I am the Lord thy God. ( Psalm 100)

One of the nicest person I know has Parkinson,he is a lovely Christian and served the Lord in his local church,and was a full time worker in a mission,and then in child evangelism. I am long enough as a Christian to know that the nicest of people cannot escape illness of the most sever type.The word of God makes that plain , it could be disease,persecution, and it may cause us to ask the question ,'why',and the truth is we often do not know.Job's friends  thought they knew but they were wrong.I don't think Job did,he declared 'Surely I spoke of things I did not understand',(Job 42 v3), The book of Psalms deals with many of God's people suffering severely, and unjustly,likewise in the New Testament we have suffering in many places. In Psalm 77 the writer Asaph.is suffering ,and it was getting to him,he prayed earnestly,and he appeared to get no response.also he could not get any sleep.He finds himself  asking questions v 8-9,'Has the Lord rejected him?,will He never be kind again?,has He removed his love for ever?,has His promises failed forever?, has God ceased to be gracious,has He in anger shut up his compassion, questions,questions, ,questions.What does he do?,he looks back, as to how God delivered Israel,and how God is one who does wonders, no one can be compared to Him.He has not changed ,we His children can rest assured that as He who was with us in the past ,He is with us in the present, and He will be with us in the future.

                                                  'He leads His dear children along'

                                                                 'TRUST HIM'

An Undivided Heart. ( Matthew 22 v 37 ) 3

 Let us consider Davids prayer in Psalm86 and a sentence from v11,''give me an undivided heart',sad to say that the history of  Israel shows that they sought to worship God and other gods.They did this often,one example is seen during the time of King Ahab (1 Kings 16-22),he married a woman called Jezebel who was a princess a daughter of a gentile king,and through her influence the foreign gods were introduced into Israel.There influence became so bad that God sent a judgement on them,no rain for  3yearsand 6 months,and so it happened,but eventually there was a stand off on Mount Carmel ,between Ahab and the false prophets, and Elijah.Elijah stood forth and challenged Israel with these words (1 kings 18 v 21) How long will you waver between  two opinions? If the Lord is God,follow Him; But if Baal is God ,follow him'. In  Exodus 20 , God tells Israel ,'You shall have no other gods before me'there is in essence only one God,In Isaiah 45  we read,'There is no other God v7 likewise in v18/22/23. God will not stand for a divided love, with him .it is,' all or nothing'.David cries unto God for an undivided heart,Christian is your heart an undivided heart? there are so many things that can cause us to have an undivided heart.Hear is a prayer we can all pray ,from a hymn by Philip Doddridge.

                                                       'Do not I love Thee, dearest Lord?

                                                       Behold my heart and see;

                                                       And cast each hated idol down

                                                       That dares to rival Thee' 

Feeling confused? (Psalm73)

The author of Psalm 73 Asaph ,and the prophet Habakkuk, found it hard to come to terms with certain things, and for they both  found themselves questioning God. Asaph struggled as to why the wicked prospered?,they appeared to get away with so much,they had no consideration for man or God,they sat back and gloated,and did not appear to have a care in the world.They appeared to get away with all sorts of evil,enjoying life so much ,always at ease and accumulating more wealth.Then it starts to become very personal Asaph asks the question ' did I keep my heart  pure for nothing?Did I keep my self innocent for no reason? I get nothing but trouble all day long; Yet he keeps it to himself,I have listened to a minister who aired certain things that he was struggling with,and it unsettled people, Scorggie says ,'Tell your certainties to others, but keep your doubts to yourself', Asaph did that v 15.But it does not finish there, in his troubled state of mind,He retreats to God and had a revelation,and he realised how foolish he had been. God revealed to him  their final destiny, that they were on a slippery path that in a moment they will be cast into a lost  eternity.The sad thing is that most people just take the short view, blind as to the uncertainty of life that death is certain and so is judgement. Asaph's spirit revived,he realised  true security and satisfaction  can only be found in the living God,and I would add Jesus Christ His Son.

Freedom . (John 3 v 16 )

 I was on holiday and I noticed a painting,it showed two hands grasping prison bars,and imposed on the painting  in large letters one word,'Freedom. When I think of  Easter that is one of the things comes to mind , in John 8 v36 Jesus declared, 'If the Son sets you free,you will be free indeed' .It is in Isaiah 61 v1-3,the promised Messiah would proclaim liberty to the captives'.The natural man is not a free man we are all to some extent slaves of sin. The wonderful news is, through Christ we can be set free,Jesus can break the power of sin in our lives.Next we can be set free from the guilt of sin,guilt is a heavy burden to bear ,yes we will always feel a degree of sadness for the things we have done,but the moment we receive Christ, God will forgives us, as one writer puts it,'we do not need to let shame and guilt control us, rather we can embrace forgiveness and our identity and worth in Christ;.Next Easter can mean we can receive freedom from fear of death,of eternal punishment,in our unsaved state we should fear Gods eternal judgement,Luke 12 v5 reads,'but I tell you whom to fear;Fear Him who, after your body has been killed, has authority .Next to throw you into hell,yes ,I tell you fear Him'. Next Easter gives us freedom from uncertainty,the Lord Jesus foretold clearly that He would rise from the dead, and He did, CP Mark 8 v21/ Matthew 17 v22/ Luke v 9 V22.In John 11 v25 we read these wonderful assuring words 'Jesus said ,''I am the resurrection and the life.The one who believes in me will live, even though they die''.

                                                          'There is freedom in Jesus'

The greatest miracle. ( Ephesians 2 v 1 -10 )

It was Dr Johnson who after seeing a castle and its greatness,remarked grimily,' These are the things which make it difficult to die',  It is possible that there are people who never give any thought of God through out their whole life.They are born ,they live,they die, and that's it, I once worked with a psychologist,a very well educated person and a nice man,who had never been to church and had no thoughts as regards God.There are multitudes like him, God is not even in their thoughts,they don't appear to be curious of things outside their bubble. But bubbles are very fragile things ,and when their bubble bursts what then?.It is said that many people are seeking the meaning of existence,but would the many accept the answer if they were told it?, I doubt it. Salvation is not about intelligence , as we are born we are all spiritually blind,we cannot comprehend spiritual things,1 Corinthians 2 v14, tells us clearly that the natural man cannot accept that the things of the Spirit, they are foolish to them. All unsaved people are born spiritually dead ,it takes a miracle of grace to change them, Ephesians 2 v 8 tells us,' For it is by grace are you saved, through faith-and this is not from yourselves,it is the gift of God'. There are people who talk a lot about miracles in relation to sickness,I do not rule out such things,but the greatest of miracles is the salvation of a sinner,everyone who trusts Christ has experienced a miracle of grace. When I preach the Gospel my greatest desire is to see a miracle,when I witness in the street likewise.

                                            'Dear God you who would have all men to be saved,

                                            may you in your mercy,bless our witness ,show us a 

                                            miracle of salvation ,by your grace in Jesus name

                                                                        Amen.'

                                            

                                            

 

Worthy the Lamb. ( Revelation 5 )

Recently my wife and I visited Chartwell which was once the home and estate of Winston Churchill,but is now owned and run by the,' National Trust'.There is much one could say about Winston,the things he said,and the things he did.He came from a certain class of people ,from the aristocracy who were held in high social rank. He loved to paint ,he did it for his own pleasure,he never sought to cash in on it.His mother was an American Jennie Jerome,she married Lord Randolph Churchill,they were people of their time,and didn't get to involved in bringing up their children. There was a lovely painting of Winston's wife  Clementine, someone mentioned her lovely hands,and some smart Alec,said ,'that's because she never washed the dishes or pealed the potatoes'. I  bowed my head in shame,as if.Most people admire and respect Winston for so many things,he is one of the most important people in the 20th century,for his stand against evil.As a Christian I believe the most important person in all of history was Jesus Christ,the uniqueness of His being,the Son of God, truly God and truly man.in all His weakness He accomplished the  work of salvation,in doing this He humbled Himself and became obedient unto death ,even death on a Cross.When He cried on the cross,'it is finished',a cry of horror must have been heard in the darkness of hell,and a cry of anguish from that repulsive being Satan.And in the courts of heaven angels cried out,

                                                    'Worthy is the Lamb,who was slain,

                                                     to receive power and wealth and 

                                                     wisdom and strength and honour

                                                      and glory and praise.'( Revelation5 v 12)

Strange ideas. ( Luke 11 v 4- 5 )

 Psalm 90 was written by Moses, it emphasises the transience of humanity, v10 ,Michael  Wilcock writes ,'We may say readily enough that we believe God is eternal,but we need to be reminded repeatedly  that our life in this world is not.. For every advance in medical or environmental technology helps to reinforce the illusion that it could be.It is easy to snigger at the the maudlin death-bed scenes of Victorian fiction , but  as someone once said( the modern world has forgotten who),'Blessed are those who mourn. Every death is a little undermining of humanity's pride in this respect' Yes life is brief like the falling of a leaf, ,not  many people think about God,many funeral services have no religious  content in them ,they can take the body away and bring it back in a container, no frills or fuss.They fail to realise or care, if God is cut out of ones life ,in time ,they will be cut out in eternity.We have a choice ,we can accept God's way  now,instead of being refused entry into heaven later.People have strange ideas about the after life ,I sought to witness to a man,I asked him was he a Christian?,he replied that he was a Catholic ,well I said one can .be a Catholic and not be a Christian,and you can be a Protestant and not be a Christian. Then he said something else, he said he saw his mother who had died,when he saw a robin sitting on a fence,he really believed that.I will tell you something else very strange,many people think that they are going to heaven ,even though they have not accepted Christ as their Saviour. Strange but not true,God's word teaches us clearly that  we need Christ to escape hell ,and to enter heaven,oh yes there is a heaven and there is a hell.