No boasting ( James 4 v 13 -16)

 Proverbs 27 v 1 reads,'Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring',so wrote Solomon. Who are the boasters?,they include everyone.Unfortunately, even Christians do it,yes we do. we all seem to ignore the obvious,the uncertainty of life,yet we rush on in our blindness, confident that we do not need to acknowledge God in all our ways to direct our paths Proverbs 3 v6.The poet Robbie Burns wrote,'' The best plans of mice and men go awry'' (amiss)As the Titanic was sailing on its maiden voyage, someone said that it was ''Practically unsinkable''.The fact is life holds no certainties,ignoring that  brings dire consequence, Charles Bridges wrote as regards our eternal destiny,and our neglect of our souls, ,'Heaven and  Hell are no trifles.Tomorrow   presumed upon today neglected,ruins all. Standing on the brink of a precipice,how precious the moment  for prayer,ere the door of mercy is closed for ever!  We can make our plans ,but make them prayerfully, acknowledging our dependence on our God and so glorify Him.

                                                              'Run not before Him'

There is a cost' ( Matthew 16 v24- 25)

 There are many examples of what it cost to follow Jesus,I mention a married couple who were members of the church that I attended in Belfast,their names were Fred and Ina Orr,he was known as Freddy. They were very gifted people,I was not at the church when they attended,later on I did meet Freddy,and was blessed through his ministry.They both felt the call of God on their lives,and ended up being accepted by the 'Acre Gospel Mission',to go to Brazil. When travelling to their destination in Brazil, Ina became unwell and died, Fred became unwell also but survived,He was advised by a doctor to go home,but he stayed,and for the rest of his life he served God there.Yes there is a cost in following Jesus,everyday I pray for many people,who are suffering greatly  because they are followers of our dear Saviour.

                                              'Remember it is the way of the cross

                                                               that leads home'

Remember ( Psalm 119 v11) Dec 28th

                                        I want to highlight three things we should remember

                                                                               1

 Remember what Paul said in Philippians 3 v13 ,'But one thing I do :Forgetting what is behind and straining towards what is ahead.And Paul lived that out in his life,and so should we.We cannot change our  failures,our past hurts, and disappointments, we have all have them,let us not become a slave to them,I believe the essence of what Paul is saying is don't dwell on them,put them  behind you, if we don't it will hinder our present efforts,and our future progress.

                                                                              2

Remember what David said,' I was young and now I am old,Yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken or their children begging bread'.I remember saying to a person,'The Lord is my shepherd I shall not want'(Ps 23v1),he laughed at me,but it is true.The God of David ,is my God,and he is your God, 'our Saviour said 'do not worry 'Mt 6 v25,and then He repeats it again ,'v31 'So do not worry', He is telling us that our heavenly Father will care for us.

                                                                              3

Remember what our Saviour said,' I am the light of the world.Whoever follows Me will never walk in darkness,but will have the light of life.'This is a dark world and there is much darkness all around us,remember Jesus will be with us ,He will be the light in our  darkness,his presence will be with us,and His word shall also be with us,let that word be a lamp for our feet,and a light on our path.(Psalm 119v105)

                                                                              

You are not listening ( Matthew 7 v 24-29)2

 Why did Israel  get into so much trouble? what does God say was the problem? 'But you have not listened to me',(  Judges 6 v6)yes God did speak to them,but they did not listen.It's like what a wife say's to her husband',you don't listen to me.' We may laugh at that,and identify with it ,likewise when a parent speaks to their children,we can identify with that if you are parenting,and they do not take it seriously , they don't listen. How much more should we listen to God when we read His word,or hear his word ,if we did, them we would avoid so many things that would harm us. Let us ask us ourselves the question, am I listening to God ? am I obeying what He says?,Are you in trouble,could it be that God is saying,the reason you are in trouble is because you did not listen to me.Be humble enough and ask forgiveness,put it right with God, now.

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Offending God's holiness ( 1 Peter 1 v 14-16)

 In Leviticus 10 v 10 Aaron is instructed that he and his sons must distinguish between the holy and the common, between the unclean and the clean'. These words were spoken after Aaron's sons had disobeyed God 10 v 1-2 ', fire came from the presence of the Lord and consumed them\, and they died before the Lord'You can imagine that many liberals will cry out against what God did ,and they will say that's the  God of the OT,they appear to forget that Christians believe in  only one God, Malachi 3 v 6  tells us 'For I am the Lord I change not'. James 1 v 17  speaks of the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows' And in Hebrews 13 v 8 we read,'Jesus Christ is the same yesterday,today,and forever'.these words affirms His diety.The verses in Lev 10 v10 tells us that  God is not neutral as  regards sin,and there are many passages in the NT  show this.The sons of Aaron  disobeyed God (Exodus 30 v 9 )When anyone disobeys God they are sinning,even if you are a Child of God. Aaron's sons offended God's holiness,the reason why they were possible drunk (cp Lev 10 v9) Drunkenness has caused a lot of misery,drinking alcohol is not a sin (1 Timothy 5 v23) but being a slave to it is  ( 1Corinthians 6 v 9 -10)

The wrath of God ( Isaiah 53)

 Let us consider the wrath of God we apply it mainly to humanity ,but lets consider it in relationship to Jesus.All humanity is under the wrath of a holy God ,there is nothing we can do to change that , so where does Jesus fit in this?,let us consider Him,first He was truly human but was also God manifest in the flesh. in Matthew 1 v22 we read,'They will call him Immanuel which means God with us,He is the one  Isaiah wrote about in 9v6 as being the Mighty God,everlasting Father', there are other OT references to Christs diety ,Psalm 110 v 1/ Psalm 45 v7/ Isaiah 7 v1. There are many other scriptures that declare Jesus to be God in the NT,so why did He come and as Charles Wesley wrote ,'How the incarnate Deity; Our God contracted to a span'?because He loved this world (John 3 v16) a world where every human being is lost, judgement awaits.The good news is this 'He will save his people from their sins',the next question we need to ask is how was He going to do that?It is in Hebrews 9 v 22  we read 'the law requires  that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness' Cp Lev 16 v14.So it is in Hebrew 9 v27 we read,'so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many. Jesus would have to die that also included taken the punishment for our sins ,He became our substitute bearing the full wrath for the sinners sin.In trusting Christ  we are no longer under the wrath of God for Jesus bore the wrath of God for us' Cp Isaiah 53 v 10.

Compassion (Lamentations 3 v 22-23 )

What do you think when you hear the word compassion? there are a number of meanings ,'a feeling for those who are suffering,and for many that's were it stops,just a feeling.I read the following description of the word compassion,'It is a feeling of deep sympathy and sorrow for another who is stricken by misfortune, accompanied by a strong desire to alleviate the suffering'.A  strong desire to do something,it is illustrated so wonderfully by our Saviour ,in Matthew 14 v 14ff ,He saw a large crowd,He had compassion on them and healed those who were ill,he followed it up by feeding them .In Luke 7 v11ff,He witnessed a funeral procession,a widow woman had lost her son,we read,'His heart went out to her'then he raised him from the dead,a  wonderful  description of compassion.Someone said that compassion is a verb,a doing word.Of course you may say I can't perform miracles,that's right but we can do something,if we have the where with all ,we can do something,it is not always about  money,When my son had to have an operation for cancer,  people from his church brought meals for his family.

                                                    'Let us turn our feelings of 

                                                     compassion into action'