Eternally grateful.[ Ephesians 2 v 1 - 9 ]

One of my sons, his wife and children are staying with us over this weekend, for most of us family is important,and rightly so.Now I want to quote a statistic, 70 percent of all young offenders come from single fatherless families, and a high percentage of young people involved in the recent riots were from single fatherless families. That is now, I find it interesting that I was brought up in a fatherless families, there were six of us ,and none of us got into trouble with the police . I suppose there may be many reasons why,our family escaped the law,we did have a larger family of uncles and aunts, also the times were different,there was also a degree of Christian influence, Sunday schools, childrens meetings,we all managed to find work. We also had Christian neighbours, hopefully they may have prayed for us, in the end I dont know, other than the mercy of God. I am grateful for the mercy of God towards my family,and towards me especially,for not only did God preserve my family, He saved me, and has kept me, for that mercy I will be eternally grateful.
A prayer..../Dear God we thank You for Your mercy in Jesus Your Son, a mercy that saves us
poor sinners Amen.

Just trust Me. [ Proverbs 3 v 5 ]

I must confess I am disappointed,the only supermarket were I buy my favourite bread, is no longer selling it. So what am I to do ?, I realize it is a very minor disappointment ,I am not complaining, after all I have a choice of a whole range of bread. But still I am disappointed, so what can I do?, well I had a brain wave ,I got on the net ,typed in what I wanted, and wallah, their was the recipe, so I am going to have a go at baking my favourite bread, watch this space. Disappointments can be trivial , more serious, and very serious, my disappointment I classed as trivia, but I appeciate that for many life is not easy, death,illness, divorce, unemployment,homelessness and so the list goes on. Well what does one do?, I read this recently in one my daily readings, it is one of the most meaningful things I have read. /Divine logic is beyond the grasp of my mind. I ask, Why this anguish?. The Father answers, Hush child, you wouldnt understand if I explained it to you. Just trust me.
A prayer....../Father we hear those words from You, just trust Me, they at times appear to mock
us, we hear the voice of doubt,and the enemy of our soul, so today grant us the
grace to simply trust You, in Jesus name. Amen/

An unsinning heart. [ 1 Corinthians 15 v 51 - 53 ]

Continuing on the theme of our sinfulness,now as a Christian of many years,and likewise a preacher, I suppose many people look at me, and think that butter would not mealt in my mouth. Yet it is not so, for I am still in this body of flesh, and I am often having to contend with temptation,from my fallen nature, and from satan, and I dont always win that fight.As long as I live I know it will be a battle to the grave, there is no escape ,it is onward Christian soldiers , marching as to war.Yet one day the battle will be over, when we will stand on heavens shore , and that will mean many things, and it is one of those many things that struck me recently , when I was singing an old hymn. It was written by Robert Murray Mcheyne , called , I am a debtor, and one of the verses reads,/ When I stand before the throne. Dressed in beauty not my own. When I see Thee as Thou art. Love Thee with unsinning heart, Then , Lord, shall I fully know. Not till then- how much I owe./ It is those words ,Love Thee with unsinning heart, that struck a cord with me. Can any of us trully take in the wonder of those words, that hearts that are now described as deceitful and desperately wicked [Jeremiah 17 v 9 ], will on that day be fully and wholly changed,we will have unsinning hearts.
A prayer..../Dear God grant us the grace to overcome sin,help us to fight the good fight of faith
,until the day we stand before You with an unsinning heart, in Jesus name .Amen.

It is grace all the way. [ Romans 16 v 24 ]

Many foolish people deney that they are sinners ,even though the word of God clearly teaches that we are all are sinners. When the Spirit of God convicts a person ,then the arguments cease, the protesting stops,and the only thing they can say is, God be merciful to me a sinner. We say amen to the truth in 1 John 1 v 8, which reads, if we say that we have no sin we decieve ourselves, and the truth is not in us. The Christian will always be but a sinner saved by grace , and will never cease to be amazed what God has done in saving them by His grace through His son Jesus.The words of that wonderful hymn by R Robinson come to mind, /
O to grace how great a debtor,
Daily Im constrained to be,
Let that grace ,Lord , like a fetter,
Bind my wandering heart to Thee.
Prone to wander ,Lord I feel it,
Prone to leave the God Ilove,
Here,s my heart, Lord , take and seal it,
Seal it from Thy courts above.
A prayer..../Dear God we marvel at the wonders of Your grace in saving us, and keeping us,
grant us today an outpouring of that grace , in Jesus name Amen. /

Freedom is worth everything. [ John v 34 - 36 ]

It was rememberance Sunday yesterday, when most people wore poppies,and through out our land people stood before momuments ,and laid wreaths,we do such things to honour and remember, those who died in present, and past wars.We like to think that they died for us ,so we could live in what is known as a free country, so we honour them. I saw part of TV show presented by Sir David Jason one our countries finest actors, he was speaking to a war veteran , who had escaped from a prisoner of war camp, he said that he had vowed never to be a prisoner again, and then he said, / Freedom is worth everything/.I am sure he is right, freedom trully is worth everything, Jesus believed this so much so that He gave His everything, that He could set people free, from the greatest bondage that people suffer from, sin.In Romans 6 v 17, declares ,once you were slaves of sin, in Christ and through His death on the cross we have been set free fom sin.
Long my imprisoned spirit lay
fast bound in sin and natures night,
Thine eye diffused a quickening ray,
I woke, the duneon flamed with light,
my chains fell off, my heart was free,
I rose, went forth, and followed Thee.
A prayer..../ Dear God we thank You for the freedom we have through Jesus Your Son. Amen.
[I will return to my blog Thursday morning ]

Strange heroes. [ Hebrews 11 v 31 - 38 ]

I like old cowboy movies , when I was young one of my favourite actors was Audie Murphy, now the thing about Audie ,he looked really young, no one would have thought that he was especially brave. The parts he acted in were mostly cowboy movies and he was the hero, but the fact about Audie he was a real life hero. In the second world war he was one of America,s most decorated soldiers, strange but true, and it reminds me of a Bible character called David. Initially David was overlooked by his father, when Samuel came to annoint a new king.Later on when all Israel were afraid because a big giant was threatening them it was David who volunteered to fight the giant. Well, when he faced the giant, the giant as much as laughed at him, but the giant learned to his cost, that you dont judge a book by its cover. I dont know if A.M.knew the Lord, but I know David did , and his success in all his battles was down to that one thing. It would do us all good to remember the words of 1 Samuel 16 v 7,/ the Lord seeth not as man seeth, for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart.
A prayer.../Dear Father we thank You that when we know Your son Jesus it makes us special,and though we are ordinary human beings, we can accomplish extraordinary things. Amen/

Healing .[ James 5 v 14- 15 ]

Recently we were having an open discussion on healing in the church I attend, the pastor led the discussion, most of us have thoughts on this subject. Some people say that miraculous healings are not for today, it would be interesting to know if any of the people, who read this blog, have been healed.In some ways the subject appears to be a minefield, many people have prayed for healing and have not been healed, my first wife died from cancer, I did pray for healing, the night before she died I read a scripture,that indicated that she was going to die. There are no easy answers, of course we all believe that God can heal,but will He?,that is the question. Even today a girl came into the church hall were we run a group, she could not get into the chuch building to light a candle,it seems her friend is dying in a hospice,she is a single parent and has three children, I assured her that I would pray for her[ Will you pray for her as God leads ]. Coming back to that discussion, it ended with the pastor giving an invitation for anyone who wanted to be prayed for, to indicate so, I was one of those who did, it was not emotional or pressurized , he simply annointed us with oil and prayed a simple prayer.I was not healed, but this will not stop me from believing that God still heals.
A prayer...../Dear God we struggle with suffering,we think of that dear girl dying leaving 3 chidren,we know you can heal, but often it does not happen,guide us in this by Your Spirit, in Jesus name. Amen ]