A heart of love.[1corinthians 13]

Psalm 15 v 2, we continue to consider ,/Worketh righteousness/  now this is not just a worldly standard,which is often inconsistant,but a doing right according to Gods word,and will. Also religion can be cover for a mulitude of wrongs,there are many religous people in the world,but religion can be but a front,for all sorts of evils,as our Saviour declared[ Matthew23 in this chapter we have the word woe mentioned 8 times ,aimed at very religious inconsistant people]The greatest conflict our Saviour had was with religious people,this is seen right throughout history,religious people  have acted in brutal and cruel ways,consider the inquistion,and the attitude of many in the world of Islam. Last Christmas, a man flung acid at a Ugandan pastor  causing burns to his face and neck,the person who did it, ran away shouting,[Allah Akbar] god is great.The works of righteousness must be motivated by love or they count for nothing[ 1 Corinthians 13 ],for that is how God works,day after day ,He blesses us, out of a heart of love.
A  prayer.../ Dear God help us in our walk to walk aright, help us to manifest love in all we do, in Jesus name Amen /

Our righteousness filthy rags[ 1 Corinthians 1 v29-31 ]

 Psalm 15v 2../He that walketh uprightly, and worketh righteousness/,so from our walk to our works, but not just our works, but of righteousness. Now when it comes to righteousness we must see that our acceptance with a Holy God is not based on our righteousness,in fact we are told that all,yes all, our righteousness are as filthy rags[ Isaiah 64 v6 ]. Barns in his commmentary on Isaiah points out  ,/The sense is that all our prayers,alms,praises,were mingled with pollution, and were worthy only of deep detestation and abhorrence/.The words filthy rags are seen as leprous rags, or menstruous rags,strong words , but it is vital if we are going to be saved,accepted by God that we fully grasp this truth.For there are so many people who do not see this truth,and take pride in what they do, and feel that they will be accepted by their righteousness.The man who went to the wedding feast in Matthew 22, refused to accept the proper garments provided, and was cast out into outer darkness.The important thing that his story is telling us, we cannot enter Gods presence as we are, for God has provided a righteousness for us , in the person and work of our Lord Jesus Christ, in two old testament references we have the term, /The Lord our righteousness[Jeremiah 23v6/ 33v16],in other words it is the Lord Jesus Himself who is our righteousness, this happens when we trust Him as our Saviour.
A  prayer...../Dear God we come to You not in our righteousness ,but in and through Thy Son Jesus, for it is only in Him are we accepted,help us to see how vital this is Amen/

Walking uprightly. [Romans 14 v23 ]

Verse 2 of Psalm 15 ,reads ,/He that walketh uprightly/, the walk of the Christian is very important,it was said of Enoch that he walked with God[Hebrews 11v5 ], and if we are a Christian,we are walking with God.The first thing we see  about Enochs walk ,it was a walk of faith,from the moment we are born again by the Spirit of God,we are called to walk by faith,, in fact we are told , whatsoever is not of faith is sin[ Romans 14v23 ].When I was a young lad I trusted the Saviour,now where I lived it was considered wrong by many Christians to attend places of entertainment, but I Ioved the cinema,still do,but I felt at that time it was wrong for me to continue going to such places,but there was a moment when I went against what I believed was wrong,and went back to attending the cinema. I believe I committed a sin,and this drew me away from the Lord for many years,the point is not about the cinema,or whatever,the point is as NLT puts it,I was doing something I didnt believe was right,so I was sinning.The mark of a man of God is Faith,if we deviate from that path, we are sinning, and God will not be pleased with us.
A  prayer....../ Dear God help us to see that we are called to walk by faith, that when we fail in this we fail,to please You, in Jesus name Amen /

A holy life.[ Ephesians 1 v 4 ]

We considered yesterday if we are to have are to  have a saving relationship with God we must know Christ as our Saviour, well what about the Christian?,as we look at this  15th Psalm we see that there is a tremendous high standard demanded of us,and if we are honest,we ackowledge that  we often fail to meet that standard.First of all let us remember that the goal that we are always to aim at, is holiness,this is not there to mock us,but to challenge us, and we must never loose sight of that goal.Of course we do fail yet this does not effect our standing before God,my children our still my children even when they do wrong,but the wrong must be dealt with,because it will have consequences,hinder our prayers, rob us of our peace,grieve,quench the Holy Spirit.It is John in His epistle who stresses the importance of walking in the light[1 John 1v7 ]if we are sinning we are not walking in the light,and our fellowship with God is affected.We are saved by grace, that  means we are accepted unconditionally,but grace is never a licence to sin[ Galations 5 v13 ],going back to what I said earlier,we must always rise to the challenge of being holy.The old hymn declares ,Oh to grace how great a debtor,daily Im constrained to be,we owe God everything,He has saved us,we will always be in His debt,we can never repay that debt,but surely in gratitude we can this day rise to the challenge of a holy life.
A prayer..../ Dear God we praiseYou  for Your grace that saved us we owe everything to You and always will, help us in gratitude this day to be Holy in Jesus name Amen /

Our only hope. [Acts 16 v31 ]

Psalm 15 starts with a question,who can come into Gods presence, who can have a relationship with God?, this question that is asked is very important, for the believer and the unbeliever. In understanding the question we must appreciate two things ,the first thing to consider is God,that He is holy,the second thing is we are sinners.These two things create a dilemma ,and it is a dilemma that only God can solve,and indeed has solved,I stress only God can solve. I wear a small cross ,why?, it is to declare that the cross is Gods answer to mans dilemma,what is that dilemma?,the answer is sin and its consequences.Unless sin is dealt with there is no hope, all is lost, and all are lost,hell is the ultimate destiny of those who die in their sin,consider these solemn words,/The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God[Psalm 9 v17 ]. These are strong words, but they are true, who are the wicked?,all of us ,always remember it is how God sees us that matters,and if we read Romans 3 we have our sinful condition set forth, do read it and consider  what it is saying to you,its conclusion is this, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God [v 23 ].Anne Cetas says,/Do you believe it? Your eternity is at stake. Dont trust in faulty thinking, put your faith in Christ/.
A  prayer..../Dear God help us to see that our only hope to be saved is Jesus Your dear Son .Amen/

Morally upright. [Psalm 15]

I am just finishing a book called/ The end , Hitlers Germany/it is a very sad book  ,driven by one evil man,the nation of Germany followed,and became partakers of that evil,and suffered the consequences of such a decision. I ask myself would I have been any different if I had lived in Germany?,someone said it only takes good men to say nothing for evil to prosper. The challenge of the Christian life is to not just accept or go along with the evil and ungodliness that is ever present,we are called to be light,and to be salt,the light challenges the darkness, and the salt stops the corruptness.The early church experienced severe persecution because it would not say Caesar is Lord,the present crisis in the financial world has been brought about because of greed,and because not enough people spoke out against the  wrong practices that were going on. Yes there were those who did , I was speaking to a person who resigned,and took early retirement because he didnt agree with what was going on.But as in th case of Nazi Germany the darkness appears to have won the day,in the financial world,I wonder will anything change?. In the coming days we are going to be looking at Psalm 15, which my sturdy Bible declares that.in this Psalm God calls His people to be morally upright and gives us 10 standards to determine how we are doing/.
A  prayer...../ Dear God in this dark and corrupt world, help us to  be the light and the salt, in Jesus name Amen /

Abraham didnt give up. [ Romans 4 v16 -25 ]

In Romans 4 we read this about Abraham that ,/ even when there was no reason for hope, Abraham kept hoping,believing v 18/.God has given me promises,which looks like they will never be fulfilled,it seems impossible,such was Abrahams case.His wife and him were old,as he looked he was not blinded by the realities. But he didnt give up, he could have,we all have that choice, to give up and walk away ,but let me say it again Abraham didnt give up.. In Hebrews 10 v23 we read,/He is faithful that promised/this is the character of God,one who is faithful,who will do what He has promised,He will not falter in this, because He is faithful.But not only is He faithful,great an all that is ,we also read , that God was able to do what He had promised[Romans 4 v21].This is often were we fail, we are not always able to do what we promised, our resources dry up, our strength fails us,none of those things apply to our sovereign God,we are told that God is not a man, contrary to what the Mormons believe.Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard,  that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not,neither is weary? there is no searching of His understanding[ Isaiah 40 v2]  Such is our God ,He is able to do  exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think[Ephesians 3 v20] Abraham believed in the character of God, and the power of God, the result he recieved what he desired.
A  prayer..../ Dear God help us to be strong in believing that what You have promised us You will fulfill in Jesus name. Amen/