Go. ( Acts 1 v 8)

 John 3 v16 tells us of God's love for the world with all it's billions of people,in 1 Timothy 2 v1,we are urged that we should pray for all people,and in v 3-4  we read,'This is good,and pleases God our Saviour, who wants all people to be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth.' William Carey is known as the father of modern missions.He felt the call of God on his life to go to India ,and when he stood up and expressed that  desire at a gathering  of Christian leaders he was told,'Young man,sit down! You are an enthusiast.When God pleases to convert the heathen,He'll do it without consulting you or me.' Thankfully he didn't listen to him ,and so he went to India,and God used him to accomplish great things. One of the things he said was,'Expect  great things  from God,attempt great things for God. To know the will of God,we need an open Bible and a open map'. When we forget to evangelise,to tell people people the good news of Jesus and His love ,we have lost our way,we cannot take the go out of the gospel.When we have a desire to reach the lost,we are doing what God desires.Consider 'how shall they hear without a preacher ?, the fact is they won't,if we don't tell them. Proverbs 11 v30 tells us,'He that winneth souls is wise'. Let us be wise,people may think you a fool, but don't worry about that,be a fool for Jesus.

                                                       'He that winneth souls is wise;

                                                        In the home beyond the skies;

                                                        There's a crown of Glory,oh, the

                                                         wondrous prize,

                                                         He that winneth souls is wise'.

                                                              Words Elizae E. Hewitt

                                                        

Tomorrow .( 2 Corinthians 6 v 2)

In Revelaton 3 v 14-21 Christ speaks to the church in Laodicea that wandered from Christ  ,to a point that Christ was shut out,the riches of this world had blinded them to the riches of Christ. So Christ speaks to them with  words of love,for He did truly love then, but warns them that He will deal with them,and urges them to repent. In verse 20 we have a picture of Jesus standing at a door knocking,the church is on the otherside,here is what He says,' Here I am!I stand at the door and knock.If anyone hears my voice and opens the door,I will come in and eat with that person,and they with me'.Although He is speaking to the church it is addressed to anyone in that church ,to respond and  open their hearts to Him. The question will they respond? These words are spoken to a Church but they can be applied to anyone,to  the unsaved ,and to the saved.My mind goes back to a long time ago,to an elderly person I worked with, he attended church,heard the gospel many times, and wept,yet kept Christ out of his life.There are those who hear the gospel, and say not now, tomorrow,'And when the morrow came in the words of the poet ,'' they answered still,''Tomorrow''.No matter who we are  be it a Christian or non- Christian ,if today you hear His voice harden not your hearts.

Two roads. ( Revelation 3 v 20)

                                          ' I shall be telling this with a sigh,

                                      Somewhere ages and ages hence;

                                          Two roads diverged in a wood,and I-

                                           I took the one lessed travelled by

                                          And that has made all the difference.'      

This is a verse of a poem by Robert Frost,it the last lines  spoke to me,'that he took the road less travelled ,and that made all the difference'. iIt reminds me of what our Saviour taught in Matthew7 v 13-14 ,which reads of a broad road that leads to destruction ,and that there are many on that road.Then there is the narrow road that leads to life,and only a few find it.   In luke 13 v 23 someone asked our Saviour ,'Lord are only a few people going to be saved',putting the two scriptures together  it appears that the answer is yes,it reminds us of the flood in Genesis  6-8 ,were only 8 people were saved.I believe there will be millions who will be saved,but billions won't be. It is very sad that the majority of people that has ever lived will perish .In Luke 13 v24 our Lord stresses that people should make every effort to get saved while there is still time ,death is coming to all of us ,we must see the importance of trusting Jesus as our Saviour now ,no matter what it cost us,yes, even if it cost us our lives .(Matthew 10 v28)   Our Saviour used a very graphic term to describe the suffering of the lost, 'That they will be thrown  outside into darkness,where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth', CP 'Matthew 8 v12/ 13 v42/25 v30. If people die without Christ there will be no mercy shown, so  very simply, I say to you in Love ,'Believe in the Lord Jesus and you shall be saved' (Acts 16 v31)    

A hymn of repentence ( Psalm 130)

                                                    Words by Horatius Bonar.

                   No, not despairingly come I to Thee; No, not distrustingly bend I the knee; 

                   Sin hath gone over me, Yet this is still my plea; Jesus hath died.

                   Ah! mine inquity crimson hath been,Infinite,infinite,sin upon sin;

                   Sin of not loving Thee,Sin of not trusting  Thee, infinite sin.

                   Lord ,I confess to Thee sadly my sin; All I have been;

                   Purge Thou my sin away,Wash Thou my soul this day;

                                     Lord, make me clean. 

                   Faithful and just art Thou,forgive all; Loving and kind art Thou, forgiving all;

                   Loving and kind art Thou when poor one's call;   Lord, let Thou cleansing blood,

                   Blood of the Lamb of God, Pass o'er my soul.

                   Then all is peace and light the soul within;Thus shall I walk with Thee.the love unseen,

                    Leaning on Thee ,my God , Guided along the road,nothing between.

                                                                     

                  

                                                     

I am home sick. (Colossians 3 v 1-4)

Someone described a former President of America and his wifes new home,as looking like heaven,so if you want to know what heaven looks like,go and look at that home. Well lets come back to reality,I   believe heaven will be a wonderful place,I know that only those who know Jesus will go there,I know our triune God is there,and the angels are there,I know that there will be no sickness or sorrow ,and no death, all suffering will have ceased,no lonliness or fear will exsist,it will be a place of perfect harmony, we will never feel anger, we will be perfectly content,everyone will be our friend,everyone will be our family,it will be truly wonderful.Comparing a building here to be like heaven,is foolishness.There is so much we don't know,but this I do know it will be wonderful beyond description, it will truly be heavenly. As one writer puts it ,Heaven is not simply a polished enhanced and sanitized version of earth,a different and better tune played on the old,familiar instruments. It will be new!

                                                  'Are you going to heaven?

                                                   or are you going to......?

Facing Giants( 1 Samuel 17)

 The account of David fighting Goliath brings to all of us a challenge as we face our adversities, someone has said ,'we may not be facing a Goliath,but we do have our giants'.Consider David, a young man ,why was he not filled  with fear?why was he different?.There are times when  we all feel fear, we have to be honest about that,it does not make us a lesser Christian.But faith is not about feelings,we are not meant to be ruled by our feelings,(Romans 8 v 15), What helped David to be different from Israel?, who were scared out of their wits,was that David knew how God had helped him in the past,and so he believed that He would help in the present. When David  was minding his fathers sheep,he tells of two seperate occasions  ,when a lion and a bear attacked the sheep,on both  occasions he killed them.so he reasoned that if God helped him in dealing with those creatures,he would help him deal with that giant Goliath,and He did. Let us remember that God has not changed,he can help us face and overcome that spirit of fear that is gripping  us. Yes we all  have our gaints and we always will have, but we can always say, 'I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty,and rest assured you will have the vistory.

                                                  'If God be for us,who can be against 

                                                   us......In all these things we are more

                                                   than conquerors through Him who

                                                   loved us'  (Romans 8 v 31/37)

                  

                                                

The wrath of God . ( Romans 1 v 18- 32)

In Romans 1 v 18,we read,'The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth  by their wickedness'.One does not have to go far into the Bible ,to see God's wrath in action,(Genesis 6-7)  Let us never forget that God is never neutral, when it comes to sin.be it in the unbelievers life or the Christians life. The Christians is covered by the shed blood of Christ,and he will be chastised when they sin, and of course forgiveness is given when their is repentance .The unbeliever has no such covering, so what awaits them  is the wrath of God. How would one describe the wrath of God.John Stott says,'The wrath of God describes  His revulsion against sin,He has a deep abhorrence of evil'.As we should , never make light of sin,every sin offends God,he does not categorise sin, they are all equally evil to God,there is no such thing as a venial sin,and a mortal sin, that is saying that some sins are really not very important. God will not overlook them.Read that verse again,'The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness,'See that word ,'All'  ,there are no sins brushed unnder the mat.in Hebrews 4 v13 we read,'Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight.Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of Him to whom we must give account'.He  sees all the skeletons in the closet of our lives,one day everything will be laid bare before the unsaved and they will receive the just punishment they deserve.If you are not saved ,everyday that  you live is drawing you closer to experiencing the wrath of almighty God.It doesn't have to be that way,if we  but believe  in the Lord Jesus we will be saved from God's wrath(Acts 16 v31)    

                                                       'Come every soul by sin oppressed,

                                                        There's mercy with the Lord'.