I read Psalm 19 today.

I read Psalm 19 today, a Psalm that reminds us that God speaks through His creation, and through His word. In verse 1o ff,the writer declares how precious Gods word is, because of the warnings he is given in relation to sin, yes the warnings are there,they are to be heeded. He then prays for grace to help him from sinning ,knowledge of God is vital,but so is prayer,we may know a thing is wrong, but we need to ask for grace, to not commit that wrong. In the last verse he ends with this request,/Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in Thy sigh,. O Lord, my strength, and my redeemer./Three things , his words, his thoughts, his desire,today let us be careful as to our words,as to our thought life, and may the desire of our hearts , always be to please our God and Saviour.
A prayer...../ Dear God help us in every part of our lives to glorify Thee in Jesus name Amen /

His peace. [ Isaiah 26 v 3- 4 ]

Many years ago my pastor spoke of what Jesus left us[as it were in His will], not money for it is obvious, that money can create a lot of pain, and He didnt leave us the ability to not experience pain, no then we would not rely on Him, and that would have had terrible consequences. He left us something very ,very special His peace,here is what He said,/Peace I leave with you, my peace I gave unto you, not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled,neither let it be afraid./[John 14 v27 ].So this peace is not an earthly peace,earthly peace can evaporate in a moment, no this is a heavenly peace,a gift from Jesus, to His own. He knew that this what we needed most of all to face life, with all its uncertainties, all its pain, all its evil. Today dear child of God ask him for His promised peace, ask and you shall recieve, seek and you shall find, the peace of God that passeth all understanding.It is a peace that is not depending on the weather, your circumstances,your friends,your bank balance, so ask Your Saviour for it right now.
A prayer...../Dear Lord Jesus may we know Your peace this day . Amen /

Lasting peace. [ Colossians 1 ]

A saying comes to mind,give my head peace,it is something we used to say in Ulster, give my head peace, peace, what a lovely word ,so many people are struggling,so many things annoy.Consider the world,for all their fanatiscim Islam does not appear to know much about peace, they appear to be always foaming at the mouth,always wanting a fight. I come from a country that has known more than its fare share of conflict, borne out of its history, there is degree of peace there now, people got so tired of the conflict,and they were willing to compromise, and Im sure they dread the thought of going back to the way it was. As I read history ,and look out on this world, it appears that the world is always tearing itself apart,a British Prime Minister waved a little bit of paper in the air,declaring peace in our time, and the crowds cheered,but it was an illusion,for in a very short time the whole world was plunged into a conflict, that would bring unthinkable suffering to millions of people. It was not meant to be like this ,but then sin entered in,and from that moment on,things changed,and not for the better, and so it continues. A spirit entered into man that affected their relationship with God, and their fellow man.[ cp Romans 3 ] Mankind has no answer to this problem, but God had, a cross, the death of His son,through that death peace with God can be experienced[ Romans 5 v1 ],all we have to do is trust in Jesus.
A prayer ...../Dear God help us to see that true lasting peace is only to be found, through Jesus. Amen ]

Jesus.[ John 3 v16 ]

Now let us consider further what those words mean, salvation is of the Lord[ Jonah 2 v9],it means that God has a provided an an absolute perfect salvation for all, Consider the words of John 3 v16,for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. Here is how God provided salvation, through His son Jesus, this Jesus is unique, He is the son of God,coequal with the Father.[John 1 v1-2 ].He became man for the purpose of dealing with sin, now He Himself was perfect,he had no sin, and did no sin, we have stressed that sin is our greatest problem, we cannot have a relationship with a Holy God, while our sin remains unforgiven this can never be.On the cross Jesus in and through His death, experienced the wrath of God,this was vital, for a Holy God cannot let sin go unpunished, as Isaiah puts it , He was smitten by God, and afflicted.Our sin can be forgiven, we can escape the just punishment for our sin, by trusting in Jesus , who bore our punishment. we who were under the wrath of God,can now experience peace with God, because Jesus experienced wrath for us.
A prayer.....Dear God we thank You for providing such a free salvation,even though it cost You everything , grant us grace to trust in Jesus to be our Saviour. Amen ]

Thou must save, and Thou alone.[Jonah 2 v 9 ]

We have been considering the bases of being accepted with a Holy God, we have ruled out two things,the law , because we all without exception break that law,it is impossible for any of us to live and not sin. We also considered good works , how they have no power, to forgive sin, they do not count at all when it comes to being accepted with God. Augustus Toplady wrote,/ Not the labours of my hands, can fulfil Thy laws demands. Could my zeal no respite know,could my tears forever flow. All for sin could not atone,Thou must save, and Thou alone./ In those words, Thou must save, and Thou alone, we have the secret of being accepted by a Holy God, in the book of Jonah we read these words, /Salvation is of the Lord[2 v9 ]/,if we are going to be saved them we must look to God to do it,in other words salvation is not a do it yourself thing,and of course this hits at our pride,and pride is a great barrier in relation to being saved. Consider those words of the prophet Jonah, he prayed when he could do nothing to save himself,he was in the belly of a great fish,he was going to perish, unless God saved Him. So it is in relation to being saved unless God saves us, them we will perish in a lost eternity,our law keeping ,and good works will account for nothing. We will continue on this subject tomorrow.
A prayer .../ Dear God help us to understand ,that Thou must save and Thou alone. in Jesus name Amen /

Good works. [ Ephesians 2 v 8 - 9 ]

We have seen how we cannot be accepted by the law, but what about good works,and of course there is nothing wrong with good works ,and and of course if we are trully born again ,they are an evidence that we are a child of God,[James 2 ] An evidence, but it is not the bases of our acceptance with God,for good works cannot merit us salvation,good works are just what they are, good works,they have no power in themselves to deal with sin.We could do a mountian of good works and those good works would not deal with one sin, our sin would still remain unforgiven, we would still be alienated from a Holy God. Let me stress this again good works have no power to deal with our sin,many people feel that God will accept them because of their good works, but God cannot do this, cannot. The reason being, God is holy and He cannot accept us on the bases of good works,the only bases of acceptance is through our sins being forgiven.When it comes to acceptance with God our good works do not count, it is no good patting ourselves on our back when we do something good,it will not cause us to be accepted with God. It is not a question of the good we do outweighing the bad we do, the good we do, will not ,cannot, deal with the bad.We will continue to consider this tomorrow.
A prayer...../Dear God help us to see our position, that our sins remain ,inspite of all our good works,that they do not count with You, help us to see what does count, in Jesus name Amen ./

Not by the law. [ Galations 3 v11 ]

We saw yesterday why the law was given, to bring us to a realization of our true condition,that we all without exception are sinners [Romans 3 v23 ].In the light of this it is complete folly to try and be accepted by God through the keeping of the law. Then you may ask how can I be accepted by a holy God?, that is the all important question, how indeed?,well how was Abraham Justified, or accepted by God ?, and the answer is by faith,Galations 3 v6, tells us Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness. When you are seeking to be accepted by God by the law, that is not faith,no,as Galations 3 v11 tells us,that no person is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident, for, the just shall live by faith. We move on to explore how are we going to be accepted by a holy God, we see how it is not by law, but by faith, but faith in what or who?. So many put their faith in so many things,the wrong things, the wrong people, the wrong religions, and if we are wrong that is very serious, if the light that is in you is darkness how great is your darkness, tomorrow we will consider this further.
A prayer...../Dear God help us to give up our trying to be accepted by the deeds of the law in Jesus name Amen /