I am a somebody.[ 1 John 3 v1 ]

Consider all the great people in the Bible,Abraham the great people of faith,Moses the great leader,Job the great man of patience,Ruth the great ,great grandmother of David,David the great king of Israel.All these and many more we could mention where great people,also the vast number of other people from church history,George Mullier,Martin Luther ,and so on,all these could be considered outstanding Christians,people whom God used. But what about you and I?,we are it appears insignificant  in comparison to all those great people. These people were great, but God is not only the God of Abraham, He is also the God of Billy, and the God of,you can add your name to that list,we all are significant in Gods eyes,He values every one of His children equally,we are all considered precious, and important.God listens to all His children's prayers,simply because they are His children, He does not brush us aside because He favours others,no He opens His arms and hugs all His children, all, I stress all.You see every child of God  has been brought into that relationship,at a tremendous price,that price being the death of Jesus,that means everyone of His children are so precious to Him.Yes in once sense we are all nobodies ,who have become somebodies by Gods love,mercy,grace.
A  prayer...../Dear God we praise that you love us all,that we who are nobodies are now Your children whom You love, through Jesus Your son Amen./

Comfirmation. [ Jeremiah 32 ]

Jeremiah was told by God to do something that did not make sense,to purchase a piece of land from his nephew,at that time the Babylonians where besieging Jerusalem [chap32]. God had showed Jeremiah that the Babylonians would take the city and that the inhabitants would be taken into exile,why bother to buy this land?.The buying of this land was a sign,to Jeremiah and to the Jews that God would after 70 years would bring the Jews back to there land.First of all we see that the symbol of buying the land was made clear by Gods word,baptisim,the Lords table,these symbols are meaningless without Gods word,the word gives the meaning. Jeremiah had to act in faith ,he wondered about what he was asked to do[32v25],so God  put a question back to him,Jesus often did this ,and the question God spoke to Jeremiah was,/Is there anything to hard for Me?/[32v27].Jeremiah had declared in v17,/Ah Lord God.......there is nothing to hard for thee/.Now he was being asked to believe what he had spoken.As a preacher I can challenge people to believe God,but make no mistake,it does not stop there,I will have to also act in faith, and believe God.Jeremiah acted on what God had told him to do,make sure that when you are acting,it is on the bases of what God has told you,What Jeremiah was asked to do, was confirmed by his nephew  coming to him and asking him to buy the piece of land,Gideon was granted confirmation as to what he was to do. To ask for confirmation before we act is often a Biblical principal,if it is of God then the door will open,the need will be met.
A  prayer..../Dear God confirm thy will to us and then help us to move in faith ,and to trust in You in Jesus name Amen/

Follow in their footsteps. [Hebrews 11]

So the storm has arrived,well we were warned,we did our best to secure things down,but there was only so much one can do. We have had so far a fence blown down,hopefully that is the only damage we will have,on the news we see that a young 14yr boy has been drowned.The life boat has been out searching for him,those who man those lifeboats are very brave,I remember the story of Grace Darling who with her father rescued seamen who where in danger of drowning.Some animals have received medals for their acts of bravery,pigeons played a big part in the ist and 2nd world wars.The  entertainment industry have invented super heroes,like superman,batman,they were pictured as saving the world. John Macarthur has written a book called, Twelve Unlikely Heroes/. they are people from the Bible. John Macarthur writes,/The great cloud of witnesses,the human heroes of Scripture point us to someone beyond themselves.  He is the one to whom they continually looked in faith,and on whom they constantly depended/. I can think of some modern day heroes ,here is a few of their  names Shamin Lahout,Behnam Irani,Augustine Ashiq Kingri Masih,Goa Zhisheng , Filep Karma. These heroes and many more like them,are serving prison sentences ,for being Christians,truly of whom the world is not worthy,let us thank God for them,and let us be encouraged to  follow in their footsteps,we like them can be heroes.
A  prayer...../ Dear God help us  to be faithful to our Saviour ,in our walk, and in our talk ,we ask this in Jesus name. Amen/

There is a storm coming. [John 3 v16 ]

We have been warned,there is a storm coming ,strong winds and rain, when the forces of nature take over there is not much one can do.Such events are recorded in the Bible when God used the forces of  nature to bring judgement upon those who He saw fit to judge. Consider the different judgements,the first being the flood Genesis 6-8,next we have was Sodom and Gomorrah [Gen 19],which God destroyed by fire.It would be an interesting study,to consider how many times God used nature to bring Judgement upon people.But let us consider, those words there is a storm coming,now what I am going to say will not be acceptable to certain people,why?. Well for some the fact that a God of  love,would judge people appears contradictory,there was famous scholar called C.H. Dodd, who could not accept this.Now he did something no true scholar should ever do ,he let his rational thinking take over so when it came to translating the word propitiation,he changed it to expiation,seemingly he was not even pleases with that also..Now it is D. A. Carson who writes,/  Propitiation refers to satisfying wrath, Expiation refers to cancelling sin/. You see without the wrath of God being poured out on Christ for our sin[ 1 John 4 v10],our sin could never have been cancelled. And if that had not happened all that would await every human being,would be the wrath of God. For those who have never trusted Christ ,there is a storm coming,just as sure as it came upon Sodom and Gomorrah,only it will be far worse,for it will know no ending.
A  prayer..../Dear God we ask that You would help us to see the importance,of trusting Jesus,in the light of the storm that is coming upon this world, in Jesus  name Amen /

Not finished with us.[ Jeremiah 29 v11]

Jeremiah is known as the weeping prophet,[CP 9v1/13 v17/14v17] why?,because he was given insight as to what was coming upon his nation,judgement. One just has to read about the state of the nation,that had persisted inspite of God speaking continually to them.The idolatry,the injustice,oppression of the poor,Jeremiah was Gods messenger who challenged them ,pleaded with them,to no avail.So God was going to act, the Babylonians where coming, and they would show little mercy,they would loot and destroy,rape and kill,the temple that had become a superstitious symbol would be destroyed.God was determined to rid this people of their sinful ways,it was a hard task but God would accomplish His   plan and purpose for his people. First of all God loved them,with an everlasting love[31v3],a love that continued to plead with them,a love that would cause Him to deal with them ,even in the most severe ways.He did not strike them to destroy them,it was not a sign that He had forsaken them,for whom the Lord loveth  He chasteneth,He was not finished with them. In chapter 29 we have Jeremiah writing to the captives in Babylon instructing them and assuring them that God was not finished with them, v11 reads,/For I know the thoughts that I think toward you,saith the Lord,thoughts of peace,and not of evil,to give you an expected end/.
A  prayer.../ Dear God we thank You for the patients You show to us,and the  assurance that You deal with us Your children always in love,in Jesus Name Amen /
 [I will return to my blog Monday,God bless]

What if things get worse? [ Jeremiah 12 v5-6]

I  am reading one of my favourite books the book of Jeremiah, a man who witnessed the highs spiritually under king Josiah ,to the lows that followed,but a man who remained faithful,to God and his calling. So it is for every dear child of God ,the challenge to be faithful,yes in the highs and the lows,yes Jeremiah at times struggled,he grew weary at times.Now God is the God of all comfort,He is love,yet sometimes He does not give us the comfortable answer we desire,such was the case with Jeremiah ,in chap12v5ff,we have God speaking to His servant,he asks Jeremiah how is he going to cope  if things get worse?and things would most diffidently get worst.Things were bad in the nation,but it would become worse,and his own family did not help,as they plotted against him.Let us consider our Saviour,the difficulties he had to cope with during His ministry,but things got worse,one His disciples would betray Him,another would deny Him,all of them would forsake him,the Jews, and Romans would crucify Him,the people would mock Him,but things would get worse,His God would forsake Him [Psalm22v1/Matthew 27 v46]. So what are we going to do if things get worse?.God will heal He may not,God will provide He may not,well not in the way we think,the enemies of the Gospel will be banished,they may not,they may continue to cause havoc to Gods Children ,here is the word for us today ,/Be Thou faithful unto death [Revelation 2 v10]
A  prayer......../ Dear God ,help us to be faithful,come what may in Jesus name Amen/

Expectation. [ Proverbs 27 v1]

Years ago we had very little,things where hard,my childhood was hard,as it  was many peoples,two world wars,people living in poverty, people had,had enough,they wanted a better life. To a great extent,they got it,for many life has been so much better than what their forefathers had experienced.Peoples expectations have increased so much. Along with material prosperity has come amazing advances in technology,the things we have now are amazing,I am writing this on a computer,and it will go all over the world,and one may be tempted to think,the sky is the limit.There have also been advances in treatment of our ills,and every day we hear  of new treatments,a person said to my son ,in a few years we will beat death. This is the expectations we have,I suppose that may be one of the reasons we do not talk about death, the fact of the matter is we cannot,nor will we ever beat death.The Bible declares ,that it is appointed unto men once to die[Hebrews 9 v27],that is an appointment we will all have keep,you and I are going to die. Now, many people think they are going to heaven,that's their expectation, but if we have never trusted Jesus to forgive us our sins then heaven will not be our destination,I want to repeat something I have said before good people don't go to heaven only forgiven ones.
A  prayer...../ Dear God,open our eyes to how fragile we all are,that no matter how advanced we become,there will always be limits,grant us grace to embrace Your unlimitless love in Jesus. Amen /