A mind at peace with God.( Romans 8 v14 -17)

                                              'But now in Christ Jesus you who 

                                              once were far away have been 

                                               brought near by the blood of                           

                                                           Christ'

                                                    'Ephesians 2 v 13'

                                    'A mind at peace with God,O what a word is this!

                              A sinner reconciled through blood; this,this indeed is peace.

                                    By nature and by practice far,so very far from God!

                             Yet now by grace brought near to Him,through faith in Jesus blood.

                                      So near,so very near to God,I cannot nearer be;

                                      For in the person of His Son, I am as near as He.

                                     So dear, so very dear to God,more dear I cannot be;

                               The love with which He loves His Son,such is His love for me.

                                Why should I ever be anxious be,when kept by power divine?

                                  This is my God who says to me,that all He has is mine.'

                                                            'Words Catesby Pagent'

                                       

                                    

                                      

Deliver us from all evil. (Philippians 4 v 11-13 )

                 The words of Agur in Proverbs 30 v 7- 9 are very helpful,it is a prayer, it reads,

                                  'Two things I ask of you,Lord; do not refuse me before I die;

                                   Keep falsehood and lies far from me; give me neither poverty 

                                   nor riches,but give me only my daily bread. Otherwise, I may

                                   have to much and disown you and say.''Who is the Lord?''

                                   Or I may become poor and steal,and so dishonour the name

                                   of my God

Hear is a man who wants to honour God ,he sees the evil in falsehood and lies,so he asks God for his help,it is good to recognise our weaknesses,and how easily it is to sin,Shakespeare wrote ,'Man know thyself', Yes even as Christians we can easily loose our way,and fall into practices that our wrong,in the light of that we need Gods help everyday,as the song goes,'I need Thee every hour'.The next two things he touches on is poverty and riches,D  Atkinson write  ,'We need help to use both poverty and wealth appropriately'.  As regards  prosperity read Deuteronomy 6 v10-12,which shows clearly,the dangers to our spiritual life,as regards prosperity,even to the place of forgetting God.Leupold writes'To cope with prosperity may be more difficult,than to cope with poverty'.As  regards poverty,no one likes to be poor,and in that condition  we can be tempted to steal, Poverty does not give us a right to commit wrongs.Agur pleads with God to keep him from the extremes ,and to have enough to live on.

                                           '  Whatever state we find ourselves in,may

                                              we glorify God'

I was not perfect. ( Philippians 1 v 6 )

A young lad was singing a song about his dad who had died recently,some of the words went like this,' No need to forgive,no need to forget,I know your mistakes and you know mine'.I attended a funeral recently of someone I have known for a long time,we were joint leaders in a certain church. The service was full of tributes to that brother,and I was impressed by what was said,every thing was very positive,as you would expect it to be.  I am a father of  five son's, I have been married twice,my first wife died of cancer. I am eighty years of age and looking back back on my life as a husband I wasn't perfect ,likewise as a father,I made mistakes. When it comes to my funeral  I hope they will point out that I was far from perfect,as a husband I was faithful I loved both my wives,but I was not the perfect husband ,likewise I loved my children, but I was not a perfect father,I made mistakes,and they made mistakes,but I have  loved them greatly.Let us remember that there are no perfect husbands, and no perfect children,but  this I know if God had not saved me early in my life, I would have been a worse person,I can quarantee that.I exalt the grace of God,and the mercy of God , and the love of God ,for saving a wretch like me when I trusted Jesus as my Saviour.

                                                    'Amazing grace! how sweet the sound

                                                     That saved a wretch like me!

                                                      I once was lost, but now am found;

                                                       Was blind but now I see.'

                                                                  John Newton.

                                                          

Only one sin. ( Numbers 32 v 23 )

When the Bible tells us that all have sinned and come short of the Glory of God,(Romans 3 v23) that's a fact,how serious does one take that?,and how serious do we take sin?. I heard a person say,as regards something that was being done,'that's not a big sin', I think a lot of people categorise sin ,from a human point ,we see murder ,child abuse,rape as being very severe ,and then other things as not so serious.But how does God look on sin ?, well He takes all sin very seriously,even sins of ignorance.I was talking to  a friend recently,and he mentioned about his mother,whom he loved,she was not saved .When he spoke to her as regards salvation,like many people she said the usual thing ,she went to church,and didn't do very much wrong.Her son said this to her,'one sin will take to you to hell,'he went on to say how he invited his mother to go to church with him,which she did, it was snowing so not many people were there.My friend went and spoke to the preacher before the meeting began,he said to him,that there was only one unsaved person in the meeting,and that was his mother.He said to him that in his message say,'that even one sin will take you to hell',and the preacher did that.At the end of the message he made an appeal for anyone who wanted Jesus as their Saviour to put up their hand,and my friends mother did,she became a Christian, and when she died ,she didn't go to hell, she went to heaven.

Image ( John 1 v 14)

 I have just read an article by Melanie Reid,she is tetraplegic and is partial paralysed and gets about on a wheel church.It was a very frank articial,she confessed she did not like to see herself in a mirror because she didn't like the image she saw,after all she said,'I'm someone in a wheelchair, that's my distinguishing characteristic,how can anyone be proud of that'. She confessed'The cruel rider is I've never lost my vanity.being in a chair just makes conceit more poignant'Recently I saw a photo of myself  with my wife Daphne,and I did not like what I saw,I looked old,which I am,I am eighty,I no longer have a good side,I think I shall go to the body shop.Alright I'm not the man I used to be,but in another sense that's good,what do I mean by that?.In 2 Corinthians 4 v16,we read,'   Though outwardly we are wasting away,yet inwardly we are renewed day by day'.Man looks on the outward appearance we see this in so mamy things,but God looks on the heart (1 Samuel 16v7) .Paul must have being shown the wear and tear of all the trials and difficulties he had come through.So he reminds us that we must see ourselves not just from a physical point of veiw,but from a spiritual point of veiw,what is the quality of my being inwardly? that is what is important,how are we developing spiritually?,an old saint once said,'yes I am old,but I'm still growing',and becoming more like Jesus.You cannot take a photo of that,but we can manifest it in our live s.Isaiah wrote 53 v 2 about the coming Messiah Jesus,and he said the following, ' He had no form nor comeliness ; and when we shall see Him,there is no beauty that we should desire him,' and yet he was alltogether lovely.

                                                'His words were beautiful,His life 

                                                 life was beautiful,and His death

                                                 was beautiful'

Therefore (Romans 12 v 1-2 )

In that wonderful book of Romans, Paul hammers out so many wonderful truths,having done that, in chapter 12 ,it starts with the word ,'Therefore ', in the light of the great truths of  salvation,to both Jews and Gentiles, the fact that we are no longer condemned,and the tremendous security we have  in Christ,and that nothing seperates us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord (8 v 35-39) there should be a response to that,Paul first of all reminds us,'In veiw of God's mercy,we should offer our bodies as a living ssacrifice,holy and pleasing to God,this is our true proper worship'.One word I use continually is mercy,and I rejoice that God in his mercy saved me,not only that,he give me a new life.When the hymn writer wrote of the cross he said ,'Love so amazing so divine demands my soul ,my life ,my all'.That is what we are challenged with in these opening words of Romans 12, to offer our bodies as living sacrifice, yes our bodies,'holy and pleasing to God'. John Stott writes the following,'No worship is pleasing to God which is purely inward,abstract and mystical; it must express its self  in concrete acts of service performed by our bodies'.We all must all become motherTeresa's,again as John Stott writes,' That our feet will walk in His paths,our lips will speak the truth and spread the gospel,our tongues will bring healing,our hands will lift up those who have fallen, performing many mundane tasks; our arms will embrace the lonely and unloved,our ears will listen to the cries of the distressed,and our eyes will look  humbly and patiently  towards God'.

A word in season ( Lamentations 3 v 22-23)

 I was speaking to a young man ,who was unsettled as regards his employment situation, I said to  him that as I  looked back I could see how God in His providental care,had undertook for me.He said that's in the past, but what about now?,yes what about now,is God just the God of the past?,I did my best to encourage that that young man how God would undertake for him now.Coninciding with this I was concerned about something,my dear wife was travelling on the following day to our son's home,I wanted to go with her,but was unable to.The weather forecast said there would be heavy rain,and also strong winds.Also  there were road works in place,possible diversions,it  created a degree of concern for us both. The next day before she went on her journey I read  a devotional about a man going on a journey,and how the Lord undertook. The verse at the top of the devotional read,'The Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and evermore' (Psalm 121 v8) That to me was a word in season,it came just at the right time,and encouraged me greatly, God's providental care for us His children is ongoing,not just in the past,but also in present,and also in the future. 

                                                  'Consider what you owe to God's providence'