Honesty the best policy ( Numbers 32 v23 )

I found ten pounds recently lying on the floor of a shop,so I was faced with a decision,do I keep it?,after all it's only ten pounds.but I handed it into a worker ,who reported it to her superior,and that was it.Not really I shared with  the shop worker how there time in the past when I had little money,if I would find money I  would hand into the local police station  I knew if it wasn't claimed in a certain time it would become mine,I must confess I hoped no one would claim it,times were hard. I do believe honesty is the best policy, after all on one has to live with one's self,and who wants a guilty conscience?I remember reading about Maria ,Hudson Taylor's wife, in case you don't know Hudson founded the' China Inland Mission', it is worthwhile to read about him.Back to Maria she served with her husband in his work.She died aged 33 of Cholera,one the things she said before she died,that there was nothing between her and God.What she meant was,that was no sin between her and her God. On confessed sin even in the believers life ,it will not affect your standing before God,but it will affect your relationship with Him.So what's the answer? well it is John who tells us,'If we confess our sins,He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness'.( 1 John 1 v 9 )

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Legalisim (Matthew 23)

 As I get older I get more emotional and can cry easy,our dear Saviour  was an emotional person,we read how he wept,I'm sure He must have laughed , In Mark 3 v 5,we read that he became angry at the Pharisees ,it all happened when our Saviour visited the synagogue,there was a man present who had a shrivelled hand. There were Pharisees present,they watched Him closely to see if He would heal the man, for it was the Sabbath.I must confess that one writer says this about the Pharisees.'They were good religious men and we should feel sorry for them,Jesus was not sorry for them,we read ,'He looked around at them in anger and was deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts,or their hard hearts.No He didn't feel sorry for them,and He did not let them,stop Him from healing that poor man. Jesus was not breaking the law, He was challenging these so called law keepers,who had added unto the law,and in doing that they destroyed the true essence of the law. There are so many religions that are legalistic and they make life terrible for people.As Christians we must keep the commandments,but we must not add on those things that  we become like those Pharisees. Let me just add, we are not saved by the law,but we must live by moral boundaries that God has laid down.

Jesus the only hope ( Revelation 2 v1 - 8)

Raymond Brown in his book on Hebrews writes ,' Jesus has come into the world into the world to show us what man is like in God's original purpose and what man can be through Christ's effective work'. As we look at this world as it is,we see how far we have deteriated from God's original creation.The deluded evolutionist tells us that we have evolved from a lower to a higher species.No ,man was created as perfect human beings, but the sad fact is ,we are not improving as human beings, one would think that we some how would have learned that if we keep on the way we are going, it will be disasterous.From hopelessness to a message of hope,think of what Raymond Brown said,that 'what humanity can be through Christ's effective work'.God's purpose in Jesus coming is good news for us sinners,.His death on the cross, means our sins can be forgiven,and our lives can be transformed.and we can live eternally.no longer are we headig for hell,no we are heading for a new heaven and a new earth and we will be with Jesus,and we will be like Jesus,perfect.

                                                              'Despair not ,hope in Jesus'

Healings ( Luke 18 v 27)

 I was visiting a friend,who struggles with life,even more so .as he grows older, he has been a Christian a long time. He often says why do we not see miracles now,I'm sure there are reasons ,there are who believe that the miracles we read in scripture ,have ceased.I'm reluctant to say that,but it is true that we don't see miracles ,and I don't have an answer.I am very reluctant to give people false hope,but it is obvious that God can heal .As I write this I remember a friend who had an illness,that no one survives from,he was healed,and showed me the before and after x-rays,the before showed how the illness had affected his lungs,and the after  showed that it was all clear. All I can say if it is God's will He will heal,he will answer our prayers and even heal people.1 John 5 v14-15 reads,''This is the confidence we have in approaching God;that if we ask anything according to His will,he hears us.And if  we know that he hears us,whatever we ask,we know that we have what we asked of Him.''

Why oh why? ( Philippians 2 v5-11)

No one likes being humiliated ,when I was in the army as a boy soldier,there was an occasion when a certain corporal was giving us drill and he called one of the young lads out.And he berated him saying this is what we have to face the Russians with, the cold war was still a reality.That young lad must have felt humiliated ,it is not nice to be humiliated,no one likes it,one feels a sense of shame.The word of God tells us this about our Saviour,that before he came into this world He had equality with God, In other words the angels worshipped Him (Hebrews 1 v 6),by Him all things were made (Hebrews 1 v2),just to remind you that God is a triune being,Father,Son,and Holy Spirit, they are not three gods,they are one, and they work in harmony with each other.But this is what God the Son did,He left aside the trappings of His deity, and  did something incredible,he took up the humble  position of a slave and became human.And then He humbled Himself in obedience to God,by dying on a cross. Those who put Him on that cross hated Him, during his three and a half years of ministry,they hated him with a vehemence that reached a transcendo of viciousness and cruelty,when they arrested Him they sought to totally humiliate Him. Why oh why did He go through all that?,the answer is simple but profound ,to bring salvation to a lost world,to save you, and to save me.

There is hope ( Luke 23 v 39- 43)

I heard these words recently ,' You may not know it ,your not beyond redemption'.the apostle Paul called himself the chief of sinners,and then he added,''Of whom I am worse''.  ( 1 Timothy 1 v 15) In Romans 5 v  6 we read ,'Christ died for the ungodly'.In the Gospels the religious people appeared not to offer any hope of salvation to those they thought were sinners,inspite of the fact that their greatest king sinned greatly and was forgiven,we speak of David who committed adultery and murder.Many people today are a bit like the Pharisees they don't hold out much hope for people being forgiven. The reason Christ came was to save sinner,no matter how sinful they  are,no matter how wicked they have been. The nation of Israel so often in their history sinned against God who is holy,yet God said to them,''Come now,let us reason together,''Says the Lord,''Though your sins are like scarlet,they shall be as white as snow; Though they are red as crimson,they shall be as wool'.(Isaiah 1 v18) Forgiveness is offered no matter if you are a deep died sinner,you can be forgiven if you turn to Jesus in repentance and seek forgiveness you will be saved.

         

                                                     'The vilest offender who truly believes,

                                                      That moment from Jesus a pardon receives,'

                                                                   Word F J.Crosby

He knows what He's doing ( 1Corinthians 1 v26-29) 4Gideon

Lets consider another lesson from Gideon when he was he was faced with an army of many thousands and he had only three hundred soldiers, to the natural eye,it was absurd ,and yet those three hundred won the victory.Remember David and the giant,in 1Samuel 17,and how David little more than a boy won the victory over that giant,God knows what He is doing.His ways are not our ways,in  Isaiah 55v  8-9 we read,'For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,' declares the Lord. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts' God chooses nobodies and make them somebodies,that's God way ,He knows what He is doing,so trust Him and obey Him.