The divine persistence. ( Luke 15 )

 Our Saviour said I will build my church,and that he will do,nothing and no one can stop Him, Dale R. Davis,writes of the victorious sovereignty  of the covenant God' God is in the business of saving people,and it is wonderful how he brings that about.D R. Davis tells the following story,' During the time of Charles Spurgeon's ministry in England the 19th century,an evangelist in England  was asked to go to a public house to see a landlord's wife who was dying. When he saw her she was rejoicing in Christ as her Saviour, he asked her how she had found the Lord.'Reading that', she handed him a torn piece of paper. It was part of an American newspaper containing an extract of one of Spurgeon's sermons. That extract had led to her conversion. He asked her where she had got the newspaper. It was wrapped round a package sent from Australia.So do the math;  A sermon, preached in London, conveyed to America,an extract reprinted in an American newspaper,that paper sent to Australia, part torn off .for the package being sent to England, and, after all the twists and turns, bringing the word of grace to that wife of a pub keeper'.

                                               'This divine stubbornness should be of immense 

                                                comfort to us- it tells us  among other things that nothing ,

                                                 no human rebellion, no human stupidity can stop

                                                God's kingdom plan. God is so stubborn that He 

                                                will make sure Jesus reigns over all the earth'.

                                                                    Words by D.R.Davis

                                                

Because of Jesus (Ephesians 2 v 18 )

 Suddenly the unexpected happened,Moses was minding his father-in -law's sheep,when he noticed something  strange a bush was on fire, yet it was not being consumed. Then out of that bush a voice spoke'Moses! Moses! it was God speaking, Moses replied,'Here I am'. Then God spoke again,'Do not come any closer,' 'Take off your sandals, for the place you are standing is holy ground'.'We read about this encounter in Exodus 3.an encounter with God,at this stage God was not revealing Himself as Abba , which is a very personal name for God, like daddy.Although  that is true,God is holy and awesome,and must always be treated with reverence.When Christ came and give his life up for us, all who have  trusted Jesus would be brought into a wonderful close relationship with God, Catesly  Paget wrote.

                                                    'Near,so very near to God,

                                                     Nearer I could not be;

                                                     For, in the person of His Son,

                                                     I, am as near as He.

Because of Jesus we have wonderful access into the presence of God,so let us not hang  back in fear, but let us come  boldly to the throne of our gracious God.There we will find grace to help us when we need it most ( Hebrews 4 v 16)

Are you a Christian? ( 2 Thessalonians 3 v2 NLT)

 Are you a Christian? that's the question I asked a neighbour this morning,it turns out she is not a Christian,but her mother is.She mentioned that she tried to live to a certain  Christian standard,she sounded a genuine person.She sounds like someone who is almost a Christian ,but of course she is not. I mentioned  briefly the  consequences of not knowing Christ, there is no substituted for that.One may be a good living person,but one will never be a perfect person,do you know any perfect people?,I don't,I have lived 79 yrs,and have not  met or known a perfect person.Perry Como sings a song called 'I'ts impossible',the fact is it's impossible to be perfect,no one has a perfect score card.Most of us know about the  commandments,they were not given by God as a means of salvation,but a means of bringing us to salvation. One must look not just look at the letter of the law, but the spirit of  the law. God considers how we think as well as what we do,what are our motives,is our hearts pure?.I have met some people who say they have never sinned,they are not telling the truth ,for God's word say's for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. All this is meant to bring us to a place of conviction of our sinfulness,and our need of forgiveness,and to the one who alone that can save us Jesus. When you trust Him as your Saviour then you are a Christian.

It is a thing most wonderful. ( Isaiah 53 )

Most of the pictures of Jesus on the cross show a sanitized Jesus,with hardly a mark on Him, in spite of   the fact that he had been brutalized,battered and beaten,nearly flogged to death, He wore. a crown made up of large thrones on his head.He would have been an awful sight to behold. Isaiah wrote of his suffering in Isaiah 52 v 14,'His appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any human being and His form marred beyond human likeness'. Of course it didn't stop there , for on that cross He bore the punishment for our sins,the wrath of God that was our due was laid upon Him, if we had been at the cross,we would only have seen part of what He suffered.What great suffering ,what great love, William W. How wrote the following.

                                                         

                                                        'I sometimes think about the cross,

                                                        And shut my eyes,and try and see

                                                        The cruel nails and crown of thorns

                                                        And Jesus crucified for me.

                                                        But even could I see Him die,

                                                        I could but see a little part

                                                        Of that great love, which like a fire,

                                                        Is always burning in His heart.

The cross of Christ. ( 1 Corinthians 1 v 18 - 31 )

  In his book,'The cross of Christ',John Stott  writes how the cross eventually became the universal  Christian symbol,he says,' The choice by Christians of this symbol was central to their understanding of Jesus,neither  His birth nor His youth,neither  His teaching  nor His service, neither His resurrection nor His reign, nor the gift of the Spirit, but His death,His crucifixion'.Now we are not denying the importance of all those things ,but without Christ death on the cross,all those things would mean nothing. The reason Christ came  was to die on the cross, without the cross we have nothing, I stress that again.There is no gospel of the Holy Spirit,it is the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ,it was Christ  who suffered and died on the cross,we are cleansed by His precious blood, we are forgiven on the bases of His death.On that cross He became our substitute,instead of us being punished  for our sins,He bore the punishment,meaning no longer would we be under under the wrath of God.( John 3 v36/ 1 Thessalonians 5 v10).

                                               'Christ crucified is God's power  and wisdom'

Priorities ( Matthew 6 v 33 ) 3

 We continue to look at the anointing  of  Jesus by  Mary  ( Mark 14 v 1-10/ John 12 v1 - 8 ) ,to the main person in this account,Jesus.Now our dear Saviour doesn't say much, until they started harassing Mary,then our Saviour speaks,while they thought that she actually did a bad thing,Jesus said it was a beautiful thing and that she would be remembered for what she had done. Jesus our Savior went about doing good,not just good but amazingly good,yet there were those who wanted to kill Him.What you do may not be appreciated, don't worry Jesus knows how you feel, remember it is His estimation of what we have done that counts .Jesus saw the depth of meaning in her gift,it was in relation to His death.People send flowers to the dead, in one sense the dead know nothing as regards life on planet earth.Would it not be more appropriate to send a person a nice gift before they die. Likewise when people die people say nice things about them ,would it not have been better to say nice things about them when they are alive.Last but not least ,He mentions that this was the proper time for what Mary did,a sort of farewell gift,which he much appreciated.and after He had gone ,he reminded His disciples there would be plenty of time to help the poor, 

                                                       'Jesus be the centre

                                             Be my source,be my light,Jesus.

                                                         Jesus be the centre

                                              Be my hope,Be my song, Jesus

                                                           Michael Fyre

                                                              

Judas (1 Timothy 6 v 10 )2

  Let us continue to consider the events in Lazarus home,and think a bit more as regards Judas,the one who laid a double life, the question is why did he follow Jesus? Well like many Jews he thought of Jesus as an earthly Messiah,who would reign on earth,and he may have considered the rewards that would come with that to him. I am not sure why he followed Jesus,but the fact is he did.,very imperfectly,but he wanted his rewards now.So he took advantage of his position  as treasurer and lined his pocket with  ill gotten gains. I imagine he was always looking for a a way to get money.So when he saw Mary pouring that very  expensive perfume over Jesus feet, he saw an opportunity to get hold of the  money from selling the ointment ,he pretended  that the money from the sale of perfume would have been better given to the poor and needy..The other disciples were taken in by Judas,and they joined in and rebuked Mary harshly.When this happened I am sure ,Judas was very angry at Jesus,at not being able to get hold of the money, so he went out to make a deal  with the religious leaders,to betray Him.He wanted money ,he got his wish,but he got more than he bargained for. Let us learn from this that if we give in to our sinful nature we will get more than we bargain for.