Be perfect ( Jude v 24 )

Our lovely Saviour said the following,'Be perfect,therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect ( Matthew 5 v 48)  What a challenge,is it possible?,in ourselves no,in fact the more one grows in holiness the more conscious one is of their imperfections. Consider what the greatest of the apostles wrote in Romans 7 v 24 ,' What a wretched man I am, ',yes, it is the apostle speaking, it is Leon Morris who writes the following,'The more we advance spiritually the more clearly we see the high standards God sets for his people and the more deeply we deplore the extent of our shortcoming'.When our Lord spoke those words in Matthew 5 v 48, He is exhorting us to be always striving to be perfect ,my study Bible declares,'We should aspire to be as much like Christ as possible,in holiness,maturity,and love'. I read the following prayer,'God,humble my pride,extinguish the last stirrings of my ego,obliterate whatever remains of worldly ambition and carnality, and in these last days of a mortal existence, help me to serve only Thy   purposes, to speak and write only Thy words, to think only Thy thoughts, to have no other prayer than; ''Thy will be done''. In other words be a true convert'  in Jesus name Amen'

Who are you following?. ( John 14 v 6 )

I saw a car sticker which read,' Don't follow me, ' this was followed by something like, he didn't know the way.  People  have followed ,'Hitler,Stalin',and of course sport fans say that they follow such and such a team. Every now and again we have the cults calling at one's door,wanting us to follow their teaching.Many people are following moral dubious things, and even sinful practices,it was Satan,who tempted our Lord,in the words of Malcolm Muggeridge to,' turn stones into bread ,thereby becoming a great benefactor, by jumping from the top of the temple without hurt , thereby becoming a celebrity;by taking over all the kingdoms of the world,thereby becoming a worldwide dictator' .Our Lord rejected these, but many have listened to his voice,and yielded to his temptations,to their eternal loss, because it blinded them to the value of their soul. Oh yes we have a soul ,we all have,our Saviour said ,'What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world;yet forfeit their soul?,Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul.?'It is only Jesus who can save our souls,and to you ,and all mankind He says follow Me. The journey begins on our knees at the cross,having our sins forgiven,and then following Him,why not do that right now,trust Him as your Saviour,you will never regret it.

Blind unbelief . ( Mark 6 v 1 - 6 )

 Mark 6  v 1 - 6,we have Jesus returning with his disciples to his home town ,surely they would have welcomed him with open arms but alas not so, instead they despised him, ( C P Isaiah 53 v 3 / Luke 4 v  16 ff ,) The Jesus they had known appeared an ordinary quite hard working man ,just a carpenter, the son of a local girl Mary,with brothers and sisters,why did they despise him?..How could this seemingly ordinary person speak as he did,and perform such miracles?,instead of accepting him for whom he really was, they scoffed at him, blinded by their prejudice.  Jesus declared that a prophet is never honoured by those he had been brought up with, even his own family took offence at him. What they were saying was , know your place,you are only a carpenter,a nobody ,stop trying to make yourself a somebody. But if only they knew , Jesus was a somebody, if only they had eyes to see that this nobody was the Son of God, their Messiah,their Saviour. Their unbelief shut them out of the blessings he would have bestowed upon them,but in spite of that a few people were blessed.You can be blessed by simply trusting in Jesus,if you have faith,unbelief will always block the blessings. Christ can be your Saviour, your sins can be forgiven,all your sins, you can receive eternal life,the blessings that he bestows on those who trust Him ,money cannot buy.

Our greatest need ( Hebrews 4 v 14 - 16 )

In Mark 6 v 49 ff  we read that Jesus sends his disciples in a boat to go over the lake of Galilee,our Saviour left them,and went up a mountainside ,for a much needed time of prayer. We do not have to go up a mountain to pray,Jesus choose to,what we do need to do, is pray. If you are to busy to pray then you are to busy,in this world with all its pressures  ,what do we need ? to pray.We need to stop making excuses,and pray,for it is in prayer we gain strength,wisdom,guidance,and all we need for life,it is in prayer that we are acknowledging our dependence on God. If we go in our own strength we will fail,it is all so simple but very ,very true,we need to pray, to live in the spirit of prayer,to call on God continually,to talk to Him. Let us remember that it is through our great high priest that we come in prayer,not through an earthly priest,or a so called saint,or through Mary, we just need Jesus,He is enough,more than enough. ( John 14 v 6 )

Wait ( Jeremiah 1 v 6 - 9 )

In an imperfect world it is hard to know what do ,it is hard to know should one raise one's voice ,or to stay silent.My mother used to say 'whatever you say, say nothing', If you say nothing things will just continue on, you say something things may get worse,you end up being attacked,causing division,hurt,pain ,misunderstanding, and yet things may ,I say may ,get better. I admire Martin Luther King,JR, his courage,and yet if he had not acted and not spoken out ,things would not have changed,and he would not have lost his life.,likewise Gandhi ,When Martin was in prison ,a newspaper was slipped to him, in it was an article by 8 clergymen, they  criticized what he was doing,saying what he was doing was unwise and untimely.One of the things he said  about this was,'For years I have heard the word''Wait'' ,it rings in the ear of every Negro with piercing familiarity This ''Wait'' has always meant ''Never''......We have waited for more than 340 years for our constitutional and God given rights'. And so he went on following His dream,the waiting time was over,the fight continued,

Take it seriously ( Psalm 126 v 5 )

I have not read much about Saint Columba, but right away I would point that all Christians are saints, many translations use the term 'Holy Ones'. Well so we will call  him Columba he was reckoned to be of noble birth,a grandson of an Irish king. He went to the Isle of Iona ,and formed an abbey,and from there the gospel spread,all over Scotland and to places afar.The Abbey was a place of much prayer,here is what he said about prayer,'The measure of  your prayers is when tears come'.There is a saying ,'I often say my prayers , but do I pray?'.Our Saviour spoke of the danger of praying,that it can become just vain  repetition ,many people say the Lords prayer and it is just vain repetition. As one who prays I often concerned that my prayers will not be vain repetition,the word vain is important,it highlights the importance of praying from the heart ,not just from the mouth. Words are so easily spoken,in a thoughtless manner especially when we pray,   or when we sing a hymn.I am not trying to discourage anyone from praying,it is vital when we pray,that we take it serious , God will honour our prayers ,when we offer them  in faith,and humility, and yes and with a few precious tears.

Stained with tears ( Lamentations 1 v 12 )

Returning to the boy who as a man discovered the Bible he had as a boy, it was crumbled and torn,and that the worst ravages were in the passages relating to the Passion,stained that might have been from tears.The Passion of our Lord would indicate deep emotional feelings,such was the experience of our blessed Saviours,no one has ever experienced such depths of heart breaking emotion,that in that garden of Gethsemane were his soul was overwhelmed with  grief. Jesus knew the depths of suffering that awaited Him,and as He wrestled in prayer, His sweat fell like drops of blood  to the ground.Then we move unto  the cross,and we are not underestimating his physical suffering,which left him with a body,disfigured beyond that of any human being,and his form marred beyond human likeness,as people looked on Him they were appalled ( Isaiah 53 v 14 ).But that's not all,it goes deeper, for the God of Love, will not excuse the guilty (Exodus 34 v 7 ),and all will be judged ,for we are all sinners. I hesitate to mention what that judgement  means,but I will not take any pleasure in mentioning hell,but with great sadness,I must.may God forgive anyone who delights in mentioning hell,the place of the unforgiven,that place of no hope,and no escape. I will not go any further,enough to say, it is clearly taught in the Bible.  Let us return to Christ and what I would call , Christs hidden suffering, this involved Christ taking the punishment for all those who accept Him as Saviour,the depths of that suffering goes beyond anything we could ever imagine,we have but a glimpse of it,when Christ cried out,'My God, my God,why have you forsaken me?. But praise God all who trust Jesus as Saviour will never experience ,being forsaken by God. In considering Christs death ,one wonders why there are not more tear stains on the pages of our Bibles.