Australian Thoughts at the Weekend. 9th & 10th January, 2010.

Australian Thoughts at the Weekend. 9th & 10th January, 2010.

Let Loose!

As you drive further and further from the coast in Australia into the outback, you often will come to a fence with solid posts each side of the road. A grid made of about 15 parallel rail lines about a human foot width apart is between the posts across the road. These rails at road level and at right angles to the traffic flow cause the vehicle to shudder and form a barrier which cattle will not cross. Under the rails is a small pit probably about a foot (30cm) deep. Nailed to a post nearby is an official road sign which says something like “Grid” or “Cattle Grid”. On another post, or sometimes on the same one another sign will say “Caution Cattle - Unfenced Road”. Sometimes it will indicate for a distance of 50, 100 or 200 kilometres.

Experienced drivers know they are entering the big paddock where cattle are turned loose and fend for themselves finding water and food. The further from the coast one travels the bigger the paddocks are where cattle roam free. Sometimes the barriers on one side of the paddock may be a river or even a line of hills or mountains. Cattle that are turned loose like this are mustered once a year when men on horse, motorbike or in a helicopter will push the cattle into mobs and then the mob into holding yards.

Mustering time is a time of frantic work as cattle are drafted from the big mob into smaller mobs. One mob will be the clean skins to be hot iron branded with the stamp of ownership. Others will be drafted to go to market. Others will face a sharp knife before facing the next year or so as steers fattening for market. Then those to be returned to the big paddock will be set loose to go where they want to seek shade, water and food. For a year they will go where they wish within the bounds of the far apart fences.

I thought of all this when a friend told me how her life had changed when she let God loose in her life some years ago. She quickly added that talking about God let loose seemed disrespectful. I assured her I never saw it that way.

Since then I have thought about it as very appropriate to describe a relationship with God, where God is not restrained. The cattle let loose are not restrained .Within the bounds of distant fences, they are free to do as they wish, go where they will. In a sense, they make their own arrangements.

I believe it is like that when we commit our life to God. God takes control and He is let loose. He can enter every area of our life. In fact, God must control every area of our life if we are to be completely committed to Him. Mustering time is a time of assessing the cattle in the paddock.

Clearly, we can not muster God. However, we can allow His Holy Spirit help us assess our lives and show how and where God is working and still needs to work.. New Year is a good “mustering” time in our lives. It is the time when we can look at what God is doing in our life and allow Him to continue to make us more what He wants us to be.

In Australia, Christmas and New Year coincides with summer holidays. Children commence or return to school at the end of January. Final arrangements are being made for commencement of College and University courses. Those who have graduated may be starting in new work situations.

In Salvation Army Corps and churches, it is also a time of new beginnings. Sunday School and many other activities and groups will commence their year when school returns. The Band and Songsters will resume their rehearsals in preparation for a time of ministry.

This is certainly not a time for us to let ourselves loose in a whirlwind of activities. Instead it is a time to seek God’s guidance and direction about our involvement in various activities. There may be activities which when we pray about them, we hear the voice of God saying “not for you at this time”. There may be activities which we have never really considered but the voice of God says “Yes, that’s for you!”

Just like the station (ranch owner or manager has a plan for each beast in the muster, so God has a plan for us. He has given us the privilege to talk to him, our Heavenly Father and to listen to him about his plans that involve us.

Hebrews 12 - Selected Verses (The Message)
1-3Do you see what this means—all these pioneers who blazed the way, all these veterans cheering us on? It means we'd better get on with it. Strip down, start running—and never quit! No extra spiritual fat, no parasitic sins. Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we're in. Study how he did it. Because he never lost sight of where he was headed—that exhilarating finish in and with God—he could put up with anything along the way: Cross, shame, whatever. And now he's there, in the place of honor, right alongside God. When you find yourselves flagging in your faith, go over that story again, item by item, that long litany of hostility he plowed through. That will shoot adrenaline into your souls!
…
My dear child, don't shrug off God's discipline,
but don't be crushed by it either.
It's the child he loves that he disciplines;
the child he embraces, he also corrects.
God is educating you; that's why you must never drop out. He's treating you as dear children. This trouble you're in isn't punishment; it's training, the normal experience of children. Only irresponsible parents leave children to fend for themselves. Would you prefer an irresponsible God? We respect our own parents for training and not spoiling us, so why not embrace God's training so we can truly live? While we were children, our parents did what seemed best to them. But God is doing what is best for us, training us to live God's holy best. At the time, discipline isn't much fun. It always feels like it's going against the grain. Later, of course, it pays off handsomely, for it's the well-trained who find themselves mature in their relationship with God.
12-13So don't sit around on your hands! No more dragging your feet! Clear the path for long-distance runners so no one will trip and fall, so no one will step in a hole and sprain an ankle. Help each other out. And run for it!
14-17Work at getting along with each other and with God. Otherwise you'll never get so much as a glimpse of God. Make sure no one gets left out of God's generosity. Keep a sharp eye out for weeds of bitter discontent. A thistle or two gone to seed can ruin a whole garden in no time. Watch out for the Esau syndrome: trading away God's lifelong gift in order to satisfy a short-term appetite. You well know how Esau later regretted that impulsive act and wanted God's blessing—but by then it was too late, tears or no tears.
….
28-29Do you see what we've got? An unshakable kingdom! And do you see how thankful we must be? Not only thankful, but brimming with worship, deeply reverent before God. For God is not an indifferent bystander. He's actively cleaning house, torching all that needs to burn, and he won't quit until it's all cleansed. God himself is Fire!

[Listen: (Chalvey cannot be located other than with different words - http://www.regalzonophone.com/EP's%20&%20LP's%20-%20SPS049%20-%20On%20Reflection%20(1986).htm Open page and scroll down to “I have no claim on grace” on simulated player).
Alternate tunes:
Diademata: http://www.salvoaudio.com/audio/music/mus_973.mp3
or
Peace: http://www.salvoaudio.com/audio/music/mus_1596.mp3 ]

Make me a captive, Lord,
And then I shall be free;
Force me to render up my sword,
And I shall conqueror be.
I sink in life's alarms
When by myself I stand;
Imprison me within thine arms
And strong shall be my hand.

My heart is weak and poor
Until it master find;
It has no spring of action sure,
It varies with the wind.
It cannot freely move
Till thou hast wrought its chain;
Enslave it with thy matchless love
And deathless it shall reign.

My will is not my own
Till thou hast made it thine;
If it would reach a monarch's throne
It must its crown resign;
It only stands unbent
Amid the clashing strife,
When on thy bosom it has leant
And found in thee its life.
Author: George Matheson (1842-1906)
The Salvation Army Song Book: Song Number: 508

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