Holy love. [1 John 4 v 7-12]

We read in 1 John 4 v8 ,that God is love,now of course we hear the word love continually,people sing about it all the time,Love is a many splendour thing,goes the song,Love and marriage,goes together like a horse and carriage,this I tell you brother,you cant have one without the other,the words of  another song.The great William Shakespeare wrote,''Love is not love,which alters when it alteration finds''.Love ,when we say we love someone,what do we mean?,what do I mean?.Again the words of a song comes to mind,''will you still love me when I'm sixty four?.''Well we could go, on,and on about love,but what does it mean ,when  we read in the Bible,that God is love?.I read this recently by the late Selwyn Hughes,
''Although God is love,we must never forget that He is holy love and will
always challenge His people when they lose their way or walk off in the
wrong direction.He loves us too much to let us continue with anything that
separates us from Him''.The role of the prophets was to remind the people of God, of Gods holy love.A lady in the church in which I was a joint leader,was acting strange,she was married but appeared to have become
infatuated with someone else.She eventually left the church,she complained about being told what to do from those who ministered,she was wrong.
                                       A  prayer.
Dear God we thank you that your love is holy.a love that saves and transforms us,we would have it no other way,in Jesus name Amen.

Idol worship . [ Exous 20 v 3-6 ]

In many countries people still erect idols and pray to them, unfortunately
there are even those who erect idols within the visible Christian church.The
word of God forbids the making of idols [Exodus 20v 4-5 ],Israel found it very hard to break that habit,even king Solomon fell prey to this practise
[ 1 Kings 11 v4ff ]. Now of course we in the West do not make idols,to worship,or do we?Consider what John Stott has written.
''The more sophisticated idols[that is ,God -substitutes] of modern secular cities are equally powerful.Some people are eaten up with selfish ambition for money,power or fame.Others are obsessed with their work,or with sport or television,or are infatuated with a person,or addicted to food,alcohol,hard
drugs or sex.Both immorality and greed are later pronounced by Paul to be
forms of  idolatry,[Ephesians 5 v5 ]because they demand an allegiance which is due to God alone.So every idolater is a prisoner,held in humiliating bondage''. So are we idol worshippers?.
                                         A  prayer.
                             
                              The dearest idol I have known,
                              what're that idol be,
                              help me to tear it from Thy throne,
                              and worship only Thee.
                                          Amen.
                               [Words by William Cowper ]

Men are not gods. [1 John 3 v1]

I was watching a very old movie,called,'Men are not gods',if only people would realise this,yet in their foolishness,they have not.The Romans accepted the Caesars as gods.and killed those who would not acknowledge them as such. Men are not gods,there was a popular song called,''If I ruled the world' I have heard that before, we all have,but men are not gods,none can stop themselves from catching the common cold.We were made in the image of God,but that does not make us Gods,it lifts us above the animal creation,it bestows upon us a dignity,but alas we have chosen the lesser undignified position,of calling monkey our brother,maybe that is why we eat bannas.Yes it is true,men are not gods,but still God,the only God,has as someone has said , a soft spot,for us sinners,inspite of all our dillusions of grander He reminds us that although we in our blindness,have chosen the dark avenues that leads us on a road that only takes us farther and farther a way from him,and He whispers in our ears,that He loves and values us so much that through Him who is truly God and truly man,that He died on a cross,so that we can become  children of  God.
                                            A prayer.
Dear God we confess that we are often blinded with extremes,of  thinking we are gods,and on the other hand we are related to monkeys.open our eyes
to see what we really are, sinners,who can  become children of God,through
Jesus Amen .

Contend. [Jude v3 ]

There are passages in the Bible that I do not understand, even though I have studied the word of God, been to Bible college.The problem with some people this can cause them problems,and it is not helped by those ministers,
who weaken peoples faith.Instead of trusting in what God says in his word,
they give free reign to their intellects,and so cause people to stumble,and even stray from the faith. As a minister of Gods word my desire is to be
faithful to the Bible,and not to cause anyone to stumble spiritually.Our first
parent Eve,was deceived by Satan ,the result was Adam followed her example,[1Timothy 2 v14]. What Satan said appeared reasonable,and what
God said appeared unreasonable,but the devil is liar,and the father of lies
[John 8 v44].Unfortunately Eve doubted Gods word,and so mankind moved away from God,into the kingdom of darkness,which they grew to love,because their deeds are evil.[John 3 v19] Let me emphasise the importance of trusting God ,if we don't,confusion will reign,there are many
who call themselves Christians who accept things they should not,and unfortunately ,many are following their lead. The book of Jude was written
to warn believers as regards those who were seeking to undermine Gods
word,the key verse is v3,where we exhorted to  contend for the faith.
                                             A  prayer.
Dear God help us to contend for your truth,as revealed in your word,help
us for the sake of ourselves and for others,in Jesus name Amen.

Death ,thou shalt die. [John 11 ]

John Donne wrote a poem called,''Death,be not proud'',here are a few lines from it.
                        Death,be not proud,though some have called thee
                        Mighty and dreadful,for thou art not so:
                        For those whom thou think'st thou dost overthrow
                        Die not,poor Death,nor yet canst thou kill me.
                        From Rest and Sleep,which but thy pictures be,
                        Much pleasure, then from thee much more must flow;
                        And soonest our best men with thee do go-
                        Rest of their bones and souls' delivery.
                        Thou'rt slave to fate,chance,kings,and desperate men,
                        And dost with poison,war, and sickness dwell;
                        And better than thy stroke. Why swell's thou then?
                        One short sleep past,we wake eternally,
                        And  Death shall be no more:Death,thou shalt die.
Jesus said to her,''I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me
will live,even though he dies; and whosoever lives and believes in Me will never die.Do you believe this?.
                                               [John 11 v25-26 ]

Violence. [ 1 Corinthians 13 ]

The story is told of a man who killed ,his parents,he was arrested, and tried,
but the judge was about to pass sentence,he spoke to him and said,''Judge have mercy,on this poor orphan''.Now you may laugh at this or judge me
for  telling something inappropriate,but the sad reality is this we live in a
violent world.It would have been Jo Cox's,forty second birthday,but she was murdered,yes violence is not far from any of us. If you knew me you may think that this little old Irishman,would not hurt a fly,but I want to tell you something you are wrong,I know,and God knows,the potential for violence in me.We glorify violence,why do we still have boxing?,what ever way it may be dressed up,its about violence.All over the world women are experiencing Violence,in South Sudan at this time many have been and are being violated. Many children are experiencing violence of the worst kind,by a parent who should be protecting and shielding them.The story I opened with,is in reality no joke,violence is never a joke,especially  to those who are experiencing it,is it not about time we faced up to the repulsiveness
of violence,not only in others,but also in ourselves.
                                              A  prayer.
Dear Lord have mercy on those who have and are suffering violence,help
them to forgive,we thank you that you are the great healer.Help us not to make excuses for our violence ,to see it as sinful,to repent and forsake it.
We thank you that your grace is sufficient,to heal and to change Amen.

A welcome mat. [ Ephesians 2 v11-22 ]

The epistle to the Ephesians,can be divided up into two sections,according to  John Stott,exhortation,and exposition.The first 3 chapters are exposition
where Paul seeks to explain the mystery of Christ. Again JS writes,''the
mystery is a truth hitherto hidden from human knowledge or understanding, but now disclosed by the revelation of God''The mystery is this ,that Gentile
and Jewish Christians together are now fellow heirs of the same blessing, fellow-members of the same body and fellow -partakers of the same promise''. Again JS writes ,the mystery of Christ is the complete union  of
Jews and Gentiles with each other through the union of both with Christ''
I suppose it is hard for us to grasp what this meant to the Jew.The Jew would thank God he had been born a Jew,the Gentiles where despised,as indeed where women.Now all that was coming to an end,the sinful defiled
Gentiles,were now being brought into the kingdom of God. In the temple
there was a petition a wall that separated the Gentiles from Jews.With Christs coming that was now changing,there would be one people of God.
No longer would contact with Gentiles be forbidden they would be sought
out,and told the good news,the gospel of Christ.Christ through his death on Calvary,welcomed  everyone,for many Jews it was step to far,but not for God,now there was a welcome mat,on the entrance to the kingdom of God,
with Christ standing there to give every seeking sinner a great big hug of acceptance.
                                         A  prayer.
Dear God we praise you and thank you for mercy shown to us Gentiles,
that we who were not a people have now become the children of  God,
through Jesus your Son Amen.