Could it be? ( Acts 13 v 2 - 3 )

 What did the prophets,the disciples, have in common?, they all were called of God to proclaim God's truth,Moses received his call while looking after sheep, likewise Amos, Paul was called nearly from the moment he was saved. We don't know how they all received their call by God, but we know they did, they were not disobedient to the heavenly vision.( Acts 26 v 19 ) In a sense every Christian  is called to serve God,but there are those who called to be missionaries, ministers, or to start up orphanages,or medical work, or whatever.I listened to a modern Christian song by Dan Schutte ,the chorus goes.

                                                         ' Here I am, Lord, Is it I, Lord?

                                                          I have heard your calling in the night,

                                                          I will go ,Lord, if you lead me,

                                                          I will hold your people in my heart.'

Could God be calling you to serve him in a new way? well,will you obey it?,will you say, here I am Lord, send me.

Kindness ( 1 Corinthians 3 v 10 - 15. )

A friend and I were talking about something,and  he said to me,how that God is kind, F.W .Faber ,wrote a hymn ,here are two verses from it.

                                                   'There's a wideness in God's mercy,

                                                    Like the wideness of the sea;

                                                    There's a kindness in his justice                                    

                                                     For the love of  God is broader

                                                    Than the measures of man's mind;

                                                     And the heart of the Eternal

                                                     Is most wonderfully kind.' 

As I look back on my life I remember may times people were kind to me,we do remember kindnesses shown to us, over the years.Many years ago ,when I was walking to church we had no car, could not afford to buy one, a  lady from our church  pulled up in her car,and asked me if I would like to have it.Mark Twain said,''Kindness is the language  which the deaf can hear, and the blind can see''.God remembers the kindness we show to others,in Matthew 10 v 42, we read,' And if you give even a cup of cold water to one of the least of my followers, you will surely be rewarded'. Kindness includes not just giving financially,but befriending someone, giving a lift to someone,etc, the deed is important, but it must be wrapped in love. Just for moment stop and give thanks to God for all the kindness he has shown you. 

Don't despair. { Romans 8 v 31 - 39 )

 It is to so easy to be very negative about life, disease  has ravaged the world,the immense suffering that is going on in this little planet.A young lady I heard speaking at a church,stressed the environmental crises in ,as I listened I said to myself,'' here we go again.''I'm not saying we should ignore these things, of course we should do all we can, to make this world a better place. The fact is I know of  many Christians through out this world who are contributing to the well being of the sick and the suffering,of missions who are involved with children ,educating them,giving them so much love and care ,and so I could go on. There are a vast amount of Christians who really care for  for humanity , by prayer,by giving,by going,by loving actions,it is part of being a Christian.As a Christian I cannot ignore the suffering of others, but the word of God tells us that we live in a fallen world,and a world that will not get better,and in God's time will be replaced by a new heaven and a new earth,and the wonderful thing is, we will be part of it,if you are not a Christian,you will not be part of it,unless you trust Jesus as your Saviour.  God loves you,your life may be a total mess,you feel that you have nothing,no hope ,no purpose ,no future,come to Jesus surrender to Him,hand your life over to Him, and everything will change for the better.

                                                    'Christ in you the hope of glory'

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Spam ( Proverbs 7 )

 I rarely go into the spam section of my email, but recently I did and found emails I was looking for,but as I looked for them,I noticed girls names appearing. I didn't open them,for the one line that appeared was enough to show that they were trying to allure me into a relationship. I have deleted some of them,I will delete them all in time. I found it all very sad,and was somewhat angry at what those people are doing. I could see how easily they could trap vulnerable people, who crave for sex,and also crave for love.The internet on the whole can be used for good,but also for evil,usually its  peoples money they are after. They don't care who they hurt and harm, or even destroy,just as long as they get money. Let us all remember that mankind from the day they are born are born  with a sinful nature, its called original sin. If I were to say to you there are no perfect people,you would agree with that,it is obvious.there is that within man, that is wrong,original sin.So dear Christian reader, be on your guard,stay close to God,shun those wrong things on the internet ,If you are not a Christian ,remember your greatest need is not sex or money, but Christ,  seek Him,and he will forgive your sins and set you free.

We have an enemy. ( Psalm 51 )

I was listening to my very favourite preacher,Chuck Swindoll, and one of the first things he said was.''We can be our own worse enemy''.That's very true,take king David,he had many enemies, the giant Goliath, the Philistines,King Saul, and later on his own son ,Absalom, but the biggest enemy he had to face was,you've guessed,himself. Which led him to commit adultery,then murder,no one forced  him to do such a terrible evil.it was all about David.Shakespeare wrote,'Man know thyself''.If we would take seriously what God 's word teaches  us as regards our fallen nature,things can be different,to be forewarned is to be forearmed.Our fallen nature is inclined to cause us to fall, Chuck quoted someone who said,'Don't just read the Bible,let the bible read you',that means we will be left  with no excuse if we fall morally into sin,its not just self awareness,but Bible awareness that will be to our advantage in dealing with public enemy number one, ourselves.How do we avoid falling into sin,by avoiding those things that can trip us up. Joseph ran from sin,so often we run into sin,the result disaster.And again as Chuck said,'' we must fight our battles on our knee's'', we must take these things very seriously,as our dear Saviour said to the disciples,'Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation, why?,'The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak'.Matthew 26 v 41.

 

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Are you desperate? Psalm 34.

 I heard a preacher speaking of a godly man who  prayed a wonderful prayer ,the preacher spoke of the desperation in his  prayer,many of you I'm sure have in desperation, prayed to God. Such a prayer has no frills in it,when bold Peter  who walked like our Saviour on the water ( Matthew 14 v 25 -31 ),lost faith,and began to sink, he cried out to the Lord to save him,it was a desperate prayer.One translation puts it like this,'he was terrified and began to sink, 'Save me Lord!' he shouted.One reads of many people being healed by our Lord,they were desperate, and out of that desperation they cried  to the Lord,and the Lord answered.Let me say this again desperate prayer,is not about the niceties,it comes from the heart, often  from a broken heart .In Psalm 34 v 18 , we read,'The Lord is close to the broken hearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit', Desperate prayers get to the point,God is not impressed by empty words that go on and on, spoken as if to impress God,we can't impress God, nor should we try. In our desperation we need to get to the point ,desperate prayers come from the heart,the center of our being,our inner self, not our intellect CP Proverbs 3 v 5.Desperate prayers come from the poor in spirit,our poverty of being,Psalm 34 v 6 reads 'This poor man called, and the Lord heard him; he saved him out of all his troubles'.

                                            'I call out at the top of my lungs,

                                            ''God!Answer! I'll do whatever 

                                             you say.'  ( The Message)

 

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One thing leads to another. 2 ( Revelation 3 v 1 - 3 )

Lets continue looking at Isaiah 29 v 13,'And so the Lord says,''These people say they are mine. They honour me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me, and their worship of me is nothing but man-made rules learned by rote'.Consider,'but their hearts are far from me',one has said if we feel that sense of distance with God ,we can be assured that God has not moved.Let us put it in  a modern setting, they were just going to church,they must have thought that was all that was expected of them.Of course its not if that all it is, its legalism, when we attend our local fellowship it has or it should have, the ministry of the word of God .That word should touch our hearts,and create in us a desire for our God. The problem with the people we are considering is they were not getting the word of God, they were getting as  Barry Webb puts it, 'false religion',he writes,' False religion is the very worst kind of pride because it attempts to make God our servant instead of recognizing that we are his'.Let us move to the time of Jeremiah ,the weeping prophet, were we see nothing had changed ,in 5 v 31,we read,' The prophets give false prophecies, and the priests rule with an iron hand. Worse yet, my people like it that way!Our dear Lord was faced with the same thing CP Mark 7 v7.The result would be as foretold in v 14 of Isa 29,I quote Barry Webb,' God's judgement would reduce proud Jerusalem to the most abject weakness and helplessness'.

                                                'There is no substitute for the word of God'