Veggies

P 2956 A little tiny glimpse into history.

/ DVH

Today I want to briefly talk about what life was like for me as a child. Mainly because there have been huge changes to the world since I was born. As a small child, in an inner city suburb, bread came in a van, and the iceman came in his horse-drawn waggon. NO! Not the one in that awful movie —the actual iceman who brought very real ice for our very real icebox! Milk, by the way, also arrived on our doorstep, every morning, from a little car that chugged up and down the street. 

At my house there were things that were expected from me. I could cook by the time I was 7 or 8, it was my job to get the dinner veggies on. They were always peeled and boiled veggies – even the memory of those still makes me shudder! Plus I had to set and clear the table, make my bed and tidy my own room – I was a total DUD at that last one. For fun I was allowed to listen to the radio, but only if my behaviour was acceptable! My very favourite things were reading, drawing, or knitting. I knitted my mother a whole jumper around the age of 12 or 13. TV eventually arrived on the scene, but we couldn’t afford one.

I walked about a kilometre to school and back home again, by myself, every day from Grade 2. It was obviously much safer for children back then! Kids were very strongly governed, they were to be seen and not heard!  Adults were respected or you got a clip ‘round the ear-hole or the strap. When I listen to kids today having an opinion on everything under the sun, interrupting adults when they are speaking, I feel like Alice walking through the Looking Glass. I can’t help it – it’s culture shock! 

Back in the ark, everybody in my blended family worked, so it was tough luck for me … I had to get myself to school, make my own lunch, and come home to an empty house, the door key was hidden carefully outside the house. I was alone every week day for at least two hours – I had no help with homework that was my responsibility. Note to our dear friends in Canada … I had Vegemite sandwiches for lunch every day, whether I liked it or not – I did not … but Vegemite on a bit of buttered toast is pretty good! There was no cling wrap or foil so it was pretty festy by lunchtime!

I had no morning tea or play-lunch, instead we had a free small bottle of milk. And there wasn’t the incredible variety of food, fruit, vegetable choices that we have today — only people from other countries ate that stuff! The average Aussie worked hard, and drank him or herself under the table for leisure – their kids watched and pinched beer when the adults weren’t looking. I wasn’t one of them by the way.

You were’t anybody if you didn’t barrack for a footie team and follow the cricket. The news came in a newspaper. The only fast food was fish and chips and they were wrapped up in … yesterday’s newspaper. We weren’t very multi-cultural back then. Our home phone was black and it sat on a little shelf in the hallway. I still remember the number. 😆 The changes over those 70 years are totally huge … 

Now I have a phone that I carry on me, and I can use it wherever I am, even in a lift or the loo … ‘nice polite’ girls would never do that in the past. I can find out what is happening all over the world at the press of a button. I can also tell my house what to do! Today, I don’t even have to vacuum. In the ark, we had a carpet sweeper, until electrolux cleaners came on the market. Rich people had those.

Now we have a little bot that trundles out of its hidey-hole and does all the vacuuming. Plus all our washing, and dishes, go into machines. The refrigerator talks to its owner and tells them what they will run out of in the near future. My bible is on my phone! If I want to take a walk I have a walking machine. If I want to go rowing, I have a rowing machine … I don’t, by the way, have a rowing machine, or one of those groovy bots and my refrigerator is quite silent, I must have I offended it!

Back then, Almighty God was SomeOne Who would not be bothered with the likes of me. I was expected to be a good girl and do what I was told or the wrath of somebody or other, would fall on my head — and probably on my backside as well! God was a silent ever-present threat Who was always watching me, waiting for me to make a mistake, then someone else would punish me on His behalf. I was terrified of Him.

He was good and holy and I knew I was not. I’d heard about Jesus but it seemed He didn’t like little girls much either. My religious life was filled with bells and smells and fear of hell and very little love. If God loved me He sure had a funny way of showing it. Being whacked with something hard and nasty was punctuated with: “This is for your own good.” 

Despite today’s theories about giving our kids a wonderful childhood — most people have a wonky past! Many of them have been treated badly one way or another, and, sadly, they have no idea of Who God is and how much He loves each one of us. That’s why we’ve been called to be witnesses. Today we can go wherever we want to go, to tell others what we have seen, heard and learnt, personally. To let them know that human love may let you down … but God will not.

There is no perfection in this life, because they are no perfect people! Can we please … as the Body of Christ … get over ourselves and get on with fulfilling our very real mission? Nobody needs to go to hell unless they choose to – that’s the message. Bye. 👋

P 2797 Faith comes by hearing …

/ DVH

… and more hearing comes when you act on what you heard! However, without my obedience I will be like a computer on standby. Nothing happening here! Obviously I don’t need His guidance to – feed my face, sleep, or go to the toilet. Jesus clarified practical things like those – read His book. 

BTW there is no advertising in His book, it is all about instructions. Even the things that put the instructions into context, are still instructions! You and I can end up wasting the life He has given us, if all we do is follow Brother-or-Sister-I-know-everything-because-I’ve-been-up-the-mountain-of-God’s-doctrine! That’s a lazy way to follow Jesus. Let’s remember that Peter had stuff to learn that John didn’t … simply because they were different people. We are not perfected yet, but that doesn’t mean we give up!

Regard what other people feed you spiritually, as supplementary feeding. It can add helpful vitamins and minerals, but the meat, rice and veggies should be dug up or pulled off the tree by us! Harvest your own crop. The way to prevent what you hear every day from going mouldy or getting worms in it, is to ACT on what you read. Obedience counts. Faith comes by hearing, and this kind of hearing is not passive – it is not about comprehending the words — it is active – it puts those words into action.

Instead of telling yourself “I’m not mad at anybody.” Ask the Lord, “WHO am I mad at?” Take a pencil, the answer will astonish you! We have been pardoned from our sin, but we are not bullet proof from other people’s jabs. So if my faith is stuck in a slump, then I remind the Lord that His strength is made perfect in my weakness and I find something to OBEY.  Then I watch out for what happens as I use my faith to move on. That’s how faith gets stretched. I believe that He hears ME, because the book says He does.

The Lord doesn’t say all this fantastic stuff in the bible just because He can turn a lovely phrase – He stands behind His Word. That’s why Jesus is called the Living Word — He’s the Word … per-son-ified. We cannot afford to excuse ourselves from our learning curves. If you can’t do what the Word says, then ask the Holy Spirit to help you AND TAKE A STEP. Our God loves people who mean what they say — He means what He says and He acts on it!

When my faith starts getting wobbly, first of all I check out my heart, to see if I am no longer using my faith to live. Faith is meant to be active. It works, it reaches toward Him, all the time. It is not an emergency activity!  It’s a form of spiritual exercise. I have had many people tell me that God gave me a brain and I am supposed to use it — yes He did. But our brains are not meant to supersede His Word. Read the book. Faith, by its very essence means I won’t always understand with my mind – my mind needs the spanner of God’s Word to adjust my thinking. Many people will give us the pip, but faith-filled confession opens the door to humility and clarity.

When He tells me to repent, then I do it – asap. I simply can’t kid myself that I can still walk in faith and be disobedient, that’s rationalising His instructions away. Many times I have obeyed, and reluctantly gone to see my brother when I had a bone to pick with him – and when I got there I had the courage to ask for his forgiveness. I got the courage on the way! Our faith grows as we obey Him. If He says “give” or “give more”— then I had better do that. I can always ask Him to help me and show me how to obey Him.

I don’t know where everything is in the bible, but I do have a secret weapon… I know the One Who wrote the book! A phrase, or one word floats up into my thinking and then I use my faith to go and look it up. I pursue Him. At the same time owning my sin is not a scary thing, because SomeBody already paid that debt for me… so I don’t need to be ashamed. I just need to be honest with myself and others. Now I let Jesus defend me. He’s good at it.

If we truly want to move mountains then it would be good if we started by moving the mountain of unbelief in our hearts and attitudes, daily! Sounding nice and sweet in church is not the same thing as transformation. To do the first thing, I must be on my guard – when I do the second, my responses will have already changed.  We are designed to be walking, talking illustrations of God’s love in action. God’s love is REAL, it is not just a theory. He doesn’t hold a grudge!! At the same time I simply can’t afford to use my mind or feelings as the umpire. Instead I need His Peace! 

Faith comes by hearing – hearing comes by listening carefully – and listening carefully directly leads into obedience – which leads to mind renewal! Pretty soon you will start to know God’s opinions about a whole lot more things than you did when you started. Bye. 👋