I am home sick. (Colossians 3 v 1-4)

Someone described a former President of America and his wifes new home,as looking like heaven,so if you want to know what heaven looks like,go and look at that home. Well lets come back to reality,I   believe heaven will be a wonderful place,I know that only those who know Jesus will go there,I know our triune God is there,and the angels are there,I know that there will be no sickness or sorrow ,and no death, all suffering will have ceased,no lonliness or fear will exsist,it will be a place of perfect harmony, we will never feel anger, we will be perfectly content,everyone will be our friend,everyone will be our family,it will be truly wonderful.Comparing a building here to be like heaven,is foolishness.There is so much we don't know,but this I do know it will be wonderful beyond description, it will truly be heavenly. As one writer puts it ,Heaven is not simply a polished enhanced and sanitized version of earth,a different and better tune played on the old,familiar instruments. It will be new!

                                                  'Are you going to heaven?

                                                   or are you going to......?

Facing Giants( 1 Samuel 17)

 The account of David fighting Goliath brings to all of us a challenge as we face our adversities, someone has said ,'we may not be facing a Goliath,but we do have our giants'.Consider David, a young man ,why was he not filled  with fear?why was he different?.There are times when  we all feel fear, we have to be honest about that,it does not make us a lesser Christian.But faith is not about feelings,we are not meant to be ruled by our feelings,(Romans 8 v 15), What helped David to be different from Israel?, who were scared out of their wits,was that David knew how God had helped him in the past,and so he believed that He would help in the present. When David  was minding his fathers sheep,he tells of two seperate occasions  ,when a lion and a bear attacked the sheep,on both  occasions he killed them.so he reasoned that if God helped him in dealing with those creatures,he would help him deal with that giant Goliath,and He did. Let us remember that God has not changed,he can help us face and overcome that spirit of fear that is gripping  us. Yes we all  have our gaints and we always will have, but we can always say, 'I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty,and rest assured you will have the vistory.

                                                  'If God be for us,who can be against 

                                                   us......In all these things we are more

                                                   than conquerors through Him who

                                                   loved us'  (Romans 8 v 31/37)

                  

                                                

The wrath of God . ( Romans 1 v 18- 32)

In Romans 1 v 18,we read,'The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth  by their wickedness'.One does not have to go far into the Bible ,to see God's wrath in action,(Genesis 6-7)  Let us never forget that God is never neutral, when it comes to sin.be it in the unbelievers life or the Christians life. The Christians is covered by the shed blood of Christ,and he will be chastised when they sin, and of course forgiveness is given when their is repentance .The unbeliever has no such covering, so what awaits them  is the wrath of God. How would one describe the wrath of God.John Stott says,'The wrath of God describes  His revulsion against sin,He has a deep abhorrence of evil'.As we should , never make light of sin,every sin offends God,he does not categorise sin, they are all equally evil to God,there is no such thing as a venial sin,and a mortal sin, that is saying that some sins are really not very important. God will not overlook them.Read that verse again,'The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness,'See that word ,'All'  ,there are no sins brushed unnder the mat.in Hebrews 4 v13 we read,'Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight.Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of Him to whom we must give account'.He  sees all the skeletons in the closet of our lives,one day everything will be laid bare before the unsaved and they will receive the just punishment they deserve.If you are not saved ,everyday that  you live is drawing you closer to experiencing the wrath of almighty God.It doesn't have to be that way,if we  but believe  in the Lord Jesus we will be saved from God's wrath(Acts 16 v31)    

                                                       'Come every soul by sin oppressed,

                                                        There's mercy with the Lord'.

Thank your luckly stars.( Psalm 20 v 7)

I was at the opticians,and I saw that the optician was wearing a bead bracelet, I know that muslins use prayer beads,they honour their god repeating his name,or for asking forgiveness.So I asked the optician was he a  Moslem he said he wasn't, he siad he wasn't,but I think he may have been, but he said the beads were to bring him good luck. The thing is ,will those beads bring him good luck ?.will a rabbits foot bring one good luck?,it wasn't very lucky for the rabbit. When footballers are going out to play,they often cross themselves,people have a number they consider lucky. There is a saying,'thank your lucky stars',and of course there are things that people believe will bring them bad luck,like walking under a ladder. As I was leaving the opticians ,the optician shook my hand,I  said to him I will not wish you good luck,but I pray the Lord will bless you.As  a Christian I don't believe in good luck,lets face it ,how can beads do anything for anybody?  ,the answer is they can't. The Christian does not buy into the blind superstitions of this world ,their faith is in almighty God. When David faced Goliath (1 Samuel 17) he said,'I come to you in the name of the Lord of  Heaven's Armies'.When Abraham was called by God to leave his home land,we read,' By faith he obeyed ' ( Hebrews 11v 8).Faith, not in meaningless so called luck,faith in God,who alone rules over all things,our going out and our coming in.Let us cast down all the false and foolish idea's that poor blind people hold unto and let us trust in the living God.

                                                     'Trust in the Lord with all thine heart;

                                                      and lean not unto thine own understanding.

                                                      In all thy ways acknowledge Him,and

                                                      shall direct thy paths.'

                                                                   Proverbs 3 v 5-6

                                                      

A closer walk with God. ( Hebrews 12 v 1-3 )

Last time we considered our position in Christ, now let us consider  what Saria said,'She wanted to have a closer walk  with God'. Yes we are children of God, that's our position,but about our walk with God, When a soldier marches on the spot,it's called ,'Marking Time', that means maintaining their position,without moving in any direction. That's not walking with God,if that's all we are doing then we are not walking with God. Jesus said follow Me,it implies walking,no standing still,everyday brings with it the challenge to walk with our Saviour,it is a walk of faith,keeping ones eyes fixed  on Jesus,take your eyes of Him, and you start walking in the darkness.Walking in the paths of righteousness,one cannot walk with Christ  and walk in sin,we must walk in the light,and all that it means,'if we say we have fellowship with Him and walk in darkness,we lie'(1John 1 v 6).Our walk must be a walk of love, so easy to forget that,it means loving God ,with all our being and to love others (Matthew 22 v 37) .It must be a walk of obedience, disobedience has a cost with it,consider the terrible price brought upon humanity.Last but not least our walk has a goal in mind we are walking on a pathway towards heaven,

                                                            

Brought near to God. ( John 1 v 11-13 ) 1

Saria came up to me in church and she said,I want to have a closer walk with God,she is a very earnest Christian,and gifted Christian,she is also a very godly person.And yet she wants to have a closer walk with God.I said two things to her the first applies to all Christians,it tells us about our position in Christ. In Ephesians 2 v 13,we read ,'Once you were far away from God, but now you have been brought near to Him through the blood of Christ'.Gatesby Paget wrote the following,

                                    'By nature and by practice far,how very far from God;

                                    Yet now by grace bro't nigh to Him,through faith in

                                     Jesus blood.

                                     So near,so very near to God,I cannot nearer be;

                                      For in the person of His Son,I am as near as He'

                                   

Our security. ( 2 Timothy 4 v 16 -18)

 George Matheson was a minister in Scotland,he was a prolific writer ,even though he was blind,he also composed  a number of hymns.His most well known hymn was ,'O love that wilt not let me go'.It is thought that two experiences inspired him to write that hymn.The first one was as a young man he realised that he was loosing his sight,he was engaged to a girl, and he told her that he was going blind,she didn't take that to kindly,and ended her relationship with him,The next was in relation to his sister,who supported him,and as a blind person he depended on her. His sister came to him and told him she was getting married,this must him affected  him greatly.Following that there was a moment when he felt led by the Holy Spirit to write that hymn,he said it only took him 5 minutes to write it.In writing this song the words from Psalm 139 v 9-10 influenced him, they read, 'If I take the wings of the morning,and dwell in the uttermost most parts of the sea; Even there shall thy hand lead me,and thy right hand shall hold me,' It reminds us that God's hand will reach out and lay hold of us,no matter where we are,and what we are going through .He will hold us up and help us to stand.