Guidance. [ Psalm 48v 14 ]

I wonder what you think about guidance?, as I look at my life history, being guided by God has been to the forefront of my life. Even now I am faced with a situation and I am praying for God to guide me,now of course God has promised to guide His children. How does God guide?, His word,His Spirit, seems simple, but often it isnt,one thing we can say about guidance is, we must ask God to guide. On reflection,one way God guided me was by shutting doors,so many times I have sought to move forward, and the way was closed to me, I want to stress that shut doors ,are just as much Gods guidance as open doors.[Acts 16v7]. The shut door may cause one pain, but best to accept it, and move on, I have no pat answers as to guidance, one think for sure God will not lead us to do anything that contravenes ,His word, but He does expect us to obey His word, and do His will.[ Dear God please guide me in all things, in Jesus name Amen ]

Total harmony. [ Romans 12 v1-2]

Jesus never stepped outside the Fathers will, never once did He speak outside what God wanted Him to speak,never once did He not do, what God wanted Him to do. His life was in total harmony with the Fathers,and so everything He spoke and did ,pleased His Father.[Matthew 3v 17] Jesus says to those who are His, follow Me, and that is the challenge of the Christian life, to live a life of perfect harmony with God, always speaking what He wants us to speak, always doing what He wants us to do.In a hymn by Clara Scott, each verse reads,/Open my eyes,Open my ears,Open my mouth, Open my mind,she wants every aspect of her being to be in harmony with God. In this world ,that is in rebellion to God ,to live in total harmony with our God and Saviour is to open ourselves up to being misunderstood, they put Jesus on a cross. In the last verse of the Hymn Clara realizing what it may mean, responds by saying,/what shall I fear while yet Thou dost lead/.Lets be honest we all have fears especially if something is going to cost us ,when we take up our cross daily and follow Jesus, there will be a cost, yet if He is leading, we have nothing to fear.[ Silently now I wait for Thee, ready my God, Thy will to see, open my eyes , illumine me, Spirit divine. Amen ]

My desire.[ Psalm 42 ]

Break Thou the bread of life, dear Lord to me. As Thou didst break the bread beside the sea. Beyond the sacred page, I seek Thee , Lord. My Spirit yearns for Thee , Thou living Word, so wrote Mary Lathbury. We need to feed our bodies, but we need also to feed our souls, we cannot exsist on the soaps, or cream buns, no, those things will not help us to live for Jesus. Mary wrote ,my spirit yearns for thee, can that be said of us?,is there a hungering and thirsting after righteousness. Jesus said, I am the bread of life [John 6v34], today may we feast on Him, for only in Him will we be satisfied, only in Him will we be strong, only in Him will be secure.A modern chorus goes, As the deer pants for the water, So my soul longs after You. You alone are my hearts desire and I long to worship You. [ Dear Lord grant unto me a deeper desire for You Amen ]

The mercies.[ Lamentations 3 v22-23 ]

I never blogged on Saturday because we decided to go to our sons ,on Friday, we did this to avoid any possible hold ups ,the traffic was not to bad. On Saturday we transported our son to pick up a car which he had purchased for his wife, the journey should have taken two hours, it took up to four hours. The reason being, the amount of traffic on the road was horrendous,there was an accident no one appeared to be hurt, then there was road works. As I consider all the events, I could be totally negative,but I am not going to be, I believe we should look for the mercies of God in every difficulty,or trial. [1]The decision we made to travel on Friday helped. [2 ] We did not have any accidents when travelling, or breakdowns [3 ] My son got the car, so we achieved our objective.[ 4] When we returned to our home, we used our sat-nav ,which enabled my wife and I to drive home a different route, so avoiding more hold ups .Today we may find ourselves facing,difficulties,let us look for the mercies of God, they are there if we only but look.[ Dear God help me to see your mercies in every trial in Jesus name Amen ]

A wake up call. [ Psalm 46 ]

Continually we are challenged as to where are security lies, things happened so quickly, they can make you feel very insecure. Just recently I have been taken by surprise by something, that has shaken me, but this also reminded me ,that my security lies in my God and Saviour. We Sing on Christ the solid Rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand,but often in reality we have taken our eyes of Him. I could list a whole load of things that can cause us to lose sight of our Rock, but its only when those things whatever they are ,are threatened do we often get the message, and wake up to the reality that we have lost sight of where are security trully lies. Consider Job, Joseph, Jeremiah, men who lost everything, yet learned that only in God were they secure. We rejoice in the doctrine of eternal security, but many of us feel very insecure as to the here and now, today let us bring to our God all we feel threatened with, and trust in God to undertake,He will not fail us. [Father in Heaven in the midst of a changing world, we ask that You will help us, to trust only in You,to realize afresh that our security is in You and You alone, in Jesus name we ask this Amen]

The law of love.[ Matthew 22 v34-40 ]

I was struck with a reading from the Message in Romans 13v8ff/ Dont run up debts, except for the huge dept of love you owe each other. When you love others, you complete what the law has been after all along. The law code- dont sleep with another person,s spouse, dont take someone,s life,dont take what isnt yours,dont always be wanting what you dont have, and any other dont, you can think of- finally adds up to this. Love other people as well as you do yourself. You cant go wrong when you love others. When you add up everything in the law code, the sum total is love./ [Dear God help me to grasp more and more what it means to love, and help me to put it into practice in Jesus name Amen ]

Feel like flying away?. [Psalm 55 ]

I was born in Belfast, Belfast was bombed in the second world war, it was a time of fear, when the sirens sounded ,warning of an airraid ,people ran for cover. I remember being told how my family ran to what was known as the Castlereagh hills for safety, I was not born then, but one can appreciate the panic and fear that, gripped the people. David the Psalmist was not immune from fear sometimes it took over, and he prayed,/Oh that I had wings like a dove,for then I would fly away, and be at rest[ Psalm 55v6] . David expresses deep feelings in this Psalm ,we read words like, terror, fearfulness,trembling,and horror,and his desire was to flee, and if only I had wings I would fly away, he cries. Well who can blame him, or judge him , not me, for I know only to well how easy it is to feel what David felt at least in part . As we precede down the Psalm, we see David gradually changing his focus to God to undertake, he asks that God would deal with those who are threatening him. Then He declares words of comfort and assurance,/ Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and He shall sustain thee, He shall never suffer the righteous to be moved.[v21] Whatever difficulties we may be facing,let us express our feelings honestly to God,look to Him,and leave it to Him to undertake with the difficulties, cast everything upon Him,and be assured He shall sustain us. [Dear God I must confess that so often I feel like running away, because of problems and difficulties,right now I cast everything on You, and ask that You would sustain me ,in Jesus name Amen ]