Are you homesick?.( Philippians 1 v 21 - 23 )

 'Since , then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at  the right of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ , who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory'. ( Colossians 3 v 1 - 4 ) I wonder what you think of these words?,or do you think of them ?, often I do long for home.  Richard Baxter who wrote a book called,'The Saints Everlasting Rest', said the following', 'That he noted the difference between his own prayers in times of health in contrast  to sickness , in prosperity versus adversity. Hardship quickened his pace  and heightened his appetite for rest. He felt  a kind of homesickness  for another world and sought God more urgently'. Also writing about afflictions he said,' Afflictions can serve  a most useful purpose in keeping  us from mistaking  this  as our time of rest, If we fall too much in love with the world, afflictions rudely breaks the spell'. May God give us grace to value the things of eternity, more that the things of this world, more than our very lives.

Grace. ( 2 Corinthians 12 v 7 - 10 )

I listened to a Christian couple telling there story, it centered around the death of their young daughter, who ate bread with a sesame seed in it, unfortunately she suffered  from an allergy,the result was she died.As you can imagine this devastated the couple,they had all sorts of feeling, the wife had anger towards her husband,  and deep feelings of guilt.Yes to say the least they were two troubled hurting individuals. but something  wonderful happen. They spoke of going to church,and how that helped,but the wife said something  very   lovely, she spoke of .'The GRACE OF GOD WASHING OVER ME'. that brought a change for the better. The question we could ask , what is the grace of God ?,well it is God extending favour, unmerited favour in relation to salvation, there is nothing any of us can do to save ourselves,so it takes God to extend His divine favour to us,when by faith we trust as Jesus as our Saviour. But it carries on into our Christian life,take the apostle Paul who suffered from a severe physical  affliction.God was not going to heal him,but He told him that His grace would be sufficient for him , what did that mean .?A  dear friend of mine said this,it is''The attributes of God working on the behalf  of the believer,are made available for the believers use''. In other words all God's resources would be available for Paul, and for you and for me .

                                           Through many dangers, toils, and snares

                                           I have already come;

                                           Tis grace has brought me safe thus far,

                                           And grace will lead me home.

                                                Words John Newton

Chaos ( John 1 v 14 )

 What is one the most important things in life?, stop and think about that for a moment, the answer is, 'Truth'.I just heard someone saying something that was very profound, 'The opposite of truth is is not just a lie. The opposite of truth is chaos'.There are many  examples of this in life,think of the suffering experienced by the world by the  like of  Hitler,Stalin, Islam, and countless others.Think of the many individuals who spun lies, con men,and the chaos they have brought to lives. The greatest example of this is when the devil lied  to Eve and Adam, and the chaos that has followed ,and will continue to follow humanity,until Christ comes back again.Islam who deny that Christ never died, and relegate Him to being a mere prophet. The result is they condemn millions and millions of their followers to hell ,the same goes for the cults,and the many who follow Darwinism,and his self creating nonsense. We live in a world were for many, chaos reigns, those who become addicts are often into denial,  the result is their lives are ruled and ruined by their addiction, I once read of woman who let people who paid her, to have sex with her child,it all started  with them believing a lie,that drugs would do them no harm. Let me point you to Jesus, who is the way ,the truth,  and the life, that is what He said,He deceived no one, He always spoke the truth. and to those who trust Him they find Him wholly true.

Blessed or Happy? ( Psalm 32 v 1 -2 )

 In Matthew 5 v 3- 12,we have what is known  as the, 'Beatitudes', there are nine of them, and they all start with the word blessed. Some would change the word blessed to happy,but  most translations put blessed.the word beatitude means ,'Supreme Blessedness'.In other words all those who come under these blessed's are supremely blessed, those who are poor in spirit,those who mourn,those who are meek. and so on. Of course we must learn what these  words mean,for example, 'Poor in spirit',what does that mean?,after all we do not associate poverty with being blessed. Yet our dear Lord says they are blessed,but He is not talking about material poverty,he is speaking of  being poor in spirit,if we are to know that supreme blessedness,it is by in lying prostrate before the cross of Christ,in abject poverty of spirit. We are not claiming any merit what soever,confessing that we are not worthy to come into God presence ,deserving only of God's wrath,that's the meaning of poor in spirit.It does not finish there, for we must ask Jesus to be our Saviour, to forgive our sins,and then we are truly ,blessed.

The cross. ( Philippians 2 v 5- 11)

After Danish England, about the 10th century,monks would go  out to spread the gospel,they would enter a village , and the first thing they would do was set up a wooden cross in the center of the village. The villagers would come out ,and the monks would preach to them. It goes without saying that the cross is central to Christianity, in fact ,if we  remove the cross from Christianity it losses its meaning. C.H. Spurgeon stated,'The cross is the centre of our system', and Campbell Morgan said,'that every living experience of Christianity begins at the cross'.Unlike Islam we do not advocate killing anyone, rather we rejoice in the one who voluntary gave His life on that cross ,that we might live.No one forced Jesus to die on the cross, John 10 v 18,reads,' No one can takes my life from me,I sacrifice it voluntarily'. There is an old saying in the army,'never volunteer', for you never know what you are letting yourself in for. Our dear Saviour knew what he was letting Himself in for,yes in eternity He knew ,for we read that He 'was the lamb slain from the foundation of the world.' ( Revelation 13 v 8 ).During his time with his disciples He told them clearly that He was going to die, Matthew 16 v21 ,'Jesus began to explain to his disciples that He would suffer many things at the hands of the elders, and the chief priests and the teachers of the Law, and that He must be killed and on the third day be raised to life'.We will continue this next time.

                                                   On a hill far away stood an old rugged cross,

                                                   And on that cross was Jesus.

                                                   

The Message of the Cross. ( 2 )( Isaiah 53)

 I borrow the title for my message, from a book by Derek Tidball,  What is the message of the cross?, let me try an explain it, I am going to use something that Guy Fawkes said. In case you don't know,he an a group of others were involved in what became known as the gun powder plot.England had become a Protestant country,but there were those who wanted to turn the country back to Catholicism.So they planned to blow up the English parliament,and replace it with a Catholic  government.This is what Fawkes had to say,'A desperate disease requires a dangerous remedy', now I want to borrow those words and change one word,'A desperate disease requires a dreadful remedy',Then in your minds eye picture the cross,and Jesus hanging on the cross,we read in Isaiah 52 v 14,' His appearance was beyond that of any human being,and His form marred beyond human likeness'.Also we read that on that cross, yes that dreadful cross,that awful cross,in Isaiah 53 v10,' It  was the Lords will to crush Him,that crushing involved, taking the punishment for sin ,our sin.His death was dreadful, but it was the only remedy for sin, that dreadful disease that afflicts every human being. It means that through that death, that dreadful death, all who trust in Jesus as Saviour will have their  sins  forgiven, that's the message of the cross.

                                                        He took my sins and my sorrows,

                                                        He made them His very own;

                                                        He bore the burden to Calvary

                                                       And suffered and died alone

                                                                 Words C.H. Gabriel.

                                                    

Worry. ( Psalm 23 v 1 )

 Bobby Mc Ferrin wrote  a song that became very popular,here's the first verse,'Don't worry ,Be happy, In every life we have some trouble,When you worry you make it double.Don't worry be  happy'. I remember a song from my childhood written by Ralph Edwards and John Saxton, which had the following words,'Don't worry ,be happy, next time you have the measles or flu. Thank your lucky stars,it's not pneumonia too'Most people worry, yes even us Christians ,yes myself included.Can we come to that place were we will not worry?, I  can't answer that question,in Matthew 10 v19, Jesus says to His disciples,' do not worry',the context is, as regards future persecution ,and when they stand before their persecutors the Holy Spirit will teach them what to say.In Matthew 6 v 25 ff ,He again tells us not to worry about our lives, and what we wear ,and what we eat.again is that possible?. Well consider those two ,do not worry, words  from Jesus,are telling us why we should not worry,and the answer is God, He will help us and provide for us.He reminds us that God is our heavenly Father,and He can be relied upon to help us His children. Here is something that might help us ,written by Willian Hendriksen, 'Whenever worry raises its head, knock it down at once. Jesus forbids not only the habit of worrying, but its very beginning'.But He also goes unto to say,' Seek first His kingdom and his righteousness,and all these things will be given to you. ( Matthew 6 v  33)