A song of praise [ 2 Samuel 22 ]

In 2 Samuel 22 we have a song of praise written by David, and which he also song himself, David was a very gifted person, a very blessed person, but he was also a person who experienced a lot of trouble. God was very gracious unto David and rescued him , time after time from his enemies, and so he wrote a song of praise. Today, why not offer unto God a song of praise,for all His goodness, let us stop and remember, how the Lord has delivered us,provided for us, protected us, defended us, promoted us,kept us, helped us, upheld us, strengthened us, guided us. Praise is a giving of thanks, it is a song of thanksgiving, it should come from the heart,and let us remember God is worthy to be praised, many will be singing the praises of their football team , many will be praising others,and so many things ,today let us praise our God, for He is worthy of our praise. [ Father in Heaven we give You praise, You have done so much for us, saved us through Your dear Son, made us Your children, and blessed us continually,we offer our praise and thanksgiving to You, in Jesus name Amen ]

Frustrations [ Psalm 40 v 1 ]

Over my life I have had to contend with frustrations, times of unemployment, personal relationships , so the question is ,what does one do when faced with frustration?. It was Rudyard Kipling who wrote, / If you can keep your head when all about you ,Are losing theirs and blaming it on you/, now this is easier said than done. So what can we do ? a good question. First of all consider, that God is Sovereign , inspite of everything that may be going wrong, he is in control,He has not suddenly fallen asleep on the job. Secondly ,God is in the buisness of creating ,in us, Christian character, and one of most important characteristics is patience, consider how patient Christ was with the disciples, we all without exception have need of patience.Thirdly, Prayer,we all know the importance of prayer,but we all have still much to learn about it, so our great teacher brings us into situations to teach us. [Dear Father in Heaven, we bring all our frustrations to You,and we ask that You would minister peace into our hearts, and a trust in your Sovereign purposes, we ask this in our Saviours precious name , Amen ]

Can we be sure?[ John 11 v 25 ]

A friend mentioned about death, I dont know if he is a Christian, but I replied to what he said, well thats true ,but I am saved, and then He asked, are you sure?, I said I was, for Jesus said that he was the resurrection and the life that those who believe in Him even though they die , shall live. Yes here is the wonderful truth we can be absolutely certain that we are going to heaven, if we have trusted Jesus as our Saviour. Many live with an uncertainity as regards their eternal destiny, why is that?, because they have never trusted Jesus to save them. My certainty is based upon /a life I did not live, and upon a death I did not die /[these are not my words ], or in the words of the old hymn, / My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus blood and righteousness, no merit of my own I claim, but wholly trust in Jesus name/. He is the reason I am absolutely certain I am going to heaven, are you certain ?. [ Father in this world full of uncertainties we thank You that we can know we are saved eternally, when we trust in Jesus Your dear Son, Amen ]

The way of the cross. [ Matthew 5 v 38 - 48 ]

The sermon on the mount is very challenging,in Matthew 5v38-41, we are told not to resist an evil person, it speaks of turning the other cheek, of yielding to the unreasonable .The Apostle Paul emphasizes the truths of the sermon on the mount in his Romans letter, chapter 12 v 14 reads ,/ Bless those who persecute you. Dont curse them, pray that God will bless them. v17/Never pay back evil with evil. v19/Never take revenge. Leave that to the righteous God. This is the Calvary way, it is the way of the cross, and it is the way we have to go today, it is acting as Christ acted .When wicked people had done their worst to Him ,He prayed for their forgivness, He died loving His persecuters, it is not the worlds way, to them it is nonsense,we all have a choice today ,to go our Saviours way ,or our own way, whats it going to be?. [ Dear Lord Jesus help us to rise up to Your teaching, help us to walk the Calvary road, to take up our cross and follow You. Amen ]

Do what you can. [ Mark 14 v 3- 9 ]

There is an old Gospel hymn which goes,/ By and by when I look on His face , I wish I had given Him more/,and I am sure we all feel that to some extent, in relation to so much,our giving, witnessing, serving, and so on.Unfortunately this can lead to us feeling guilty , the result is we become a driven person,and find ourselves living under a cloud of condemnation, judging ourselves, and even judging others.The Christian life is very challenging, yes it does bring demands,but our Lord does not overburden us, we are not in a competition, to win His favour , we already have it.So today relax, do what you can, do what you can as unto your Lord, I believe that will please Him, and in the end that is what counts.[Father help us to relax today, help us to not be driven, but to be led, and to realise that we are loved,help us to do what we can, and leave that with You, we ask this in Jesus name, Amen ]

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 ]