Great advice.

In James 1v19. we read the following ,You must all be quick to listen, slow to speak,.What great wisdom there are in these word, quick to listen,Chad Varah the founder of the Samaritans, would select volunteers who were not prudish or preachy, he said, the prudish want to sit in judgment and the preachy want to talk and not to listen. One of the great things about our relationship with the Lord is ,He listens, so let not jump in with our pearls of wisdom, let us listen.

Frustrations.

I am sure I am not on my own, when I admit there are times when I feel frustrated,one prays about certain things, sometimes for years, and those things remain unchanged. Here are a few examples, church situations, illness, people, restrictions,and so we could go on, you take one step forward, and then four steps backward.How are we to look at frustrations?.Well ,one lesson I have learned from frustration is patience, if we are going to be like Jesus, and thats Gods purpose for all of us without exception, just consider how patience, God is with all of us, so as we face frustration today remember have patience.

Keep on going.

The most dramatic words in the Bible were uttered by Jesus on the cross,It is finished,[John 19v30], this was a victory cry, He had fully accomplished the work of salvation, He did not give up .The great lesson we can learn from this is not to give up, when things are hard,when your own reasoning says , whats the point, dont give up, I can think of so many who give up for one reason or another. Consider the following, Looking unto Jesus......who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God [Hebrews 12v2] ,the words of a little song comes to mind, it goes,When the road is rough and steep, turn your eyes upon Jesus He alone has power to keep , turn your eyes upon Him.

Nice people.

I know we are all sinners, yet I know a lot of nice non Christians, I work with a lot of nice people, I suppose it is hard for us to believe they are going to hell.I have a nice neighbour a Mr Page, his wife who died was a Christian, he use to repair my boys bike, he is a nice person.I was speaking to him the other day, I mentioned something spiritual, and he just ignored it . Lets never loose sight of this truth ,everyone without exception needs Jesus, even nice people, emotionally we may find this hard to accept, but a loving God tells us it is so, because even nice people are sinners, and need Christ.

Restrictive practices.

On the news we have the sad report of a dear Jehovah witness girl dying because she would not accept a blood transfusion. I thought on this and how our Saviour was faced with regulations and restrictions,and on the other side peoples needs, what did He do? he cut across those rules and regulations, and met the need . The religion of this world has the smell of death about it ,Christ came that we may be free from human bondage, free from man made rules, Jesus said, The thief comes to steal, to kill,to destroy, but He came so that people might have life and have it more abundantly [John 10v10]

Not alone.

A number of years ago Nicky Cruze ,[I hope I have spelt his name correctly] wrote a book called ,Alone yet not Alone, let us take encouragement from this great truth , we have one who is is with us today, and every day, Jesus. Think what that means in your life today , he is with you, dont let the enemy of your soul discourage you, remind him that you are not on your own. tell him that the lord is with you, a little song comes to mind, No never alone, no never alone, He promised never to leave me , never to leave me alone.

What ever.

Often it is hard to have a balanced view ,healing, suffering, those things we could call the opposites, preachers declare Gods power ,and ability to heal , to provide. Now many years ago I went to Bible college,I was married , had three children, and no money, so for the next four years, we had to trust God to meet our needs, and He did, it was hard ,a time of testing, but we got through, we learned valuable lessons.Now there was another couple there, who had to leave college , because of lack of funds, why? I am not even going to attempt to answer that, I dont know, but this I know , what ever the Lord permits us to go through, Romans 8 v28 is true, ALL THINGS ARE WORKING TOGETHER FOR GOOD, TO THOSE WHO LOVE GOD.