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.
B. Simonton
