Never cancelled, never rescinded.[ 1 Corinthians 9 v16 ]

It is that time again the anniversary of my coming to England to be a minister, much has happened since then, I still consider myself as a minister. Recently a person called me a lay preacher, I did not say anything but I did not appreciate what he said,in Romans 11v 29, we read,/ for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable, / the message puts it like this,/ Gods gifts and Gods call are under warranty- never cancelled,never rescinded/. When I became a minister a friend said to me they cant take that away from you, they have tried but they never will. It is not about status, it is about the importance of my ministry, often my ministry has come under attack, but I have continued to be faithful to my calling. One hears people saying that they are no longer in the ministry,but as far as I am concerned,I have always been in the ministry, and will always be in the ministry. Because the gifts and calling of God are irrevocable, yes I will always be Bill the preacher.
A prayer....../Dear God help us be faithful to our calling , be it a nurse, fireman, or whatever in Jesus name. Amen/

Wonder and worship. [ Psalm 19 ]

I read this today, /We miss the experance of awe, reverence,and wonder /, [ B Manning ] I am sure that this is true of many of us, our senses have been dulled by modern technology. Many of us have become blase, indifferent to the wonders all around us we are so under pressure , as the poet wrote ,we never stop and stare. There are I am sure many reasons why, we have reached the point we are at, we are distracted by financial pressures ,family pressures, personal pressures. We read in Psalm 8v3, When I consider Thy heavens , the works of Thy fingers, the moon, and the stars, which Thou hast ordained/, I remember the American astronaut while he circled the earth ,reading from Genesis 1, In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Mybe here is the reason why we are no longer filled awe, reverence and wonder, consider the program I watched earlier, about the origins of the universe, many brilliant people have theories, and thats all they have. As a Christian I believe this universe did not come into place by chance, it would be impossible for this to happen , I just hope I never forget this truth unfortunately many have,. There was a song that was popular many years ago called , I believe, here are some of the words.
I believe for every drop of rain that falls,
A flower grows.
Everytime I hear a new born baby cry,
Or touch a leaf , or see the sky,
Then I know why I believe.
A prayer....../ Dear God help us to never loose a sense of wonder of Thy creation, but let us above all else be filled with worship for You the Creator, in Jesus name, Amen ./

Coffee or tea. [ 1 Corinthians 14 v 33 ]

I was in a local garden center, and I read this,/ Orchard coffee bar,now serving afternoon tea every Sunday/, we all know what they mean, but I saw the humour in what I read. Now let see where we will go with this, as a preacher it is no good saying one thing and preaching another. When I preach, I try to make it as clear as I can, and I seek to proclaim a Biblical message , I must never forget my grave responsibility,that of the telling the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. It appears that certain ministers appear to forget their grave responsibility, that people need to hear clearly that they need to be saved. As a youngster I heard about sin and its consequences ,and about Jesus who became my Saviour, if the speaker had not told me this then, I would still be lost. The greatest need of mankind is to hear a clear Gospel message, and the greatest responsibility of the minister is to proclaim it, otherwise people are turning up for coffee and being offered tea.
A prayer..../ Dear Father help us to be true to You, and Your truth, in Jesus name Amen /

Greed. [ Hebrews 13 v 5 ]

I was watching an old movie called ,/ The million pound note /, and one of themes of this old movie is greed, it may be an old movie but the theme is very up to date. I am convinced that present economic situation is caused by greed , those financiers involved in what took place must have realized what was happening,but they were making a lot of money. It appears to me a great deal of life involves greed, and it is coming back to bite many nations and many indiviuals. Now dont get me wrong ,I am not down ,or a judge of anyone, but as a minister of the word, I, and everyone else need to face up to the challenge of the word of God , on the subject of greed. It is something a lot of us dont face up to, the land of Greece is now having to come to terms with it, and so is every other nation in Europe. Many of our members of parliament showed an attitude of greed, but through the world especially in the poor countries , there is a great deal of greed in politics. Having said all this we need to be on our guard, for it is so easy like everyone else to become greedy, Proverbs was written by a very wise man ,and of course a very wealthy man, asked of God the following. Give me neither poverty nor riches [Proverbs 30 v 8 ], for he knew the dangerous of both states, and a greater than Solomon said, A mans life consisteth not in the abundance of things which he possesseth [ Luke 12 v15 ]
A prayer..../ Dear God help us all to have the right emphasis in our lives , grant us grace to live lives that glorify our Saviour. Amen ]

Save our young people . [ Acts 4 v 12 ] ]

Yesterday we mentioned that all mankind, even young people are made in the image of God,which makes them very precious in Gods side. So the question why do they act so badly, that they are called animals?,well it is to Gods word we turn, and it tells us we fell from that initial state of sinlessness, to a sinful condition. This can appear to contradict the fact that we are created in the image of God, but the fact is ,our fallen nature is blind spiritually , [1 Corinthians 1v 14 ]we have hearts that are deceitful and desperately wicked [Jeremiah 17 v 9 ]. We can read Romans 3 and 5,to get a more full picture, so that is why some young people act like animals. This is also why Christ came ,to save and to change even our young people, and then hopefully they will start reflect the image of God to a greater degree, this process will come to its fullness and completeness, in Heaven.[ 1 John 3 v 1-2 ]
A prayer..../ Dear God have mercy upon our young people, save them we pray in Jesus name Amen /

Not just animals. [ Genesis 1 v 16 - 17 ]

There is great concern about the young people in our country,most of the people who took part in the riots ,were young people, many of them are taking drugs , and alcohol. Recently people were asked what they thought about the young, their reply was,/ they were like animals/,which is a sad thing to say.But then is this not what evolution teaches,that we are just a higher species of animal, this what is taught to our children in schools, this is what we told continually from the media. So them why complain if these young people do act like animals,why should we expect any different behaviour, if that is what they are. If you believe in evolution then you must not expect people to have any moral boundries, anything goes. But now let me declare unto a better way, we are not evolutionary accidents,the Bible tells us that we were made in the image of God[ Genesis 1 v 17 ], that is what makes us different in Gods eyes , and gives unto us eternal value. [We will consider this further tomorrow]
A prayer..../Dear God open the eyes of people to see their true worth, in Jesus name Amen/

Call on Him.[ Ephesians 3 v 20 ]

In Jeremiah 33 v 3, we read,/ Call upon Me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things,which thou knowest not./ These words were written when Jeremiah was in prison, sometime we let our circumstances , blind us to what God can do, and say, Jeremiah did not. The people are told to call on God, now the nations round about Israel had their own gods, and unfortunately Israel adopted these Gods ,so the opening words of this verse are mportant., Call upon Me, take your eyes and ears of any other source, or apparent source,let us fix our eyes upon God . Next we are to call on God , He delights to hear His children call upon Him, He will not turn a deaf ear to their call. The result of this will be trully wonderful,God will show us , great and mighty things,I was talking to one of my sons this morning, and we talked of the difficulties people are facing ,to get a place to live,there are so many difficulties in life, complicated situations,well whats the answer? God. Yes God , who can do exceeding abundantly above all we can ask , or think[Ephesians 3 v 20 ],so today call upon Him, and He will answer you.
A prayer..../ Dear God there is nothing to hard for Thee, so right now we call on You to undertake for us, in Jesus name Amen /