Love not the world. [1 John 2v 15-17]

In 1 John 2,the apostle John exhorts the Christians, to not love the world v15,now of course God loves this world [John 3 v16].There it is, redemptive we must love sinners, but not the worlds falseness with all its evil, and its consequences. C. H. Dodd wrote,'' Our author means human society in so far as it is organized in wrong principles, and characterized by base desires false values, and egoism''. John highlights aspects of this fallen world v16 ''The lusts of the flesh'', this takes in the sexual, desires, but involves more,W. Barclay writes,'' food, effeminate in luxury, slaves of pleasure; lustful and lax in morals; selfish in the use of pleasures''. Ruled by these things and much more, spiritual values are ignored or resented.W. Barclay wrote,'' We need not think of  this as the sin of the gross and blatant  and notorious sinner. No respect for the personalities of others...anyone who lives in luxury while others live in want, anyone who has made a god of his own comfort,and of his own ambition, in any part of life,is the servant of the flesh's desires''.

                                        A prayer.
Dear Lord free us from the lust of the flesh, in all its aspects in Your name we ask this Amen.

I hate Him. [ Isaiah 53 ]

Jessie James is glamorised ,yet he was thief, and more likely killed a
number of people, yet he became a national folk hero. There have been many movies made about him, and in them he is depicted as a sort of Robin Hood. In the political arena ,people like Hitler and Stalin, were practically
worship, even though they were the cause of millions and millions of people
dying. They did not appear to have any concern as regards the suffering of
people, and yet the had their fan clubs. When Jesus was being tried, He could have been set free, there was a custom, in which a prisoner could be set free. And so Pilate gave the people a choice, Jesus or Barabbas, Barabbas is described as being an insurrectionists and a murderer. Consider Jesus, the miracles he performed, the love he showed, his wonderful teaching. Who did they chose? Barabbas, it is amazing, what did Jesus actually do ,that caused them to make such a choice?. There is a Charlie Brown cartoon ,where a boy is sitting with a friend, Charlie Brown walks by, and the boy says to his friend ,'good old Charlie Brown, 'yes sir'.
But as he moved out of ear shot, he said,' good old Charlie Brown,' how I  hate him.' Why did they choose Barabbas?, instead of Jesus ? because they hated Him. He was their Messiah, He was their Saviour ,yet they hated Him, but here is the most amazing thing He loved them, and He loves you, and wonder of wonders, he even loves me.

                                     A prayer.
Dear Lord we are amazed that you love us ,so much that you died for us
Amen .  

Outrageous Grace. [ Ephesians 2 v1-10 ]

Years ago I knew a lovely Christian lady, she was married to a man, who physically abused her. Saturday night was when he came in drunk, and beat her, it was a regular occurrence, later he became involved with another woman. Then he became unwell, was taken to hospital, and was dying, now they had three sons, one was a Christian, he became my friend, who was respected by all who knew him, even by his father. He visited his father in hospital, and shared with him the gospel, told him how he needed to trust Christ,his father said, I will do what you say son, and he did. We must never forget that Christ came into this world to save sinners, yes the drunkards and the wife beaters and those who are unfaithful. In the words of a Christian song,it is outrageous grace, and of course amazing grace.

                                              A prayer.
Dear God  we thank You for your amazing and outrageous grace that saves
sinners, through our Lord Jesus Amen.

Peace. [ John 14 v 27 ]

Recently I became very anxious ,did not know what was going to happen in
relation to a certain thing. Yes I prayed but found it hard, but I still managed to pray, when I had finished praying I sat down to do my thought for the day, the anxiety left me, and I felt peace. I often think about the apostle Paul
and all the things he had to cope with, He understood that one can so easily
become anxious,so inspired by the Holy Spirit, he wrote the following, when he was in prison,

                                    Do not be anxious about anything,
                                    but in everything, by prayer and
                                    petition, with thanksgiving, present your
                                    requests to God. And the peace of God,
                                    which transcends all understanding,will
                                    guard your hearts and your minds in
                                    Christ Jesus.
                                              [Philippians 4 v 6-7 ]

Clay jars [ 2 Corinthians 4 v 7- 18]

As he looked out at the what had been the path before him, all he could now see,  everything was covered with snow, and he felt panic taken hold of him.Then he heard the guide who had been  leading ,saying, keep your eye on me, and walk were my imprints are in the snow.  Often in life we feel panic filling our hearts, we look for a way forward, seemingly in vain.The
apostle Paul describes us as earthen vessels,jars of clay, I like those words
for it reminds me how fragile we all are, how prone we are to panic, and to despair. Now what I love about the apostle Paul, he tells us how it is,read
what he wrote, of the trials he suffered, never do you read of him saying, 'I don't need this'. He declares ,'Therefore we do not lose heart.Though out-
wardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day'.[2 Corinthians 4 v16] That inward renewal came from God, Paul wrote
be strong in the Lord and the power of His might[Ephesians 6 v10]As earthen vessels need to be filled with that power day by day. But we also
need to remember that we have a guide, even Jesus, so let us fix our eyes, [super glue our eyes] on Jesus.[Hebrews 12 v2].

                                              A  prayer
Dear God you know how fragile we are, easily upset, you know, so help and guide us in Jesus name Amen.

Justified. [ Romans 4 v 3 ]

'The just shall live by faith', so reads the scriptures, we read these word in [Habakkuk 2v4/Romans 1 v17/Galations3 v11/ Hebrews 10 v38.]So they are very important, when Martin Luther, read these word, it transformed his life, and so began the reformation. When the power of Rome was challenged to reform, they refused to bring the church in line with the scriptures. Which they still will not do , ' The just,' who are they?,well they are those who have put their faith in Jesus, to save them. In Romans 5 v1,
we read,'' Therefore ,since we have been justified through faith,we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.'' Now it is important we do not add anything unto those word, like good works,  I stress nothing ,it is
totally by faith in Christ that we are saved. It is not a church that saves us,
it is Christ, in Him alone, if one is not  trusting in Christ alone for salvation, then one is not saved. So what are you trusting in ?.

                                         A  prayer.
Dear Lord we praise you for saving us, that it is not I, but you who save,
                                           Amen.

Openness [ James 3 v13-18]

I have been thinking   about a certain situation, and it causes me concern,
because I believe it is not being done openly, and honestly. It appears to me
that the person in charge is manipulating the situation in a clever and underhanded way. Now the goals he is aiming at, are not evil, or wrong
but the manner in which he is doing this ,leaves me feeling uneasy. Yet it appears that there is nothing one can do about it, but that is the way it is in the world, but it should not be in the church of Christ. In the church of Christ we do not want those  who manipulate us, we want people to be open and honest with us with no hidden agenda. So what does one do? that is the question, we can challenge what is happening  in a way that is peace loving, impartial and sincere[James 3 v17].Most important in all things we should
pray, that Gods will may be done, for that's the most important thing of all.

                                               A prayer.
Dear God help us to open and sincere in all our deals, to remember we are not second hand car dealers, in Jesus name we ask this Amen.