I. Shackleton

Ivan Shackleton – (Laboured in Japan & Russia) – Passed on 3rd May 2010 – South Australia convention 1985....
These last four days we have had lots of good counsel to help us in the coming days and one just wonders what else we can add to help one another to know victory in the coming year. I just thought I would like to tell you some of the experiences that I had that led up to my listening to the gospel and it might be of some help to some. My father, from a very
young age, was a very zealous member of the Plymouth Brethren church and we used to go to church as children nine times per week, every day and three times on Sunday. It wasn’t always at night time. Sometimes it was in the afternoon after school and my father was very strict about what we did on Sundays. On Sundays we were never allowed to whistle or clean our shoes or do anything of that nature. We, as children, would say the best way to get through Sunday was to go to bed and stay there. We really felt that way.
I would like to tell you some of the differences I have found between the Brethren church, and perhaps others, and this way of God. Some of the big differences I have noticed was, as we heard this morning, about judging by the eye. That is one thing that we find in the Brethren church. They look at each other with a very critical eye. That would be a sad thing if that ever got in amongst the children of God, if we were to look at each other with a critical eye. We should be looking at each other with a merciful eye. Sometimes we look at brothers and sisters and they are not as moderate or modest as we feel they should be. There could be a tendency to say, “I am glad I am not like them.” Instead of that, it should drive us to God in prayer and pray God would be merciful to them as he has been unto us.
The way God works is from the inside, not from the outside. When I was quite young I learned to play the violin. One day, playing in front of the teacher, it must have been a terrible noise. He stopped me and said, “If you were to just think about what the composer was thinking of when he wrote the music, and that music was conceived in your heart, it would come out naturally through your fingers. You wouldn't have to practice as hard as what you have to if it is there in your heart.” That is the way God begins in our heart. Little by little it becomes a big thing in our lives. Then it comes out on the outward side of our lives. So I would like to have a merciful love.
Another thing I found. They always thought they were worthy. I always imagine the Brethren people rushing up to heaven and saying, “Here I am. I know you have been waiting for me.” A child of God always feels unworthy. After having done all, we are yet unworthy. We are still unprofitable as stewards.
Another thing, their sacrifice sometimes amazes me. How much some of the churches, and even the people, sacrifice. But I have noticed this, they only sacrifice things that they want to, and that is the big difference between others and the children of God, because the time will come when God will ask you to sacrifice something that you don't want to. I always think of Abraham when I think of these things. Abraham, wherever he went, the first thing he did was build an altar and he made a sacrifice to God. Abraham was a wonderful man. He wanted to do that, to sacrifice to his God. But then the time came when God touched something in his life that he didn't want to sacrifice. That was his only son. God had promised him that his children would become as the sands of the sea. Here he just had this one son and God was asking him to sacrifice this one son. It doesn't tell us what went through his mind. But he made up his mind to do it. It was when he went to sacrifice what he didn’t want to sacrifice that the Lord stayed his hand. He said, “Now I know you love me more than your son.” We never want to be afraid of something that costs us something, because that is what proves we are different to everyone else and the time will come in every one of our lives. God will touch something that we don't want to sacrifice. I used to often wonder about the church my father went to. They used to say, “All you have to do is believe on the blood of Jesus and you will be saved. Once you are saved always saved.” Yet even though they said that, if I was to clean my shoes on Sunday, I was a sinner and called a backslider. Well, that just didn't seem to go together somehow.
There is one thing different about my father and other members of his church. When we were very, very small we used to hear him talk. He would read his Bible every night and talk to my mother and say to mother, “Why isn't the Way that we read about in the Bible, still in the world today?” My mother would say, “Well that is two thousand years ago. I expect we can't expect to see that today.” This went on year after year. Father kept coming back to the same thing. “Why is it that the Way is not in the world today?”
The time came my father was shifted to another district. There was no Brethren church. He went to a church in a home. The preacher was trying to model his church after what we read in the Bible. He built a church in the home, not like we know it. He had a great big chapel with pews, an organ, an altar and even an annex where a shorthand typist was taking notes of every service there was. But it was while father was going there that two Workers came into the district. Visiting round one Worker went into a chemist shop. The chemist was a member of this church. The Worker asked this man to come to the gospel meeting. He said, “I don't have the time. I go to my own church every night.” He said to the Worker, “You come to our church.” He said, “Maybe we will sometime.” I can well remember the time when those two Workers came into the church. They sat in the back seat. The preacher that had that Church knew that they were Workers and he asked them to come up and speak. They went and they spoke. Everybody was very happy with what they heard and invited them to come back next Saturday. They came back but this night the older brother Worker started to separate light from darkness for the people. We could see the anger rising in the face of that preacher. As soon as the meeting was over, he ordered them out of the church. “Never darken my door again.” He sent a letter accusing these men of being false prophets. He put a half page advertisement in the paper warning people of the false prophets that had come into the town.
My father, something must have touched him. The next Wednesday night, my father went to the gospel meeting. With him he had a whole list of questions he wanted to ask the Workers, something he asked every preacher that came into the town. Father sat in the gospel meeting. By the time it was over, every question had been answered. It was something like a miracle to him. After the meeting was over he stayed back and talked. He walked home with the Workers to where they were staying, 12 km away, and talked until the small hours of the morning. Before he returned home that night he had made his choice to serve God.
I can still remember, I was nine years of age, father coming down to breakfast that morning, still excited, saying to mother, “I found the Way.” We did not realise then what it was going to do to our home. But a big change came into our home. Father said, “We won't be going to Sunday school or church any more.” We were quite happy going to meetings three times a week instead of nine. We saw the benefit of my father changing, but he had lots of books. The house was full of religious books. I saw him take the books outside and burn them - every book that he had. Above the dining room table where we used to always eat was a verse in a frame written on green velvet with gold letters: “Christ is the Head of this house, the Unseen Guest at every meal. The silent Listener to every conversation,” and a few other words. Father took it down from the wall also. He took it outside and burned it. But what we were to see after that was that Christ was the Unseen Guest in our home.
As I grew up I just disliked church. I hated the church and I hated preachers. I had seen so much of it. I disliked it all. Even at a young age I made up my mind the first opportunity I got as I grew older that I would leave home. My father and my mother took us to meetings. I am glad of that now. Impressions were made. But the biggest impression was the change in our home. That was something I hope I never forget. There was nothing wrong before, but somehow a different Spirit. The Spirit of God came into our home when I was 17. I told my father and mother I was leaving home and they didn’t object. They didn't say anything. I guess they could see it was no use. But before I left, my mother said to me, “I just want to tell you, while you have been in our home you have been our responsibility. If you leave, everything you do from now on is your responsibility. One day you will have to answer to God for everything you have done.” They were words that checked me many, many times after I left.
I went into the city and boarded. My life-long ambition was to be a policeman in the NSW police force. I went into the training college. I was disappointed at first, because what I found was I had to get up at 5 o'clock in the morning for three hours training - physical exercises - before we got a cup of tea or anything to eat. I had to clean my shoes and have my trousers pressed. I felt I had jumped out of the frying pan into the fire. The police order was more severe than what my father was.
I continued working in the city and I used to always think certain people of the upper classes really enjoyed life. As a policeman I was able to move in amongst those people. You know, the thought kept coming to me every time in their company, “These people haven't got what my father and mother had at home. Their lives are dead and empty.” Then, in the course of duty I came in touch with the dregs of humanity, people who had let themselves drift down in life. They just did nothing, no life no future. Somehow it made me begin to think seriously about life.
One day one of the things that really spoke to me was: a criminal had got away and a lot of policemen were looking for this man. As a result a policeman friend of mine was shot. He died and we went to his funeral. That night I went on duty in Sydney at the Police station. The officer in charge always called out what duties for the shift, and we were never called by name but by number. He called each officer’s number and we would answer present and he would read out the duties for the day. While he was doing this the officer came to the number of the man that had been killed and we had been to his funeral that day. He called the number. There was no answer. He took the pencil and crossed out that man’s number. Then he looked at us and said, “I wonder whose number I will be crossing out next?” That evening, as I walked around the streets of Sydney, it really spoke to my heart. I knew if my number was up next I was afraid to stand before God. I was not afraid to die so much. But I was afraid to stand before Him and give an answer for all I had done.
As I walked round the city that night I made up my mind if ever I had the opportunity to go to those gospel meetings again, I would go. Of course as time went by, I forgot these things. One day they were asking for a volunteer to go out west to a town. It was considered a hard town. No one volunteered. I was told to go to be certified as a police cyclist before I went. I had never ridden a cycle before. Next thing I had an order again, I was to go to the police headquarters for special tuition to ride a motorbike and then to proceed to this country town.
Before I went, I went home and told my parents I was going a long way away and would not see them for some time. Mother asked where I was going to stay. I said, “I suppose in the pub.” She said, “You come back before you go. Maybe I can give you an address where to stay.” Mother gave me an address and I passed it on to the police. They looked into it to see if it was all right for me to stay there. When I arrived at this town, I found it was the home of a young couple who had not been married very long. They were friends. When I went into the home, the thing that spoke to me the most was the purity in that young couple. I was looking at the dregs of humanity every day. It was a contrast for me to see their pure faces.
When I opened the box to take out my clothing I found two hymn books there. Apparently mother put one in and father, not knowing, also put one in. I guess they didn't want to risk a Bible. A hymn book might be all right. That really spoke to me because it was a silent prayer from my parents. I wasn't in that town very long before the Workers came from conventions and I was invited to gospel meetings. That is where I professed. One of those Workers was Eddie D., who is here today. As a policeman I tried to do my duty but this time with a different kind of spirit and attitude.
It wasn't very long after I decided I went to the Special Meeting and the Worker at the Special Meeting was speaking about being a help to other people. When I went back to the barracks where I lived, I used to pray every morning and evening to be a help, especially to the Workers. What I had in mind was: well, I had money, a car, and time, I could use all this to help the workers. I prayed the Lord would help me and show me how to use this. While praying like this one day, the thought came to my mind: “Why don't you go into the Work?” Immediately I put it out of my mind, because I hated preachers. That was the last thing I wanted to be. Anyway, a little while later the thought comes into my mind again and it became more frequent. I couldn't put it out of my mind. It was while I was like this I went to convention. The convention I went to was perhaps 600 miles away. I couldn't go to any other because of my duties. I felt very strange at that convention. I didn't know anyone. It was the first convention after I decided.
I sat down at the table for dinner. A man I didn't know sat opposite me. I looked at his face. I thought, “Well, you look like a criminal to me.” He kept looking at me. So, after we had looked at each other for a while, he said, “You wouldn't happen to be a policeman, would you?” I said, “Well, yes I am.” So he extended his hand across the table. “Would you shake hands with me?” He said, “That is the first time I have ever shaken hands with a policeman.” He told me his story then. I was right: he had been a criminal. He told me about the times he had been in jail. His two daughters 11 and 13 went with their grandmother to gospel meetings and had decided. When this man came out of jail and went back home, he found his two girls had changed. It really spoke to that man. The change was because of his two children. I will always remember that man's testimony in that Convention. He got up and said: “They say parents are examples to their children, but I am ashamed to say today that my children have been an example to me.” Just before going to this convention I had taken a man to jail for the16th time. No matter what punishment was given the police couldn't change him: 16 times and still doing the same old thing. It spoke to my heart in a very real way. Here were two little girls with the love of God in their hearts and able to change their father from that wayward life. Here, two little girls with the power of God in their lives were able to do what all the police in NSW were not able to do. That spoke to me very much at that convention and helped me to make up my mind that I would give my life into the Lord's harvest field. I felt I could do more for mankind by preaching the gospel than trying to correct men by the laws of our country.
I would just hope every young person here today would be prayerful about their future. We never know what God may be calling us to do. I always like that hymn: 0 Love that will not let me go. I feel that is my testimony, that the love of God just never let me go. But the last words of that hymn says: richer, fuller be. If we pray about our future, our lives will be richer and fuller as a result of it. No matter what it is we are thinking of - settling down and choosing a partner, or about the Lord's harvest field. I is a wonderful thing if we would pray God would show us what our future should be. Let God guide us.
There were two girls came to Japan the year before last from USA. They were Roman Catholics. They wanted to study to be missionaries. They went up to a northern town in Japan, Hokkaido. One was teaching English there. Also in that same town there was an American boy, a Mormon. One of his jobs was to convert people to Mormonism. One of our young Japanese sister workers invited them to meetings. Those three people professed. They went back to USA. I have seen letters from them since then. When they came to Japan, they thought they had their future decided. They kind of thought they knew what they wanted to do. But in their letters they said, “I wonder about my future. I pray to God He will open up the way and show me what He wants me to do.” If we would just have that prayer in our hearts, God will make our lives richer and fuller than they have ever been before.
I am glad I prayed that I wanted to be a help. Even though I didn't think what kind of help, I am glad I prayed that way. I am glad God opened the way up for me. I have to say now my life has been rich and fuller as a result of allowing God to have His way with me.
Just in closing, a verse that appeals to me - words which the police use a lot. Paul said: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. When I was a policeman I used to apprehend people. You know, I would look at people, the ones I apprehended, and I used to feel very strong, the power of all my country behind me, and he was caught in the act. I could see how weak and helpless he was. It put me in the strength of power. But after I left the police force, motoring down the highway, I heard the siren behind me. I thought, “What is on today?” It was not long before the policeman was alongside my car. He said, “Pull over.” He said to me, “You have broken the law.” I felt so weak and helpless.
Just to give you an illustration of what the two positions are: the position of weakness and the position of strength. So Paul says: I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. Paul felt he had been apprehended. He was in the weak position. God had taken hold of his life and was perhaps moving him along in tracks that sometimes he did not want to go. God was going to change the position. I am going to take hold of him, change the position so I am in the position of strength. If we follow after and take hold, apprehend this love of God, O love that will not let me go, the love of God will not let us go. If we take hold of it with both hands, we will find our lives will be richer and fuller in the coming days.
PS About four years after my father made his choice 20 people left the church and began to walk in the Way of God. Eight years later the preacher and his wife and some of his family professed. After the preacher made his choice, he went to Sunday a.m. meetings in my parent’s home. His granddaughter is in the work today.