Be Still. ( Psalm 46))

 Scroggie  points out that,'Psalm 46 is a Psalm for every time of trouble',it commences with these wonderful words,' God is our refuge and strength, an ever present help in trouble',then he goes unto elaborate,'Therefore we will not fear,if the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea,though the mountains tremble at its swelling'.Michael Wilcock comments 'Fears  increase; yesterday it was the nuclear winter, today it is global warming, tomorrow it will be some  newly discovered threat from our unquiet earth.Does faith increase to cope with them?'. It is thought that the Psalm was written at the time of King Hezekiah,when the Assyrian army  were besieging Jerusalem they had a vast army,but God intervened and delivered the city and the land.(Isaiah 36-37)so many times God delivered His people from powerful armies and nations,He has not changed, He is the God who rules, He makes wars to cease to the ends of the earth,v 9.And so God declares,'Be still and know that I am God', ( v 10)  In many places the Church is under attack,God will preserve His church rest assured of that.In our own personal lives there are many things that can threaten us and cause us to fear,hear those words again, 'Be still and know that I am God'.

                                                'Be still  my soul,thy God doth undertake

                                                 To guide the future as He has the past,

                                                 Thy hope ,thy confidence, let nothing shake;

                                                 All now mysterious shall be bright at last.

                                                 Be still, my soul, the waves and wind still know

                                                 His voice Who ruled them while He dwelt below'

                                                                     Words K A.D. Von Schlegel

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Overwhelming thing.( Psalm 61 v 2 )

 I read the following in one of my daily readings,'Irish missionary Amy Carmichael knew what it was to live through life's storms; poverty,illness,chronic pain,persecution. Having weathered so many hardships with God's help,she reflected,''God is God of the waves and the billows,but they are still His when they  come over us;again and again we have proved that the overwhelming thing does not overwhelm''.Let me say there is no prosperity gospel in that account, but there is an honest account of the real life that can easily overwhelm us,if we let it.We all have a choice ,we can give up,we can turn away from God.we can give up in despair,we can turn back,or we can turn to God,it is our choice. It is like standing at a cross roads,not knowing what to do?.George Stiffler wrote the following.

                                          'Is your life full of heart-aches and sadness?

                                           Are your dreams all shattered and torn?

                                           There is one who through mercy and suffering

                                           For you every sorrow has borne

                                            Do the threads of your life seem so tangled

                                           That you wish you had never been born?

                                           There is one who is willing to help you

                                            He knows every sorrow you've borne.

He's the healer of broken hearts,He'll mend your shattered dreams,He'll pick up the threads of a broken

life,and weave them together again,To your soul He'll bring peace and joy,a friend in life He'll be The

healer of broken hearts,is Jesus of Galilee'.      ( Words Ceorgia Stiffler)

                                            

I was a shoplifter. ( Romans 3 v 23)

 I was coming out of a local supermarket when I heard someone shouting,I looked to see who it was,as I looked a young man was running towards me with a security person running after him. The security person gave up the chase, and the young man run off. I can only assume that the young man was a shoplifter,a lot of it goes on,sad to say.But it brought back a memory of myself that when I was a very young  boy, I attempted to steal something but was caught. As I said I was a very young boy,yet I knew that what  I was doing wrong,it bears out this fact, that our fallen nature can manifest itself at a very early age. It was David who declared,' Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me' ( Psalm 51 v3 ) Likewise in Psalm 25 v 7 he prayed,'Do not remember the sins of my youth,and my rebellious ways'.People speak of mankind's inherent goodness,the word of God teaches mankind's sinful nature. When  Adam sinned his nature changed, before he was sinless, but it also changed for all humanity (Romans 5 v12),for that sinful nature is passed on to every new born child. But God had a plan a new Adam would come in the person of Jesus,and through His death on the cross , all who trusted Him to be their Saviour  would be forgiven all their sins and they would receive a new nature and would be able to live a new life,an eternal life.( John 11 v 25 ) 

                                                  'Christ is the only hope for you and for me' 

But God promised. ( Hebrews 6 v18 )

 Daniel Defoe was born 1660, died 1731,he is remembered as the author of ,'Robinson Crusoe', he was a wealthy person,one of his activities was being a spy. He lived in London,and lived during the great plague in1665,when this happened there was absolute panic,with hoards of people fleeing London. Daniel was faced with a dilemma, he had servants to consider and all his business interest.His brother with his family were leaving the city,but Daniel remained uncertain. There were many  gullible people being taken advantage of by an army of astrologers,charlatans and quack doctors offering false promises of hope,Daniel was a Christian and prayed the following prayer, 'Well ,I know not what to do; Lord, direct me', He had his Bible with him,and he kept turning over the pages, he stopped at Psalm 91,and began reading it ,here is just one of the verses he read .'v3,'Surely He will deliver you from the fowler's snare and from the deadly pestilence'. On the bases of what he read he decided to stay,even though his brother was not sure, but as God promised, Daniel lived though that great plague.(  I would encourage you to read that Psalm)

                                               'When God gives us assurance through His 

                                                word ,He will keep it,rest assured of that.

The Cross. ( Luke 23 v 32 -49 )

                                                           Romans 5 v 8

         ,                         God demonstrates His own love for us in this;

                                    while we were still sinners,Christ died for us.

One of the Puritans wrote,'Lead me to the cross , and show me His wounds,the hateful nature of evil, the power of Satan.May I see there my sins as the nails transfixed Him. The cords that bound Him,the thorns that tore Him. Help me to find in His death the reality and immensity of His great love'.

                                         ' I sometimes think about the cross,

                                          and shut my eyes and try to see

                                          the cruel nails and crown of thorns,

                                           and Jesus crucified for me.

                                           But even could I see Him die,

                                           I could but see a little part

                                           of that great love, which ,like a fire,

                                           is always burning in His heart.'  Words W.W.How.

Two different aspects of looking on the cross,many see a cross, or a crucifix, and it means nothing to them.it is only when one comes to the foot of the cross,as a sinner, we declare in the words of Isaac Watts,'Love so amazing so divine ,demands my soul ,my life, my all.'

                                    

                       

And you shall receive power.(Acts 1 v 8)

 As I write  this I hear the wind blowing outside, John 3 v 8 .reads,'The wind blows wherever it pleases,you hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit'.Bruce Milne writing as regards the wind says,'While today we have better knowledge of its origin and nature,we have no better mastery of its direction. Essentially therefore  the new birth is from God,it is supernatural beyond human control or exhaustive human knowledge.'   One speaks of  being born again of the Spirit of God (John 3 v6) Great preaching cannot save anybody, no it is the power of the holy Spirit that makes it happen. It is that same power that changes and transforms lives,Corinth was a place of  great immorality,but the gospel was proclaimed in that place the result was God moved by His Spirit in that evil place and lives where changed.The apostle Paul and others ministered in that place many got saved.Later Paul wrote to the church and he pointed to those  who inherit the  kingdom of God,he goes unto say,'Do not be deceived; neither the sexually immoral  nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanders nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God'.so we stop there? no, for he goes unto to write,'And that is what some of you were.'  now, they were changed, how?, by the Holy Spirit working in their lives and bringing them to Christ.( 1 Corinthians 6 v 9 - 11 )

                                                                   A prayer

                           Dear Holy Spirit,as we witness to people convict them of sin and of their 

                           need of Jesus, in His name we ask this Amen.

Noise. ( Mark 6 v 31 -32 )

We live in a very noisy world,it is hard to escape it,airplanes flying overhead ,traffic outside ,and you may be unfortunate to have noisy neighbours. And sometimes Christian fellowships can be very,very noisy,a number of years we gave permission to a group of Christians to use of our Church premises, when we were not using it.It was not a very large building,but they brought in loud speakers and musical instruments,to say they were noisy was an understatement,the neighbours complained,it was really bad,and in the end we had to ask them to leave.I sometimes think that in some churches the voice of God is drowned out.I love singing hymns and spiritual songs,but they don't all have to be  overwhelming loud.We all know the term,' quite time,' when we get away from hustle and bustle,to meet with God,how we need that,it may be difficult, even costly,but it is important.Then in our quite time we may just hear that still small voice of almighty God.

                                   '  O God, '     Drop Thy still dews of  quietness

                                                        Till all our strivings cease 

                                                        Take from our souls the strain and stress,

                                                         And let our ordered lives confess

                                                         The beauty of Thy peace.

                                                         Breathe through the heat of our desire

                                                         Thy coolness and Thy balm;

                                                         Speak through the earthquake, wind and fire,

                                                         O still small voice of calm.

                                                              Words John Greenleaf Whitter.

                                                                   

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