Healing. [ Psalm 147 ]

It is surprising where one can find inspiration from, I was watching a dvd of Poirot the Belgium detective, and it ended by him saying, / There is nothing so damaged that it cannot be repaired by the hand of God/. There are so many damaged people in this world, so many suffering from hurts, from childhood,broken relationships,we all carry a few bruises from being hurt. I love those words from Psalm 147 v3, which read ,/He [God] heals the brokenhearted/,it is the hurts of the heart that are so hard to deal with, for often we keep them hidden, and we dwell on them, and we carry them with us wherever we go. The Lord who looks on the heart knows everything, not only knows, but He can with His healing power touch us ,and heal us, in Exodus 15v26 , we read,/ For I am the Lord who heals you/. [Dear God we bring ourselves to You with all our hurts , and we ask that You would heal us, of those hurts that we carry with us, we ask this in Jesus name . Amen ]

The Sovereign Spirit [ John 3 v 8 ]

There is an old hymn which reads,/ I know not how the Spirit moves/, which means we cannot control Him, or manipulate Him, no He is sovereign. In John 16 v8, our Saviour said the Spirit would , convict the world of sin. and of Gods righteousness, and a fear of coming judgement. As we look at this world there is such a lack of conviction, people are so oblivious to God,is there hope?, the answer is, I do not know. What I do know is that the Holy Spirit is sovereign , unless He moves nothing is going to work, , and at this time it appears that He has choosen not to work. Being Sovereign he will choose as to how and were He will work,in all this we are reminded,that we cannot dictate, to Him, but we can plead with Him, in Jude v 20, we are told to pray in the Holy Spirit, this is something we all can do, and need to do, if we are going to see the Sovereign Spirit , moving, in peoples lives, and bringing them to a saving faith in Christ. [ Sovereign Spirit we ask that You would begin to work in the lives of our loved ones, our work colleagues, our neighbours, come Holy Spirit, save precious souls, we ask this in Jesus name Amen ]

Be a finisher [2 Timothy 11 v 21- 33]

My young daughter in law has just finished university, a tremendous achievement. I remember when I was at Bible college, the principal said he would understand if I had to give up,my wife and I were living by faith, my wife was not to well, things were difficult, what he said was well intentioned, but we didnt give up , I completed my course, and then my wife went on to complete a course in another Bible college, I look back with gratitude that we both finished our training.Finishing is so important in life, especially the Christian life, in 2 Timothy 4 v 6-8, the apostle Paul wrote,/I have fought a good fight,I have finished the race,and I have remained faithful/. When you read the difficulties Paul had to face[ cp- 2 Corinthians 11v 21 -33 ], you could not have blamed him for giving up, but he didnt. There will always be reasons to give up or to give into sin, but there are greater more compelling reasons why we should not.Here are some, the love we have experienced in Jesus, His friendship, others,and lastly the prize, there are more,today, think on them , and seek by the grace of God to be a finisher.[ Father help us to be a finisher, help us not to give up ,or to give in, to anything or anyone thats stands between us and the finishing posts, we ask this in Jesus name, Amen ]

Put into practice. [ Matthew 7 v 24 - 27]

Proverbs 3 v5-6 have played a big part in my life, the av version is my favourite,here is how these verses read,/ Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not upon thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he will direct thy paths/. These are words we need to memorize, and continually put into practice. Oswald Chambers, wrote/Dont calculate without God/, today let us take these words to heart, I cannot stress enough the importance of obeying these words from Proverbs. There is security and safety in these words, we will never go wrong ,if we put them into action day by day.Let us remember it is not just enough to hear the word of God, we must, I stress, vital that we put it into action. [Dear Lord Jesus help us to put into practice what You tell us, help us to see how vital this is to our well being, Amen ]

Stay connected [ John 15 ]

In Matthew 26v58 we read that Peter followed Jesus at a distance, the next thing we read is Peter denying Jesus, he did it three times. Following Jesus at a distance, I know a number of people who are doing this, some are angry,some are disobedient, there are many reasons.When one is following Jesus at a distance, one becomes disconnected to Jesus ,instead of walking in sweet fellowship with Christ, they are neither hot or cold, not one thing or the other.Being disconnected led to Peter ,nearly severing relationships with Jesus entirely, thankfully the Lord who is gracious and forgiving, restored him to that place of fellowship again.It was William Cowper who wrote, / Where is the blessedness I knew when I first saw the Lord?. Where is that soul refreshing view of Jesus and His word?/, this is what happens when one becomes disconnected with Your Lord. [ Dear Lord Jesus Help us to stay connected to You, help us not to follow You at a distance, Amen ]

Amazing Grace.[ Ephesians 2 v 1-10 ]

If I was cast away on a desert island , and had the choice of ten records, my first choice would be Amazing Grace,I love this song. It is continually being recorded and just wont go away. It seems to me that God is continually reminding people of His grace, to save , to keep, and to complete His purpose in lives that are broken, and messed up. Recently I have been confronted with broken people , and of couse I work among broken people, the mentally ill, I just pray that they would experience the Grace of God in their lives,I know from experience that the Grace of God can change and transform them, when they open their lives and trust Jesus as Saviour. [Dear God we thank You for Your amazing grace that we can know through Your dear son Jesus, we thank You that lives can be wonderfully changed, and transformed through this grace Amen ]

Needs [Philippians 4 v19 ]

The world is full of needy people, in fact if one thinks about it, everyone is needy, there are those who dont feel they have a need,but have, then there are those who know they have a need , but will not admit it, then there are those who will admit their need. I remember many years ago attending a church service, I was away from the Lord at the time,and as the preacher spoke , one thing bore in upon me was my need. I dont remember what the preacher said, all I remember was , my need, and that night God met my need, as I afresh surrendered to Jesus.that was 45 years ago. In those 45 years I have had many needs supplied , I have found my Lord faithful , whatever your need , look to Jesus. [ Dear Lord Jesus thank You for meeting the deepest need of our hearts , in Yourself, today we lift our eyes to You ,with confidence, in You ,to meet our needs Amen ]