Hope . ( Psalm 43 )

I read this by Herbert Lockyer as regards not knowing,on a  personal level, he is commenting on the words from Psalm 43,the Psalm was written by David who was experiencing real difficulties,he is praying,and he asked God,'why had He rejected him? '.Here are those comments by H.L 'it may appear as if God has rejected us,but we must never mistake our fears for actualities.Permitting mysterious trials to overtake us.God can best expound their design to us.'David  throws these desponded thoughts off,he speaks to himself,v 5'Why my soul, are you downcast?Why so disturbed within me?. He was giving himself a good talking too,yes things are bad, but that is not the end  of the story,  God has not rejected me,so he utters these words,words not just spoken to himself but to all God's children,' Put your hope in God',it has with it a sense of waiting for God to act. These words are written for the child of God ,those who know Christ as Saviour, our relationship with God,means we can have confidence in our God  to help us and bring us through our trials. There is a song written by  K.L.Suffield ,here are the words.

                                       ' God is still on the throne and He will remember His own.

                                        Though Trials may press us,and burdens distress us;

                                        He never will leave us alone,His promise is true He will forsake His own,

                                                               God is still on the throne.' 

He can. ( Psalm 46 )

 At this time when Russia has invaded Ukraine many people are saying,'I can't believe this has happened', what they are actually saying,they don't understand why Russia has done this. I cast my mind back to the 20th century,and its unbelievable that there where so many conflicts. Millions and millions  of people died, ,why?,because it seems that its part of our human nature to be violent. What Russia has done should not surprise us,we would like to think that mankind has become too civilised to start a war, but alas our idea that humanity is getting better and better, is a vain dream, a deluded dream.As long as we live, wars will continue to hunt humanity,nothing can stop it.well no human can.God is Sovereign not man, I  want you to read these  words from Psalm 46 v 9- 10 carefully and prayerfully,

                                       'He makes wars to cease, to the ends of the earth.

                                       He breaks the bow,and shatters the spear;

                                       He burns the shields  with fire.

                                       He says,'Be still, and know that I am God;

                                       I will be exalted among the nations,

                                       I will be exalted in the earth.'

                                       The Lord Almighty is with us;

                                       the God of Jacob is our fortress.

What is an Evangelical? ( 2 Peter 1 v 21)

 Diarmaid MacCulloch writing in his book on Thomas Cromwell says that in the early stage of the English Reformation the adherents of the reformation did not use the term 'Protestant', but rather the term ,'Evangelical'. I think I prefer that, rather than the term ,'Protestant'. because the word Protestant,has lost its original meaning.In Northern Ireland ,Protestant may simply mean you are not a Roman Catholic it does not mean one is a Christian. So when I say that I am an Evangelical,what does that mean? the cry of the reformation was,'Scripture alone', and Faith alone'. Scripture alone means, that one only accepts that the only bases of ones faith is the Bible, and that any other authority will be rejected.One adheres to the fundamental doctrines of Christianity,and believes in the inerrancy of the Bible. Here is a quote by, A.A.Hodge.' The   Scriptures  in their entirety are the Word of God, free from any error which might be caused by human admixture'.Next we believe the Bible is the inspired Word of God,'the Scriptures we are told are said to be God breathed; that holy men spake from God as they were moved by the Holy Spirit ( E.J.Young). So it is the only authority that the Christian accepts ,as being true,and by which  we judge everything ,our doctrines ,our behaviour, all things, there must be no compromise on this,if we do we are on a slippery  slope that will take us into error.

                                                  Every part of Scripture is God-breathed.

                                                                2 Timothy 3 v 16.

God's answer. ( Isaiah 53 )

 I was sitting in what we call our living room,and I heard a loud thumbing sound,I jumped up  to investigate, my brother in law who lives with us,had  slipped down a few steps of our stairs, fortunately he didn't hurt himself. I jokingly said to him ,be careful  you know what happened to Jack and Jill (A nursery rhyme),they went up a hill, they both fell down ,but Jack came off the worse, for he broke his crown.It is easy to fall and really hurt oneself. Now look all the wrong things in the world,wars and rumors of wars , there is so much evil in this world, so much,it is very very sad.The question is why?,why?,why?, yes and why again?.the answer is very simple,two innocent people did an awful thing,they sinned,and that was the start of something awful, human kind had a great, great fall.It brought spiritual death upon us,our relationship with God everything was drastically changed.We see how drastic it was when we see the extreme lengths God had to go to,in order that we might be saved.

                                             On a hill far away stood an old rugged cross,

                                            the emblem of suffering and shame;

                                            and I love that old cross where the dearest and best

                                            For a world of lost sinners was slain.

He can. ( Psalm 23 )

Augustus Herman Franke(1662- 1727) ,wrote of a time when he was in utmost extremity financially,but as he thought on God's greatness,his heart was strengthened in faith. He wrote,'What an excellent thing it is when we have nothing, and can rely upon nothing, but yet are acquainted with the living God,who made heaven and earth , and place our confidence alone in Him, which enables us to be so tranquil even in necessity!.He tell how he needed money that day to pay the workmen's wages ,but when he got home he was told there was no money there,but he declared that he had faith in God to meet the need. No sooner had he uttered these words someone arrived with 30 dollars from an unknown source.He asked the overseer how much was needed,he replied 30 dollars'.I read this in Herbert Lockyer's book in the Psalms,one is greatly strengthened in ones faith when we read these things, for the God who met the need of that person can meet the need of anyone of His children,for we read.' My God will meet all your needs according to the  riches of his glory in Christ Jesus' ( Philippians 4 v 19 )

Secret sins ( Numbers 32 v 23 )

 Psalm 19  has a very instructive message ,it highlights 3 things,some call it a ,'A Psalm of Three Books', the three things are,' Creation ,Scripture,and Man'. In verse 12 , we have David writing,'Forgive  my hidden faults',another translation puts it,'cleansed from secret faults'. These are sins we commit which we don't want anybody else to know about, sins we seek to conceal. Examples are Achan  (Joshua 7) Gehazi (2Kings 5), King David (2  Samuel 11), Judas( John 12). All these people  committed sins they sought to conceal.They were deliberate acts ,they were not committed in ignorance, but with a brazenness that was disgraceful. Everyone of them did not take God into account,nor its consequences, but everyone of them was found out. The word of God tells us of something we can be sure about, and its this, that our sins will find us out. ( Numbers 32 v 23)There are no secrets from God, and those so called secret sins, will be dealt with,in judgement, unless we confess them to God  and have them forgiven. Remember there is no hiding place from God, He sees all, hears all, knows all,and will judge all.

Accepted. ( Luke 15 v 11 - 32 )

 I like football and when I was young I even played in a team,and supported a local team,now I follow a Premier league side.Over these last few years  they have struggled and have been disappointing in their performances ,one feels like not watching them, but of course I will. There is a bigger lesson to be learnt from this, when  I consider myself, and it goes without saying I'm far from being   perfect, when I was  young I trusted the Saviour, but I went away from Him, but praise be to God He didn't give up on me. When we read the history of Israel, my they blew it so many times, yes time after time, after time, but in spite of their dreadful history God never get up on them. In one of my daily readings, the writer told of an experience while he was on holiday ,as he was sitting reading his Bible, a young man approached him and his wife,he was nervous, and he spoke to them and said he had been in prison,he went on to ask,'' Do you think that God really cares about people like me?''. They assured him He did,and then he said ,''I wish my parents would forgive me to''.Very sad ,I prayed for him that he might feel loved and accepted by our wonderful Saviour, and that his parents may forgive him and accept him.