Words ( Colossians 4 v 6 )

Here is a prayer, 'May the words of my mouth,and the meditation of my heart,be pleasing in your sight, O Lord , my Rock,and my Redeemer', ( Psalm 19 v 14 ).It is a simple prayer,yet very challenging ,for it deals with two aspects of our being,our words,and our hearts.Consider how many wrong words being spoken at this time,hateful words,vain words,filthy words,spiteful words,foolish words, deceptive words,harsh words.Our Saviour said, 'But I tell you that men will have to give an account on the day of judgement for every careless word they have spoken. For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned'.( Matthew 12 v 36 - 37 ) Here Jesus is responding to evil things said about Him by religious leaders,there is coming a day in which they will be judged,and on that day they will be speechless. The great prophet Isaiah confessed, that he was a man of unclean lips , and I live among a people of unclean lips ( Isaiah 6 v 5 ), Consider, as Christians is our speech ,any different than the non-Christians?,do we take the name of the Lord in vain?,do we tell lies?,how many sinful words have you spoken?.There is forgiveness as Isaiah experienced, C P V 6 - 7 .Let us remember if we confess our sins that God is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins( 1 John 1 v 9 ),even the sinful words of our mouth.

Historical Truth. ( 1 Corinthians 15 v 1

Malcolm Muggeridge wrote the following, ''If you say to me,do you believe that Jesus's birth was by a virgin ?.Yes I do,because I think the whole drama requires that. But that's entirely different from saying  that I believe that a particular female,without anything happening, conceived and bore a child and that, that child was Jesus. In other words, I see it as an artistic truth rather than an historical truth''.Here is a man who was admired for his wonderful writing, a man who professed to be a Christian,and many people got carried away with that,but let be very clear ,that Mr Muggeridge  was very much in error in what he said  Our faith must be based on historical truth ,not in so called artistic truth, no,the birth of  Christ,and the life of  Christ, the death of Christ,and the resurrection of Christ,and His ascension, were historical facts.If any of these are not historical happenings then they are not true,but they are true,these wonderful things really happened, and when one embraces the  Jesus of history,then your life and your destiny will be gloriously changed for ever.

Not the minority. ( Romans 8 v 31 - 39 )

I remember a missionary telling  about two brothers who were the only Christians in their school,when asked about this,one of the lads said,' we are many'. What did he mean by that?well I believe he was saying that when God is with you,then God and all of heaven are for you. In 2 Kings 6 we read that  Elisha and his servant were at a place called Dothan and  they were under attack by the  army of Syria..  It all got a bit to much for Elisha's servant, and he cried out in fear 'what shall we do?'.Elisha replied,''Don't be afraid'...   Those who are with us, are more than those who are with them''.The servant may have wondered why he said that,for the reality staring him in the face did not appear good. Elisha stopped trying to persuade him that what he said was true,so he prayed,and asked God ,to open the eyes of his servant.The Lord answered,his eyes were open,and what did he see?, he saw the hills all around them were filled  with horses and chariots.In Romans 8 v 31, we read,'If God is for us, who can be against us,and in v 37,we read,'we are more than conquerors through him who loved us'. Like that servant of old you may be very afraid,difficulties are piling up,the enemies at the gate,there is no way out,you are not on your own,you are not the minority,for God and all heavens resources are your's.

Likes and dislikes ( Romans 1 v 18 )

We all have our likes and dislikes ,when I was young ,like many children I did not like eating vegetables ,I like them now,often our likes and dislikes,are not important. But of course there are times they are, like how we view race,or women.Lets turn the spotlight on the Christian faith ,many people dislike it when we point out that accepting Jesus is the only way to heaven,even some who say they are Christians,,even though Jesus said that He was the way, the truth, and the life, and that no one can go unto the Father,except by him ( John 4 v 16 ). There are some ,even Christians who dislike  the doctrine of the wrath of God,they would argue that it is inconsistent with the Scripture teaching that God is  a God of love. So it was that a man called C.H.Dodd who took issue with those who believed in the wrath of God,he believed that the sacrifice of Christ had nothing  to do with wrath. He challenged  the use of the term propitiation ,which  means that God had to be appeased , because  God was angry with humanity.because of their sin  C.P  John 3 v 16 / 36. There are many scriptures that speaks of God being angry,in Psalm 7 v 11 we read that God is angry with the wicked every day..In spite of  this C.H.Dodds rejecting this , and sought to make a case against the use of the word propitiation ,it is Leon Morris who points out,'Throughout Greek literature,biblical and non-biblical  alike,hilasmos ( Greek) means ''propitiation''. We cannot now decide that we like another better''

Hard work. (Matthew 11 v 28 )

I read something amusing , as regards Sabbath keeping at the time of Jesus,'that it was hard work keeping the Sabbath'.I wonder do you appreciate the point of these words?,the Sabbath was suppose to be a day of rest,but instead it turned into a day of rule keeping.All legalism ,is hard work ,now of course there are things we should do on the Sabbath,if possible we should meet with God's  people,that's important,fellowship with Gods people as I say is important. We are part of God's family,and meeting with them, helps us and them,as we share with them, as we meet together.That meeting with them should be meaningful,to often going to meet with Gods people is an in and out experience.I was talking to a brother about a certain fellowship he knew,and said you had to attend there 20 years before you become accepted. That can't be true fellowship it is in fact a travesty ,and insult to  what fellowship should mean.Now returning to  Sabbath keeping being hard word, legalism ,whither on the  Lords day or any other day ,makes a mockery of the one who said ,' Are you  tired ?worn out? burned out in religion? Come to Me, and you will recover your life, I'll show you how to take rest' Matthew 11 v 28 ( The Message a paraphrase)

God's Word. ( Psalm 119 v 105 )

Looking back at my time in Bible  college, certain lecturers stood out,one was Professor Leahy ,my lasting memory of him was a godly man of soundness.He held no fanciful speculative interpretations of the Gods word,no  from him we received sound exegesis of the word of God. This is what we need in these days,sound teaching of the word of God,not those who pick and choose what they want to believe and teach, and reject those truths which they find hard to accept ,and their inconsistent concepts of God.It was R.C .Sproul who wrote a little booklet called,'Can I trust the Bible? ,if  the Bible is not trustworthy,we are in great difficulties.We must be prepared to take our stand on the trustworthiness ',of the Scripture ,'we must not only believe that the Scriptures  bears witness to the truth,but it is the truth '(R.C.Sproul )  I have  read and studied the Bible ,for over 50 years,and I know it can be trusted, It was a man called Frank Morison who as a young man, doubted the reliability of scriptures,especially the account of the resurrection,in the end he came to believe and trust in Jesus as his Saviour and his resurrection,he went on to write a book called,'Who moved the stone',The Bible is based on history,Calvary is real,yes it really happened,Christ died on a cross,and on the third day He rose from the dead ,in 2 Corinthians 15 we are told of hundreds of people who saw the risen Christ .In 2 Timothy 3 v 16  we read,'That all Scripture is God -breathed ',we do well to trust in Gods word,if we don't we will not do well.

A prayer ( Luke 11 v 1 )

I have a little book called ,'The valley of vision',published by ,'Banner of  Truth',it is a collection of Puritan Prayers and Devotions'.So here is part of a morning prayer.  'O God,the Author of all good, I come to you for the grace another day will require for its duties and events. I step out into a wicked world, I carry about with me an evil heart, I know  that without you I can do nothing . Hold thou me up and I shall be safe,preserve my understanding from subtily of error,my affections from love of idols,my character from stain of vice, my profession from every kind of evil.May I engage in nothing in which I cannot implore your blessing,and which I cannot invite thy inspection. Prosper me in all lawful undertakings,or prepare me for disappointments; Give me neither poverty nor riches; Teach me to use the world,and not abuse it,to improve my talents,to redeem my time,to walk in wisdom toward those without, and in kindness to those within,to do good to all men, and especially to my fellow Christians,And to thee be the Glory. Amen.