The providence of God.[ Genesis 24 v27 ]

The book of Ruth is a lovely book to read ,it has only four chapters ,so it is easy to read at one sitting, it has many things to teach us. One of the themes of this book is the providence of God,which involved suffering ,famine,three deaths, poverty,and yet we see clearly a sovereign God at work. It commences with a family who moved home , because Israel was experiencing a famine, I come from a country, that experienced a terrible famine,and many had to leave Ireland in order to to survive. Remember things dont happen by chance, things come into our lives for a purpose, it prompted this family to move.If you are experienceing difficulties at this time ,mybe God is pushing you to move, to change direction.I remember my own experience in Ulster, every door was shut fast to me, I was unemployed, I ended up in England pastoring a little church. It is a step I never regretted, as I look back ,[and it is in looking back we begin to appreciate the ways of God in our lives],I can trully say all the way, my God has led , and guided.

A prayer...../ Dear God help us to trust in Your providential care,that in all things You are in control, in Jesus name Amen /

Tomorrow. [Matthew 6 v25 -34 ]

The word of God points out the importance of not carrying tomorrows burdens today,to live one day at a time, many people are driven by anxiety of what may happen,in the future.It is a burden we are not meant to carry,of course our future may bring all sort of things into our lives, that are unpleasant,we are not saying that bad things wont happen.We are not saying we are not to act in a responsible way,we should as regards our finances ,give, spend and save.Our Saviour tells us to put God first and then all else will fall into place,He often spoke of God as a Father , a Father who loves His children, and will care for them. We are called to trust Him, His resources are infinite,His power is infinite, and His love for His Children is unconditional,and eternal. This loving Heavenly Father is watching over His children,we are to set our thoughts on Him, not on our uncertain tomorrows,our Saviour says dont even give a thought about the possible problems of tomorrow.

I know who holds the future,and He will guide me with His hand.

With God things dont happen, everything by Him is planned.

So as I face tomorrow,with its problems large and small,

I,ll trust the God of miracles,give to Him my all [ Alfred Smith ]

A prayer......./Dear Loving Heavenly Father we commit all our tomorrows into Your loving hands in Jesus Your Sons name Amen /

Amazing .[ Ephesians 2 v 8-9 ]

My son visited the place were John Newton spent his early childhood, Purfleet/ Averley, in the county of Essex .The event he attend was an historical meeting were a plaque was erected and a historical talk was on Johns life. There was also a person who sung one of the most famous hymns ever written , Amazing grace,and one of the most recorded songs ever,it is one of my favourite hymns.It does amaze me how this hymn keeps popping up, it appears to me that God keeps bringing to mens mind, its truth, His amazing grace. What God is saying to us is, that no matter how far you have fallen, His grace can lift you up,no matter how far you have wandered away from God ,you can be restored.You see ,that is what makes it so amazing, the blessings of Grace comes to us through Jesus,salvation came into being by Jesus paying the cost,we could not . The writer , writing of his own experience,descibes himself as a wretch, as being lost and being blind, God saves him through Jesus, this trully amazes him.

A prayer ..../Dear God we praise You for the grace we experience through Jesus Your son, it trully is amazing. Amen /

He loves us failures. [ Jeremiah 31 v 3]

I have started to read the book of Judges, it has different themes to it,Israels continual unfaithfulness, this is highlighted in the following words,/ And the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the Lord/.This is followed by the Lord delivering them into the hands of their enemies,then we have a period of Israel being oppressed. Next we have Israel turning to the Lord ,crying unto to Him, for deliverance, God responds by sending a deliverer.What amazes me is God continual faithfulness, there is never a place in the book of Judges that God gives up on Israel,inspite of their repeated failures,He just keeps on being faithful inspite of their unfaithfulness, why?, yes why?,because, they were His, and He loved them,He loved them to much to give up on them. Many people may look at me and think ,my He is such a man of God, a preacher, a fine Christian,but I know how weak I am, and not only that, God knows, how often I have failed Him,70 times 7,plus,and as I write these words I ask the question why has He not given up in me ?,and then I hear Him whisper to heart,because you are mine and I love you.What applies to me applies to me applies to you dear child of God, He loves us failures,nothing can seperate us from that love, even our continual failures.

A prayer...../Dear God we are utterly amazed at Your amazing love,You know the worst about us yet You dont give up,You just keep loving us, we praise and thank You in Jesus name./

Pain can be redeemed [ Romans 8 v28 ]

Lastly we think of pain that can be redeemed, and like Philip Yancey I will point you to my life verse, Romans 8 v28[ av ] And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God. The all things means what it says, yes even the bad pain, the greatest example of this is the cross on which Jesus died, that was surely bad pain, an innocent person being crucified. And yet God had a redeeming purpose in that death,good has come out of it,mulitudes of people have and are being saved, from a lost eternity. God always works at a redemptive purpose, this is Gods truth, it goes without saying that when we are in the storm of bad pain, we struggle to accept the truth of Romans 8 v28. I believe this verse with all of my heart, often with tears, I have looked at this verse,wondering how good can come of my painful experience, but I believe it will.I finish by quoting P Y./ Romans 8 v28 is an affirmation that whatever things may come our way- and for Paul these meant manifold hardships- all can be redeemed to work for our ultimate good/

Dear God help us to have faith in the truth that You are in control,and are working all things for the good of Your children, and for Your glory in Jesus name Amen /

Pain that is bad.[ Job 1-2 ]

Yesterday we considered pain that is good, but then then there is the bad pain,we hear of it every day on the news, I recieve material from missions, informing me of so many things that people are suffering ,that could be classed as pain that is bad. So many dear people are experiencing awful things,grinding poverty,abuse, injustice, the list goes on and on. Why? , yes why we ask?, so much suffering, mybe you are asking this question,mybe you are, or have, experienced things that are really bad, and you lift your eyes to heaven ,and you ask why Lord, why did my child have to experience such pain?why ?.Now this is the pain that is bad, why?, well the cross on which Jesus died, was for a reason, and on that cross He asked the question,why? and the answer is,we live in a sinful world, a fallen world, and because of this we will suffer and experience pain that can be classed as bad. There is no gurantee that any of us will escape things that can trully be labeled ,pain that is bad,tomorrow we will consider how God can redeem even that bad pain.

A prayer..../ Help us to see that the reason that people suffer pain that is bad, is because we live in a fallen world in Jesus name we ask this .Amen /

Pain.[ Proverbs 27 v 6 ]

How does one begin to write about pain,the dentist does his best to eradicate it,we can buy medication ,for all sorts of pain,none of us want to experience pain.We are told that there is no gain without pain,and there is truth in those words,but we would still want the gain without the pain.Philip Yancey who had written 3 books on pain, was asked, what he had personally learned about pain?. He replied, / Pain is good. Pain is bad. Pain can be redeemed/. How can pain be good?, well Philip uses the illustration of a peson who has leprosy,this disease destroys the nerve ends,so they dont feel pain,with the result they injure themselves without knowing it, the result is they suffer severe effects, like the loss of fingers ,and toes.Pain is telling you there is a problem,if we ignor it there can lead to serious consequences, we can think this through at many levels, so today let us give thanks for the pain that is good.

A prayer..../ Dear God it seems strange to thank You for any sort of pain ,and yet we do, the pain that tells us something is wrong, in Jesus name Amen./