Persecution ( John 15 v18 - 25 )

I receive information as regards the persecuted church,people being murdered ,one minister wrote the following\, 'In our country death has become a daily meal'.What sorrow fills those words,but it reminds us what our lovely Saviour said,'If the world hates you,keep in mind that it hated me first......I have chosen you out of the world, That is why the world hates you........ if they persecuted me, they will persecute you also.  John 15 v 18 - 19. Bruce Milne  writes of the Christians in the early church  suffering in the most appalling ways , slaughtered by the thousand,at times with a refinement of cruelty which numbs the mind. He also writes of one church leader who said,' So much popular Western evangelical  religiosity is so shallow and selfish. It promises so much and demands so little. It offers success, personal happiness,peace of mind, material prosperity; but it hardly speaks of repentance, sacrifice, self denial, holy lifestyle, and willingness to die for Christ'. BM writes ,' Following Jesus is not a game.' I will leave you with words from a poem by Amy Carmichael.

                                 'Hast thou no scars? No hidden scar on foot , or side or hand?

                                 Hast thou no wounds? Yet I  was wounded by the archers , spent,

                                 Leaned me against a tree to die; and rent by ravening beasts that

                                 compassed Me, I swooned.hast thou no wounds?

                                 No wound? no scar?  Yet as the Master shall the servant be,

                                 And pierced are the feet that follow Me;

                                 But thine are whole; can he have followed far,

                                 Who has not wound  nor scar'

                                

                                

                                  

The holiness of God.(John 1 v 29 )

It appears nigh impossible for us to fully grasp the holiness of God,because we also can't grasp the seriousness of our sin .In God's eyes all sin is repulsive, He abhors it,He hates it,He detests it.Often we  just  think  of sin on its own,but sin and  the sinner go together,you cannot have one without the other. It is not possible for any one to have a relationship with God if their sin has not been forgiven,that means heaven is shut to you,whoever you are,it makes no difference. In Romans 1 v 18,we read ,'The wrath of God is revealed against all the godlessness and wickedness of people'.This means that the wrath of God  rests on everyone whose sins have not being forgiven.(John 3 v36 )Sin and holiness can never go together,they are at odds with one another. Our attitude to God's holiness should be one of fear,as Bruce Milne points out as regards the terror of the holiness of God,even as a Christian,we should always walk in the fear of a holy God,because you are saved don't think God will overlook your sin. CP John 13 v10.God will chastise His erring Jesus.(Hebrews 12 v 7ff, and yet one will still be saved,because of the cross of Christ, If you are not saved then as I pointed out hell awaits, there is hope,for God in His mercy has provided a way for you to have a relationship with Him by having your sins forgiven through faith in Jesus Christ.

The holiness of God. ( Isaiah 6 v 3 )

 God is holy, I have never heard a sermon on the holiness of God,I find that very strange,I wonder why?,of course it is mentioned by most evangelical preachers in their sermons,but as I have said I have not heard anyone preaching on that subject. The hymn writer wrote'Only Thou art holy'.this applies to all the Godhead ,Father ,Son,and Holy Spirit'.In 1 John 1v 5, we read,'God is light; in Him there is no darkness at all'. J.I.Packer writes,When John says that God is 'light', with no darkness in Him at all, the image is affirming God's holy purity'. He also writes,'Every facet of God's nature and every aspect of His character may properly be spoken of as holy, just because it is His. The core of the concept however is God's purity,which cannot tolerate any form of sin '.(Habakkuk 1 v 13 ) It is important to stress there is only one God  Isaiah 46 v9, we don't have two different god's,the God of the OT is the God of the NT. When man sinned that created a major problem, for sin separates us from God. It means there is a gulf between us and God, (Isaiah 59 v 2/ John 3 v 36 ) and that includes every human being.The holiness of God will never change,that will never be compromised,unlike humanity who see holiness as something oppressive,that takes the fun out of life,ignoring the fact that much we engage in ,destroys life.We will look at this next time, I will leave you with this thought,the holiness of God is something to be feared,Bruce Milne writes of the terror of the holiness of God.

Fear not. ( Hebrews 13 v 5 - 6)

I was looking at what some people are saying as regards  the elections in the land of the free,USA, some were expressing fear,indeed  one can understand that,not just for that great country,but for the world. The war in Ukraine, climate change,and so the list goes,in the UK the government are doing their best to help people,but they cant help everybody financially.There are so many things that cause us to be afraid and we can't make light of them.As a Christian I at times have felt fear different ,I am 78 I have had my moments when I have been afraid, I have not always smiled in the storm. Looking back at my life I have taken risks,some would have said foolhardy, stepping out to go to bible college  for 4 yrs with no money, it proved to be difficult and testing, we had a young family to care for,but God brought us through. I come from a troubled land,we lived through the troubles,God looked after us. I will always remember coming to England to be a minister,we had a little car,and we drove down from the ferry in  Scotland, that morning I read these words,in my daily reading, 'He laid them on safely' (Psalm 78 v53) 'Behold ,I send an Angel before you to keep you in the way and to bring you into the place which I have prepared.  (Exodus 23 v 20). In spite of not having a satnav, of getting a puncture,and the fan belt getting loose,we reached our destination.

Sam Ryder ( Luke 15 v 11- 32 )

 Sam Ryder  a popular singer said,'I'm still an idiot, but  I'm nowhere near as much of an idiot as I once was',I can identify with that, I suppose we can all identify with these words, well I hope we can. Buying a car brings its pitfall,I have never bought a new car, so a number of years ago we bought a particular car,it was a small inexpensive car,and was semi-automatic,we went and looked at it, it appeared a nice little car,so we bought it,but as we were driving away,it didn't appear right.the seller assured  us it was alright.Well we had it for a while,not very satisfied with it.So I enquired as regards this car from a local dealer,I was not  not happy with what he told me,so we traded it in for an other car.Well recently I asked myself the question, what did I do wrong when I bought that car ?,the answer was very simple ,I hadn't asked for a test drive,That should be priority when you buy a car,what an idiot I was,hopefully I won't make that mistake again. When I was a lad I was following the Lord, but I remember the moment I walked away from Him, what an idiot I was, If only I had not done that,if only,but I did,yet God is the God of the prodigal.and in mercy He brought me back to Himself,could be you once walked away from Christ,or your struggling spiritually and thinking about walking away,don't be an idiot like I was, its not worth it.

                                                     'There are no advantages in walking 

                                                       away from Christ'

Desert island Disc .(John 14 v 6 )

 There is a program on the radio, called 'Desert Island Disc,' it has been going for 80 yrs, still popular,The baes of it,is as follow's,imagine you were cast away on a desert,what ten pieces of music would you like to have with you?. All sorts of personalities have appeared on the program,they play part of each piece of music,then they are asked what luxury would one like on their desert island,and what additional book they would choose,as each castaway automatically gets the Bible and the complete works of Shakespeare.One recent castaway the author Sue Townsend said,'I won't need the Bible or Shakespeare,you can keep them'. Because the book I am taking is better than both of them,it is ,' The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole,Aged 13 '   3/4 's, she said that the Bible was an uptight  bag of woe. It is very sad to hear someone speak in such a way, as regards the Bible.,for it is the most important book of all time.It tells us so much,that we need to here,and if ignored has dire consequence .The Bible is important,for it tells us about Jesus who died on the cross so we can be forgiven, sets us free,who saves us from Hell,not only that , he will take us to heaven.

What's the answer?. 2 (Psalm 119 v 98 )

 Last time we considered the importance of prayer ,as we are faced with so many challenges in this troubled world,the next thing we need to stress is the importance of God's word.It might surprise us to know that many Christians fail to read God's word, there are a number reasons for that,but whatever the reasons are,it's vital that we begin to read God's word. The word can help us in relation to sin,Psalm 119 v 11, reads,' I have hidden your word in my heart that I  might not sin against you'.How do we hide God's word in our hearts? by reading it,studying it,memorizing it, Spurgeon writes,'If we keep God's word in our hearts ,it will keep us from sin'.When Eve doubted God's word she fell into sin, every time Satan tempted our Lord ,He answered him ,by the word of God,so the devil never got a foothold.It is in v10 we have the following words, 'do not let me stray from your commands',when you stray from God's word you stray from God, I have seen it happen in so many lives. For the Christian the word of God gives comfort ,faith,a reason to live,an assurance that God is with them,In Psalm 119 v 105 we read that the word of God is a lamp unto our feet,and a light to our path. When we walk in the darkness there is always danger that we will stumble. While driving recently at night,I was struggling to find my way home,but I have a satnav ,and it was such help,the word of God is our perfect satnav, it will guide us through this dark world,safely home.