Grace. ( Romans 3 v 23 - 24

 Many people are aware of the word grace, owing to the popularity of the hymn written by John  Newton,   'Amazing Grace',but of course many don't know what the word means. The meaning of grace is as follows,'The free mercy of God,or the enjoyment of  His favour   (Cruden's),but it is also seen as a Christian virtue( 2 Cor 8 v7 ), the end of that verse is interesting and indeed challenging ,were it reads,'excel in this grace of giving'. Let us remember as Christians we are not to be tight fisted, It may surprise some people that  the word grace is to be found in the OT,not a lot,but what is clear it is manifested in abundance throughout the O.T..I am studying at book of Judges, and if you are familiar with that book you would be aware of a downward spiral spiritually of Israel. Time after time the nation turned from God to other god's, in fact the history of Israel is of a continued forsaking  Him.So time after time He dealt with them very severely.But here is were grace comes in, for time after time He forgive them and showed mercy to them. At their darkest moment God declares,'I have loved you with an everlasting love'', (Jeremiah 31 v 3 ) That is the God of  the  O.T, and indeed the God of the N.T, the wonderful truth is, there is a way back to God from the dark paths of sin, Calvary cross is where we begin ,when we come as a sinner to Jesus.

                                                   'Amazing Grace how sweet the sound,

                                                    That saved a wretch like me,

                                                     I once was lost,but now am found,

                                                     Was blind ,but now I see.'

                                                               John Newton.

Pain. ( Psalm 22 )

What's the price ?,that's what want to know when we buy something ,recently in one of my daily readings by a man called Mike Witter wrote, 'Pain is the price of love'. That struck a chord within me, because it's very true,and there are so many examples of that in life.If you have a pet it is going to die,that's painful, looking after someone you love who is chronically ill,that's painful.It does not end there for death will come, and that's a pain that will always be there.In the musical ,'Les  Miserables',based on a book by Victor Hugo,part of the story is about an attempted revolution that failed.There is a song, sung by a young man,who lost his friends in that revolution,we have the following words in that is song,'There's a grief that can't be spoken,there's a pain that goes on and on'.Yes pain is often the price of love,There is a cost with true love, we see this in Gods redemption of mankind, we read that God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son (John 3 v16),from the moment our Saviour was born,He knew what it would lead to,pain.more pain than you and I could ever imagine,and it was all borne out of  love. for you and for me.

                                                         'I stand amazed in the presence

                                                          of Jesus the Nazarene,

                                                          And wonder how He could love me,

                                                          A sinner, condemned unclean.

                                                          How marvellous! how wonderful

                                                          And my song shall ever be;

                                                          How marvellous! how wonderful

                                                          Is my Saviours love for me'.

                                                                 Words C H. Gabriel.

                                                

Napoleon ( Titus 3 v 3 - 7 )

 Napoleon said the following,' Everything in Christ astonishes me. His Spirit overawes me, and His will  confounds me. Between  Him  and whoever else in the world, there is no possible term of comparison. He is truly a being by Himself... I search in van in history to find the similar to Jesus Christ, or anything which can approach the gospel . Neither history , nor humanity, nor the ages,nor nature,offer me anything with which I am able to compare it or explain it. Here everything is extraordinary.' What a wonderful statement,but ah there's that but,did he know Christ as his Saviour?, I hope he did,you see its possible to think well of Christ and to not know Him as ones Saviour. Gandhi admired Christ and was influenced by His teaching, especially the sermon on the mount,but that's as far as it went.Islam have a Christ whom they admire but it is a Christ minus the cross.Yes to admire Christ is not enough, one must know Him as their personal Saviour, He did not come to set up a fan club , He came to die on the cross to seek and to save sinners.

                                                     'Do you know Him as your Saviour?

I am the bread of life. ( John 6 v 35)

 ,'Recently my wife and I were out with friends from  the church,and I asked a lady sitting beside me,'' Do you like cats?'',she replied no.But later it turned out she thought I said ''do you eat cats?,that made me  laugh.We all have things we like  and what we don't like, I would not like to eat a cat or a dog,but I do like  a lot of things,though I still have problems eating certain vegetables, but I do ,for I know that they are good for me. One food I really like is bread, soda bread,wheaten bread.bread is known as the staff of life,meaning one of the most important foods we eat.In John 6 our Lord performed a wonderful miracle,in which he fed thousands with a few loves and a few fish.When Jesus moved on,by crossing a lake to Capernaum, the crowds followed Him,it was then that our Saviour made clear the meaning behind the miracle.In the gospel of John the miracles that  our Saviour performed ,are seen as signs (6 v 14).The crowds only saw this miracle being like a local food bank, or like the miracle of the manna in the wilderness.( ( 6 v 31) Our Saviour points them to the greater truth,v 35 reads ,' Then Jesus declared whoever comes to me will never go hungry,and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.'In other words He will meet the deepest need of the human heart, but not only that, those who ate the manna in the wilderness died,but when you trust Jesus you will live forever (v 51. / 11v 25)

                                                    'Jesus says, come and dine'

Our idols ( 1 Corinthians 1 v 26 -31 )

I  listened to the testimony of a famous sportsman telling how he came to know Christ, his name is Bernhard Langer, in case you don't know about him,he was one of the top golfers in the world. He comes from Germany,and was brought up in very religious family,he said he did everything to try and please God,to win his favour. Well that didn't work out until he had a real spiritual encounter with God,when he asked Jesus to be his Saviour. Writing on the wealthy and famous,Philip Yancey who had opportunities to interview,''stars'', great footballers,movie actors, music performers, best selling authors, politicians, and TV personalities. We fawn over them,poring over the minutiae of their lives...... Yet  I  must tell you that,in my limited experience, I have Paul Johnson's  principle to hold true; our ''idols'' are as miserable a group of people as I have ever met. Most have troubled or broken marriages. Nearly all are incurably dependent on psychotherapy. In a heavy irony,these larger- than-life heroes seem tormented by self doubt'.The fact is ,'fame and fortune ', does not remove our need of Christ ,as ones Saviour, in fact it highlights it.

Christ will remain. ( 1 Kings 19 v 14/18 }

When the communist took over China,all missionaries had to leave,but the good news is the church did not die.Our Lord said I will build my church, and He is doing just that ,in spite of  Christians being persecuted. I read of a certain place were some Christians took up residence,they built houses ,planted crops,and prospered,they also witnessed to the people and many came to know the Lord.But the non-Christians did not like that,as it was having an affect as regards the witch doctors powers,plus other things. So the authorities told the Christians they would have to leave.The Christian leader said this,'we will leave , but Christ will remain'.At this time I think of  dear Afghanistan where the Taliban have taken over,many Christians have had to flee as being ex-Muslims they would be put to death.So that's it? no,I  believe Christ is still there.The prophet Elijah lived at a time when the true followers of God were under attack,Elijah cried unto God,' I have been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty,. The Israelites have rejected your covenant,torn down your altars,and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left,and now they are trying to kill me'.But God replied,' Yet I have reserved seven thousand in Israel,all whose knees have not bowed to  Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him' ( 1 Kings 19 v 14 /18)

                                           'In times of the greatest degeneracy and apostasy

                                           God has always had, and will have, a faithful remnant.

                                                                Matthew Henry

Deliverance. ( Luke 4 v16 -21 )

 Lets continue on in Luke 8 and consider a case of demon possession,here in the west we are not acquainted with such things, but in v26- 39,we read a very obvious account of a man that was demon possessed.A man out of control,he was naked,lived among the dead,his life was an absolute nightmare,but help was on the way,in the person of Jesus,the one who calmed the raging storm,was going to be set him free.With Jesus there is always hope,but the story involves other things.as we will see. The man runs up to Jesus,but it is not him who speaks to Jesus, it is the demons,they don't just speak they shout,they are afraid,for though they have never seen Him ,they knew who he was,they address Him as,'Son of the most high God'. They beg Him to not torture them,for Jesus had began to command these demons to come out of the man,the damage they had done to this man was awful.Jesus speaks to them,'what is your name?',they replied Legion for they were many. They further asked not to be cast out into the Abyss,and to cast them into pigs near by,this was a Gentile area,so Jesus did that,when they entered  the pigs  they ran into the sea and drowned .When the local people heard what happened, they hurried to the scene and there they  saw an  amazing sight, the demons had been cast out and there he was sitting at Jesus feet, clothed and in His right mind.

                                          ' From home and friends the evil spirits drove him,

                                            Among the tombs he dwelt in misery,

                                            He cut himself as demon pow'rs possessed him,

                                            Then Jesus came, and set the captive free.

                                                         Words Oswald J.Smith