One morning recently I had a bit of a scare,I was in my car and I came to a junction,but there was a problem, people park their cars in such a way, that one cannot see if it is safe to get out.Well I thought it was clear for me to pull out,and I was just about to do it,when a car zoomed by in front of me,if I had gone out a few seconds earlier,I would have been involved in a serious accident.should I put it down to luck?,or chance?, no,I put it down to Gods providence, I believe He held me back so that an accident didn't happen.While a lot of people are blind to this , I'm not, I believe in God's sovereignty, it means God rules, and overrules in an all the affairs of my life,and in His providence watches over me, His child .I have been driving a long time ,yes I have had accidents,but no harm has befallen me,is that because I am the perfect driver? no it is obvious I'm not, but I have been in God's providence a protected driver. oh yes I don't know what the future holds,but I know my times are in His hands (Psalm 31 v15 )
' Plagues and deaths around me fly;
Till He bids,I cannot die;
Not a single shaft can hit,
Till the God of love sees fit'
Words John Ryland
A friend told me of a preacher he knew called Billy Richard,whom God wonderfully used,he started with a church with just four people,and it grew ,and it grew to a church with four hundred people.He had a visiting preacher from America who ministered in his church,When he was leaving ,Billy accompanied him to where the ship was to take him home.Before he left he said to Billy should come to America to minister God's word ,but Billy said no,as he felt that it was not where God wanted him to be,but the preacher was very persistent, but to no avail. Finally in his efforts to change his mind,he said,''think of all the money you will make'',Billy looked at him and said,'' I feel like saying your money perish with you''.( Acts 8 v 20) It seems so obvious to me that a minister of God should not be in the ministry for money/,like the so called prosperity preachers.One of the qualifications of someone who is a leader in the Church of God was ,'not to be a lover of money'(1 Timothy 3 v3,/ Titus 1 v 7. 1 Peter 5 v 2) . God may bless a minister with money that's fine, let me add this ,the church is not to keep the minister poor, some churches actually believe that,well they are wrong .( Luke 10 v 7 / 1 Corinthians 9 v 13 - 14 ).
'No Christian minister, or Christian,
should be a lover of money'.
Nothing in some sense does not change, Spurgeon wrote,'Faith must embrace doctrinal truth. To the suggestion that the time would come when preaching the doctrines of grace would be passe, (No longer fashionable,out of date, obsolete) He responded,''Out on ye ,traitors, who tell us that we care to shape our gospel to suit this enlightened nineteenth century!Out on ye, falsehearts, who would have us tone down the everlasting truth that shall out live the sun,and moon, and stars, to suit your boasted culture,which is but vanished ignorance!'' It's the same in the 21st century many want us to tone down the question of sin,of hell,creation,the substitutionary death of Christ on the cross,there are those who teach that we do not go to heaven when we die( Seemingly it had a degree of popularity at one time,but died a death,it should have stayed dead. Peter writing on the scriptures says,''You must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophets own interpretation of things. For prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit'' (2 Peter 1 v 20 -21). This means the Old and New testament,I get tired of hearing people say that the,' Old Testament', is not important,we just need the New Testament ,or that they dismiss what the apostle Paul writes ,by saying it is just Paul speaking, that's wrong ,for what Paul wrote is the word of God. E.J.Young writes, 'The Bible itself is the Word of God,it is not only a pointer to revelation; it is revelation.'
'In this wonderful Bible we are told a most
glorious truth,which a little children's song
tells us 'Jesus loves me this I know for the
Bible tells me so.'
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Tale of the unexpected, we were visiting our youngest son and family,during our visit,my wife told us she could not find her car key,she was not a happy bunny,and although we hunted everywhere,we could not find that key,of course I prayed.It appeared that our son would take us home in his car to collect the spare key,and then drive back,a round journey of 200 miles. But the story did not end there, I decided to look in my son's car,and loo and behold,there it was ,it must have slipped out of my wife's pocket .What a relief ,I give thanks to God,and wife breathed a sigh of relief ,and of course so did I. People cry over many things they have lost,but I wonder how many cry over their lost estate?,and of course in case you didn't know ,that's very ,very serious.Today my wife and I will be flying to Belfast to attend my older brothers wife's funeral. she was a lovely person, when I attend a funeral ,or speak at a funeral whoever it may be,I stress the importance of being ready, it is sad that in spite of everyone knowing that they are going to die,very few are ready for what await them after death,to say the least,it is utterly fool Hardy,to ignore the importance of knowing Jesus as their Saviour, dying a lost soul,takes one to a lost eternity.
'Where will you spend eternity?
This question comes to you and me!
Tell me, what shall your answer be?
Where will you spend eternity?
Repent, and believe this very hour,
Trust in the Saviour's grace and power;
Then shall your joyous answer be,
Saved through a long eternity!
Words E.A,Hoffman.
I met a young man recently, he told me about himself,he had his own business,employed over 60 people, the business had a turnover of about 10 million pound.I asked him what car he had,it was a Bentley, a car worth about 147.000 pounds,he had a partner and a child,he was taking his partner to Venice,where he will propose to her. He was young and healthy and I suppose one could say he had everything,well not quite,he didn't know the Saviour, although he had been baptised as a child,that does not save one ,knowing Christ as your own and personal Saviour does. The following scriptures Luke 18 v18ff,and Matthew 19 v 16ff,and Mark 10 v 17ff, tells us of a rich young ruler who came to Jesus who wanted to know what he could do to to inherit eternal life.Jesus challenged his preconceptions.The man also named certain commandments which he kept,what more could he do?.Well it can be easy keeping the letter of the law ,but what about the spirit of the law that's different.( Matthew 5 v 27 ff).This is what Jesus hit on,our Lord knew that he was a rich man,and the challenge that Jesus brought to this young man was the answer to his inquiry ,as regards inheriting eternal life. Here is what the challenge was ,'Go ,sell everything you have and give to the poor... then come and follow me'.Sadly he could not rise to the challenge, and he went away sad,to him his love for his wealth,was more than his love for Jesus. Jesus demands that from all who want, what that young man wanted, He will not play second fiddle, unless we love Him most of all,the road to eternal glory is firmly shut.
'My God is so big so strong and so mighty,there's nothing my God cannot do'. These words are from a children's chorus and of course they are true, but the question is this, do we believe it? If one has in any measure studied the universe ,one can be so overwhelmed by its vastness, God spoke all things into existence that's how great He is.Consider planet earth, in contrast to this vast universe, we are minute,we are but a pin prick in size. Yet although that is true ,in this pin prick we call earth, there is a complexity and variety of living things that is mind blowing,The Bible says about the human body it is fearfully and wonderfully made,and yet we are made out of dust,by a great God. The words of a hymn sums it all up, ' How great Thou art', yes He is awesome, in so many ways when it comes to describe God's greatness,I am lost for words.This pin prick world is really important to God,and every living creature in it, contrary to what many people think,it is His world ,and He will not be robbed of it. Sin has effected this planet ,we human beings brought the virus we call sin into Gods's world.So God had a plan a great plan,he will make a new heaven and a new earth,free from sin.We can be part of it if we trust Jesus as our Saviour and enter into a wonderful future, that our Great God has for us.
