Rule keeping. ( Romans 10 v 9 v - 13 )

At the time of Jesus the Jewish religion had become a religion of rules,hand washing rules, in case you had touched something considered unclean,it was nothing to do with hygiene,but like all the religious rules they had be taken very serious.The disciples did not conform to their hand washing rules,and the religious leaders challenged our Lord about it ( Read Mark 7 v 1 - 23 ) There were many rules attached to Sabbath keeping, one was ,if you cut your finger you could bandage it ,but you were not allowed to put ointment on it. There were about 3,500 regulations that the Pharisees believed they ought to observe in order to be accepted with God. No wonder Jesus said how the religious elite loaded people down with burdens they could hardly carry ( Luke 11 v 46 ). .Now is it , not wonderful, that we do not have to obey any of these rules to be accepted by God, all we have to repent and believe in Jesus who paid the price for our sins on the cross, as the hymn writer wrote,'Not the labour of my hands,can fulfil Thy law's demands; Could my zeal no respite know. Could my tears for ever flow, all for sin  could not atone; Thou must save and Thou alone. Nothing in my hands I bring simply to Thy cross I cling'. ( Words by A.M.Toplady)

Implications ( 2 Peter 3 v 10 - 13 )

Two men looked through the bars, one saw the mud the other saw the stars,what do you see? the apparent nothingness of life,or the wonder of life ?.A man in the Bible summed up life as meaningless ( Ecclesiastes 2 v 11 ) and yet the same man declares that God has set eternity in the human heart (Ecc 3 v 11).Yes that is what God has done,but what have we done?,why is it that often all we see is the mud,if God has set eternity in our hearts,why is it, that we only see the things of time?.Why has the Rolls Royce of God's creation failed to live up to its creators potential?,why is it  they don't  think ,or act as they should,why have they lost the ability to be amazed,and have a spirit of dullness about them? A minister said to a member of his Church ,as regards her husband who had died  your husband is not in heaven, he is the ground.That minister has lost sight of our Father who art in heaven,and that Jesus requested that all those whom the Father had given Him ,would be with Him in Glory.( John 17 v 24 )The fact is, there is an after death existence  and I can assure you it is not in the ground,it is in heaven or in hell ,we may feel we don't need a God,like Pharaoh of old who declared, ''who is the Lord, that I should obey Him'', ( Ex 5 v 2 ). He was soon to find out that the Lord will not be ignored, and shut out,that is the implications of living without God. God is speaking in these days,make no mistake about it, and when He speaks we better listen.Let us not forget that God the creator, has in mercy so loved this world that He gave his only begotten Son ,that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life( John 3 v 16 ).Wake up to reality ,He is your only hope, trust Jesus ,to ignore this warning ,it bears not thinking about the awful consequences,of turning your back on Gods offer of love,by trusting Jesus.

Questions. ( Ecclesiastes 3 v 11 )

Whats going on,in the world?, I think when we say,whats going on the world?, we are really asking what does it mean? .When people act in bad ways, we are really wanting to know, why the coronavirus?. There are many things in life that are happening and have happened,that leave us puzzled. We know a lot of things,  and yet in spite of all our knowledge we still understand so little. In one sense we could say, that's life ,we just have to live with it,no big deal,we are a tiny planet ,in this VAST Universe ,do we really matter.? does anything really matter?, lets just accept our lot, whatever will be ,will be. At this time much is being made of the world of science,they are the master minds,they will find solutions to all our problems.They are the ones who tell us that this world just happened,and all the beauty of this world just happened.That our wonderful bodies just happened,that the vast number of different species just happened ,that all living things just happened. I am fed up with them trying to convince me of their just happened theory, surely there must be a better answer,why can they not say that they just don't know,or could it be,they do not want to know?.At this time we are all struck with the care being shown by doctors,nurses,and many others,yet why is the coronavirus happening?,could it be that someone is telling us something we have forgotten.I have been to Florence to the Accademia Gallery, and looked at the statue of   Michelangelo's David, what beauty, could it be someone is trying to tell us something, we have forgotten.Why is man so creative?,why are we so inventive?, it just happened,did it?no it didn't just happen, we read that God made man in his own image,this being man, like its creator have a creativeness and many other qualities ,that no other creature has. God is speaking in many ways ,through the tragedies ,and the beauties ,science cannot give us an answer to these things  .

Helper ( Philippians 4 v 10 - 20 )

I am 76 years of age ,I have been following the Lord for 56 yrs , for the last 26 year things have been easier financially,before that money was always very tight.I have also shared with you our times when we were at Bible college and we simply had to literally pray our way through . It was very challenging  ,likewise I have experienced unemployment,like many with little money we had old second hand cars,which brought its own source of trials. I come from Northern Ireland and the bombing,shooting was a constant thing,plus a general strike,a lot of people knew someone who had been murdered. I managed a Christian bookshop,but it was forced to close,due to a lack of trade,plus the competition from other Christian book shops.The greatest  blow was the loss of my dear wife,she died of cancer ,leaving me with four children So why am I telling you this?, because in all these things ,I have found my God faithful,he has been my helper, and He has never failed me.Dear Christian fear not the unknown future,have faith in your God and Saviour,go forward with your hand in his.  God says to you,'' So do not fear,for I  am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help  you. I will uphold you with my righteous right hand''.( Isaiah 41 v 10 )

Our Aim. ( Psalm 86 v 12 )

I used to pray for a woman called Twen,who is a prisoner in Eritrea,a friend sent me an email about her,I must recommence my praying for her,here is what was written,''Twen has spent 15 years in prison, because she is a Christian, she was arrested after she attended a prayer meeting. During her time in prison she has faced beatings,and torture. She has used her time in prison to serve others. She has taken their punishment, washed their wounds, and carried them when they couldn't walk. She has had opportunities to escape,but each time she returned to serve her fellow prisoners.Her one request is that God would be glorified in Eritrea.When you read things like this it brings a challenge and it is this,to glorify God,in the good times, and in the bad times,in the easy times and in the difficult times, in the pain free times, and in the painful times.

Limping ( Romans 10 v 1 - 13 )

In Romans 10 writing about the Jews Paul declares ,'That they were zealous for God, but their zeal is not based on knowledge' , L.Morris writes, 'Zeal can be used in a good or a bad sense ; here it will be in the good sense, with a meaning something like our ''enthusiasm'' No nation had given itself to God with such devoted and courageous zeal as Israel,''( Barrett) '' But unfortunately this zeal had be qualified it was not based on knowledge (John 16 v 2; Acts 22 v 3; 26 v 9-11, Gal 1 v 14 ). Enthusiasm is good, but enthusiasm run riot can lead to disastrous results.'' Now follows a statement by Augustine,''It is better to limp the right way than to run with all our might out of the way''.How very meaningful these words are,The cults are very zealous,people often say I admire their enthusiasm, and if we look at many religions they can be very zealous.Dear friend ponder,what Paul wrote about the Jews,and what Augustine said,it is worth repeating,''It is better to limp the right way than  to run with all our might out of the way'' In Proverbs 14 v 12, we read,'There is a way that appears to be right,but in the end it leads to death'. You may be zealous but are you running to your spiritual ruin?, Jesus is the way the truth and the life,any other way is the wrong way,any other so called truth is error,and it will lead not to life but death.

Happiness ( Matthew 5 v 1 - 12 )

I worked as a support worker in a mental health team,and I remember a lady who was always,craving after that which would make her happy, but it seemed to me in her case,it did not happen. It is like someone trying to find the pot of gold and the end of a rainbow,because it is not there.Someone has said that happiness depends on what happens,even that may not be true.We used to sing ,oh happy day when Jesus washed my sins away, well that would make one happy, it should.In Matthew 5 we have the word blessed mentioned 9 times, it is generally thought to mean happy.But as we read these 9  sayings we read that they come along with being ,poor in spirit,mourning,meekness,hungering and thirsting after righteousness,being merciful, being pure in heart,being a peacemaker,being persecuted,being lied about.Yes it is not about having perfect health,having wealth,and a lot of other things that people think will make them happy,it is not of this world, it is in fact , heavenly.Bear in mind  as Michael Green points out,'The Sermon on the mount in which we find these blessed's ,is no mere code of ethics that can be detached from loyalty to Christ as Marx and Gandhi wished to understand it'.In Psalm 144 v 15 we read,'Blessed ( Happy) is the people whose God is the Lord'.