Love God, love man.[Matthew 22 v37-40]

There is a saying which goes ,/the best things in life are free/, I wonder do you agree, and if it is so, what do you consider are the best things in life?. Someone has said every thing has its price, that everyone can be bought, what do you value the most ?. What would you grab if there was a fire?, if a loved one was being held for a ransom, would you be prepared to sell all you had, home, car,etc, to pay the ransom? What do we value the most?,a young man came to Jesus [ Matthew 19 16ff], he wanted eternal life, Jesus told him to keep the commandments,he said that he had kept the commandments,but had he?,he thought he had. but he had not, for the commandments is fulfilled by loving God with all our hearts, with all our souls, and with all our minds, secondly,to love our neighbour as ourselves[ Matthew 22v 37-40 ]And so our Saviour reveals his true state of heart, with a challenge, to sell all he had and give to the poor. At that a great sadness filled that young man, his true god was revealed, his love of money,not a love for God or man. Instead of following Jesus , he trusted in what he loved the most,and in doing so he lost his soul.
A prayer /Dear God, help us to see that nothing is more important than You, if we are to be
saved it must be Jesus, before anything else. Amen./

Giving. [ James 2 v 14 -17 ]

I have just looked at my mail one of the letters was a plea for financial support, I dont mind such letters I dont usually respond to then.There are so many needs in the world,even going to a local church, brings demands on Christians to give, so what can one do? Well, I believe in giving, the word of God challenges us to be generous [Matthew 5 v42 /10v 8/ Luke 6 v 38/]First of all we should see the importance of giving, we are not under any law as regards giving other than the law of love. Giving to the poor is very important,those who oppress or neglect the poor,will be dealt with, and that severely by a God of justice. It is not a sin to be rich,but it is a sin to not use your riches to help others, being rich one would think should give unto us a generous spirit.Yet sad to say it appears to create a selfish and oppressive attitude towards the poor, a feeling that the poor are lazy, and undeserving.P.Yancey mentions the following about money,/ How did you get it?/What are you doing with it?[are you hoarding it? exploiting others? wasting it on needless luxuries?/ what is it doing to you?/.You may say I am not rich, and so use this excuse to not give to others, give out of your smallness ,and you will be a blessing, and be blessed.
A Prayer / Dear God help us not to trust in uncertain riches,help us to see that we all are called
upon to be generous, to those in need, in Jesus name . Amen ./

Earthern vessels. [ Jeremiah 1 v 6-8 ]

It was Tolstoy who said,/ Dont judge Gods holy ideals by my inability to meet. Dont judge Christ by those of us who imperfectly bear His name/. I know what he means,how often I have misrepresented my Saviour,on a personal level my secret dread is that I will do something that will cause people to judge my God and Saviour because of me. Yet if we did live a perfect holy life,would the non Christian accept Christ?I dont know, some may, but then they may do to me what they did to Jesus. Paul writes of Christians as earthen vessels [2 Corinthians 4 v7 ], yes the best of Christians are but men, imperfect men. William Barclay wrote,/ However great a Christian he is he is still a mortal man, still the victim of circumstances, still subject to the chances and changes of life, still a mortal body with all that body,s weakness and pain/. But we must not finish there ,yes we are weak earthen vessels,but as we are reminded,there is a glory within us, even Christ, and through Him we can make a difference,we can be used to bring glory to our Saviour ,so let us not despair,or shrink back from living and serving our Saviour.
A prayer / Dear God use me,use even me, inspite of my weakness,I am only an earthern
vessel, fill me with thy Spirit, in Jesus name. Amen .

The backslider. [ Hosea 14 v 4 ]

The book of Galations was written by the apostle Paul to Christians, who were in danger of going back into leagalisim, to live under the law,you can sense the pain and frustration Paul is feeling as regards this. In 3 v1 we have him writing,O foolish Galations, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth. It is such a sad thing when people go back from following Christ, I have seen it happen many, times,I remember a chap many years ago he was a bright Christian, and then he backslid, I remember talking to him reasoning with him,and as I spoke to him, I started to cry. It is said that the angels rejoice over one sinner that repenteth ,[Luke 15 v 7 ], but I wonder do they shed a tear ,when that same person turns away. Again Paul asks the question, ye did run well ,who did hinder you,that ye should not obey the truth?[5 v7 ]Is the backslider lost?, if they were trully Christs, no,but it appears to me that they are in a very precarious position, no one should presume on the mercy of God. Let us pray for those who once ran well, and have gone back, that they may return to the Lord, who still loves them.
I,ve wandered far away from God,
Now Im coming home,
The paths of sin too long I,ve trod,
Lord Im coming home.
A prayer /Dear God we bring to You the backsliders, those who once followed You,we pause
and mention their names to You,have mercy and restore them to Yourself, in Jesus
name Amen.

I am a pilgrim. [ Hebrews 11 v 12 -16 ]

I was speaking recently on Psalm 84, it is a Psalm for those pilgrims, going up to Jerusalem to worship,they would travel from all over Israel to get there. Verse 6 , reads/, Who passing through the valley of Baca, make it a well, the rain also maketh the pools./ As these pilgrims travel to Jerusalem, they would pass through ,some sterile gloomy place, A. Boner calls the valley of Baca,a valley of tear shrubs,a valley of lamentation. Going on a pilgrimage was not all plain sailing. It is in 1 Peter 2 v11, we are reminded that we are strangers and pilgrims in this world, the Message put it like this ,/This world is not our home/, now as we travel to heaven ,we will like pilgrims of old, pass through hostile territory,some stirile and gloomy places, and like them we must look to God to bring us through, and we must seek for the grace to carry on to the end.In Hebrews 11v13 ff we have more pilgrims , people like Abraham, and this is what it says about them. /Each one of these people of faith died not yet having in hand what was promised, but still believing. How did they do it?. They saw it way off in the distance, waved their greeting, and acepted the fact that they were transients in this world. People who live this way make it plain that are looking for their true home. If they were homesick for the old country, they could have gone back any time they wanted. But they were after a far better country than that- heaven country. You can see why God is so proud of them, and has a City waiting for them. [The Message ] This world is not my home, Im just a passing through,
My treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue.
[J. W. Peterson ],
A prayer / Dear God help us not to get to cosy here, help us to live in light of eternity, in Jesus
name. Amen ]

Gods loving sovereign power. [Jeremiah 31 v 3 ]

If God is not sovereign,God is not God,so wrote R.C.Sproul ,I often mention the sovereignty of God,often preach on it,because it is very,important. Important for each child of God to see beyond their difficult circumstances,beyond their tears,beyond the powers that be, beyond the chaos in the financial world. We continually need to remind ourselves that Gods word declares that He reigns and rules, and overrules in all the events of life.Those men and women in Gods word were often faced with life threatening situations, consider David, Daniel,Esther,often times the nation of Israel were conquerored and exiled. I read of so many dear Christians who are suffering untold misery at the hands of religious fanaticism ,and evil goverments,life for many is very painful. It could be that you are experencing undeserved suffering, life can be very unfair, but God is fair,and He is sovereign, and He would say to you, hold on my child joy cometh in the morning, so wrote David[Psalm 30 v5 ].We may not understand the here and now but God does,and at the center of His plans is His people,whom He loves,with an indescribable intensity.a love that would never cause His child an needless tear.
In all His holy, sovereign will,
He is I daily find,
Too wise to be mistaken still,
Too good to be unkind.
Though I cannot see His goings see,
Nor all His footsteps find,
Too wise to be mistaken, He,
Too good be unkind.
Hereafter He will make me know
And I shall surely find,
He was to wise to err, and O,
Too good to be unkind.
A prayer. /Dear God help us to trust in your loving sovereign power , in Jesus name. Amen ]

Nothing lasts for long. [Psalm 90 ]

Im suffering empty nest syndrome, so wrote Tom Utley in one of our national newspapers,it is the effect of the last of his four chidren leaving home,I am sure many people suffer from this.He went on to descrlbe how it felt as his wife and him drove away from university, having just said goodbye to their son, his wife put on a CD the first one that came to hand, it was by,Joni Mitchell,s Chinese Cafe, the words went,
With the kids nearly grown and gone
Grown so fast,
Like the turn of a page,
We look like our mothers did now,
When we were those kids age,
Nothing lasts for long,
Nothing lasts for long,
Nothing lasts for long.
It is true nothing lasts for long,in Psalm 90 we are reminded of the brevity of life [v10 ] , and then we are told,/So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom/. So many live for the hear and now,they dont listen to their hearts,only to their heads,and the fact of the matter is head knowledge alone is not enough.The words of that old Psalm reminds us that nothing lasts for long, in the light of this reality,we need trully to be wise. To seek the Lord Jesus while He may be found, and to call on Him while there is still time,yes nothing lasts for long as regards this life, but as to the next life, we all possess a soul that will never die,so let us be wise and trust Jesus to save us ,the alternative is grim.
A prayer /Dear God help us to grasp the reality that as to this life nothing lasts for ever,but as to eternity thats a different story, help us to accept Christ as our Saviour,and to live for Him, in Jesus name we ask this. Amen.