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.

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.''

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.

Trust (Psalm 37)

Someone wrote as regards something that happened ,'That it was not a coincidence but a God-incidence'. a very insightful statement.David as an old man wrote the 37th Psalm and in verse 23,we read ,'The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord',it was very appoberiate that this godly old man wrote those words.As an old man myself I look back on my life I can trace God's hand in all my life. Of course it is sometimes hard to see that at the time,if only we could it would save us a lot of worries,a lot of pain. Out of his experance  he wrote this Psalm , in three verses we have the word trust, what are you facing today? difficulties , disappointments ,'discouragements,dangers,'Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding'.Think upon  those words ,That it was not a coincidence but a God-incidence', do you doubt that?,why not replace doubt with ,'Trust'.David experienced so many difficulties ,he lost two sons,and his dearest friend,King Saul hunted him like a wild amimal,but his God who is our God brought him through ,the poet wrote,

                                                           Sovereign Ruler of the skies,

                                                            Ever gracious ever wise;

                                                            All my times are in Thy hand,

                                                            All events at Thy command,   (Words John Ryland)

To God be the glory. ( Titus 3 v5-7)3

 Let's consider a lesson that Gideon had to learn,in Judges chap7 Gideon prepares for war with an army of  thirty two thousand. But God speaks and tells him to reduce the army ,why ? the reason being  Israel would boast that they got the victory, and would rob God of the glory.The army was reduced to ten thousand,but God was not finished, He reduced the army to three hundred.Israel had to learn the lesson that we  also need to learn,He must have all the glory.When it comes to salvation the apostle Paul writes,' For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith and this is not from yourselves,it is the gift of God not by works, so that no one can boast'. ( Ephesians 2 v 8-9)Likewise in Romans 11 v 6  we read,' And if by grace, then it cannot be based on works; if it were, grace would be no longer grace.So in relation to salvation and all things we must give God all the glory. 

                                            'To God be the glory! Great things He hath done!

                                            So loved He the world that He gave us His Son,

                                            Who yielded His life an atonement for sin

                                            And opened the life-gate that we may go in.'

The relucant One ( Luke 14 v 25-33) 3

Following on from yesterday, we read Moses was filled with fear and then God spoke to him,telling him that He had heard the cry of His people and would rescue them from their suffering, and take them to the promise land.I'm sure it sounded good to Moses,but then he heard God say, So now go.and bring  His people out of Egypt.And so started a whole conversation,Moses say's who am I that I should go Pharoah and bring the  Israelites out of Egypt? God's answer was simplicity itself ,' I will be with you', Then began a toing and froing which went on for quite a while,God was very patient with him seeking to reassure him.Then Moses said to God he was not a very good speaker and that He should send someone else,God got angry, but that passed,and He pointed to Aaron his brother who was a good speaker. Moses again spoke that  he was not up to the task.but God went on to say that he would help both of them to speak,and told him to take his shepherds staff so he could perform the miraculous signs that God had shown him.Just a couple of comments God is always with us,and He will be with us,and if neccessary he will give us a Silas or a Timothy to assist us and he will equip us for the task that he has called us to do.

Called by God (Exodus 3) 2

Moses was wonderfully called by God,but it would not take place for forty years,he had left Egypt,after he had killed an Egyptian who was beating one of his people. He hid the body in the sand thinking that no one had seen what he did,but word got around, Pharaoh sought to find him and put him to death, so he ran away and ended up in Midian,there he came into contact with a priest who had seven daughters Midian invited him to stay ,he accepted and he married one of the daughters,and he ended up in being a shepherd looking after his father-in -laws sheep.He did this for forty years until that fateful day when minding the sheep,he saw  a bush burning and yet it was not burnt up. Curiosty got the better of him,and he heard the voice of God calling him and he answered ,'Hear am I'. God warned not to get to close,and to take of his sandals off, for he was standing on holy ground.Then he said that He was the God of his father,and the God of Abraham,Isaac,and Jacob'.We will just finish with a few thoughts.God can meet us in many ways not just in a church building,but in the midst of a crowd,in an areoplane in a boat,or even in the belly of a great fish Who  knows ?,but you will know.

Wonderfully Preserved ( Psalm 31 v 14-15)

Moses life can be divided into three periods,born in Egypt were he was wonderfully preserved by God, then he was wonderfully called by God,then he was wonderfully used by God.He lived in Egypt for forty years,40 yrs in Midian forty years ,and forty in the wilderness.Let us consider how he was wonderfully preserved ,Egypt was ruled by a very wicked man, wicked people do wicked things,they fear neither God nor man.He was worldly wise   Exodus 1 v10, James describes such wisdom as being unspiritual ,demonic,we can think of many people who were full of such wisdom,there were many through out history,what they concocted was trully demonic,I mention but one ,Hitler.Pharaoh oppressed the people of God on a false pretext Ex 1 v10. crushing them with hard labour.It didn't stop there ,he gave orders to cull them ,like we do with animals everyone had to obey,with but one couple hid there new born babe. But when they could not hide him anymore,the wife made a basket coated it with Tar and pitch,and  placed it among the reeds along the banks of the river Nile.The rest is history,he ended up being adopted by Pharoahs daughter.Yes he was wonderfully preserved by God.People often ask a very eldery person  what is the secret of living so long,the answer is God,it was He who preserved Moses,no one else,only God,and he will preserve you.

What God see's (1 Corinthians 2 v1-5)

I am going on 82 but I still try and look my best, often people pay me compliments,which I appreciate but of course ,I know that clothes doth not make the man.Our suits do not give any indication of a persons character,it may impress people,and if one is chasing a boy friend or a girl friend we want to look our best. If one is going for an interveiw fo a job one should try to look one's best.I am talking on the horizontal level,what do I mean by that?  Well it is illustrated in the account of the prophet Samuel who was sent by God to annoint Israel's new king,We read about it in 1 Samuel 16,God had already chosen who it would be, so all Samuel had to do was annoint him.Samuel was directed to the house of Jesse,who had eight son's,but there was only seven present when he arrived.Samuel saw the first one  and thought he is the one,but no he wasn't,and God spoke to him and said to 'I have rejected him.The Lord does not look at things people look at, people look at the outward appearance,but the Lord looks at the heart'.And the one who was appointed  to be king ,was David,a man after God's own heart. (1 Samuel13 v14/Acts 13 v22).

                                               '

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Why ( John 3 v36)

The suffering of Christ was absolutley awful,it is Isaiah who gives us a graphic picture in chap 53v13-15and the whole of Chap 53.  Here are some things we read'His appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any human being,and his form married beyond any human likeness'' He was lead as a lamb to the slaughter.That was the phyisical suffering ,but of course his suffering went beyond that ,for we read,Yet it  was the Lord's will to crush him,why?right through chap53 we told ,'by his wounds we are healed,that's nothing to do with phyisical healing,sin is a sickness,by his death we are healed of that sickness.Jesus as a priest was offerring himself up as a sacrifice for sin ,and the fact that He would take the punishment for sin is clearly shown right  through this chap,'And the Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all,for the transgression of my people he was punished,these words  should take our breath away,'Yet it was the Lord's will to crush him' .The poet puts it like this,'

                                                  'The wrath of God that was my due

                                                   Upon the Lamb was laid'.

When it's gone it's gone ( John 14 v 1-6)

 Mikhail Bakunin said ','Everything will pass, and the world will perish, but the Ninth Symphony will remain'',He is referring to Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. The question is, will it be true?the answer is no,but this part is true,'Everything will pass,and this world will perish,for we are told that 'the dayof the Lord will come like a thief . The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elsments will be destroyed by fire,and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare'' (2 Peter 3 v10) Everything not just the earth but heavens ,and all the great works of art ,great songs ,the beauty of this earth will be no longer.Sin could be seen as a plague of momentous proportion,no human knows or grasps its effects on the whole of creation.The very heavens are going to disppear,and be relaced by a new heaven and a new earth, the difference being,sin will no longer exsist, that new earth will be filled God's righteousness. And who will live in this new creation ? the answer is all those who have trusted Jesus as their Saviour,they are called God's new creation (2 Cor 5v17)

                                                        The question is this ,were  

                                                         will you spend eternity? 

                                           

                                                

Am I willing? ( Revelation 3 v 8)

I watched part of an French and Ireland rugby match,and the French played really well and won the game. It  appears to me they will be hard to beat,unless the other teams adapt a system that will aid them in beating them.My son spoke recently at a large church ,they had three services on a Sunday,God be praised. But unfortunately many churches are closing ,and many people are perishing,many large denominations are no longer large, unfortunately many in their pulpits,are denying  Biblical truths ,and the moral boundaries,that God  has laid down in His word.Many people are rich in comparison to former generations, but they are spiritually bankrupt. There are millions who dream of becoming millionaires ,and never give a thought for their souls.The challenge is how can we reach the lost? or maybe I should say why are we not reaching them? I ask the question can we not be guided by the Holy Spirit in ways to reach the lost?. I believe he will but the next question is this,am I willing to be willing to adopt to God's ways?