Love is a burden. ( 1 Timothy 12 v 9 - 10 )

 Someone said ,'that love was a burden',it seemed a strange things to say,but as I thought  about it, there is a degree of truth in that statement. In Deuteronomy 30 v16 God commands Israel to love Him, even under the old covenant,the fulfilling of the law was a love for God and love for others Matthew 22 v 37-38. Continually we are challenged to love,should it be classed as a burden?,it is a challenge that as Christians we can't ignore,yet people do,or they reject it,yes, even Christians. We can so easily throw of love,the bible speaks of those who left their first love,and that  unforgiveness can drive out love. I wonder how many times each day do we think unloving thoughts?,say  unloving words?, once is to many.Love is always the best way even though it may be painful, and often is.but it is still the best way. God values love,so should we.When we refuse to love we shut God out, and our hearts become cold and distant.Also love truth at all times,to do other than that, will bring us into a lie,that can so easily destroy us. Remember many are not always loving ,in fact they appear unloving ,but we must love them,we must copy our Saviour, who loved us when we didn't love him. None of us are worthy of God's love, but He is worthy of our love.I can't love that  person ,should never be in our vocabulary, or even in our thoughts.Someone has said,'Love should be the center of whom we are.and we not to fake it'.Augustine said ,'Love God, and do what you like', that means we love others also.

Less of self. ( Romans 8 v 29 )

John the Baptist was a wonderful man, Jesus spoke of him,in terms of greatness, John realized that he was not the main man,he was but the messenger,but a very special messenger. He was the one the prophets foretold would come to prepare the way of the Lord (Malachi 3 v 1) .He was a very humble person, when his disciples voiced their concern that Jesus was attracting more followers than John,he told them  plainly that he was not the Messiah,and that Jesus was to become greater and greater,and that he should become less and less. ( John 3 v 27 - 30),or as the AV puts it,'that He must increase,and I must decrease'.Often the way of the world is about more power,more authority ,to become greater. There was a very well known sportsperson, what was his cry,' I am the greatest',another one said,' I am the special one'.There was a certain boastful politician who one day passed Winston Churchill in Parliament, and Winston said of him,''There but for the grace of God,goes God'. I wonder about myself, how much of Christ do I manifest?,and how much of self do I manifest?.Remember what our our dear lovely  Saviour said of those who are greatest in His kingdom, they are those who serve,he showed what that meant when He washed his disciples feet ( John 13 v1 - 17),just a little extra thought on this,that challenges me all the time,where the apostle writes of the, 'meekness and gentleness of Christ',I wonder how people would describe me.May He ,our blessed Saviour increase in all of us.

Oh,happy day, ( Psalm 32 )

 I wonder how many times we will hear the words happy over this season of Christmas?, and of course we use the word happy when it comes to birthdays.The fairy tales usually end with the words ,'and they lived happy ever after'. There was a very popular comedian who used to sing a song,called 'Happiness',all of us know a degree of happiness, I wonder what makes you happy? Well I heard a song that reminded me of a day that brought happiness into my life, a day like no other , because it changed my life, it is called ,you guessed,'Oh,happy day',the words are borrowed from a hymn by Phillip Doddridge.

                                                      Oh, happy day (Oh happy day)

                                                      Oh, happy day (Oh,happy day)

                                                     When Jesus washed ( When Jesus washed )

                                                     Oh,when Jesus washed( When Jesus washed)

                                                     He washed my sins away(Oh happy day)

                                                     O,happy day( Oh happy day)

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Things God doesn't save us from.(2) ( Proverbs 3 v 5 )

 Lets consider,'The things God doesn't save us from'. The best evidence for this is to be found in the Bible, take the life of Joseph,hated by his brothers,sold into slavery,sent into prison for something he didn't do.We know about Job,Paul with his painful thorn in the flesh,John the baptise who was beheaded,and so many more.Outside the Bible we all know many Christians who have suffered from incurable illnesses,broken marriages,the list can on and on,you could put them under things that God doesn't save us from. Why?,often we do not know,Job never really knew why God allowed him to suffer, Looking back Joseph did grasp the why he had to go through all his suffering.In Genesis 50 ,Jacob had  died,his brothers where very afraid that Joseph would now pay them back for the evil they had done to him. Joseph was a godly man,and so he speaks to them reassuring them that he would not harm them, and would continue to care for them and their families.This is what he said,''You intended to harm me, but God intended it all for good. He brought me to this position so I could saves the lives of many people.''So here is one lesson  we can learn why,give it time and you will understand  ,but it may not be until one gets to heaven .( 1 Corinthians 13 v 12 - 13) The challenge we are  faced with is to trust Him,remember He can be trusted, so trust Him.

Right thinking ( Philippians 4 v 6 - 9 )

There is a movie called,'News of World', it's setting takes place in good old  America, Tom Hanks plays the part of an ex-officer of the confederate states.He travels around the different towns reading the latest newspapers,to the local population,many cant read,and news was hard to get.I mention this because we live in time,when we are inundated with news continually,it invades our homes,we know so much that is going on in the world. Our minds are continually bombarded with disasters,murders,and so many other things,and the problem is we can let so many things take over our minds ,and it can effect us not always in a good way.There is nothing wrong with us looking at the news or whatever, but if you are a Christian, we must bear in mind that the worlds values are not God's values,when does God get a mention ?,He doesn't receive a mention not just on the news, but in most things on the media,in Colossians 3 v 2,we read 'Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things'.and I will add v 15, which reads,'And let the peace that comes from Christ rule in your hearts'.

Why. ( Ephesians 2 v 1 - 10 )

Lets continue to look at the why  ,last time we considered how because of our sinful nature,we have the potential to do awful things.That may appear very negative,after all many people do a lot of good things, we could write down a list of  people, like nurses ,doctors,etc.One can think of great people like Gandhi and many others who we admire,and there are people who raise money for charity?. Life is not totally negative,  on one level, one could say they are good,that is a human level.Even then one can also say are any of them perfect, no,and from Gods level  they are all sinners like everyone else. Religion does not change that, good works does not change that.No one is sinless in relation to their thought life,it may surprise us if we  knew  as to what others are thinking,it doesn't surprise God. Seemingly good people do not always act ,from pure motives,and sad to say,  people refuse to give praise or glory to God. As to speech I know no one whose perfect in speech , do you?,and further more, are you?. If we were all held up to the light,what would we see?  what blemishes would be revealed?. I remember many years ago, being shown how eggs were examined as to their fitness  to be sold,a light was shown through then,to see if they were bad eggs.The fact is we are all bad eggs in God sight,none of us are pure morally,we are all tainted ,affected by our fallen nature.We are all in the same boat,we all need a Saviour, and because we cannot save ourselves God in mercy has provided a way,the answer is Jesus.Stop fooling yourself, protesting your innocence , we are all deserving of hell,that means you and that means me.

Why.( 2 ) (Romans 3 v36 )

Jesus did not fail,when He was crucified, so let us consider why He came to die, why such a horrible death,we cannot sanitise it,we have to be careful not to do that, it was not a pretty picture, it was cruelty ,personified,it shows man at his worse,acting like a mere beast,they lusted after His death. Their pent up hatred for Him erupted like a destructive volcano,crucify Him ,crucify Him ,they cried out,at last we have him, thy thought, we are going to shut Him up once and for all.Such savagery was a manifestation of mankind's sinfulness at its worse,now we are closing in on the why He came to die ,mankind's sinfulness.  We must sanitise Christ death on the cross,likewise we must not minimize sin,any sin.and we must not  minimise the potential  of our fallen nature to manifest itself in the most extreme ways.You may not think you would have acted like those who crucified Jesus,but who knows,if you were there,you may have.As regards minimizing sin,one has to realise that any sin is an act of disobedience to a Holy God. The word of God clearly teaches that everyone of us sin (Romans 3 v23).that is the tragedy of our nature,sin,a nature that is desperately wicked, capable of the most awful things.

                                                 I will return to this next time.