We cannot loose out[ Proerbs 10 v22 ]

Proverbs10v22/ The blessing of the Lord, it maketh rich,and he addeth no sorrow with it/When the blessing of the Lord is upon us,he will bless our endevours,but the scriptures tell us,except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it[Psalm127 v 1] Inspite of of all Laban did to Jacob the Lord overruled and prospered Jacob[ Genesis 31v 7 ]he became rich[Genesis 30 v43]this was not accomplished by Jacob efforts,alone, no , God blessed him,blessed his efforts. He addeth no sorrow to it,what does that mean?,Charles Bridges wrote/,no sorrow ,but what turns to a blessing,/we see this especially in the life of Joseph,all the suffering he endured,hated by his brothers,sold into slavery,wrongly accused of a crime,put into prison,until what he had said came to pass,the word of the Lord tested him[Psalm 105 v18-19]oh yes he suffered,but because the blessing of God was upon him,joy came in the morning[Psalm 30 v5 ]One cannot loose out if the blessing of God is upon us,, irrespective of what one may suffer,for there will come a glorious day when God will wipe away every tear,and we will enter into eternal joy[Revelation 21 v1-4] As I sat in my garden earlier,overhead dark clouds were gathering,and I thought of those wonderful words penned by dear William Cowper/ Ye fearful saints , fresh courage take,the clouds ye so much dread. Are big with mercy,and shall break, in blessings on your head/, so rejoice you blessed of the Lord.
A  prayer..../Dear God we praise You that in Jesus we are blessed by Your grace, mercy, and love,blessed in time and throughout eternity,. Amen ]

Which group are you in?. [ Psalm 1 ]

Proverbs 4 v 18-19 reads ,/But the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day. The way of the wicked is as darkness, they know not at what they stumble./ We have two groups of people mentioned,one is under a blessing, and it shows,the other is under a curse,seen as a  person stumbling about in the darkness. One has confidence, has a certainty, and is conscious that they have a purpose, and a destiny,the other can only relate to the things of this life,with all its uncertainties, and has no idea as to where they are going.The nearer the just gets to their eternal home,the more it is manifest in their lives,the wicked [ all those outside of Christ]are without hope, and without God[ Ephesians 2 v12 ] The question is, which group do you belong to?,remember you cannot have a foot in both camps,for Jesus said,/ He that is not with me is against Me[ Matthew 12 v30 ]
A  prayer..../ Dear Lord help me to see that without You there  is no future,only in You will there be that perfect day Amen /

Acknowledge Him. [ Psalm 78 v53 ]

The next verse in Proverbs we can consider is 3v6/ In all thy ways acknowledge Him,and He shall direct thy paths/ The old hymn says ,/run not before Him/,is what we are inclined to do.In all thy ways acknowledge Him,in other words, bring Him into all aspects of our lives,be on gaurd against leaving the Lord out of our doings. We need to continually remind ourselves ,that dependance on the Lord is best,and the safest attitude to have,even when things dont turn out like we feel they should.Matthew Henry wrote/We must ask His leave, and not design anything but what we are sure is lawful/.We cannot expect God to bless anything that is dubious,our ways must be ways of holiness and integrity.So each day ,yea each hour,yea each minute,let us acknowledge the Lord, and the result will be He shall direct our paths.
 A  prayer..../ Dear God help us not to shut You out of any aspect of our lives,and at times when we forget ,have mercy,and overrule for our good, in Jesus name Amen /

Learn this vital lesson. [ 1 Corinthians 1 v 18 -31 ]

Let us spend a little bit of time looking at some verses from the book of Proverbs,the first verse is an old favourite of mine chap 3 v5/Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not unto thine own understanding/.Here is a verse every Christian should memorize,meditate on, and put into practice.I wonder why a nation like Germany sunk so low as to not only tolerate a Hitler but also to follow him, now of course not all Germans did, but many did.Now there are many reasons why the Nazi party succeeded,the nation over a long time adapted beliefs that came from ungodly people the so called philosopher,s with their perverted ideas.Why did Mein Kampf become a best seller? because the land of the reformation, did not trust in the Lord with all their heart, instead they leaned unto their own understanding.Let us learn the lesson, that if we lean unto our own understanding.be it a nation or as individuals, we will suffer the consequences.
A prayer...../Dear Lord help us to hold unto the truth, that the safest thing to do at all times is to trust in the Lord with all our hearts, in Jesus name Amen /

Fighting, finishing,and keeping the faith. [ 2 Timothy 4 v 7-8 ]

My oldest boy completed a bike ride of over 50 miles yesterday,along with about 2ooo others, my wife and I were at the finish ride, it was a charity event.He and a few friends had been training ,if you are going to take on some challenge, usually it is advisable to prepare. At the end of this month the olympics will be taking place in this country mainly in London,I will not be attending any of the events, but I will watch some of it on TV.Of course it was the Greeks who started it all.The apostle Paul  refers to sport in his writings, and in writing to young Timothy, knowing that his end was near,and this is what he wrote. /I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith[2 Timothy 4 v 7 ]. In these words we see the challenge of being a Christian,he fought a good fight,one just has to read his letters to appreciate what he had to contend with,like him we are in a war zone,let us fight a good fight.Next he writes on finishing his course,my greatest desire is to finish,not to be a drop out, I want my heavenly father to be at the finish line,and to greet me with a big welcome home hug.Next he declares I have kept the faith,in other words he was faithful to Jesus,yes faithful to Jesus,God grant us the grace we need to be faithful to Jesus, and not be drawn away from Him.
A  prayer..../Dear God grant us the grace we need ,to fight, to finish, and to keep the faith,in Jesus name Amen /

Prayer, we need to go deeper. [ Matthew 6 v 5 -15 ]

Our daugther in law failed her driving test yesterday,this is the second time,now I am not writing this to make her feel bad,so why  mention it?.The reason I am writing about it,is to highlight the fact that my wife and I both prayed that she would pass her test,but she didnt. Why is a question we will all ask I am sure,in relation to  prayer,we are told ,ask and it shall be given unto you,we are told God answers our prayers.Do we just brush this question under the mat?why was this prayer not answered?,now of course my daughter in law must have prayed,my son must have prayed, so why did she fail? Now as I write this blog I am listening to Christian radio, I hear the words being sung,/Open the eyes of my heart Lord//and it seems to me that we need to go deeper ,than our natural understanding, especially when it comes to prayer.We need to not lean upon our own understanding[Proverbs 3v5], we need to go deeper,in all things, especially as I have stressed in relation to prayer. Prayer is not just a yes or no exercise, it is not just putting a coin in a machine and getting a coffee,for sometimes we dont get coffee. Prayer is part of our relationship with a loving heavenly Father, through Jesus,it is not just a one way street relationship.When my children come to me and ask, for advice or whatever, I listen and I consider what is the best answer,the best way to help.So it is with God when we come to Him, with a request,He may not grant our request because it is lacking in faith,we may have sin in our lives,we may need patience, we may be asking with wrong motives,we may not be praying according to His will, our faith needs refining.
A prayer..../ Loving heavenly Father we ask that You would open the eyes of our heart in relation to prayer, in Jesus name Amen /

Pray. [ Luke 18v1 ]

Sometimes I see the humorous side of things,take our weather,earlier in the year we were told, that many parts of our land was affected by a lack of rain,a hose pipe ban was put into force,the word drought was mentioned.So I prayed ,now I am not saying I am an Elijah,but all I know is we have had one of the wettest summers in living memory.We have experienced floods in certain places, there is no more talk about a lack of rain. Now while on holiday as I was driving through heavy rain fall, I suddenly thought is all this rain my fault?, after all I did pray.I smiled at my words ,I better be careful what I pray about,who knows what devastation I may cause.As I said my sense of humour, sometimes gets the better of me,but being serious, I believe God did answer my prayers for rain, and I am grateful  [I am sure others prayed as well],when we pray God does hear, and I believe He does answer,prayer is a powerful ministry,so pray,dont give up,pray ,pray,pray.
A prayer..../ Dear God  thank You for answers to our prayers,help us to not give up ,help us to pray, and  to trust ,that our prayers are answered ,according to Your perfect will, in Jesus name Amen /