Temptation 1( Matthew 26 v 41)

Every day many people pray,'Lead us not into temptation',whither we pray those words or not,the fact is we will all face being tempted,that means everyone,of every age,of every colour, of every nationality. Temptation does not go away,it will be with us till the day we die,it is only then will we get rest from it.There is no place were you won't be tempted,Adam and Eve were tempted in  paradise,one can tempted when one is praying,or sitting in church. There are no,no go areas,as regards temptation,going into religious order is no guarantee,that you wont be tempted.If you were a castaway on a desert  island you would will still be tempted.Ministers of God ,religious activity will not shield them from temptation,that may make them more vulnerable.I want to stress this very important point,being tempted is not a sin, no matter how wicked and evil it is,it only becomes a sin ,when one yields to the temptation. We will continue to consider  this subject next time 

Galway (Ephesians 2 v 1- 22 ) 1

On the west coast of Ireland there is a city called Galway, it is an old city,the meaning of the name Galway means ,    'Town of  foreigners,', I suppose it goes back to when it was a town.I suppose the fact that I come from Northern Ireland and now live in England I could be classed as a foreigner,although I have never felt that I am foreigner,Writing to the Christians at Ephesus Paul reminds them of their former condition as Gentiles, that like all the unsaved , they were spiritually  dead in their sins,and all that meant. It didn't stop there there for he goes on to say as regards their position, 'that they were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the  covenants of the promise,without hope and without God in the world'. There was deep hostility between Jews and Gentiles ,especially on the Jewish side ,who considered them no better than dogs created by God to be fuel for the fires of hell.So they were alienated  from  God's people Israel. Unfortunately Israel forgot to their shame that they were meant to be a light to the nations,the kingdom of God was never meant to be an exclusive club, we will continue looking at this next time.

God requires. (Micah 6 v 8 ) 2

We looked at what God required from Israel,not sacrifices ,but a life manifesting godliness , Barns in his commentary says this,' Trouble not thyself as to any of these things, burnt offerings, rams,calves, without thee. for God seeketh not thine,but thee; not thy substance, but thy spirit; not ram or goat but thy heart'. Micah mentions three things God requires from us ,' To act justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God'.(Micah  6 v 8) . Consider the first,'To act justly',the bible has so much to say about justice,and how important it is,a number of years ago the Bible society published a Bible which highlighted those scriptures that stressed  justice. If we have not shown justice to others,the result will be that God will not show mercy to us,God is a just God,He will never act in an unjust way,and He expects the same from us.Likewise,mercy,God is merciful,he expects us to be merciful,in fact He says ,'Blessed are merciful for they shall receive mercy',(Matthew 5 v 7).Last but not least ,we are ,'To walk humbly with our God'. Pride is a sin,pride of race, pride of possessions,pride is a sin. To be followers of Christ, we must walk as He did, CP ,Philippians 2 v 5-11. Let us not forget that our lives must manifest the reality of our salvation,the evidence that we are truly Christ's.

The greatest treasure. ( Matthew 13 v 44 -46 )

  'You may take away from me my life, but you can never take Christ from my heart',these words were spoken by a Korean martyr before his execution by the communists'. These words  bring such a challenge ,it reminds us were our true treasure lies,Christ, when you have Christ you have the greatest treasure in the world.The vast majority of people are blind to that fact and value the things of the world,to the exclusion of  Christ,and are poorer,for all that.What have the billionaires got?,many envy them,but the poorest Christian is richer than them,Our beloved Saviour said,'what does it profit a person if they gain the whole world,and  loose their soul?, Judas was a disciple of Christ,Christ considered him a friend,but Judas loved money,and that destroyed him,in Christ he could have had it all,the eternal blessings of heaven,but when he betrayed Christ he lost all that.When you have Christ you need never fear death, for we are told when we come to go through that dark valley He will be with us,and like that dear Christian who was martyred,even death cannot rob us of Christ.A young man said to me,if you have food and a roof over your head ,then everything else is a bonus, that's true  but the biggest bonus is to know Christ,He is the greatest treasure anyone can possess.

The walking wounded 2 ( James 4 v 11 - 12 )

 There are many Christians who one could class as the walking wounded,yes they have had their sins forgiven , by trusting as their Saviour, so they are saved. But that does not ,mean that they don't carry hurts from the past, caused by many things,or even hurts since they became a Christian. First of all very it is very important, we do not judge them. Some Christians do judge people, the best example of that is ,Jobs friends, Job  was suffering tremendously ,he was bereft of all his children,he experienced the loss of all his wealth, and lastly he experienced physical suffering. His friends judged him saying  he must  have sinned,yes like of us he was a sinner,but his suffering was not for any particular sin he had committed,yet they judged him,instead of comforting him, they made him more uncomfortable, instead of  easing his pain,they increased it.Sad to say we Christians sometimes treat the Christian walking wounded, with little sympathy,understanding, and love.If we are like that, let us resign from that club,and let us do all we can to support them, they may find healing, they may not,like dear old Paul,so do  not judge them for lack of faith,consider in spite of their woundedness they are still going on with the Lord,and trusting Him in spite of their difficulties. The poet William Cowper who wrote many wonderful hymns, suffered from bouts of serious mental illness,wrote the following in one of his hymns from the book of Habakkuk.

                                  'Though vine nor fig tree neither, their wonted fruit should bear,

                                  Though all the fields should wither,nor flocks or herd be there,

                                   Yet,God the same abiding, His praise shall tune my voice;

                                   For, while in Him confiding,I cannot but rejoice',

The walking wounded. ( Isaiah 61 v 1 -3 ) 1

Bruce Milne in his commentary on John gospel writing on the words Christ said,' He  is the Lord of the mission and is to be found still at the frontiers where his people confront and minister to the wounds of the world'. We live in a broken world,all around us our broken wounded souls,their wounds are hidden from us, we who are Christs are called through Christ to minister to them, These wounded souls are two fold the non-Christian, and yes, to the Christian,yes both need to be ministered to.The non-Christian needs the medicine of the gospel,you remember in Mark 2 v1ff were four men carried their friend to Jesus ,He was in a house,but large numbers of people prevented them getting to Jesus. The men carried their friend unto the flat roof,they  took up tiles from the roof and let their friend down to were Jesus was ,and it says ,when Jesus saw their faith,He said to the sick man,'Son your sins are forgiven'. He then went on to heal the man,one can do all sorts of things to help people ,and we should,but we must never loose sight that the greatest need of mankind is Christ, who alone can forgive sins. If Christ had only dealt with his physical condition, it would have only been temporary,for eventually he would have died like all of us,and he would not gone to heaven. Fanny Crosby wrote a hymn with these words ,'Pass me not ,O gentle Saviour, hear my humble cry, heal my wounded,broken spirit,save me by your grace'.That is the healing that the walking wounded need.

OUR warrior King. ( Revelation 6 v 1-2 )

 It is remembrance  Sunday in which we remember those who fought and died in many wars,my grandfather was wounded in the first world ,my uncle was a prisoner of war in the Korean war,and my oldest brother fought in Sarawak against communist. But let us remember the greatest war that has ever taken place,and the greatest sacrifice ever made was Calvary.There was so much at stake ,mankind enslaved by sin and Satan,prisoners  ,without hope and without God,hell beckoned ,heavens doors were firmly closed.The answer ,the only answer to that situation was for Christ to come forth and do battle,with sin ,Satan,and death.There was no one else that could do it,and so our courageous Saviour went forth and won the victory,a victory that brought hope to a fallen race,a victory that brought a way back to God from the dark paths of sin,and opened a door in which all could go in.

                                          'There is a green hill far away ,outside a city wall,

                                           Where the dear Lord was crucified ,who died to save us all.

                                           We may not know, we cannot tell, what pain He had to bear,

                                            But we believe it was for us,He hung and suffered there.

                                            He died that we might be forgiven, He died to make us good,

                                            That we might go at last to heaven, saved by His precious blood.

                                            There was no other good enough to pray the price of sin,

                                            He only could unlock the gate of heaven, and let us in.

                                            O dearly, dearly has He loved,and we must love Him to,

                                            And trust in His redeeming blood,and try His works to do.'

                                                                'Words by C.F.Alexander'