Heed the warning (2 Thessalonians 1 v7-9)

 Throughout history,affluence has often led to spiritual indifference and moral carelessness'.I look around me and I see affluence everywhere. Street lined with cars,household filled with so many things.The majority people have more than enough to eat ,our health service may be struggleing,but a vast number of people are served well by it.I could go on.There is nothing wrong with prosperity,but how many raise a voice of thanks- giving to almighty God? ,not many.Even if people may acknowledge there may be a God they are spiritually indifferent and morally careless,The doors of their hearts are firmly shut,with a notice on in it which reads ,'don't disturb'. Im Matthew 24v 36ff  our Saviour said,'As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of man. for in the days before the flood,people were eating and drinking, marrying and given in marriage, up to the day of Noah entered the ark; and they knew nothing about about would happen until the flood came and took them away. This is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man'.The apostle Paul tells in 2 Thessalonians 1 v 7ff ,This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed  from heaven in blazing fire with His powerful angels. He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our  Lord Jesus'.

                                                           '

Not a change for the better ( Ephesians 5 v3-7)

 The times they are a changeing,I buy the times newspaper every Saturday,and I have read articles on peoples sexual behaviour,the latest one is about a cruise ship that caters for sexual deviants.I found it very sad how distubed these people are,anything goes, it was the Rolling Stones who sang a song with the words,'I can't get no satisfaction,Gonna Try,and I try ,and I try'.The pleasure one gets  from sex is not lasting but for many it's all consuming.Joy Davidman wrote, nobody  can reaonably expect  happiness from an insatiable appetite.God granted us the gift of sex so there is nothing wrong with that. The problem is the gift has taken over peoples lives,in an unhealthy way.Marriage for many is an after thought.We must remember God is a moral being who expects his people to abide by his morality,to go against His morallity is a sin that does not just mean sex,read the 10 commandments 

How could He love me.? ( Ephesians 2 v1 -10)

 We speak of  the Old Covenant Israel being God's special people,and they were,so why did He choose them? In Deuteronomy 7 V 7-8 we read,'The Lord did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples,but it was because the Lord loved you and kept the oath he swore to your ancestors'It ws not their choice it ws God's choice,Raymond Brown writes,'It was not that God lacked compassion for other nations or cared nothing for them......He deliberately chose Israel...to be a special instrument of his purposes in the world'His purposes was and is redemptive.Once that redemptive  purpose was fulfilled in Jesus the call for the new covenant went beyond that of a nation but to evangelise the world (John 3 v16/Acts1 v 8)We Gentiles who are now part of  the new covenant Israel but there was nothing good in us,Christ died for the ungodly He loved us while we were still sinners,not because we loved Him, but that He loved us.(1John 4 v 10)

                                                           'I stand amazed in the presence

                                                            Of Jesus the Nazarene.

                                                            And wonder how He could love me,

                                                            A sinner,condemmed, unclean.'

                                                                    Words  C H.Gabriel.

Dangerous divergence (Matthew 6 v 19 - 24)

 In Deuteronomy 5 v32 reads,'So be careful to do what the Lord your God  has commanded you;do not turn aside to the right or to the left',how people need to hear these words.Let me illustrate something from 'Pilgrims Progress',Christian is on his journey to the celestual land,he had a companion with him called Hopeful. As they journeyed they met a person called Demas who shouted out to them;'Turn aside!There's a silver mine here!With very little trouble,you'll be rich.' When gold was discovered in 1896 in Canada in Klondike gold fever took over and 100,000 people joined the gold rush,some succeeded,but many didn't.Back to Christian and Hopeful,Hopeful when he heard said ,'Let's go and see he said hopefully,but Christian  said he wasn't going ,for he had heard of that place,and it was dangerous' thankfully Hopeful listened to Christian ,and on they wemt on their journey .Let us listen to godly friends instead of rushing on into trouble and bringing our soul into mortal danger ,don't turn aside for anything.

Our Faher (Matthew 6 v 9)

When Egerton first preaced to the native Americans in Saskatchewan,the idea of the fatherhood of God  fascinated people who had hitherto seen God only in the thunder and lightning and the storm blast. An old chief  said to Egerton Young,'Did I hear you say to God''Our Father''?' I did',said Egerton Young.'God is your Father? asked the chief.'Yes',  said Egerton .'And', continued the chief,he is also my Father? 'He certainly is,'said Egerton. Suddenly the chiefs face lit up with a radiance. His hand went out,'Then', he said with the tone of someone making a dazzling discovery,'you and I  are brothers'.

                                                                'Behold, what manner of love

                                                                the Father hath bestowed upon us,

                                                                that we should be called the sons

                                                                of God' ( 1 John 3 v1)

Lest I forget ( Psalm 62 v10)

Are you forgetful I am,its not deliberate,there is nothing I can do about it,but it does concern me,in Deuteronomy 6 v10 ff,Moses was instructing God's people.He reminded them thatGod had promised the land to His people,in fact he swore an oath to Abraham,Isaac,and Jacob that the land would be theirs,it took a long time to bring it into being.God always keeps His word,and although it tarry it will happen,has God promised you something, He has not forgotten his promise to you.You can imagine how excited the people were,their own land, no more being slave in a foreign land.Yet although that is true the Land ultimately beglongs to God,they were but the tenants.Everthing we have from God is just loaned to us,and we will beheld accountable as to our stewardship.Moses tells how they will prosper in this land,in light of that warns them,to not forget that the Lord brought them out of Egypt,out the land of slavery,what he has said  needs to repeated to us all,when you prosper don't forget Calvary.

Your prayers (Colossians4 v2-6)

Often when I visit people,and they share things with me, difficult things,I don't have the answer,the problems are beyond me to solve. Before I leave them I usually pray with them but I assure them of my ongoing prayers for them.I read this recently,'We must spend time with people in order to to understand their problems,and to spend time with God in order to solve them'.So often we fail to do that and we spesk unadvisable to people.Most of us need more wisdom in dealing with people,and also praying for them,we must take prayer very serious,never underestimate the importance of your prayers,let us realize more and more that our prayers can make a difference whatever it may be for.When we say to a person that we will pray for them,let us mean it.I read something recently in one of my daily devotional,it was about Fanny Crosby,'She told of a time when she had run out of money ,and needed five dollars,there was no time to call upon her pubishers,so she simple prayed for the money.Later on that day a friend called,they had a nice time together,but as she was leaving,her friend pressed something into her hands,it was a five-dollar bill.When her friend left,she got on her knees and thanked God'.Out of that experience she wrote that lovely hymn.

                                                        'All the way my Saviour leads me;

                                                        What have I to ask beside?

                                                         Can I doubt His tender mercy,

                                                         Who through life has been my guide?