Be wise. ( Daniel 12 v 1-3 )

  In Proverbs chap 11 v30, we read',He that winneth  souls is wise',let us ask the  question,'why did Jesus come?'. The answer is,'He will save His people from' their sins, it is as simple as that ,nothing complicated,He did not come to set up an earthly kingdom,or to rule from an earthly throne CP  John 18 v36, He came to bring  in a spiritual kingdom within the hearts of people,as  Jesus said to the Pharisees''The kingdom of God  is within you''Luke 17 v21,Michael Wilcock comments,'the Kingdom  is primarily an inward  reality and not a political institution'.When we are without Christ we are lost souls,we have a sinful nature, the fruit of that  nature is sinful practices,thoughts, attitudes,wrong attitudes towards God and man.No one is excluded from this,all have sinned and come short of God's glory ( Rom 3 v 36 ).As Christians we know these things,and we know that people need to be saved,from the consequence of their sin and the power of their sin..The consequences of our sin,will follow us beyond the grave,and takes us to hell,to say it is serious,is an understatement,words fail to express the  awfulness  of that judgement on any human being.That is why we need to witness to people without fear or favour .In Psalm 142 David is in real difficulties,and he declares '.no man cared for my soul'.do we care? if we do not tell them,no one else will,don't be like a bull in a china shop when you witness to people,,be wise as a serpent and as harmless as a dove (Matthew 10 v16 ),you may be considered a fool.fear not man's judgement remember God's word say's he  that winneth souls is wise and I would add .'in the home beyond the skies'.

Fact not fiction.( John 20 v 1- 29 )

 In   Solzhenitsyn book,'The Gulag Archipelago', the destructive- labour camps, brought in during the reign of  Stalin ,were people suffered untold misery,and millions died. He writes this,'In this book there are no  fictitious events. People and places are named with their own names.He received 227 letters from survivors who had  been in these camps,which was further evidence as to the horrors that took place.Now I want to use what he wrote as regards to the word of God,it is not a fictitious book,the events and people are all real.Consider Christ miracles ,they were witnessed by the disciples,and vast crowds , His healings were not fake,in Luke 17 v 11-19, 10 lepers were healed,and Jesus told them to go to priests,who would verify that they were healed CP  Leviticus 14 v2,His healings were  real ,witnessed by many.Think about our Lord's resurrection,which He foretold ( Matthew 16 vv23),in spite of that the disciples didn't believe until He revealed Himself after His resurrection .But what evidence is there of His resurrection?,we move to  1 Corinthians 15 v 3-8,in these verses the Apostle Paul writes,'That Jesus died for our sins  CP Isaiah 53/ Psalm 22 v 16 -18, Then he proceeds to the evidence of the resurrection,and he writes of those who witnessed seeing the risen Christ,and he mentions over 500 people,and then he includes himself ( Acts 9),these are the facts.

Love triumphant. ( Revelation 1 v 18)

 It is said that love is blind,but let me tell you hatred is blind,hatred does not discriminate ,Hitler was filled with hatred for all Jews yet the Jews living in Germany were very patriotic,many had fought in the first world war,they saw themselves as German citizens,  it  made no difference ,they must all die,Stalin was no different, When the communist took over  Russia they made war on a certain class of people,and in the news paper called the 'Red Terror' they published the following article it read,'We are not fighting against  single individuals.We are exterminating the bourgeoisie as a class' and so hate took over and so the exterminations began.It was hate that drove Cain to kill his brother,  Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn wrote the following,'If it's hate inscribing the lines,instead of love,they will inevitably be drawn so that the lowest , meanest, most cruel and useless of the conceptual geographers will be justified in manifesting the greatest possible evil,and producing the greatest possible misery'.It is true when love goes hatred takes it's place in the most unbelievable ways,  The greatest example of this is the crucifixion of our Lord Jesus Christ,in that  dastardly deed ,in that awful act mankind's hated reach its fullness,in spite of that, love was triumphant,the darkness could not extinguish the light.

                                          ' From that cross a shout of victory sounded forth'

                                                                      ' It is Finish'

                                                                

Hell. ( Mark 9 v 43 - 48 )

It appears to me that there are those who want to soften what they see,or read in the Bible's teaching on judgement ,or Christ death on the cross.The fact we must stay faithful to God's word,we have to tell it as it is,one preacher said that Christ only mentioned hell a few times,but in actual fact He mentioned it quite a number times, at least ten times,not only mention hell but He vividly described it.Go through the gospels and look for yourself ,see how many times he did mention it. R C Sproul was a very popular and gifted preacher, who is now with the Lord,was asked which doctrine did he struggle with most,he replied ,hell'. I  concur to that,most preachers would agree with that, one of my sons who is a Christian had a crises of faith,because he struggled with the doctrine of hell.My last  pastor would not have believed in hell,he never completely denied it, but it was obvious that he didn't,for I discerned that, by the fact that he never mentioned it.Recently  I witnessed to a person  ,he said he didn't believe in God,but I reminded him that there is a heaven and there is a hell and told him I would be praying for him,as he was leaving he said,he would remember what I said, I don't regret telling him about hell,because I don't want anyone to go there,and I am sure you don't. Just to let you know I did mention Christ to that man.

                                                     

                                    

 

Turing back, never. ( Psalm 23 )

 A hymn by Anna  L .Waring brings back memories of when  my wife and I were at Bible college, it was a a  testing time for we had no income coming in,we were sorely depending on God to supply our needs.Let me also add we had three children,it was very challenging,the principal spoke to me once,and he said he would understand if we had to give up, but we didn't,God tested us, we didn't give up,and God wonderfully provided for our needs.So I am going to leave you with the words of the second verse of the  hymn by A L. Waring,

                                                         'Wherever He may guide me,

                                                          No want shall turn me back;

                                                          My Shepherd is beside me

                                                         And nothing can I lack;

                                                         His wisdom ever waketh ,

                                                         His sight is never dim;

                                                         He knows the way He taketh     

                                                        And I will walk with Him.

                                              William Plummer wrote the following, 

                      'In every undertaking God is not only our Chief,but our sole dependence.

Two important truths. ( Philippians 2 v 12 -13 )

My wife works in the care sector, and  each morning before she goes to work,I pray with her, recently she called in for a short time during the day ,and as she was leaving to go out again,I said to her ,'drive carefully,and prayerfully'.Those words indicate two things, being responsible,and yet depending on God. The two go together and are important.It was Spurgeon ,and William Carey, who had certain amount of opposition from those who where hyper Calvinist who frowned on evangelism.In the case of William Carey they disagreed with his desire to be a missionary,that did not stop him going to India and serving God.One can think of the different things we are responsible for. God calls none of us to neglect our responsibility,in all aspects of life in so called secular things and in spiritual matters.But in all matters we must never forget  our dependence on God,that's what the great apostle said when he wrote,' I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.'(Philippians 4 v13 ) he was emphasising what our Saviour said in John 15 v 5,'apart from Me you can do nothing'. that means to simply rely on  Christ working through us,yes there should be in all of us,a continual dependence on Christ, or as one put it,a  continual dependence on a living Saviour.

                                                       'Weak as you are,you shall not faint;

                                                        Or  fainting, shall not die;

                                                        Jesus, the strength of every saint,

                                                         Will aid you from on high.'

                                                                Words John Newton.

                 

Expectation. (John 3 v16)

 We continue to consider Proverbs 10 v 28, we saw the hope the righteous shall be gladness,now let us consider,'but the expectation of the wicked shall perish.' As Charles Bridges puts it,'they too have their expectation',consider Hitlers and his,' Third Reich',that would last for a thousand years ,but it lasted only 12 yrs,and he ended up committing suicide,amidst the ruins of Berlin. Wicked Haman's expectations was to destroy the Jewish race,especially Mordecai, but in a moment his expectation lay in the dust,as he was hung on the gallows he had prepared for Mordecai.(Esther chap 7) The enemies of Daniel,sought to  destroy him,by  having him cast into a  den of lions,but God  delivered Daniel,and his enemies were cast into that same den of lions,and were devoured by those same lions,not only did their expectation perish, they perished.( Daniel chap 6) Now let quote what Charles Bridges says as regards the wicked,those who know not Christ,'For none have a stronger hope than those,who have no grounds for hope. (Deut 29 v19 ) And this delusion often  reaches the moment of eternity, expecting the door to be ''opened to them''but alas it was shut,they dreamt of heaven,and they woke up in hell' It is very sad,and solemn,but it is true ,the expectation of the wicked shall perish.