Hate ( Luke 14 v 25 - 35 )

 A famous evangelist daughter, was being interviewed, speaking about forgiven herself, her father, and then  she said sometime that astounded me, she said she forgive God. Although she was the daughter of a  world renowned evangelist, it is obvious she had a very distorted view of God. When one speaks like  that lady,  she is making herself God, for only God can forgive sin.no it was so wrong what she said ,and so sad. That lovely hymn by Reginald Heber ,   declares ,' Only  Thou art holy; there is none beside Thee, Perfect in power, in love. and purity'. The problem that lady has, goes back to her childhood, her father was away a lot preaching, and when he came home, he was always in demand, so she she could not get his attention and nearness ,she felt she needed. Consider what our dear Saviour spoke of what it means to follow Him  Luke 14 v 26 ,'' If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father, and mother and wife and children, and brothers and sisters, yes even his own life, he cannot be my disciple''. What Jesus is saying you must be prepared to love me more than your nearest and dearest yes more than anything else. My mind goes back to when I felt the call of God to serve him, in missionary work, I was married and  we had  three children, I loved them dearly. One evening I heard a missionary speaking of were he served God ,deep in the Amazon forest, he said it was called the green hell. That evening I was prepared  to go and serve God there ,if it was his will. My wife and I applied to the mission but were turned down, but we were willing, the challenge comes to all of us, in different  ways, do we love Jesus more?.

Have you troubles? ( Psalm 121 )

 One of Jobs friends said this,'' Yet man that is born  to trouble as surely as sparks fly upwards'', now that's a happy thought, the fact is we will all experience some sort of trouble during our lives. Job  experienced a great deal of trouble. there are  many people who experience a great deal of trouble, troubles  come in all shapes and sizes. Sometimes we bring the troubles on ourselves not meaning to, sometimes we take a chance and we fall into trouble. If you are in trouble at this time, here is a word for you, Psalm 50 v 15,' 'Call upon Me in the in the day  of trouble;  I will deliver you, and you shall glorify Me.' Make Him your first port of call, do what he says, call upon Him. He is God, one who delivered Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, from the blazing furnace, He delivered Daniel  from the lions den, he delivered Jonah from the belly of the great fish, and so we could go with more examples. He has not changed,  he can deliver you, out of your troubles, and when He does, give Him the glory.

                                                         Begone unbelief, my Saviour is near

                                                         And for my relief, will surely appear,

                                                         By prayer let me wrestle, and He will perform,

                                                         With Christ  in the vessel, I smile at the storm .  ( Words by J. Newton)

Not optional . ( Matthew 6 v 14 - 16 )

 Sometimes it is hard to forgive, I know a man and he had a difficult  relationship within his marriage, there were unresolved issues, that caused  difficulties, painful conflicts had often occurred. But they had managed to make up, but on one occasion, things were said, and the husband felt very hurt. Things seem to  carry on as normal, but the husband found it hard to forgive, he never said anything to his wife, but he was angry with her, and was finding it hard to forgive her. Eventually he spoke to God about it  telling Him how he felt, and that he found it hard to forgive her, and God said you must, it wasn't  optional.  He reminded him how much he had forgiven him, time after time , and he reminded him what it had cost to forgive him, and the husband  remembered the cross on which Jesus died for him, and he realised ,yes forgiving his wife was not optional.

Weakness ( Philippians 4 v 13 )

I wish I was stronger ,I feel so weak, I feel if  only, God would remove those hindrances ,those flaws in my character , and then I think of one the greatest Christians who ever lived,  the Apostle Paul. Consider his  achievements, and how God used him, and you say ,God use me, you cry, I want to be  used by God. Listen to what the Apostle Paul would say to you, ''are you weak enough'' ?, and  you stand back and cry out I want to be strong ,and the Apostle says I was once like you, but I had an affliction, everywhere I went  I carried it with me, it was like having a stake driven into me, it was so painful. So I prayed and I prayed, and I prayed, this was not just a word prayer, I was pleading with God to remove that awful affliction ,and you know what God said?,'' No''. but He didn't  stop there ,he went on to say, '' My Grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness, or as one translation puts it,'' My grace is enough for you''. Charles Haddon Spurgeon  preached this to his congregation ,''Dear brothers and sisters, go home and never ask the Lord to make you strong in yourselves, never  ask Him to make you anybody  or anything, but be content to be nothing and a nobody. Next ask that His power may have room in you, and that all those  who come near you may see  what God  can do by nothings and nobodies. Live with this desire , to glorify God''

It is important ( Luke 18 v 1 )

 Our family could not  meet together as we usually do, so we arranged to meet on zoom, and we would have a quiz, this we did. The wonders of  technology ,it was fun, I didn't cheat, and of course my wife  and I, didn't win, in fact we came last. It was nice to see the family, but before we signed of ,I reminded them that I pray for them each day. In James 5 v 16 we have these words,'  Pray for one another', very important that we  pray for one another, the apostle Paul encouraged the saints at Ephesus, to keep  on praying for all the Lords people 6 v 18, and in 1 Timothy 2 v 4, we have the charge to Timothy to pray  ' for all people'.  It was Alfred Lord Tennyson who wrote the following poem.

                                         More things are wrought by prayer,

                                         Than this world dreams of.

                                         Wherefore , let thy voice rise like a fountain for me night and day.

                                         For what are men better than  sheep or goats.

                                         That nourish a blind  life within the brain,

                                          If, knowing God, they lift not hands of prayer,

                                          Both for themselves and those who call them friend?.

                                          For so the whole round earth is everyway,

                                           Bound by gold chains  about the feet of God.

                                           

                                              

Doubt ( Psalm 43 v 5 )

 'I had been with him for over 3 yrs, I witnessed the miracles, I had  heard him speak, his enemies were amazed at what he said and taught, he appeared indestructible .  I never thought that he was going to die like he did, why did he die?, he was the Messiah, he was going to establish God's Kingdom on earth, why? , why?, why?. Now they are telling me that he is not dead, I don't believe it ,he was crucified,, he was dead ,and when your dead your dead. I can't believe, I won't believe'. His name was Thomas ,otherwise known as doubting Thomas, he was one the 12 disciples ,he must have felt many things  when Jesus died such a horrible death on that awful cross, doubt was one of them.  A friend of mine spoke of  her son who appears to have lost his way spiritually, she doesn't know why, she spoke of how she remembered him preaching, but now he appears to have withdrawn , struggling. There are may reasons why like Thomas people's faith can be affected, maybe like Christian in Pilgrims progress ,we all visit even briefly Doubting castle. It is good to acknowledge that , to acknowledge that sometimes we lose our way. In spite of his black hole of  doubt and despair, he did recover, we read how his Saviour manifested himself to him, for his Saviour loved him.  Today you may be struggling with doubt ,remember your Saviour still loves you.

A good feeling. ( Genesis 18 v 14 )

A well known preacher asked his sister ,what was one of the best  feeling she had?, and she answered, relief. It is very true ,as I look back on my life , I can remember so many times, I have experienced relief , in relation to my family , or when my football team one certain matches when it looked like they were going to be beat. Years ago my wife and young family were travelling home, it  was night, and the car had a puncture, and someone stopped and helped me, what a relief It was a relief when a church called me to be their minister , after so many doors had closed. Yes relief is a major thing in our lives, when a person recovers from a life threatening illness, or when a financial need is met, yes its a good feeling  . I know life has many different experiences , they are not always good, often they can be down right bad. You may be having a bad experience, there appears no way out, no relief on the horizon ,trust God for He has not left you, listen child of God ,He has not forsaken you, nor will He. He can make a way for you out of your difficulties, so don't despair, hear the word of the Lord ,''I will help you''. ( Isaiah 41 v 10 ),is that not a relief  .