I wish . ( 1 Samuel 17 v 40 )

How many of us have said ,'I wish', I am sure most people have,I am not going to say to you, be careful what you wish for.Let us return to someone who is disabled, Kate Saunders,who suffers from MS,yes you do suffer when you have a disability.Here is what she wrote as regards her suffering,''it is about making  a life from the materials,to hand''. Joni Eareckson  Tada was paralysed from the shoulders down,after a diving accident,and yet had a wonderful gift of painting,how does she paint if she cannot use her hands? .Well the answer is simple, and goes back to what Kate Saunders wrote,of making a life from the materials ,to hand,she holds the paint brush in her mouth.

No such thing . ( John 11 v 25 )

I wonder what you think of the following statement by Melanie Reid,''Western culture makes it hard for the healthy to accept the reality of illness and the existence of death. Yes us disabled types remind everyone about death, which is awkward  in a society that has decided there is no such thing''. Let me ask the question again as to what you think about what she says?. I once heard someone say that death is not natural, when God created humanity , they were never meant to die.So it means that we would rather not think to much about it,because there is unreality about it,here one minute gone the next.Western culture is often taken up with healing,an expectation that there must be a cure, of course when we are old and very infirmed we want to die ,because our bodies ,and minds, are by their sell by date.It is a foolish thing to deny the reality of death,and of course in these days God also . What He says , is not heeded or welcomed, in fact you wish He was dead. But of course He is not,for He is the living God.and when mankind did their worse and killed Him in the person of Christ, by nailing Him to a cross, He rose from the dead.                                                                                                                                                                            Hebrews 9 v 27                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             '  Man is destined to die once, and after that to face                                                                                                             death.'

Some things must be borne. ( 1 John 5 v 14 - 15 )

Melanie Reid is a lady who writes an article in the Times newspaper every week,at 52 she was involved in a accident on a horse. This accident resulted in her being paralysed from the chest down,she has just published a book called,'The world I fell out of'.' I read the review , by Kate Saunders who is suffering from ME. A number of her quotes are very meaningful, here is one Melanie said,''I felt the weight of that moral duty to recover,but paralysis was not recoverable from,as some things are not''.It is easy said, but its true ,some things have to be borne. Let me say this applies even if you are a Christian,make no mistake, that's a fact,it is sad that certain preachers ,build peoples hopes up ,of course they can manipulate people for financial gain.I am not saying God will not heal,if it is his will, healing can take place,and He will be glorified,and no one will get financially rich from it,in fact money should never be involved in it all..

Image ( Matthew 18 v 7 )

The former leader of a well known evangelical church was a paedophile,and all the leaders did, was try to keep it quite,there was no real concern for his victims. The paedophile was allowed to retire with a pension,the victims got no justice. Now the word of God says,' Love covers all sins' (Proverbs 10 v 12 ),the example of that is seen in Joseph ,the husband of Mary.When Joseph was told that Mary was pregnant,he assumed that she had sinned, and that would have brought public disgrace on her, Joseph  we are told was a just man,so he wanted it all to dealt with quietly  ( Matthew 1 v 19) But we cannot show that attitude to paedophiles,they are dangerous, they will not let up,they need to be exposed,and brought to justice.They care little for their victims, Oscar Wilde confessed he felt nothing for the rent boys he abused.It is a dreadful shame and disgrace that there have been so many covers ups by church  bodies who were and are, solely concerned with protecting their image,instead of protecting helpless children.

But. ( Isaiah 40 )

The last chapter of  Lamentations describes the suffering the people were experiencing ,as you can imagine it was dire.The chapter begins,'Remember , O Lord,what has befallen us', C. Wright writes,''When God remembers, it is not because God has forgotten. Rather it means that God will now take action on the matter he chooses to remember'.All privileges had good,everything had changed, as I said ,it was dire,yet in the midst of the doom and gloom, Jeremiah prays,it starts with the words,'But you, O Lord.'.C . Wright, calls the but, a massive  'Pauline But', we see it in Ephesians 2, were Paul describes,the state of the Christians, before they met Christ, this description can also be described as dire.they had been,'dead in trespasses and sins,followers of worldly pursuits,following the dark side, ruled by their sinful nature,children of wrath,like everyone else'. It is then, that the but comes in,'But God who is rich in mercy,out of His great love which he loved us,even  when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ '. Jeremiah in his prayer, in the words of C. Wright,''Reaches its climax in an astounding leap of faith across the chasm of defeat,destruction and death. The prayer reaches out  from the ruins of God's dwelling place on earth and touches the eternal  throne of God in heaven''.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               When things are dire remember the                                                                                                                                But.

None so blind. ( Revelations 3 v 13 )

It was a very dark hour when Judah was overthrown ,a darkness of tremendous loss, of tremendous suffering,no hope,no peace,only a case of enduring what had to be borne.But as one person has said , into every life a little light doth shine,for Jeremiah reminds the people that Gods judgement on them was complete. The next thing they are told,as C. Wright puts it,''The exile has begun,But that it would not last for ever  .(  Lam 4 v 21- 22 ),before the fall of Jerusalem  ,Jeremiah had written to the captives who had been taken to Babylon earlier,w,assuring them with words of comfort,that after 70 years, they would return home. Indeed the prophet Isaiah had foretold that the Babylonians would come and defeat Judah ,and take captives back to Babylon,and that they would return from captivity, during the reign of king Cyrus. C P the following scriptures .  Isaiah 20 v 16 - 18/  45 v 13.We need not be surprised at their apparent ignorance,after all when the long foretold Messiah came,they failed ,not only to recognise Him, but they crucified Him.These people had become utterly blind,and deaf spiritually,they come across as people totally out of contact with God and His word.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           How are we spiritually ?

Leaders ( 1 Timothy 3 v 1 - 7 )

                                                          Lamentations 4 v 13                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                It was for the sins of her prophets and the iniquities of her                                                                      priests,who shed the blood of  the righteous in the midst of                                                                      her.                                                                                                                          These may appear strange words,to accuse those spiritual leaders of the nation of  killing the righteous,surely that would be the  last thing you would expect from them. We must remember the spiritual deterioration  of the nation that brought about the judgement of God,in Jeremiah 6 v 13,  we read,'For from the least to the greatest of them,everyone is greedy for unjust gain,and from prophet to priest, everyone deals falsely'. 8 v 10,stresses the same thing, v 11,tells us how they proclaimed that which was false,and v 12 , accuses them of acting shamefully and committing abominations.In Jeremiah 18 v 18 Jeremiah was under threat from the priests,let us never forget that it was the religious leaders who hounded our Saviour to death.The inquisition was carried out by priests,likewise many martyrs were burned to death by priests. Godless religious leaders are  guilty of child abuse,of fleecing  the poor, and a multitude of other things,Let me remind you of the potential evil that lies deep in the human heart,whither it be a priest,prophet,pastor, yes and even  in our own hearts.