A searching question. ( 1 Peter 5 v 7 )

I mentioned recently about a storm of  one's  own making,now lets consider another storm,we read about it in Mark 4 v 35 - 41,Jesus had been ministering to the multitudes,when He had finished, He told the disciple,to get into a boat to go to the other side .Easy  peasy, plain sailing,he would be with them, nothing could  go wrong..I wonder is that what you thing?.Well I am afraid you are going to be disappointed, for a big storm that threatened to swamp the boat, and to the disciples it looked like they where going to drown and what made it worse,Jesus was asleep,so they go to Him in their panic,and wake Him up. and say to Him,''Teacher, don't you care that we are going to drown?.Im sure that many people think like that when they are in the storms of life ,do you?.Today I listened to a  recording of a 102 yr old man ,called George Bev Shea,and a much younger man singing  a lovely old song,and it touched my heart,I think it answers the question,does Jesus care when we are in the storms of life,it was written by Frank  E. Graeff.

                                                     Does Jesus care when my heart is pained

                                                     Too deeply for mirth or song?

                                                     As the burdens press, and the cares distress,

                                                     And the way grows weary and long?

                                                     Does Jesus care when my way is dark

                                                     With a nameless dread and fear?

                                                     As the daylight fades into deep night shades

                                                     Does He care enough to be near?

                                                     Oh yes He cares, I know He cares

                                                     His heart is touched with my grief;

                                                    When the days are weary, and the long nights dreary,

                                                     I know my Saviour cares.

A stubborn brute ( Romans 2 v 5 )

 There are people who get fixed ideas ,like the earths flat,or a person in the cults,no matter what one says to them they will not change. I heard of a famous atheist who said ,'even if one could prove there is a God, he would not believe. ' Consider how tremendous things our Saviour did,and the wonderful words he spoke ,but all to no avail,they just would not believe. There is a saying that goes',Convince a man against his will, and he remains of that opinion still'. This stubbornness comes down to the will, that's the fortress of men and women's hearts,their wills, that are captivated,by their fallen nature, and Satan's power..The sad thing is they will refuse to believe in Jesus. It reminds me of an Irish song, sung by Val Doonican, about a donkey ,that was entered for the half mile race,but it refused to move,They attacked it, shoved it, smacked it,but it would not move one bit,as the song says, they may as well have tried to push the town hall down,all the donkey did was eye them, and openly defied them.In the end they all carried the stubborn brute ,and believe it or not it won the half mile race. Its an amusing little song, that's all it is, but the fact is that mankind's stubbornness is no joke and has serious consequences, We read in Genesis 6 v 3,   God's Spirit will not always strive with man,and shortly after this we read God saying, ''I will destroy man''. v7.

                                                ' Come to the Saviour make no delay'

What is an Evangelical? ( Ephesians 2 v 8- 10 )

 An article on the internet points out five Solas (alone) Scripture alone/Grace alone/Christ alone/ Faith alone/ To the glory of God alone.We have looked at scripture last  time,and that everything written ,taught, and preached by Godly people ,must be based on scripture. Now faith is not a work it is a gift,it is the instrument by which through the grace of God we are saved ( Ephesians 2 v 8) .The term grace  teaches  us  clearly that our works have no part in saving us,the Roman Catholic Church disagrees with that, and placed a curse on  those who ruled out works.We look at the difficulties that the early church had from those who believed that faith in Christ was not enough to save us ,in Galatians 2 v 11, we have the  apostle Paul challenging those who were trying to add things unto the Gospel.If we are saying that there must be a plus on the means of Salvation,we nullify the finished  work of Christ.As one has said,'You can't earn grace, otherwise its not grace, not a gift'.Do works play any part in our salvation? the simple answer is no Revelation 21 v 6/ Romans 4 v1 - 6./Isaiah 55 v 1- 2. The question you may ask,where does works fit in?,after all James appears to say that we are saved by faith and works CP James 2 v 14 - 26, is he contradicting what the apostle Paul teaches, no he is not ,Paul is teaching from a judicial  point of view,while James is writing from an evidential point of view.James 2 v 18 declares,'Show me your faith'.I know of many people who are involved in so many ways ,doing good works, but none of them are doing them ,to be saved,good works should come naturally to every Christian.

Hope . ( Psalm 43 )

I read this by Herbert Lockyer as regards not knowing,on a  personal level, he is commenting on the words from Psalm 43,the Psalm was written by David who was experiencing real difficulties,he is praying,and he asked God,'why had He rejected him? '.Here are those comments by H.L 'it may appear as if God has rejected us,but we must never mistake our fears for actualities.Permitting mysterious trials to overtake us.God can best expound their design to us.'David  throws these desponded thoughts off,he speaks to himself,v 5'Why my soul, are you downcast?Why so disturbed within me?. He was giving himself a good talking too,yes things are bad, but that is not the end  of the story,  God has not rejected me,so he utters these words,words not just spoken to himself but to all God's children,' Put your hope in God',it has with it a sense of waiting for God to act. These words are written for the child of God ,those who know Christ as Saviour, our relationship with God,means we can have confidence in our God  to help us and bring us through our trials. There is a song written by  K.L.Suffield ,here are the words.

                                       ' God is still on the throne and He will remember His own.

                                        Though Trials may press us,and burdens distress us;

                                        He never will leave us alone,His promise is true He will forsake His own,

                                                               God is still on the throne.' 

He can. ( Psalm 46 )

 At this time when Russia has invaded Ukraine many people are saying,'I can't believe this has happened', what they are actually saying,they don't understand why Russia has done this. I cast my mind back to the 20th century,and its unbelievable that there where so many conflicts. Millions and millions  of people died, ,why?,because it seems that its part of our human nature to be violent. What Russia has done should not surprise us,we would like to think that mankind has become too civilised to start a war, but alas our idea that humanity is getting better and better, is a vain dream, a deluded dream.As long as we live, wars will continue to hunt humanity,nothing can stop it.well no human can.God is Sovereign not man, I  want you to read these  words from Psalm 46 v 9- 10 carefully and prayerfully,

                                       'He makes wars to cease, to the ends of the earth.

                                       He breaks the bow,and shatters the spear;

                                       He burns the shields  with fire.

                                       He says,'Be still, and know that I am God;

                                       I will be exalted among the nations,

                                       I will be exalted in the earth.'

                                       The Lord Almighty is with us;

                                       the God of Jacob is our fortress.

What is an Evangelical? ( 2 Peter 1 v 21)

 Diarmaid MacCulloch writing in his book on Thomas Cromwell says that in the early stage of the English Reformation the adherents of the reformation did not use the term 'Protestant', but rather the term ,'Evangelical'. I think I prefer that, rather than the term ,'Protestant'. because the word Protestant,has lost its original meaning.In Northern Ireland ,Protestant may simply mean you are not a Roman Catholic it does not mean one is a Christian. So when I say that I am an Evangelical,what does that mean? the cry of the reformation was,'Scripture alone', and Faith alone'. Scripture alone means, that one only accepts that the only bases of ones faith is the Bible, and that any other authority will be rejected.One adheres to the fundamental doctrines of Christianity,and believes in the inerrancy of the Bible. Here is a quote by, A.A.Hodge.' The   Scriptures  in their entirety are the Word of God, free from any error which might be caused by human admixture'.Next we believe the Bible is the inspired Word of God,'the Scriptures we are told are said to be God breathed; that holy men spake from God as they were moved by the Holy Spirit ( E.J.Young). So it is the only authority that the Christian accepts ,as being true,and by which  we judge everything ,our doctrines ,our behaviour, all things, there must be no compromise on this,if we do we are on a slippery  slope that will take us into error.

                                                  Every part of Scripture is God-breathed.

                                                                2 Timothy 3 v 16.

God's answer. ( Isaiah 53 )

 I was sitting in what we call our living room,and I heard a loud thumbing sound,I jumped up  to investigate, my brother in law who lives with us,had  slipped down a few steps of our stairs, fortunately he didn't hurt himself. I jokingly said to him ,be careful  you know what happened to Jack and Jill (A nursery rhyme),they went up a hill, they both fell down ,but Jack came off the worse, for he broke his crown.It is easy to fall and really hurt oneself. Now look all the wrong things in the world,wars and rumors of wars , there is so much evil in this world, so much,it is very very sad.The question is why?,why?,why?, yes and why again?.the answer is very simple,two innocent people did an awful thing,they sinned,and that was the start of something awful, human kind had a great, great fall.It brought spiritual death upon us,our relationship with God everything was drastically changed.We see how drastic it was when we see the extreme lengths God had to go to,in order that we might be saved.

                                             On a hill far away stood an old rugged cross,

                                            the emblem of suffering and shame;

                                            and I love that old cross where the dearest and best

                                            For a world of lost sinners was slain.