Wine and Vinegar.( Ecclesiastes 7 v 8 )

It is John Piper who wrote a book called ' A Sweet and Bitter Providence', it is a based upon the book of Ruth. There are two main women in this book, Naomi , and Ruth,and both experienced what the Puritan Richard Baxter calls,'wine and vinegar', in the same cup. Naomi lost her husband ,and sons,and Ruth lost her husband. The book starts by telling us how Elimelek ,Naomi's husband and their two sons, left Israel because of Famine,and they went to the land of Moab. There the two sons married Moabite women,one called Orpah and Ruth, during the next ten years the three men died. A bitter providence.That meant that the three women were left in dire straits,no social security in those days,so it was a difficult time, but then a light of hope shone into the situation. Naomi heard encouraging news,that God in his mercy had come to the aid of his people providing them with food, so here we have a sweet providence. So Naomi told her two daughters- in - laws that she was going to return home.Naomi was a very understanding woman,she told them it would be better if they stayed in their own land. Orpah did stay in the land of Moab, but dear Ruth refused to leave her mother -in -law.This would became a very sweet providence, for as you read the whole story you would discover, that God would bring blessing upon Naomi, Israel, and the world,which is and was a very sweet providence. ( 4 v  13 - 22)

War on truth. ( John 14 v 6 )

 Is truth important?, are we Christians  not just being narrow minded?are we not just being divisive?,it depends on your view point,it was Pilate who  said ,'what is truth?'. We look at the world, so many opinions, so many religions,confusion reigns,and like Pilate we may ask the question the same question as Pilate.There is a book  called,  'Who moved the stone', written by man called,Frank Morrison. When he set out to write the book he was not a Christian, but he was intrigued by the person of  Christ, and the last days of his life, let us bear in that Christ was an historical person,his life and death are historical facts.  Frank believed that, but he wanted to rid His life of the seemingly miraculous accounts associated with his life and death.But as he wrote his book the evidence convinced him of those very things ,he was sceptical of. Yes Christ had died on the cross but also on the third day, he rose from the dead.After He rose from the dead  he was seen by over 500 people,and we have personal accounts of  some of the people he met with .Frank Morrison became a Christian, convinced by evidence of his life, death and resurrection. They were historical facts,but they were more than that,they were about a person who was equal with God coming from heaven,for the sole purpose,of dying on cross. He was sinless, but on the cross He died that we can have our sins forgiven,it also meant He would bear the punishment for our sins,that is very important.So Jesus accomplished a perfect salvation, for all those who trust Him to be their Saviour, that is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

                                                Read Isaiah 52 v13-15/ 53v 1 -12.

Its the nature. ( 1 Timothy 1 v 12 - 17.)

 In a local residential place that is near were I live 10 elderly people have contacted covid , one of the reasons this has happened, they have stopped taking the danger serious. Very few of them wear a mask,and they have mixed freely with crowds of people, one hopes that all of them will survive.I want to broaden this out and see what spiritual lessons we can learn from this. It appears that we must always be on our guard against sin,and I would add to this Satan. Sin nor Satan has not gone away, when the head of the UN visited Ukraine,he said ,'this should not be happening in the 21st century'. Why should he say such a thing?, does he think that wars should  have ceased because it is the 21st century?. It does not work like that,the reason being  humanity is a fallen humanity ,and one of the characteristics of that fallen nature can be summed up in the words of Romans 3 v 15, 'Their feet are swift to shed blood.' in other words,'it is the nature of the beast',I use the term beast symbolically, unfortunately,nothing can change that,unless they receive a new nature.That happens when people repent and trust Jesus to be their Saviour. One of the greatest examples of this was the apostle Paul,before he became a Christian, he was a very violent person,that all changed when he came to know Christ.

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Wait and see. ( Romans 8 v28 )

A story is told of a farmer  who found out one day  that his only horse had run off, a friend said,'I heard you have lost your only horse, how awful',the farmer replied,'' we will see''. The next day his horse  came back, and it had with it another horse. One day the farmer was robbed,and the same neighbour said to him  ,'how awful', the farmer replied,''we will see''. Later on in the week he was walking in his field,and he stumbled over a mound of earth,he investigated what it was,to his surprise he found buried treasure.Later on his son had an accident, and broke his leg,when his neighbour heard about it,he went to the farmer,and said ,'how awful', the farmer replied,''we will see'.Not long after that the Lord who ruled that country, was raising an army ,to fight in a war with his enemies.When he came to the farmers home to enlist the farmers son to fight in his army, he was excluded from army service, because of his broken leg.We are often are guilty of making judgements on the immediate happenings, instead of saying ,'we will see',for the word of God says,that all things are working together for our good,in light of that ,we must trust our all knowing, all seeing God, who has a plan for all His children's lives,  yes let us patiently,' wait and see,' ,how God will eventually work things out.

Hope or no hope . ( Romans 15 v 13 )

 In 2 Corinthians 5 v 7 we read,'For we  walk by faith, not by sight'.remember faith see's beyond the natural,the unsaved doesn't, they only see what they see ,nothing else.And so they place their hopes ,values, aims in material and fleeting things,the big one is science.E.K.Simpson ,writes, 'Man was left to his own inventions  long enough  to demonstrate the futility of his vaunted  wisdom and the inadequacy of his cherished resources. such as modern science who modify the externals of life, not always beneficently, that does not fill its aching voids nor quench its raging thirsts'. But those who walk by faith have found in Christ what he promised,'would never thirst again ( John 4 v 13 - 14)Those who walk by faith will always have hope,ask yourself the question ,what hope is there for anyone ,threatened by so many things,disease,  and a multitude of other things . There is a story of a little boy who saved his town by putting his finger in a hole of the dyke ,he kept it there until the towns people came and repaired the dyke. ( In Holland  much of the land is below sea level, so they built dykes ,to save then from flooding),When we apply that to humanity it seems when we put our finger in the dyke, yet the problem only gets worse. The one who walks by faith has hope because he see's a Sovereign God ,who is called the God of hope,(Romans 15 v 13) without God there is no hope, so dear Christian friend  hope thou in God,keep walking by faith in Christ,in contrast to a world that is walking in darkness.

Faithful. ( 1 Corinthians 4 v 1 - 5 )

 I wonder what you think of the following,' God did not put us in this world to be successful,He put us in this world to be faithful'. This was a statement I heard recently,that encourages me because  I cannot say I have been successful,I have witnessed to many people,not many have come to the Lord that I can tell.The church'es that I have led were very small,I did preach regularly, but usually the numbers were small.My blog has not got  a big following,so is it all pointless,  all I can say is,I have sought to be faithful.In 1 Corinthians 4 v 2, we read ,' Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful.' in v4 -5  ,we read,'It is the Lord who judges me. Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time,wait until the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of the heart. At that time each will receive their praise from God'.

                                 'God did not put us in this world to be successful

                                          He put us in this world to be faithful'.

Imagine ( Matthew 10 v 28 )

 Imagine there's no heaven ,no hell,no religion, here we have some of the words from a song by John Lennon,it was a best seller. Imagination  is a wonderful gift, we all have, but no matter how much we imagine something it does make it so. Fairy tales are imagery tales nothing more, nothing less,the cow cant jump over the moon,nor pigs fly,there is no superman, the moon isn't made of cheese,nor is there a man in the moon.These and many other things are not real,there are no such things as ghost's,and so we could on imagining.Lets get real, there is a heaven,the historical Jesus proved that when He ascended to heaven, there is a hell for the historical Jesus told us there was,and in hell there are no atheist.There is religion ,now I am going say to something,that I hope makes you think,all religions but one are the delusional imaginings of people,they are taking their followers,to the place that will not go away, by  their imaginations,that is hell. There is a song with these words in it,' Wake up to reality', hell is real, and if you don't know Christ as your Saviour, that is were you will be going.Don't be carried away by Lennon's folly, for that what it is folly. Believe the words of the historical Son of God, Jesus,who through his historical death on the cross, made a way back to God from the dark paths of sin.

                                                     Flee from the wrath to come