It's all about Him. (Isaiah 53 )

 We owe Christ so much,in the book ,'The valley of Vison', we have a collection of prayers by the  Puritans ,we have one entitled,'Love Lustres at Calvary'.we read the following.

                                           'Christ was all anguish that I might  be all joy,

                                            cast off that I might be brought in ,

                                            trodden down as an enemy

                                            that I might be welcomed as a friend,

                                            surrendered  to hell's worst

                                            that I might attain heaven's  best,

                                            stripped that I might be clothed,

                                            wounded that I might be healed,

                                            made a shame that I might have eternal light.

                                            My Saviour  wept that all tears might be wiped

                                            from my eyes,

                                            bore a thorny    crown that I  might have

                                            a glory -diadem.

 'When I think of all He's done  for me the guilty one,can you wonder why it is I love Him so'

                                           

                                      

Such Love ( Romans 5 v 6-8)

 Psalm 103 written by David has much to say to us,it has 22 verses, Scroggie divides up into three sections,'1-5 are Personal; 6- 18 are National;  and 19-22 are Universal.' v1-5 begins by urging us to praise God,from our souls,and forget not all his benefits,'forgiveness,healing,redemption,satisfaction, and renewal.I will leave you to look at the Psalm yourself,  I want to highlight v 10-12,verse 10 reads ,'He does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities'.in other words we don't get our just deserts,if we had we would be in hell,The reason why we are not consigned to that awful place is  because one called Jesus, bore are punishment, 'He took my sins and my sorrows, He made them His very own; He bore the burden to Calvary,and suffered and died alone'.  (Words C H. Gabriel) Next v11,Tells us, For as high as the heavens are above the earth,so great is His love for those who fear Him'.The driving force behind the work of salvation was love,In the Song of Solomon 8 v7 we read,'Many waters cannot quench love', Satan did all he could to quench that love,all to no avail,fallen humanity likewise committed unspeakable evil in their attempts to quench that love,they failed,'Such love springs from eternity; such love,streaming through history; such love,fountain of life to me; O Jesus such love. (Graham Kendrick) Last but not least v 12.'As far as east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us. Spurgeon comments,'Sin is removed from us by an act of love, removed so far that the distance is incalculable'.

                                                        

No escape. (Genesis 2 v 16 -17.)

We live in different times than our forefathers,there have advances in medical care,the result is people living longer,It wasn't always so ,there was a high degree of child mortality,in the 17th century 400 out of a 1000 did not live to their first year,there were so things that could kill children. Of course there so many thing that kill people,medical science had not advanced much until the 20th century,As I go on life I  am amazed at the wonderful treatment that their is for fighting sickness now,for which we praise God.Yet there is one thing medical science can't do, is defeat death,they can prolong life,but that's all. Mankind has never come to terms with death, one person wrote as regards the aftermath of death the effects are often, rage and sorrow,and loss ,We cannot change it,often we cannot come to terms with it,So what can we say that may help? .I think of what King David wrote in the 23rd Psalm.as regards the valley of the shadow of death ,he would fear no evil for the good shepherd was with him.I think  one could broaden that out,as regards those Christians who have lost love ones, and its aftermath. It is like going through a dark valley,  it is very dark , butut hear is the good news ,in that valley of darkness there is one with you,even Jesus,He alone knows what you are going through,and He just asks one think of you,trust,yes trust Him,He will bring you through,The scripture tells us,' Weeping may endure for a night,but joy comes in the morning'.  (Psalm 30 v 9)

God's Kingdom ( Hebrew 12 v1 - 3)

When our dear Saviour stood before Pilate,he was asked,'Are you the king of the Jews?' (John 18 v33),this was a very important question,for Pilate the Roman governor would  have been keen of any one who was a threat  to the rule of Rome.In fact the Jewish leaders leaders played into that, when they  cried out,'We have no king but Caesar,(Jn 19 v 15) ,of course that was far from the truth,as they and the Jewish people hated the rule of Rome,but it suited them,as a means of persuading Pilate to put Jesus to death. So what did Jesus say to the question from Pilate?,here is His answer,'My kingdom is not of this world'.Jn 19 v 36 .Jesus never once spoke out against the rule of Rome,why because as He said His kingdom was not of this world.In Romans 13 we are told to be subject to the governing  authorities v 1,but we must balance that out with what Jesus said in Mark 12 v17,' Give back to Caesar what is Caesar's and to God what is God's'. Of course Jesus is a King Rev 17 v14, but He does not rule in an earthly place of power, in Psalm 96 v 10 we read,'The Lord reigns', the old Latin Version puts it like this,''The Lord hath reigned from a tree''.the tree is symbolic of the cross ,1 Peter 2 v24.A hymn by Mrs C Charles says the following,'Tell all the earth the Lord is King! Lo , from the Cross,a King He reigns'.The sinner comes to God at the foot of the cross to receive forgiveness,and as a saint lives a life in light of the cross.'His kingship  breaks out of the narrow confines  of nationalism, that kingdom embraces all humanity'.(Derek Tidball)

                                                        'Near the cross! O Lamb of God

                                                        Bring its scenes before me;

                                                         Help me walk from day to day

                                                         With its shadow o'er me.'   ( Words Fanny Crosby)

Getting your own back. ( 1 Peter 2 v 23)

 Romans 12 v 19 -21 reads,'Do not take revenge,my dear friends, but leave room for God's wrath,for it is written;'It is mine to avenge; I will repay, says the Lord. On the the contrary ; 'If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty , give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.' These are very challenging words, it points us to what God  says we shouldn't do,and what we should do,in relationship to wrongs we have suffered. The natural man will find it hard  to do what this scripture  says, but even as a Christian we may also find it very hard. The world is full of so much injustice ,bad things are happening all the time, we have a choice,to revenge ourselves,or do what the scriptures tell us to do . It is in 2 kings 6 v 18ff we have a wonderful example  of  Israel not taking revenge on their enemies,and showing kindness to them. When Elisha who manifested miraculous powers,blinded Israels enemies and led them into a trap,the King of Israel asked Elisha ,'shall I kill them?',and he was told no,he was to give them water to drink and food to eat, and let them go back to their own country. Amazing story, what about your story and my story?,it is natural to want to get our own back on those who have hurt us, we have a choice,do we leave it to God to deal with it,or  do we do it?. 

Anything ( John 8 v 12)

 A man called Chesterton said the following, 'When people no longer believe in something, they believe, not in nothing, but in anything'. Yes anything,I recent visited the town of Glastonbury,it is near where a  famous musical festival is held every year.As we walked around the town we noticed that many of the shops where catering for Paganism, such as Celtic traditions,witchcraft,or certain gods.I recently heard a commentator speaking of a famous  football stadium as a place of worship,and people are often asked who their idol is. Of course we are more civilised now, we have thrown of what  people see as the shackles of established beliefs, but that does not mean they don't worship something,as Chesterton rightly said they worship anything.Israel of old often forsook God and turned to idols.I believe there a vacuum in all our lives,but in our fallen state we fill that vacuum with anything but God. This creates great problems for mankind the moral absolutes set by God are thrown out,and replaced  by anything goes, and society slowly but surely slips into a downward abyss,with more and more people being sucked into it. Yesterdays wrongs are now acceptable.Lord denning wrote ,'if religion perishes in the land,truth and justice will also.'and he finishes by saying,'We have already strayed too far from the faith of our Fathers.Let us return to it, for it is the only thing that can save us'.If we keep walking away from the only God as revealed in his word,and was manifest in Jesus Christ,the darkness will increase,chaos will increase,remember what our dear Saviour said,' If you follow Me,you won't have to walk in darkness, because you will have the light that leads to life'  (John  8 v 12)

I am an author. ( 1 Corinthians 1 v 26 - 31 )

   Just recently I turned 80,there is a lot of history in those  years,there was a time when my dear first wife and I went to Bible college,we believe God was calling us to be missionaries,but God had another plan for our lives.I became a minister ,and served God in that capacity.There was  a time I thought that I would love to minister on the radio it never happened.Seventeen years my so John helped me to get started on doing a Blog,and just recently the thought struck me ,God had given me my hearts desire in reaching out to the world.Now as I said I have just turned 80 ,and today I received a birthday present from my son John,and when I opened it,it was a large book , a daily devotional made up from the devotionals from my Blog,now I am an author. My son told me it took a number of years putting it together ,and it was a work of love.You can get it from Amazon,it is simply called ,'A Daily Devotional', by William A .Heasley, I will not get  any money from this,I just hope it will  bless people.I am amazed at this, and thank God for giving me this ministry. Lessons I have learnt from my experience,God will give us the desire of our hearts,in His time, and in ministries we never imagined. God in choosing me,chose one of those weaklings,He chose an ordinary person,this is not false humility,if He can use me,He can use you, go for it.