He knows best ( Psalm 47 v4)

 Our Lord said before He was taken back to heaven, 'You shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem,and in all Judea and Samaria and the ends of the earth' Acts 1 v 8.These words indicate a steady progression outward to the ends of earth,in other words the church would longer be a Jewish church.It is significant fot there were  those who felt that the Gentiles should have to be circumcised and obey the law,and this caused a lot of problems.(Acts 15 v 5 )In Galatians 2 v 11ff  Paul had to challenge Peter and Barnabas who sided with these people,and thankfully they retuned to the fold. Many Jews  wanted to keep the status quo to accept the fact that old convenant was now null and void,like circumcision,temple worship,food laws ,clothing laws, tithing laws,and so many other things.the Christian is not under any of these laws,The gospel liberated us from the Jewish swaddling clothes,and points us away from Jerusalem to a church where Jew and Gentile are one,a people saved only by the grace of God.Under Peter we have an ingathering of Jews 3-4v5,  under Philip we have ingathering of Samaraitans (Acts 8) ,and then we have Peter who  opened the door for the Gentiles (Acts 10) Then we have the conversion of Paul who became the apostle to the Gentiles (Romans 11 v13),and it is interesting that Peter is not mentioned after Acts 15 v 7, from then on he disappears,and as John Stott mentions Paul replaces Peter,and Paul who pushes on beyond Asia and into Europe.One the reasons  that this happened was , Paul who was born inTarsus a Roman city, was very familiar with Gentiles,God places us where  we are best suited to serve Him.

Total Depravity ( Roman 3 v 10 - 26)

 There are many people who are not Christians,in other religions,and in the secular world,who do good, this was borne in upon me as I watched a TV program.A retired top footballer is doing an awful lot to raise money for a certain charity,a young girl appeared on the show,who suffers greatly from a terrible condition,the ex-footballer had befriended her and helped her greatly.I was moved as I watched the program.,Now let me ask you a question, that I asked myself, are people like that lost? ,are they going to be excluded from heaven?, and will they be going to hell?.What is the answer?.From a human point of veiw many would say,if there is a heaven,they'll be there,but will they?.The answer is no ,for no matter how much good one does ,there is that other aspect of humanity,our sinful nature,you can't balance them against the other,God doesn't. He declares very clearly that there is no one who is righteous,and there is no one that does good,not even one ( Romans 3 v 10 /v 12) John Stott ,'mentions the doctrine of 'total depravity'It has never meant that all human beings are as depraved as they could possible be.Such a notion is manifestly absurd and untrue,and is contradicted by our everyday obervation.No,the 'totality' of our corruption refers to its extent,not to its degree.In other words as JS says ,'every part of our humanist,is twisted and tainted.'Dr J.I.Packer puts it like this,'No one is as bad as he or she might be, while on the other hand'no actions of ours is as good as it should be'.We all fall short of the glory of God, without Christ that short fall will take us to a lost eternity. If one is to be saved and go to heaven we must acknowledge our sinfulness,and throw ourselves on the mercy of a holy God.

Buried Treasure. ( Mark 10 v 17-23)

 You often hear of people finding treasure by using metal detectors,and one of my favourite stories is Treasure Island,written by Robert Louis Stevenson, every child should read Treasure Island.Well in the Bible our Saviour tells about someone who found treasure in a field.( Matthew 13 v44)But the field wasn't his ,so what did he do? he hid the treasure then sold all that he had and bought the field,and so the treasure became his. Was he ethically wrong in doing that?,no by Jewish law,the rabbis said,'If a man finds scattered money,it belongs  to the  finder'.Tell me what is the greatest treasure in all the world? Jesus ,the following scriptures describe Him as being king. ( Matt 2 v2/2v 15/ 27v 37/Rev 17v 14/ 19 v16) J.C.Ryle comments,'That the purpose of v44 and 45 is to stress of the importance of salvation  to the point that we are willing to give everything up to win Christ and eternal life, or you can put it like this,'that it's worth any sacrifice to enter God's kingdom'(W.Barclay)and to come under the authority of King Jesus.

                                                  'I'd rather have Jesus than silver or gold,

                                                   I'd rather be His than have riches untold;

                                                   I'd rather have Jesus than houses or lands,

                                                   I'd rather be led by His nail pierced hand.

                                                   Than to be a king of a vast domain,

                                                    And be held in sin's dread sway;

                                                    I'd rather have Jesus than anything,

                                                    This world affords today. ( Words Beverly Shea)

                                                

Witnessing. ( 1Peter 3 v15 )

 The times they are a changing, over my 80 years I have seen many changes,especially in relation to church atendance.Unlike years ago when the churches had two services on a Sunday,and a Sunday school in the afternoon,that has changed,most churches have one service on a Sunday, attended mainly by believers  ,but what about the unbelievers?.For they need to hear the gospel, they need Christ,that is the challenge to Christians everywhere to reach out to the unsaved. The Alpha course has been reasonally successful in reaching people with the gospel.But there is still a vast amount of people who are unreached with gospel, we all need to prayerfully ask God how we personally can  witness to people, if you  pray then be prepared for the answer to your prayer by God.If you know of an evangelist see if you can, invite them to your church, so you can get some ideas as to how to evangelise. Remember Jesus did not always speak to multitudes,he spoke to individuals,I can here some people say I would find that to hard, with God's help it can be done.One way which will help you to get talking to someone about Christ ,is to offer to pray for them, some may say no ,don't worry about that, move on to the next person. let us do what we can to reach others for Christ,things have changed  but people still need Christ that will never change.

An adventurous step of faith, ( Hebrews 11 v 8 )

 I read these words to by a writer on the book of Acts,'An adventurous step of faith', and indeed the book of Acts,is about people who took an advenurous step of faith .They didn't go to discover new lands but to establish a Kingdom different from all the kingdoms of this world,a spiritual kingdom called the Kingdom of God. For it to be established ,it would come at a cost,Paul and his fellow travellers, would suffer many hardships and difficulties,and many would pay with their lives,the list is endless it continues to this day. It often means going where others do not want to go,it means often moving out of your comfort ,read the lives of those of those who took that adventurous step of  faith,not just the biblical characters.David Livingston the Christian explorer mission, his wife died,he was attacked by a lion,suffered many illnesses,but was faithful to the gospel,and he died praying on His knees.Read the lives of so many servants of God not through tinted glasses,but what  often they had to endure.This adventurous step of faith is not a walk in the park but a walk with God,on a road less travelled.On that road your only security is God,that's the important thing,that is important thing for all of us called Christians,He is our only security,not our bank account,not our jobs or whatever.The life of following Christ is an adventurous step of faith,that means whatever it throws at us we must carry on,Have faith in Him,and you will find Him faithful,wherever we go He will be with us.Fanny Crosby  at 6wks became blind by a doctors using the wrong ointment, but she grew to be an amazingly independent person,but she wrote a hymn acknowledging her dependance on Christ,

                                                   'I must have the Saviour with me,

                                                    For I dare not walk alone.

                                                     I must feel His presence near me,

                                                     And His arms around me thrown.

                                                     Then my soul shall fear no ill,

                                                      Let Him lead me where He will,

                                                      I will go without a murmer,

                                                      And His footsteps follow still.'

                                                     

                                                    

He cares ( Hebrews 4 v14-16 )

During the second world war the cities in England were bombed, a few days into the Blitz  Churchill visited the docklands in the East End of London . 'Fires were still raging all over the place', some of the larger buildings were mere  skeletons,and many of the smaller house had been reduced to rubble.Churchill stopped at an aid -raid shelter where 40 people had been killed. Near by was a crowd of people,all seemingly very poor,one would have been resentful at what was happening and even blamed Churchill,but as he got out of the his car,they mobbed him,and were heard to cry,'Good old Winnie' they cried.' we thought you'd come and see us.We can take it.Give it'em back.' Churchill broke down,and some old lady was heard to say'You see,he really cares;he's crying'.Yes he cared,yes it is very touching when someone cares.The shortest verse in the  Bible reads,'He wept' (John 11 v 35) it is speaking of Jesus who stood outside the tomb of a dear friend who had died, why did He weep? because He cared, He showed His  care in the feeding of the hungry,the healing of the sick,and most of all His death on Calvary.He still cares us,and we are told in 1Peter 5 v7,to cast all our cares upon Him,for He cares for us '

                                                     'Does Jesus care when my way is dark

                                                      With a name-less dread and fear?

                                                      As the daylight fades into deep nightshades,

                                                      Does He care enough to be near?

                                                      O yes He cares; I know He cares, 

                                                      His heart is touched with my grief;

                                                      When the  days are weary,the long nights

                                                      dreary,I know my Saviour cares'.

We are secure if. ( Revelation19 v 6)

 It was Napoleon who said,'What a slender thread the greatest of things can hang by'I wonder why he said that?,it could have been as regards his last great battle were he was defeated at Waterloo.When victory seemed secured until Marshall Blucher came back to support Wellingtons army. There is proverb that goes,

                                                   'For want of a nail the shoe was lost,

                                                    For want of a shoe the horse was lost,

                                                    For want of a rider the message was lost,

                                                    For want of a message the battle was lost.'

                                                               'All for want of a nail.

It reminds us that a seemingly unimportat acts can have grave consequences, Leave God out of ones  life and what are we left with ,'silver threads',bring God into your life and one can proclaim that your times are in His hands,( Psalms 31 v 15)No man can pluck us out of His hands,when we trust Christ as Saviour then we are safe and secure.So let us look beyond Napoleon's 'slender thread',to our great  God and Saviour who has the whole world in His hands.'