Warn them. ( Acts 1 v 8 )

  My wife  opened the letter, and she said the dreaded word, we have been fined,she had  failed to pay the toil charge,we thought we were covered.So we phoned up the authorities to plead our case ,and as we did  we realised we hadn't paid the toil. But here is the good news we were told that we would be let of the fine, and all we had to pay was the outstanding toil charge. We asked why?,and were told is was a warning,if we did it again we would have to pay the fine.We would be foolish to ignore that warning, it would not be the end of the world if we didn't,but let us think about the whole idea of heeding warnings.Some are very serious, to ignore them could cost you your very life.  In ancient times when people lived in walled cities, people were employed as watchmen, they would warn the people if an enemy was coming,if he failed in his job, he would be held responsible for the loss of life.In Ezekiel 33 we read how God appointed Ezekiel to be a watchman v 7 - 9,he was to warn the people as regards their sin,and that they need to turn from their sin to God.If Ezekiel refused to do this he would be held accountable.Hear this dear Christian, we live in a sinful world ,judgement day is coming, nothing can stop it,people need to be warned.When was the last time you witnessed about the only one who can save them from God's wrath,, remember  we are  accountable.

                                             Jesus said ,' you will be my witnesses '.

Perish the thought. ( 1 Peter 1 v 6 - 9 )

 It is David Atkinson in his book on Job, writes, ' There are times when we are tempted to give up on God altogether, or believe that he must have given up on us'. I wonder how I would feel if I experienced  the pain that Job  felt,at the loss of his children,possessions,and health?. His wife told him to curse God and die,then his three friends turned up,and they were not a lot of good,Job  called them miserable comforters.  I am reminded of what Jacob said in the midst of his troubles,'Everything is against me', I wonder if you have ever said this,or thought it?.Contrary to what some people say ,that wealth health and prosperity should be our lot. We look at many of the saints in the Bible, and observe the difficulties they had to face,and through out history  so many lovely Christians suffered a great deal. King David suffered a great deal,in one time of trouble he declared,'My  heart is in anguish within me; the terrors of death have fallen on me. Fear and trembling have beset me; horror has overwhelmed me.' and then he declares,'Oh that I had wings of a dove! I would fly away and be at rest. I would  flee far away and stay in the desert;' Psalm 55 v 4 - 7.He is honest enough to admit to us how he felt, he didn't go around with a forced smile on his face.As we look a David's history we see clearly that God never give up on him,and He will not give up on you or me,never, He has promised us that He will never leave us,and will never forsake us. Hebrews 13 v 5.As for us giving up on God,perish the thought,I heard a preacher say this,'There are no advantages in giving up on God,' none whatsoever,let me assure you ,that on your own it will be harder, take my word for it.

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.