What the Lord wants.[Micah 6 v6-8 ]

In the book of Micah [6v 6-8 ]the question is asked,what does the Lord want?, the Message puts it like this,/ Would God be impressed with thousands of rams, with buckets and barrels of olive oil? Would He be moved if I sacrificed my firstborn child, my precious baby, to cancel my sin?/. I wonder what we consider , the Lord wants from us?, faithful attendance of church,going to the prayer meeting, reading the Bible every day, praying everyday, witnessing, giving a tenth of our wages, etc.Now all these things are legitimate, as was what we have read in Micah, but as 1 Corinthian 13,, reminds us ,they count for nothing if love is missing. Micah 6v8[ The Message ] says, / what God is looking for in men and women. It is quite simple, do what is fair and just to your neighbour, be compassionate and loyal in your love, And dont take yourself too seriously./ [Dear God we confess that we get it wrong so often as to what You want from us, help us to change, help us today to understand, that rules and regulations are not what it is about, we ask this in Jesus name. Amen ]

Confess and move on.[1 John 1 ]

Yesterday I felt pangs of guilt, I felt I should have acted different than I did, what could I do?, well I confessed it to God, as Joyce Meyer says it is hard, living with a guilty conscience. As long as we are in this body we will sin, we will not always act as we should, so what should we do? we confess ,and believe the promise of God, that He is faithful, and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all [note that word all] wickedness, [ 1 John 1v 9 ]. When we have confessed we must move on, and pray that we will act differently the next time we are tempted, believe the word of God, not our feelings, or satan, when God forgives He chooses not to remember, those sins we have confessed to Him. [Father thank You that through Your Son Jesus you trully forgive us, and continue to love us, we praise Your name for such amazing grace, mercy, and love, Amen ]

Is it a wonderful world?. [Revelation 21 v 1 - 5 ]

As I write this blog I have Elvis Presley singing that well known hymn ,/How great thou art/,one of the verses go like this,/ When through the woods and forest glades I wander and hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees, When I look down from lofty mountian grander, and hear the brook, and feel the gentle breeze, Then sings my soul, my Saviour God to Thee, how great Thou art./. I was watching a TV program last night , showing an area of Portugal , with its wild life, and it was very lovely. I have personally saw the Swiss alps ,very beautiful, and I can think of many other places, it appears to be a wonderful world, God surely did create a wonderful world, yes He did, but, here is that but again, sin entered in , that which was perfect became flawed, and the crown of His creation, human kind, became a rebel,and nothing has been the same since, a dark shadow hangs over this world, sin. But it is the Christmas season which reminds us of a child , a very special child, that was born, and that child grew to manhood, and died on a cross,to change this world and its inhabithants, those who trust Him, and eventually in His time,He will make a new heaven and earth, and on that day it will trully be a wonderful world. [Father we thank You for the wonder of creation, but most of all we thank You for Jesus who will make all things new, Amen ]

Kept back. [ 1 Samuel 25 v 1-36 ]

In Matthew 6v13 we read those firmilar words,/ lead us not into temptation [ av], do you ever wonder why , we are prevented going to certain places, why we are held back in our endevours or aspirations?. Could it be that God is preventing us in order to save us from temptation, that position that was denied us, could have held temptations that could have harmed us, that relationship that was denied us, would not have been good for us. In Genesis 20v6 we read, /I kept you from sinning/,these are very meaningful words, John Calvin, says this,/ The Spirit restrains, by His bridle, those who are gliding into error, He proves Himself the faithful guardian of His own people, to prevent them from rushing forward, from lighter faults to desperate crimes/, in other words He restraines by denying, and in so doing keeps us from harm.[ Dear God thank You for watching over us, keeping us from sinning, even though we didnt realize it, thank You for deneying us those things that could have harmed us, we pray this in Jesus name, Amen ]

Prayer and faith. [ Luke 1 v8- 25 ]

There was a man called Zechariah, he was a priest, he was married, but he had no children, so he prayed that he might have a child, but nothing happened. Mybe Zechariah felt his request was not going to be granted, both he and his wife were old, but one day while serving the Lord an angel came and spoke to him. The angels presence filled Zechariah with fear, but the angel told him not to be afraid, and told him that God had heard his prayer, and that his wife would have a son. We are told that instead of rejoicing that his prayer was going to be answered,he doubted that such a thing could happen, because of his unbelief he was struck dumb,for a period of time. One can appreciate Zechariahs reasoning, but that is what it was , his reasoning, it was divorced from faith, faith see,s the promise and says it shall be done. [Dear God we come to You and ask that you help us to be people of faith, to believe those promises You give us, we ask this in Jesus name, Amen]

Poverty [2 Corinthians 8 v 9 ]

I remember years ago someone saying to me that I was poor,and I suppose I was , materially I had not much, yet by the grace of God I was rich in faith. There are many in this world who are poor, little or nothing to eat, or to wear, there are the have,s and the have not,s.As I looked at the nativity scene in my living room the words of scripture came into my mind,regarding the Lord Jesus,/ Though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, so that through His poverty He could make you rich,/ [ 2 Corinthians 8 v9 ]. My study Bible says,/ that there is no evidence that Christ was any poorer than most first-century Palistinians,/ yet the scriptures do indicate, that our Lord ,did rough it. The point is this,who He was and what He choose to become, He was God, He became a man as Philippians 2v7 , tells us, / in other words He gave up His divine privileges, now that is trully becoming poor. [Dear Lord Jesus we thank You for Your great humility in becoming poor for us,help us show the same spirit in our lives, Amen ]

Indifference [ Revelation 3 v 14 -22.]

In the book of Revelation we read of a church that was indifferent, oh yes they still met together, to sing hymns etc,but as Christ looked at this church, they made Him sick. This was a rich church, rich materially, and they knew it, this filled them with pride, and they boasted about it.Mybe they even felt it was a sign of Gods blessing, now of course it can be, but in this case it had become a blight on their relationship with their Lord, to such a point,that He was outside the church, knocking to get in. For churches as indeed for individual Christians ,material prosperity can bring dangers, the church of Laodicea was in great danger of self destructing. The story is told how during a time of persecution , that soldiers broke into a church and demanded of the leaders of the church, to hand over their riches, the leaders took them to a hall at the rear of the church, which was filled with the poor and the sick, they pointed to them ,and said these are ,our riches.[ Father in heaven we thank You for all Your blessings,as you have blessed us help us to bless others, may your blessings never take Your place in our hearts, we ask this in Jsus name, Amen ]