Longing [John 4 v1 -15 ]

Drug taking, alcohol, sex addiction,speak of mankinds longing for satisfaction, and the point is this they cannot satisfy . Addiction can never satisfy, no matter how much we try, the longing ,and addicton only grows stronger the more we feed into it. I picked up a magizine yesterday, and read of a world famous entertainer, who was addicted to certain pills.Addiction is like chasing the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow,it will always be out of reach, in fact it is all an allusion. Our Saviour spoke to a woman at a well, He said, /Anyone who drinks this water will soon become thirsty again, , but those who drink the water I give will never thirst again. It becomes a fresh, bubbling spring within them, giving them eternal life, [John 4v 13 ]. There is an old hymn which goes,/ now none but Christ can satisfy/,and it is true, only He can satisfy the deep longings in our hearts. [ Dear Lord Jesus come and fill these hearts of ours with Yourself, Amen ]

Transparency [ John 1 v 45 - 50 ]

It is a rare thing to find a person who is transparent, but in John 1v47, we read of a person called Nathanael, and this is what Jesus said about him,/ Here is an Israelite indeed.....in whom there is no guile, nor deceit ,nor falsehood, nor duplicity. [A V ]/. Nathanael was a man who had no hidden agender, no alternative motives, the Message puts it like this, he had not a false bone in his body, unlike Nathanael , so many of us say one thing but inwardly we have other plans, there are to many crooked salespersons about, and to few open cast mines. Nathanael was transparent am I ?are you ?. [ Dear Lord help us to be more transparent, help us to be open in all our dealings, Amen ]

The great unnmentional [ John 11 ]

I always remember when I was young our local paper, The Belfast Telegraph, had on its second page , a list of people who had died. Death the modern great unmentional , it is something that is never the focus of our conversation, even when death comes to those we love, yet it is part of life. In former days there was times of mourning,again when I was young, people used to wear a black band on their arm as a sign that they where mourning, not now. I remember a son telling his mother at a funeral I attended to keep control, keep control when you have been married to someone for a life time, and suddenly they are not there. Mybe we need to think more about the mourning process , how important it is, and we should not be afraid of emotions ,and we should weep with those who weep, did not Jesus weep at a funeral,[ John 11 v35 ] [Father Have mercy upon all who have been touched by death, in their loss comfort them , and help us to mourn with those who mourn, in Jesus name Amen ]

Hold unto that dream.[Philippians 3 v 1-16 ]

Bruce Springsteen said, I spent most of my life as a musican measuring the distance between the American dream and the American reality. As a Christian I often think of the distance between what I preach , and what I am, between what I profess and what I am.The dream and reality seem distances apart, and yet as a Christian we cannot afford to loose that dream of what we should be, and what we could be, more loving , more trusting, more obedient, more like Christ, we all need to hold unto this dream. [Father we know that we are accepted unconditionally in Jesus, and yet we also know that we can never be satisfied with the distance between the dream and reality, which is You, grant us the grace, fill us with Your Spirit that both dream and reality may merge as one, for Jesus sake we ask this Amen ]

Stubbornness. [Hebrews 3 v 7 - 19 ]

I think Pharaoh must have been the most stubborn person who ever lived, we read about him in Exodus, he was so stubborn that he was prepared to see his land devastated,and suffer the loss of his son. The reason being, he did not want to obey what God was saying , all the suffering could have been avoided, but no ,he dug his heels in and suffered as a consequences. We all have a degree of stubbornness when it comes to doing what we are told,you see it everyday in the supermarkets,the screaming stubborn child, and when it comes God and us, my, we really can be so stubborn just like Pharaoh. Consider how many people resist the gospel, refuse to seek forgiveness, refuse to trust Christ, even though the consequences for doing so is a bondage to sinful ways, and a lost eternity,all could be so different if only they would yield. The scriptures tell us , if today we hear the voice of God harden not our hearts,[Hebrews 3 v 7-8 ].[Dear God thank You for your patience with us, we acknowledge that we are stubborn at times , when You speak to us, help us to yield to Your will, in Jesus name we ask this, Amen ]

A new heart. [ Jeremiah 31 v 31 - 34 ]

God wants us to have healthy thoughts and motives, not just healthy bodies,so reads my study Bible, we live in a world that is obsessed with the outward appearance. The outward appearance includes so much that is of very little importance, designer clothes cater to this, this atitude is called the pride of life , pride in our achievements and possessions,these are not from the Father, but are from this world. [ 1 John 2 v 16 ]. The religous people of our Lords day led a great stress on the outward observance of certain traditions, that had nothing to do with what God desired. Jesus continually challenged the trivia in life , the religious people didnt like it ,for it challenged their control and power, people dont like you doing this, in fact they hated Him for doing it. He faced them with what was most important the inward, the heart,He pointed out that this is were the trouble lay, the heart[ Matthew 15 v 19 ] . In Jeremiah 17 v 9 we read, /The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked/, this is what needs dealt with, and only Christ can do that, we need to surrender our hearts to Him. [ Father help us to see that our greatest need is for a new heart, which comes when we accept Jesus as our Saviour, Amen ]

I belong to Jesus [John 3 v16 ]

I belong to Jesus ,so reads the words on Kakas shirt, Kaka in case you didnt know is a Brazilian who plays football for AC Milan. Well I dont wear a shirt with the words ,I belong to Jesus on it, but I do belong to Jesus.In 1 Corinthians 6 v 19- 20, we read, You do not belong to yourself,for God bought you with a high price. If we are Christians we have been redeemed,this term is used, both in the NT, and the OT, what does it mean ?, well when I was young it was a common thing for people to take an article to the pawn shop, they would pawn it, which simple means they would recieve a certain amount of money for that article, in order to get that article back even though it was theirs, they would have to pay to get it back, if they didnt, they lost it. This illustrates what redemption means, we belonged to God, but we were in sins pawn shop as it were,in order for God to once again own us ,He had to pay a price for us, 1 Peter 1 v18-19 tells us the price God paid to redeem us back to Himself, consider these words,/ Ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold.........But with the precious blood of Christ, and because God did this, you belong to Jesus. [ Dear God from hearts that have been redeemed we worship and praise You,we ask that You would help us to continually remember ,that we belong to Jesus. Amen ]