Light / Darkness. [ John 8 v12 ]

The genius of Charles Darwin , was the title of the TV programme, it was presented by Richard Dawkins, and as I thought of this programme, a verse of scripture came into my mind, Matthew 6 v 23. It reads ,If the light you think you have is actually darkness, how deep that darkness is. A denial of God to many appears light, but is in fact darkness , to live for things of time alone , to many is light, but is in fact darkness, to untold multitudes ,Christless religion is light, but is in fact darkness,to say when we die that is it ,to many is light , but in fact is darkness. It is the Lord Jesus who said , if we follow Him, we will not walk in darkness, but will have the light that leads to life, [John 8 v12 ] . [ Dear God we thank for the true light that lightens everyone , Jesus, the light of the world,We thank You that when we embrace Him by faith, as our Saviour, we are no longer in the darkness , Amen. ]

Will it never end ? [John 14 v 1-6 ]

Conflict in Georgia , another war, during my lifetime there have been so many wars, and one asks the question, will it never end?. Of course one could widen the question to so many things, murder , rape, road rage, so the list goes on, you ask yourself will it never end?, is there a solution?. Because of humanities fallen condition , it appears we will never see an end to wars and rumours of wars, until Christ returns, oh yes He is coming back again, read 1 Thessalonians 4 v15-18. Acts 1v 11. We are told that Christ will descend from heaven with a shout, and that shout will usser in a new heaven and a new earth, were there will be no more wars, no more pain, read Revelation 21 v1-7, the answer to the question, will it never end?, is yes. [ Father so often we feel overwhelmed with the plight of this world we live in, help us to see that you are on the throne working your purposes out, and bringing everything to a conclusion through your dear son Jesus. Amen. ]

Accountable.[John 21]

In John 21, our Lord is speaking to Peter, He is challenging him ,as to his service ,and during that conversation Peters eyes wander to John, and he asks the question ,What about him Lord? the Lord tells him , whats that to you ? You follow me. As Jesus spoke to Peter , so He speaks to us, are we listening?, we can so easily be distracted, with so many things, we fail to hear Him. The Lord will speak to us individually, as regards salvation, service, or whatever, He expects us to respond individually,we are inclined to respond like Peter did, and the Lord would tell us as He told Peter , forget about others you do what I tell you to do , follow Me. [Dear Lord Jesus, help us obey You, help us to be focused on what You are telling us, and to obey, Amen]

Guidance [ Psalm 32 v 8 ]

An awful lot of my life has been taken up with guidance, in fact it is on going, and so it should be, for we are instructed to acknowledge God in all our ways, [Proverbs 3v6 ]. I hope as we go on in our Christian life we gain wisdom , and learn from our mistakes, yet no matter how long we are Christians, there is that continual need to rely on God to guide us. This is not place of fear but of security , for we are promised continually that we will be guided by God, the continual challenge is to walk by faith, that means trusting the invisible God. I believe there are two aspects in this guiding , the Holy Spirit, and the Word of God, as we prayerfully rely on God , have the confidence,to trust God to lead , and to guide. [ Dear God and Father help us in all of life, to be guided by You, keep us in that attitude of humility, and reliance on You, and obedience to your will, in Jesus name we ask this , Amen. ]

Time [Acts 16 v31 ]

There is a saying that relates to the eldery in relation to time, that the hours pass slowly but the years go quickly,there is an old hymn that has the words, life at best is very brief, like the falling of a leaf, like the binding of a sheaf, and then it adds , be in time. Be in time ,why do we need to be in time, well it is simply reminding us that we need to get saved, before it is to late. It is only in this life do we have the opportunity to trust in Jesus, after death the judgement, so it is vital that while we have life, while we have time, to not neglect the offer of salvation, and to trust Jesus as our own and personal Saviour, have you done this? if not do it today. [Dear God we thank you for Jesus the Saviour of the world, the Saviour of the whosoever, Amen. ]

God is angry [John 3 v16 ]

Last night we had thunder and lightning, some old people used to say about thunder that it is God being angry,I dont thing so. Does God become angry? , it appears He does, there are many scriptures that speaks of God being angry, Psalm 7v11, tells us that God is angry with the wicked every day.How do we reconcile this with the words in 1 John 4 v16, that tells us that God is love. The fact is that even loving people become angry, so it is with God He is a righteous God, a Holy God , He hates sin, in any shape or size, and will judge it. Gods anger I believe is just and right, do we not feel anger when we read of child abuse ?, of course we do ,how much more must a holy God feel such things,I use child abuse as an example, in Gods case He hates all sin feels it deeply, yes with anger, and will eventually judge it, but God is love. God who is love thought up and brought into being , a way that could save people, you and me, Calvary, the cross, when we embrace Christ as our Saviour , then Gods anger is turned away fron us, and we have then peace with God. [Holy God we acknowledge that we are sinners, deserving of your righteous anger, and judgement, we thank You , for Jesus who died for us, so we could be forgiven , Amen .]

Giving all.[1 Corinthians 9 ]

In luke 21 v1-4, we read of our Saviour watching rich people dropping gifts into the collection box, the Jews were expected to pay a temple tax, but there was also boxes left out for freewill offerings.Yet it is a poor widow woman who is commended for her giving ,not the rich people, why? ,because her giving was generous and sacrificial. We become touchy when money is mentioned in church, I recently spoke to a friend, who had left the fellowship he had been attending for years, and joined another one, his reason being, the church he was attending were continually asking for money, for a certain project. The challenge comes to all of us from that reading in Luke 21,is not only are we to give , but we are to give sacrificially , not just with money , but in our service to others, let us remember Jesus is watching. [Father we thank you for all your kindness to us every day, all that we have comes from you, you are so generous, help us, to be generous with others ,in our giving and in our serving, in Jesus name we ask this . Amen. ]