Delight ( Matthew 7 v 7) 2

                                                                  'Psalm 37 v4 '

                                         'Take delight in the Lord,and He will give you

                                          the desires of your heart. (Psalm 37 v 4)

So many people delight in vain things,things of no accord,the list is endless,My friend was on the pastorial team in a hospice,he visted a man  who told him that he didn't want anything  to do with God.My friend asked him what did he want,? he wanted to hear a certain group singing,my friend got him a recording of the group.  That  was what he delighted in,vain vanites,let us lift our desires to a higher level,our desires,can be our requests,petitions,and in keeping with God's will he will give us them.Plumber writes ,'Moses had a great desire to see God's glory;and the Lord showed him as much as he could bear. Solomon had a quenchless thirst  after knowledge and wisdom,and Jehovah made him the wisest of mere men'I remember when I worked in the grain terminal,it was to say the very least a very dusty job,I really wanted out of it,and I wanted a job that I could wear nice clothes,and God got me that job. I also wanted to  serve God in Christian  ministry and God got me that job.

                                            ' This is the confidence we have in appoaching

                                              God; that if we ask anything according to his

                                               will,He hears us,And if we know that He hears 

                                                us whatever we ask,we know that we have what

                                                 we asked for'

                                                                     (1 John 5 v 14- 15)

                                                    

                                             .

Trust , (Isaiah 12 v 2) 1

 There are very instructive verses in Psalm 37  the first one reads,

                                                  'Trust in the Lord and do good;

                                                   dwell in the land and enjoy 

                                                   safe pature' v 3

What God desires from us is trust,we honour Him when we trust Him ,Israel's history so often was filled with fretting and fearfulness,with the result they didn't always trust and obey, so they suffered because of their rebelliousness, and unbelief in God .Peter walked on water but faith deserted him,and Jesus had to save him from drowning.( Matthew 14 v 25-31)Jesus asked him ,''why did you doubt?,'' doubt will put a spanner in the works all the time,it did for Peter,and it will do the same for you and me.Trust in the Lord and then he adds,'do good',it was said of our dear Saviour that He went about doing good, ( Acts 10 v 38)let us follow in his footsteps,there are so many people doing bad things, let us be people who do good things.The last part of the verse  reads,'dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture',one commentator puts it like this,'So shalt thou dwell in the land and live securely',let the Lord be your security ,the result will be,'The Lord will keep you from all harm ,He will watch over your life,He will watchover your coming and going both now and forever more.(Psalm 121 v 7-8 ) Lastly 'and enjoy safe pasture',in other words God would provide for his children,so let us not dwell in doubting castle,

                                                    'Be gone unbelief!my Saviour is near

                                                    And for my relief  will surely appear..

                                                    By prayer let me wrestle and He will perform;

                                                    With Christ in the vessel I smile at the storm'.

                                                                      'John Newton'

All our lives. ( Psalm 37 v 25 )

                                                   ' All my life you have been faithful,

                                                    All my life you have been so,so good,

                                                    With every breath, that I am able,

                                                    I will sing of the goodness of God''

God is faithful, no one in all of history is as faithful as God, why oh why has He not given up on planet  earth. Well the Word of God says,that He is a faithful Creator (1 Peter 4 v19),that means He has not given up on  planet earth,it belongs to Him and to Him alone,as He promised'As long as the earth endures, seed time and harvest,cold and heat,summer and winter,day and night will never cease ',(Genesis 8 v 22) He is faithful to His Word, but Peter reminds us that the end is coming of this present world at a time appointed by God,yes there is a reason why it is delayed, His divine patience,and mercy,and love desires that all should  come to repentance, and faith in Christ, so the earth continues.We who are His Children are not forsaken,  He is a faithful loving Heavenly Father,many of  His children have suffered throughout history ,and many at this present time are suffering,He will loose none of them. (John 10 v 28 -30 ).Whatever our experience in life,we can with  Jeremiah declare ,great has been God's faithfulness. (Lamentations 3 v 23) ,and we can all say.

                                                    'All our lives you have been faithful                         

                                                     All our lives you have been so,so good'

                                                       Words by 'Ben Fielding/Brian Johnson'

We are all one.{ Revelation 4 v 9 )

 I visited a church recently ,and one of  the leaders said to me ,that they had at least 42 different nationalities attending their church. I said that was wonderful it is what the church is all about,as John 3 v16 tells us,'that God so loved the world'.Sad it is ,that down through history , there were groups who raised barriers ,excluding people on the bases of colour and race.In Romans 16 v 1-23,Paul sends greetings to the saints in Rome naming 26 individuals, diverse in race and gender.At that time there were Jewish believers who really wanted the status quo to continue,and of course that was wrong, it was weakening the idea of a universal church.It is also weakens it, when we exclude people on the bases of social standing or whatever .Yet it still goes on,we hear people referring to a church as a' black church',the little childrens song goes,'Jesus loves the little children all the children of the world,red and yellow,black and white all our precious in His sight'  That's the way it should be,everyone should be accepted equally into the Church of Chirst.Our Saviour said ,'There shall be one flock and one shepherd.' (John 10 v16)and in Galatians 3 v28 we read,'There is neither Jew nor Gentile,neither slave nor free,nor is there male and female,for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

                                                        ' Salvation is indiscriminate'

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.