Should I .[ Luke 10 v 30-37 ]

I was driving back to the office when I noticed a man sitting on the rail of the bridge I was crossing over, and I thought was he going to jump of that rail into the traffic below,or I thought , was he just sitting, resting ?. I wondered what shall I do ?,go back or just keep on driving ?,if I drive on and he jumped, I would feel guilty for not doing anything, so I turned and drove back and was relieved to see he was not there, it had been, a should I ,or should I not moment, I am glad I turned back. This all reminded me of the story of the good Samartian, a story of missed opportunity ,by two men, and one man who took the opportunity to help someone in need. Today we may be faced with an opportunity to help someone, it may be a false alarm, or it may not. [ Father in Heaven help us to responed rightly to those opportunities to help others ,that present themselves to us each day, help us to not just look , and then walk by,we ask this in Your name ,Amen ]

Bravery. [ Daniel 6 ]

I wonder how you would define bravery?, we often relate it to the battlefield, but of course it includes many areas of life. Stop for a moment and think of someone you consider to be brave, a person battling with an illness, physical or mental . I am reading the book of Daniel at this time and in that book there are four brave people, people who were prepared to put their lives on the line. I often wonder how brave I would have been if I had lived in Nazi Germany, I will never know. To be a Christian in many areas of the world takes bravery, places like North Korea. The bravest person I know is Jesus, He left the security of Heaven, and came into a very dangerous place, earth, He knew what awaited Him, a cross,with all its phyisical suffering, but also the spiritual suffering as He experienced the wrath of God for our sin, He deserves a medal, but He deserves more than that, He deserves our trust, love and our loyalty. [ Lord there sometimes seems a fine live between being brave, and being a coward, helps us today to be brave, to face this day with courage ,a courage that comes to us as we trust in You, we ask this in Your name Lord Jesus, Amen ]

Gods will.[ Jude v 24 ].

We are all different, some of us are natural optimist others are pessimist, I use the word natural, to describe the way we are born, but if we are Christians, we have been born again by the Spirit of God. Being born again means that we have entered into Gods kingdom, the Spirit of God dwells within us, and His task is to change us. As I look at my life I see how God the Holy Spirit has been changing me,moulding me, continually challenging me, convicting me, I am not the person I once was, indeed I am a work still in progress. Most of us as Christians would agree that we need to change, but let me stress, change is not optional, it must take place, we can co-op-er-ate or we can resist, the choice is ours, but God will have his way, He leaves nothing unfinished. Here are words by Daniel Iverson , let them be a prayer for all of us today,[ Spirit of the living God, fall afresh on me,break me melt me, mould me, fill me, Spirit of the living God fall afresh on me, we ask this in Jesus name, Amen ]

It may happen.[ Matthew 6 v 25-34 ]

It is so easy to be gripped with the thought , it may happen, I may loose my job, I may get cancer, and so on. The,/it may happen/, sydrome, can take over our mind paralysing us with fear, robbing us of peace, and sleep. Our Saviour warned us of the dangers of falling into this pattern of thought, in Matthew 6 v25-34. In these verses Jesus stresses that our heavenly Father provides for His creation, the birds are fed by Him, and He adds that His children our of more value than them. He then tells us what we should be focused on, /seeking the Kingdom of God above all else/, if we do that ,then God will give us all we need. Lastly, we are to concern ourselves with today, not tomorrow,the whole emphasis is on trusting and obeying, not to let ourselves be gripped with what may happen.[ Loving Heavenly Father we ask for the grace to live in the present, and not to be gripped with what may happen, we ask this in Jesus name Amen .]

Balance [ 2 Timothy 16 - 17 ]

We must be balanced Christians, very important, rest ,work and play, and also with our theology , God is balanced, yes even in the O T. Gods attributes are many, and they are all of equal importance, God forgives, but He also judges, He is all powerful, but He is also forgiving, you see what I mean. The fact of the matter is, most of us are inbalanced,in our personalities , and in what we believe. I believe James wrote his epistle to bring balance,Paul emphasized the grace of God,we are saved by grace,not by works, [Ephesians 2 v8-9] although in verse ten, he brings in the importance of works, yet his main thrust is on the grace of God that saves us. What James seeks to bring is a balance , stressing that works are an evidence that we are saved, that they witness to the reality of our salvation. [Father we confess that so often we are out of balance, we are prone to excesses, help us to be balanced Christians, to be more like You , we ask this in Jesus name. Amen ]

An unnnatural act.[ Matthew 6 v 43-47 ]

I borrow the term,/ unnatural act/, from Philip Yanceys book, /Whats so amazing about Grace/, it is a book that we all need to read, again and again.An unnatural act,what does it mean? ,it is Yancey, who uses the term ungrace, to describe the hate,revenge,lack of forgiveness, that is manifest in the world, it is what we do naturally.As I hear of awful wicked things happening, to children and others , my natural desire is that those who carry out such things should be dammed to hell for all eternity, thats ungrace. Being a Christian demands of us to act in an unnatural way, a way of forgiveness, a way that blessing those who hurt us, and those we love, we cannot do this naturally,we just cant, but we can by the grace of God, that amazing grace which we sing about. [Father we ask You to help us to act in an unatural way, to love the unloveable, to pray for those we would naturally hate, pour out Your grace into our lives, that we may show Calvary love, we ask this in Jesus name, Amen ]

Things that make us sad.. [ Mark 1 v 41 -44 ]

As I get older I find myself shedding tears as I watch the news on the T V, sadness often fills my heart, as I hear of child abuse, or some awful tragedy, like a suicide bomber, and so on. There are many things that make me sad , this is not a bad thing for often it drives us to pray, for those situations. It would be a tragedy for any us to feel no emotions ,one of the dearest thing about Jesus is that He is touched with our situations, our hurts, our pains. [ Hebrews 4 v 15. av] So today if you are feeling sadness for whatever reason , tell Jesus about it, the old hymn says,/ no one understands like Jesus/, and it is true, the poet wrote ,/ with every pang that rends the heart the man of sorrows has a part/. [ Dear Lord Jesus we bring to You all those things that make us sad, we ask that we may never grow indifferent to others suffering,or overwhelmed by our own, we rejoice that You care for the whole human situation, and we praise You , that You are never indifferent ,to our pain and the pain of others, Amen ]