The Psalms ( Ephesians 5 v 19)

 I love the Psalms, I wonder how you would describe them?,I see them,' as the heart beat of man connecting with the heartbeat of God'. Often it is a man crying in desperation,to the only one who can help ,God, and how He responds,by delivering,comforting,and reassurance. Often the Psalmist is in a place where there is no one to help him ,and so he cries unto one who says ,'call upon me in the time of trouble and I will deliver you'. God is faithful and will come to aid his children.He lifts his gaze toward Him who cannot fail,will not fail,the one who never fails. He looks up and sees Gods handy work and His glory  the one who made all things(Ps 121),as he speaks of the heavens declaring that glory.A voice that can be heard every day.so we could go on and on,And in those wonderful Psalms we have Christ in so many ways proclaimed and especially His death and resurrection.I leave you with by far the best  known Psalm, don't let familiarity rob you of the  preciousness of it .

                                                               Psalm 23

                                    The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want

                                    He makes me to lie down un green pastures;

                                    He leads me beside the still waters,He restores my soul,

                                    He leads me in the paths of righteousness for His name sake.

                                    Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,

                                    I will fear no evil; for You are with me;

                                    Your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

                                   You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;

                                    You anoint my head with oil;My cup runs over,

                                    Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life;

                                    And I will dwell in the house of the Lord Forever.

                                    

                                     

                                            

Amazing.( Romans 11 v33-36 )

 I am just home from visiting a dear friend, who is older than me by 10years,we talked about different things, before I leave him I usually read the word of God and pray.Today I read from Romans 8,there are tremendous truths within that chapter,let me highlight some of them. .It begins by telling us.'Therefore ,there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus',the 'therefore points them back  to the truths he has covered ,in other words in the light what they have read ,something has happened that brought them into a position of forgiveness, freedom,and peace with God , that means they have been accepted by God through faith in Jesus.It's truly amazing what God  has accomplished  through the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.  And its amazing that he brought a man called  Saul,who became Paul ,into His kingdom, who became the greatest of the apostles, a man of untiring zeal in his missionary activities activities, God would use him to bring  countless numbers into the kingdom.  .A man who wrote those wonderful epistles ,explaining the wonders of the gospel ,God used him revealing to him ,the scope of the gospel that it was for all,for all are sinners,and all need a Saviour, the Jew could no longer be considered an elites group,they were sinners like everyone else,what Paul desired for the Jews was that they might be saved,for they were  on a par with the gentiles and they all needed to be born again .The middle wall of partition had been broken down,now the gentiles were fellow citizens with God's people,No longer Jew or gentile,slave or free,male or female,we are all one in Christ Jesus,that means we are Abraham's  seed  and  heirs according to the promise. When you consider the wonders of the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ,it takes ones breath away.                                                                                                                                                          

Be an example ( 1 Timothy 4 v12 )

 I looked down at the floor in my living room, and I noticed something very,very small, it turned out to be  a very ,very small spider ,it was minute.So small ,so insignificant.The thought struck me,God created it, why? I don't know,he didn't consult me.On the serious side , God's creation  is awe inspiring, in Zechariah 4 v 10 we read,'Who dares to despise the day of small things',When I was born ,a neighbour cried when she saw how small I was,one day a father saw his friend smiling at his new born baby , and he asked him ,what he was smiling at,his friend answered,'the child is so little', The father replied,''he's little- but he will grow''.Someone has said,'In every child there are infinite possibilities for good and ill'.Remember if you are a parent,a Sunday school teacher,or whatever,remember your influence,your input can make a great difference,to that child ,you have  contact with.As Christians we can influence them for Christ by our example,a young child spoke to a missionary ,and asked him',are you Jesus?.' Let us remember that our dear Saviour ,not only influenced people by what He said,He also influenced people by His example,and I am sure the mothers and the children would always remember the famous Rabbi who unlike the disciples who showed a bad example and how He took the children in His arms and blessed them.(Mark 13 -16 )

Without God ( Psalm 124)

Thomas A Kempis wrote,'There is no holiness,if you withdraw your hand .  No wisdom is of any use,if you no longer guide it. No strength can avail if you do not preserve it. No purity is safe if you do not protect it, No watchfulness on our part can affect anything unless your holy vigilance is present with us.If you abandon us ,we sink and perish;but if you come to us we are raised up and we live'. Consider the three tenses,'Past,Present,and Future'.Lets consider the past when we knew not Christ as our Saviour, it took  the grace of God to open our minds eyes to the fact that there was nothing we can do to save ourselves,yes absolutely nothing.The word of God tells us ,'For it is by grace you have been saved,through faith- and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God, not by works,so no one can boast.  (Ephesians 2 v8- 9). Now the present,our dependence on God has not ceased,for our Saviour tells us that without Him we can do nothing (John 15 v 5)We are not to be independent builders as Psalm 127  tells us, 'Unless the Lord builds the house,the builders labour in vain'. Next the future,it can be a bit frightening and overwhelming, all will be well as long we rely upon the  Lord,and we discover that He will bring us through to our desired destination.,heaven and home.

He made no reply. ( 1 Peter 2 v23)

Sometimes I get angry  ,especially if anyone hurts someone  I love,I remember years ago when a neighbour acted unkindly to one of our children  ,and my then wife became angry with her.That was it, no that Sunday as a family we went to go to church, there she was waiting and called us all sorts of things thankfully we didn't respond,we just went on our way.I know that was the best way ,it would be easy to retaliate, word for word.I have done it sometimes but it doesn't help. Spurgeon wrote the following,'Calm assurance answers some questions infinitely more conclusively than the loftiest eloquence.. The best apologists for Christianity in the early days were  its martyrs,The anvil breaks  a host of hammers by quietly bearing the blow'. It is Isaiah  writing prophetically of our Saviours suffering wrote,'He was oppressed and afflicted, yet He did not open His mouth,it says the same words again (53 v7)What an awesome example he left us,when we are unfairly treated,or when we are being persecuted, it  is contrary to the natural man,Our Saviour said ,'Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth'.(Matthew 5 v 5), and so they will.

Unique ( Psalm 139v 13 - 18 )

Stop comparing yourself to others,you are unique ,when God made you ,yes you,He broke the mould, as one has said ,'God crafted you to be one of a kind,and of all the billions of people alive right now on planet earth, no one is just like you'. I have just heard that one of my granddaughters has had a baby boy,10lbs 3 oz, he is unique. Identical twins may look the same but they are different,their personalities will be different.In some families some parents make more of the bright child,so undermining the not so bright child,and they grow up with an inferiority complex.I have 5 sons they are all different, some are gifted academically, others are not but they all have special gifts, different strengths,and different personalities,and to me they are all precious. Today stop comparing yourself to others be yourself,be the person God made you be. Of course as Christians God has a plan for His children that they would be conformed to Christ image (Romans 8 v 29)but we are not being made clones ,we are being made Christlike, perfect in everyway.

Safe and Secure, (Deuteronomy 33 v 27)

 It is so easy to feel insecure in this world,and also to feel fear, the list of Phobias could fill a book, here are some ,fear of heights,flying,water,storms,closed spaces,crowds,etc.There are many people who  suffer from panic attacks,brought on by stress.Very few of us could say ,'I will fear no evil', even though the Lord is with us,let me say this,we will all feel fear,it is how we react to it, that is important.I believe God can give us strength to go forward,in spite of our fears. When I passed my test many years ago,my legs were like jelly,but by faith I still went ahead with it. As I grow older at times I still have my fears,real and imaginary,but God has been faithful,and I have no reason to think that will change.I admire the apostle Paul,in his writings he tells how he felt in troubles.he wrote of a time when he and others faced great dangers,he speaks of being crushed and overwhelmed not expecting to survive. So what did they do, they turned from self to their Saviour who rescued them from mortal danger (2 Corinthians 1 v8 -10) Thomas Brooks wrote the following,' Our safety and security lie not in our weak holding upon  Christ, but in Christ's holding us fast in His everlasting arms. This is our glory and our safety,that Christ's left hand is always under us,and his right hand doth always embrace us'.