Drink the cup. (John 18 v 11

     When they came to arrest our Saviour in the garden of Gethsemane, His disciples resisted Peter used his sword injuring one of those trying to take Jesus to be tried. Jesus told Peter to put away the sword,,followed by these words,''Shall I  not drink the cup the father has given me?'' L.B.Cowman makes the following comments,' To ''drink the cup'' was a greater thing than calming the sea  or raising the dead.'. In drinking  this cup He would be  fulling God's will perfectly,something no one has done.,or will ever do.He would be the lamb of  God who would take away the sin of the world. L.B.C,goes on to say,' Doing Gods's will and thus experiencing suffering  is still  the highest form of faith, Having your brightest aspirations as a young person for ever crushed; bearing  burdens daily that are always difficult ,  and never see relief, finding yourself worn down by poverty while simply desiring  to do good for others and provide a comfortable living for those you love; being shackled by an incurable physical disability; being completely alone, separated from all those you love, to face trauma of life alone;yet in all these, still being able to say through a difficult  school of discipline,'' Shall I  not drink the cup the Father has given me?''- this is faith at its highest,and spiritual  success at its crowning point'.

                                                   'Strange and difficult indeed

                                                             We may find it,

                                                   But the blessing that we need

                                                               Is behind it.

Chastening. ( 2 Corinthians 12 v 1 - 10 )

 Charles Bridges writes , 'Although we are children of  God,we are still children of Adam; with Adam's will,pride, independence, and waywardness'. The context of this is Proverbs 3 v11-12,'My son, despise not the chastening of the Lord; neither be weary of His correction; For whom the Lord  loveth he correcteth; ; even as a father the son in whom he delighteth'.  It is the writer  of Hebrews (12 v 5-6 ) who quotes these verses ,the Hebrew Christians have known times of suffering,and that suffering can be the chastening  of God. Chastening  is one aspect of suffering,Paul's thorn in the flesh caused him much suffering (2 Corinthians 12 ) the reason being ,he had a tremendous experience ,beyond anything we have ever had, the consequences of that was pride,like us Paul was a child of Adam,and so to keep him in check, God sent him an humbling affliction.Lets be honest not many of us see see that often our suffering  can come from our loving  Father who is chastening us.As our earthly father chastens us,so our loving heavenly Father chastens us.Every thing God does  for us ,is for our benefit, God does not spoil us He disciplines us.because that is what we need.The poet wrote,' the very hand that strikes the blow, was wounded once for me'.God has a purpose in it all,accepted aright it will produce godly qualities in our lives (Romans 5 v 3-4)

                             'We ask not,Father,for repose, which comes from outward rest,

                              If we may have through all life's woes,Thy peace within our breast.

                              That peace which suffers and is strong,Trusts where it cannot see,

                              Deems not the trial-way too long, but leaves the end  with Thee;

                              O Father, give our hearts this peace, Whate'er the outward be,

                              Till all life's discipline shall cease,and we go home to Thee' 

                                                 

Pray/ Go. ( Romans 10 v 13 - 18 )

 I was watching a program on an area of the city of  Philadelphia,the city of,' Brotherly Love',as I viewed  the people  shown, I was moved to tears. The streets where full of very sad people ,I assume many were on drugs,and homeless,many of them looked hopeless,and totally rejected ,heads bowed down,shuffling about creatures of despair, no wonder I cried.But I did more than cry, I cried unto God for them. It is easy to judge them ,but it is better that we pray for them.The world can't help them, they don't appreciate how precious they are.What answer has the evolutionist,and the atheist, after all the its a survival of the fittest so wrote Charles Darwin in his  book,'the Origin of the Species'. Let them die they are of no worth ,they don't contribute anything to society,they are parasites,but in God's sight they are precious. No soul is worthless, the coming of Christ proves that,for He came to save sinners,someone once said,'go for sinners,and go for the worst'.Pray for such people,and if God calls you,go to them ,with the most liberating, powerful ,loving message ,the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Anthony Hopkins ( Psalm 119 v 129 - 136 )4

One of the movies that Anthony Hopkins acted in was ,'The two Popes',he played the role of Pope Benedict,who did an surprising thing,by resigning from the papacy.In the movie he was talking to his successor I think his name is Pope Francis and he says,'The hardest things is to listen,to hear His voice,God's voice'.Even though it is a Pope depicted saying this,it is still true. Either we are to busy like Martha,or blinded by our preconceived opinions,or like  the religious leaders of Jesus day,there are so many reasons.Of course there are obvious reasons, we are too lazy,it is also sad that so many who have been given the gift of being able to read, do not read their Bible, and so miss out in a very definite way of hearing God speaking to them.Their is a lot of people who read their Bible but it is just skimming reading, they don't take in all that they read,they skim over it.  Charles Bridges said this,'To simply read the scriptures, instead of ''searching the Scriptures ,'' is only to skim the surface, and gather up a few superficial notions'. It is not sufficient just to depend solely on your ministers Sundays sermon, we need to learn to feed ourselves,The writer of Hebrews rebuked his readers for their lack of spiritual growth (5 v 11-14 ), if we are to be mature Christians we must read the Word of God,seek to understand it,and get to know our God more intimately.

Anthony Hopkins ( John 3 v16 ) 3

 Let's continue to consider the interview of Anthony Hopkins, and something else he said,' We are but dust and ashes,we are not special', in one sense he is right,for we are told in Genesis 2 v7 that God formed man  from the dust of the ground'In the burial service we pray,' earth to earth ,ashes to ashes, dust to dust'.But the prayer of committal goes unto say, ' in sure and certain hope of the resurrection to eternal life, through our Lord Jesus Christ'. The resurrection  of our Lord Jesus Christ is a historical fact,witnessed by over 500 people 1 Corinthians 15 v 3-9. Yes we are dust but the resurrection points us to something greater a new existence,with a spiritual body,in which disease and death will not touch us. Then lets consider his other statement, 'we are not special', are we just animals to be slaughtered?, it appears this is so ,when we consider the slaughter of infants in their mothers womb.It is obvious that there are many who throughout history appeared to think  that humanity was not special.Are we just flesh and blood? convenient cremations seem to be highlighting our nothingness.All that is challenged by God's word and the coming of Christ into this world,which proclaims  not only are we special, but we are also loved, by our Creator.

                                                      'If you want to know just how 

                                                      special you are , look to the 

                                                      cross where Jesus died.'

Anthony Hopkins (2 Thessalonians 2 v 5 v 12 ) 2

 Let us continue to consider what Anthony Hopkins had to say when he was interviewed,,'Life is a mystery,I know nothing,I do not know who I am,I don't know where I came from,I don't know where I'm going'' If truth were told these sentiments are the voice of most people , in particular those who profess to know so much, in reality they are all Anthony Hopkins,they don't just know,so they want everyone to join  them in their delusional club whose motto is,'it just happened'.As a Christian the only logical answer to those words uttered by  AH, is God. On Christmas Eve Dec 1968  the three crew members  of Apollo 8 read  from Genesis 1  v 1 -10, It begins,'In the beginning God created heaven and earth', that's the answer, the only answer,yes you need faith to believe that, not a cop out of accepting,their leader, him who must not be mentioned, and I don't mean Anthony Hopkins. CP 2 Corinthians 4 v4.

Anthony Hopkins ( Matthew 7 v 24 -27 )

 I listed  to Anthony Hopkins being interviewed and found it very interesting,in case you didn't know he is a very famous British actor who was born in Wales.He mentioned that when he was a young lad,he said that he was an ,idiot and that he was told that he  would never amount to anything,well they got that wrong.I want to highlight some of the things he said , '' To live continually in doubt, I know nothing , if you know  certainties your dead',He mentioned as examples of the danger of holding certainties , Hitler and Stalin.Let us ask the question is it true if you hold certainties,you are dead? It depends on what the certainties are.are they built on truth,Nazism was not built on truth,but on a fabrication of lies, likewise Stalin's socialism promising an equality of  ownership and well being,turned out to be a monstrous nightmare,it was on a par with Nazism, uncle Joe didn't live up to his friendly name.There are so many examples of people we could mention who held to perverted certainties,in religion ,politics and in  so many areas of. life.Now just to end off , lets consider Christ ,now we have to be honest and say that in the visible church there have always been those who have held certainties that were were far removed  from Him who is the way the truth and the life. (John 1 we4 v 6 ) When we consider Christ,as revealed in the  scriptures we discover one in whom  we can  have a sure and certain hope.