Sensitive. [ Hebrews 3 v15 ]

I wonder how sensitive you are, I wonder what my wife would anwer if I asked her, I like to think that I have a reasonable degree of sensitivity.But here is a very important question, how sensitive am I to the Holy Spirits prompting ?, I feel it would be profitable to explore this theme ,in Galations 5 we have a number of things said about the Spirit,the fruit of the Spirit.living in the Spirit, walking in the Spirit [v 22./25]in  chapter 6 v 8 we read of sowing to the Spirit. Consider first the fruit of the Spirit, love,joy,peace ,longsuffering,gentleness,goodness,faith,meekness, temperance. If  we are lacking in these things,let us ask ourselves the question why?.Our Saviour taught that we should bear fruit[ John 15 ] the question again is, are we bearing fruit? have we become desensitized by the spirit of the world?,or by our unwillingness,to change, our unwillingness to respond to the Spirits prompting. Consider that list, look at it,pray over it and quietly wait, for the Spirits prompting, and them yield yourself to Him unreservedly.
 A  prayer....../Dear Father God, we confess  our fruitlessness, our inconsistencies,caused by our lack of sensitivity to the Spirits presence in our lives,help us to see that nothing will change if we are not willing to be willing, in Jesus name. Amen/
/  I will be on holiday and will return to my blog Sunday 1st of July, every blessing/

The right choices. [Matthew 18v 7-9 ]

Our Saviour taught that we must be severe with ourselves when it comes to sin cp Matthew 18 v 7-9, it is Oswald Chambers,who writes,/ What does this mean?it means absolutes,unflinching sternness /How severe are we with those sins that so easily beset us?,remember if I play with fire , I will get burned,if I play in the dirt I will get dirty. How far are we prepared to go?, to be holy.in putting to death those lusts that war in our members.How prepared are we to cast of every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us ? [Hebrews 12 v1 ]./ Consider these important words in Matthew 18 vv 8/9,  Better for Thee,we think we know what is best for us,we dont, He does .Although I have been applying these words in Matthew 18 to the Christian , I believe they are being spoken to the unconverted,to those who have not trusted Jesus,men love their sins,their lusts,the list is endless, but it boils down to this,are we prepared to deal severely with those things that will damn us to hell. Again Oswald Chambers  writes,/Jesus Christ talked rugged truth,He was never ambiguous, and He says it is better to be mained than damned./ How men /women will one day curse their sins,those things that they choose to hold unto that they loved,Esau will curse the wrong choice he made, [Genesis 25 v29-34 / Hebrews 12 v16]. Judas will lament for all eternty his love of money, that led him to betray our Saviour for 30 pieces of silver.There is nothing we value,be it a person place or thing that is worth going to hell for,Jesus made it clear when He said ,/What shall it profit a man, if  he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul .[ Mark 8 v36 ]
A  prayer.../ Dear God help us to see the seriousness of sin, and its consequences,grant us the grace to make the right choices in Jesus name Amen/

No one is perfect [ Philippians 3 v13-14 ]

Sorry to those who read my blogs ,I dont always have time to check the spelling, and when I do and find mistakes I get annoyed. But it also reminds me that none of us are perfect,and mistakes have always something to teach us.Edward John  Phelps ,said,/ The man who makes no mistakes does not  usually make anything/. So now I am beginning to feel better, well until the next mistake,as a father and a husband I have made mistakes, I wish I could undo them, but that is not possible. One day not so long ago my oldest boy phoned me up and said he forgave me, I dont know what exactly for, but it was to do with the possible mistakes ,I had made in relation to my lack of parenting skills.When I consider how ill prepared I was for marriage, and to be a parent, I cringe,coming from a broken family, didnt help. I am trully sorry for those mistakes I made in relation to my children ,but here is the good news, all five of them have trusted the Lord Jesus to be their Saviour.  So take heart,our God can work through us,to our families good inspite of our mistakes,dont crucify yourself because of your mistakes,and dont let the devil do it ether.
 A prayer...../ Dear God You know how imperfect we are,our lives often appear contridictions, we blow it so often,yes Father we make mistakes, sometimes the same ones, again and again, forgive us,help us ever to strive to be perfect, in love ,and obedience, yet when we fail, help us not to live under a cloud of condemnation,for that is not Your will for any of us, in Jesus name Amen/

Memories. [Psalm 147 v3 ]

Most mornings I have porridge for my breakfast,I fill the bowl with milk then with oats and then put it into the micro wave,well when I went to get my porridge from the micra wave this, morning ,I discovered a bowl of warm milk,I had forgotten to put the oats into the milk. I didnt do it in purpose I just simply forgot,all of us forget things at times,sometimes it is serious, most times its not,on the other hand there are things we wish we could forget, yet cant, there are memories that are locked in our memory box.So many peoples lives are ruined because of memories of their past, things that happened to them,is it possible to get over such things?. I love those words in Psalm147 v3 ,He heals the brokenhearted. First of all we are pointed to God,He heals, who are we  looking to?,oh yes God will use people to help us, but they can only go so far ,our help comes from the Lord,our healing comes from the Lord. Can He heal our wounded broken spirits?,yes He can,for He says He heals, and what God says He will do ,we can rest assured He can, and not only can, but will.Our Saviour said to a heartbroken womam, /Said I unto thee, that,if thou wouldest believe thou shouldest see the glory of God [John 11v 40 ].The way out , is the way of faith,faith in God to heal ,our minds,form the past hurts, those past hurting memories, He will, not mybe ,or might,but He will, a word of certainty, and assurance,remember there is nothing to hard for the Lord.
A  prayer....../ Dear God heal my wounded broken spirit in Jesus name Amen /.

Divorce its fallout. [ Isaiah 61 v 1-3 ]

I attended my friends 50th wedding anniversary celebrations recently,fifty years of  marriage,how this is so contrary to life now, yet having said that ,let us not judge those whose marriage has ended in divorce. Instead let us pray for them, let us welcome them,and help them, yes marriage is for life,and for many, who enter into marriage,they dont want a divorce ,they dont want to hurt their children, for as we know children do suffer ,again let us pray for such children. And what about the grandparents who find themselves deprived of thier grandchildren,this can be painful,as a rule there are no winners in divorce. If you have been divorced dont let bitterness destroy you,it can, learn to forgive, for it is the only way forward,unforgiveness, bitterness are nobodies friends,and we need to part company with them. I believe marriage with all its potential pitfalls is Gods purpose for mankind, and any society who forgets this, will suffer. So today let us pray for those who are experiencing difficulties in their marriage,for those who have been divorced, and for all who are experiencing the painfall fall outs,from that experience.
A  prayer....../Dear God we bring to You the many in our society who are suffering so much pain because of divorce,the children, the grandparents,the couples who divorced,so much pain, so many lives messed up, have mercy,and in Thy mercy turn them to Thyself, the only one who can heal and effectively help, in Jesus name we ask this Amen/

Enduring the cross. [Hebrews 12v 2 ]

We also read in relation to our Saviour that He not only endured, but He endured the cross [Hebrews 12v2],now many things have been written about this. All His life He knew, the cross was not hidden from Him, his suffering was not hidden from Him,it is clearly shown in Gods word ,  cp....Isaiah 53/Psalm 22, these are the most obivious scripture. Yet the whole sacrificial system pointed to a suffering Saviour,they were never and end in themselves,the writer of the book of Hebrews deals with this cp. chapter 10,no they pointed to, that sacrifice of Christ on the cross, a sacrifice that would effectively deal with mans greatest need, the forgiveness of sins.Christ did this as Hebrews 10 v12,tells us, / but this man , after He had offered one sacrifice for sins, Hebrews 9v25 reminds us that Christ cannot be offered again and again, like the animal sacrifice, when Christ died,He cried it is finished.[19 v30], no more sacrifices.It is important that we grasp this,but let us consider this enduring, crucifixion was an awful way to die,it was brutal in the extreme,let us also remember that Christ had already endured physical abuse ,which included a flogging, which many did not survive,so on top of this he endured hours,  hanging nailed to the cross,bearing the heat of the sun. Christ endured all that, but there is more , for we read of a deeper level of suffering, a level which no human mind can fathom. It is Peter who tells us in 1 Peter 2 v24, of the nature of that suffering, /Who His own self  bare our sins in His own body on the tree/.It is  L Morris in his very profitable book /,The cross in the NT/ writes, it means He bore the penalty of our sins.His enduring the cross and all that it meant, was for the sole purpose of bearing the penalty for sin, my sin your sin.The result is, that all who trust Christ as their Saviour , escape the penalty of sin,which they deserve,and  are granted forgiveness,and eternal life.
A  prayer...../Dear God we thank You that You so loved this world,that You gave Your only begotten son Jesus to die on the cross,we praise You that He was prepared to endure all that this meant,help us in all we have to face,to follow in His footsteps,in His name we ask this Amen/


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Hated for no reason. [John 15 v 18-25 ]

Following on in the theme of enduring,we further read this about our Saviour,in Hebrews 12 v 3 ,/ For consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners/A person I know was at a group of mainly older people and he was talking to a person about a Christian meeting he had attended,when all of a sudden a number of the people started shouting at him,to shut up, as they didnt want to hear about God. Below the surface of many individuals there is a hostility towards God,are we surprised at this? we should not be,in Romans8 v7 we read../For the carnal mind is enmity against God/ Likewise our Saviour told us, if the world hates you,you know that it hated Me before it hated you[John 15 v18 ].It is not that our Saviour did anything to deserve their hatred,as He pointed out ,they hated Him without a cause[John 15v25 ].I pray everyday for Christians who are suffering terrible things, why?, because they are wicked people, because they are doing awful things, no, because they follow unashamedly the Lord Jesus. I know some Christians act in an unwise manner and bring trouble upon themselves, but the vast majority dont, they are hated like their Saviour for no good reason.Our Saviour was never intimidated by those who opposed Him, nor did He walk in fear,no He just kept loving them, and today He calls all who are suffering for Him,to follow Him.
A  prayer.../Dear God help us to take up our cross and follow our Saviour. Amen /

Enduring. [Hebrews 12 v 2-3 ]

I suppose we all have times when we dwell on the past,older people do,I hope that as I become older I will dwell on the future glories that awaits me and every child of God.The old spirituals expressed that continually,likewise the writers of scripture,and our dear Saviour for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despised the shame, and is now sat down at the right hand of the throne of  God [Hebrews 12 v 2 ].We are exhorted to look to Him and to follow in His footsteps,consider/ He endured/,there is a saying that goes,/that which cant be cured must be endured/. People often in a light hearted way say, are you enduring your Christian life or our you enjoying it?, and so we are made to feel guilty. Well I am not trying to make you feel guilty,that is never the Christians task, it is the Holy Spirits job to convict us of what is wrong in our lives. We are not meant to carry around with us a fake smile,but we are called to endure many things by the grace of God,and to not let our trials,cause us to be bitter,resentful,or angry.In all our Saviour suffered He manifested a right spirit,He poured Himself out for ungrateful people,yet He did not give up on them, for after all, He came into this world to save sinners, and that meant enduring many things, that meant death on a cross ,but beyond the suffering He saw the glory,He saw a people who would be redeemed,and all this would bring Him grear joy[ Isaiah 53 v 11 ]
A prayer..../Dear God we thank for our Saviour who for the joy that was set before Him, endured so much, help us all to look beyond our trials to our future glory, in Jesus name Amen /

They went back.[John 6v 66ff]

A gospel song asks the question,/are you growing weary in the struggle of it all?/,I must confess I do get weary at times, the continual battle with temptation,I suppose that is why I love the Psalms .In the Psalms you have people who struggled with life ,of continual trials,of friend who betrayed them,of feeling cast down of wanting to get away from it all,it is all there in the Psalms.So how did they get through?, an important question,for if we dont know the answer to that, we will be overcome,mybe even give up. It seems to me ,that they always looked to God to help them,in their struggles they did not turn away from God,instead they turned to Him. In John 6 v66ff we read how some of our Lords disciples ,went back,and walked with Him no more, I sadly know so many who have done this,went back,I heard a man who had recently become a Christian, say he would never go back to his old life.The old life for him was one of destructiveness, of self and others .When these disciples turned away ,Jesus asked the 12, do you want to go away as well?, it was Peter who answered, Lord to whom shall we go?,You have the words of eternal life. In other words they realized that Jesus and only Jesus had the answer,not just to life, but to eternal life. As one gets older you realize how brief life is,and how important our relationship with Jesus is,go back,you must be mad,no it it is onward ever onward,to heaven and our eternal home.Esther Kerr Rusthoi wrote/It will be worth it all when we see Jesus, lifes trials will seem so small,when we se Christ. One glimpse of His dear face,all sorrow will erase, so bravely run the race , till we see Christ/
A prayer...../Dear Lord grant us grace to press on,let not our struggles blind us to the folly of  going back,help us to bravely run the race,till we see You Amen /

Shall never be moved.[Matthew 7 v24-27 ]

Psalm 15 has stressed the importance of being morally upright, and ends with these words,/He that doeth these things shall never be moved/ First of all let us learn that our lives must correspond with with our profession,it is by our fruits, that we gave evidence of being a true Christian.Religion without righteousness is a sham and a shame,in Isaiah 1 God through His servant reproached the people for  their sacrifices ,because they acting wickedly, and challenged them to/ cease to do evil, learn to do good,seek justice, correct oppression,bring justice to the fatherless,to plead the widows cause[1v 16 -17 ].When Lord Shafesbury sought to bring reforms to the cruel working conditions that children suffered,a number of the bishops opposed them.Spurgeon rightly points out it is those who do these things ,not just hear these things,we are yes to be hearers of the word of God, but we are to be doers also. Our Saviour finished His sermon on the mount,by saying,/ Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them,/ the result would be that when the storms of life came,they would be like a house built upon a rock,that would stand firm[ Matthew 7 v 24-27 ]as the Psalmist declares,he that doeth these things,shall never be moved.
A  prayer...../Dear God help us to not only be hearers of Your word, but also doers in Jesus name Amen/

Taking bribes. [ Proverbs 14v 31-34 ]

Psalm 15 v5/ nor taketh reward against the innocent /This is to do with taking bribes, it is not something we experience much in this country, at least not that we know of, but in many places it is common practice. Here it is stressing taking bribes against the innocent,we see this in the book of Esther were the wicked Haman,promised the king money, as a bribe to have the Jews destroyed.[3 v9]It must be difficult for people who live in countries were taking bribes is practiced,Paul was held captive because he would not pay a bribe [Acts 24 v26 ] It appears that during America,s period of prohibition ,many police,judges,were taking bribes,it a dreadful thing in any nation that it is allowed to go on.I was watching a TVprogramn on dear ladies were trapped in the sex trade ,and the police let it go on,becaused they were being bribed. Plumer writes/ The dreadful corruption sometimes manifested in courts is no novelty v5,Eccle v8. Yet the doom of corrupt judges and jurors, dying without repenrance, will be dreadful. ]Isa 5v 23,24 ].
A prayer...../Dear God we ask for mercy upon the poor and afflicted upon those who are affected by the unjust practice of taking bribes in Jesus name Amen /

Usury. [ 1 Timothy 6 v10 ]

Psalm 15 v 5/ He that putteth not out his money to usury/The word usury is a practice of loaning out money at an exorbitan rates.Crudence in his concordance writes,/The Hebrews were plainly commanded in Ex 22v25,not to recieve interest,from any who borrowed for necessity,as in the case in Neh5 .v5/7/Also they were commanded  to free all Hebrew slaves and cancel every debt every 50 years [Leviticus 25],Dickson says God calleth for moderation,the situation in so many countries at this present time is about debt, many people borrowed without thinking, but also the bankers did not take into consideration that many people were going to suffer ,all they saw was the profit. Then there are loan sharks, these need to rooted out as they take advantage, mainly of the poorest in our society.The whole point of lending should not be to take advantage of someone, but rather to help that person through a difficulty, the one who lends should me motivated by love,for people, and not a love for money .
A   prayer....../ Dear God help those who are in debt, help us to be always motivated by a  love for people, to always show a kind and generous spirit to those in need, in Jesus name, Amen ./

Keeping our word [2 Corinthians 1 v 17-19 ]

Psalm15v 4/He that sweareth to his own hurt, and changeth not/what we are being taught here is very simple,the importance of keeping our word even though it may cost us. One of the most obivious examples of this is to be found in the book of Judges, a man called Jephthah, a judge,made a vow that if God would give victory over the enemies of Israel, he would offer whatever came out of his house to meet him, he would offer  it up as a burnt offering.,[Judges 11v 30-31]It is obvious that God did not,agree with human sacrifice [Jeremiah19 v5],grant it, he did command Abraham to offer up Isaac up as sacrifice [Genesis22],but this was never carried out.  But Jephthah give his word, and it does appear that he meant human sacrifice, he did have the victory over Israels enemies,and as he returned home the first one to meet him was his only child,his daughter.Some people seek to argue that Jephthah did not offer his daughter as a sacrifice, but it seems he did,in this he was following what many of the nations surrounding Israel did[ cp 2 Kings3 v27 ].Jephthah was wrong in offering his daugther as an offering to God,he should never have made such a rash vow,but we do admire his moral principal of keeping his word. God will never call any of us to offer any of our children as burnt offerings,but He demands that we be people of our word even though it may cost us.
A  prayer..../Dear God help us not to make vows that our contrary to Your word ,but help us to be people of our word, even though it may cost us in Jesus name ,Amen /

Honour them.[ Romans 12 v10 ]

Psalm 15 v 4/but who honours those who fear the Lord/there are two things highlighted in these words  ,honour and the fear of the Lord,honour those who fear the Lord.The fear of the Lord is a very important truth for us to grasp,in Romans 3 v18,one the characteristics of the unsaved is, they do not fear the Lord.They manifest this by a complete disregard of God,so they sin,they live as if God does not exsist, verses 10ff of Romans 3 spells it out.They fall back on the thought that God is love ,which He is of course,but the Bible that tells us that God is love, also tells us that God is holy,and unless we are in Christ we  will be judged eternally in hell.[ Matthew 10 v28 ] If we are a true Christian we are walking in the fear of the Lord, that means,we say no to sin,in whatever guise it comes,we refrain from unrigtheousness ,but we also seek to manifest a life that is kind and loving. We are exhorted to honour such, as opposed to the world who honour anyone who takes their fancy,anyone who captivates them, like a Hitler,or a Stalin,or an actor,consider one is not put on the honours list because they honour the Lord. But one day they will be honoured by their Lord[ Matthew 25 v34],so let us who know the Lord honour our godly parents,pastors, and all those who live and walk in the fear of the Lord.
A prayer.../Dear God grant us a right attitude, help us walk in Your fear today, and to honour all who do likewise,  in Jesus name . Amen /

Seeing things aright [ Matthew 25 v31ff ]

Psalm 15 v4 /In whose eyes a vile person is despised, but he honours those who fear the Lord/What I believe is being taught here is ,to look at things aright,and to honour those who are godly. In  Isaiah 5 v20, we read /Woe to those who call evil good and good evil/ ,people often have a distorted veiw of life, there were many who wept at the death of Stalin,and there are many who still admire Hitler'.In the entertainment industry the thieves and robbers are often depicted as heroes,and in many places in the world the godly are despised and persecuted. We should see things as they are,our Saviour saw people as they were sinners,and spoke of a day in which,the godly and ungodly would be judged.[Matthew 25v31ff] W Plumer wrote the following as to our attitude,/The feelings of the righteous towards the wicked is not that proud, haughty, malignant contempt, which marks the behaviour of the wicked towards the children of God. It is just,true,benevolent. It is the abhorrence of his character, not his person /. As to the wicked, we must never forget ,what the apostle points out,/And such were some of you [1 Corinthians 6 v11]/,after all, we are as Christians saved by grace,it is the grace of God that has saved us,and keeps us,and so in seeing things as they are,we should see clearly man as he trully is,a sinner who needs a Saviour. We should pray and encourage those who are  suffering for righteousness sake,and there are so many who are suffering, who are being treated as filth,being destitude,afflicted,tormented,of whom the world is not worthy[Henrews 11v37-38 ]
A  prayer.../ Dear God in this world of distorted veiws and values, help us to see things aright in Jesus name Amen /

Wounded by a friend.[ John 13 v 18 ]

Psalm 15v 3./ or speak evil of their friends [nlt]/,the question is why would a so called friend speak evil of their friend?In Psalm 41v 9,we read the folowing,/Even my close friend in whom I trusted,who ate my bread, has lifted up his heel against me/.These words were fulfilled in Judas Isariot who betrayesd the Lord for 30 pieces of silver[John 13 v 18]. A Friend who slanders or hurts you is not worthy of the name friend,I remember many years ago being told of one I respected, how he slandered me,I felt so hurt. Yet as I look back on my own life I have listened and been influenced by what others have told me about others. Many people have been destroyed by what so called friends have said about them. William  Penn said../Believe nothing against another, but on good authority,nor report what may hurt another, unless it be a greater hurt to another to conceal it/.In the movie Braveheart, William Wallace is shattered to descover that his prince Robert the Bruce was one of those seeking to kill him,he was the last person Wallace thought would have done this.  Consider how our Saviour must have felt when Judas betrayed Him, such wounds by a friend are not faithful, but rather disgraceful.
A  prayer..../ Dear God grant us the grace,to refrain from saying anything about another,or listening to slanderous reports about another, in Jesus name Amen /

Yes I have a dream.[ Luke 10 v 27ff ]

Psalm15 v 3./nor doeth evil to his neighbour/The term neighbour can apply to those whom we live beside,our dear Saviour give a wider meaning to the term neighbour,in Luke 10 v27ff. Israel was a divided society,the world is full of divided societies,I write from experience, my beloved Ulster is a divided society,religious and politically,the lovely island of Cyprus is a divided society ,so many places are divided by hatered, that can spill over into violence.It will always be so,it is the nature of man to erect barriers,but praise God one day,yes I have a dream,when Chist will make all things new, there will be no barriers,that people who have been redeemed, from every nation kindred and tongue,will live together in perfect harmony,yes I have a dream. Until that day may God help us to see all men as our neighbour,and to love them,help them,and to never do them any harm
A prayer...../Dear God help us to see all men as our neighbour,and to love them,help us to watch our words,that they will be purified, form any taint of racisim,or bigotry, in Jesus name Amen /

The tongue. [James 3 ]

Psalm 15 v 3/ This verse starts ,/He that backbiteth not with his tongue[ av],other translations have,/slander/gossip/,the Message simply says ,/Dont hurt your friend/. The control of our tongue is one of the most challenging aspects of being a Christian. It is James the apostle who deals with it in his epistle,W Plumer quotes Sir Walter Raleigh/ If the divines do rightly infer from the sixth commandment,Thou shalt not kill- scandlizing ones neighbour with false and malicious reports, whereby I vex his spirit, and consequently impair his health, is a degree of murder./He also quotes Beveridge,/I am resolved by the grace of God, to speak of other mens sins only before their faces, and of their virtues only behind their backs/.The fact is, in slandering our neighbours,we are hurting them ,hurting ourselves,and dishonouring our God. . There is a little childrens chorus that comes to mind,/ Be careful little lips what you say,be careful little lips what you say,Theres a Saviour up above looking down with tender love,so be careful little lips what you say/.
A  prayer...../ Dear God help us to by Your grace to honour You with our words in Jesus name Amen /

A forked tongue. [ Ephesians 4 v15 ]

 Psalm 15v 2,/and speaketh truth in his heart/I love old cowboy and Indian movies,,and one has to feel a great deal of sympathy for the Indians,for no sooner had the Indians signed a peace treaty,than the white man broke it. The Indians would accuse the white men of speaking with a forked tongue,in other words they  did not speak the truth in their hearts,they said one thing with their lips,but in their hearts they were saying something else. Let us beware of those who speak with a forked tongue, but also let us not copy them,let us speak the truth with our lips and in our hearts.
A prayer...../Dear God help us to speak the truth ,to not speak with a forked tongue , we ask this in the name of Him who is the way ,the truth , and the life, even Jesus Your dear Son. Amen /

A heart of love.[1corinthians 13]

Psalm 15 v 2, we continue to consider ,/Worketh righteousness/  now this is not just a worldly standard,which is often inconsistant,but a doing right according to Gods word,and will. Also religion can be cover for a mulitude of wrongs,there are many religous people in the world,but religion can be but a front,for all sorts of evils,as our Saviour declared[ Matthew23 in this chapter we have the word woe mentioned 8 times ,aimed at very religious inconsistant people]The greatest conflict our Saviour had was with religious people,this is seen right throughout history,religious people  have acted in brutal and cruel ways,consider the inquistion,and the attitude of many in the world of Islam. Last Christmas, a man flung acid at a Ugandan pastor  causing burns to his face and neck,the person who did it, ran away shouting,[Allah Akbar] god is great.The works of righteousness must be motivated by love or they count for nothing[ 1 Corinthians 13 ],for that is how God works,day after day ,He blesses us, out of a heart of love.
A  prayer.../ Dear God help us in our walk to walk aright, help us to manifest love in all we do, in Jesus name Amen /

Our righteousness filthy rags[ 1 Corinthians 1 v29-31 ]

 Psalm 15v 2../He that walketh uprightly, and worketh righteousness/,so from our walk to our works, but not just our works, but of righteousness. Now when it comes to righteousness we must see that our acceptance with a Holy God is not based on our righteousness,in fact we are told that all,yes all, our righteousness are as filthy rags[ Isaiah 64 v6 ]. Barns in his commmentary on Isaiah points out  ,/The sense is that all our prayers,alms,praises,were mingled with pollution, and were worthy only of deep detestation and abhorrence/.The words filthy rags are seen as leprous rags, or menstruous rags,strong words , but it is vital if we are going to be saved,accepted by God that we fully grasp this truth.For there are so many people who do not see this truth,and take pride in what they do, and feel that they will be accepted by their righteousness.The man who went to the wedding feast in Matthew 22, refused to accept the proper garments provided, and was cast out into outer darkness.The important thing that his story is telling us, we cannot enter Gods presence as we are, for God has provided a righteousness for us , in the person and work of our Lord Jesus Christ, in two old testament references we have the term, /The Lord our righteousness[Jeremiah 23v6/ 33v16],in other words it is the Lord Jesus Himself who is our righteousness, this happens when we trust Him as our Saviour.
A  prayer...../Dear God we come to You not in our righteousness ,but in and through Thy Son Jesus, for it is only in Him are we accepted,help us to see how vital this is Amen/

Walking uprightly. [Romans 14 v23 ]

Verse 2 of Psalm 15 ,reads ,/He that walketh uprightly/, the walk of the Christian is very important,it was said of Enoch that he walked with God[Hebrews 11v5 ], and if we are a Christian,we are walking with God.The first thing we see  about Enochs walk ,it was a walk of faith,from the moment we are born again by the Spirit of God,we are called to walk by faith,, in fact we are told , whatsoever is not of faith is sin[ Romans 14v23 ].When I was a young lad I trusted the Saviour,now where I lived it was considered wrong by many Christians to attend places of entertainment, but I Ioved the cinema,still do,but I felt at that time it was wrong for me to continue going to such places,but there was a moment when I went against what I believed was wrong,and went back to attending the cinema. I believe I committed a sin,and this drew me away from the Lord for many years,the point is not about the cinema,or whatever,the point is as NLT puts it,I was doing something I didnt believe was right,so I was sinning.The mark of a man of God is Faith,if we deviate from that path, we are sinning, and God will not be pleased with us.
A  prayer....../ Dear God help us to see that we are called to walk by faith, that when we fail in this we fail,to please You, in Jesus name Amen /

A holy life.[ Ephesians 1 v 4 ]

We considered yesterday if we are to have are to  have a saving relationship with God we must know Christ as our Saviour, well what about the Christian?,as we look at this  15th Psalm we see that there is a tremendous high standard demanded of us,and if we are honest,we ackowledge that  we often fail to meet that standard.First of all let us remember that the goal that we are always to aim at, is holiness,this is not there to mock us,but to challenge us, and we must never loose sight of that goal.Of course we do fail yet this does not effect our standing before God,my children our still my children even when they do wrong,but the wrong must be dealt with,because it will have consequences,hinder our prayers, rob us of our peace,grieve,quench the Holy Spirit.It is John in His epistle who stresses the importance of walking in the light[1 John 1v7 ]if we are sinning we are not walking in the light,and our fellowship with God is affected.We are saved by grace, that  means we are accepted unconditionally,but grace is never a licence to sin[ Galations 5 v13 ],going back to what I said earlier,we must always rise to the challenge of being holy.The old hymn declares ,Oh to grace how great a debtor,daily Im constrained to be,we owe God everything,He has saved us,we will always be in His debt,we can never repay that debt,but surely in gratitude we can this day rise to the challenge of a holy life.
A prayer..../ Dear God we praiseYou  for Your grace that saved us we owe everything to You and always will, help us in gratitude this day to be Holy in Jesus name Amen /