Stuck in the mire (Psalm 40 v 1-5)

 Michael Wilcock wrote the following,' Are you stuck in the mire? Then get stuck into the scriptures!'It made me smile,but it's very good advice,I have had my moments of being stuck in the mire,In Pilgrims Progress ,Christians finds himself in what is called ,'The  slough of despond' ,and it only became worse as he went along,as he met all sorts of people like ,Mr Obstinate,Mr  Pliable and a certain Mr Worldly  Wiseman. You see he failed to follow instructions of the man called Evangelist,but eventually he met a man who told him to keep to the straight and narrow path,and it would lead him to the place of deliverance.If like Christian we go to any Tom, Dick or Harry, that will not help ,yes there are many  voices calling out to us, but where will they lead us?where are you looking to find refuge?,Here is a word  from God to you ,spoken by a man who found himself stuck in the miry clay,he declares ,'I waited patiently for the Lord,he turned to be me,and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the slimy pit,out of the mud and mire'.And two wonderful things happened,'He set him upon a rock',that's a place of certainty and this followed by a note of certainty and rejoicing,,from  despair ,and being downcast ,to singing praises unto God.

Mercy, ( Ephesians 2 v 1 9 )

 When someone  commits an awful crime,one may think or say that person doesn't deserve mercy, instead they are getting what they deserved,put them in prison and throw away the key.Or we may say bring back capital punishment,they should be ,'hung, drawn and  quartered, that was an awful way to die,it involved ,well I won't go into that, all I  can assure you is ,it was ghastly. We are talking here on an horizontal level level,  sins and wrongs that we perpetrate on each other,but what about the wrongs we commit against God?,they are called sin,and the fact unlike human justice, no one will escape the judgement of God,in fact no one deserves mercy,no one.Here is one definition of mercy, the compassionate treatment of those in distress,especially when it is within one's power to punish or harm them'.The Bible teaches that everybody sins,and everyone will stand before God to be judged ,there will be no plea bargaining , or saying you are innocent,that it wasn't you, or it was someone else, no  for all have sinned an come short of the glory of God. (Romans3 v23 ) .All the sins one has committed all their lives ,will be judged,the seriousness of your sin will be seen for it was,hateful in Gods estimation,and absolutely no mercy will be shown you,and let me say it will be worse that being,hung ,drawn ,and quartered,for it will be an eternal judgement.But while you live and our spared here  there is hope for you,for God is merciful,. If we seek God for mercy now,by accepting Jesus as our Saviour then we can have all our sins forgiven, and can escape the just judgement of God.

The word of God. (Isaiah 40 v 8 )

 The longest Psalm is 119 it has 176 verses,the longest chap in the bible,and it is divided up into 22  portions and each portion is  headed by a letter from the Hebrew alphabet,twenty two in total. Portion 9-16 is a word for young people, although it could apply to all ages. Verse 9 reads.

                                           'How can a young person stay on the path of purity?' 

There are so many things that young people have to face in life that can harm them,in the sexual area, that's a major thing,addictive things,wrong company,etc .The answer to the question is this,

                                             By living according to your word.

Yes God's word is the answer v105 tell's us that God's word is ,'A lamp to our feet,and a light to our path'. The young people of the world,are walking in darkness,and when you walk in darkness then you will be sure to fall morally. One my son's called Brian ,and his wife served the Lord in Ibiza,and they saw the state that many young people got into,at times it was very grim.If your a young Christian  you need to live by God's word. ( This applies to all of us. next we are told ),

                                             I have hidden your word in my heart 

                                             that I might not sin against you. v10.

It 's good to read God's word,but we must remember what it says,and obey it,James 1 v 22 reads,'Do nit merely listen to the word,and so deceive yourselves' Memorise it ,and live by it'

                                               'I delight in your decrees;

                                                I will not neglect your word'.

He is saying,' I love the word of God ,I treasure it , it will be my daily bread,it will be my purest delight.I know if I neglect it,I will be self harming my soul.'

                                           'Don't let  dust gather on your Bible'

                                         

Jesus paid it all. ( Hebrews 7 v 25 )

 When Patricia Gearing's daughter died of Batten's disease in 1998,her grave in a cemetery in the small   Lincolnshire seaside  town of Mablethorpe was marked by a simple cross. The local authority informed them to remove it. Their rules said;'Crosses are discouraged,as excessive use of the supreme Christian symbol is undesirable'. The family was given permission to erect a headstone featuring Mickey  Mouse   instead'. (From the Message of Cross by Derek Tidball) The cross  of course was a terrible  means of putting people to death,and from the very beginning a crucified Saviour was seen as foolishness,a stumbling block,and an offence.But Paul declares,'For the message of  the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing,but to those who are being saved it is the power of  God'.Only God could have thought up the cross as a means of our salvation,The cross became the alter on which the Lamb of God,Jesus would bear the punishment for sin,it satisfied the justice of God ,for the penalty of  sin ,so Christ paid that penalty,( Hebrews 9 v 15)  The price of redeeming sinners was not silver or gold but with the precious blood of Christ' 1Peter 1 v  18-19 ) Through that one time offering on the cross the work of salvation was complete,it cannot be added to or taken away  from,Jesus paid it all.

                                                 'Therefore He is able to save completely

                                                  those who come to God through Him.

                                                                 Hebrews 9 v25.

                                                

Look in the mirror . ( Luke 18 v 9 -14 )

We are all to some extent different,and yet we are in one sense all the same,for we all have a fallen nature , as we look at David and his adultery he is mirror of everyone who commits adultery.Take Judas he loved money ,so much so that he was a thief,and as all fellow thieves ,they see a mirror of themselves in Judas.Our Lord knows what we are truly like ,when a woman was caught in the act of adultery,and brought before Jesus,to pass judgement on her,the penalty was that she should be stoned to death. Our Saviour said,'Let anyone of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her,and they all left',they saw in that women a mirror of themselves (John 8 v 2-11).We are all potential adulterers ,thieves,liars,and so on.I read of a Jewish man who lived through the Holocaust  and he was brought as a witness at the trial of a Nazi war criminal. As he looked at the man,it suddenly struck him that this war criminal looked a very ordinary person just like him,and then another thought struck him,that he had potential to commit the evil that,that man had  done.In a sense he saw in that man a mirror of himself, Shakespeare wrote these very meaningful words,'Man know thyself'.We often say no one is perfect,and that's true,but the word of God tells us the whole truth,'That the heart is deceitful above all things ', (Jeremiah 17 v 9 )people speak of the inherent goodness of humanity that human nature is essentially good ,not so,oh yes we do good,but we still sin.If it was otherwise then Jesus need not have come,but in order to save us sinners He was prepared to die on the cross ,that we may be forgiven .

                                              'Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners

                                               that means you and that means me'.

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The unexpected. ( Mark 11 v22 )

Life often presents us  with the unexpected, this week I had a scam email in fact they sent me three emails,I didn't reply to them,but the last threw me a bit when they said they had taken money out of our account,but they hadn't. As regards emails,if in doubt do nothing,thankfully we didn't. The next  unexpected thing that happened,my wife was driving in a car park,and a young girl ran into the side of my wife's car,damaging the wing mirror,but fortunately that girl was not seriously injured.The word of God tells us that in everything give thanks, (1 Thessalonians 5 v 18)another translation puts it like this,'Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.We also are told that all things work together for good to those who love God ( Romans 8 v28) Our lives are in God's hand,so there is a purpose in all that happens to us,sometimes we know, sometimes we  don't,as a child of God I am assured that he is watching over me and indeed over you,we are never out of  His sight or care.Our part is to trust Him and obey Him,whatever we may be going through.I am amazed and humbled by what Joseph said to his wicked brothers,'You intended it to harm me, but God intended it for good,' (Genesis 50 v 20)Frederick William. Faber wrote.

                                                           'I'll that He blesses is our good

                                                           And unblest  good is ill;

                                                           And all is right that seems most wrong

                                                           If it be His sweet will'

There is an answer. ( John 1 v 1 - 13 )

In 1977 Voyager 1 was lunched into space,it was equipped to send back data.,it has now travelled billions of miles.From a far of distant point it sent back a picture of our planet. Earth looked so very small and insignificant,but in God's eyes it is the most significant planet in the whole universe. Scroggie  writes the following,'Earth ,this speck in space , is the home of the human race,and is the focus of all interest, divine, angelic, and demonic, as well as human;it is the theatre in which  the Redeemer has manifested Himself and has brought the offer of salvation to a ruined race'.The word of God tells us that God loves this world and everybody in it,he knows every individual in this world ,and knows everything about them.If we leave God out of the picture there is no meaning to life,no purpose,  we are just a freak accident, if that is the case then what value can we put on human life,the answer is none,where do we get our moral value's from?.Every year we celebrate Christmas ,well some of us do, but many fail to appreciate, that God who created this world ,stepped into His world in the person of His Son Jesus. He exercised powers beyond  mans power,healing the sick,raising the dead,controlling nature itself.His teaching has touched untold millions.The greatest problem mankind has,is a nature that is sinful,and there is nothing man can do to change that.Only God is preserving this planet,and only God provides an answer , for on the cross our sin can be forgiven when we accept Jesus as our Saviour, and when that happens,all things are changed, for the better,we find new life,we feel valued and loved,and have a purpose,that goes beyond this life into a glorious future.