It is coming back again.( 1 Thessalonians 4 v 13 -18 )

Yes it is coming back again,I mean the Covid virus ,it is called Covid 19 ,and people are becoming unwell, it would be wonderful if we could get rid of it. Alas if we did then something else will take its place,this is a fallen world ,and so sickness and death cannot be banished.But God has a wonderful plan it is called a new heaven and a new earth,prepared for a redeemed people.John the apostle of love had a wonderful vision,here is what he recorded,in Revelation 21,'Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth,for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away',we don't know a lot about it,but we can be assured it will be wonderful.John further writes,that God will wipe away ever tear from our eyes,and that there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain,for the old order of things has passed away.Imagine all the things that cause us pain here,will cease to exist,can that be possible,yes,because the one who will create it declares,'I  am making everything new' (Rev 21 v5)

                                                'Yes when this flesh,and heart shall fail,

                                                 And mortal shall cease,

                                                 I shall possess within the  veil

                                                A life of joy and peace.

                                                When we've been there a thousand years,

                                                 Bright shining as the sun,

                                                 We've no less days to sing God's praise,

                                                 Than when we first begun.

                                                            John Newton

     

Hope.( Colossians 1 v 27) 2

 Lets further consider yesterdays message when Charles Templeton turned from being a Christian and became an atheist. Charles spoke to Billy Graham,the conversation went like this.'Billy ,its simply not possible any longer to believe, for instance the biblical account of creation.The world was not created over a period of days a few thousand years ago; it has evolved over million of years'.Billy went on to stress there were many scholars who didn't believe that, he then went on to say,'I believe the Genesis account of creation because it's in the Bible. I've discovered something in my ministry;when I  take the Bible literally, when I proclaim it as the word of God, my preaching has power.When I stand on the platform and say,'God says', or 'The Bible says,' the Holy Spirit uses me. There are results. Wiser men than you or I have been arguing  questions like this for centuries ,I don't have the time or the intellect to examine  all sides of the  theological dispute, so I have decided once and for all to stop questioning the Bible as God's word,I've decided that's the path for me''.  We read in Hebrews 11v 3 ,' By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible' Billy went on to faithfully preach the Gospel and many ,many lives were changed and transformed.were there was bondage ,people were set free,were there was despair came hope.How many lives has evolution changed?.The historical Christ death on the cross, and His resurrection, is the only message that grants us hope ,not just for time but also for eternity.

                                                          'How great is our God'

There is a way back. ( Joel 2 v 12 - 13 ) 1

Here is something I wrote before,about an evangelist an associate of Billy Graham his name was Charles Templeton. God mightily used  this man, But sad to say he turned away from God,Billy sought to reason with him, to no avail,I will touch on that next time.He later declared he was an atheist,wrote books that were anti Christian.He was interviewed  when he was 81,as regards what he had done,at the end of the interview he was asked,'How do you assess this Jesus?.His voice softened,his guard seemed to drop,he spoke in an unhurried tone,he said a number of things,'He was the greatest human being who ever lived, a moral genius, spoke of his great wisdom,his ethical sense was unique, and many other things.The reporter was taken aback and said,''you sound like you really care about Him. he stuttered,I know it may sound strange I adore Him''.his voice began to crack ,and he further said,''I.....miss ...Him!''.He was crying,but he pulled himself together,waved his hand and said ,''enough of that''.Very sad story, it is easy to  turn away form Christ, Peter did, but thankfully he came back.It could be that you have turned away from Christ,well you can come back, he still loves you,still pleads with you.These are the words spoken by Christ to a church that had gone away from Him,'Hear I am ! I stand at the door and knock.If  anyone hears my voice and opens the door,I will come in',( Revelation 3 v20 )Today if you hear His voice harden not your heart. 

'Our time of need' ( Matthew 7 v 7- 11) 3

 Let's have a final look at Hebrews  4 v16,which ends with the words,'so that we may receive mercy ,and find grace to help us in our time of need'.Pink writes the following,'' We should come therefore with boldness to the throne of grace''. Then let us do so , in the full confidence of our acceptance before God in the person of His Beloved(Ephesians 1 v6 ). The verb in 4 v16 is not aorist tense,but the present- let us ''come'' constantly,continually;let us form the habit of doing so.'Remember what our dear Saviour said,'That we should always pray and not give up' (Luke 18 v1),'Ask and it will be given to you;seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you'(Matthew 7 v7 ) Christmas Evans the Welsh preacher was going to minister God's word, but he felt a dullness in his soul.So he turned aside got off his horse,and prayed for two hours,and the Holy Spirit filled him,so he got on his horse ,and went on to preach ,and the Lord mightily blessed his ministry,to the salvation of many souls.I finish again by quoting Pink,' Whatever the need may be, spiritual or temporal, grace all  sufficient is ever available. May it be ours to constantly seek it, for the unchanging promise is,''Seek and you shall find''.

Mercy. ( Ephesians 2 v 1 -5)2

 Let us continue to look at Hebrews 4 v 16 'Let us then approach God's throne of grace with confidence,so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need'.Let us consider the mercy of God We considered how we can come to God with confidence because of the merits of Christ and we received mercy, Our Saviour told a parable in Luke 18 v9 -14 of two men going up the temple to pray,one was a very self righteous person,and the other an out and out sinner. They both prayed ,the self righteous person thanked God  that he was not like the baddies of this world especially that stinker over there ,meaning  the out and out sinner,and  the self righteous person felt ever so proud. The out and out sinner may have heard what was prayed,he may have felt like running out of the temple but he didn't, he was ashamed, afraid to look up to a holy God. He  started to beat himself because of the shame he felt,and so he prayed,the most honest prayer he could think of, for God expects us to be honest,so here's the prayer,'God be merciful to me a sinner', and God who delights in showing mercy did just that

                                                      'I mercy sought and mercy found'

Confidence ( 1 Corinthians 1 v 26 -31)1

  Hebrews 4 v 16 reads,'Let us then approach God's throne of grace with confidence,so  that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need',the passage this verse is placed in is dealing with ,'Jesus our great high priest', let me just stress the importance of  this,for alas there are those who try to undermine this by adding Mary the mother of our Lord. She is not the mother of God,she was the mother of Christ humanity,not His divinity.We must accept Mary as she is revealed in scripture,and not make her something she is not, and that goes for everything,including the so called special saints,scripture clearly teaches ,that there is only one God and one mediator between God and mankind,the man Christ Jesus.(1 Timothy 2 v 5 .CP John 14 v6 .) Though Christ we are told that we can come with confidence to God, this confidence is granted to us because we are accepted on the merits of Christ,through His finished work on the cross,This is a wonderful privilege bestowed upon every saved sinner,I  pray for Christian women who are doubly despised,for being female and for being Christians. They are not despised in God's eyes, W.Barclay writes,' Christianity made people  who were things into real men and women, more, into sons and daughters of God. It told men who in the eyes of the world were worthless , that,in the eyes of God they were worth the death of His only ( begotten ) Son'.With that in view they can enter with confidence into the very presence of God'

Hope (Colossians 3 v 1 - 4 )

The very nature of life will bring with it difficulties,challenges,trials and sorrows,we have to be realistic it is no good to think otherwise.Of course that does not mean that life will be all gloom and sadness .One of the nicest Christian I have ever known has Parkinson disease, I pray for him every day.One may ask why  should such a lovely soul suffer such a thing?,but we can also say why not?.The fact is we will not be excluded from some degree of trial's, that's a fact , it does not mean that God does not love and care for us,He most surely does. For the non Christian their vision is horizontal,they don't have an upward  look, they have no sure and certain hope.  It is becoming more and  more obvious,many now are not having funerals as such,no service is held,the undertaker takes away the body,and then brings the ashes to the loved ones, that's all there is to it ,I do not write this as a criticism of those people. The end for the Christian is more than ashes in a container,for we have a hope that will surely endure after the passing of time. Like the saints of old we look beyond the temporal to the eternal, the non -Christian just looks at the temporal. A Mrs L.B. Cowman wrote,'Strive to be one of the few  who walk this earth with the ever present realization- every morning,noon,and night- that the unknown that people call heaven is directly behind those things that are visible.' 

                                                    'Christ in you ,the hope of glory'

                                                               Colossians 1 v 27.