Freedom . (John 3 v 16 )

 I was on holiday and I noticed a painting,it showed two hands grasping prison bars,and imposed on the painting  in large letters one word,'Freedom. When I think of  Easter that is one of the things comes to mind , in John 8 v36 Jesus declared, 'If the Son sets you free,you will be free indeed' .It is in Isaiah 61 v1-3,the promised Messiah would proclaim liberty to the captives'.The natural man is not a free man we are all to some extent slaves of sin. The wonderful news is, through Christ we can be set free,Jesus can break the power of sin in our lives.Next we can be set free from the guilt of sin,guilt is a heavy burden to bear ,yes we will always feel a degree of sadness for the things we have done,but the moment we receive Christ, God will forgives us, as one writer puts it,'we do not need to let shame and guilt control us, rather we can embrace forgiveness and our identity and worth in Christ;.Next Easter can mean we can receive freedom from fear of death,of eternal punishment,in our unsaved state we should fear Gods eternal judgement,Luke 12 v5 reads,'but I tell you whom to fear;Fear Him who, after your body has been killed, has authority .Next to throw you into hell,yes ,I tell you fear Him'. Next Easter gives us freedom from uncertainty,the Lord Jesus foretold clearly that He would rise from the dead, and He did, CP Mark 8 v21/ Matthew 17 v22/ Luke v 9 V22.In John 11 v25 we read these wonderful assuring words 'Jesus said ,''I am the resurrection and the life.The one who believes in me will live, even though they die''.

                                                          'There is freedom in Jesus'

The greatest miracle. ( Ephesians 2 v 1 -10 )

It was Dr Johnson who after seeing a castle and its greatness,remarked grimily,' These are the things which make it difficult to die',  It is possible that there are people who never give any thought of God through out their whole life.They are born ,they live,they die, and that's it, I once worked with a psychologist,a very well educated person and a nice man,who had never been to church and had no thoughts as regards God.There are multitudes like him, God is not even in their thoughts,they don't appear to be curious of things outside their bubble. But bubbles are very fragile things ,and when their bubble bursts what then?.It is said that many people are seeking the meaning of existence,but would the many accept the answer if they were told it?, I doubt it. Salvation is not about intelligence , as we are born we are all spiritually blind,we cannot comprehend spiritual things,1 Corinthians 2 v14, tells us clearly that the natural man cannot accept that the things of the Spirit, they are foolish to them. All unsaved people are born spiritually dead ,it takes a miracle of grace to change them, Ephesians 2 v 8 tells us,' For it is by grace are you saved, through faith-and this is not from yourselves,it is the gift of God'. There are people who talk a lot about miracles in relation to sickness,I do not rule out such things,but the greatest of miracles is the salvation of a sinner,everyone who trusts Christ has experienced a miracle of grace. When I preach the Gospel my greatest desire is to see a miracle,when I witness in the street likewise.

                                            'Dear God you who would have all men to be saved,

                                            may you in your mercy,bless our witness ,show us a 

                                            miracle of salvation ,by your grace in Jesus name

                                                                        Amen.'

                                            

                                            

 

Worthy the Lamb. ( Revelation 5 )

Recently my wife and I visited Chartwell which was once the home and estate of Winston Churchill,but is now owned and run by the,' National Trust'.There is much one could say about Winston,the things he said,and the things he did.He came from a certain class of people ,from the aristocracy who were held in high social rank. He loved to paint ,he did it for his own pleasure,he never sought to cash in on it.His mother was an American Jennie Jerome,she married Lord Randolph Churchill,they were people of their time,and didn't get to involved in bringing up their children. There was a lovely painting of Winston's wife  Clementine, someone mentioned her lovely hands,and some smart Alec,said ,'that's because she never washed the dishes or pealed the potatoes'. I  bowed my head in shame,as if.Most people admire and respect Winston for so many things,he is one of the most important people in the 20th century,for his stand against evil.As a Christian I believe the most important person in all of history was Jesus Christ,the uniqueness of His being,the Son of God, truly God and truly man.in all His weakness He accomplished the  work of salvation,in doing this He humbled Himself and became obedient unto death ,even death on a Cross.When He cried on the cross,'it is finished',a cry of horror must have been heard in the darkness of hell,and a cry of anguish from that repulsive being Satan.And in the courts of heaven angels cried out,

                                                    'Worthy is the Lamb,who was slain,

                                                     to receive power and wealth and 

                                                     wisdom and strength and honour

                                                      and glory and praise.'( Revelation5 v 12)

Strange ideas. ( Luke 11 v 4- 5 )

 Psalm 90 was written by Moses, it emphasises the transience of humanity, v10 ,Michael  Wilcock writes ,'We may say readily enough that we believe God is eternal,but we need to be reminded repeatedly  that our life in this world is not.. For every advance in medical or environmental technology helps to reinforce the illusion that it could be.It is easy to snigger at the the maudlin death-bed scenes of Victorian fiction , but  as someone once said( the modern world has forgotten who),'Blessed are those who mourn. Every death is a little undermining of humanity's pride in this respect' Yes life is brief like the falling of a leaf, ,not  many people think about God,many funeral services have no religious  content in them ,they can take the body away and bring it back in a container, no frills or fuss.They fail to realise or care, if God is cut out of ones life ,in time ,they will be cut out in eternity.We have a choice ,we can accept God's way  now,instead of being refused entry into heaven later.People have strange ideas about the after life ,I sought to witness to a man,I asked him was he a Christian?,he replied that he was a Catholic ,well I said one can .be a Catholic and not be a Christian,and you can be a Protestant and not be a Christian. Then he said something else, he said he saw his mother who had died,when he saw a robin sitting on a fence,he really believed that.I will tell you something else very strange,many people think that they are going to heaven ,even though they have not accepted Christ as their Saviour. Strange but not true,God's word teaches us clearly that  we need Christ to escape hell ,and to enter heaven,oh yes there is a heaven and there is a hell.

Prayer ( Romans 12 v1 - 2 )

 I read this recently,'A famous writer once said there are really only two useful prayers;'Thank you,thank you,thank you', and , 'Help me,help me, help me'.I am not sure what he means by useful prayers,I recently prayed that prayer,  In 1 Thessalonians 5 v 17- 18 we read,'Pray continually,give thanks in all circumstances;for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus'.There are three  things involved in this verse, 'Prayer,giving thanks,and the will of God'. I'm sure I don't have to tell you  the importance of prayer,but how important it is?, but what about praying continually,or without ceasing, now that's a big challenge but you may ask what can we pray about continually?.I am not going to rattle off a lot of things for you to pray about. I am not talking about a legal thing, but having a spirit of prayer.The next thing is that of giving thanks in all circumstances,John Stott points out,'We cannot of course thank God'for all circumstances', including those which our evil and displeasing to Him\;but we can and should thank Him in all circumstances'or whatever happens'. Last but not least the reason we should do these things,because it is the will of God,the will of God is of great importance,and vital in our relationship with our God.

                                                                      'Dear God'

                                                     'Help us to grow in our prayer life,

                                                     Help us to be thankful people,

                                                     Help us, that our lives in all things 

                                                     may  be conformed to Your perfect will'

                                                     

Ruthless Trust.( Habakkuk 3 v 17 -19 )

 Psalm 88 is a very sad prayer,it is titled ,'A psalm of the sons of Korah',so we don't know who it was who actually wrote it. He is pouring out his heart to God continually,his troubles are overwhelming,he feels he is under a death sentence,cut off from God,and that he is under His wrath,He feels that God has taken away his friends,and they are repulsed by him.There seems no escape from his suffering,and he reasons with God how pointless it all is; In spite of that he continues to cry unto God,yet feeling it is all in vain,his troubles has engulfed him,and he ends by saying,'darkness is my closest friend'. What can we learn from this mans prayer as regards his suffering?The first thought that comes to me is,that some things hath to be borne,and that there is no getting away from them,no matter how much we pray.Every day in this fallen world many of Gods dear children are suffering,and dying horrible deaths In spite all that this man was   going  through he still hung unto God,It was Job who said,' Should we accept only good things from the hand of God and never anything bad'( Job 2 v 10)Yes it is true,bad things do happen to the most godly people,the hymn writer wrote,'Every joy or trial ,falleth from above',but then he goes unto to say,'We may trust Him fully,all for us to do. They who trust Him wholly find Him wholly true'. There is a book called,'Ruthless Trust',what does that mean?,here is the words uttered by a man who suffered greatly,his name was Job,'Though He slay me.yet will I trust Him', that's ruthless trust.

We have a choice. ( Acts 16 v31 )

 I was with a friend and he spoke about a certain minister who he said was a very nice person, and that he could give a wonderful gospel message. That's wonderful,  yet he is advocating that we should accept the moral stance of the world as regards sex and gender. It is vital that we are true to the gospel ,true to Biblical doctrines, but it is wrong to compromise on Gods moral values, I stress God's moral  values.we need not to be surprised that the non-Christians accepts practices that are  not in keeping with God's moral values. In fact they are classed as being sinful, the cross on which Jesus died,was a sacrifice for sin.It tells us a number of things,first, how serious God views sin, He does not look kindly on sin of any  description.  One may be a nice person,but we are all sinners,and sin creates a great gulf between us and God. One can choose to ignore that  and rationalise that we are only human and that God will understand, the simple answer is ,He won't.In the Bible which is God's word we are told in no uncertain terms,what sin is and it's consequences, we can refuse to accept that. God has given all of us a choice,it is important that we make the right choice.Let me point you to the cross on which Christ died, it tells us that  we can be forgiven ,that means we cannot hold unto our sins,we must have them forgiven by trusting Jesus,and forsaking them.

                                                 'Wounded for me,wounded for me'

                                                 There on the cross He was wounded

                                                  me,gone my transgressions now I am 

                                                  free,all because Jesus was wounded for 

                                                   me'