The Good Woman. [ Matthew 5 v16 ]

I  have just finished reading a brief yet informative account of the life of Gladys Aylward an English lady who served God in the land of China. She was born in London in 1902.The writer describes her as being neither pretty,nor clever,and small in stature,she had a dream  of becoming an actress. God had other plans for this little woman,was it  Oswald Chambers who said,/give up your small ambitions?/. She read a missionary magazine about China,of their poverty and of the many who never heard of Christ.She spoke to her brother,would he not go to China?,he replied, not me,why don't you go yourself?,it is  funny how God calls.We cannot shift the burden which God has placed on our hearts ,unto someone else,well  Gladys decided she would go to China,and so she did.She had many obstacles to overcome in getting to China,and getting to the place where she would serve the Lord,Yangcheng,where an elderly lady called Jeannie Lawson was.The Lord preserved and protected her, and eventually she arrived in the place of Gods appointment, to a  life, of serving God in what was a very inhospitable place,where white people where known as foreign devil's,But by her Christian example and ministry many people where helped and came to know Christ,Glady's became known as, Ai-weh-deh ,the Good Woman.
A  prayer.... / Dear God help us to respond to those burdens You place on our hearts,and help us to so serve You that people will see our good works and glorify You, in Jesus name Amen /

Stepping outside the norm.[ jOHN 2 V 5]

God sometimes asks us to do things that may appear strange,take the prophet Ezekiel among a number of things he was asked to do was to preach to a valley of  dry bone.Or what the Lord told the disciples, to feed thousands of people with a few loaves and fish[Luke 9v13],and for Moses to go back to the place he had run away from, because he had killed an Egyptian.What God tells people  if they want to be saved sounds very strange to many in this world to believe on a person who died on a cross, and to accept Him as their Saviour.To believe that the dead will be raised up again. Elijah also comes to mind ,he was told that birds would supply his food [1 Kings 17v4],for Ananias to go and pray for Saul,one who was known for hating Christians[Acts 9 v10ff].God not only works in mysterious ways but also in strange ways.Now of course we must not run with our imagination,,and we must be very carefully not to do something silly or dangerous,no let us work not on our own initiative,but as God directs. That means we do only what He directs us to do,let us as God directs be willing to step outside the norm,Ezekiel did, and so did our Saviour,when He left heaven, for planet earth.
A  prayer...../ Dear God help us to obey whatever You tell us to do,even it means stepping outside the norm, in Jesus name Amen/

Truth for our souls.[John 14 v6]

We must stand for the truth,of the word of God,now Shakespeare,Churchill,and Gandhi,and many other great people said many great things,here is a number of sayings by these three people,Shakespeare, said,/Tell Truth and shame the Devil/ , next Churchill,/This  truth is incontrovertible,people may resent it,ignorance may deride it,malice may distort it ,but there it is/ This is what William L. Shier,said,/ What did Gandhi teach me?, I suppose the greatest single thing was to seek the truth/.How important is the truth?,  to you, to me?. It is important that we all see the vital importance of truth, when one finds oneself before a judge,one swears to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth,so help me God. A couple where arguing,and the wife turned unto her husband and said,you wouldn't know the truth if it was staring you in the face.Are you a seeker after truth?well consider, you may not like what you find, you may think it is not really important,and yet today there are people who are in prison,have been tortured, why? because of truth. Gods word is truth,it tells us what we would rather not hear,of our condition,and of our final destiny,if we reject Him who is the truth,even Jesus.
A  prayer....Dear God of truth,open our understanding to truth,open our hearts to receive Him who is the truth even Jesus. Amen/

Are we deceived? [1 John 1 v 8 ]

John tells us ,/If we say we have no sin,we deceive ourselves,and the truth is not in us[1 John 1v8],in this we are reminded that we are not sinless,there is no sinless perfection, for even the greatest believer.There are people and they are deceived into thinking they are sinless,but they are not,experience tells us that we are not sinless,the lives of those saints mentioned in Gods word bears out the truth, that the greatest of saints sin ,and can commit the greatest of sins.The devil who is called the accuser of the brethren,will not only tempt the child of God to sin,but he will seek to deceive the child of God into the error of sinless perfection..The fact of the matter is God is continually seeking to perfect His children,if they where perfect already there would be no need for that. Pride I am sure plays a large role in the child of God life,as long as we live it will never be eradicated,it will manifest itself,in a multitude of ways.Consider the challenge of loving, loving God,loving others,can any of us say that we totally fulfil that criteria?. Consider what it means to be holy,are we as holy as God?,I think not,in fact I am sure we are not,no wonder John wrote,/If we  say we have no sin,we deceive ourselves,and the truth is not in us./
A  prayer....../Holy God save us from been deceived ,help us to see that  this journey that we are on, is a striving after perfection,which will only be completed when we stand before you in heaven, in Jesus name Amen/

The human situation.[John 3v 16]

So God is knowable,yet unknowable,it was Job the great sufferer who declared as regards God,/Behold He taketh away,who can hinder Him?,who will say unto Him,what does Thou?[9v12].We are often judging God, and His ways,we cannot understand why a God who is love,will also be a God who will judge mankind and send them to Hell.Again Job reminds us that God is not a man,as he was[9v32].Consider what Isaiah wrote about God,/For my thoughts,are not your thoughts, neither are your ways,my ways,saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth,so are my ways higher than your ways,and my thoughts than your thoughts.[55v8-9]God declared the hymn writer ,moves in mysterious ways ,His ways are pass finding out,as a Christian of many years standing,I have not all the answers,I don't rub my hands with glee ,when I observe suffering,be it an individuals suffering or a nations.The Bible teaches that this is a fallen world,it came into that state by sin,this is the cause of all our trouble,and we are all caught in the consequences of that.Christians are suffering in the disasters of this world, as well as non-Christians.God permits his children to suffer,their loved ones die of cancer,road accidents,some are raped,and exploited.Why? ,is God being cruel?,no ,likewise as regards the bigger picture world disasters,wars famine.Although  it may be hard to understand such suffering,the fact is we are told that God loves the world,and linked up with that love is Gods answer Jesus.
A  prayer../.Dear God. have mercy upon those who are suffering,wherever that they be in Jesus name Amen /

Knowable, yet unknowable. [ Isaiah 40]

C. S. Lewis served as a soldier  in the first world war,and when he retuned from seeing the awful slaughter ,he lost faith in God,whom he felt could have stopped it,and didn't.One can understand that reasoning,the lastest disaster in the Philippians,has been called an act of God,is this not so,is God not sovereign?,then Why?.To be very honest I could say I do not understand,and I don't,are the people in the Philippians terrible sinners?have they done some terrible evil?. Someone said to me today ,these disasters appear to happen to the poor,which makes it appear to be even more cruel,had they not enough to contend with?.These are not easy things to understand,and my answer may not satisfy,and the bases of my argument is based upon my belief that God is sovereign. It is Tozer who writing about the person of God,writes that He is incomprehensible,the prophet asked Israel this question,/To whom then will ye liken God?,or what likeness will ye compare unto Him?[Isaiah 40v18].Is it not  true we are always trying to create a God in our image,in doing this we,are no different than those who carve out a stone image, and bow down to it. So let us cast of  our pride and bow humbly, before God ,whom Tozer declares , is not like anything that is,He is not exactly like anything or anybody/he goes on to say,/Left to ourselves we tend immediately to reduce God to manageable terms/.
A prayer..../Sovereign God we rejoice that through Jesus Your son we know You,and yet at the same time You are unknowable. Amen /

Who are the chosen, who are the few?.[ 2 Peter 1 ]

I am sure many Christians ask God, Why?, is yours a bitter why?,or just a sad why?, I found myself asking a why? ,and it was this,why are there so few ,that are saved? . Someone asked Jesus,/Lord are there few that be saved?/.I think about the old hymn which says, who are the chosen who are the few?.Well Jesus did not answer this question,he turned the question on this man,and stressed the vital importance,of any one who will be saved to make every effort to enter into salvation. Millions live such careless lives,they strain for so many things,and give little thought,for that day in which there will be unending weeping, and gnashing of teeth. Many think they know Jesus, but He does not know them,and will declare to them, depart  from Me,all ye workers of iniquity[ Luke 13 v27]His words are aimed at those people who felt  that God was tied into a one nation salvation.Not so ,Jesus tells them that ,His kingdom will contain, people from all over the world,from east,and west,north and south,they will take their place in Gods kingdom.[Luke 13v29] Unlike earthly kingdoms, were the so called great are honoured,in Gods kingdom there will be surprises,the least unlikely will receive the greatest honour.W. Henriksen in his com on Luke writes /,as there are degrees of suffering in Hell [Luke 12 v47-48],so there will be degrees of glory in the restored universe[1 Corinthians 15 v42]
A prayer..../Merciful God  in Jesus name save,and  helpYour dear childen  to see what matters to You.Amen/