Hard work. (Matthew 11 v 28 )

I read something amusing , as regards Sabbath keeping at the time of Jesus,'that it was hard work keeping the Sabbath'.I wonder do you appreciate the point of these words?,the Sabbath was suppose to be a day of rest,but instead it turned into a day of rule keeping.All legalism ,is hard work ,now of course there are things we should do on the Sabbath,if possible we should meet with God's  people,that's important,fellowship with Gods people as I say is important. We are part of God's family,and meeting with them, helps us and them,as we share with them, as we meet together.That meeting with them should be meaningful,to often going to meet with Gods people is an in and out experience.I was talking to a brother about a certain fellowship he knew,and said you had to attend there 20 years before you become accepted. That can't be true fellowship it is in fact a travesty ,and insult to  what fellowship should mean.Now returning to  Sabbath keeping being hard word, legalism ,whither on the  Lords day or any other day ,makes a mockery of the one who said ,' Are you  tired ?worn out? burned out in religion? Come to Me, and you will recover your life, I'll show you how to take rest' Matthew 11 v 28 ( The Message a paraphrase)

God's Word. ( Psalm 119 v 105 )

Looking back at my time in Bible  college, certain lecturers stood out,one was Professor Leahy ,my lasting memory of him was a godly man of soundness.He held no fanciful speculative interpretations of the Gods word,no  from him we received sound exegesis of the word of God. This is what we need in these days,sound teaching of the word of God,not those who pick and choose what they want to believe and teach, and reject those truths which they find hard to accept ,and their inconsistent concepts of God.It was R.C .Sproul who wrote a little booklet called,'Can I trust the Bible? ,if  the Bible is not trustworthy,we are in great difficulties.We must be prepared to take our stand on the trustworthiness ',of the Scripture ,'we must not only believe that the Scriptures  bears witness to the truth,but it is the truth '(R.C.Sproul )  I have  read and studied the Bible ,for over 50 years,and I know it can be trusted, It was a man called Frank Morison who as a young man, doubted the reliability of scriptures,especially the account of the resurrection,in the end he came to believe and trust in Jesus as his Saviour and his resurrection,he went on to write a book called,'Who moved the stone',The Bible is based on history,Calvary is real,yes it really happened,Christ died on a cross,and on the third day He rose from the dead ,in 2 Corinthians 15 we are told of hundreds of people who saw the risen Christ .In 2 Timothy 3 v 16  we read,'That all Scripture is God -breathed ',we do well to trust in Gods word,if we don't we will not do well.

A prayer ( Luke 11 v 1 )

I have a little book called ,'The valley of vision',published by ,'Banner of  Truth',it is a collection of Puritan Prayers and Devotions'.So here is part of a morning prayer.  'O God,the Author of all good, I come to you for the grace another day will require for its duties and events. I step out into a wicked world, I carry about with me an evil heart, I know  that without you I can do nothing . Hold thou me up and I shall be safe,preserve my understanding from subtily of error,my affections from love of idols,my character from stain of vice, my profession from every kind of evil.May I engage in nothing in which I cannot implore your blessing,and which I cannot invite thy inspection. Prosper me in all lawful undertakings,or prepare me for disappointments; Give me neither poverty nor riches; Teach me to use the world,and not abuse it,to improve my talents,to redeem my time,to walk in wisdom toward those without, and in kindness to those within,to do good to all men, and especially to my fellow Christians,And to thee be the Glory. Amen.

My Hero (Philippians 2 v 5 - 11 )

There is a modern song which reads,'The world is searching for a hero', have you got someone who is your hero?There are people I admire who have shown great courage,Martin Luther,Martin Luther. King,Jr,  David Livingstone, Eric Liddell,Daniel,Jeremiah ,Paul, Nelson,Freddy Orr,there are so very many people. The last one on my list,Freddy Orr,you may never have heard of ,he was a Belfast man who was a Christian,he had a wife called Ina,both were very gifted people ,Freddy was a preacher,his wife was a lovely singer. They both felt called to be missionaries,to Brazil, to the State of Acre,to work in  the interior,in the jungle  .On their trip to their destination ,Ina died,Freddy also became unwell,and was told by a doctor, if he didn't go home he would die.Well he didn't go home,he stayed and did a wonderful work for God ,until the Lord took him home. I have only one hero his name is Jesus,consider the sacrifices he made,from being equal with God ,he stepped into this sinful,making himself nothing,he became a servant,endured so much,the attacks of the devil,the hatred from  man, accused with being demon possessed,and other things. His enemies had him arrested on trumped up charges,they beat him and flogged him,and then crucified him.Why did he do all that?, because of love,for you and I ,we needed a saviour ,to save us from our sins ,Jesus was that Saviour, the only saviour there is,that is why he is my hero.

The Cross. ( Colossians 2 v 13 - 15 )

More than ever I feel that the cross needs to be proclaimed, it is Gods only answer to mankind's terrible condition, without the cross ,hear this ,there is no hope. The fact is this, without the cross sin remains  ,without the cross wrath remains,( John 3 v 36 ),without the cross judgement is certain .Without the cross mankind cannot hope to change,the drunkard will remain a drunkard, the drug addict will remain an addict,the sexual abuser will remain an abuser.Without the cross there is no way back to God from the dark paths of sin. Religion without  the cross cannot save ,will not save,being sincere will not save ,being kind will not save,being smart will not save,without the cross nothing can save,and let me stress this again God's answer is the cross.,we have not got an answer almighty God provided the answer,ignore it ,at your cost. 'In the old rugged cross,stained with blood so divine, a wondrous beauty I see; for t'was on that old cross Jesus suffered and died to pardon and sanctify me '.  ( Words by George Benhard )

Unless ( Luke 18 v 13 )

Imagine  you are driving along ,you want to get home,you are looking forward to it,and as you turn the  bend the road comes to an abrupt end ,,the road has collapsed,and between you and the other side there is a great gap.You think, well I will have to turn round,and try another route,but suddenly you a rumbling noise,and you walk to see what it was and the road behind you has collapsed as well.,and you think how am I going to get home?. We realise that we cannot bridge that gap that separates us from home,you remember someone had you warned that this could happened ,but you didn't take him serious,you thought you knew best.We are all on a journey, we may not give much consideration as to what awaits us at the end of the journey,we may think that heaven will be our eternal home.The Bible teaches that we are all sinners,that means we cannot go to heaven,in our sinful state , the doors will be barred to us.In Isaiah 59 v 2 we read what sin does,'But your iniquities have separated you from your God'.that's it, sin  separates us from God. So it is, that unless sin is forgiven by trusting Jesus,heaven will never be our home,but hell will be.

Brokenness. ( Luke 15 v 11 ff )

When I was young my mum and dad broke up,I don't know what I felt at that time,I was very young,They never got divorced,it was hard to get a divorce in those days,I know my mun and dad would not have been able to afford it.So they remained separate,and from that time on I had no contact with my father,I don't think it affected me or my brothers and sister much. But now of course, divorce is more common,it is sad ,there are many reasons,but whatever the reason it is sad,there is an old song which goes,'Breaking up is hard to do'.A  couple I know,are getting divorced, and I have  heard the shouting and swearing,mainly over who gets what.They have young children,and I am sure its going to affect them,of course I can't get involved,but I can pray, it did give me an opportunity to witness to the husband. It is all part of the brokenness of life,for we all live in a broken world,that brokenness manifests itself in a multitude of ways. Here is a song I used to sing,about those who are feeling broken,'Have you failed in life's battle,to accomplish your plans?,Is your heart heavy laden,do you fear the Lord's command?. Do you feel that no one loves you,and there's no use to try? Just bring your cares to Jesus, your soul He'll satisfy. You may feel that there's no hope, broken hearts just cannot mend. Storms of doubt blow all directions, but don't you be afraid; God can make all  corrections,He made a body out of clay. Pick up the broken pieces, and bring them to the Lord,Pick up the broken pieces,trust in His holy Word;He will put them back together, and make your life complete. Just place the broken pieces at the Saviours feet.'