Everything's gone. ( Romans 8 v 28/ 38 -39 )

The German  miserabilist wrote,''The ordinary man places his life's happiness in things  external to him,in property, rank,wife and children,friends, society and the like, so that when he loses them....the foundation of his happiness is destroyed''.Of course those thing are important to most of us, yet in a moment all things can be destroyed,or taken from us. The fact is we can end up standing,naked and barefoot bereft us of all these things. Natural disasters, unforeseen events,can rob us of everything,and there is nothing you can do about it ,no matter how unjust it may seem. We who are in a comfort zone,and daily view on our TV's the terrible disaster in Ukraine caused by the war,it is sad beyond we can imagine,yet it may be that it could happen to us.The greatest example of this is to be found in the book of Job,were Job lost everything , a very extreme trial. I do know how I would react if such a thing would happen to me,but one thing for sure these things mentioned cannot rob us of  God's love which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

                                                 'Every joy or trial, falleth from above,

                                                 Traced upon our dial. by the Sun of Love.

                                                 We may trust Him fully,all for us to do,

                                                 They who trust Him wholly, find Him 

                                                                   wholly true.

                                                          Words Frances R. Havergal

Truth matters ( John 8 v 31 -47)

    We were eating at a well known  establishment, and I saw  a stand with  magazines on it,the words on  the front page read,'Does truth matter?'.It appears that during the covid they were accused of  wrong doing,the magazine sought to challenge what had been said about them/.The were seeking to show that truth matters,not the lies that they believe were told about them.. Whatever the truth of this matter is the fact is  ,truth does matter,in business,politics, the media, the justice system.When the truth is denied, suppressed,distorted,what takes its place is lies?. In his poem ,'If', Rudyard Kipling,speaks of truth being  ',twisted by knaves'. The Nazi regime was supposed to last a thousand years,instead it lasted 12 years,one should not be surprised , for it was built on lies,among other things. It was Jesus who declared that He was the way the truth and the life ( John 14 v6 ), the death of Jesus on the cross, was an attempt by Satan ,and indeed the world,  trying to kill the truth.but of course they did not succeed,for you cannot destroy the truth,and Him who is the truth.His birth,His life,His message,his death and resurrection are built on truth,the thing is ,we are sinners ,and Christ Jesus came to save sinners,that is the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

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Ignore Him at your cost. (Genesis 19 v 26 )

 There were two brothers,they were religious,you read about them in Genesis 4.they were named Cain and Abel,They both worked at different jobs,the Bible says, Abel kept flocks,Cain worked with the soil.One day they both brought an offering to God, Able brought  what the Bible calls the firstborn of his flock, Cain brought the fruits of his soil.Then we read how God looked with favour on Abel's offering,but on Cain's offering He did not look with favour. The result was Cain was very angry, and God spoke to him, assuring him if he did what was right he would be accepted. So it follows that what he had done had not been right in God's eyes. What that was we do not know,it is not revealed to us,and God cautioned him about his anger that it was like a wild beast ,he must not let his anger rule him. Alas it does not appear that he listened to what God said,instead of saying to himself , I will do what God says,I will seek to do what's right in Gods eyes,and I will not be ruled by my temper.The thing is when you ignore what God says you are heading for trouble,he ended up with the infamous title,'the first murderer'.

Humility. ( Philippians 2 v5- 11)

A little bit of humility goes a long way ,true humility is not a showy thing, it should be genuine,not a Uriah Heep, 'I'm every so humble',  false  confession. Nor should it be a one off occasion,rather it should be a life manifestation. Peter exhorts the younger men to submit themselves to the elders.and to clothe themselves with humility towards one another,because, 'God  opposes the proud but shows favour to the humble ( 1 Peter 5 v 5 ) How is it manifest? by taking the place of a servant, as our Saviour did  (Philippians 2 v 5 -11). Peter declares,'Be clothed with humility', our dear Saviour personified that,I have looked at many examples of humility by preachers and so many other people,but they would all agree that in our dear Saviour ,we have by far the greatest manifestation of true humility. Charles R. Swindle  wrote the following,'Though  enwrapped in the radian light of His own divine glory, God the Son put a veil over His glory- not diminishing it or extinguishing it, but concealing it- all on behalf of a cold, dark world that sought to plunge Him into the shadow of death'. What a incomprehensible, unfathomable   example of selfless humility' Try following that.

'Fight the good fight . ( Romans 8 v31 - 39 )

 When we were young ,one of my older brothers was being picked on by a fellow who lived in our street,you may have heard of a child who would say,'i'll get my big brother for you', well that's what happened,our eldest brother did go and deal with him.Israel had come out of Egypt and they were going into the promised land,there would be many battles to be fought,those nations would be equipped with horses and chariots,and their armies would be greater than theirs.and this is what they were told,' Do not be faint hearted or afraid; do not panic or be terrified by them. For the Lord your God is the one who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies to give you victory'. ( Deuteronomy 20 v 3 - 4 ) Yes they would have to fight,one writer say's,' Divine  sovereignty does not negate human activity,' it is not ,'Lets go and let God', no,they were going to to have to fight,the important thing is the Lord  would be with them and  would give them the victory,and so victory would be assured.We new covenant Israelites have many battles to fight on our way to glory,because the Lord will be with us ,victory is assured.

                                                     'Onward Christian soldiers'

Don't be gullible. ( 1 Thessalonians 5 v 16 -22 )

 I recently heard of a minister who was walking  through a local market,and his attention was drawn to a lady who was clutching her hand bag,he didn't think much about this, when he felt the Lord speaking to him. He was told to go and speak to that lady/.This is what he  was told to say,''Your life is all wrapped up ,like your hand bag'',it turned out that this lady was the wife of a murderer,the murder had happened recently,the minister was able to talk to her and hopefully help her.A friend of mine and his wife were  attending a church of a Pastor friend of theirs. The Pastor wasn't speaking but another elder was,he read the scriptures and he look straight at my  friend saying,' that was a word for you', and my friend nodded in agreement.Later his minister friend said, 'do you realise what he the preacher meant'?,My friend said ,'not really',his friend told him that the reading was about someone committing adultery.I can assure you that was not true,my friend and his wife are a faithful couple.In 1 Thessalonians 5 v20-22, we are told ,' Do not treat prophecies with contempt. but test them all; hold on to what is good,reject every kind of evil'. There are many cranks,crooks ,twisters, and over enthusiastic people,who declare,'here is the word of  God, for you', Don't accept it as necessary true,test all things by the scriptures,one writer puts it like this,'don't be gullible. Check out everything, and keep only what's good. Throw out anything tainted with evil'.

Not yet. ( 1 John 3 v 1 - 2)

 Peter Adam in his commentary on the book of Malachi writes,' How amazing that though we know we are not the centre of the  universe, we feel,think, relate and act as if we are. Our self-centredness blinds us to God; we try to live in a fool's paradise, when in fact it is more like hell than a paradise.' God last' rather than ,'God first' is our effective motto and rule. Is it as serious as that?, I think so,wherever mankind dwells,we bring something with us, our fallen nature,which  we so under rate , our fallenness is ever with us.Our best moments can change in a moment into our worst , our world history is littered with mountains of dead bodies,and it does not appear to be changing. Oh yes we are capable of so much good,no one denies that,but it is not the good that is the problem,it is that darker side that manifests itself in so many destructive ways.I believe God grants us experiences,that reveals to us how deadly we can become.  I know someone who is a Christian of many years who was hurt by someone near to him,he felt  like ,literally killing that person. It was the Greeks who had a saying,''Man know Thyself'',we don't know ourselves,but God does.we are sinners,God's answer is the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ,when we embrace Him as Saviour, are sins are forgiven, and  and we find that He can breath  into our lives and set us free,oh no we will not sinless, that will never happen while we are in this mortal coil but it will happen one day,and wonder of wonders we shall be like Jesus.