as individuals and love them. Of course there were those who remained “Hoity Toity” and kept us at a distance, but their pride was not to their advantage in the long run. One of our Prime Ministers (Malcom Frazer), said that “life wasn’t meant to be easy”. Actually that is all that I remember him saying, but I believe he was right in saying that. When we are young we often feel that the world is our Oyster and all we have to do is get a good job, marry someone nice, get a good home, travel the world and enjoy life. Which is the, “and they lived happily ever after” syndrome. Well I have news for anyone thinking that way: Happiness is certainly what we should aim for but it doesn’t come in that way. I have met many people who have all that we just mentioned but somehow they don’t have Happiness.  We are Spiritual beings with the prospect of eternal life, Jesus likens us to sheep and He wants to be our Good Shepherd, so just as Audrey and I looked after our sheep through thick and thin, He wants to do that for us. We therefore, need to start by accepting Jesus love and forgiveness as the foundation of our life and let Him guide us as we build our lives on that foundation of His eternal love.  The media tell us that our world is full of pitfalls but the Bible told us that, long before the media was thought of. However, the media offers no lasting solutions whilst God says “I will be with you in trouble, I will deliver you and honour you”. That is if we are prepared to let Him be our Shepherd and don’t stand off like those proud “hoity toity” sheep I mentioned above. Accepting God’s forgiveness and Lordship is where true happiness commences and just as our sheep were    fed by us, so we need to feed on God’s word, particularly the New Testament. God understands us. He has been shepherd to millions of people like you and me and every one of those millions have had the same basic needs as we have, so all we have to do is co-operate with God’s instructions and everything else will fall into place. “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, lean not unto your own understanding, in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths”. (Proverbs chapter 3 verse 6). It is an interesting concept, and it works.  Think about it, if you haven’t already done so.  Best wishes, Tom.
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
    
 

Learning to Walk

How we love to see our children, grandchildren or great grandchildren taking their
first steps as they learn to walk. The reason they try to walk is twofold, firstly they have a natural instinct to want to walk and secondly they copy everything they see their parents do. How delighted they are when they take their first steps. Not to mention how delighted and proud their parents are to see them walk. However, they invariably look back at us with a huge smile on their face and then fall over because they have stopped concentrating on what they were doing. Sometimes they will get straight back up and keep going, other times they will cry because they have either hurt themselves or just got frightened by falling. Either way they don’t give up and we don’t give up on them either, instead we just say “Ups a Daisy” or something like that, dust them off, put a “Band Aid” on any scratch they might have acquired, and encourage them to keep trying.

We behave like that because they are part of our family, we love them and want them to achieve more and more independence so they can enjoy the world around them. Walking without falling too frequently, is what we would like them to achieve, however we know that no matter how good they become at walking they will fall at some time, because we all do. But our aim is not to fall.  

The same goes for our Spiritual life. The aim of every Christian should be to learn to walk in the light of the Gospel and “Pursue Holiness” as the Bible puts it; indeed, it is not an option as we are instructed to “pursue holiness without which no one will see the Lord”. Now that sounds like a rather severe statement. The bible also orders men to “love their wives”, and that sounds severe too, however, seeing that I married my wife because I was in love with her I was delighted to obey God’s command, so I thought it might be a good idea if we have a look at this “holiness” issue also, and try to understand what is expected of us. Perhaps “expected” is the wrong word though because “expected” implies that we are doing something because it is our “duty” as was implied when I was told to “love my wife” (which turned out to be what I wanted to do anyway). Likewise, the reason we are endeavouring to be holy should be because we want to please Jesus as we begin to appreciate what He has done for us. Just as our children want to copy us and walk the way we do. The dictionary describes “holiness” as “high moral and Spiritual excellence coming from devotion to God”. So, wishing to please God, we endeavour to behave as we believe God or Jesus would behave if they were in our position or circumstance. A big ask, one might say, well “yes” and “no”. Certainly it is a “big ask” if we try to achieve Holiness “under our own steam”, so to speak, especially if we have been living a life divorced from God so may have been a thief, a liar, immoral, a cheat, spending our life on all sorts of stupidities, being resentful and unforgiving, having no real love for anyone but ourselves. Now if we have had all, or even some of those faults, we may also be surrounded by “peer group pressure” and will not find a sudden change easy. Just like our baby learning to walk, we will often “fall”. However, if we have repented, (decided that we really want to change and be true followers of Christ in this life and on into Heaven) then to succeed is not such a big ask. This applies to all of us because, the Holy Spirit will help us achieve this aim. Audrey’s father used to say that “the person who hasn’t made a mistake, hasn’t made anything,” and I believe that is true, so if we make a mistake we don’t give up, just “dust ourselves off”, and in prayer, ask the Holy Spirit to help us overcome those things that hinder our walk towards Holiness.

We will never achieve the Holiness of God, of course, and achieving it would not, on its own, earn us a place in heaven either. Believing in Jesus and accepting His saving grace, alone does that, but we are told to pursue holiness nevertheless, so we will learn to improve our behaviour. Pursuing anything is to follow it with undivided attention.

 With a rifle under my arm, I have often pursued a fox across a paddock where our

sheep were lambing. To do so takes a lot of concentration you can’t take your eye off him for one minute or you might lose sight of him in the grass. That way, by keeping your mind on the job, you get closer and closer. Similarly, we need determination, singleness of mind and dependence on God to achieve a walk towards Holiness. The secret is don’t mark time or give up or allow yourself to be distracted by lesser issues because the end result is too important.

May God bless us all as we endeavour to achieve this aim.   Kind regards, Tom.  

A New Creation

It was 1953, I was 20 years old and living on a property half way between Bourke and Cobar, on what is now known as the “Kidman Way”, which sounds nice, but it was just a rough dirt road in those days. 153 miles (about 300 kms) of dirt road separated me from a property at Nyngan, where the girl I hoped to marry lived. Her 20^th birthday was on the 30^th of August, about a month away, and I had a desire to give her something nice. Woodwork was my best subject at school so I thought I would make  her a wooden Jewellery box for her to keep her broaches and necklaces in. Obviously I needed some nice timber. There was none in the machinery shed so I wandered around the back of it where there was a pile of rubbish waiting to go to the tip and be burnt.  

 Among other rubbish I noticed an old wooden gauze door, it was  broken and must have been about 100 years old as the house it had belonged to had long been demolished. It was badly weathered and didn’t deserve a second glance except I noticed that where it was broken recently, (when thrown on the heap), the wood was a lovely red colour. Red Cedar, no less. Wow! what a find, so after work, for the next few days I was very busy removing its weather beaten surface and cutting it to size. I also had some sheets of wooden veneer that I had acquired some time before, so put a design on top as you see in the 2nd photo. However, I was disappointed as I wanted it to be very special; so I made another box and worked her initials into the veneer as you see in the third photo. AW (Audrey Wye) It is now 64 years since I made these, and the old gauze door frame, I made them out of, was about 100 years old at the time and the tree it was cut from was probably 200 years old. If that is so these boxes are 364 years old now. Another century won’t affect them much either because the timber is of a very high standard.

This transformation from something battered and scared into a thing of beauty reminds me of the poem about the “Old Violin” that was in a similar condition  to the old door, and the Auctioneer only wanted $1 for it until a master musician played a tune on it after which it brought $3,000.

When we look at an old door, an old violin or a person of any age, we should look past the outward appearance, as God does, and recognise just what they are made of. This door was Red Cedar, the Violin was probably an old Stradivarius, and irrespective of how a person looks they were “made in the image and likeness of God”. Therefore, I can fix the door, the Musician can fix the Violin and God can transform the person. You see, “many a person, with their life out of tune, and battered and scared through sin, is offered cheap to the thoughtless crowd, much like the old violin; a bowl of pottage, a glass of wine, a game and they travel on, they’re going, going, and almost gone, but the Saviour comes and the thoughtless crowd can never quite understand the worth of a soul and the change that is made by the touch of the Master’s hand.”

There are millions of accounts of how God has rebirthed people. Jesus describes it as “being born again” indeed He made no bones about it when He said “you must be born again or you shall not enter the Kingdom of Heaven”. Now that is plain enough for anyone, isn’t it? If that old screen door had not been rebirthed by me and I had just tied it in a bundle and given it to my sweetheart I somehow doubt if she would have said “thank you darling” and placed it on her dressing table. What do you think? Similarly, if we present ourselves before Jesus, when our bodies die, and are still carrying our bundle of sin, we won’t be welcomed into Heaven any more than a suicide bomber is welcomed in a public place.

The bible is adamant that “we have all sinned and fall short of the glory of God” and “the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord”. That gift of God mentioned there is the privilege of “being born again” which is the free gift we receive when we accept the forgiveness of sin that God offers us through the sacrifice Jesus made on our behalf at Calvary. It cost me considerable effort to transform that old door into something Audrey would happily accept. Likewise, it will cost you and me some effort if we repent and decide to follow God’s ways; we each have a free will you see, therefore He won’t “gate-crash” so we have to ask Him to intervene and forgive our sin, after which we have to endeavour to follow His directions as laid out in the New Testament. “If any man be in Christ he is a new Creature, old things have passed away, behold all things have become new.” (2 Corinthians 5:17). Regards, Tom.

Who Rocks Your Babies Cradle?

There is an old saying that “the hand that rocks the cradle is the hand that rules the world”. Which simply means that mothers have a profound influence on their children to the extent that a mother’s attitudes are usually adopted by the child and therefore become the attitudes of the next generation. No! on second thought that isn’t what it means, because it is not always the mother who spends most time with the baby is it? So it really means that whoever spends the most time with the child, in its formative years, is the one who will shape its character and attitudes. Governments know this only too well, that is why Communist countries, and other nations that have atheistic people in charge of their educational institutions, legislate that children must enrol in some form of schooling at a very early age. The aim of this is of course to stop their parents, and other family members, influencing them by introducing them to Christian ideals and Christian living, (as you see happening in these photos ). Because these “educators” want to indoctrinate them with secular thinking instead.

That little Great Granddaughter of mine, pictured has been attending church since she was born, as were the four great grandchildren on the next page and our son that you see on Audrey’s lap. As soon as these children could understand they all wanted to be involved in daily family prayer times. Our son pictured there with Audrey, proves the truth of the scripture that says “Bring up a child in the way he should

go and when he is old he will not depart from it” because he is a grandfather now and his family are all keen Christians, of course he married a Christian wife and they have co-operated with God to achieve that wonderful outcome. On the other hand, if he hadn’t been raised as a Christian, he wouldn’t have necessarily looked for a Christian wife, would he? Nor would a Christian girl have wanted him. (2 Corinthians chapter 6 verse 14).

In his 2^nd letter to his young friend Timothy, (as recorded in the New Testament) Paul reminds Timothy that the faith he has is largely due to the influence of his grandmother Lois and his mother Eunice. When we think about this some of us might have regrets that when our children were little we didn’t have a good understanding of God’s great love ourselves, so obviously didn’t bring up our children to understand God’s life changing love, and what a shame that was. Don’t get the impression that I am letting Fathers “off the hook” either, because they are also responsible for “rocking cradles”. Little boys, in particular, copy their fathers. No doubt you have heard people say “He is a chip off the old block”. Well let’s hope the “old block” was (or is) a good example!

Thank God that many people do know enough so they can pass on some faith to their children and grandchildren. Therefore, the “Good News” of Jesus saving grace that offers people forgiveness of sin, (and therefore eternal life, as outlined in the New Testament), is still being circulated by them in the community where they live, and will be passed on down to the next generation by their children and grandchildren as they also “Rock Cradles.”

To some degree each one of us affects the lives of those we meet (particularly children) and we will be held responsible by God for our example, because Jesus said that “if we place a stumbling block in the path of one of these little ones, it would have been better for us if we were never born.” You know, a young person who has been brought up to “love God and their neighbour as themselves,” could never strap a bomb to their waist and indiscriminately kill innocent people in a shopping Mall, or go to their school and shoot children and teachers. No! Children brought up in a Christian atmosphere could never do that because Jesus showed, in Luke 10 verses 25-37 (and other places), that we are to be kind to our neighbours and love our enemies.  When we next “Rock a Cradle” we should remember what a terrific responsibility we have been given. This is an interesting subject, isn’t it? Best wishes as you think it through.            Regards, Tom.

 

Bees and Other Things

It is the 11^th February 2018 and I have just been watching Land Line on the A.B.C. T.V. where they were talking about bees. Just prior to that I was at a church service where the preacher was pointing out just what a real person Jesus was. In my mind both these “Programs” are on the same “wavelength”: We have known for thousands of years just what remarkable creatures’ bees are and of course we have had the bible to explain what a unique person Jesus was with Isaiah introducing Him to us hundreds of years before He was even born on earth.

The A.B.C. pointed out that there is some wonderful scientific work being done with bees “in the field” and in the Lab. In Western Australia, at the moment. Indeed, they have found that honey collected by bees from the Jarrah forests contains remarkable healing properties to the extent that other countries are clamouring to purchase it at excellent prices; the health properties of some varieties of honey have been well known for many years, but this is a real “break -through”. It is nothing new to God or Jesus of course, as Jesus in His capacity as “the Word of God” was the one who created bees with all their ‘abilities’, and also the flowers with all their ‘virtues’. This simply highlights how very special Jesus is as John says in verse 14 “and the Word was made flesh and dwelt amongst us”. And in Colossians chapter 1 and verse 15 He is described as “the image of the invisible God, the first born over all Creation for by Him all things were created that are in Heaven and on Earth……in Him all things consist”.

You know, God gave us a “Garden of Eden” to live in with all the most wonderful

things for us to discover and enjoy and the most remarkable Commandments telling us to love each other and share. Oh! If we could only wake up and stop spending billions of dollars on bombs and equipment to kill one another and do things God’s -way, for a change, we would instantly have a form of Heaven on Earth.

You and I were made in a very special relationship with Jesus. Indeed, if we reclaim our birthright (through the forgiveness Jesus purchased for us at Calvary) we will once again become “Children of God, and if children, then heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ” as Romans 8 verse 17 says. Now I don’t know how that affects you, but to me it is amazing and incredible that God loves you and me so much that he would arrange such a reconciliation for us to come back to Him. Life is more than just eating and sleeping and God wants to help us achieve what He has in mind for us, just as honey is not just a sweet “spread” but when analysed contains wonders God placed within it.

None of this should really surprise us though, when we think of how Jesus spent his time on earth: He just wanted to help us. He performed miracles everywhere, healing the sick, raising the dead, and feeding thousands of people with a handful of food, restoring sight to the blind and so on, none of this was any problem to him because of His relationship with God and his great love for us.

Therefore, we should make sure that our relationship with Jesus is correctly established, and “cast all our cares on Him” because we have been assured that “all things work together for good to those that love God, the called according to His purpose”. However, this is not child’s play, it requires repentance (a change of thinking) sincerity and commitment. Just as none of those competitors in the Olympic Games got where they are without giving up their old way of life and concentrating on what they wanted to achieve. Then once those that coached them saw that they were sincere, they did all they could to help them achieve their aim.

Exactly the same assistance is promised to us too; God’s Holy Spirit wants to help us to be the people we are supposed to be and “have a more abundant life”, here and now, and for ever more. But like learning to skate, or Snow Board or whatever, it takes time and perseverance to perfect what we want to do, but we don’t give up just because we make mistakes.

Best wishes as you “get your balance right”, as Paul said (regarding Christian perfection): “not that I have already attained, but I press on”. Kind regards, Tom.

Be Consistent Not Hypocritical

Now personally, I don’t believe that the so called “Smog” caused by coal burning Power Stations controls “Global Warming”. My contention is that God placed the coal there for our use to produce cheap Electricity and therefore He would have “Factored-In” the effect of any Smog when planning our environment. I recognise that many people would disagree with me and they have every right to do that because what I have just said is hard to prove. Our Government disagrees with my thinking and has legislated to close down Coal fired Power Stations and progressively

replace them with Windmills and Solar panels. They have committed themselves to this even though it is going to mean that this electricity will be too dear for many of our industries and many people will find they cannot afford it. Now that shows just how very sincere the Government is, to see that “pollution” is reduced. Or does it? If they really are sincere how come that they are allowing other nations to come and mine our coal and take it home and use it in their Coal fired Power Stations?  If they think a thing is so bad for the environment that they won’t use it themselves then surely it is hypocritical to sell it to someone else to use. If the Government refused to sell it, I would at least give them “full Marks” for consistency.

It is so easy to be inconsistent isn’t it? I was looking at this beautiful flower that I

photographed near the Mall some time ago, isn’t it lovely? Look at it closely. Now the first page of the Bible tells us that God made plants, which would include this one, complete on the third day of the Creation Week, by speaking them into existence, and it tells us that He saw that “it was very good”. John’s Gospel explains that Jesus (as the “word of God”, long before He took on the body of a human at Bethlehem) was the one who actually spoke all these things into being; indeed, it says that “without Him there was nothing made that was made” (John Chapter 1 Verses 3-14). The Bible goes on to explain that God made the world, and everything on it in 6 days and rested on the seventh day “And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made. (Genesis chapter 2 verse 3). That of course, is the reason we have a 6 day working week and are supposed to rest and worship on the 7^th day. It is what God designed for us and it is very practical. I find it very easy to believe that God did make flowers, like the one above, together with everything else, including human beings, instantly and complete, in one week, (as the scripture says he did), because our bodies and all these other things are so complex that they had to be perfect from the beginning or they couldn’t have functioned. If you find this hard to understand, just believe it, because we don’t even understand how our Mobile Phone works, do we?

All of us who believe the above are entitled to also accept the 6 day working week and rest on the 7^th day too. However, those people who believe, that everything somehow evolved over millions of years with no designer, should not rest on the seventh day if they are to be consistent; indeed, there is no logic in them accepting a 7-day week at all. It is hypocritical to do so.

What a dreadful mess people get into when they start to try and live independent of God and the commandments like “loving their neighbours” (Matthew 19:19); this has been very noticeable to those of us who have lived through the last few decades and watched people leaving God out of their lives, as there has been a dramatic increase in family breakdown, immorality, stealing, molesting, Cyber-bullying, physical bullying, alcohol and hard drug abuse etc. Friends, if we don’t turn back and read the New Testament, and teach our babies and young children to pray and look to Jesus, our families will collapse and ultimately our civilisation will collapse too, as have so many great civilisations of the past. Because God says that ‘He will honour those that honour Him’ (1 Samuel 2:30), and the reverse is also the case.

This is absolutely urgent for two reasons: Firstly: God alone can save our society from falling apart and He will only intervene if we repent and humbly request that He does intervene. Secondly: we will go to meet our maker in the not too distant future (could be to-night), and whether or not you or I have accepted Jesus forgiving act will determine where we will spend Eternity (and forever is a very long time). Interestingly, “the ball is in our court” because Jesus has paid the price for our “Visa” to Heaven, but we have to repent and humbly accept it in prayer. Otherwise we forfeit it.   A bit more food for thought, regards, Tom.