Common Grace. ( James 1 v 16 - 17 )

 Kagando Mission Hospital in Uganda have a motto which reads,' We care and God heals',I like that motto,People want to see miracles,yet everyday miracles are happening, our very existence is  a miracle, for we read Acts 17 v 28,'For in Him we live and have our being'. If God withdraws His powerful presence, we would all die. As regards healing, god has enabled mankind the ability to develop skills to perform wonderful operations, and to bring healing to people.Likewise we have medicine, which also is a gift of God.I believe all these things come from God,it is R.C.Sproul who writes of the invisible hand of God,' Because God is invisible to us, we often fail to recognize His activity in history'.God is merciful and  is a faithful , This world is God's world ,we read in Psalm24 v1,'The earth is the Lord's, and everything in it ,  the world, and all who live in it'. Yes it is God's world,and in spite of  mankind's rebellion God has not forsaken this world,and His common grace is manifest in a multitude of ways.Let every child of God, rise up and say ,to God be the glory,for  His many blessings,in healings, in  His provision, in His protection, in all the blessings that we enjoy.                                                                                                                                                           

God's Word. ( Psalm 119 v 105 )

Looking back at my time in Bible  college, certain lecturers stood out,one was Professor Leahy ,my lasting memory of him was a godly man of soundness.He held no fanciful speculative interpretations of the Gods word,no  from him we received sound exegesis of the word of God. This is what we need in these days,sound teaching of the word of God,not those who pick and choose what they want to believe and teach, and reject those truths which they find hard to accept ,and their inconsistent concepts of God.It was R.C .Sproul who wrote a little booklet called,'Can I trust the Bible? ,if  the Bible is not trustworthy,we are in great difficulties.We must be prepared to take our stand on the trustworthiness ',of the Scripture ,'we must not only believe that the Scriptures  bears witness to the truth,but it is the truth '(R.C.Sproul )  I have  read and studied the Bible ,for over 50 years,and I know it can be trusted, It was a man called Frank Morison who as a young man, doubted the reliability of scriptures,especially the account of the resurrection,in the end he came to believe and trust in Jesus as his Saviour and his resurrection,he went on to write a book called,'Who moved the stone',The Bible is based on history,Calvary is real,yes it really happened,Christ died on a cross,and on the third day He rose from the dead ,in 2 Corinthians 15 we are told of hundreds of people who saw the risen Christ .In 2 Timothy 3 v 16  we read,'That all Scripture is God -breathed ',we do well to trust in Gods word,if we don't we will not do well.

The open door [ Revelation 3 v8 ]

As I look back on my life I see so many times I have prayed for doors to open, and they have, but often it required a great deal of patience on my part,for God does not work according to my time table. This is a lesson we all have to earn, living and moving at Gods moment, waiting and not get tired of waiting, often we do and we cry out how much longer Lord before You answer,yet God says wait. And in that waiting God is teaching us lessons, teaching us to trust Him,and learn that valuable lesson of patience. We must also learn the important lesson of weakness ,yes weakness, and a spirit of dependance on God, the greatest of saints had to learn these lessons. The race is not to the strong , but to those who have recognised their weakness, dont worry about your weakness,the great apostle was told that Gods strength was made perfect in his weakness, and that Gods grace would be sufficent for him.[ 2 Corinthians 12 v1-10 ] Yes doors will open, doors that no one can close,but in His time, and when He has prepared us ,to take up that opportunity . [Dear God we ask for grace to wait for that door of opportunity to open, as we wait ,help us to have patience, and to yield to your purposes in our lives in Jesus name Amen ]

He will lead.[ Psalm 25v9 ]

He leadeth me[Ps 23 v1], this is a wonderful promise, the Lord is leading His children, Barnes writes,/This God will always do if we follow the directions of His word, the teaching of His Spirit, and the guidance of His providence/. As we consider the life of David and others in the scripture, we see that God led them, so often I have cried unto God to lead me, because I am so conscious that I need His leading,so conscious that I can, if left to myself make the wrong choices. The scriptures tell us that we are to acknowledge God in all our ways and He will direct our paths [ Proverbs 3v5], so today, let us do ,what the scripture tells us, and let Him lead us in the right way, let us have confidence to believe that our good Shepherd will lead us.[ Dear Lord we thank You for Your promise that You will lead us,help us to follow in Your footsteps. Amen]