Persecuted Christians. ( Hebrews 13 v 3 )

 Religious  persecution is not a new thing,why are people persecuted?,there are many reasons,one of them being,the belief that Christ is the only way to God.There are vast numbers of people who worship other god's.and Christians seek to evangelise them , and if  they leave their religion,they see their religion under attack.And when people in their family turn to Christ ,they are not very pleased,in fact they are very angry.,to the point to that even want to kill their children. Another reason is that many countries identify their religion with there country,and so to challenge to their religion , is seen as an attack on their country. Christians are being persecuted,and it can become relentless .So today let us all pray for our brothers and sisters who are suffering for Christ,a Pastor Avedian and wife who are serving long prison  sentences in Iran,there are also 120,000 Armenian Christians who have had to flee the land they lived in. Around 45,000 believers have been killed by Islamists since 2009 ,mainly in the North and Middle Belt of Nigeria.These are just some examples of suffering Christians, I an not advocating revolution, that's the last thing we want,no I am asking you to pray for them, to intercede for them,support those organisations that support our persecuted family.Our Saviour said to the early disciples,'I am sending you out like lambs among wolves'.(Luke 10 v3 )in some ways nothing has changed,Jesus told it as it was and how it would be . He said ,'In the world you will have tribulation', but then He adds.'but be of good cheer,I have overcome the world'.  (John 16 v 33)

The Messiah. (Isaiah 53 )

 1Corinthians 1 v 23 reads,'But we preach Christ crucified; a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to the Gentiles '. The Jews as most of us know believed in a coming Messiah,an anointed one who would set up an earthly kingdom,and would bring in a glorious era of peace,it is all featured around the Jews,he  would be a conqueror a liberator. There were many who claimed to be the Messiah at the time of Jesus but they were nationalistic .The Jews saw Jesus as the most damaging of the false Messiahs , a crucified Messiah was seen as ludicrous. The word Christ means anointed one,when Jesus read  from Isaiah 61 v1ff in His home towns synagogue ,the words ,'The Spirit of  the Lord is on me,because He has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor',He was claiming to be the Messiah.But he would not be the kind of Messiah the Jews thought or wanted,for it was not to set up an earthly kingdom,a Messiah not with sword but with the cross.John Stott writes ,The Romans regarded  crucifixion with horror ,so did the Jews ,though for a different reason'.They made no distinction between a tree and a cross, and so between a hanging or crucifixion, a person came under a curse  (Deut21v 23 ) The Jews could not bring themselves  to believe that God's Messiah would die under a curse,strung up on a tree'. None of it made sense to the Jews,for the Messiah they wanted  had nothing do with salvation,nothing to do with sin, The Christian glories in the cross because on that cross mankind's greatest need would be met,and our greatest  need is to have our sins forgiven,only through Christ and Christ alone ,can this happen.

                                                      'Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ

                                                       and you shall be saved'.

                                                               Acts 16 v31.

The Psalms ( Ephesians 5 v 19)

 I love the Psalms, I wonder how you would describe them?,I see them,' as the heart beat of man connecting with the heartbeat of God'. Often it is a man crying in desperation,to the only one who can help ,God, and how He responds,by delivering,comforting,and reassurance. Often the Psalmist is in a place where there is no one to help him ,and so he cries unto one who says ,'call upon me in the time of trouble and I will deliver you'. God is faithful and will come to aid his children.He lifts his gaze toward Him who cannot fail,will not fail,the one who never fails. He looks up and sees Gods handy work and His glory  the one who made all things(Ps 121),as he speaks of the heavens declaring that glory.A voice that can be heard every day.so we could go on and on,And in those wonderful Psalms we have Christ in so many ways proclaimed and especially His death and resurrection.I leave you with by far the best  known Psalm, don't let familiarity rob you of the  preciousness of it .

                                                               Psalm 23

                                    The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want

                                    He makes me to lie down un green pastures;

                                    He leads me beside the still waters,He restores my soul,

                                    He leads me in the paths of righteousness for His name sake.

                                    Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,

                                    I will fear no evil; for You are with me;

                                    Your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

                                   You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;

                                    You anoint my head with oil;My cup runs over,

                                    Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life;

                                    And I will dwell in the house of the Lord Forever.

                                    

                                     

                                            

Amazing.( Romans 11 v33-36 )

 I am just home from visiting a dear friend, who is older than me by 10years,we talked about different things, before I leave him I usually read the word of God and pray.Today I read from Romans 8,there are tremendous truths within that chapter,let me highlight some of them. .It begins by telling us.'Therefore ,there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus',the 'therefore points them back  to the truths he has covered ,in other words in the light what they have read ,something has happened that brought them into a position of forgiveness, freedom,and peace with God , that means they have been accepted by God through faith in Jesus.It's truly amazing what God  has accomplished  through the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.  And its amazing that he brought a man called  Saul,who became Paul ,into His kingdom, who became the greatest of the apostles, a man of untiring zeal in his missionary activities activities, God would use him to bring  countless numbers into the kingdom.  .A man who wrote those wonderful epistles ,explaining the wonders of the gospel ,God used him revealing to him ,the scope of the gospel that it was for all,for all are sinners,and all need a Saviour, the Jew could no longer be considered an elites group,they were sinners like everyone else,what Paul desired for the Jews was that they might be saved,for they were  on a par with the gentiles and they all needed to be born again .The middle wall of partition had been broken down,now the gentiles were fellow citizens with God's people,No longer Jew or gentile,slave or free,male or female,we are all one in Christ Jesus,that means we are Abraham's  seed  and  heirs according to the promise. When you consider the wonders of the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ,it takes ones breath away.                                                                                                                                                          

Be an example ( 1 Timothy 4 v12 )

 I looked down at the floor in my living room, and I noticed something very,very small, it turned out to be  a very ,very small spider ,it was minute.So small ,so insignificant.The thought struck me,God created it, why? I don't know,he didn't consult me.On the serious side , God's creation  is awe inspiring, in Zechariah 4 v 10 we read,'Who dares to despise the day of small things',When I was born ,a neighbour cried when she saw how small I was,one day a father saw his friend smiling at his new born baby , and he asked him ,what he was smiling at,his friend answered,'the child is so little', The father replied,''he's little- but he will grow''.Someone has said,'In every child there are infinite possibilities for good and ill'.Remember if you are a parent,a Sunday school teacher,or whatever,remember your influence,your input can make a great difference,to that child ,you have  contact with.As Christians we can influence them for Christ by our example,a young child spoke to a missionary ,and asked him',are you Jesus?.' Let us remember that our dear Saviour ,not only influenced people by what He said,He also influenced people by His example,and I am sure the mothers and the children would always remember the famous Rabbi who unlike the disciples who showed a bad example and how He took the children in His arms and blessed them.(Mark 13 -16 )

Without God ( Psalm 124)

Thomas A Kempis wrote,'There is no holiness,if you withdraw your hand .  No wisdom is of any use,if you no longer guide it. No strength can avail if you do not preserve it. No purity is safe if you do not protect it, No watchfulness on our part can affect anything unless your holy vigilance is present with us.If you abandon us ,we sink and perish;but if you come to us we are raised up and we live'. Consider the three tenses,'Past,Present,and Future'.Lets consider the past when we knew not Christ as our Saviour, it took  the grace of God to open our minds eyes to the fact that there was nothing we can do to save ourselves,yes absolutely nothing.The word of God tells us ,'For it is by grace you have been saved,through faith- and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God, not by works,so no one can boast.  (Ephesians 2 v8- 9). Now the present,our dependence on God has not ceased,for our Saviour tells us that without Him we can do nothing (John 15 v 5)We are not to be independent builders as Psalm 127  tells us, 'Unless the Lord builds the house,the builders labour in vain'. Next the future,it can be a bit frightening and overwhelming, all will be well as long we rely upon the  Lord,and we discover that He will bring us through to our desired destination.,heaven and home.

He made no reply. ( 1 Peter 2 v23)

Sometimes I get angry  ,especially if anyone hurts someone  I love,I remember years ago when a neighbour acted unkindly to one of our children  ,and my then wife became angry with her.That was it, no that Sunday as a family we went to go to church, there she was waiting and called us all sorts of things thankfully we didn't respond,we just went on our way.I know that was the best way ,it would be easy to retaliate, word for word.I have done it sometimes but it doesn't help. Spurgeon wrote the following,'Calm assurance answers some questions infinitely more conclusively than the loftiest eloquence.. The best apologists for Christianity in the early days were  its martyrs,The anvil breaks  a host of hammers by quietly bearing the blow'. It is Isaiah  writing prophetically of our Saviours suffering wrote,'He was oppressed and afflicted, yet He did not open His mouth,it says the same words again (53 v7)What an awesome example he left us,when we are unfairly treated,or when we are being persecuted, it  is contrary to the natural man,Our Saviour said ,'Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth'.(Matthew 5 v 5), and so they will.