Frightened? [ Psalm 23 ]

Why are you frightened? Jesus asked His disciples[Luke 24v38],and here is the amazing thing , they were frightened of Him, they had no need to be frightened, but they were. Jesus surprised them, they had witnessed his death on the cross,and they thought that was the end of the story, but it wasnt. They could not take it in ,that death wasnt the end,so here was Jesus proving them wrong, by His very presence. I wonder is Jesus saying to us, why are you frightened?, consider how Jesus reassured them, He spoke to them, how important in the times when we are frightened, to hear Jesus, just as His words stilled the angry waves,[Mark 4v35-41], so let His words calm our fears. There are so many things that can cause us to feel frightened, but the answer to all of them is Jesus, the Psalmist wrote, I will fear no evil for Thou are with me,[ Psam23v4], it is His presence that keeps us safe,it is His presence that will enable us to overcome all our fears.[ Dear Saviour You know how we can be so easily frightened, today calm our fears,by a sense of Your presence, grant us grace to hear Your still small voice,in the midst of our storm. Amen ]

Holiness. [ Leviticus 20 v7]

How much do we desire to be holy?, I found myslf asking this question, I have prayed for so many things, legitimate things, for souls, for overcoming temptation, for the sick, for financial needs, but have I prayed to be holy?, oh yes I acknowledge that God is holy, but do I desire to be holy?. True holiness is a radical thing, for it trully reflects God, and there is nothing more radical than that. True holiness affects all our lives, it goes further than rule keeping, Jesus said ,/ unless your righteousness is better than the righteousness of the teachers of religious law and the pharisees.[Matthew 5v20]. I believe God wants honesty from us ,and as I thought on holiness, I found myself praying I dont know that I want to be holy, for I realize that it will mean letting go of wrong thought patterns, let us remember sin gives pleasure, so am I willing to forsake that which gives me pleasure?.Am I willing to make holiness not pleasure my goal?. [Holy God have mercy upon us , and help us to rise to the challenge of holiness, help us to say yes to holiness, in Jesus name .Amen ]

He cares [ Psalm 37]

In Psalm 37v23, we read,/ The Lord directs the steps of the godly. He delights in every detail of their lives/[NLT] . Consider the first part of the verse the Lord directs, but it does not stop there it reads ,He directs the steps of the godly , the godly are His children all who have accepted Christ as Saviour,those He directs.Are you concerned over the future?, are there changes coming into your life, seek His will in all you do,and He will show you which path to take[Proverbs 3v6].The second part of the verse tells us that the Lord delights in every detail of His childrens lives, there are parts of our lives which we keep hidden from others, but nothing is hidden from our Lord.He delights in every part of His childrens lives, as a father I am concerned and delight in every aspect of my childrens lives, God does not despise His children, no He delights in all that concerns them, their health, finances,education,and so on, he desires whats best for them,He will correct them, will uphold them, and will bless them.[ Father in Heaven we give You thanks for Your constant and considerate care for all Your children ,in Jesus name .Amen ]

Thats why I came [ Ephesians 2 v1-5]

I got upset recently whan someone swore at me on the phone , and I become upset when I read some things in the paper, something like child abuse , and I prayed about these things, and the Lord said to me,/ thats why I came/. Many of us live comfortable lives , and while we may know the theology, that man is a sinner, it does not impact on our lives. So today if you are shocked by some news item , or someone does something horrible, let this be a timely reminder , that is why Jesus came, that is why He died a horrible death on a cross . Let it be a wake up call to all of us of why Jesus came, He came because every single one of us had sinned and come short of the glory of God. God did not turn away in disgust, no He moved in Love, by sending His dear Son, to rescue the perishing, and to care for the dying, and for us who have experienced this, He says, so send I you. [ Dear God you see , and know all things, humanity in all its awfulness, yet You stll love them, and seek to rescue them, through Your Son Jesus,we thank You for rescuing us,we ask that we may be willing to go forth and tell others of Your great love, in Jesus name. Amen ]

Christ died for the whosoever. [ John 3v 16]

Coming to know God through acceptance of Christ, is not a gender, racial, intellect, age,or class thing, it is a spiritual experience, which only takes into account humanities, deep need, of forgivness,and of Gods great love and desire, for all. Today as we look at people,ask God to help us to, overcome our intellect, prejudices or whatever, that stands as a barrier to God using us, to reach all who are lost. When Jonah was told to go to Nineveh, he ran away in the opposite direction, and even when God showed mercy, he was not happy.Our Saviour continually challenged the wrong conventions of His day[ John 4v9], so must we. It has been said that small children are colour blind, may the Lord help us , to be more like them,in our acceptance of all humanity, and grant us a willingness to tell them of Jesus , who died that they may be saved.[ Dear God we thank You for your indiscriminate love for all humanity,fill our hearts with that same love, and use us in the great task of reaching the lost, in Jesus name. Amen ]

Amazing ,simply amazing.[Ephesians 2 v1-10 ]

Our relationship with God is based on Grace, in others words we cannot merit any of Gods blessings, salvation is free,in Romans 6v23 we are told that the gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord. In Matthew 10v8 we read ,/freely you have recieved/, no wonder the hymn wrote about amazing grace, for it is , to think that simply by asking we recieve Christ as our Saviour,in some ways it appears to good to be true. When we recieve Christ as our Saviour, we recieve,total forgiveness from God, and total acceptance with God,the message puts it like this,/Have you ever come on anything quite like this extravagant generosity of God,[Romams 11v33].If we are Christians, let us lift our voices and praise the Lord, for such love, if we are not Christians then why not pray to God in your need and recieve His greatest gift, Christ, all you have to do is ask.[Dear God we are trully amazed at Your generosity in offering us freely Jesus to be our Saviour we praise You. Amen ]

Victory[Galations 5v22-23]

Most of us are ruled by our feelings, there will be people today who will not get up out of bed because they dont feel like it. The fact of the matter is we usually have to go against our feelings, the job beckons and mybe we groan, and think we just dont feel like going to that place where we struggle,but we know we have to go . It is easy to be sucked into things by our feelings, like debt, like adultery, like drugs,rows ,fights, unforgiveness, our feelings take over, and we go with them.I believe we dont have to go along with our feelings,if we avail ourselves of what the Lord has put at our disposal. His word,prayer, and the power that worketh in us , the Holy Spirit,we can say no, we can exercise control, we can know victory over our feelings, we can be more than conquerors through our Lord Jesus Christ.[Dear Lord help us today to not be controlled by our feelings,help us to be guided by Your Word, and controlled by Your Spirit. Amen]