No excuses ( John 13 v 34 - 35 )

 A number of years ago my  wife and I went for a holiday in Turkey, and we visited Ephesus , one of its inhabitants had been the Philosopher Heraclitus  who lived in 7BC. He is remembered for saying,'' No one can wash his feet twice in the same river.''  When we visited  Ephesus we visited the site were the virgin Mary had  supposedly lived ,and were John the Apostle spent his later years' It is of course uninhabited , all there is now is ruins. Very early it became in the Christian era a Christian church , it came into being under the ministry of the Apostle Paul. Paul moved on , his purpose was to establish churches. Later on when he was in prison  in Rome ,he wrote a letter to them , in chapter  1 v  15, he wrote a lovely  thing about this  church, that they had,' a love for all God's people,' I wonder can it be said of you and me that we a love of all God's people?, all the people in your fellowship, let us remember  what our Saviour said, ''A new command I give you; love one another , as I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another '' No excuses ,do it.

It can happen to you. ( 1 Corinthians 10 v 12 )

 Recently a person was  passing judgement on a young person  who is expecting a baby,  who is not married. Now let me say this what she has done is a sin, it is sin ,sex is a sacred gift from God, but when we act in a way that's outside  of  God's sacred purpose it  becomes a sin.  So how should we look at what that young  person has done?, well we can see the occasion when a woman  was caught in the very act of adultery ( John 8 v 1 - 11 ) ,the religious leaders had alternative for bringing her to Jesus. They wanted Jesus to pass judgement, which meant stoning her to death, but he did not do that, he said he that is without sin cast the first stone. They all  left, convicted by what Jesus said ,leaving the lady, he said, that he did  not condemn her, go and sin no more. Now in no way was he condoning what she did,, he called it for what it  was, sin, and told her to change her life of sinful ways. If we are to pass judgement, let it be righteous judgement, in other words, let us  have a right spirit in dealing with the fallen, for as they are, so at one time were we. Let us  remember we are all vulnerable, it happened to them, it can happen  to you and to me.

Seek . ( Acts 17 v 26 - 27 )

 When on the news  I hear  of  some famous person who have died, and then they have programmes about them, in which other people  extoll their many fine qualities , and achievements .But like much that goes on in society God is absent from it all, it is sad that some very nice people ,are bereft of any spiritual  life. You never hear them saying he was a godly person, why?,  when they stand before God, I wonder will they say,'' who are you ?. I  joke of course, everyone will know who God is, Nietzsche the German philosopher ,who  said that God was dead, will realise that God is very much alive. It is a fact that people make more of  creation, than the creator,  I find it sad that when a certain person who is revered for his programmes on wild life, never mentions God, he often mentions evolution, how the animals changed this and changed that, to become what  they are now. It is interesting that C.S.Lewis  used to say, ' that Christians  do not go to nature to learn  theology- the message is too  garbled. God can be found, yes,  he is not remote, he can be known, how? do you want to know him?. I know God is sovereign ,but our responsibility is to seek the Lord with all our hearts , and by his grace and mercy , we shall find him. ( Jer 29 v 13)

The greatest day ( 1 Corinthians 15 )

 Richard Nixon  got carried away with excitement in 1969  when Apollo astronauts first landed on the moon. ''  It's the greatest  day since Creation '' crowed the president , until Billy Graham solemnly  reminded him of Christmas and Easter .  Both those events ,brought to this earth hope,  in a world were sin is obvious, and it's terrible consequences, sin and death.  Christmas and Easter  proclaimed  God's answer to both these plagues  ,the only answer  for the plague of sin could only come from God, that answer was Jesus death on a cross.  

                                                      O, wonder of all wonders ,

                                                      That through Thy death for me,

                                                      My open sins, my secret sins,

                                                      Can all  forgiven be    ( Word by  K. N. Kelly) 

What about that other plague  death?, we have all been reminded of  that plague ,before the awful virus struck ,death was the unmentionable, not now, its in our face, I write this with great sadness .Is  that all we have to look forward to? ,  no, consider the words of Jesus,'' I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in Me will live, even though they die''.  ( John 11 v 25 ) 

                                  May the Lord bless you all on this Christmas day.

Amazing ( Philippians 2 v 5 - 11)

It was J.B. Phillip's who wrote  the following fantasy,'  A senior angel  is showing a very young angel around the splendors of the universe  ,all those billions of stars and whirling galaxies . As the two drew near to the star we call our sun and its circling planets, the senior angle pointed  to a small and rather insignificant sphere turning very slowly on its axis, It looked as dull as a dirty tennis ball to the little angel, whose mind was filled with the size and glory of  what he had seen. ''I want you to watch that one in particular'', said the senior angel, pointing with his finger. ''Well it looks very small and rather dirty to me'', said the little angel. ''What's special about that one?'', To that little angel, earth did not seem so impressive. He listened in stunned belief  as the senior angel told him that this planet, small and insignificant and not  overly clean , was the renowned  Visited Planet.  Do you mean that our great and glorious Prince went down  in person to this fifth -rate little ball ?. Why should He do a thing like that? The little  angel's face  wrinkled in disgust,'' Do you mean to tell me, that He stooped so low to become  one of those creeping, and crawling  creatures of that floating ball? I do, and I  don't think He would like you to call them , creeping , crawling creatures in that tone of voice. For strange as it may seem to us, He loves them. He  went down to visit  them to lift them up to become like Him.'' The  little angel looked blank. Such a thought was almost  beyond his comprehension.

                                                         John 3 v16   

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten  Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish  but  have eternal life.

A grace gift. ( 2 Corinthians 9 v 15 )

 Here  is a ,not so happy thought, is Santa  a sinner ?, I wish I hadn't  said that, now I will not receive any Christmas presents.  I don't want to disillusion any body, but I read this recently, 'Just because someone is older and is a mall Santa from time to time, doesn't mean  they are not capable of terrible  things.' For many people , like Santa ,Christ is just for Christmas, Santa surely is, but we know ,I hope  that the Coke Cola Santa is not real, but Christ is real, he is not just  a Hollywood invention. He is God's gift to this world ,yes I said a gift, no charge, just express your need to God ,and you will receive the  gift of gifts As He enters your life, all your sins will be forgiven, money cannot buy that wonderful grace gift ,and your life will be transformed forever. 

                                             Like a  blind man, who walked in the darkness,

                                             I had longed, I had searched for the light,

                                             Then I met the Master,  

                                              Now I walk no more in the night.

                                              For all things were changed, when He found me,

                                               A  new day broke through all around me,

                                               For I met the Master ,now I belong to Him.

                                                          Words / Booth Brothers.

Have you made a will yet ? ( 2 Corinthians 6 v 2 )

The famous novelist Agatha Christie writing in one of  her books, of a rich elderly woman who died, and had not made a will. the lawyer a Mr  Seddon dealing with her affairs comments,'' Mrs  Welman always meant to make a will, but  tomorrow was always a better day to make  it than today, she kept telling  herself that there was plenty of time'' It is called procrastination , here are other words for procrastination , dally, dawdle, delay. lag, loiter. no matter what they are called, they simple mean  putting of  till  tomorrow, what should be done today. Most wives know all about this, they remind their dear husbands  of  jobs to be done, only to be told,'' I will do it tomorrow'', and of course , tomorrow never comes. Now on a more serious note ,if you read my blog regularly, you know how often  I have stressed the importance of trusting Jesus . I do this because, I love you, and  I know the consequences of  dying without Christ , for  God's word tells us that after the death the judgement ( Hebrews 9 v  27 ). Yes  judgement  ,if  you have not trusted Jesus to be your Saviour  and asked him to forgive you, your sins,  you will go a lost eternity, Christ the Saviour  will be your judge and He will  say to you, ''Depart from me, you who are cursed; into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his  angels''  ( Matthew  25 v 41 ). Can you blame me for trying to warn you of the importance of trusting Jesus now, please , ask Jesus to be your Saviour now, before it is to late.