Pray ( Romans 11 v 28- 32)

 While I was out recently I noticed a family of Jews,I knew that they were Jews,as to their dress and their. wringlets.There are not  many of these Jews where I live,in Northern Ireland there are even fewer, although my Pastor in NI arranged for  a group of  us to visit a synagogue.Well there they  were this family of Jews so I felt led to go and speak to them,no I did not witness to them,just a short conversation,and left it at that.It got me thinking how me a gentile is saved and they are not,I believe the true  Israelites are those who have put faith in the Messiah (Romans 4 v3/16 Galatians 3 v29)That family are Old Covenant Israelites,the Church of Christ is the New Covenant Israelites. When Paul declares that all Israel shall be saved Romans 11 v 26 ,it means very simple that all the elect from the Gentiles and from the Jews will be saved as one people  (Romans 11 v25-26)

                                                       'Pray for the Jews,to be saved'

Our strength (Isaiah 40 v29)

 A quote from the Bible Speaks Today,' True contentment depends on something more than material possessions'. The apostle Paul wrote 'I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation.whither well fed or hungry,whither living in plenty or in want' and then he adds. 'I can do all this through him who gives me strength'.(Philippians 4 v 12-13)Consider ,he was writing from a Roman dungeon,cp 2 Corinthians 11 v 23 - 28) Think about what Pauls experience was,to say the least it was grim,yet he speaks of being content.Here is what his secret was?,'I can do all this through him who give me strength'  Can you say what Paul says?,can I ? I would love to think I could,I'm sure if God brings us into situations that are awful,he will if we trust Him grant us the grace we need at that time.

                                                                          'Psalm 18 v1'

                                                             'I  love you,Lord, my strength'

What a terrible mess.( Luke 19 v10 )

I still get great pleasure watching  the old movies starring Laurel and Hardy,such innocent humour, always getting themselves into trouble,and what Oliver used to say to Stanley,'another fine mess you've got us into'. Like Oliver it is easy to blame others,Stanley was not alway to blame,and its easy to blame others for the mess we get ourselves into.Lets go back to the beginning of time to a garden,where two human beings did something awful,they diobeyed God they sinned against God,by their action sin entered into the world by one man,and death through sin,and in this way death came to all people,because all have sinned (Romans5 v12) When God confronted  Adam ,he blamed Eve.and she blamed the serpent (Gen 3 v11-14),they would not take the blame for what they had done,think of the consequences of their actions.As I read history what a mess we have created,and as I look at the world to day,the mess is getting worse and worse,what an awful mess we have made of this world,we can't blame it on God though many try to.No we are the guilty ones,God could have wiped humanity out,but He didn't,instead we read that He so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him,will not perish but have everlasting life (John 3 v16)

Birthdays ( John 3 v 1ff)

 One  of the tasks allotted is to me send birthday cards off to our Children and grandchildren,we have a lot of grandchildren and great grandchilren.Every Christian has two birthdays,a natural birthday and a spiritual birthday. Our dear Saviour said that we must be born again if we are to become citizens of God's kingdom.When we are born naturally we are spititually dead, everyone of us,when sin entered the world the spiritual umbilical cord binding us to God was cut,which means we are no longer connected to God. We cannot have a relationship with Him, it is not that He does not love us,it means that we do not love Him,we cannot commune with him.This means we are in great danger,we can so  easily be drawn into all sorts of wrong things ,wrong reilgions, and become slaves to sin,and there is only one place we are heading for ,that awful place called hell,for all eternity,there is no escape from that, a place of isolation,of utter lonliness and sorrow.But it need not be that way,God is merciful,loving and forgiving. Here is the way you can change all that ,by receiving Jesus as your Saviour (John 1 v 12),acknowledging you are a sinner,and when you do that ,you will be reconnected to God,and all the blessings that will bring.

The school of life ( Psalm 42 v 5)

 I have just read about a young lady  who was dyslexic,it was not until she was in  her teens was it diagnosed .So she had a rough time at school ,she was made to feel she was inadequate,with the result she felt low in esteem.But she did get a job and her boss encouraged her, and she began to look at her dyslexic in positive way,and it empowered in her life to be successful in her buisness which she had started.In the school of life we may find ourselves at the bottom of the heap,not much going for us,we may have been abused, have no friends,and so the list goes on,it's not cheerful reading. You may see yourself as one sitting on a dunghill,because of where your at,and what you have come through.You may be a Christian and feel very negative about yourself,let me remind you,there was time when you were a nobody,but when you trusted Christ you became a somebody,you became a child of God.There is a lovely verse in 1 Samuel 2 v 8 of what God does to those who are sitting on the dunghill,'He raiseth up the poor out of the dust,and lifteth up the beggar from the dunghill to set them among princes,and to make them inherit the throne of glory'.One person commenting on this verse writes,  'He  puts poor people on their feet again; he rekindles burned out lives with fresh hope,restoring dignity and respect to their lives,a place in the sun'.

Trust Him. ( Romans 11 v33)

In Deuteonomy29 v29 we read,'The secret things belong to the Lord our God,but the things revealed belong to us and to our children for ever,that we may follow all the words of this law'.There are two things emphasised,or what we do and we don't know'.Someone says that the Hebrew  is more striking it contrasts the 'covered' and the 'uncovered'.As Christians we know a lot of  things,God has revealed many things to us ,there was a time we went on in our darkened ways,until He revealed Himself to us.Think of all the wonderful things we know, but what about the things we don't know?,all the why's in life, and what about the future.? Think upon these words 'the secret things belong to the Lord'1 Corinthians 13 v12 reads  'Now we see things imperfectly as in a cloudy mirror,but  then we will see things with perfect clarity',and let us remember what our Saviour said to the disciples in Acts 1 v 7'It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority'.  In John 13  v 7 Jesus says this to Peter, ' You don't  understand now what I am doing,but someday you will'.I leave Proverbs 3v5  with you,'Trust in the Lord with all your heart,and lean not on your own understanding.

Sin ( Proverbs 14 v9 )

I would like to share somthing from a book I have of Puritan Devotionals,the one I choosed was written by a man  called  Thomas Case,a very godly man,the subject  is sin.'Sin is always sinful, but in our prosperity we are not aware of it. The dust of the world fills our eyes that we cannot see it clearly.God  frequently  uses affiction to teach his children the great evil that is in sin.It shows sin as an evil in itself. It not only brings evil, but is evil. It not only works bitterness,it is bitterness. It has a bitter  root as well as bitter fruit. God  leads the sinner by affliction to take notice not only of what sin does,but what it is. It is a pure, unmixed evil.It has the devil for its author,and death for its end. Not only is it evil in itself, it is evil against God' I will just add the following, we must never take sin lightly,God does'nt ,look to Calvary to that old rugged cost,visualise what you see a blooded battered person hanging on that cross ,Jesus.On that cross Jesus died that we could be forgiven,that we would not suffer the wrath of God,if only we trust him to be our Saviour