Hurry Lord [Psalm 70]

I know from experience that often we have to wait on God answering our
prayers,often we are reminded that God will answer according to His time table.Waiting patiently upon God is an important exercise in our spiritual development,but that does not mean that we will always have to wait,years for God to answer. There are situations  when we need an answer now,such was the prayer of David in Psalm 70, verse one reads ,/Hasten O
God,to save me;O Lord come quickly to help me/and he ends his prayer with similar words ,verse 5 reads,/Here I am poor and needy, come quickly
to me,O God. You are my help and my deliverer,O Lord,do not delay/
M . Henry,comments on Isaiah 65v24 which reads, /And it shall come to pass,that  before they call , I will answer,and while they are yet speaking I will hear./'God will anticipate our prayer,with the blessings of goodness before the prodigal arrived home the Father ran to meet him'. So if  you like the Psalmist are facing an immediate crises,pray with the Psalmist,/O Lord come quickly to help me/,pray it in faith .
                                            A  prayer.
Dear Father God, come to the aid speedily of your children whose needs
and circumstances need your urgent help,in Jesus name Amen.

Confused. [ John 8 v12 ]

The strange behaviour of  Rachel Dolezal, and the questions it raises, as one who has worked with mentally ill people,I ask the question is she mentally ill. She is a young white lady,who lives in America,who disguised herself,darkening her skin,and styling her hair to  the appearance that she was black.and got a position, working for the,National Association for the advancement of coloured people although she has white parents yet she even asked a black person to admit to being her father. One of the questions being asked is she suffering racially confusion like some people  who suffer from gender confusion.I think the key word in all this, is confusion,for a number of reasons people latch unto confused thought patterns. I have worked with people who had very confused thoughts,they claimed to be you name it,and although it sounds crazy as to what they believe,no amount of reasoning can change that. The confused  way of thinking becomes a obsession and nothing can change it. Now what I am saying may not apply to Rachel ,but it may,time may tell us to as to why she has acted in such a confused way.In 2 Corinthians 10v5 we read casting down imaginations/ if we live according to our own flawed reasoning we can easily ,fall into confusion,be it sex gender,or racial gender or whatever,think of the awful nonsense that the Nazi party believed,and multitudes blindly followed,and the consequences for the world.
                                      A  prayer.
Dear God have mercy upon the confused multitudes of this world who  are blind to reality,preserve us all, and help us to stay close to you,in Jesus name Amen.

An avalanche. [ Hebrews 13 v 3]

I read this recently,/In the first century ,an avalanche of suffering and
discouragement threatened the Christian community[M . Williams]Things have not changed for a vast amount of Christians in the 21st century.These
words could apply to believers in Iran,Eritrea,North Korea,Northern Nigeria ,Pakistan,Burma,China,Vietnam,Cuba, and many other places. I have never suffered for being a Christian,but my heart goes out to those who are suffering,they are my brothers and sisters.One thing I do is pray daily for them,I receive most of the information ,through CSW,and Barnabas aid agency.CSW site is WWW.CSW.ORG.UK.and Barnabas  / barnabasfund.org/Seek to get informed as regards the suffering of Gods family,and pray.The apostle Paul experienced tremendous suffering for Christ ,read about his suffering in 2 Corinthians 11,he lists all of his suffering ,and then he adds,/Beside everything else,I face daily the pressure  of my concern for all the churches v23/We as Christians have many concerns ,but like Paul let us not forget our Christian family who are experiencing an avalanche of suffering, and discouragement.
                                       A  prayer.
Dear God in your great mercy uphold your dear people in those lands where they are facing an avalanche of suffering,and discouragement, In Jesus name, Amen.

Unconditional surrender [ Romans 12 v1-2 ]

I  wonder would the war against the Nazis have ended sooner if the allies had not insisted upon unconditional surrender?. We will never know,I personally believe, unconditional surrender was the only option ,it meant
that the Nazis would not be resurrected.Unconditional surrender means you have no bargaining power,one would have to except whatever terms that was offered. If one is to be saved ,it is important, to realise there is no bargaining with God,we must come to Him on His terms,in fact you are
declaring that you are dying to self. This does not only apply to when one comes to Christ it applies throughout ones Christian life,as Paul declared,
I  die daily[ 1  Corinthians 15 v 31.] I was aware of this recently when we
sung an old hymn at our church,titled ,/I surrender all/.it is so easy to sing the words,but not really take in what they mean.I surrender all,Abraham ,
said God,take now thy so,thine only son,whom thy lovest......and offer him
...for a burnt offering.[Genesis 22v2 ].I surrender all ,what if he asks me to,
well you can fill in the rest,but that's the choice as Christians we have to make. As a Christian I have no bargaining power with God,all I can do
is obey,better to surrender than live in rebellion against God.
                                           A prayer.
Dear God help us to stop bargaining with You, and help to mean what we say or sing ,in Jesus name Amen .

Nature [ Hebrews 2 v 6- 10 ]

Recently many people were upset when on a nature program,a mother owl
tore up one its chicks,and fed it to the other chicks. Should we call in the
the society for the cruelty to animals and have it charged with infanticide?.
Of course not,its an animal,yes a real animal,it has not got a part in the next
Walt Disney movie.  That cuddly bear is not a teddy bear[and by the way I have one and he is called Tyrone],he sees a human being as a meal on two legs,as does a lion,tiger,leopard,shark,etc. Cruelty to animals is wrong,but they are still animals,putting an animal to sleep is an act of mercy,putting a human to sleep now that's a different story. Animals do not go to heaven or hell,when they die that's it,animals are not accountable like us humans.Now of course animals give us much pleasure,but they are still animals,with a nature that's different from ours. Mankind has being given by God a position of power over creation,and we will be held accountable as to how we exercise that authority. In fact we will be held accountable for all our sinful actions,for there is coming a day in which God will judge the world
in righteousness by Jesus .[Acts 17 v31]
                                               A prayer.
Dear God we thank You for your creation,but most of all we thank You for your salvation in Jesus Amen.

They bite [Romans 6 v23 ]

 Two plants I did not want,the cactus and roses,I jokingly say, because
they bite [I am referring to their thorns],but gradually I have changed my mind about roses,and I  now have three bushes in my garden. The reason being ,they have lovely flowers,one can say the allure of their flowers have
won me over. I know there are times they will still bite me but I love the
flowers, as I thought of the advert,naughty but nice,as regards eating cream cakes. Human nature is so often attracted to things that appear nice,and are blinded to the fact that the very thing we are attracted to will not only bite us,but actually destroy us,we could call such an attraction,fatal attraction.
We see the pleasure the thing gives us and are blind to the consequences,the word of God speaks of the pleasures of sin,yes adultery can give us pleasure
,but my, the consequences,to ourselves. Continually I am reading and hearing of people who are involved in perverse viewing on the Internet,
watching little children being abused.There are so many things that we  can become involved in, that can enslave us,yes attractive things,these
can blind ,and enslave us.It does not end there, for sin has not only consequences for time but also for eternity.The good news is Jesus forgives,and frees us when we trust Him as our Saviour,plus we are given
the free gift of eternal life.
                                            A  prayer.
Dear God we praise You for sending Jesus to save us,we ask that by your grace we may trust Him  Amen.

Proff [1Corinthians 15]

I have given enough proff of my devotion to the French people,thus spoke
Napoleon.The apostle Paul's apostolic position was under attack,and so he writes to the church in Corinth,to refute false apostles, who were attacking him. He wrote how he lived among them,he did not sponge of them,he
points to the suffering he had experience in the service of Christ. [ 1Cor 11]
It was vital that his calling as an apostle was not undermined,if it was ,then  the word of God could have been . You want proff of my calling consider the following,my life ,my suffering,are they not evidence.When Jesus was being attacked as He often was,He said believe on the evidence of My miracles  [ John 14 v11].The crowning proff of who Jesus was,was His resurrection,if He had not risen from the dead, He would have been seen as a fraud.[1 Corinthians 15 v 17]. After His resurrection He was seen by hundreds of people [1 Cor 15v6]is that not proff enough, as to who He really was?.From that vantage point we can look back ,and see the OT scriptures totally fulfilled ,in His birth,ministry,and His suffering.
                                A  prayer.
Dear God open our minds and our hearts to believe in Christ,who by His
works,His life,His death, and resurrection, proved beyond a shadow of a doubt ,that He was and is the Saviour of the world,we ask this in His name.Amen.