Struggling [Psalm 103 ]

It may surprise us to know that people are struggling, people we think have it all together, our heroes . In my time I have read many books on famous people , missionaries, preachers, I have also met many well known Christians. We can so easily put them on a pedestal, but the fact of the matter is they struggle at times, they dont always wake up with a song, as the Bible tells us, they are as human as we are [James 5v17 ]. I am not pointing this out so we can judge them, rather that we can see things in a realistic way, and keep our eyes on Jesus, Everyone of us without exception, struggle and everyone of us need the Lord to help us, which He will. If you are struggling today ask the Saviour to help you, he understands, and He will grant you the grace you need. [ Father in Heaven You know everything about us, nothing is hid from You, You see behind the outward show, the fears, the pain, the weakness, and so we ask in the name of Jesus for grace, for this day, Amen ]

Welcome. [ Revelation 3 v 20 ]

There is a song the Irish sing and it goes,/ If your Irish come into the parlour theres a welcome there for you/, there is also a church in Belfast called the Welcome Hall. It is nice to feel welcome when we go somewhere , there have places I have gone to and I have not felt welcomed. Being a Christian can mean that you are not always welcome, because you have witnessed to people, and they didnt like it, there were times when our Saviour was not welcome, and the fact of the matter He is still not welcome, in the vast majority of lives today. As a Christian I remember when Jesus was not welcome in my life, when He knocked on the door of my heart, and I refused to answer,yet thankfully He kept knocking, and now He is the welcome presence in my life. I wonder is He knocking on your hearts door?.[ Dear Lord Jesus thank You for Your patience ,we ask that you will help us to welcome You into our hearts, as Saviour, Amen ]

What would Jesus do ?.[ 1 Peter 2 v 21 ]

Many years ago a dear friend read a book which had an deep impact on his life, I cant remember the title of that book, but I do remember the thing that impacted on his life, and it was this, /What would Jesus do ?. / What would Jesus do ?, a simple thought, yet if one thinks about it, it is a profound thought, and a very challenging thing to put into practice.What would Jesus do about giving, forgiving,helping, and so on, can we put it into practice ,can we rise to the challenge?. Lets ask ourselves as we go through this day, what would Jesus do, in every situation we find ourselves in, let us pray,[Father we call ourselves Christians, but we are so conscious that we are but poor reflections of Christ, help us this day, to be more Christlike,in everything, Amen.]

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 ]