Three Requests ( Psalm 121 )

While out walking ,a man heard himself praying,''Help me! Guide me! Use me!'', six simple words,with three requests.the first one is a cry for help. Life continually faces us with all sorts of problems,some of our our own making,some caused by others. One could write a long list of problems,financial,health, work marriage,  children, addiction,and so on ,the list goes on. The old spiritual song goes,'No body knows the trouble I've seen,nobody knows ,but Jesus'. In 1 Peter  5 v 7,we read,'Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you'.Jesus knows all about your troubles,He cares for you, We read  the following in Psalm 50 v 15,'Call on me in the day of trouble;I will deliver you', so call upon Him. The next word is, 'Guide',when Jesus looked ,'he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them,because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd ( Matthew 9 v 36 ) Sheep need a shepherd,in Bible times the shepherd led the sheep,Jesus  called himself the good shepherd,in Psalm 23 , the shepherd Psalm, He leads ,Jesus knows us,knows how easily we can loose our way,so call upon Him, he will guide you.Rest assured ,for the word of God says,'For this God is our God for ever and ever; He will be our guide even to the end'( Psalm 48 v 14 ). The next word is a request ,for God to use us,or should I say,'use me',a noble desire , the question is are we willing to be used?.We are told that the labourers are few,there is always vacancies in Gods kingdom, God can use, even you,whatever task he allots , rest assured he will equip you,guide you , use you,and will provide for you.

My garden ( James 4 v 7 )

Like many people I love my garden,my favourite flower would be a rose, a friend of mine, told me his  favourite plant was the cactus,he mentioned that they produce lovely flower,well everyone to their own.The garden is a lovely place to sit in ,in the evening,and to pray ,or just to read,or whatever,yes the garden is a thing of beauty. Let me ask you a question,do you know were the greatest and most awful sin was committed?,in a garden,a sin that would effect all humanity. We read about it in Genesis 2- 3,in that garden Satan deceived Eve,and her husband followed in her footsteps.The result was that sin entered the world and death followed,we were never meant to die, but we do,because the wages of sin is death.Consider, there is no earthly paradise were sin and Satan,can be excluded from, the fact is we live in a very dangerous world,were no one is safe, because we carry out fallen nature with us at all times,and of course Satan knows this ,and will take full advantage , 2 Corinthians 2 v 11 speaks of his evil schemes,one of his schemes is telling lies, our Saviour called him a murderer and a liar ( John 8 v 44). So be on your guard,remember we can resist the Devil as our Saviour did, by holding fast to God's word.  let us remember he cannot make us sin,thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.  ( 1 Corinthians 15 v 55 ). 

The hard times. ( Psalm 23 )

 Many people are having it hard in eastern Europe,we are fortunate in this country people are receiving help,but through out the world many are receiving no help whatsoever.Keep praying and keep supporting those missions and charities who are seeking to help.Pray for our Christian family,that they may prove Gods faithfulness,.at this time. God is faithful, he does not forsake us in the hard times,I look back and remember the hard times,I remember times when we had no food ,we had 3 children,and no money,our faith was severely tested at times.,but God was faithful.I remember our needs being met.God's word assures his Children that He will care for them. Think of all the examples in scripture of God meeting his children's needs,the manna in the wilderness,and the prophet Elijah who was fed by ravens. God can provide a table in the wilderness,consider the promises of  God, Philippians 4 v 19,' And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus'  Our loving heavenly knows what things we have need of, he will not fail His children. The Psalmist David declared,' I was young and now I am old,yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken or their children begging bread ( Ps 37 v 25 ),God will provide,our part is to trust Him.

He could not sleep ( Daniel 4 v 34 - 35 )

I  am sure many of us have times when we just cannot get to sleep, I have,you toss and turn,but sleep won't come..In the book of Esther ,we read how the Persian King, Xerxes could not sleep,so that's,that.no in fact it was very significant. Let me explain, and let me say this actually happened ,the date was about  483 B.C. Many of the Jews had returned from the 70 year exile, but many hadn't,among them was a man called Mordecai,now he had an adoptive daughter called Esther,who became Queen,Mordecai had sent news of  a plot to assassinate the king, to Esther ,the result was the plot was foiled. A record was made of this,and that was it. Meanwhile Mordecai offended a very high official,called Haman, he belonged to a race of people who hated the Jews.The result  was he persuaded the king to pass a law to exterminate all the Jews in the vast Persian empire. Haman also made plans to kill Mordecai,and just before it was about to happen the king could not sleep, so like many of us he started to read,and he read of the event when his life was saved,and what Mordecai had done, he asked his attendants had he been rewarded,and he was told no.Just at that moment Haman came to ask permission to have Mordecai executed. All Haman's plans fell apart, he  was told to reward Mordecai,so his life was saved in the providence of God,all because a king could not sleep,and the God of Mordecai who neither slumbers nor sleep,wonderfully acted to save his Child .Remember child of God,that he is in control ,he is your sovereign God,who can suddenly change events in your favour, no matter how dark they are.

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.