Faith [Hebrews 11 v 6 ]

There is an old hymn with the words,/ only believe/, in it, it is telling us that faith is the key , only believe, seems so simple, and it is. To become a Christian we must believe in the Lord Jesus,when we do this then we enter into a life of faith,that means we face ever problem, by faith. The Christian life is a life of faith , that means you must live this day by faith, whatever you face you are called to face it by faith. It all sounds so simple as I have said, and in reality it is , yet it is one of the things we find hardest to do, as we read the Bible we see people struggling with the life of faith, compare, Numbers 13-14 , Mark 4 v36-41, we are no different,if we are honest. The great cry of the reformation was,/The just shall live by faith,[ Galations 3 v11 ], nothing has changed, and never will , while we live, so today let us live by faith. [Father we come to You by faith, we confess our weakness and failure to rise to to the challenge of living by faith, please grant us the grace we need, to face this day by faith, we ask this in Jesus name ,Amen ]

Leave it.[1 Peter 2 v 23/ 5 v 7 ]

While I believe in human responsibility,if I have to preach, I know I have to pray and study, if I want the good things in life then I have to work, and save, if I am ill I need to go to the doctors, thats human resonsibility. I also feel constrained to leave certain things by faith in Gods hands, to pray , and not to interfere, I cant change people, nor can you, life is also full of situations we cant change, the temptation may be to do something, remember what I said yesterday,learn to live in God, and so often that means leaving things in His hands. The scriptures tell us to,/ Give our burdens to the Lord and He will take care of us [Psalm 55v22 ], [ Dear loving Heavenly father ,we cast all our burdens upon You, our problems with people, our circumstances, our needs, give us the grace to leave all these things in Your hands, we ask this in Jesus name, Amen ]

When will I ever learn.[ Psalm 91 ]

It is Van Morrison who wrote the following words, / When will I ever learn to live in God?, when will I ever learn?, He gives me everything I need, and more, when will I ever learn?.As I listened to those words which Van sings, they struck a cord with me, what about you?.It appears that so many of us flit in and out, in our relationship with the Lord,the words ,when will I ever learn to live in God, bring to us all a challenge. Here are some words from Psalm 91,/Those who live in the shelter of the most high will find rest in the shadow of the almighty,/ here is a place of security, peace and rest. Today let us all learn this valuable lesson of living in God,. of living under the shadow of the Almighty, safe and secure, from all alarms. [ Father in heaven we come into Your presence and ask for the grace to live in You today, for it is only as we live in Your presence will we experience, peace,and all we need, we ask this in Jesus name, Amen ]

Sin and Hell. [John 3 v16 ]

In the little epistle of Jude ,we read about Sodom and Gomorrah , that these cities were destroyed by fire, and that what happened to them serves as a warning of the eternal fire of Gods judgment. We dont hear much about Hell these days it is not fashionable, its like it does not exsist, but according to the word of God it is real place, for all those who die without Christ. Dr Johnson the famous 18th-century character was gripped by a fear of it, and rightly so, for Hell is an awful place, its a place of suffering, and it is eternal, with no possiblity of escape. In my Bible I wrote, /sin has a terrible price/, the Bible tells us that the wages of sin is death, what a terrible price to pay. There is only answer , Christ, if we are to be saved from Hell then we must, we must,trust Him to forgive us our sin, if we dont then Hell is our destiny.[ Dear God help us to view sin as You do,to see that to die unforgiven, is to go to Hell for all eternity, we ask this in Jesus name Amen ]

Rejection [ Hebrews 4 v14- 16 ]

Rejection is a painful experience, which some people never come to terms with,I remember a friend called Charlie,his mother had given him up for adoption, when he was a child. Charlie found it hard to accept, he tried to have a relationship with his mother when he grew up, but his mother did not want to know, I believe this contributed to his death. Our Saviour experenced rejection, we read that He came to His own people, and even they rejected Him, [John 1 v 10 ] when He preached at His home town they tried to kill Him, [Luke 4v24 ]. The human situation throws many things at us, rejection is one of them, what can we do? well we can come to Jesus, He understands, for He was rejected,simplytell Him how you feel and let Him bring healing into your life, He can, and He will. [ Dear Lord Jesus we bring the pain of rejection to You, we ask You, to bring healing into our lives, Amen ]

Messed up lives.[ Luke 8 v26- 39 ]

On the front page of a daily reading I read these words,/ Stories of lives changed for good, /as one reads the Bible, we read of lives being changed. In Luke 8, we read of a man whose life was messed up, he was controlled by demons, he lived in a place of death, a cemetery. There were attempts to control him, but to no avail, he was homeless, naked, and violent, his truly was a life messed up, he couldnt help himself, nor could anyone else help him, but then Jesus came. When Jesus comes into the life , He brings forgiveness and freedom. We read the result of Jesus coming into this mans life,/He was sitting at Jesus feet,fully clothed and perfectly sane/, We sometimes forget that Jesus came into the world to save sinners, those whose lives are messed up, those whose lives are being controlled and destroyed by sin and satan .[Father thank You for Jesus Your Son who has come to seek and to save those who are lost, we thank that no life is so messed up that He cannot save and set free, thank You , Amen ]

Power. [ Genesis 1 ]

When you think of power, what comes to mind ?, the power of the atom, the worlds strongest man, let us consider the Word of God [1 ] The power of the word of God is described as being a mighty hammer that smashes the rock in pieces ,[ Jeremiah 23 v29 ][2]. No power on earth can stop it being fulfilled, [ Isaiah 55v11 ],[3 ] it is a living word, that can cut through all our defences and pretences, exposing us for what we are [ Hebrews 4 v12 ]. When believed on it can revolutionize our lives,comfort us in our sorrows, guide us in our walk,strengthen us in our weakness,encourage us in our endeavours. [ Dear God we honour Your word, we thank You for it,help us to read it ,meditate on it , and most of all to obey it, we ask this in Jesus name , Amen ]