Holy ground. ( Isaiah 53)

A well known American actor,who served his country in the second world war,would speak at events for war veterans.He was at the D Day landing,were many of his colleagues and friends died. In going over these things he spoke of ,'The holy ground of our memories', of the many who who had died,and  who had shed their blood,to defeat a very wicked enemy.I never served in combat ,but I like all Christians have a holy ground within my memory,it is not about battle field as such, its an old rugged cross,on which a mangled body hangs,it is our beloved Saviour, Jesus. Those who put Him on that cross mocked Him, to them He was an imposter, one whom they hated,because He challenged their heartless ,oppressive religiosity.But scripture  tells us clearly who He was ,our Messiah, our Saviour ,who willingly laid down His life as a sacrifice for our sins, Calvary  will always be ,'The holy ground of our memories'.

He is leading (Psalm 18 v 30)

 Often I  look back on my life and consider how God has led  me,to where I am now,it was the servant  of Abraham, who was sent to get a wife for Abraham's son Isaac from his relatives.He had no satnav but was guided to the very girl, her name was Rebekah , He declared ,''the Lord has led me'',( Genesis 24 v27 ). On the day I was coming from Northern Ireland to come to England,God gave me two wonderful promise's,'He laid them on safely',(  Psalm 78 v53)/ Behold, I send an Angle before you to keep you in the way to bring you into the place I have prepared'. ( Exodus 23 v 20 ) ,so it came to pass.God is in the business of guiding us all the days of our lives. In Psalm 48 v 14, we read,'For this God is our God  for ever and ever; He will be our guide even to the end'.He does not leave us stranded, in fact He does not leave us.He will bring  us to that place, He wants us to go,He is a sure guide, He will make no mistakes,we can rely upon Him completely.  He guided the Israelites for 40 yrs in their wilderness journey,we read in Exodus 13 v21 -22, how God granted them a pillar  of cloud during the day, and a pillar of fire during the night to lead them . He is leading us to our heavenly country,this world is not our permanent dwelling, all that we look upon will be no more,and then we will enter into our glorious rest with our glorious Saviour.

                                            ' Jesus, still lead on till our rest be won;

                                              Heavenly  Leader, still direct us,

                                              Still support, console,protect us,

                                              Till we safely stand in our Fatherland.'

                                                         Jane Borthwick.

Give glory to God .( Joshua 7 )

When Achan  who had disobeyed God was found out ,he was told by Joshua ,'To give glory to the Lord,the God of Israel,and honour Him',and confess what he had done. ( Joshua 7 v 19 )When a believer sins he dishonours God,but all is not lost,Matthew Henry says the following,'In confessing sin, as we take shame to ourselves, so we give glory to God as a righteous God, owing Him justly displeased with us, and as a good God,who will  not use our confessions as evidence against us, but is faithful and just to forgive when we are brought  to own, that He would be faithful and just if He should punish'.When King David sinned he was willing to live with it, even marrying the wife of the man he had murdered,but when His sin was exposed,he confessed and God forgive him,but God also justly punished him. ( 2 Samuel 12 .CP Psalm 51) 

                                                'You may ignore your sin

                                                     BUT GOD WON'T'

No negotiating. ( Psalm 97 v 10 )

 R.Davis said,'Whether it is the evil and sin  within us or some form of it outside us God does not call us to negotiate with sin and evil but to wage war on them, to nurse  a holy hatred  toward them in all their multicolored forms'.Recently churches in a certain denomination  were sent questionnaires,as regards allowing people in a self same gender relationship,to become ministers.The questions is why are we as so called Christians  appearing to be negotiating about something that which is clearly condemned in the bible ?,An other denomination  has just appointed a transgender person to be an archdeacon. Transgenderism is being pushed upon people, in our schools where  it is being taught ,and some parents are running with it.How society deals with these issues is their business,but as Christians we must take our stand on what the Bible teaches.We must not negotiate with those who want us to accept such things and we must make it clear  that we stand against them. We are to hate evil, I am not saying we should persecute anyone,but we must definitely not accept or practice the things mentioned, they are totally unacceptable to us as Christians.

                                                  'Dare to be a Daniel! Dare to stand alone!

                                                   Dare to have a purpose firm! Dare to make

                                                   it known.

                                                                    Words by P.P.Bliss

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?