Free love. ( Romans 6 v 23 )

 In one of Rudyard Kipling's stores,he had an old soldier saying,

                                  'Ship me somewheres east of Suez,where the best 

                                   is like the worst,

                                  Where there aren't no Ten Commandments, an' a man

                                   can raise a thirst.

I remember reading this ,' The first of all the human instinct is the instinct to do what we like. instead of doing what we should know what is best for us.' The world is like the prodigal ,they want to throw off what they see as unnecessary restraints. In the sixties there was a movement that  was called ,'Free love', it sought to throw off restraints as regards ,marriage,birth control,and adultery.The problem is we need moral guidelines, but whose moral guidelines,we feel we do not need God's moral standards,with the result  human life is undermined,we have literally millions of abortions being carried out every year,confusion as regards sex,and gender,marriage has been eroded children are suffering.Society continues to distance themselves from God,seeing Him as an  unessential of whom whom they are not accountable too,or that He does not exist. To leave God out of ones life,or to deny His existence is a disastrous. road to take,it leads to a situation of everyone doing whats right in their own eyes,with little regard to the consequences.Death will reveal all,as we stand before the God we have ignored,and the Saviour we have rejected.

                                            'It is said, nothing is free, there is always a cost'

Weakness ( Psalm 61 )

I am sure there are those people who think I am a very strong Christian, I don't feel  strong,far from it, I feel very weak. I often find myself singing words of a song ,I don't know who wrote it,or even if  I am getting the words right,they go like this,' Jesus keep a hold,a hold on me ,I'm the weakest of your children,how I need you. If I make it through the only way it's going to be,if Jesus keeps a hold, a hold on me'. That's the way I feel, I am not strong,sometimes a feather could not knock me over, you don't have to convince me that I'm weak,it's a fact of life.Was it Spurgeon who said ,'everyday you are a Christian it's a miracle', so very true. I love the honesty of Paul writing in Romans 7,when he cries out as he considers his struggles ,'What a wretched man I am, v24, but he doesn't stop there,he declares,'Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord' v 25.  In himself Paul was weak, but Christ lived by His Spirit in him,and that's what made all the difference.When he cried out in his weakness to be healed,his request was refused,instead God promised him grace,to sustain him in his weakness.{1Corinthians 12 v 9) In Psalm 61 v2 David cries out that his heart was overwhelmed,and then he says 'Lead me to the rock that is higher than I'.,who is that rock? it is Jesus.

                                                    O safe to the Rock that is higher than I,

                                                    My soul in its conflicts and sorrows would fly,

                                                    So sinful ,so weary,Thine,Thine would I be,

                                                    Thou blest Rock of Ages, I'm hiding in Thee.

                                                    Hiding in Thee! Hiding in Thee!

                                                    Thou blest Rock of Ages,I'm hiding in Thee'.

                                                                 Words. W O. Cushing.

     

Music. ( Romans 1 v 16 )

Lenin once said that he refused to listen  to Beethoven because the music  made him want to pat children on the head., all I can say to that,I wish both him and his friend Stalin would have listened to Beethoven.For they were both sorry evil specimens of humanity and were guilty of the death of millions of people. We read that the Lord afflicted King Saul with an tormenting spirit that filled him with depression and fear.(1 Samuel 16 v 14). So they heard that David was a musician so they brought him to Saul to  play to him and when he played, the tormenting spirit would leave him. I supposed we have all been soothed by a lovely peace of music.There is a saying that goes,'Music hath charms to sooth the savage beast'.It may have power to sooth ,but it did not change Saul,in fact he became worse,and became paranoid as regards David,and continually sought to kill him.Music cannot change the fallen nature of man,only Christ can do that.

                                           ' For all things were changed when He found me

                                            A new day awoke all around me;

                                            For I met the Master,now I belong to Him.

                                                         Words Mosie Lister.

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.