Divine protection ( Psalm 121 )

 My wife and I were going to visit her brother in hospital , and I was driving,I was about to change lanes,I looked in my mirror and felt it was safe,so I signaled,and just went to go into the other lane,a van came at high speed, fortunately,I caught a glimpse of it, and managed to pull back into my own lane,  I missed it by a hair's breadth. Here we have another example of divine protection, God watches over his children,I have had accidents ,but God preserved me from hurt,as a little boy I was saved from drowning.We see wonderful examples of Gods protection in the life of  David,from King Saul's murderous intentions,from wild animal's,from his son Absalom,and from his enemies the Philistines.God will use different means to protect us,but as  Dale Ralph Davis writes,'''salvation is from the Lord. Jonah 2 v9  (NASB).The means of deliverance must never eclipse the source of deliverance,and sometimes the Deliverer makes that point   abundantly obvious'.

Be faithful ( 1Corinthians 3 v 5 - 8 )

If one looks at the prophets  and how difficult their mission was ,I think of Isaiah,Jeremiah, how hard it was for them, so few responded to their ministry.I have been following the Lord for 59yrs ,for most of that time I have prayed daily for my parents,brothers/ sisters ,relatives,and so many other people,for their salvation,and with the exception of one aunt, I have no evidence that any have been saved.I have witnessed and prayed for  many ,many people during my life time,and yet so few to my knowledge have trusted the Saviour. It some ways it is heartbreaking,has it all been in vain?,should I stop praying witnessing,whats the point? Again thinking of the prophets, how fruitless their ministry was ,was it all in vain?.I consider my Saviours words as He looked over Jerusalem and uttered those tragic words in Matthew 23 v37, Jerusalem, Jerusalem ,you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you,how often I have longed to gather your children together,as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, you were not willing''. Ezekiel  was told to speak Gods's word to his fellow Israelites, 'whether they listen or fail to listen' (Ez 2 v7) That is my task, to witness, yes and to pray,and leave it in God's hands, we are told our labour is not in vain in the Lord ( 1 Corinthians 15 v 54)  .I will add this ,my five lads have all trusted the Saviour, and two of them are in Christian ministries,and a number of my grandchildren have also. trusted Christ.

                                                                     'Be faithful'.

God centered thinking.( 1 Samuel 17 )

How God centered thinking are we? it is very important that we are, P R.Davis writes the following,' The tragedy is that were someone to hear our thoughts and words in our dangers and troubles they would never guess that we had a living God.' That rings so true,for often one looses sight of God in our troubles,we just see the troubles,and that's what takes over.There used to be a series on TV and one of the characters will be remembered for what he said,'Don't panic,Don;t panic',and yet all the time he was panicking.Of course we all have moments like that,but we need not live like that, we may say ,'I'm only human',that's true but as Christians we are also  children of God,that should make a big difference in our lives. So what can we do? have faith in God,that seems so obvious, that is ,'God thinking' ,He has not forsaken us in our troubles,nor will He,He has promised that,in Psalm 50 v15,we read,'Call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you,and you will honour Me'. Another thing we should do,we should practice what  we sing,'Have we trials and temptations,take it to the lord in prayer',(From the hymn ,'What a friend we have in Jesus by J W,Scriven) ,let us put this into practice.Finally remember past deliverances, God has not changed,but unfortunately we forget past deliverances, stir your memory up,David remembered how Gd delivered Him from wild animals and with that in mind, he faced Goliath the giant,and he said,'This day the Lord will deliver you into my hands',and He did. (1 Samuel 17 v 46 )

Essential and unessential ( 2 Timothy 3 v 16 )

 We looked last time as regard those who want to change how we address God,borne out by people  who are trying to go along with the worlds confusing concepts,instead of standing fast for the truth as revealed in God's word. As I look at the broader picture of the church in this country, many are acting as if they are a law unto themselves. Many ignore established truths,they act as if they alone are the church of Christ, and reject the historical truths that the Bible proclaims. The  church of England or the Anglian church is not the church in  England,  it is only another branch of the church in England, All branches should be striving to hold fast to  what the whole of the Bible teaches, Early creeds are been cast off,as M L. Jones writes,These creeds were written  and elaborated,not merely to make positive statements of the faith, but to counteract certain heresies'.Now it is obvious that the different branches have different opinions about certain things ,that's not a problem ,as long as we recognise as ML.Jones  puts it ,'that there are foundational and secondary truths.' We should not get to worked up about  secondary truths,although they are important to us, but unfortunately, people do ,sad to say.what we need to contend for and hold fast to, are foundational truths.

Father God. ( Matthew 6 v 9 )

 I was talking to my son John, and I said to him, I was never a perfect father,he replied I know,and I said,are there any perfect fathers?,and he replied,yes, in heaven. Yes that's true.our heavenly Father, that is a lovely thought, for He truly is a lovely Father. There are many absentee fathers in these days,of course there are those who belong to a certain church and they take the title father upon themselves ,and many have brought disgrace upon the name father. As a father I always appreciate being called dad or father,but not by my first name,it does not seem respectable to me.So it is when we speak to God we do not  address Him  any old way,there should always be that sense of reverence, of deep respect.We know that God is not male nor female although the Son became human,yet before time began ,when we did not exist,there is no question of gender.But in order to relate to us ,He choose to be know as Father,Son,and Holy Spirit. I mention this because there are those Christian who want to change those terms into what they would call gender neutral.It is a dangerous step to take,because it  deviates from the biblical revelation,and anything that deviates from scripture is wrong. We will continue this next time.

Perhaps, ( James 4 v 6 )

 I wonder if you have heard the saying,'The tail is wagging the dog', it originated in Tom Taylor's 1858.play'Our American Cousin'. A character in the play said,'Dun now I've got another,why does a dog waggle his tail?. Flo upon my word,I never inquired. Dun because the,'The tail can't waggle the dog. Ha! Ha!.'The tail is wagging the dog',describes a situation in which  an important person,organization, etc is controlled by someone or something that is much less important or powerful.We see this when trade unions start dictating instead of negotiating with employers.In 1 Samuel 14 , Israel is at war with the Philistines and  how  Jonathan the kings son ventured with his servant to attack a Philistine garrison. Just before he did that ,he said to his servant, 'Perhaps the Lord will act on our behalf', 'Perhaps', Jonathan does not dictate to God.There are arrogant people who think they can command God,to do such and such a thing..D R. Davis writes ,'Faith does not dictate to God,as if the Lord of hosts is its errand boy'.When it come to God ,we must be careful not to take the role of the tale wagging the dog'.

                                                       'Lets not forget the perhaps'

He was a nice man. ( Romans 3 v 23 )

    There he was as we sat watching the football, I managed to have a conversation with him,he told me a lot about himself,his beginnings in the county of Cornwall.Most of our conversation was about his job history which was very interesting,he was a trained engineer,he was 72 and was still working part time . I was praying that I might have an opportunity to witness to him, I know under John and Charles Wesley many Methodist churches came into being in Cornwall so I mentioned this to him and asked him did he ever go to church?.He said he was never a church goer,and his parents never forced it on him. I asked  him did he ever think about God? he said no,it never entered into his mind,He  was a nice person,he had a nice life style, foreign holidays,a nice wife,what could I say?,hopefully guided by God's Spirit,I said,'If you know Christ you go to heaven,if you don't know Christ, you go to hell', I left it at that,and we continued to watch the football. As I said he was a nice person, but nice people are sinners, he had no thought about God, and if he died in that condition he will certainly go to hell. Let us always bear in mind,that everyone is a sinner,and everyone needs our Saviour, yes the really wicked people,the really awful people,and the so called nice people.