I have become a Christian. ( Matthew 18 v 3)

It was 8am and my phone went,and to my surprise our eleven year old grandson was phoning ,it was the first time he had ever phoned.This is what he said,'I've become a Christian ,what a wonderful thing to hear that,I have many grandchildren,some are Christians some are not,sad to say to many are not,but still it was  wonderful to hear my grandson saying he had become a Christian,his name is Oliver,do pray for him. I trusted Jesus as a young boy,and although I did not always follow Him that always stayed with me.Let us never forget that children have a soul,and need a Saviour.There is no age limit as to when a person can become a Christian. You remember when the parents brought their children to Jesus so He could bless them, and how the disciples told them off,but Jesus intervened and said ,'Let the little children come to me,and do not hinder them'.  (Matthew19 v14) They are at a greater advantage they possess  that which adults generally don't have Jesus speaks of it in Matthew 18 v 3,which reads ''Unless you change and become like little children, you will nevrr enter the kingdom of heaven'.One person comments on this verse ssys,'Jesus taught that to enter the kingdom of God one must possess ,the  humility , trust, and openness of a child'.

Forgiven ( Hebrews 9-10 v 1-18)

I have a friend whom I visit, he is housebound ,he is aged 91,I have known him for a long time,he has a wonderful testimony of how God saved him many years ago in Dublin's fair city.He was brought up in  a Roman Catholic family, most people in Dublin in fact in Southern Ireland were Catholic's.His brother became a priest,and he himself  joined a religious order for a while.He went to Mass and confession regularly, but for all his religiosity he had no peace,no assurance of his sins being forgiven.Let me digress and ask  why he had no assurance of salvation.The Mass is seen as Christ being sacrificed  again and again,so it goes on unending.Christ came to put an end of continual sacrifices.In Hebrews 10 we are told that they were only a shadow of the good things that were coming through Christ .The sacrifice of animals God did not  desire they could not effectively deal with sin,we are told that God had no pleasure with blood offerings and sin offerings.So Christ in obeying the will of God,offered Himself up as one sacrifice for sin never to be repeated again. (Hebrews 9 v 27-28)So it was as my Friend read the scriptures he realised that Christs one time offering would effectively deal with His sin.

                                                              'Not all the blood of beasts, 

                                                               On Jewish altars slain,

                                                               Could give the guilty conscience peace,

                                                               Or wash away the stain.

                                                                But Christ the heavenly Lamb,

                                                                Takes all our sins away;    (Words  Isaac Watts)

If only ( James 1 v 22)

How meaningful are those two words,''If only'',we turn to Isaiah 48 the context is Babylon that super- powers reign was coming to an end (Chap 47),that would mean Israels captivity was coming to an end,they were going home. So God speaks to remind them that all the suffering they had experienced need not have happened,'If only' (48 v18) you had paid attention to God's commands.It is as simple as that,God had sent prophets to them  to warn them to turn back to God, sometimes they did but often they didn't. If only they had obeyed God they would have been indestructible,no power be it ever so great would have conqueror them.God's patience has it's limit its.and so God would turn against them,Our Saviour summed it up in Matthew 23 v 37,'Jerusalem ,Jerusalem,you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you,how often I longed to gather your children together,as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings,and you were not willing'. Let us all learn from Israels experience that there will be consequences in forsaking God,is God saying to you or me?,''If only''.

Love ( 1 Corinthians 13)

 We hear the word love often mentioned in songs,an old song comes to mind the words ,'Love is a many splender thing, it's the April rose that only grows in the early spring'.That's based on romantic love,that  St Valentine's love,I still give my wife a Valentine's card,and some chocolate,she bought me rose's.There is nothing wrong with doing that,but we should know that love goes much further than that.Love is vital in our relationship,it should be the glue that holds our marriages together.One sometimes hears of a loveless marriage that's unfortunate, we should not be surprised if such a marriage does not last.Paul stressed the importance of love,he wrote if we have not love no matter about our sacrifices,or our spiritual gifts,or our faith that can remove mountains, we are nothing.To manifest Christian love is not optional,there is no get out clause ,we have to love.that means we have to forgive,because someone has hurt you deeply,or hurt someone you love.It is challenging to me as I write this,what if,yes ,what if,will I still love them?. You may be saying to God I can't forgive that person they have hurt me so much,what is the answer? Well we must look at the cross,the cross is the greatest act of love ever manifested,God could easily have said I've had enough , but He didn't, He chose to love us,how do we know that? just look at the cross,dear Christian this is the moment for you to pray and say as you forgive me, so I will forgive that person who has hurt me.

Hope ( Psalm 42)

 Spurgeon said,'Hope itself is like a Star- not to be seen in the sunshine of prosperity,and only to be discovered in the night of adversity'. When difficulties arise I turn to God in prayer,when a young lady recently told me about her problems,I said, let us have a little word of prayer.When a man in the church told me about a procedure he was going to have in hospital,I said I would pray for him. When I witness I remember that person in prayer,why am I saying this? to be boastful ? no, I am reminding myself and reminding you to look beyond ourselves to God. Romans 4 v 18 reads ,'Even when there was no reason to hope,Abraham kept hoping- believing that he would become the father of many nations'. I like those words ,'Abraham kept hoping', My son who knows a bit of Spanish ,said that in Spanish  the word hope and wait,mean practically the same .

                                                                    Psalm 43v 1

                                                         'Why am I discouraged?

                                                          Why is my heart sad!  

                                                           I will put my hope in God!

                                                           I will praise Him again-

                                                            my Saviour and my God'

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.