Hide and seek [ Luke 15 v1- 7 ]

When I was young I remember playing hide and seek,it is the first game that humanity ever played,we read about it in Genesis 3. There was three involved in this game of hide and seek, Adam and Eve, they were doing the hiding, God was doing the seeking, and surprise , surprise, God found them. In Romans 3 v 11, we read,/ no one is seeking after God/, these words remind us that humanity is still hiding from God, foolish though it be , for the fact is ,one cannot hide from God, read Psalm 139, there we are left in no doubt, that there is no hiding place , when it comes to God. In Luke 19 v 10, we read these words, / For the Son of man came to seek and save those who are lost/,people are still trying to hide from from God, but praise His name in His Son, Jesus, He is seeking them out, to save them. [ Dear God and Father thank You for Your Son Jesus the seeker of souls ,who are lost, help us ,to see our part,in this seeking process, we ask this in Jesus name , Amen. ]

All the answers [Habakkuk 3 v16-19 ]

The fact of the matter is I do not have all the answers, oh yes I am a Christian a long time, been to Bible college, been a minister full time, I preach regularly, read my Bible everyday, but I still dont have all the answers. Sometimes the hardest thing for a person to admit is , they dont have all the answers, I wish the scientific community would admit this, and also Christian writers, we all need a good dose of humility. The not having all the answers, for the Christian, demands trust, in 1 Corinthians 13 v 12, we read,/All that I know now is partial/,this side of Glory, many things will not make sense, a death of a child, an incurable illness, oh I know God heals, but often He does not. As I write this I have a hymn playing in the background, the words go like this,/I dont know about tomorrow, I just live from day today, I dont borrow from its sunshine,For its skies may turn to grey, I dont worry oer the future, for I know what Jesus said, And today ill walk beside Him, For He knows what lies ahead/,let that suffice us. [Father forgive us for our lack of trust,we freely acknowledge our limatations, we ask for grace to leave all those things,that we dont know, things that frustrate us,pain us, with You , we ask this in Jesus name, Amen. ]

My loving Heavenly Father.[ Matthew 6 v25 - 34 ]

It is so easy to fall into despair, as I listen to the news on the economy ,and crime,despair can so easily creep in, it does look like we are in for a rough ride.Well I know a little about the rough times, I have experienced unemployment, bereavement, living on very little,I can look back to my childhood, being brought up in a one parent family, my wee mum the only wage earner, that was a time when women where paid less than men, I remember as a boy going to the pawn shop, of going to the local shop for out of date bread. Why am I telling you this ? , just to let you know I survived, and I am not bitter, hopefully those things taught me valuable lessons. Now I have not mentioned that from a very early age, I saw God as my Father, and came to trust Jesus as my Saviour, and as I look back inspite of my background , weakness, and failure to live as I should, God looked after me, and brought me through. [ Father in Heaven we thank You that when we come into Your family by accepting Christ as our Saviour, we come under Your care, Amen ]

Safe. [ Romans 8 v 31 - 39 ]

Sometimes a wave of uncertainty sweeps over one, can we make it to our ultimate destination?, Heaven, I am sure many people think this. I was thinking like this recently when a verse of scripture came into my mind , written by a man who was in prison, and facing death , this is what he wrote,/ I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day/[2 Timothy 1 v12 . a v ]. What had he committed ?, his soul, the soul descibes the most important part of our being, to loose that is to loose everything.Next, to whom did he commit his soul to?, to Christ, and because of this he had confidence that all would be well. Barnes in his commentray writes,/ If the soul is safe, why need we be disturbed by the loss of health, or property , or other temporal comforts?, these are secondary comforts/.[ Father we thank You for your saving and keeping power that is in your Son Jesus , and the tremendous assurance that in Him nothing is able to seperate us from Your love, Amen ]

Nahum [Genesis 18 v 25 ]

Who was Nahum? well he was a prophet , one called by God , he proclaimed Gods word , to whoever God told him to. Nahum spoke Gods word to the Assyrian empire, addressing his words to their capital, Nineveh, the same people Jonah had prophsied to, with success, but they had gone back to their old ways, of being cruel and oppressive. God had showed them mercy, but now the time for Him to act had come, He proclaims Himself to be their enemy, the Lord who is slow to get angry, was angry, judgement was going to fall. I read these words in my study Bible,/Those who do evil and oppress others will one day meet a bitter end/. God is merciful and loving , but when people or individuals oppress others, they better watch out, for God will judge. [Dear God we thank You that You are just, and are not pleased with those who oppress others, please help those who are living under oppression, we ask this in Jesus name , Amen ]

Surrender.[ Galations 5 v 16 - 26 ]

Yesterday we looked at what it means to become a Christian, the surrendering of the will, let us further consider what it means in the Christians life. When we become a Christian we bring many things with us, habits, attitudes ,that we need to change, we all have something that clings to us. It has been said that though God brought Israel out of Egypt, there was still much of Egypt in them, they continually lusted after the things of Egypt, and where so prone to idolatry. For us as Christians we still carry with us many things that continually , we return to,wrong sexual ideas, lying, unforgiving natures, the list is endless, we all know our particular demons, today God is calling us to surrender these things to Him, for many of us it is a daily surrendering. [Father in Heaven , you know how we struggle with so many things that potentially are so destructive,give us the grace we need to not surrender to them but to surrender them to You, we ask this in the name of Jesus, Amen]

Surrender. [ 1 Corinthians 1 v18- 29 ]

I was watching on the God channel , a Bill Gaither presentation , and was blessed as he and others sang many old hymns which I knew. One of the the hymns was ,I suurender all, and the first verse goes, /All to Jesus I surrender, All to Him I freely give, I will ever love and trust Him, In His presence daily live/.I believe one of the important aspects of the Christian life, is that of surrendering to Jesus ,that in order to be saved we must surrender our will, to Him, and simply trust in the claims of His Gospel, we will never be saved until we do this, but once we do surrender,and submit ourselves to Him ,we are saved. I know church people who have never surrendered to Jesus, religious people can be the most resentful of the fact that a surrender to Jesus is what they need to do most of all, that they have to come to Him just as they are, and acknowledge their lostness, their spiritual poverty. [Dear Lord Jesus help us all to see the importance of surrendering to You , as our Saviour, Amen ]