Are you burdened?[ Matthew 11 v28 ]

As I was carrying someones  shopping yesterday which was heavy,the words of our Saviour came to mind,/Come unto Me all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest [Matthew 11 v28 ] Jesus in saying this spoke to men's heart, and to their condition,He saw the grinding poverty,the oppressive religion, the weary hearts who struggled with so much..There is still a great deal of poverty in this world,and oppressive religion,in the west we may not experience grinding poverty or oppressive religion,but people are still carrying heavy burdens,the burden of broken relationships,of broken dreams,and broken hearts.Hear the word of Jesus ,come unto Me,cast your burdens upon me,I will help you,oppressed by sin ,and Satan,Jesus says come unto Me,I will forgive you and set you free.As you read this you may be asking is this true can Jesus really help me?. The answer is yes, untold millions have found Jesus to be a Saviour,who forgives ,and heals the broken hearted.The hymn writer,wrote, I came to Jesus as I was weary,and worn and sad,I found in Him a resting place, and He has made me glad[H Bonar]
A prayer....../ Dear God we praise and thank You that in Jesus,burdens can be lifted,and broken hearts can be mended. Amen /

Fridge magnet [ John 4 v 4ff ]

We have a fridge magnet with the words, /give give give give me/ on it,our prayer life can be like this,although it is legitimate to ask God for what we need,some people thing it is wrong to ask God for whatever,it is not, Cp  Philippians 4 v6./Matthew7 v7.Those words on the fridge magnet appear to have a selfish ring to them,and selfishness is never an acceptable attitude in Gods eyes.Selfishness blinds us to the needs of others ,we loose sight of the fact that we are not the centre of the universe.It has with it, I am all right Jack attitude . It was William Booth the founder of the Salvation Army who sent a telegram to a gathering of Salvationist,with one word on it,/others/.Let me stress again that it is not wrong to ask God for whatever,but it becomes wrong when we are asking with the wrong motives and reasons.When I think of the words on the fridge magnet it reminds me of the words of our Saviour to the woman at the well,[John 4] when He said,whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again [v13 ].In saying this He was reminding the lady and us,that no matter how many pairs of shoes we buy,and no matter how many of anything we buy , we will not be satisfied, only He can  meet the deepest need of our hearts.
A  prayer...../ Dear God so many of us forget so easily that only Christ can meet our deepest need, grant us grace to embrace our Saviour and all His fullness. Amen /

We cannot comprehend. [Job 37 v5]

As we come to the end of the book of Job ,both Elihu and God challenge Job as to his limited knowledge as regards creation and God Himself,and in chap40v4 ,we have Job's response,which reads/,Behold I am vile ,what shall I answer Thee?I lay my hand upon my mouth/. In his response he acknowledges two things,his sinfulness,/I am vile/,surely not,did God not praise this man?, yes He did,but Job was a sinner, we have a very limited knowledge of our sinfulness,the Bible mentions godly men and women,but the best of them where sinners,we need the Spirit to reveal our true fallen nature, and believe what Gods word declares,  cp Romans 3 .and what Jeremiah says in  17v9,that the heart is deceitful above all things,and  desperately wicked,and then he adds for good measure,,/who can know it?.Job was not exaggerating in what he said,in fact it seems to me he did not go far enough.The next thing he acknowledges is his saying to much and saying the wrong things,we need to put into practise a control on our words.A lady I know told me of the former pastor of her church,who would not answer right away,but would wait for a short time,and then speak.We speak so often of things we do not know  ,instead of letting our words be few,we speak a multitude of words,and these words are not always edifying to those who hear.,we need to watch those words.
A prayer...../ Dear God forgive us our pride which results in foolish thoughts,and foolish words,foolish attitudes,in Jesus name Amen/

God will work as He see's fit. [ Isaiah 55 v 8-9 ]

In Acts 12v1-2 we read that Herod had James put to death with the sword,but in the same chapter we read how Peter was arrested ,and placed under an armed guard. Instead of being put to death he is miraculously delivered ,by an angel,there are a number of lessons we can learn from this. God is sovereign,we cannot tie Him down,recently I listened to a dear brother telling of a young lad who was healed,but he also told of a young girl who died.We should not expect God to work the same in all His children's lives,but we should realise that He is working in all His children's lives.God has an individual purpose for your life and mine.Some Christians will experience persecution others wont,some will experience ill health,some wont,some will experience great success in their preaching,in that souls will be saved like Jonah, and Peter,others like Isaiah,Jeremiah,and Ezekiel will not.In all these things God will be working out His perfect will in each of His children's lives.I believe we will not die until God see's fit,He has a plan not a funeral plan but a life plan for all His children.James did suffer ,yes we cannot often prevent suffering,but we can rest in the fact that in James case and in every dear child of Gods case,it is absent from the body and present with the Lord,the cross of suffering will be followed by the the crown of glory.
A  prayer...Dear God we acknowledge that Your ways are past finding out,and so God grant us grace to simply trust in Your perfect will in Jesus name Amen.

But now [ John 13 v7]

Job was the man who had everything, and lost everything ,in chapter 29 he goes over the life he had,the good he did,and the respect he was shown.Then we move into chapter 30,which opens with these words,but now,and he goes on to say how things had changed, he is now  held with disdain.I wonder are you in a but now moment?,the nature of life is one of change,and it is not always for the better.The first thought that came to me was that of change,diamonds may be forever,but most things are prone to change, I am not the man physically I once was,people can loose everything in a moment,just like Job. First of all what he experienced was not a punishment for something he did,because he was a godly man,who cared for his family,cared for those who where suffering,and one who genuinely feared God.As he considered his prosperity, he said to himself,surely I will die surrounded by my family after a long good life[29v18]. That is what of us most would like,but like Job we discover a but now experience,it may not be as severe as what Job experienced,but it can be for us a severe trial. What is the answer?well if we are in a but now experience, remember Job did not give up in his faith walk, and God did not give up on Job.And in this very dark but now experience,he declares by faith,that God knew all he was going through,and He would use this trial to perfect him[23 v10],in other words he would come out of this experience a better person.
A  prayer...../ Dear God in this changeable world help us to not give up ,when we experience a but now moment, help us to trust in You,even though we are suffering,and don't understand,in Jesus name Amen/

Let in the Light. [ John 8 v12 ]

As I am first up in the morning I pull the curtains over,in order to let the light in,we are not meant to live in darkness,we need the sunshine if we don't,we would suffer,the sunlight provides vitiam D. God made us children of light,many people from this country go to live in sunny Spain,our summers sometimes don't provide much sun,some but not a lot. Although God made us to be children of light,when it comes to choosing the light ,and what we mean by this mankind has bent towards the darkness,consider how could anybody choose a Hitler,or a Stalin, yet they did,how on earth did people in Cambodia,Rwanda ,seek to commit genocide?there are so many examples,and the greatest of this ,was manifested when the Creator of this world became and dwelt among us,only to be rejected.We live in a world that so often chooses darkness rather than light ,but God the God of love ,who in creation said let their be light,has given us a chance,to move from darkness to light ,when He sent His son Jesus into this world. Jesus said,I am the light of the world,he that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.[John 8 v12 ]
A prayer..../Dear God we praise You that we  need not walk in darkness,the darkness of habits that are destroying us,the darkness of life styles that are unfulling,the darkness that will only lead us into a greater darkness,we thank you there is hope through Jesus Your son Amen /

Suffering. [1 Peter 3 v18 ]

I have just started to read that wonderful and challenging book of Job ,and as thought about it ,I found myself pray,Lord I don't like suffering,I  don't want to suffer. Of course I am just echoing what most of us feel,who wants to suffer?, no one, Christ did not want to suffer, but because of Love He was prepared to suffer. None of us want to suffer ,very few of us go the dentist chair,or to the operating theatre with a smile on our faces. To be told you have a serious illness does not make us happy,seeing our children go without food,or medicine,no suffering is no joke. Yet if Christ had not suffered we would have been lost eternally,His suffering saved us from suffering,He suffered for our sin, that we would not suffer for our sin .Think of what that means for us today,sins forgiven, the power of Satan and sin broken in our lives, He was the only one who could save us from the terrible eternal suffering we would have had to endure.From heaven He came with a mission in mind,to tread a pathway of suffering,that  reached a climax on a cross.Isaiah puts it like this,  /He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities,the chastisement of our peace was laid upon Him.[Isaiah 53 v5] ,no one would want such suffering,but as I said earlier ,love won the day, a love for you and a love for me .
A prayer...../Thank You Father that Your dear son Jesus suffered a dreadful yet glorious death for our salvation.Amen /
[I   will return to my blog on Sunday June 30th,  every blessing, Bill]