Strength.

Many of us know the story of Samson, the weak strong man, he paid a price for his weakness, we come to the point in the story , were he had his hair cut by the Philistines, He is unaware of what has happened, so we have him saying, I will go out as at other times before, and shake myself. And he wist not that the Lord was departed from him. the result of this he lost his strength. What can we learn from this? there are many lessons in this story for us to benifite from, here is one,rely on the Lord for the strength, you need for this day, whatever natural abilities we have ,let us never loose sight where are true strength lies. Philippians 4v 13 reads, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

DISCERNMENT.

I watched the God channel ,a young man was standing before a vast audience, ministering, as the T.V. camera swept through that vast audience, I ask the question,how discerning were they?. An old pastor said to me once never loose discernment, very wise advice, be emotional, but also be discerning,ask God to give you discernment, there are so many voices speaking to us, more than ever we need discernment, our Saviour was very discerning, He needed to be, so do we, Crudens in his concordance describes discernment in the following way,understanding, ask and you shall recieve

Angry.

I was in a cafe recently, an elderly person was being served before me, as he give his order it was obivious to me he was hard of hearing, the person serving him did not take this into account, I felt she was rude to him. When it came to my turn to be served, I was served by another assistant, I spoke in a quite manner,expressing my concern as to how the assistant had dealt with that elderly person,I believe the point got home. Ephesians 4v26. tells us to be angry and sin not, there is a lot of things in this world , that are wrong, the danger is we can feel whats the point we cant do anything. or mybe we dont want to, God is never neutral as regards wrong in whatever guise it shows itself. In making our protest we should not be unkind or rude, or condemning,let us remember, let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he falls.

Overwhelmed.

I dont know about you , but sometimes one feels a bit overwhelmed, by life , the inward struggle ,the challenge of the Christian life ,you get the picture, someone said to me recently, I appear not to change, not so, outward appearances can be deceptive. The fact of the matter is I struggle I just try to not let people see it, I find the apostle Paul an honest person, he often admits to his struggles, and is humble enough to ask for prayer[Eph 6v 19]. Listen, the Lord uderstands more than anyone , He is fully aware how we feel , He is not judging you, and he would whisper into your heart, THAT HE LOVES YOU, Isaiah 431-3 ,Do not be afraid , for I have redeemed you, I have called you by name ,you are Mine. When you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown, When you walk through the fire of oppression, you will not be burned up, the flames will not consume you.For I am the Lord your God.

The Gulf.

Things sometimes happen that brings home to us, the gulf between, what we aspire to be and what we are, our temper surfaces again, just when we thought we were making progress in that area of our lives.What can we learn from this, well, we need to keep relying on the Lord, we are being reminded that saved though we be ,we are still in this body of flesh .Galatians 5v17ff is helpful, for it reminds us that we still have a sinful nature, so we will be prone to sin, but most important we have the Holy Spirit, He is in our lives to help us,v16[Gal 5v16], instructs us , let the Holy Spirit guide your lives,v 25, let us follow the Spirits leading, and in Ephesians 5 v18 ,to be filled with the Holy Spirit. so today let us in the words of a modern song pray , Holy Spirit we welcome you.

Misrepresent

In James 5v11 we read , the Lord is full of tenderness and mercy,as I look back on my life I wonder just how many times, I have misrepresented the Lord in my preaching, conversation ,actions, etc, in Hebrews 1v3 ,we read, The Son radiates Gods own glory and expresses the very character of God,what a person, what a life, He never once misrepresented His Father.God has given us a new day forget the pass, ask God to enable you to rightly represent Him, with all those you come into contact with today.

Turning the other cheek.

Martin Luther King, Jr. was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, and rightly so , he was such a brave person, paid the ultimate price for his cause, death.There is always a price to pay if we are going to take a stand for what we believe in, Jesus said follow me, there must be a price to pay as we respond to His call. Take the challenge to turn the other cheek , the challenge is to not to retallate, but it goes much deeper than this, you remember the words of Jesus on the cross, forgive them, He was not only showing us not to retallate, but also to have a loving and forgiving attitude towards those would seek to hurt us, with words or phyisical force.