Would I pass with flying colours? ( Exodus 20 v 3 )

 When Abram  was  called to move and go to the place of God'd appointmen, what became known as the promise land,he in faith obeyed that call.  (Genesis 12 v1 / Hebrews 11 v 8) Leupold says,'Abram's faith  yielded obedience'.Luther said , 'Faith is a lively and powerful thing;it is not merely a  drowsy and idle thought; nor does it float somewhere upon the heart of a duck upon the water,but it is like water warmed through and through by a good warm fire'. Faith is an active experience,when God spoke to Abram he obeyed and so he set off with his wife Sarai and Lot his nephew,and all his possessions.Leupold points out,'It is becoming apparent ,that he was a very rich man'.It is not wrong for a child of God to be rich. It was John the Basptist who said, 'A person can receive only what is given them from heaven',(John 3v27 )Yes it covers money,but it covers so many things,There's a song that goes,'The things that I love have and hold dear my heart,are just borrowed,there not mine at all,Jesus only let me use them to brighten my life,so remind me,remind me dear Lord'.I dont think that money was a problem for Abram, but there was a moment in His life when God commanded him,to sacrifice his beloved son,now that was a test (Gen 22),and he passed the test  with flying colours.I wonder,I wonder if God put me to the test would I pass with flying colours?. PS just to say he didn't sacrifice his son,God was more concerned about his willingness to obey Him.

Old age.( 2 Corinthians 4 v 16 -18 )

 Just recently I turned eighty,and  I though jokingly I am as old as my granny was, and I wonder is  it all down hill from now on?. Couple of my friends are older than me and it shows, and if one thinks about it old age can appear a frighting time, and it could fill us with fear and concerns. The big ,'what if, 'comes to mind .So what can one do? first of all we can look back and remember that the God of our youth is the God  of our old age.This is what King David wrote,'I was young and now am old, yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken' (Psalm 37 v 25) I have been following the Lord for 60 years and like David I have experienced God's faithfulness.In Ruth 4v 15 we read,' He will renew your life and sustain you in your old age', in other words God will help us to go on, for as our days so shall our strength be. We have a similar promise in Isaiah 46 v 4, which reads,'Even to your old  age and grey hairs  I am He,I am He who will sustain you. I have made you and I will carry you; I will sustain you and I will rescue you'.When we get old we may have to make decisions, Psalm 48 v 14,reads ,'For this God is our God for ever and ever,'yes for ever and ever,He does not throw us off in old ages ,and that applies to our eternal future. Then the rest of v14  reads .'He will be our guide even unto death'.He will continue to guide us all our lives.Psalm 92 v14 tells us that 'They will still bear fruit in old age',what a lovely thought.Finally even though our bodies are wasting away,we can be renewed spiritually daily.(2Corinthians  4 v 16)

He missed his chance. ( Isaiah 55 v 8-7 )

 Michael Green  wrote the following,'If  you want to know what God is like,look to Jesus. If you want to get through to God,come to Jesus. If you want to discover the epicentre of God's self- disclosure,you will find it in Jesus'. He goes on to write,'This is the claim. That is what makes Christianity at once so attractive and so widely hated. The sheer exclusivity of the claims drives people in one direction or the other'. Mahatma Gandhi was a man to be admired,he thought much of our Saviour, but he never came to know Him as his Saviour. He would say that many Christians failed to be Christians,failed to be like Christ,and I'm sure that was true,India was ruled by those who professed to be Christian's and felt that they were superior  to the Indian population.One can understand Gandhi's point of view, when he was dying  one of his relatives came to him and asked,''Babaki ,you have been looking for God all your life. Have you found him yet?' No,' was his reply. 'I'm still looking'.It is unfortunate to say the least that he missed the chance that he had to trust Christ ,could it be that this so called holy man could not come to terms with the fact that he was a sinner who needed a Saviour, as we all do.

Ego ( Philippians 2 v 5 - 11)

It was said of a certian general in the second world war that he suffered from  egomania,which made him pretty unsufferable.He never laughed or told a joke,and possessed no small talk,but he did occasionally talk baseball to enlisted men to deceive them that  he was human.We all have an ego to some extent, one writer says this, it can be an inflated with  feelings of pride,or pridefulness. If  we run with such an ego we may begin to think that we are the center of the universe.That general I mentioned wanted to be top dog,would alway wanted to get the praise for accomplishing things he never done.So he is one example of how our fallen nature can distort our personalites, we see this in other examples, from history, of rulers who considered themselves to be god's.Also  many dictators while not claiming they are divine encourage their people to treat them in that way.In recent days some so called  Christians have said that they are small gods,our fallen human nature leads us to have inflated ideas as to ourselves,I suppose thats why we don't like the truth taught in the Bible that we all sinners, we are not the special ones,we are not the center of the universe ,we are not superior.Two nations who went to war against the world ,were driven by a belief that they were superior to others to ,and that they were invincipal ,alas  they found out to their cost that they were not.

                                               'Dear Lord, open our eyes ,let us see ourselves

                                               as you see us,sinners that need to be saved, by

                                               trusting Jesus,as our Saviour.And when we do 

                                               help us to walk humbly with you. Amen.'

                                                

                                               

God is not like us, ( Isaiah 55 v 6-7)

 In  Psalm 50 God speaks to those he calls the wicked, who recite His laws and pretend to obey His covenant(16),but were acting in evil ways.Spurgeon comments,'these people appeared religious but their religion was a  cover for their evil ways'.Most Germans at the time of Nazism professed to be Christians,it was that hypocrisy that our Saviour condemmed outright CP Matthew 23 ,God will welcome sinners who acknowledge their sin  and turn from their wicked ways,but He will not tolerate those whose,attitudes ,and actions are obviously contray to His holiness,here is how one writer puts it,' When God calls to them they do not ansewer,they treat His word like garbage.Their mouths  drools filth,that they were good at lying,and were good at back stabbing'.Here is what they thought of God,' You thought  that I was one like yourself 'v21. Many people conveniently forget that Gods thoughts are not our thoughts,neither are His ways our  ways (Isaiah 55 v8) God is not tolerant as regards sin,He burns with a righteous angry at man's sinful ways,He absolutely hates mankinds sinful ways,He will not excuse our sin or make light of it, How serious is sin to a holy God, well consider the consequences, it can be summed  up in one word,' Hell' that is the destiny of  humanity unless they forsake their sin,repent of their sin,and trust Jesus as their Saviour.

Temptation ( Hebrews 4 v 14 -16 )

 We will all be tempted to do wrong ,no one will escape that,it is W Barclay who writes on ,The Defence against temptation'.He tells how President Garfield was once urged  to take a profitable, but  dishonourable course of action. It was said,'' No one will ever know'', His answer was,''President Garfield will know- and I've got to sleep with him.''  How true , there are  some things in my life I've done ,and I still remember them with regret.That is one aspect of defending ourselves against temptation,another is to not put ourselves in the way of temptation,the Lord's prayer touches on that ,in the words.'Lead us not into tempatation,' but deliver us from all evil ', some translations have,' deliver us from the evil one'.(Matthew 6 v 13) Left to our own devices we can so easy put ourselves in the way of temptation,let us always be aware of our weaknesses  , in praying those words we are acknowledging our dependence on God to deliver us from all evil which includes the evil one.Yes there is evil within us,a fallen nature that we have to be always aware of.The other is the evil one  the devil, who will always be seeking to take advantage of us,to lure us into evil which comes to us in many different ways. We must remembe that we will always be in a spiritual battle,as  Michael Green writes,' Jesus well aware of this, bids us to daily seek the Fathers strength to be delivered from the seductions of the svil one,' that includes the evil of our own hearts. 

Only one way.( John 3 v 3ff)

One should never underestimate the fact that children can come to know Christ as their Saviour, R.T.Kendall,tells in a book that he wrote of how he became a Christian, he writes the following, ' I  was converted  at the age of six,on Easter Morning April 5,1942. As we were getting ready to go to church, I told my parents I  wanted to be a Christian,I knelt at my parents bedside,confessed my sins,and asked the Lord to save me'.Yes six years of age but it was real,and when he grew up he became a preacher,and was the minister of Westminster Chapel in London, when Dr Martyn Lloyd-Jones left. In 1 Samuel 3 v 7,we read  that the boy Samuel ,'did not yet know the Lord', even though he served in the  Tabernacle ,one does not automatically become a  Christian, that only comes when we put our trust in Jesus ,Samuel  eventually did come to know the Lord .  Attending a church or having Christian parents does not make one a Christian,we must be born again John 3 v 7.

                                                   'Becoming a Christian only comes

                                                    through a second birth.'