Pray on. ( Luke 18 v 1. )

I read this recently,'Pray on, your prayers count more than you think',the coronavirus has come not just in one place,but to the whole world.I am not sure why,it has come ,why God has permitted it to come. It is so easy to ring our hands in despair,the situation appears so hopeless ,what can we do?,people are dying in their thousands,there are so many ways this is effecting people.There are many people in this world who have no social support,cannot go to work.We can help ,if God has blessed us financially, we can gave money,and in so doing we can feed the hungry.But we can pray,for God to intervene,we need a vaccine,desperately.so pray. The government is made up of imperfect people,just like you and I,pray for them. We are all in danger ,so pray,and pray and pray,yes pray on,your prayers count more than you think.

Stop and stare ( Ecclesiastes 3 v 11 )

The poet W.H.Davies wrote,''What is this life if, full of care,we have no time to stop and stare.No time to stand beneath the boughs,and stare as long as sheep or cows,No time to see, when woods we pass,where squirrels hide their nuts in grass. No time to see in broad daylight,streams full of stars, like skies at night. No time to turn at Beauty's glance,and watch her feet, how they can dance.No time to wait ,till her mouth can,enrich that smile her eyes began. A poor life this if, full of care,we have no time to stop and stair''.I live in a very busy place,not to far from London,there is a major motorway near me,and also a large shopping center. So it is a busy place,and it appears to me that so many people are busy, busy,no time to stop and stare, our lovely Saviour encouraged us to stop and stare,He said look at the birds, look at the flowers, ( Matthew 6 ),so many people are driven,and I am not speaking about driving their cars,no it is an inner compulsion,that causes them not to relax, or enjoy life.A friend of mine told me of two people who have a lovely garden,and they rarely sit in it ,and enjoy it,learn from the poet,and learn from our Saviour,to stop and stare.

If. ( Psalm 145 )

Psalm 124 is a Psalm of Davids, and as he looks back ,he declares,'If the Lord had not been on our side ,Let Israel say',he wants the nation to remember Gods deliverance,As a nation we have recently celebrated V E day, victory in Europe,we praised those who fought and defeated a  very wicked enemy. But what sadden me was the fact that God received very little praise,for make no mistake about it ,if it had been for the Lord,things would have been awful,a nightmare.But the godly David would have none of that,he reminded the nation how much they owed to God not to David. Let no one forget, or think, that they have escape all the dangers there are in life,without the Lord,He protects from the womb to the grave .David could look back and remember the dangers he had faced,and how God had preserved, and protected him,from a lion and a bear,from a giant,from Saul,from the enemies of Israel,from his own son Absalom,who sought to kill him. If it had been for the Lord,David would have perished,likewise Israel, that tiny little nation.Can we not all look back and say if it had been for the Lord,things would have been so different. David finishes this lovely little Psalm ,by reminding the people and himself, nothing has changed,he says,'Our help is in the name of the Lord,the Maker of heaven and earth.' So take heart dear child of God, remember,as John Newton wrote ,'His love in times past , forbids me to think. He'll leave me at last in trouble to sink; Each sweet Ebenezer I have in review, confirms His good pleasure,to help me quite through'.

The road is long ( Hebrews 13 v 4 )

We all know the saying of being in a thing for the long haul, in others words we are not going to give up,until we finish the given task.And that is the challenge when you get married its for the long haul till death parts us. Now I know there can be reasons, that one may have to to get out of a marriage,if your husband is abusing you or your child , for your husband is breaking his vows to love you. As one who has been married twice,my first wife died,I know that marriage is a challenge,Shakespeare wrote,''The course of true love never did run smooth'', never truer words spoken,the minister needs to remind all those who are getting married,these wise words. On the road of marriage there  are bumps, potholes, pitfalls,  pain, snoring.On that last one my dear wife says that I am in denial,she could be right.I have had my moments,of  sulking,hurting and stubbornness .In many ways marriage is a very serious thing,as it says ,'not to be entered into lightly , or unadvisedly, but thoughtfully and reverently'.Yes good advice,but unfortunately a lot of people don't give it the thought, they should,the emotions take over..Remember no one is marrying the perfect person,just as their are no perfect churches, there are no perfect people.What has the word of God got to tell us about the marriage relationship Here is a word for us husbands,'Husbands , love your wives,just as Christ loved the church' ( Ephesians 5 v 25 ), think about what this really means, look on the cross.And here is a word for you wives,'love your husbands as Christ loved the church.'.

Rest. ( Matthew 11 v 28 - 30 )

I wonder do you know that Israel was told by the Lord, that when they had entered the promised land,the land they farmed could be used to grow crops for six years,but on the seventh year ,the land had to be rested.  ( Leviticus 25 v 3 - 4 ) When God gave the 10 commandments He commanded the people to rest on the every seventh day of the week,now I am not a strict Sabbatarian ,but I do see the sense in that commandment,we are not machines we need to rest.I know it is good to be busy,but not 24/7,a day of rest is vital to our well being.We hear the words,' burn out',meaning someone,has no energy to carry on, because I was brought up in a one parent family, my mother and father split up, which meant my mother had to do house work,and also earn a living.On looking back it was hard for her,and I cannot remember her having a holiday,but at least in those days people did not work on a Sunday,so that gave her a bit of a rest.We need rest physically,emotionally,and spiritually,It was our Saviour who looked on the people of his day,a people who were desperately trying to find God and please Him . That meant keeping about 3,500 regulations,no wonder they were exhausted and weighed down,so what did Jesus say,''' Come to me,all you are exhausted and weighed down, beneath your burdens  ,and I will give you rest ( Matthew 11 v 28.) are you exhausted and weighed down?, why not come to Jesus today,right now,and find that rest that only He can give you.

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.