He understands [ Hebrews 4 v 14 - 16 ]

In the Billy Graham book he writes of a person whose friend had lost a love one,/I told people I didnt understand why my friend didnt snap out of it and stop dwelling on her mothers death so much , but when her brother died, she said, now I understand./ Now I understand ,as one who has works with mentally ill people ,I hear so often how family,and friends, fail to understand mental illness.The beauty of our relationship with Jesus He fully understands how we feel ,because He entered into the lives of suffering mankind,be it mental illness,or whatever illness. Not only illness but every aspect of human experience, the lonliness, the rejection, the failures ,Jesus understands. In Hebrews 4 v 15 [TM] we read,He,s been through weakness and testing,experienced it, but not sin. Hebrews 2 v 17 - 18 [TM] reads, it was for people like us.......He had to enter into every detail of human life.Then ,when He came before God as high priest to get rid of the peoples sins,He would have already experienced it all Himself-all the pain, all the pain, all the testing- and would be able to help where help was neded.There are those who cry out no one understands how I feel, but it is not true as the old hymn declares, no one understands like Jesus, no matter what.
A prayer..../Dear Lord we thank You that You understand the human situation, and when we come to You in all our need You understand. Amen /

The finished article. [ 1 Corinthians 15 v 50 -58 ]

In Billy Grahams latest book , /Nearing home, life, faith and finishing,/he writes about his late wife Ruth, that while out driving ,they came to a sign, which read,/ End of construction. Thank you for your patience/. Ruth chuckled at those words, and then went on to say,/I want those words engraved on my stone ./As Billy rightly points we are all under construction by God, in 2 Corinthians 3 v18. we read, / and the Lord who is the Spirit, makes us more and more like Him as we are changed into his Glorious image/.Now this is only applies to the Christian, in are natural self many things bear in upon us and bring a degree of change into our lives, parents , circumstances,many things play their part in changeing us.But Paul is referring to the change brought about by the Holy Spirit in the Christians life ,till as M Henry puts it,/till grace here be consummated in glory for ever./ The bible refers to us as earthen vessels[ 2 Corinthians 4 v7 ], and yet the Holy Spirit is going to transform us to beings of great beauty ,in the book of Malachi 3 v17 the saints are referred to as Jewels. Jewels and there will not be one flaw in any of us, for He will perfect that which concerneth us [Psalm 138 v8 / Philippians 1 v 6 ].Yes one day we imperfect beings will be perfect ,and complete, to God be the glory.


A prayer.......Dear heavenly Father we praise You that You are changing us,that You will not give up on us, but will continue on till the job is finished, till that day when we will stand in your presence the finished article ,Grant it, in the name of Jesus Amen .

Honour. [ Revelation 5 v 11 -14 ]

In the movie ,Gone with the Wind,Scarlet O Hara pleads with the man she loves Ashley ,to run away together,but Ashley is married, and there were other considerations. Scarlet says to Ashley ,there is nothing to keep us here, but Ashley replys, nothing but honour.Honour , now there are things which are far from honourable,but true honour is a fine thing, honour in business,in marriage,in politics, in life.Our Saviour was always honourable,in what He said, what He did, what He thought, he never betrayed anyone,never hurt anyone,oh that I was more like Him, and yet I can but try. His was a perfect honour, as was His love, as was His holiness, and through His perfect life ,He provided the perfect sacrifice .Let us in the coming year ,do our best to hounour Him , in all things
A prayer...../Dear God help us to act in an honourable way in all things,to be more like Jesus Your Son .Amen /

A mystery to be lived.[ 1 Corinthians 13 v 12 ]

I believe , that with God all things are possible, because He is God,He can heal, He can, add what you want to it, He can do it. And if HE can, then it is only natural we look to Him to do the impossible. When someone prayed for me recently for healing, nothing happened, yet I do recieve answers to my prayers,my oldest boy came back to the Lord ,now that is a miracle, and that all my boys, know the Lord. But there is that but again. although He can, it appears He does not always, that is a reality, Philip Yancey writes,/Prayer offers no ironclad gurantee/.Philip also writes of being chided by a young man for it appeared to him that Philip was undermining the truth that if we have faith we can move mountains. Philip somewhat agreed with him ,and that he was limited in the area of chidlike faith.But he went on to say that he could not dishonour the pain of suffering people by telling them their faith is somehat defective. He goes on to write , that life is not a problem to be solved but a mystery to be lived.
A God Prayer ...... Dear God we believe that with You all things are possible, forgive us for are lack of faith that hinders are prayers being answered, we know also, that the secret things belong unto You,and there is a mystery in life which is in Your hands, we ask this in Jesus name Amen .

Courage. [ Joshua 1 v9 ]

One of my favourite movies is the Wizard of Oz, I love Mr Tinman, Mr Strawman, and the lion, especially the lion.Now these three all wanted something ,Mr Tinman wanted a heart,Mr Strawman wanted a brain, and the lion the king of the beasts wanted courage. Let me tell you what we need for 2012 is courage, make no mistake about it,we need courage. Often ,to often,preachers ,tell us of a quick fix, of healing,of prosperity, but what we find is life , has its ups, but most certainly its downs. To give up may appear the only way, to turn back may seem the only way, but it is not the Christian way,we must have courage, thats the Christians way,courage to face whatever difficulties the Lord may permit us to go through. How can we get this courage?a good question, the answer is two fold, by fixing our eyes on the Lord,and by faith, hold fast to His word, of course there is a third thing, the grace of God.Take the word of the Lord to Joshua with you into the new year, and have courage,/Have not I commanded thee, be strong and of good courage,be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed, for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest. [ 1 v 9 ].
A prayer...../Dear Lord for Your past help we thank You, but as we start a new year with all that it may hold grant us the grace of courage in Jesus name we ask this Amen ./
[No blog tomorrow back Tuesday]

Good out of our sin. [ Psalm 51 ]

Let us continue to consider what Augustine wrote,/that those who love God,everything works unto good,even sin/,the question is how, why, and what?. How ,well because God is sovereign ,that means He can do it,yet without compromising His holiness.Why?, because He loves His children even when they sin,I dont stop loving my children when they do wrong,the Bible continually teaches us of a God ,who loves, and loves, and loves,even when we sin, and sin, and sin.Next ,what?, yes what will we learn through the pain of sin,we will learn to hate our sin , as the hymn writer wrote,I hate the sin that drove You from my breast.There is nothing more painful for those who love God , than their relationship affected by sin.The most important thing for any true believer is that loving relationship that they have with God.When we sin and repent, we will be more understanding towards those who sin, we will not cast the first stone. Peter deneyed his Lord yes three times, but after that experience ,he never deneyed Him again,the pain it caused him,left its mark, sin will always leave its mark. The restored Saint, will be more able to tell others the way back to God,David pleaded with God to restore unto him the joy of salvation ,and then he declares,Then will I teach trancgressors Thy ways, and sinners shall be converted unto thee.[ Psalm 51 v 12-13 ]. We learn that our relationship is based on love and grace ,not on anything in us, and that we can always come to the throne of Grace, and receive mercy and grace to help in our time of need [ Hebrews 4 v16 ]. I read an article on a local policeman, and they describe the policeman as a proud Christian, there are a lot of us proud Christians about. God is seeking to remove the sin of pride from our lives, David, and Peter were surely more humble after they sinned.
A prayer...../Dear God forgive us our sins,and we pray that in Your great mercy you will even work for my good,that my I may be a better person through Your grace,in Jesus name. Amen

Temptation. [ 1 Corinthians 10 v13 ]

I wonder do you have a life verse? I do, it is Romans 8 v28 [AV ]which reads, /And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God,to them who are the called according to His purpose/. I am reminded of these words continually as many years ago I had them framed ,and hung on my living room wall, of whatever home I lived in.These words are a constant reminder to me that God is in control of His childrens lives, and that no matter what difficulty they experience, God will cause it to work for there good. Today I thought on something Augustine wrote,/ That for those who love God everything works unto good, even sin/. How can that be? ,sin, surely not, let us consider how this might be so.James 1 v 13-14 reads,Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God,for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth He any man. But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed./God does not play around with sin, no, mankind does,now it is not a sin to be tempted,it is what we do with the temptation that matters,we are all tempted everyday , now I know there is moment in every temptation,when I have choice, to run with it or to resist it. God has given all of us a conscience, if we are a Christian, we also have the Spirit of God, and the word of God. These three factors are more than sufficent to help us resist temptation, if we let lust or covetousness take over, then we will yield to the temptation,and sin . We will continue to look at what are the implications for us as believers in the light of what Augustine wrote.
A prayer...../Dear God we ask for grace to help us overcome temptation in Jesus name Amen /