Contentment

Contentment

My husband, Michael, and I raised our three, now adult daughters on an Australia sheep and cattle property. Here, for many years beautiful, white Charolais cattle were born, raised and sold for beef or breeding purposes. They are gently natured cattle, large and muscular. In Australia cattle are kept in large, fenced paddocks all year round and moved from paddock to paddock as they eat the grasses down. The one thing cattle tend to do is look over the fence. They are sure everything is better on the other side of the fence. We have a saying, *the grass is greener on the other side of the fence*. This is often how cattle view their world. We use different fencing for sheep than we do for cattle. Cattle need stronger fencing. I have seen cattle who have been placed in a paddock fenced for sheep, all working together, leaning against fencing in an attempt to push it down so they could make their way into the other paddock. The grass is always greener on the other side, or so it seems. 

One day a cow’s desire to stay close to the fence and  to spend her time looking over it created quite a dilemma for herself. At the time I noticed her she was in a high and dry, grassy paddock at the back of the property, ready for calving with other pregnant cows. We had had a lot of rain and we were flooded in at the front of the property and to get out to town, we had to take a long drive through the muddy roads at the back of the property and then through a  locked stock gate and finally through a neighbouring property. As we drove out we noticed the cow in labour. We stopped to see how things were going. Everything seemed in order except she was awkwardly standing close to the stock fence. We drove out of the paddock, rode the many miles into town, picked up necessary supplies and came back in the way we had left. We arrived back at the paddock with the Charolais cow who was still waiting by the stock fence. This time, however, she had a problem. Whilst in labour, she had backed up against the stock fence and at the exact moment of birth the calf had slipped right out and through the large open rectangles in the fencing and was now on the other side of the fence, separated from her mother. The mother cow was anxiously bellowing at her baby to come back over. The baby, still wet from the recent birth, was calling pitifully back to her mother. I managed to climb through the stock fencing to the other side with the calf. Now the mother cow started to panic. She did not want her calf touched at all. She started to run up and down the fence and bawl louder than before. I was busy trying to catch a wet, very slippery calf who was dutifully trying to run up and down the fence beside her mother. I grabbed the strong,squirming calf and held her firm whilst my daughter pulled at the bottom wire of the stock fence. Pressing the calf down I pushed her under the bottom wire of the fence where she was joyfully united with her mother.

Do I spend so much time “gazing over the other side of the fence” that I put my self into a place of discontentedness? Can I be like that cow hovering so close to the fence that it creates unnecessary problems for me. God calls me to be content. To be peaceful and happy. 

Heb 13:5 Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”

Phil 4:11 for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content

1 Tim 6:6 Now there is great gain in godliness with contentment

Cockroach Killer

Cockroach Killer

Where I live, in sunny Australia, we have large, icky, creepy cockroaches. I don’t like cockroaches at all. They scuttle merrily around having a very happy cockroach life but I spend my time mercilessly eliminating them. I purchase cockroach baits and place them strategically around the house to attract them to their death. I suck them up in the vacuum cleaner. I scream for my hubby, Michael, to come and  kill them for me. I squish them to a pulp with any shoe I can find. I will grab them inside several tissues and run frantically to the toilet and flush them to a watery grave. I spray them with cockroach killer. I hate cockroaches and I only want to see them dead. Even when I have been sound asleep I have responded to a cockroach. One hot, summer evening Michael and I were peacefully sleeping. Suddenly he felt something on his side of the bed and it woke him up and yes, sure enough, a cockroach was on the bed. No, Michael didn’t attack it. He let it run frantically past himself, under his legs and towards me. The thought actually crossed his mind as to how long it would be before I responded. I went from being fast asleep to leaping out of bed in about two seconds. Yes, I am a cockroach annihilator. Recently, however, I have discovered the ultimate in producing cockroach deaths. It’s Borax. It’s actually based on the mineral boron and it is a poison to cockroaches. I just don’t put borax, which is a fine,white powder, out into little, tin foil trays for them to eat. I actually make it very attractive. I mix it with white sugar. Now the poison is sweet and it appears delicious and attractive to cockroaches and it’s killing them off. 

Just like I am a persistent enemy to the cockroaches and I am always finding ways to take their life away from them we too have a persistent enemy who doesn’t want us to have eternal life.

John 10:10 The thief ( a symbol of satan) does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy

1 Peter 5:8 Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.

Just as my most successful method for stealing the life away from cockroaches is to mix something sweet and pleasant into the poison so our enemy often uses the pleasures of this world to lure us away from Jesus our source of life.

In Heb 11:25 we find Moses made a choice to be part of God’s people, who were at that time slaves “than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season.” Moses had been adopted by the Egyptian Pharaoh's daughter from an Israelite family. He had the wealth, the power, the position and the pleasures of the world within his grasp. He chose to turn away from the sinful pleasures that would steal the pleasures of God in his life and He did not become the next pharaoh. We could be lining up today at museums to visit not just an Exhibition of Tutenkhamen but we could have been viewing the mummified corpse of Moses or visiting his pyramid in Egypt. Instead Moses chose the pleasures of eternal things. The joy of the Lord. At the end of his life he was resurrected and taken to heaven.

Ps 16:11 You will make known to me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; In Your right hand there are pleasures forever.

What will be my choice today. Do I choose the pleasures of this world that will distract me from a relationship with Jesus? Or do I choose the pleasures of an abundant life of joy and peace in a relationship with Jesus now?

Jesus says..John 10:10 I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.

1 John 5:12 He that has the Son has life; and he that has not the Son of God has not life.

Flying High

Flying High

My American friend and I created a long list of all the things we wanted to do together when she was visiting me in Australia. One of the things on that list was to fly a kite. Not long after she flew into Australia, the weather was perfect for kite flying. Off to the sun swept beach we went with the colourful kite in our hands. At the beach we had plenty of strong wind currents, lots of wide open spaces, and no trees or power lines for the kite to get entangled on. We unpacked the kite and put it together excitedly. Finally, we were ready for take off. However, we both had lots of trouble getting the kite up in the blue skies. There was a lot of wind and we kept running all over the beach trying to get the kite to catch a current at the right moment. We discovered that day that there were three different air currents at work, at three different altitudes. The very first air current that we were hitting was actually making the kite head wildly up in the sky then do a complete U turn and dive speedily back down to the ground. It seemed almost impossible to get the kite up and past that first layer of air currents. Finally, we broke into the second air current. The kite now stopped making a U Turn and diving down. It did, however, keep wanting to move into the air currents to the right of itself and when it did that the kite lost stability and would start to head down again. We would have to keep running towards the sand dunes to get the kite to ascend into the sky again. It wasn’t  until it reached the third and much higher set of air currents that the kite really began to fly without difficulty. It seemed to move with ease among the currents and showed no sign of wanting to come down.

 

Sometimes I can be like that kite. When I am closer to the things of this world I can’t seem to get anywhere spiritually. I keep falling and my life keeps taking U Turns away from God. God is calling me to get closer to Him, to move away from the things of this earth that keep dragging me down. As I move away from the things of earth and move closer to him, I start to have a more successful Christian experience. I enjoy the things of God more but like the kite in the second set of air currents I can at times still experience instability spiritually, I can still get dragged down. God is wanting me to soar like the kite in the third set of air currents. To be so close to Him that the things of this earth don’t cause me to dive down. He wants me to experience a joyful and peaceful and successful Christian life.

Col 3:1, 2 Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth.

Paterson's Curse

Paterson's Curse

My husband, Michael and I  used to live on an Australian sheep and cattle property in the Southern Highlands in the state of N.SW. Here we raised our precious, now adult, daughters. Michael had grown up in New Zealand by the beach and I grown up by the Australian bush. My husband had studied a farm technology course so he knew a bit about farming. Michael was actually working in the area of landscaping and not farming and he was managing a twenty acre garden around the main homestead on the sheep and cattle property . We also lived on the property, which was two thousand and five hundred acres of dry,grassy paddocks. It ran Cross Bred and Merino sheep as well as Charolais and Angus cattle. As a working farm, there were many well fenced off paddocks and the cattle manager would work to move cattle or sheep around between the different paddocks.

One thing I noticed about the usually dry paddocks was the presence of a beautiful purple flower. It was delicate. I could drive around the property or even view neigbouring properties and see the presence of this lovely flower. Sometimes entire paddocks would be full of the flowers and they presented a gorgeous field of a sea of purple.

There was, however, one thing Michael knew about those purple flowers that I did not know.  They had a name. They were called Pateron’s Curse. How could something so lovely and so delicate be called a curse?

Pateron’s curse was introduced into Australia from the mediterranean region many years ago. It is actually a weed. It can produce 10,000 seeds during the spring and those seeds can lie dormant over the summer and then as soon as the rains come they germinate by their thousands. Paterson's Curse literally takes over a paddock and there is little grass left for the cattle and sheep. However, it is worse than that. Besides being a dominate weed, if eaten, they destroy the liver of  sheep, they reduce the animal's weight gain and can affect the wool clip and can lead to death. Farmer’s control it chemically but there are currently 6 different weevils and beetles that have been released into Australia to  control and kill off Paterson’s curse. 

So here is something so beautiful yet apparently so harmful.

In the Bible our hearts are compared to the earth and what our hearts produce is compared to either herbs or thorns/briers. In  other words the Bible says our hearts either produce fruit or weeds. 

Heb 6: 7,8 For the earth which drinks in the rain that often comes upon it, and bears herbs useful for those by whom it is cultivated, receives blessing from God;  but if it bears thorns and briers, it is rejected and near to being cursed, whose end is to be burned.

I am challenged by a thought. Is my heart and life producing  beautiful flowers like Paterson's Curse, an appearance of loveliness but really a curse to myself and to others? Is my heart and life producing fruit, a blessing to myself and to others?

 Gal 5:22,23 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.

Perceptions

Perceptions

My husband, Michael, is a landscape manager for the beautiful grounds of a retirement village, which includes a hostel and a nursing home. This past Christmas, like every other Christmas, the residents have showered my husband with Christmas cards and an assortment of gifts from chocolates to an Australian tradition of shortbread biscuits. This year, however, he received one gift that we had never received before. He received a gift voucher from a shop called Dan Murphey’s. I had never shopped in Dan Murphey’s before because this is what Aussie’s call a *grog shop*. They sell alcohol. Michael and I are both committed Christians and we don’t drink alcohol. Now here we were with what appeared to be a useless gift voucher. Several days later Michael came home with the good news that a work mate had told him that Dan Murphey’s has a small selection of non alcoholic wines. I googled the shop and discovered the information was indeed correct. So while my husband was at work, my friend and I went off to use the gift card. We parked the car at the shopping complex and started to look for where Dan Murphey’s was located. We finally found the shop and together we went in. We stood there totally lost. There before us was aisle after aisle of every assortment of alcoholic beverage available. We were able to ask for assistance and we were shown a very small section at the very back of the shop where they had  a few  non alcoholic wines. These would be perfect on our Christmas table, I thought, and with much anticipation my friend and I chose 6 bottles of assorted reds and whites, and placing them in a shopping trolly, we proceeded to the check out. The lady at the check out was so very kind and helpful and packed them immediately into a box for us to transport them easily to the car. She had grabbed just any box beside her and there she placed our bottles of non alcoholic wine for safe keeping. My friend and I exited the *grog shop* pushing a trolley with the word “Dan Murphey’s on it, with six bottles of non alcoholic wine now encased in a box that clearly read Chardonnay Wine and the Vineyard it came from. We stood there in an apparent dilemma. We laughed and worried all at once. From all outside appearances we had just purchased a carton of alcohol. We had to push the trolley right through the main shopping centre, down escalators to the car park far away. Everyone we passed would assume we had alcoholic wine. This was probably not the time to bump into anyone we knew or sort of knew. Nor was it a time to be spotted at a distance by anyone we knew or sort of knew. With a laugh and a hope of anonymity we made it safely to the car.

The whole escapade reminded me of this verse 1 Sam 16:7 For the Lord does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” How easy it is to misjudge a situation and to receive the wrong perceptions just by what we see or even hear about a person. This took my mind one step further to another question. What do I think about God? Do I misjudge Him? Have I looked on the outward appearance of a situation and thought I understood God from it but found I was wrong? The Bible says in 1 John 4:8 “God is love”. Do I only ever see goodness and love or do I misjudge Him? 

Ps 100:5 “ For the LORD is good; His lovingkindness is everlasting.”

Ex 34:6 "The LORD, the LORD God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth.”

Where Am I?

Where Am I?

It is a beautiful, warm summer here in Australia and my friend and I were enjoying the lovely beach together. We had driven to a bay of sparkling waters of varied hues of blue, that lapped gently onto white, clean sands. Scattered across the beach were clusters of content people all enjoying the refreshing waters. We placed our beach bags and towels in an easily accessible place on the sand, and with our body boards in hand, we strolled into the cooling waters. We were busy chatting and laughing in the spirit of friendship as we lay on our boards floating under the warm, summer sun as a gentle breeze played lightly on the waters. We were captivated by the little grey fish swimming safely in schools beneath us. Stinger-free jellyfish intrigued us as they maneuvered gracefully through the calm waters beside us. Suddenly we looked up at the sandy shoreline and unknown to us, we had drifted slowly down the beach, still close to shore, but away from our belongings. We had been so happily absorbed in the treasured moments of friendship and the delights of the sea creatures that we had failed to recognise that we were slowly being carried away with the gentle current beneath us. It took some effort on our behalf to swim against the flow but we soon made it back to our starting point.

The new year is upon is. It is often a time to reflect on the varied goals we have or have not accomplished in the past year. It’s a time to ponder and maybe implement new objectives, new plans and new ideas for the family. It’s a time of the wonderment of a new year spread out before us.  At this time I pause to thoughtfully consider the question, am I where I want to be spiritually? Have I been so busy, preoccupied and caught up in life that I have drifted unknowingly from that quiet place close to Jesus’s heart? Do I need to retrace my steps and get back to where God wants me to be?

May this new year find us all  in close fellowship with Him and as the year progresses may we not stray but keep our eyes firmly fixed on Him.

1 Peter 3:15 “But set Christ apart as Lord in your hearts..” NET

Love Your Enemies

Love Your Enemies

1 Sam 26:11 "The LORD forbid that I should stretch out my hand against the LORD'S anointed.."

King Saul hated David. Saul was busy hunting David down and wanted to destroy him. What was David’s great sin that Saul should hate him so much? Saul simply cherished a spirit of jealousy and once envy was cherished it became hatred which led to Saul desiring to murder David.

"Envy is the offspring of pride, and if it is entertained in the heart, it will lead to hatred and eventually to revenge and murder." EGW

Jesus was hated.

John 15:25 “...they hated me without a cause.” '

I am hated. How much self wants to retaliate, to shout the real truth from the mountain tops, to respond in anger, bitterness, to hate back, to desire their downfall. God calls to my heart to surrender all to Him. To surrender all my hurt, all my anger and all my desire to hurt back, all my desire to restore my ruined reputation. 

God calls me to not touch the one He has anointed for ministry. How do I surrender to God’s calling? How does God want me to feel, to act, to respond?

I pray the prayer of David and my heart calls out to God

Psalms 35 :19- 26 “Let them not rejoice over me who are wrongfully my enemies; Nor let them wink with the eye who hate me without a cause. For they do not speak peace,But they devise deceitful matters Against the quiet ones in the land. They also opened their mouth wide against me,And said, “Aha, aha! Our eyes have seen it.” This You have seen, O Lord; Do not keep silence. O Lord, do not be far from me. Stir up Yourself, and awake to my vindication, To my cause, my God and my Lord. Vindicate me, O Lord my God, according to Your righteousness; And let them not rejoice over me. Let them not say in their hearts, “Ah, so we would have it!” Let them not say, “We have swallowed him up.”
Let them be ashamed and brought to mutual confusion Who rejoice at my hurt; Let them be clothed with shame and dishonor Who exalt themselves against me.”

I cry out for God to vindicate me. I cry out for God to speak to my enemy’s heart that they may see their wrong and be ashamed and be led to repentance.

Time. Waiting. Day after day goes by. How long oh Lord?

How do you want me to live in the midst of this hatred? What do I do?

Prov 25:21, 22" If your enemy is hungry, give him bread to eat; And if he is thirsty, give him water to drink; For so you will heap coals of fire on his head, And the Lord will reward you

Rom 12:19-21 Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath; for it is written, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord. Therefore “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; If he is thirsty, give him a drink; For in so doing you will heap coals of fire on his head.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

Ex 23:4,5 “If you meet your enemy’s ox or his donkey going astray, you shall surely bring it back to him again. If you see the donkey of one who hates you lying under its burden, and you would refrain from helping it, you shall surely help him with it.”

God calls me to treat this person who hates me with kindness and thoughtfulness. To think of their needs. God asks me to do only good to one who does evil to me.

What attitude does God want me to hold? What are my thought processes to be?

Matt 5:11 "Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake."

1 peter 2:23 " Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously"

1 Peter 3:9" Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless, for to this you were called, that you may obtain a blessing."

Rom 12:17-21" Repay no one evil for evil. Have regard for good things in the sight of all men. If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men. 

Lev 19:18 You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the sons of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself; I am the LORD.

God wants my heart to surrender all rights and desires to pay back, the desire for vengeance, the desire to respond with evil for evil. He asks me to search my motives and my words and my thoughts. What is truly deep in my heart? He asks me to not hold onto any grudge...no bitterness and no unforgiveness in my soul. He calls me to live peaceably and to feel blessed. He asks me to commit the whole situation to Him. Most of all God calls me to love the one who hates me. To love with other centred love.

Matt 5:43- 48 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the tax collectors do so? Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.

God give me a heart that loves my enemy, give me a heart that prays for her, give me a heart that is perfect towards her as yours is perfect towards me who was once your enemy
Col 1:21 And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled.

Lord for how you have loved and treated me is how you want me to love and treat my enemy. 

Ps 109:1-5 Do not keep silent, O God of my praise! For the mouth of the wicked and the mouth of the deceitful Have opened against me; They have spoken against me with a lying tongue. They have also surrounded me with words of hatred, And fought against me without a cause. In return for my love they are my accusers, But I give myself to prayer. Thus they have rewarded me evil for good, And hatred for my love.

Oh Lord I give myself to prayer. I want your other centred love in my heart.