A Brighter Day

(See the 21st Chapter  of Revelation)

As we are now well into the twenty-first century, we can but look back and marvel at the technological changes that marked the twentieth century. The century saw the invention and development of many of the processes and products that have revolutionised man’s existence. I have been blessed to personally witness many of these changes.

We have gone from the horse and buggy to jet liners and space travel. Man has travelled to the moon more quickly than he previously travelled across a continent. The computer has replaced the slide rule. The internet and information highway have turned the whole world into a global village. Television has transformed civilisation, and not necessarily for the better.

With all these "improvements," it would seem that we should be able to say that man stands on the doorstep of a bigger, better and brighter future. Surely we have reason to be optimistic. Could we be entering a new millennium of hope and peace?

But if we look around us and make a reality check, we must ask ourselves, what does man have to look forward to in the future? Environmentalists, demographers, sociologists, economists, geo-politicians and military analysts, all speak of the possibility of a future filled with environmental disasters, population pressures, social and economic breakdown and regional wars and strife and terrorism on an unimaginable and unprecedented scale.

Who can deny that every indicator one might use to measure man’s real prospects of achieving true peace, happiness and success in the future seems to give a negative reading?   All this might make one think of the statement of an English realist who said, "In the long run, we will all be dead." Or the statement of the French scientist, Pierre Berchelt, who said in 1860, "Within a hundred years man will know what the atom is. It is my belief that when science reaches this stage God will come down to earth with His big ring of keys and will say to humanity, "Gentlemen, it’s closing time:" Or the response of the lad who was asked what he hoped to be in twenty years. He simply replied, "Alive.!"

It’s Our

Happy Hope

That Makes All

The Difference

I am sure that in the midst of all this it is fair to say that hope springs eternal in the human heart. So let us speak of hope. A real and happy hope. A hope that makes the difference. Of course, man’s only hope lies in a future created and shaped by God. This hope will find its ultimate fulfilment in that city whose builder and maker is God. A prepared place for a prepared people. A place populated by those who have escaped the surly and sinful bonds of this earth and soared to a city where sin no longer abounds nor harms or hurts have their sway.

Where death and disaster no longer damage and destroy the dreams and delights of even the most hopeful. Where the tears of terrible trials and traumas will be turned to tears of tremendous joy and triumph. Where the darkness of wickedness and evil will be forever vanquished; because such can no longer exist in the city that is Lighted by the eternal Son. This hope of a brighter tomorrow brings light in the shadows and darkness of today’s world.

A Mothers Day Tribute To My Wife And Others Like Her

There is one person in your church who knows your preacher’s life.

She’s wept and smiled and prayed for him, and that is your preacher’s wife.

She knows your prophet’s weakest point and knows his greatest power.

She’s heard him speak in trumpet tone, in his greatest triumph hour.

She’s heard him groaning in his soul when bitter raged the strife.

As hand in hand she knelt with him— for she’s your preacher’s wife.

The crowd has seen him in his strength when glistening his drawn sword.

As underneath God’s banner folds he faced the devil’s horde.

But she knows deep within her heart that scarce an hour before.

She helped him pray for strength from God behind a closed door

You tell your tales of prophets brave, who walked across the world,

And changed the course of history by burning words they hurled,

And I will tell how back of them some women lived their lives,

Who wept with them and smiled with them—they were the preacher’s wives.

- Author Unknown

God Bless Australia

The Psalmist said, “Blessed [is] the nation whose God [is] the LORD... " 

Do these words of the Psalmist still hold true for nations such as Australia in our day? As we celebrate Anzac Day, it would be good to stop for a moment and take stock of the blessings of freedom and to remember the sacrifices of those who purchased these with their blood. We who have attended the dawn services and marched in the parades with our fellow returned service men, have watched the faltering steps of those honoured men who have served the country in many conflicts. We have seen the tears fall freely upon the cheeks of stooped and greying men, as they have wept openly for their fallen comrades in arms. We have heard again and again the poignant words, “Lest we forget,” issue as heart-rending prayers from the lips of those who hold the memory of the fallen so dear. We have stood trembling in the half-light and heard the mournful notes of the last post; played in remembrance of those who lie in graves on such faraway fields as Gallipoli and the Owen Stanley ranges. Such observances should move us to once again thank God for those who have gone before us. As we count the blessings of freedom they have bequeathed us, we should surely say and pray, “God Bless Australia.”

God has richly blessed Australia. There are no concentration camps in Australia. People are not executed for seeking to flee our land.There are no dreaded knocks in the middle of the night. There are no mass graves filled with the bodies or those who have been killed by despotic dictators and godless regimes. Every person in our nation has a free voice and a free vote.

In governmental matters, the voice of the people can reflect the way and will of God. We have freedom of religion and speech. I can still say just about anything I wish from the pulpit. There is yet no law that can muzzle me. I can tell you the truth about anything from our Premier to the Prime Minister.

Mark Twain once said, “…a Christian’s first duty is to God. It then follows, as a matter of course, that it is his duty to carry his Christian code of morals to the polls and vote them. … If the Christians .... could be persuaded to vote God and a clean ticket, it would bring about a moral revolution that would be incalculably beneficent. It would save the country — a country whose Christians have betrayed it and are destroying it...Christianity...is on trial now. And nothing important is on trial except Christianity.” He said this a century and one-half ago. How much greater are the weight of his words today!

Henry Blackaby wrote in Fresh Encounter: “Christians should not be surprised by the spiritual darkness around us. That is all it can be. Darkness is dark. The greater problem is not with the darkness. The problem is with the light. When light shines, it dispels darkness. We face a growing spiritual  darkness in our land because the light is not shining brightly.”

On this Anzac Day, let us praise God for His past blessings upon our nation and pray He will continue to bless us. But at the same time let us remember that if we are to expect His continuing blessings upon our nation, we must recognise our need for Him in our national life today. We must be willing to meet His conditions for such continuing national blessings. Conditions that are made crystal clear in His word: “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.” (II Chronicles 7:14)