Forgotten Heroes - Patrick Bugden. V.C.

Private Patrick John Bugden, 31st Battalion, Victoria Cross action at Polygon Wood, near Ypres. It was a posthumous award.

Twenty-year-old Pat Bugden, a hotelkeeper from the north coast of New South Wales before enlistment in the 31st Battalion, was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross for his outstanding bravery over three days during one of the Australians' successful step-by-step advances over 26-28 September 1917.

On two occasions, when held up by intense fire from machine-guns, he led small parties to silence the enemy posts. Five times he rescued wounded men trapped by intense shelling and machine-gun fire. Once, seeing that an Australian corporal had been taken prisoner, he single-handedly rushed to his comrade's aid, shooting and bayoneting the enemy. He kept fighting until he was killed.

From A Park Bench - Rich Young Ruler

The rich young ruler came to Christ looking for reassurance, he desired those words of affirmation, his question, “Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life?” was a open invitation to Jesus for him to confirm that all his good works and self-righteous law keeping would be enough for him to gain eternal life.

The ruler had fallen for the deception that there was some good he could do that could purchase him eternal life. The law was never given for the purpose of producing salvation, but rather the laws intent was to show mankind their exceeding sinfulness, so we would despair to trying to save ourselves and would trust in a savior.

Here is performance based salvation or in other words religion. The scenario that we often hear prayed at any prayer meeting in the land, “Lord, if I do my part, I will believe you will do your part.” NO, God’s blessings and grace to me is not based on my actions or performance, it is based on the finished work of Christ at the cross. All Christ won for me at the cross is a free gift to me and is independent of me ‘doing my part.”

I believe his grace and receive it by faith, which is my positive response to all he has provided. Faith is not a force, a work, an effort but a heart felt thank you. Just remember Christmas day as a child when you opened the best present you had ever been given and with joy and a bursting heart you said thank you to the best parents in the world. That is faith.

The rich young ruler wanted words of reassurance but he needed a savior. He wanted to achieve everything by effort but he needed to give everything up. Self effort and works lead to death, but believing and trusting in Christ leads to eternal life.

He turned to face me

He offered hope.

The loss of image

The strength that I might know.

Need to be clean

Whole.

Need to know

Reassurance.

Grace Notes - Mark 11 v 25

Mark 11:25 "And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any: that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses”.

All of my sin, every past, present and future sin was forgiven at the cross. The amazing fact is that before I was born, before I was conceived in my mother’s womb all my sin was forgiven. It is not sin that separates me from God but it is my unbelief in all that Christ accomplished for me on the cross. My eternal redemption was won for me, I just have to accept and receive it.

Likewise as a Christian, my good works do not earn any blessings from God and if I sin that sin does not separate me from God.

Sin does however cause a barrier in my heart, as it makes me more conscious of my ‘old man’ and causes my heart to harden to the grace of God.

Forgiving others and asking for forgiveness of others keeps our hearts free from the pollution of the world and the accusations of the Devil. We don’t ask for forgiveness to be right with God, we ask to be right with our fellow man and show the same reconciliation that God shows to us.

As Andrew Wommack explains keeping our hearts free from the pollution of sin helps us hear the quiet whisper of God’s voice and the awareness of the Spirit in our lives:-

There are qualifications for believing and receiving as well as restrictions for receiving answers to prayer. Unforgiveness in our hearts will keep our prayers from being answered.

We should forgive others as quickly as it takes to make the decision to pray. The Greek word for "when" means "whenever, as soon as, or while." When we stand praying, we must forgive if we have ought ("anything at all, the least little part; whatsoever") against anyone.

When we are offended or hurt, we often feel justified in holding a grudge.

The Old Testament law expressed this when it stated, "Eye for eye, tooth for tooth" (Ex. 21:23-25). Until the offense was paid, we did not feel free to forgive. However, God dealt with all men's offenses by placing sin upon the perfect Savior who was judged in place of every sinner of all time. To demand that others must earn our forgiveness is not Christlike. Jesus died for every man's sins, extending forgiveness to us while we were yet sinners, and we should do the same.

It is doubtful that a person who refuses to forgive has ever experienced forgiveness himself. This is comparable to the servant that Jesus talked about in Matthew 18:23-35. He was forgiven a debt of over $3,000,000,000 and yet he refused to forgive his fellow servant who owed him $3,000. The forgiveness that we have received from the Lord is infinitely greater than any forgiveness we will ever be asked to extend to others. Freely forgive as you have been forgiven.

Showered with Grace

Deliberately, then, He took my place

You alone and cold, void of grace

Once separated from His love.

Constraint in time and dwelt with us

Inhaled our pain and tasted our dust

In an undeserved act of mercy.

I am on a journey into awakening

Into endless favour, eternal blessings

The overflow of the Father’s goodness.

Showered with grace, alive and free

The fullness of Christ placed in me

Now seated with Him in heavenly places.

God is not Limited from Andrew Wommack

Bygone Times - The 'ish Clock

Now this was a 1980’s little oddity.

The  ‘ish clock.

It was fun and usually the clock could be found in the kitchen.

Whilst the more accurate of us liked the traditional clock, this was a ‘funky’ accessory and was an instant conversational ice-breaker.

Of course it was no good to cook by, but who cared, it was fun and enjoyable.

There are still a few examples I came across, so if you want to relive the 1980’s in your kitchen, get a ‘ish clock.

Forgotten Heroes - William Dartnell. V.C.

Temporary Lieutenant William Thomas Dartnell, 25th Battalion, Royal Fusiliers, originally from Melbourne, Victoria Cross action at Maktau, British East Africa. It was a posthumous... award.

William Dartnell, born at Collingwood, Melbourne, was only 15 years old when he enlisted for service in South Africa with the Victorian Mounted Rifles in 1901. He returned to South Africa in 1913 and was working there when war was declared. Using the name Wilbur Taylor Dartnell, he joined the 25th Battalion, the Royal Fusiliers, as a temporary lieutenant, and in April 1915 sailed for service in British East Africa.

Dartnell's Victoria Cross was awarded posthumously for his actions on 3 September 1915, near Maktau, East Africa. Wounded in the leg during an ambush, he insisted on being left behind to allow other wounded companions to be carried away. Though he was twice asked to leave, he refused and began firing at the Germans around him. When his body was found, seven enemy dead were lying nearby.

Dartnell was awarded the Victoria Cross posthumously, he also received the Queen's South Africa Medal and service medals for the First World War.

From A Park Bench - Touching His Garment

"When she heard about Jesus, she came behind Him in the crowd and touched His garment.  For she said, “If only I may touch His clothes, I shall be made well.”

Immediately the fountain of her blood was dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of the affliction." - Mark 5 27:29

All it took for the woman to be healed was to touch the garment of Jesus. She had lived with her illness and the shame of her uncleanness according to the Law, and under the Law all she could expect from public exposure was very harsh treatment.

The Law condemns us and judges us but Jesus heals us, delivers us and gives us life.

Jesus Christ is the fountain of life, the source of healing, and the abundant provision of God. Everything that is needed in life is given and found in Christ,

Judgment, condemnation and self-righteousness is based in the Law. Every now and then public Christian preachers and leaders admit to public sin, and the way we look and act towards these mistakes shows the condition of our heart. Healing, love, grace and reconciliation are at the heart of God, and God is NOT counting men’s sins against them.

It was her faith that healed this woman, she reached out her hand and believed that if she could touch the garment of Jesus she would be healed. Jesus did not pray for her, he did not lay hands on her, he did not talk to her. She recognized that God had provided all she needed in Christ. She believed that God had provided her healing in Christ and all she had to do was reach out and receive it.

The action of her heart was to reach out and her faith (positive response) was to receive all that God provided by grace.

If the woman had stayed at home, if she had not touched his garment, she would have stayed with her illness and would have never been healed. Likewise, we can decide not to receive from Christ and Jesus will not force himself upon us.

The choice is ours, believe and receive or doubt and do without

Living with lies

Carrying the wounds

Unloved

Ignored

The revelation that I can touch

Feel your power in me

Grasp the chance

Wherever it leads.

Grace Notes - Mark 12:29

Mark 12:29 "And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord":

The latest series of Downton Abbey has started on Sunday night and once again we can watch all the going on between the Lords and ladies and their servants.  I must admit there is a deep fascination between the interactions of the servants as they live out life in service.

Christ took on humanity and became a servant for us. He showed us in his sinless life how to interact with a fallen and forlorn world. He had compassion on the lost, mercy on the condemned, He healed all those that were sick or oppressed, He loved the unloved and fed all those that were hungry.

We are the temple of the Holy Spirit, Christ in all his fullness dwells in every believer, we are Christ to all those we touch and interact with. When we look at Christ we should be seeing ourselves in the mirror and by His grace and His Spirit we are being changed into his likeness.

As Andrew Wommack explains Christ showed us the way, experienced the world we live in all because he loved us:-

Jesus repeatedly made reference to His deity for which the Jews had sought to kill Him, and yet He quotes from Deuteronomy 6:4, that "The Lord our God is one Lord." There are not two or three Gods and yet Jesus claimed to be God just like God the Father. This union is a great mystery that defies human understanding but can be accepted and believed.

Jesus in His pre-existent state was in the form of God. "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." Jesus is God manifested in the flesh (1 Tim. 3:16). However, Jesus did not demand or cling to His rights as God. He laid aside His Divine rights and privileges in order to take the form of a servant and be made in the likeness of man. He further humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the Father, even to the point of death. This was the supreme sacrifice that identified Jesus totally with humanity and enabled God to redeem mankind. By dying a criminal's death upon the cross, Jesus fulfilled the Old Testament prophecy of Deuteronomy 21:23, and bore our curse in His own body. This redeemed us from the curse, opened wide God's blessing of justification through faith in Christ, and gave us the promise of His Holy Spirit (Gal. 3:13-14).

The Creator became the creation; the Lord became the servant; the Highest became the lowest. All of this was done because of God's great love for us.

Come to the Fountain

Compromised promises

Recalling broken words

Failed commitments

Hesitant to return

Love that goes beyond

All we ask or think

Grace without limits

Invites us to drink

Come to the fountain

Satisfy your thirst

Soak in His goodness

Blessing fit to burst

Lose your condemnation

Released from the pain

Revel in the grace of God

Everything for your gain.

Five Questions

On my internet travels I came across these five questions asked and answered at Success is your Success so I thought I would jump on the band wagon and try to answer to the best of my ability :-

1. Who is your hero (model ) ?  - The model of my life is my saviour Jesus Christ. His amazing sacrifice, wondrous mercy, scandalous grace and abundant life are the reason I live and breathe.

2. What kind of books do you read ? -  Mostly I read Christian books, written by ‘Grace’ writers, i.e Andrew Wommack, Ryan Rufus. I also read First World War books, novels and fact; I like biographical accounts of normal soldiers on the Western Front, (especially ‘ANZAC’ accounts of the war) and fiction, my favourite trilogy is “Now God be Thanked” by John Masters.

3. Who inspires you? -  In Christianity, Andrew Wommack, Rob Rufus, Stephen Jeffrey’s. In Poetry, Brian Miller, Red Dirt Girl and on the Web, Sparrow Girl from Under the Waterfall of Grace and soldiers that in moments of exceptional bravery performed amazing deeds.

4. What motivates you? The grace of God, great preaching, the Bible and my family.

5. If you were given a chance to be 21 years of age again, would you take it ? -  I would take it on three provisos.

1. That I would meet and fall in love all over again with my wife and I would share my life with her all over again.
2. That I would know and understand the grace of God, it has taken me 30 years to come into this amazing revelation.
3. If both the above could not be assured, then I would not do it. I would sooner be here today at this time in my life with my beautiful wife and knowing the overwhelming grace of God than be without them. Knowing Jesus and His grace and my wife mean everything to me.

So there you go a little insight into me and what goes on in my little world.

Friday's Five - God's Sword

He placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life – Genesis 3:24.

Therefore David ran and stood over the Philistine, took his sword and drew it out of its sheath and killed him, and cut of his head with it. And when the Philistines saw their champion was dead, they fled. – 1 Samuel 17:51.

And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God – Ephesians 6:17

For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and to joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the. thoughts and intents of the heart. – Hebrews 4:12

He had in His right hand seven stars, out of his mouth went a sharp two-edged sword, and His countenance was like the sun shining in its strength – Revelation 1:15.

From A Park Bench - Admission Is Free

There is always a price for everything; my father always told me that nothing in this life is for free. Even the best deals still have a charge.  The local Cineworld in Eastbourne does a Saturday morning children’s deal, just one pound per adult and child for the movie.

It is the same for most attractions I visit; there is always an admission price. I don’t mind paying the price and it means I can have access to everything I want to see.

Religion tells me that I have to pay an admission price to get God’s grace. Religion tells me that without certain things I have to do I cannot receive God’s blessings.

So what does religion want of me – Holiness, being good, attending church, praying, giving my tithe all these things and more will give me access to God’s blessings.

But religion is full of law, full of self-righteousness, full of what I have to do.  The truth is that Christ has paid the admission price with his death and that sacrifice is our access to God.

The grace of God is free and is offered free to everyone. There are no exceptions, everyone who is born has exactly the same access, and there is no price, no cost, because Christ at the cross paid the admission price with his death.

All I have to ‘do’ is receive the sacrifice of Jesus and trust in him. It is just my ‘thank you’ to grab all Christ has won. This is ‘faith’ receiving and believing in Christ and it’s not my work but God’s work in me.  It’s not how much faith I have, how much I believe, it is not by my works, it is all by his grace and my acceptance of his righteousness.

The admission price has been paid, the access is free, I just believe and receive all God’s grace.

Forgotten Heroes - Sergeant Maurice Buckley V.C.

Sergeant Maurice Vincent Buckley, 13th Battalion, Victoria Cross action at Le Verguier.

Maurice Buckley, born in Hawthorn, Melbourne, was a coach trimmer before enlisting in late 1914. His early service was inglorious: while in Egypt with the 13th Light Horse Regiment, he contracted venereal disease and was sent back to Australia, where he deserted. Two months later, in May 1916, Buckley re-enlisted under the alias Gerald Sexton, and joined the 13th Battalion in France in January 1917. He fought at Bullecourt and through the third battle of Ypres; the next year, as a sergeant, he was wounded at Le Hamel. He was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal (DCM) for his bravery near Morcourt in August.

On 18 September 1918, near Le Verguier, with his Lewis gun and "displaying boldness which inspired all", Buckley rushed enemy machine-gun positions, captured a field gun, and took numerous prisoners. He received the Victoria Cross. With the focus of attention now on him, he had to disclose his true name.

Buckley was fatally injured in 1921 after being thrown from a horse; ten Victoria Cross–holders were pallbearers at his funeral.

From A Park Bench - Lose The Clutter

Last week I ventured into our back garden shed with the specific intention of sorting out all the items we had collected and put into storage. Among the many boxes were items of sentimental value, items of no value and items I kept just in case I needed them. In the last category were some 1980’s Wharfedale Diamond speakers that I had lovingly kept and transferred from house to house over the last 25 years. They had never left the box but I had kept them just in case I one day needed a spare pair of speakers and of course I have never needed them.

As I stood looking at my prized speakers I realized that I would never use them and I had to let them go. No matter how much I loved them they were just clutter, junk that was useless. I had no need for them.

Likewise I have to let go of all the clutter that fills my mind, all the useless junk that holds me down. There is no harm in having interests, hobbies, supporting teams and watching media, but if those things dominate my mind then my mind will be filled with clutter. 

God’s spirit, His grace and His words are the greatest power in the universe. I have been united into Almighty God and all the riches of that inheritance. If I am going to fill my mind and thoughts with anything the majority of my meditation should be focused on Christ and his finished work.

I have been released from being accepted by God through works and good behavior, my relationship with God is not affected by my performance. If I spent no time with God from now to eternity it would not affect my standing with God. But, it will affect how I perceive and how I am tuned into God. The more I soak and wallow in the grace of God the more sensitive I become to the whisper of God’s voice and the more the cares of the world fade away.

Lose the clutter and focus of the good things, soak in the grace of God.