Runaways ( Luke 15 v 1- 7 )

It was Francis Thompson,who wrote  a poem called,' The  Hound of heaven', it is about the pursuit of  the human soul by God's love. God follow's the fleeing soul ,and by His divine grace,until the soul  turns to God alone, in that ever ending pursuit'. (These words are not mine) Here are few lines from this poem,

                                                      ' I fled Him ,down the nights,and down the days;

                                                       I fled Him, down the archers of the years,

                                                       I fled Him ,down the labyrinthine ways,

                                                       Of my own mind, and in the midst of tears,

                                                       I hid from Him,and under running laughter'

When Adam and Eve sinned,they hid from God,and we their sons and daughters  have followed in our parents footsteps..We think that we are good at running and hiding from our Creator.be that as it may, God in mercy has intervened,and has been seeking us runaways. In Ezekiel 34 v 15 -16,the Sovereign Lord declares.'I will search for the lost'.Why did Jesus come? ,'to seek and to save that which is lost'(Luke 19 v 10 )He had to do that, for we told,' there is no one who seeks God (Romans 3 v 11) His seeking is the divine initiative,we keep running He keeps seeking until He finds the sheep that is lost,and  brings it home rejoicing. Ah but what a price he had to pay, He lay down His life for the sheep,oh the suffering He endured,why did He do that?love ,yes love so great that He who was equal with God,give up His divine privileges,made Himself nothing but  a servant,and became obedient unto death,even death on a cross (Philippians 2 v 5- 8)

Words ( Matthew 12 v 36 -37 )

 A lady said,''I  have the body of ET ,I am basically a torso with legs''. Why am I writing this? because  that phrase really caught my eye, it was such a wonderful description of her body.I recently heard a famous actress quote  a passage from Shakespeare it was wonderful to listen to. God has granted mankind  a unique means of communication  where we can be entertained in so many ways,in the written form,in songs that are sung,and so on. It is James in his epistle  writing about what we say with that little member of our body, the tongue ,and how difficult it is to control, words are so easily spoken,hurtful words, healing words. Our Saviour speaking to the the religious leaders of  His day said,'' that everyone will  have to give an account on the day of judgement for every empty word they have spoken''. ( Matthew 12 v36). The fact is we will be accountable for what we have said, all those who have spoken against God and His word,who have blasphemed,all those false religions,and false prophets,the broken vows.We are thinking mainly of unbelievers ,but let us who are Christians, take heed also,as to what we say,God is listening He does not ignore ,the wrong things we say,and will surely deal with us .

One day. ( John 14 v 1-4 )

 The apostle Peter writing in his epistle as regards our Saviour ,declared ,'Though you have not seen Him,you love Him'.( 1 Peter 1  8 )We would answer,'but one day we will see Him, the poet  Ray Palmer wrote;   

       1      'Jesus,these eyes have never seen,                       3     Yet though I have not seen,

                That radiant form of Thine,                                       and,still, must rest on faith alone,

                The vail of sense hangs dark,                                    I love Thee, dearest Lord  ,

                Between Thy blessed face and mine.                        But will unseen ,but not unknown.

       2       I see Thee not, I hear Thee not,                           4   When death  these mortal eyes shall see,

               Yet art Thou oft with me,                                            And still this throbbing heart,

               And earth hath ne'er so dear a spot,                            The rending veil shall Thou reveal,

               As when I meet with Thee.                                         All glories as Thou art.

                                                              ' We will see Jesus

                                                                     one day' 

                                 

           

       

         

       

     

             

What a mess .( Isaiah 55 v 12 )

 I was in my kitchen and as I opened one of the doors to get something out,and I heard a bang,and I looked down,a jar of tomato puree,had fallen out and smashed on the floor,what a mess. Yes it was a mess,but it wasn't to hard to clean up, thankfully,but some messes are not so easy to clear up.people do all sorts of things,and there comes a point when they look and say,'what a mess I've got myself into.' Many people in prison must think that,likewise many people destroy their marriages by getting involved with someone they shouldn't have.There are young people who have stabbed and killed another young person, and when the dust has settled,and they are in their prison cell,they will think what a mess I  have got myself into.Is gambling a sin?what I do know is this,it has ruined many peoples lives,likewise alcohol ,so many peoples lives become a mess of their own creation.Our dear Saviour told a wonderful story  that illustrates how the mess people can get themselves into deep trouble of their own making ,we read about in Luke 15 v 11ff,of a young man who had everything,but lost it all,and found himself in desperate straits,and he knew it.what a  mess he was in,no one would help him. No one but his father,the father who loved him.Fathers are like that ,and he did help him,and his life was changed for the better.The father in that story is a picture of God who loves mankind,that is why Jesus came, if your life is mess  for whatever reason,there is one you can turn to,Jesus and I can assure you He can forgive you and change you,like no one else can.

                                                  ' Out of my shameful failure and loss,

                                                    Jesus,I come! Jesus, I  come!

                                                    Into the glorious gain of The cross,

                                                    Jesus,I come to Thee !

                                                           Words  W T.Sleeper.

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I don't want to preach that. ( Ezekiel 2 v 7 )

 I sometimes wish I  could leave out certain things in my blog, but I can't,what am I referring to?,mankind's sinful condition,and the terrible consequence that follows. Wonderful,wonderful,there is heaven,for those who receive Christ as their Saviour. By the grace of God you have done that, as I have,and we can say or sing,'Amazing Grace that saves a wretch like me,I once was lost but now am found,was blind but now I see'.What a blessed assurance to know that one is saved,and we are going to heaven,what a wonder it will be when we arrive in that place that Christ has prepared for us.Which leads me unto  the other thing I don't like preaching but first let me tell you what a friend told me once. He was attending  his fathers funeral,I knew his father, he was named after him.He told me as the coffin was being lowered into the grave,his thoughts were not on his father,but rather on himself,and what awaited him beyond the grave. He had every right to be afraid,  and here is what I would rather not preach on,hell. Why? ,because I know it's awful, many ministers don't preach it,don't even mention it, the prophets  did not shy away from speaking  about judgement ,and many of them paid the price  for doing that.( Matthew 23 v37).There was a little rug in the pulpit I used to preach in, it had these words on it,'Preach the Word', yes even though you find it hard,and even though people don't want to here it.

Consequences ( Hebrews 3 v 15 )

 Last time I wrote about Solomon ,who was a great king for most of his reign, it appears that God was very patient with him but in the end God said enough,is enough.It need not have been like that in 2 Chronicles 7 ,after the dedication of the temple,God appeared to him and spoke to him.The first part of  the chapter is about God responding to Solomon's prayer at the dedication of the temple,the second is the importance of obeying God and the consequences of disobedience which would be very serious for him and the nation. In spite of that he did not take it  serious enough, but instead gradually moved away from God,His ways and His will.Think about disobedience and its terrible consequence,it all started  with Adam and Eve,and so we the children of Adam have followed in our first parents footsteps.Look at this world ,why are so many awful things happening?,the answer is mankind is living in disobedience to God,falsehood abounds in all sided's we should never be surprised at awful things happening, just look into our own hearts. Here is a word for us Christians, obey God, if we don't ,there will be consequences,but the good news is God is still in the business of forgiveness. If you are not a Christian repent and turn to Jesus  He will forgive you,and bring you from the road that leads to destruction, and put you on the road that leads to heaven not to hell.

Solomon ( 1 Kings 11 v 9 - 13 )

 I am going through that wonderful book of Proverbs written by Solomon, a man endowed with  tremendous wisdom from God.He blessed him not only with wisdom but with many blessings.Now in Deuteronomy 17 v14 -17,God gave instructions that as to what the kings were not meant to do,not to multiply horses,horses symbolised  military strength,God alone was to be Israels strength.What apples to Israel  and its king,applies to God's children, God must be our strength, without Him we can do nothing. Solomon disobeyed God in this ,1 Kings 10 v 29 - 30.The next thing the kings of Israel were not to do,was not to take many wives,Solomon disobeyed  that,he not only took many wives,but he took foreign wives 1 kings11 ,and these wives turned his heart away from God to foreign god's. Some see the marrying of the foreign wives as an act of strengthening political alliances. Let us all be careful as to whom we join hands with, the  word of God says,we are not to be unequally yoked with unbelievers ,2 Corinthians 5 v17.We cannot join hands with other nations religions,or the worlds moral values.The next thing Israels  kings  were not to do was to accumulate large  amounts of silver and gold,in other words they were not to be materialistic. There is nothing wrong with being  rich, as long as that does not become our goal in life,and it becomes our god.Solomon for all his wisdom went beyond what he should have,and it had severe consequences for what followed,let us take note of that.