Gods solution (John 3 v16 )

 We are sinners,it is not me who says that, but God, Romans 1 v 18,declares,'The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness.It is John the apostle who writes ,'whoever rejects the Son will not see life,for God's wrath remains on them',John 3 v36. Bruce Milne writes a number of things on the wrath of God,' that is a difficult notion to hold together with the love of God', but both are true.In Hebrews 10 v31 we read,'It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of an angry God.'But God is love,and out of a heart of love,He has provided a way to be forgiven, and that wrath to be removed.The cross were Jesus died was His solution,in 1 Peter 2 v 24,we read,'He (Jesus) himself bore our sins in his body on the tree'.The tree here is symbolically speaks of the cross, CP Deuteronomy 21 v 22-23. A .M.Stibbs writes,' To bear sin,or iniquity means in the OT  to be answerable for it,and to endure its penalty'.Christ the sinless one took the punishment for our sins,so it is, when we trust Him as our Saviour we will be no longer be under God's wrath,for He bore it. I leave you with two verses of a hymn by Philip P. Bliss.

                                             Man of sorrows! what a name

                                              For the Son of God who came

                                              Ruined sinners to reclaim

                                              Hallelujah what a Saviour!

                                              Bearing shame and scoffing rude,

                                              In my place condemned He stood;

                                              Sealed my pardon with His blood;

                                               Hallelujah! what a Saviour.

Question time. ( 1 John 4 v 1 - 17 )

The old song says,' Love is a many splendored thing, the golden crown that makes a man a king', and I'm sure we all agree to that.Think how much the word of God stress'es the importance of love,it speaks much about love , and reminds us that God is love .(1 John 4 v 8/16) .John the apostle was the author of 5 books in our NT,in 1 John 1,he mentions love over 40 times,it is significant that he and his brother were named by Jesus,' Boanerges which means,'son's of thunder'. ( Mark 3 v17 ) indicating they had as William Hendriksen say's,' a fiery nature',in Luke 9 v 54,they wanted to call down fire to destroy certain Samaritans who opposed Jesus,which earned then a rebuke from Jesus.It is interesting that John became known as the beloved  disciple,what a contrast,what a change, what a transformation. God loves us when we were His enemy,he tells us that it was God who first loved us,John writes ' This is how we know what love is; Jesus laid down His life for us',( 1 John 3 v16) and one of the emphasis in his epistle is that we love and become more like Jesus, who turned a son of thunder into a beloved disciple.I leave you with a twofold question,are we ,'sons of thunder'?, or like John who became a beloved disciple?.

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'.