Facing difficulties. ( Psalm 31 )

I often hear myself saying, ''its in Gods hands'', lets not fool ourselves,He is in control ,many people are confused by what has come to pass,and surprised that all their plans have gone to pot. Psalm 31 was written by king David,   it appears that David himself was faced with a lot of problems, he speaks of enemies who were seeking to destroy him, he confesses that he is weak and sorrowful,consumed by anguish ,his strength is failing,he feels isolated,forgotten ,people are talking of him in quite whispers,and they are conspiring to kill him .So things looked bleak for David, a dark cloud had descended over him , what would you do if you were him? what would I do?.The difficulties he was facing were real ,very real,they were not made up, again I ask the question ,what would  you do?.I want  you to think about this,for there is a wrong way,of thinking and then there's God way.We will think about this next time,and how David thought about it,there are real lessons to be learned,on how we can  face difficulties.

The tyranny of the urgent. ( Matthew 6 v 33 )

Chuck Swindle said' ,That the tyranny of the urgent,blinds us to the need of what is important'.The world does rush on,so much pressure to get things done or to get were we are going.We are like the White Rabbit in Alice in wonderland ,was rushing to get to tea party,had a watch in his hand and kept repeating,''O dear,O dear, I shall be too late''.Many gadgets have been invented to make life easier for us yet we are still  under  of the tyranny of the urgent. I'm not saying one should neglect anything, but that one should think about what is important. .Now that I cannot get to my local fellowship,I have made a point of  getting a wonderful church service on ,'You Tube', from Chuck Swindles church, I commend it to you its ,called ,'Stonebriar'.I  very rarely missed a church service during my Christian life, because I know how important it is. Likewise how important to read Gods word,to pray,to witness,to help and care  for others,these may seem obvious, but many neglect them. There are so many things that are important in life,it would be a good exercise,to take stock of ones  life,to pray and ask God for  help u,to put the important things in our  lives, in their proper place, and to stop being tyranny driven. If you are not a Christian is it not time, to bring Christ into your life, before it is to late.?.

The underdog ( 1 Corinthians 1 v 18 - 31 )

It  was the EURO final of 2004 ,between Greece and Portugal, Greece were the underdogs by a long way,Portugal had the world class Ronaldo  playing for them,but in spite of that,Greece the underdogs won,1-0  We read in 1 Corinthians 1 v  26 - 27 that God chooses,'foolish things,weak things, lowly things,  despised things,and in James 2 v 5 ,the poor of this world.I have a picture of Christian women praying in  Pakistani,seemingly they are doubly despised for being female and for being a Christian.There are many others one could mentioned,whom one could class as underdogs in this world,those Hindus who are of the low casts, are despised,the world is full of people who never get a fare crack of the whip,underdogs.Here is the wonderful good news ,God loves the underdog,he welcomes them into into his kingdom, with open arms. No matter if you are disabled, poor, uneducated,whatever your colour or race, red and yellow black and white,all are precious in His sight. There is an old Irish song which goes,'If your Irish come into the parlour,there's a welcome there for you,' I don't know about the parlour, but I do know that if you trust Jesus as your Saviour,you will be more than welcomed into Gods kingdom,for in Gods sight there are no underdogs only sinners who need a Saviour.

A better day is coming. ( Revelation 20 v 1 - 4 )

In Psalm 139 v 13 - 16,David dwells upon God as creator of the human body,he  sees how  God began  the work in the womb,as he does ,his heart is full of praise and reverence,he declares,'I am fearfully and wonderfully made' v 14. It was Augustine who wrote, ''Men go gape at mountain peaks, at the boundless tides of the sea,the broad sweep of rivers,the  encircling ocean and the motions of the stars,and yet they leave themselves unnoticed, they do not marvel at themselves''.Spurgeon wrote,' We need not go to the end of earth for marvels,nor even across our own threshold; they abound in our own bodies'.Many worship their bodies,many neglect their bodies,many abuse their bodies.If only we had not sinned,but we did, in that earthly paradise,and so we experience pain,of course pain is not necessary a bad thing, for it warns us  there is a problem that needs fixing,but  we have not reached the point ,were all that needs fixed ,can  be fixed,we never will, we will never reach that point. When we suffer are we being punished for our sins?,not necessarily we may be,suffering happens ,by a virus, other times by ourselves,and  just to put it simply,that is part of living .It was Thomas who doubted that Christ had risen from the dead ,until he had a revelation of the risen Christ,he  declared ,that Jesus was his Lord and his God.( John 20 v  28  ) There are many aspects of this we could highlight.,one ,. Though he was truly God,in his humanity ,  he manifested a wonderful compassion,for those who suffered, a compassion that was God like ,He felt their pain ,in Christ, God was here intervening  ,by healing ,feeding the hungry,comforting the sorrowing,  Alas suffering will continue, until that time when Christ will make all things new,and usher in a new heaven and a new earth. This has been made possible  because of His death on the cross ,his death enables all who trust him,to have their sins forgiven,which means  they will  enjoy an eternal existence free from all suffering. 

Why Pray? ( Luke 18 v 1 )

I know a man he gets up every day at 5.30 to pray,he also talks to God during the day,and has a time of prayer in the evening,why?,that's a good question.I wonder, if you do pray, why do you pray?.Well this man says he always prays because it is important,for the Christian life is about relationship. He sees God as his loving heavenly Father and loves to talk to him,no better person to talk to,than the one who loves and cares for him the most. He says he loves Him so very much. He seeks to be honest to God his Father,no secrets,no hidden agendas, he knows that God his Father is watching over him every moment of the day.Of course God is a triune God , Father,Son, and Holy Spirit,but he says when you are talking to one,you are talking to all.Much of his talking to God is in interceding for others he says that's very important,for he believes that prayer makes a big difference.He believes God answers prayer,and that nothing is to small or insignificant to pray about,I asked him why he gets up so early to pray,well he said,if he didn't it's more than likely ,it would not happen as other things,other pressures would encroach upon it,and that he would not like that,for prayer is vital to his relationship with God,and his walk with God.He went on to quote a few verses of a hymn,'Prayer is the burden  of a sigh,the falling of a tear,the upward glancing of an eye, when none but God is near.Prayer is the Christians vital breath,the Christians native air; his watchword at the the gates of death, he enters heaven with prayer'. 

I worshipped him. ( Isaiah 44 v 6 - 20 )

''He wasn't a great dad,but I worshipped him'',if fact he was a drunkard,but the lady worshipped him.Everything is a god to a Hindu ,well practically everything,There are even so called Christians who say that they are gods,with a small g ,humanity is good at inventing gods,to many Hitler was god,the Romans called their Emperors a god,likewise the Pharaohs ,and so we could go on,gods there are in plenty in this world. The word of God declares,in Isaiah 44 v 6 'apart from me there is no  God,v 8 ,'you are my witnesses. Is there any God besides me?. No, there is no other rock,I know not one'That means that all other so called gods ,do not exist, people are worshipping a delusion, they are not true. Now you may think how foolish those worshippers are,surely they should know, that those gods are not really gods.But you see it is real to them, that does not make it real,does it really matter?, yes it does,for the worship of those gods is a sin ( Exodus 20 v 2 - 4 ),and that is serious.The lady who said she worshipped her dad ,also loved him.the worshippers of other gods,love them,and would do anything for them,even kill,even die for them.Such love is not only misplaced but foolish and deadly. These gods cannot forgive sins,cannot take one to heaven,or save from hell,cannot free you,the only true God alone can do that,through His son Jesus,

Crippled ( Hebrews 10 v 2 )

Let us continue on the theme of being crippled inside, in this fallen world which we live in ,so much wrong is committed,we could fill a library many times over with the sins that people commit. They can be divided up by the victims and perpetrators,many people don't appear to have any qualms about the wrong things they do, but there are people and they are crippled by guilt.We  may feel guilt in areas of life ,blaming ourselves as to what we should have done in certain situations,could be that it  wasn't even our fault,but we feel it was and so we live with guilt. Let us remember that guilt is for the wrongs we have done,not for the wrongs done to us.Guilt can cripple us,and even destroy us,it can cause us to become depressed.Here is a wonderful message the wrongs that we have committed,the sins we have committed can be forgiven by God,and with that forgiveness we can be free from guilt.But the devil who is called the  accuser of Gods children  ( Rev 12 v 10 ),God when He forgives sin chooses not to remember them anymore,but the devil takes delight in reminding us of our past evil deeds.He will seek to remind Gods children of former sins,we need to remind him, of what God has done,that He has forgiven us our sins,as far as the east  is from the west so far has he removed our transgressions from us .( Psalm 103 v 12 ) An old hymn goes,'When first o'whelmed with sin and shame. Burdened with guilt and full of fear,yet drawn by love to venture near. pardon I found,and peace with God. In Jesus' rich atoning blood'.