Jesus paid it all. [ 1 Peter 1 v 18-19 ]

At our home group we were discussion Isaiah 53 v 1-3 ,which is a great Gospel invitation,it commences by declaring,/ Ho every one that thirsteth,come ye to the waters,and he that hath no money,come ye , buy and eat, yea come,buy wine and milk,without without money and without price/. This is an invitation  for sinners to be saved ,to come to Him,who promises to satisfy our deepest need,and the question one may ask ,what is our deepest need?. Our deepest need is to know Jesus ,who alone can satisfy our hungry and thirsty souls, the hymn writer put it like this,now none but Christ can satisfy.Look out ,and we see a world that is starving spiritually,a world that is drinking from water from wells,with buckets that have holes in it. Jesus says if we ask Him he would satisfy our deepest need[ John 4 v14 ]. But the verses in Isaiah  declares,come buy,well what is offered has a price on it,we cant buy it,we have no resources to buy what is being offeredNow I want you to imagine a young lad going to the cinema with his dad,his father askes him to order the tickets,this he does,and then he is asked for the price to be paid,and he points to his father and says ,/He will pay/So it is  as a sinner when we come to God, we point to Jesus and say He will pay,as the old hymn puts it /Jesus paid it all/.
A  prayer....../God and Father we thank you for your Son,who paid the price for our salvation. Amen /

The altogether lovely One. [Isaiah 53 ]

Certain Greeks came to Philip and asked to see Jesus[John 12 v21]it is not recorded that they did see Him,what would they have seen?.We have no pictures of Jesus,often he is depicted as a very attractive man by many in the film industry.It is to the book of the prophet Isaiah we have a description of Jesus the Messiah,here is what he wrote./For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant,and as a root out of a dry ground,he hath no form nor comeliness,and when we shall see him,there is no beauty that we should desire him[53 v2]A . Motyer writes,/The servant [Jesus] was not therefore, noticeably well built,impressive,handsome......with every appearance of being a man among men, and not outstanding at that..it was not easy to believe that He could be the Lord come to save/His suffering made it hard also for the Jews to believe He was the promised Messiah cp52v 14.Again A. Motyer writes,/His suffering caused revulsion,......so that those who saw Him stepped back in horror not only saying,is this the Servant?but is this human/I finish by quoting what the apostle wrote in 1 Corinthians 1 v 22ff/For the Jews require a sign,and the Greeks seek wisdom. But we preach Christ crucified,unto the Jews a stumbling block,and unto the Greeks foolishness./
A prayer...../ Dear God we bow humbly at your feet,we praise You for Jesus the altogether lovely one,for who He was and is,and for what He did on Calvary for us sinful human beings. Amen /

God is considerate. [John 21 v 1-13 ]

We have had a dry spell of weather,so it means we have to water our garden plants,but yesterday someone did it for me God,and I thought how considerate He is,and I didn't need to ask Him. I wonder do you ever think how considerate God is?.I am still working in a job I love even though I am seventy . It used to be when one reached 65 one had to retire,but God granted me the option of working on indiffently, financially this has been a big help.My car needed repaired,the garage had no courtesy cars available,and then one came up,again God being considerate.In John 21 we read how the disciples had been working all night, and when they came a shore,the Lord had prepared a meal for them,and then He served them,how considerate He was.We often used to sing ,be like Jesus,in the home and in the throng,well we can be ,by being considerate to others,in our homes ,in our jobs,in our churches,let us not always wait to be asked,or reminded,take the inititive
A prayer....../Dear God we thank for being so kind and considerate,help us to follow your example in Jesus name Amen /

Be ready. [ i Peter 3 v15-18 ]

My wife and I were out shopping ,when we suddenly and unexpectedly found ourselves being interviewed for channel four news. The interview lasted about 4 mins ,later in the evening we saw
ourselves on  TV ,me, giving an opinion,for about 8 seconds. I must confess when I was asked an opinion on a certain political point, I was not sure what to say.As I have written ,it all happened suddenly,and unexpectedly,it is in 1 Peter 3 v15, we read the following,/be ready always to give and answer to everyman that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you,with meekness and fear/.Now not many people do ask me for a reason for the hope that is in me,but if they did what would I say?./W Barclay/One of the tragedies of the modern situation that there are so many church members,
who, if they were asked what they believe could not tell anyone/. Next James points out if we gave an answer to the question,it must be in a spirit of meekness or gentleness,we are not out to beat the person in an argument,or to destroy them,but with an attitude that will correspond to what it means to be a Christian.Then W Barclay states,/The only unanswerable argument for Christianity is a Christian life. A saint as someone has said ,is someone whose life makes it easier to believe in God/
A  prayer....../Dear Father in Heaven,help us to be faithful in telling others about Jesus,grant that our lives may in some degree reflect the message, in Jesus name Amen /

We dare not ignor it [ Hebrews 9 v 27-28 ]

I've decided to die just after Christmas,so read the words in the news paper,the person who said this has cancer,for which she is being treated for. She has decided that she does not want any more chemo,and so she is letting the natural way do its bit. This dear lady has cancer she wants to call it a day I would not criticize her,it is her decision.Death is the great unmentionable in our society,and yet I heard of a lady who spoke on the phone about her dying,she was very positive about it.She was a Christian,and she felt ready to face death,as a Christian, how positive would I be as regards my own death?..There are those who don't want hear if they have cancer,and are going to die,which is understandable,I am not going to judge them,but to be forewarned is to be forearmed.In other words we have an opportunity maybe for the first time in ones life to prepare for death, and that cannot be a bad thing.Yet as A.Motyer writes ,/life has its own peculiar preciousness which not even the illumination of immortality[2 Timothy1 v10] takes away/.Now that's very true for many reasons,but the fact still remains that we need with an urgency to prepare for death,the question is why and how?.Well the why,the Bible tells us that there is an after death existence,when we will all appear before a holy God who will judge us,we are sinners that leaves us to face His judgement.So that is the why,now the how,that is very simple,by trusting in Jesus all our sins can all be forgiven.
A prayer....../Dear God help us to not bury our head in the sand as regards death,help us to see the need to be prepared when death calls,by trusting Jesus as our Saviour,in His name we ask this. Amen/

He knows us through and through.[ Psalm 139 ]

A.Motyer writes the following in his commentary on Isaiah ,/God the Creator who in the Old Testament originates all,maintains all,controls all  and directs all to the appointed goal.Therefore,to believe in Him is to be assured of safety within this world,to know that present and future are secure in his hands./ We are so fragile,it does not take much to unsettle us,we can so easily find ourselves under the juniper tree like Elijah,filled with fear and despair,feeling sorry for ourselves
I suppose that is what one the things I love about the Bible it tells it how it is,the greatest of the prophets were but men,likewise the greatest of every child of God,this is recorded for our benefit ,recorded for our encouragement. James writing in his epistle informs us about Elijahs weakness,that in spite of this ,he prayed,and God still heard[ cpJames 5 v17-18] Let us learn from this are security and safety and acceptance are in the hands of the God of grace.
A prayer....../Dear God,we thank you that you know us through and through,You know how fragile we are,how inconsistent we are,how fearful we can be,and yet You love us and care for us,we praise and thank You in the name of Jesus name Amen /
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The best is yet to be.[ 1 Corinthians 15 v51-58]

As I grow older I am beginning to loose my teeth,at this moment in time I have an infection in one of my teeth,and of course my hair is white and thinning,I suffer from back ache,it is all downhill from now on.Not really the future is bright, it is the apostle Paul writing about the things he and others were suffering for Christ ,/though our outward man perish,yet the inward man is renewed every day.[2 Corinthians 4v16].The hymn write ,wrote,change and decay in all around I see,yes that is so,but my inward man will not ,decay,in fact says Paul,there is something wonderful happening,I like what my study Bible says,/our very weakness allows the resurrection power of Christ to strengthen us moment by moment/.This happens in our daily communion with our risen Lord[Isaiah 40v29-31],that's why it is vital we do not neglect that communion,and we keep our eyes fixed on future glory,when all things will be made new,that includes a new and incorruptible body.
A  prayer....../Dear God we thank You that the best is yet to be,we have a glorious future ,help us to keep our eyes fixed firmly on Jesus. Amen /