Avoiding the Dirt. ( Colossians 3 v 12 )

I was getting out of my car,and the ground was muddy and so I tried to avoid the dirt, that sort of dirt is not much of a problem,but there so much moral dirt about which we need to avoid.On the Internet there is pornography ,there are movies that are not suitable, comedians whom we should  not  listen to. There are those are those who would want to bring us down to their level,better to walk alone than to walk with them.Now I am not calling for a holier than thou attitude, but I am stressing the importance of holiness.In Exodus 28 we have a description of  the priestly attire,one of the things he wore was  a pure gold plate,which was attached to his turban, it had the following words engraved upon it,' Holiness to the Lord'. These are very important words,these words remind us all of the challenge of being holy.Holiness is a state of separation  to God, and conduct befitting that separation. The scripture declares ',Make every effort to live in peace with everyone and be holy;without holiness no one will see the Lord.'.  ( Hebrews 12  v 14)

J W' s ( 1 Corinthians 2 v 6 - 16 )

Had my usual visit from the J W s ,it is very frustrating,talking to them,the fact is they do not understand Biblical truth,well how could they?.They are not born again,so they have not received the Holy Spirit, so that has consequences, here is what the Bible writes about these people, 'The person without the Spirit does not accept the things, that come from the Spirit of God but considers  them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit'. (  1 Corinthians  2 v 14 ) It means that they lean upon their own understanding,and reject the very obvious teaching of scripture,and no matter what one may say ,it will not be accepted. When we become a Christian we enter into life of faith,we accept things that most J W' s reject  for example ,the Trinity, heaven is for all believers,but  not so for J W's, their teaching on blood transfusions,is  a dangerous belief , and is not taught in scripture,one could mention other things,but the sad fact is they have no true spiritual understanding of scripture.It is not easy to speak to them for they,are not listening to what one says. the god of this world has blinded them, its as serious as that.

I am the worse. ( Luke 18 v 9 - 14 )

It is Paul who writes in 1 Timothy 1 v 15,' Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners,of whom I am the worse'. Where did He come from? ,the answer is ,from Heaven.Yes Jesus preexisted before He was born in Bethlehem,  C P,  John 1 v 1 / 17 v 5/ 2  Corinthians 8 v 9 . Why did He leave heaven and come to earth? the answer is very simple and very important ,'To save sinners', Mohammad cannot save sinners,Buddha  cannot save sinners,only Jesus can do that,that's why he came.Why did Paul say that he was the worse of sinners?,surely there were worse sinners  than Paul.Yes there were worse sinners than Paul ,on these words John Stott writes the following,'The truth is that when we are convicted of sin by the Holy Spirit,an immediate result is that we give up all comparisons.Paul was so vividly aware of his own sins that he could not conceive that anybody could be worse. It is the language of every sinner whose conscience has been awakened and disturbed by the Holy Spirit.'

Why did Jesus come ? ( 1 Timothy 1 v 15 )

I said last  time that Gods love is not blind,because His is a holy love,that means He see's us as we really are,sinners.We try to ignore or even resent those words,and there are even some foolish ministers who do not like using the word sinner, They feel that it will offend people,it more than likely does,but that's neither here or there,it is the truth,and until a person accepts the fact that they are sinners,they will never get to heaven. They will  say ,no one is perfect,yes they can accept those words,but they will not accept that they are sinners,and unless that sin is forgiven they will never enter heaven.

How great is your darkness? ( John 1 v 1 - 5 )

There he was walking on the other side of the road, I have spoken to him a number of times while out walking. So I crossed over and talked to him,now I had a gospel leaflet in my pocket,so I asked him would he accept it. He started edging away from me, saying he had it in his head, and that people were his gods,so I  carried on with my walking, and as I walk along I passed a tree and there on the  ground, beside the tree was plate of food and a glass of water.I wondered what that meant,it appears to be a Hindu practise,relating to their beliefs,trees and animals can be seen as sacred.Of course humanity worships so many different things ,Our Lord Jesus said in Matthew 6 v 23,'If then the light that is in you is darkness, how great is your darkness.'People are full of all sorts of beliefs weird and strange ,that man who said he worshipped people,was saying that was his light. The person who bows before a tree, is saying that's my light, that is what I believe, Jesus declares how great is their darkness, there darkness is great.Jesus declared ,'I am the light of the world . Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the life of light'.( John 8 v  12 )

Forsaken, Forgotten? ( Hebrews 13 v 5 )

Had God forgotten Joseph when his brothers sold into slavery,and when he was unjustly cast into prison?. Had God forgotten Job when he lost his family,possessions ,health?,had God forgotten Jeremiah when he cast into a pit?or when Paul was beaten and put into a prison?. If I added your name to the list,by adding your difficulties that you may be having,and ask do you think God has forgotten you?.In Mark 4 v 35 ff we read that the disciples where in a boat with Jesus, suddenly a storm came up the boat was in danger of sinking. Now all the time Jesus was sleeping,and did not appear that Jesus cared if they perished,they even told him as much.Now that takes it to another level, It is a fact that when we are in difficulties and it appears that the Lord is not responding ,and does not appear to be even listening to ones prayers that we think all sorts of things?.In Isaiah 49 v 14 we have Gods people declaring, 'The Lord has forsaken me,the Lord has forgotten me'.Here is what God replies.'Can a mother forget the baby at her breast, and have no compassion on the child she has borne?.Though she may forget I will not forget you. See I have engraved you on the palms of my hands.( Isa v 49 v 15 - 16 ) That's the word of the Lord for you today.

You are ( John 3 v 16 )

We read that God  is love  ( 1 John  4 v 8 ) and we read  ,that God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten  Son,  that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3 v 16 ) God loves the world , here it means people,you and I,everyone without exception.But lets contrast Gods love with with human love,   Derek Tidball writes the following ',Human love is usually 'Eros' ,it loves those who are worthy, lovable and able  to love us in return. It is characterised by desire, often a desire to possess'. He goes to contrast this with Gods love,using the word  'Agape' agape love is one that loves the unworthy,and does so freely....Gods love differs from ours,not just in quantity but in kind'.Gods love is not a blind love, no it is an all knowing love,he knows our innermost thoughts,our secret sins,our open sins, He knows everything about everybody. In spite of the fact that we are unloving, unthankful ,We will continue this next time.

Comfort Zone ( Matthew 9 v 9 )

I  remember speaking at  a reasonably large church, and I said that  I felt a bit out of my comfort zone,as I  usually speak at small churches. We do hear this phrase ,'comfort zone, ' mentioned at times ,it usually implies a place or task  your comfort with. So it is when we feel we are being pushed out of our comfort zone, whatever it may be,we become anxious,resentful ,we could even feel anger. When Israel was in the wilderness , and things were difficult, they began speaking of Egypt as their comfort zone ( Numbers 11 v 18) ,even though the Egyptians had treated them as slaves,and on Pharaoh's orders ,they had to destroy their little children.( Exodus 1 v 22 ) It is so sad,so tragic that peoples comfort zone,is a place of darkness,slavery,a place of no hope,for we are told people love darkness rather than life (John 3 v 19.),love for such a comfort zone,has dire consequences.God offers all, life and life abundant,do not be fooled  by your so called comfort zone, come to Christ and know him who is the true comforter.oh yes it will be challenging,but there is nothing wrong with a challenge,and in the end it  will be for the best.

I will venture { Psalm 23 v 4 )

John Bunyan author of ,'Pilgrims Progress',spent many years in prison for preaching the Gospel' While in prison,fear took hold of him,''my imprisonment'' ,he thought, ''might end on the gallows''. Later on he was ashamed of being afraid,''Methought I was ashamed to die with a pale face.',so  finally he came to the conclusion as he thought of himself climbing up the ladder to the gallows. Wherefore he thought , I am for going on and venturing my eternal state with Christ whither I have comfort  here or no, if God doth not come in, I will leap of the ladder even blindfold into eternity, sink or swim, come heaven, come hell. He finished by praying,''Lord Jesus, if thou wilt catch me,do; if not, I will venture for thy name''.

Not half done. (Hebrews 7 v 25 )

Some people are not very good at 'Do it yourself',' so some jobs in the home, don't get finished,so the wife nags them,asking them the inevitable question ,when are you going to finish that job?. It reminds me how many people think that Jesus never finished the work of salvation,the result is they think  that they need to finish it,to as it were, give it that final touch. They are either told by  some supposed authority, that they must do their bit,good works,law keeping,etc.Here is what Jesus said just before He died on the cross,''It is finished'' ( John 19 v 30 ),that means what it says,'it is finished', I repeat this again 'it is finished.'In Hebrews 7 v 25, we read, 'Therefore He is able to save completely those who come to God through Him, because He always lives to intercede for them'.

Needing to be. ( 1 John 4 v 7 - 8 )

Princess Diana  said ''the greatest disease in the world is the disease of being unloved'',multitudes of people are seeking for one thing love.Broken relationships abound in so many place,leaving multitudes feeling unloved. I am sure most of us would agree with that,most parents would say that they love their children yet they can treat them in a very unloving way,and that effects those children for the rest of their lives. I heard of a Christian girl whose married,says she does not want to have children, in case she treats her children like her father treated her, and her father was a minister. Some religious people can be very severe with their children,spare the rod and spoil the child is there motto.Of course children need discipline,but there is extreme discipline that can damage a child. Looking back I know I made many mistakes, I was far from being the perfect father,so I am speaking now from hind sight. Thankfully my children are all better fathers than I was,but here is the point I did love my children.The wonderful thing about being a Christian,we can learn from our mistakes,and by Gods grace we can become more loving,with our children,our spouses,our neighbours,with everyone,for they all need to be loved.

Wrestling ( Ephesians 6 v 10 )

One last thought on wrestling,and its not so much to do an individual, but  for every Christian,and we read about it in Ephesians 6 v 12,it is in the  AV,' For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities,against powers,against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against  spiritual  wickedness in high places'. Now without going into all the forces arrayed against us,  I would caution to not get  paranoid as regards what it said , the fact is we as Christians have a real struggle on our hands, there are forces arrayed against us. The hymn writer wrote,'I've wrestled on towards heaven,gainst storm, and wind and tide'.Let us first of all realise we are not going to reach our heavenly destination on flowery beds of ease.We are faced with a struggle,we have to use all the resources that God has provided for us, Ephesians 6 v 11, v 18 reminds us the importance of praying in the Spirit,who will surely grant all we need in our onward struggle.

Wrestling ( Luke 22 v 44 )

Consider the description of Epaphras praying ,it is likened unto one who wrestles ,the effort of Epaphras' prayers was like the intense effort of a Greek athlete contending for a prize....this intense effort was ceaseless,always wrestling (J. A. Beet )Now prayer takes many forms ,the hymn writer describes prayer as ,'the souls desire uttered or unexpressed,a sigh,a tear,the upward glancing of an eye, the simplest form of speech ( James Montgomery) Now all those things are legitimate ,if they are sincere and from the heart.they are acceptable to God. I remember many years ago my Pastor telling us about a well known evangelist,who was staying in a hotel,and when the person came to make the bed,the sheets were all ripped,that evangelist had been wrestling in prayer Consider our Saviour in the garden praying ,we read,'and being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground ( Luke 22 v 44 ) Now that's wrestling in prayer, may God grant unto us that our prayers may not just be words.

Wrestling ( Ephesians 6 v 18 )

We continue to look at Epaphras the servant of Christ who prayed for his fellow believers,yes he prayed,but consider how he prays,we read that he was always praying.I showed a person recently a plaque with these words on  it,'Prayer changes things'. I asked him if he believed this,his reply and further conversation,indicated that he may have prayed earlier in his life, but not now.Churches used to have prayer meetings, but not now. But Epaphras  was always praying, he had not given up,or given in,no he was always praying.The hymn writer  wrote,'We perish if we cease to pray,' are you perishing?Here is part of a prayer I read,'O God of the open ear,teach me to live by prayer',help me prize the privilege of prayer,that when I advance not in prayer,I backslide,may I be helped by your Spirit,to pray,to pray, to pray,in Jesus name . Amen.

Wrestling ( 1 Timothy 2 v 1 )

From Jacob to a man you may not have heard of,we read about him in Colossians 4 v 12 , his name was Epaphras ,Paul calls him a servant of Christ Jesus.We do not know  much about his service,other than  what  Paul writes, that he was always wrestling in prayer for the believers in the church at Colossae. Do we realise that prayer can be an important service, for your local church,when we talk about the church we are talking about the people,.Such a ministry is indispensable,and vitally important, our Pastors needs our prayers ,the sick need our prayers,the young people need our prayers,the sorrowing need our prayers.and so we could go on,let us pray for one another,let this be part of our service.

Wrestling ( Genesis 32 v 26 )

So there was Jacob wrestling with an angel and the angel requests of Jacob to let him go, but Jacob had other  ideas ,and this is what he replied,''I will not let you go unless you  bless me''.  ( Genesis 32 v 26)  Why did he request this?,here is an answer,  its found in ,Proverbs  10 v 22, 'The blessing of the Lord ,it maketh rich , and addeth  no sorrow with it. ''. My ,  no wonder he wanted to be blessed   ,consider the following,' I'll that He blesses  is our good and unblest good is ill, and all is right that seems most wrong if it be His sweet will'.Later on Jacob would experience heartache when Joseph his favourite son was perceived dead ,but this man had Gods blessing upon him, and it all worked out for good.                                                           

Wrestling ( Genesis 32 v 26 )

So here we continue to consider Jacob wrestling all night with the Angel of God,he has received a permanent limp,but he keeps on wrestling, even when he the angel requested him to let him go.His response to this request was this,''I will not let you go unless you bless me''.Jacob wanted something that was so important the blessing of God in his life. There are many who humanly speaking  have  everything,money,health,etc,all that counts for nothing if the blessing of  God is not upon their  lives. The first and most important blessing from God we all need is  the forgiveness of our sins,it cannot be bought , but we can miss it so easily. The result is truly awful ,the sin that is in our lives can continue to control us and destroy our lives,and most awful of all,take us to Hell,and shut us eternally out of Heaven. We receive the blessing of forgiveness through Christs death on the cross,but we must seek it whole heartily,as if are lives depended on it,which it does..Blessed is the one whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered ( Psalm 32 v 1 )

Wrestling ( Genesis 32 v 23 - 32 )

 When I think of wrestling I think  of 'Big Daddy', whose real name was Shirely Crabtree ,he was a  big man ,he had a 64 inch chest,he rarely got beat.One was never sure how genuine the contest were,but it was fun to watch,and indeed somewhat innocent .In the Bible we have a mention of two people involved in wrestling ,the first one was Jacob who wrestled all night with an angel  ( Hosea 12 v 4 ) the angel of Jehovah ,the Lord Himself.No one appeared to win but we can be sure that the angel could have won,but there was a purpose,first of all he was weakened permanently,  by the angel, sometimes God weaken us C P ..2 Corinthians 12 v 7 ff .to keep us humble, and to make us realise our dependence on God,and to make sure He will receive all the glory.

Alcohol ( Colossians 2 v 16 )

 Over the last few years at Christmas a neighbour  gives me a present,usually it is box of biscuits and a bottle of alcoholic drink,this year it was a bottle of whiskey. Now the question some may be asking is it not wrong for a Christian to drink alcohol ?.it could be that some think  it is even a sin,they may even doubt that those who drink are  saved.There are Christian denominations in which one is not be permitted to join if one drinks alcohol.  Now of course, one does not have to have ,much of a brain to realise that there are problems with drinking alcohol ,many are  slaves to it,and it destroys lives,families ,causes road deaths. I would never  advocate the drinking of alcohol,but I am not going to set myself as a judge as regards those who drink.I 'm sure the key is moderation in all things, let us remember that all things are lawful,but not everything is beneficial, we have the right to do anything, but we should not be mastered by anything.  ( 1 Corinthians 6 v 12)

Why ?. ( Philippians 1 v 29 )

I just received an update  on Christians who are suffering for their faith, like Pastor Nadarkani who is serving a ten year sentence in prison, in the land of Iran.There are three other Christians serving sentences also,and I could name a lot more who are serving time in prison.Many Christians have been murdered in northern Nigeria, one picture I saw recently was that of three women who each had one ear cut off. It all seems so meaningless, and we may ask the question why, such brutality? why indeed. It is Derek Tidball who wrote the following, ''We should never be surprised when suffering comes as a result of our standing for the gospel, for we live in the midst of a crooked and depraved generation ( Philippians 2 v  15 ); and are  surrounded by people who live as enemies of the cross of Christ''.

Hedging ones bets. ( Acts 17 v 16 - 34 )

A well known news reader spoke of his experience when he had cancer,and then he mentioned certain things that he kept,a good luck charm,rosary beads, and a stone carving of a Hindu deity. A Clinton Arnold refers to a prayer excavated in Egypt ,it reads' Hor, Hor, Hor, Phor, Eloei, Adonai, Lao,Sabaoth, Michael, Jesus Christ. Help us and this household, Amen.' When people do these things,pray such things, they are so far from the truth,and so confused,In Colossians 2 v  9, we read,' For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form'.In Isaiah 46 v 9, we read,'I am God, and there is no other'.In these words we hear Christ speaking, we hear the Father speaking,we hear the Holy Spirit speaking,the blessed triune God .And God the Son declared that He was the way ,the truth and the life, and no one could come unto the father but by Him ( John 14 v 6 ) All other ways are delusional ,and pointless, all they are doing is hedging there bets.

His Destiny . ( Revelation 13 v 8 )

So Christmas has gone it is all over for another year,people will take their Christmas lights down,and try to get to back to a degree of normality.No more corals, no more listening to that famous song where the words go,'I'm dreaming of a white Christmas',nice song ,but I so glad we did not have a white Christmas.it's all over till next time.Christmas may be over,but it is not the end,no, the Christ child moved on with a purpose, he became a young boy then a young man, still moving on ,and as he walked he had the shadow of a cross falling over Him. The cross was his destiny, yes there were those who would try to stop him,but thankfully they all failed. Lets us offer a prayer of thanksgiving, for the bravest man who ever lived,the holiest man who ever lived,the only who never sinned,and yet on that cross he would pay the price for our sin.

Then why the Law?. ( Romans 7 )

If no one can keep the law, why was it given by God? to make what sin is,as Paul the apostle writes ,'I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had said,'you shall not covet'. ( Romans 7 v 7) .This is a very important reason why ministers must not avoid spelling out clearly,what is a sin,the morality of the world can be a very flawed thing, and often goes contrary to what Gods word declares as sin.I remember saying that a certain thing was a sin ,and was told that's your opinion.No it was not just my opinion ,it was based on what God's word said, the person who said this was a minister.When God's word declares that something is a sin,it should not be a matter of opinion, it is a sin.As Christians we must not lean on our own understanding,or the worlds understanding ,as regards morality.

It is impossible . ( Romans 3 v 23 )

The path of legalism is a dead end,so writes Derek Tidball, most religions demand that one obeys certain rules if one is going to be accepted.The JWs are expected to do their appointed hours on the    doorsteps,the Jews have many rules they are meant to keep Derek Tidball  does point out that most Jewish Christians would have agreed that the Law was not merit- earning or favour- inducing.But this still plagued the church by stressing that these rules and laws were indispensable.Those who add on anything to the Gospel are in grave error.Our acceptance by God rules out law keeping,if we are to be saved  then it must be Christ and His finished work that saves.The law which is good was never meant to save us, it was yes to be obeyed, but not to save, no ,but it has another lesson to teach us, and its this,we are sinners. The fact is no one except Jesus ,who never sinned,can or could ever  not break the law, our sinful nature,makes it impossible to keep the law.

Whose world is it. ( Psalm 24 v 1 - 2 )

Greta Thunberg a 16 yr old Swedish girl has become an international environmentalist,listening to her on the TV ,she mentioned a couple of things. People do not appear to be acting on the issues raised as regards global warming.It was President Putin who commenting on what this little girl was doing,that the issues as regards the environment are complicated. Could it be that one of the issues why people are not acting on what Greta was saying,is that they are not prepared to leave their'comfort zone'.We possible are unwilling to pay the price of  the changes that are necessary, I think it is  complicated ,but the fact is the problems are not going away,by doing nothing.In Psalm 24 we are told ,'The earth is the Lord's and everything in it,the world, and all who live in it.' We are but the tenants of this world, and if I owned a home, and had a tenant,I would not be to pleased if they destroyed my home. Well what can we say to all this?let all of us begin to be better tenants of planet earth.

It is Finished. ( Colossians 1 V 13 - 14 )

On the cross  Jesus uttered the following words,'it is finished',what did He mean?,we speak of the finished work of Christ,what it simply means,is this,he finished the work of salvation,and that work was, dealing with sin and its terrible consequences for humanity.Listen there is no more horrible thing than sin, and no greater punishment .Everyone who dies in their sin must suffer eternal separation from a holy God, no matter how much we try,there is nothing, we can do ,to deal with our sin,and nothing we can do, to escape the consequences of our sin,absolutely nothing. It is all of Jesus or nothing,it is Gods remedy,it is the only remedy Thomas Kelly wrote ,'Inscribed upon the cross we see,In shining letters, God is love.He bears our sins upon the cross,He brings us mercy from above'

Do not fear.

Just want to leave a verse with you as you go into the new year,God is speaking  ,'So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand'.  ( Isaiah 41 v 10 )