Jesus[ John 21 v 15 -17 ]

Let us stop and ask the question, how much do we love Jesus? do we love Jesus? for that is what the Christian life is about,to know Him is to love Him, to love Jesus is to be loved.What does Jesus mean to you ?,is He just another part of your life or is He your life, how deep is your love for Him?,it is easy to use the word Christian, and not really know Jesus, there will those who will call Jesus Lord,yet Jesus will say I never knew you,[ Matthew 7 v23 ]. Jesus is not standing pointing a finger of condemnation at us, but He is whispering into our hearts love me for I love you, serve Me , love me unreservedly,unreservedly, no excuses, no arguing. To love Jesus appears so simple, and it is , if we are childlike, but so many have lost that childlikeness, if we are to know Jesus we must return to that childlikeness, and then we must never loose that childlikeness, for it is in that childlikeness we express the love that Jesus desires, and most of all recieve His love, to love Him is to know Him.[ My Jesus I love Thee I know Thou art mine, For thee all the pleasures of sin I resign, I love Thee, because Thou hast first loved me, and purchased my pardon on Calvarys tree, I love Thee for wearing the thorns on Thou brow. If ever I loved Thee, my Jesus tis now . Amen ]

Greatness [ Philippians 2 v 5 - 11 ]

I sometimes watch the Antique Road Show, on T V , people bring all sorts of things, and are given all sorts of imformation about the objects they have brought, but it is the last bit of imformation I want to hear, its value, what is the cost of it. Cost, being a Christian brings a challenge , and its this, the cost, each new day brings the challenge, am I prepared to pay the cost of being a Christian. Consider what our Saviour said,/ The greatest among you must be servant of all. [Matthew 23 v11 ] /, I do struggle with those words, and what they mean for me, and sometimes I resent being a servant, helping others ,working and getting no thanks, why should I give up my bed, why should I , you get the picture. Our blessed Lord was the servant king, how contradictory those words appear, and yet they are so true, He who was King of Kings, became the servant of all, and it cost Him everything, even His very life. [Dear Lord Jesus thank You for being a servant of all, a servant to the ungrateful, unthankful, unlovely,unkind, to our shame we at times struggle to follow in Your footsteps, grant us the grace today to be the servant of all, Amen ]

Need [ Matthew 11 v28 -30 ]

George Herbert the poet ,wrote about God making man, and that restlessness that is within man ,and so he writes,/ Let him be rich and weary, that at least, If goodness lead him not, yet weariness May toss him to My breast. As I observe life I observe many weary souls , although people are blest with many things, yet like the old Rolling Stones number, they cant get no satisfaction. There is an old saying in Ulster where I come from, /There is a want in him/,this can be applied to all humanity, there is a want in them, the great shopping malls are a testimony to the want in mankind, everybody has their want list.Many pray to their god, let me win the lottery, thats what I want. Whats more important is not our wants but our needs, and what we all need is salvation, by trusting Christ , then we need to develop a relationship with Him, this is what we should want more than anything else.[ Dear God in Your mercy grant unto us what we need, be it riches or be it pain, be it sunshine or rain, that Your grand design may be fufilled in our lives, we ask this in Jesus name, Amen ]

Decisions [ Psalm 32 v 1 - 2 ]

Every day we are faced with decisions, some important others not so important, the most important decision I ever made was to accept Christ as my Saviour. This decision changed my whole life, once I made that decision I would never be the same, it brought a new emphasis into my life, so many things followed from that one decision. This decision brought the presence of the Lord into my life, a presence that has never left me, and never will. With the presence of the Lord in my life, I could no longer live as I used to, before this I let my mind dwell on so much that was wrong,I made decisions on my own, I did it my way. That decision of trusting the Lord is something I have never regretted, the hymn writer, wrote ,/ O happy day that fixed my choice on Thee, my Saviour and my God, / it trully was a happy day, I will never regret that decision, and indeed I will bless in death a bond so dear.[ Dear God thank You for Your grace that enables us to trust Your Son Jesus as Saviour , that enables us to make that all important decision . Amen ]

Gods stange choices. [ 1 Corinthians 1 v26 - 29 ]

Each journey begins with one step, today we may be faced with many tasks , problems and difficulties, how are we to cope?.The answer one prayerful step at a time , let each step be bathed in prayer, each step depending on Gods help. Remember Gods way for you and me is the path of weakness, it may seem a strange way, not the worlds way,the worlds way is the survival of the strongest. Hudson Taylor was one of my spiritual heroes, he founded the China Inland Mission, he was introduced at a meeting as ,/ our illustrious guest,when he rose to speak, he said, Dear friends , I am the little servant of an illustrious Master/. The fact of the matter is,we are all little servants , of an illustrious Master, yet in our littleness Jesus can use us for His glory. [ Dear Lord Jesus, help us this day to know Your strength in our littleness, your power in our weakness,your help in our helplessness , Amen ]

Fear of death.[ Psalm 23/ John 10 v11]

I am reading a book by a man called Julian Barnes, he is an atheist, he starts of by saying,/ I dont believe in God, but I miss Him/, as I read this book I sense that this dear man ,is in fact searching for God. The book is about , the fear of death, he writes of the composer Rachmaninov, who was terrified of death, Rachmaninov surprised his friends when he didnt talk about death. Julian tells the story, of how Rachmaninov visited a friends home , while there he had his fortune told, in order to find out when he would die. Then he spoke to his friends daughter on the subject of death, as he did, he began to eat some pistachio nuts,as he ate them , he suddenly broke off and laughed,these pistachio nuts have made my fear of death go away. Do you know where to?no one could tell him. When he left , his friends gave him a sack full of pistachio nuts, to cure his fear of death. There is something amusing about this story, and yet sad, in this modern age people dont talk about death, it is brushed under the mat, but of course it wont go away, The word of God tells us that it is appointed unto men once to die and after,[Hebrews 9 v 27 ] yes there is an after, ask yourself this question ,if you were to die today where would you spend eternity?. Jesus said that He was the resurrection and the life, and that whoever believed in Him ,even though they die , would live.[ John 11 v25 ] A bag of nuts , or whatever ,may help relieve our fear of death, but they will not save us, only faith in Christ can do that. [ Dear God Your word tells us clearly that death is not the end , that there is a heaven and a hell, and that the only way to be saved from hell is to believe on Your dear son Jesus, help us this day to trust Him as our Saviour, Amen ]

Be doing. [ Romans 13 v 11-14 ]

When Martin Luther King, was in prison for His civil rights activities , he recieved criticism from many people, even from some black glergy, so he wrote a long and meaningful letter, to challenge his critics. Some of the critics were saying wait, things would gradually improve for the black man, Martin responded by saying the following,/ For years now I have heard the word wait. It rings in the ear of every Negro with piercing familiarity. This wait has almost meant never/. Martin was not prepared to wait and rightly so, action was what was needed, and he was prepared to take that action ,even though it meant being misunderstood , even though it meant persecution, even though it meant death, which it eventually did. There is a place for waiting in all our lives but there is also a place for taking action in, evangelism, in dealing with those wrong things we need to deal with, in relation to salvation, there are so many areas in our lives in which we are prepared to just wait, when with Gods help we should be prepared to act. [Dear God and Father, help us to rise up and be doing, help us to see that we have waited long enough, forgive us for making excuses, for being lazy, for putting off till tomorrow what we should be dealing with today, in the name of Jesus we ask this Amen .]