Category Archives: Cycloes

Australia’s droughts, fires, floods and cyclones

clip_image001

(Slim Dusty photo courtesy Pinterest)

By Spencer D Gear

I’ve been a fan of Slim Dusty’s country music since I was growing up as a kid on sugar cane farms near Bundaberg, Qld in the 1950s. I listened to him sing on “Riding Along with a Smile and a Song” which was 30 minutes of country music, from 5.30am on 4BU, Bundaberg. I went to hear him annually as he sang in his tent concert at the Bundaberg Show.

It was only in September 2019 I heard his song, It Takes a Drought (courtesy Phone Lyrics).

Slim composed this song. Two lines caught my attention as I listened:[1]

I one time heard a bushman say while drovin’ on the
track
It takes one hell of an old man drought to bring this
country back.

Slim was writing about when the drought breaks, rain is pouring down, dams filling and countryside dressed in green again.

I’ll use Slim’s analysis to add some new understandings.

1. We can’t make it rain

On 27 September 2019, it was announced by the PM that another $100 million would be available to drought-stricken farmers and communities.

clip_image003Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, said: “We know we can’t make it rain, but we must keep finding ways to do everything we can to make life just a bit easier and remove some of the burden” (Littleproud 2019).

Former Australian Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, agreed: “We can’t make it rain’. [2]

As I write, Australia is experiencing one of its worst droughts. Do Australians deserve the rains to come?

Both Prime Ministers failed to tell us …

2. Who can make it rain

clip_image005

One drought-affected sheep farmer said, ‘There’s not much we can do about it’.[3] Really? There is one word missing from his statement. Please read further.

clip_image007

This photograph is of 83-year-old Alf King praying for rain that went viral in November 2018. Source: Rhonda King, his daughter (Yahoo! News).[4]

Aussies are missing the source of the rain. The current Christian Prime Minister, ScoMo, had the world stage to announce God sends the rain, but he missed the opportunity.

‘[God] causes his sun to shine on evil people and good people. He sends rain on those who do right and those who don’t’ (Matthew 5:45).

An earlier Prime Minister, John Howard, had a different view.

‘Pray for rain, urges [John] Howard’[5]

3. Pointers to the solution

Where are the prayer meetings in towns or suburbs across the land to cry out to God for rain? Are you praying in your homes daily for God to open the skies with drought-breaking rain?

I’m waiting for Scott Morrison to call Australians to Prayer and Repentance – for those who believe in the power of prayer and repentance.

3.1 Israelites and drought

clip_image009

3.1.1 Amos 4:7-9 (NLT)

“I kept the rain from falling when your crops needed it the most. I sent rain on one town but withheld it from another. Rain fell on one field, while another field withered away. People staggered from town to town looking for water, but there was never enough. But still you would not return to me,” says the Lord.

There you have it for the Old Testament people of God. See similar messages in Joel 2:11-13, and 2 Chronicles 7:14. They couldn’t expect God’s blessings when they disobeyed him.

There is a similar message for all nations at Proverbs 14:34: ‘Godliness makes a nation great, but sin is a disgrace to any people’ (NLT). See also Luke 13:1-3. What kinds of sins of disgrace are happening in Australia?

clip_image011

(graphic image of aborted child)

clip_image013

(Photo: Liberal MP Warren Entsch lifts up Labor MP Linda Burney as they celebrate the passing of the Marriage Amendment Bill in the House of Representatives at Parliament House in Canberra, Thursday, December 7, 2017. (AAP: Lukas Coch)

I haven’t discussed Australia’s sins of legalising euthanasia, de facto relationships, prostitution, easy divorce, and normalisation of adultery (decriminalised in 1975).

  • ‘Humbly relying on the blessings of Almighty God’

These words are in the Australian Constitution of 1900 and affirm Australia’s commitment to the Judeo-Christian Lord God Almighty.

Australia’s national sins of legalisation of prostitution, abortion and euthanasia demonstrate we deserve God’s judgment now.

4. There is a way back

It involves these steps:

a.  The churches

b.  Prayer and repentance for …

c.  God’s mercy in sending rain and not judgment.

The above is a summary of the detailed information on the links in: Australia is in deep trouble: Droughts, floods and fires

clip_image015

(photo courtesy WordPress at The University of Melbourne)

clip_image017(photo courtesy ABC News, Brisbane, Qld.)

5. Fix the rot

If this is not fixed, the rot will continue to infest Australia.

This is the ‘rot’ I’m writing about:

a. Amos 4:6-12

“I kept the rain from falling when your crops needed it the most.

I sent rain on one town but withheld it from another. Rain fell on one field, while another field withered away.

People staggered from town to town looking for water, but there was never enough.

But still you would not return to me, says the Lord”.

b. Joel 2:11-13

c. Luke 13:1-3

d. Proverbs 14:24

clip_image019

(image courtesy letgodbefoundtrue.net)

5. However, what are Australian governments doing?

clip_image020

(abortion image courtesy http://100abortionphotos.com/#23)

cream-arrow-small Ungodly legislation and practices in Australia are a disgrace to the nation and lead to Australia’s doom.

cream-arrow-small Only God sends the rain and withholds it.

cream-arrow-small Godless, secular Australians refuse to bow the knee to the Lord God Almighty.

cream-arrow-small We want his blessings of rain without the commitment to Him. We deserve what we get.

cream-arrow-small When will local, State and national leaders call the nation to prayer and repentance to break the drought and stop other disasters?

cream-arrow-small When will they repeal unrighteous legislation? e.g. Prostitution, easy divorce, abortion, euthanasia, homosexual marriage and other anti-biblical legislation.

We cannot have a great nation when we continue to promote ungodliness. If we don’t stop it NOW, the path Australia treads is to destruction.

6.  Works consulted

Littleproud MP, The Hon David 2019. “Backing our farmers and drought affected communities,” 26 September, accessed 9 October 2021, https://minister.infrastructure.gov.au/littleproud/media-release/backing-our-farmers-and-drought-affected-communities.

Notes

[1] The lyrics were supplied by Phone Lyrics n.d. Available at: https://phonelyrics.com/lyrics/652728.html (Accessed 26 September 2019).

[2] Stephanie Bedo 2018. Australia’s crippling drought crisis: Overcoming past mistakes to save ourselves for the future. news.com.au (online), 6 August. Available at: https://www.news.com.au/technology/environment/climate-change/australias-crippling-drought-crisis-overcoming-past-mistakes-to-save-ourselves-for-the-future/news-story/136436de96fee5f33809de8d607f413c (Accessed 7 January 2019).

[3] Ibid.

[4] Alana Calvert 2019. From dam to crater – veteran farmer’s prayers for rain go unanswered.Yahoo! News, 23 July. Available at:

[5] The Sydney Morning Herald 2007. Pray for rain, urges Howard (online), 22 April. Available at: https://www.smh.com.au/national/pray-for-rain-urges-howard-20070422-gdpyx1.html (Accessed 6 January 2019).

Copyright © 2021 Spencer D. Gear. This document last updated at Date: 12 October 2021.