What if things get worse? [ Jeremiah 12 v5-6]

I  am reading one of my favourite books the book of Jeremiah, a man who witnessed the highs spiritually under king Josiah ,to the lows that followed,but a man who remained faithful,to God and his calling. So it is for every dear child of God ,the challenge to be faithful,yes in the highs and the lows,yes Jeremiah at times struggled,he grew weary at times.Now God is the God of all comfort,He is love,yet sometimes He does not give us the comfortable answer we desire,such was the case with Jeremiah ,in chap12v5ff,we have God speaking to His servant,he asks Jeremiah how is he going to cope  if things get worse?and things would most diffidently get worst.Things were bad in the nation,but it would become worse,and his own family did not help,as they plotted against him.Let us consider our Saviour,the difficulties he had to cope with during His ministry,but things got worse,one His disciples would betray Him,another would deny Him,all of them would forsake him,the Jews, and Romans would crucify Him,the people would mock Him,but things would get worse,His God would forsake Him [Psalm22v1/Matthew 27 v46]. So what are we going to do if things get worse?.God will heal He may not,God will provide He may not,well not in the way we think,the enemies of the Gospel will be banished,they may not,they may continue to cause havoc to Gods Children ,here is the word for us today ,/Be Thou faithful unto death [Revelation 2 v10]
A  prayer......../ Dear God ,help us to be faithful,come what may in Jesus name Amen/

Expectation. [ Proverbs 27 v1]

Years ago we had very little,things where hard,my childhood was hard,as it  was many peoples,two world wars,people living in poverty, people had,had enough,they wanted a better life. To a great extent,they got it,for many life has been so much better than what their forefathers had experienced.Peoples expectations have increased so much. Along with material prosperity has come amazing advances in technology,the things we have now are amazing,I am writing this on a computer,and it will go all over the world,and one may be tempted to think,the sky is the limit.There have also been advances in treatment of our ills,and every day we hear  of new treatments,a person said to my son ,in a few years we will beat death. This is the expectations we have,I suppose that may be one of the reasons we do not talk about death, the fact of the matter is we cannot,nor will we ever beat death.The Bible declares ,that it is appointed unto men once to die[Hebrews 9 v27],that is an appointment we will all have keep,you and I are going to die. Now, many people think they are going to heaven,that's their expectation, but if we have never trusted Jesus to forgive us our sins then heaven will not be our destination,I want to repeat something I have said before good people don't go to heaven only forgiven ones.
A  prayer...../ Dear God,open our eyes to how fragile we all are,that no matter how advanced we become,there will always be limits,grant us grace to embrace Your unlimitless love in Jesus. Amen /

Satan,sin, and death have not the last say,because.[ John 11 v25]

This week a family will be saying goodbye to their son,you see he has died, a lovely young man in his early twenties,after a valiant fight with cancer ,he died. I believed this young man touched many lives,especially his immediate family.What. can one say at such a time ?,are words not just useless,will not words just add to their sorrow,this is a dark night of the soul experience.Well let me tell you a story that Tony Campolo told,he was at his home church ,he was one of the preachers,after he had preached,an old brother arose to speak, he based his message on the following,/It's Friday but Sunday is coming/,he preached for an hour and a half,and  as he finished,he cried ,it's Friday,and 500 strong church shouted the relpy but Sundays coming. Dave Branon wrote ,/Out of that worst of days-out of the noontime darkness on that Jerusalem hillside, has come the only true hope for mankind ..Because Jesus, Took the nails,as the song says, He carried my sins far away,and one day He is coming ,O glorious day/ Yes it is Friday but praise God Sunday is coming, what a day ,glorious day that will be.
A prayer..../Dear God we thank You that Sunday is coming,we thank You for Jesus who died and rose again, Satan,sin,and death have not the last say,because Sunday is coming. Amen /

And sae the Lord be thanket. [ Psalm 116 v 12 ]

Sometimes I stop and remember former days,when I was young,no TV,very few had a telephone,or a car,poor housing,and many other things.Then I consider the here and now,the dramatic change in things,mobile phones,many people have a car,nice housing ,even computers,and I think how God has blessed me,and so many.in our nation. Yet so many people appear to take so much for granted,and are so quick to complain,and never raise a thank you to God. The days for many are gone when we would get things on tick,but how greatful are we?,it is a good question,how do you respond to the blessings that you have?. The Psalmist askes the same question,/What shall I render unto the Lord for all His benifites towards me?[ 116 v12]/,let us consider these words,here is the Psalmist response,/I will offer to Thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving,and will call upon the name of the Lord/[v17] Spurgeon wrote,This is due to our God,good for ourselves,and encouraging to others/ I was speaking to a friend telling them of a particular blessing,and she said, how lucky I was, but I said, the Lord is good.No it is not luck,it is the Lord who daily loads us with benifites.I had to smile at a grace,called Burns grace[Robert Burns],I will end with it.
                                          Some hae meat and canna eat,
                                          And some wad eat that want it,
                                          But we hae meat,and we can eat,
                                           And sae the Lord be thanked.

God of Truth. [ Isaiah 65 v16 ]

In Isaiah 65v 16, I noticed the following words ,God of truth,this is mentioned twice,the double emphasises, stresses  the importance of these words.In John 14 v6 Jesus declared Himself to be the truth ,He declares  this so that we see the importance of truth,of who He is, as to why He came, and as  to what He said. All those things are vital ,if our concept of God is wrong then we are wrong,if our beliefs don't correspond to Gods truth then we are wrong.The reformation happened because the church of Rome lost its way,and let many things come in that were contrary to Gods truth,the Bible.The church of Rome had lost its way,in so many area's,and unfortunately they have never  recovered from that. The cults like JW's  appear to be people of the Bible,but unfortunately,it is their Bible,and can be called a mistranslation.The Mormons would say they are people of the book,but what book?they choose to believe a book that has no bearing on Gods book the Bible.The God of truth will only speak the truth,as revealed in His word the Bible,that truth reveals to us Himself ,reveals to us that are created by Him,that we are fallen human beings,that we are lost. It reveals to us Gods plan of salvation,not our plan,His plan,a plan that involved Jesus, coming into this world,one who was truly God,and yet truly man,and dying on a cross,that all who believe in Him, would be eternally saved.
A prayer..../God of truth we praise You for Your word of truth,that reveals Yourself,ourselves,and Jesus  who is the way, the truth, and the life. Amen /

Two important truth's.[ Romans 11 v33ff]

It was my wife's birthday recently and I jokingly spoke about trading her in for a younger model,the challenge of marriage is great,to make it work, and to be faithful.God is sovereign but we are called to be responsible this includes marriage and all of life,we may never be able to understand ,Gods sovereignty and mans responsibility,but they are clearly taught in the word of God. There was a time many years ago when my first wife and I lived by faith,when for 4 years I attended Bible college,we trusted God to supply our needs,and He did.When that period in our lives ended I sought employment ,that is the norm,for all of us,even the apostle Paul for a time worked at  his trade[Acts18v3]. People get saved usually by someone telling them about Christ,I have heard of people being saved  whom God has spoken to in a dream,this is not the norm,but it does happen. The apostle Paul was saved by a vision ,why did God do that,because He choose to,He is sovereign,God can do what He chooses,best to understand this..God truly moves in mysterious ways ,there is so much truth in those words,He may heal ,He may not,He may grant success,He may not,He may promote or demote as He see's fit. We are not meant to throw our hands up in despair ,but to trust Him,to bow always to His will for our lives,and to always remember that His sovereignty does not nullify our responsibility.
A  prayer..... /Sovereign God we bow to Your perfect will in all things, help us understand that we are always to be responsible,in Jesus name Amen /

The is the love I am frightened of [John 3 v6 ]

There is a great deal of loneliness in our country ,over 5 million old people say their main contact /companionship is there TV. It appears a sad statement,about the society we live in. I know we do harp back to the good old days,but I know for many,they where hard old days, but we did especially when I was a wee boy, make more social contact with people than now.I remember neighbours coming into our home,I can still recall the names of many of our neighbours,and their children.Now of course people were not perfect,whats the difference now,where it appears people keep to themselves?. There used be a popular song , which went ,/we all live in little boxes,little boxes in a row/,  it is said that an Englishman's castle is his home,but unfortunately the draw bridge appears to be up. Someone I know, was in our town center and sat beside a couple of people, and attempted to make friendly conversation,and was told in no uncertain terms ,where to go to.The society we live in appears to want to keep itself to itself,and yet is desperately lonely, it is like they are afraid,a modern song, has these words in it,/This is the love I am frightened of/.People are desperate for love,but it appears they are frightened of it,frightened because,if they love they may  be hurt ,for the fact is love can be a costly business. The greatest love ever witnessed ,is seen in Jesus, who was pushed away continually by those He loved the most,the more he loved them, the more their fear took over,to the point that they stopped pushing, and started nailing Him to a cross.
A prayer...../ Dear God Have mercy upon this lonely planet, upon it's  inhabitants ,who are so frightened of  Your  love, that cries out to them from a cross,I love you Amen /