Don't departmentalize. ( Revelation 3 v 20 )

Queen Victoria's prime minister, Lord Melbourne, is supposed to have said,' Things have come to a pretty  pass  when religion is seeking to invade a man's private life'. I suppose there are people who departmentalize their lives,their faith relates to attending a church,that's it,and does not encroach into their general life.Of course if one is a Christian them it should effect all of our lives, we cannot leave it behind at any stage of our lives. It is not like a change of clothes, I suppose this may seem obvious, but for some people it may not be. It is one thing singing ,' I surrender all',and then living it out in every aspect of our lives.People can get touchy about so many things,and resentful if they are challenged as regards aspects of their lives, after all its nobodies business ,what they do.Jesus challenged a disciple by asking him,did he love Him more that others?.Consider the church of Laodicea that we read about in Revelation 3,they were rich materially,but so very poor spiritually. Michael Wilcock writes the following,'The church is the image of the city reversed in a black negative. Financiers,physicians,clothing manufactures are among its notable citizens; but 'poor ,blind , and naked' is the verdict on its church. 'It has failed to find  in Christ the source of all true wealth, splendour, and vision'.Verse 20 is very telling,it is Jesus who is speaking to them,'Here I am ! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will go in and eat with him,and He with me'.

                                         

                                                      'Don't departmentalize Christ'

Man's inhumanity to man.( Romans 3 v 10 - 18 )2

 Last time we mention Nineveh ,and that God was going to judge them,for their wickedness, they conquered  many nations among them the northern kingdom Israel.This had been a judgement on the northern  kingdom of Israel for their sinfulness.But as Gordon Brown writes,' God uses Assyria to discipline Israel but she exceeded the mandate God gave her and acted with greed and arrogance'. The fact is they were an exceeding cruel people showing no mercy on those they  conquered, a Julia Woods writes about an Assyrian relief showing,'bodies impaled on sticks,tongues being cut out,people being led out by lip rings,heads being piled up,dismembered bodies with scattered limbs and severed heads serving as ornamental decorations on walls and structures and totem poles made of  human heads'. One Assyrian king boasted,'3000 captives I burned with fire....from some I cut off their hands and their fingers.from others I  cut of their noses,their ears and their fingers. of  many I put out their eyes'. They were also  involved in witchcraft and the occult, all of these these things made them ripe for judgement. Julia Woods  further comments,'Atrocities  committed in the name of a nation appears to bring judgement on the whole nation'.The more I read history the more convinced I am of mankind's fallen nature,and the more convinced I am, of  mankind's need of a Saviour called Jesus.

Nineveh ( 2 Peter 3 v 3 - 16) 1

Assyria was a very powerful nation,their capital was Nineveh , most Christians know the story of the reluctant prophet Jonah whom God sent to Nineveh to warn them, that judgement was coming because of their great wickedness. The result was they believed the prophet,and turned from their sinful ways and sought God's forgiveness,and God forgave ,and did not judge them.But sad to say that didn't last for long instead of things getting better things got worse.God raised up another  prophet,who proclaimed ,that judgement was coming,his name was Nahum.As one writer declares,' For perhaps a hundred or more years God had continued to be patient,to no avail,again the historians tells us ,' Nineveh has been called 'the concentrated centre of evil in the ancient world'.It is Gordon Bridger who writes ,'If we persist in rejecting  God and His Word,He gives us over to sin and judgement.' He further says,God is very patient. Justice will be done,and reminds us 

                                                  'Tho' the mills of God grind slowly

                                                   Yet they grind exceeding small'

Eugenics. ( Romans 5 v 8)

 A writer in a national newspaper wrote,' Eugenics was invented by a certain kind of person,solid in their belief that they were superior,to describe other people they thought to be unfit,badly raised, inclined  towards feral immorality or just from bad stock'. She further comments,' The birth control pioneer Marie Stopes was partly inspired by her desire to prevent ''reckless breeding'' from the ''worst end'' of the social scale. And then of course ,there were the Nazis'. There will always be people who think they are better than others,today in schools, some children will be made feel they are inferior to others. As one looks at history we see it magnified to a fearful scale,and so it will continue,for we humans are so often given over to pride, which drives us to look down on others.It is all very flawed and deeply sinful, the fact is God loves everybody,that means everybody,He puts no one down on account  of any deformity, colour ,status, nationality,He loves everyone.He loves everyone so much that He give His only begotten Son,that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.  (John 3 v16)

No ( Psalm 18 v 30)

 There is one word Children don't like,and it is no,when I am at a supermarket ,I hear the wail of the Banshee,the sound fills the whole supermarket,no it's not the Banshee,it is a child being told 'no  you can't have that',by it's mother, I exaggerate not,and I say to myself ,'children should be seen and not heard'. There are times when God has to say no to us,we have a number of times recorded in the Bible when God said no to three people .( 1) Moses,he acted rashly,didn't trust the Lord,he was not allowed to go into the promised land,(Numbers 20 v12),later he pleaded with God to go into the Land,but God said, no.( Deut 3 v23- 26)   (2 )David ,he wanted to build a temple for God and God said ,no ( 2 Samuel 7)  (3) Paul was suffering from what he called a thorn in the flesh,he prayed for healing, God said no.  ( 2 Corinthians 12 v 7 - 10) Why did God say no?,well there were good reasons why He said no. When we were Children our parents  would say no to us, and we didn't like it,and we huffed and cried,but now looking back,we realise they knew best,and usually it was for our own good,and also they loved us. So it is our heavenly Father who loves us,and knows what's best for us,will say no to us .Although it may be very painful at this time, remember the words of Paul when he wrote ,'then shall we know' (1 Cor 13 v 12)

Free to choose.( Deuteronomy 30 v 15)

 The poet Whittier wrote,  'For  all the sad words of tongue or pen,  The saddest are these;' It might have been'.    The greatest tragedy that ever happened took place in the garden of Eden,God give clear instructions to not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil,He told them the consequences,if they did Adam and Eve would die.(Genesis 2 v 17). Alas they disobeyed,they died,for the wages of sin is death ,and all that followed had the stench of death upon it ,for we inherited a sinful nature.If only they had not sinned,if only they had obeyed,what might have been.Very sad and very depressing,yet God had a plan a rescue plan a plan filled with hope,from what have been,for what could be,a Saviour would come,His name would be Jesus.Through His death and resurrection we could be forgiven all our sins,and death would not hold us, we could experience eternal life.It depends on one thing obedience to the gospel,would we believe on Christ as our Saviour ,God has given us the freedom of  choice,just like he granted to Adam and Eve.What will be your choice, will it be life by accepting Christ?,or  death by rejecting Him?, the choice is yours.

We change,God doesn't. ( Malachi 3 v 6)

 I read this recently,' Change is the only constant in life',so very true, I am sure I don't need to remind you of this,we are reminded of this everywhere we look.It was Heraclitus who said,'You cannot step in the same river twice',because the river is constantly changing.in other words if you step in a river,you are stepping into a specific bit of water,and If you withdraw your foot and step in again,you are stepping in a different bit of water. It was Henry F.Lyte who wrote,'Change and decay in all around I see; O Thou who changest not ,abide with me'. Unlike creation that is always changing God does not change, God is immutabile, He has no physical body,He is spirit, his moral character does not change. Tozer wrote,' In God no change is possible; in men change is impossible to escape'. Charles Wesley wrote,'And all things as they change proclaim. The Lord eternally the same'. 'For the Christian it is a great comfort that He is the same everyday always welcoming,never changes His  mind,His love is constant ( Jeremiah 31 v 3) His mercy is assured ,likewise His presence,and His power. It is a source of wondrous strength to know that the God with whom we have to do changes not. That His attitude towards us is the same as it was in eternity past and will be in eternity to come'.( Tozer)