This is my doing.[Romans 8 v28]

We where travelling home on the motorway, when we came to a stop,we had been notified that this hold up was caused by an accident.The natural reaction is to be annoyed  for the hold up,and to loose sight of why we where held up,an accident. So I prayed for those involved in that accident,I am also grateful that I was not involved in an accident.We had committed our way to God before we set out so we were in His hands,one has said there are no accidents in a child of Gods life. God our loving Heavenly Father is in control of all things that come into His children's lives,I read this in a devotional ,/ My child, I have a message for you today,it is only four words,but let them sink into your inner being,and use them as a pillow to rest your weary head,'This is my doing'./ Consider these words in relation to those things in your life,to the weaknesses,to the so called accidents,to the closed doors, to the frustrations.God your  loving heavenly Father has always a reason ,why those things happen in our lives,and they are always good reasons,always.Consider those four words,/This is my doing/,it is the Sovereign God speaking, and He does not lie,nor does He make mistakes when it comes to His dealings with His children.
A  prayer...../Dear God grant us grace for every trial,faith to trust in Your perfect will,and peace in the midst of every difficulties, in Jesus name Amen /

I am Christian,not a......[ John 14 v6]

There they where two nice young lads,I was working and as they approached me I had no time to talk to them,all I could say was ,I am a Christian I am not a Mormon. Now I was not meaning to be rude, or unkind, but even those young men may not see the difference,they may in all sincerity believe they are  Christians,but they are not.To be Christian one must keep ones beliefs within the confines of the Bible,contrary to what the Mormons believe,the Bible and only the Bible is the word of God. For the Mormon they may give a token recognition to the Bible, but their faith is in what the book of Mormon teaches,God is seen as having a body,Christ is seen as having been married ,and had children., and was not conceived by the Holy Spirit. One of the bazaar teaching is that Christ is related to Lucifer,trying to understand Mormonisim is to say the least difficult,it can be best described as a religion that has gathered its teaching from many places but not from the Bible, like our Lord, said of a certain religious group in His day,they do err not knowing the scriptures [ Matthew 22v 29]
A  prayer....../ Dear God help people to come to a true knowledge of Your Son ,deliver those who have been ensnared by error,in Jesus name we ask this Amen ]
I will return to my Blog Monday, God Bless /

Anger [Galations 5 v 19-26]

I  have a confession to make I have a temper,as I look back on my life,it has dogged my footsteps,is a blight on my life,most times I am patient,and placid,but there are times when my temper takes over.It is an ongoing battle,the answer is not in anger management,but in first of all acknowledging it, to pray about it continually, to ask the Holy Spirit to begin to change me.There may be reasons to get angry,but that does not give us a reason to be angry,we do read of righteous anger,but most times my anger is far from that. So maybe you can pray for me ,now what about you?do you despair at your weaknesses?or do you seek God?.We all need to seek God, for he is the one who will perfect that which concerneth us, we really need to be honest with ourselves,and with God,I stressed the importance of prayer,not a one of thing but a continual seeking of God. We soon forget our weaknesses until the next time they surface ,being forgetful can be dangerous, every day bring that weakness to God, don't blame others for your weakness,be it temper,or whatever,for then we end up justifying it,confess it for what it is,sinful.By the way I may be Irish but that's no excuse,you may have red hair, none of these things are an excuse for our anger.
A  prayer...../Dear God forgive us for our sinful actions,be they in word or deed,we offer no excuses,but ask in Your mercy,to perfect that which concerneth us in Jesus name Amen/

Praise our great Creator.[ Psalm 150]

I was in my garden and I heard singing,I stood and and tried to identify the singer,to no avail,he or she remained hidden to my sight,I am talking about a bird,what the bird was I don't know, it may have been a starling. This anonymous singer did not receive any  fee or applause,I suppose I must have been the only one to hear it sing,but I am sure God heard and was pleased,I know I was.There is still much beauty in this world,which we so often miss, be it a bird singing,a star filled sky,or whatever,much has been marred by the fall,it is David who declares that the heavens declare the glory of God [Psalm 19v1]. If this fallen creation declares the glory of God,I wonder what that new heaven and earth will be like [Isaiah 65v17/ 66v22/2  Peter 3 v13/ Revelation 21v1 ],I can only imagine.So often we are taken up with the fallenness of this world,today look up,admire the beauty of Gods world,smell a flower,listen to the birds singing,look at a little child,and praise our great creator.
                                        For the beauty of the earth,for the beauty of the skies,
                                         For the love which from our birth
                                         Over and around us lies.
                                         Father unto Thee we raise
                                         This our sacrifice of praise.[F.S,Pierpoint]
                                                       Amen.

Not forgsaken nor forgotten. [Isaiah 49 v 14-16]

I was making a cup of tea for myself,boiled the water, I then took a tea bag from the container put it ,in my mug, and then absentmindedly poured the boiling water into the container with the tea bags in it. My mind was on other things and I temporally had forgotten what I was doing,maybe it is a reminder that I am seventy years of age,and that it was a senior moment. In Isaiah 49 ,The nation of Israel cry out,/the Lord has forsaken ,and forgotten us[v14] Dear child of God could it be that you feel like this,problems and difficulties are mounting up,problems with your children,your marriage,problems at work,problems ,problems,and more problems.When Gideon was called by God to deliver Israel,he asked a question,/If the Lord be with us,why then is all this befallen us? [Judges 6 v13] Now of course there are many reasons why things befall us,the word of God tells us that God in His souvereignty is working all things for the good of His children [Romans 8 v28].Here is what He declared his people, /Behold I have engraved you on the palms of my hands/[v16],in other words they where not forgotten by God,nor would ever be, even though so often they had forsaken and forgotten Him. Unlike you and me God is never absent minded or forgetful of You His dear child.
A  prayer...../Dear God we thank You, that no matter who may forget us or forsake us You wont,we thank You in Jesus name Amen /

Shine [ Matthew 5 v 14-16]

The other evening we had a power cut,suddenly we found ourselves engulfed in darkness,it did not last long,thankfully. I do not want to live in darkness,no one does,without light things would not grow,our bodies would suffer,we need light,God has made us that way. It is the apostle John who mentions the subject of light ,in a spiritual dimension,he tells us that Jesus is the light of the world[ 8v12]but he tells us that men do not embrace the light , which is Jesus ,in fact he tells us that there are people who hate that light[3v20].They do not like what the light reveals about them,when Jesus challenged the religious elite, they hated Him,and were continually planning to kill Him,and in the end they did just that,they wanted to remain in there darkness,in fact strange though it may seem,they loved the darkness rather than the light[3v19].So it continues,and everyday I am praying for dear people who are suffering,by those who hate the light. Our Lord tells us that we are the light of the world.[Matthew 5v14].W. Barclay,writes,/The light is meant to be seen,so Christianity is meant to be seen/, the Christian is not part of a secret society.Our Christianity is to be seen in all our doings,driving,working,in our language,there are no exclusion zones.
A  prayer,,,,,,,,/`Dear God for Jesus the light of the world we thank You, help us to shine, Amen/

Forward be our watchword. [ Philippians 3 v 10-14 ]

Just a personal reflection,on Easter Sunday,fifty years ago I was restored to the Lord,in a church,in Belfast.Since then many things have taken place in my life,I have changed,but not enough,it is never enough,the old nature still clings to me,and I identify with Paul and what he wrote in Romans 7,that in my flesh there dwelleth no good thing[v18].These are not just vain words they are the reality,I am conscious that I do not always give God the glory,how important it is to not rob God of His glory. So I just want to say,to God be the glory ,great things He has done for me,there is a little chorus which starts with the following words,/stop and let me tell you what the good Lords done for me/.What has He done for me?,He saved me,that is the vital point,knowing that you are saved,that Jesus is your Saviour,he has restored me many times,to himself,we are inclined to wander from Him. I speak of my weakness ,but most of all I rejoice in His faithfulness,of the fact that I am kept by the power of God. He has blessed me beyond my wildest expectation, and I thank Him for that,but I have to be careful that I keep my eye,my affections on my Lord,the words of Jesus to Peter ,when He asked him, /lovest thou Me more that these[ John 21 v 15]/, are a continual challenge to me.So onward ever onward,upward,ever upward, pressing towards the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
A   prayer....../ Dear God we give You all the glory for all You have done in our lives,and ask for grace,in our onward journey toward glory, in Jesus name Amen/