He had not changed.( 2 Corinthians 5 v17)

 'We are all going to need a lot of forgiving on our way to our final rest',(B Webb/BST),it was written about Christians,that may sound strange,but the fact is,as Christians we still sin,in word,in thought,and in deed. That is a fact that cannot be denied, a certain famous Christian said I'm not a sinner,even though the Bible says,''If we claim to be without sin,we deceive ourselves,and the truth is not in us''(1 Jn 1v8) We must remember that,but John does not stop there in chap 3 v 6, we read,' No one who lives in  Him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen Him or known Him'.It is John Stott who writes the following,'It is not the isolated act of sin which is envisaged, but the settled habit of it, indicated by the verb poiei ,to do or to practice'. In v9 we read,'No one who is born of God will continue to sin', again we turn to what J/ S writes ,'' He is not able to sin habitually''.If there is no permanent change in a person's life,and they persist in their sinful ways,then they are not Christians.I knew someone  who was a abuser,sent to prison ,professed to be saved was baptised,but it was obvious he had not changed.

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Have you a hero? (John 13 v 37 -38)

My son Brian  spoke of the man who was his hero,and so now in a sense he is villian,he has fallen of his pedestal I think it's a foolish thing to put someone on a pedestal and call them your hero.I'm sure many people put king David on a pedestal,by all acconts he was a good looking person,he was very brave,won many battles,and so we could go on ,yes he was a very great man,but then he fell of his pedestal.Take Lord Nelson ,a very brave man,he won so many battles,but he fell of his pedestal,he committed adultery,with Lady Hamilton.Putting people on a pedestal and making them your hero is leaving yourself open, to disapointment.It may seem that I'm being cynical,I'm not, I have friends and I love them,and I admire them,but they are not my hero's,I don't put anyone on a pedestal.When Peter was talking to our Saviour ,he looked at John and he said,what about him?,and Jesus said ,'You must follow Me' (John 21 v 21-22),and in Hebrews 12v2,we are told to 'fix our eyes on Jesus'.If we do that we will never go wrong,we will never be disappointed.

Choose. (John 21 v 21-22)1

In John 6 v 66 we read,'From this time forth many of His disciples turned back and no longer followed Him'.They did this because they misunderstood something Jesus said,people turn back from following Jesus  for many reasons,the list is endless . My son Brian tells in his book ,'Be Still' how a friend and him went through a time when they were let down by a particular leader in his church.They were disappointed and disillusioned, it was someone they admired ,but he had done somethings that was wrong,Brian said he was his hero ,he waned to be like him,but he let him down,they were both in a crisis of faith.Brian phoned his friend one evening to ask him how he was,he said,'Sometimes I sit on the end of my bed and think is this all worth it,and then I choose to believe. Sometimes Brian,we just have to choose to believe even if we don't feel like it'.

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.''