A raging war!

(Luke 12:5) “…Yes, I tell you, fear him!”

We have been warned to fear God for He is a consuming fire, and anybody who says they are not scared of fire is a liar. Who has ever seen anyone but a fool not show fire the respect it demands. And it was not the Caveman that invented fire, the early nomad may well have discovered it, but it was God who invented fire! If we by nature respect fire, how much more should we fear and respect the only true God? Man has a tendency, in fact it is a judgment from God to serve the creature rather than the creator; “For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. (Romans 1:21-23): - That which has been created may have the power to destroy the body, but it is only God who has the power to sentence a soul to eternal death, a never ending sentence in hell, where there will be a wailing and gnashing of teeth.

“"I tell you, my friends, do not fear those who kill the body, and after that have nothing more that they can do. But I will warn you whom to fear: fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him!” (Luke 12:4-5)

With that said let us consider the pros and cons of sin in a believer’s life. I suppose it is both relief and heartache to understand that we as saints, children of God those who have been born of the Spirit understand that we have this evil tendency within us to be drawn away by sin. We carry with us this “body of death”! Even Paul made this statement; “Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 3:12-14): - Perfection speaks of Christ, sin speaks of imperfection and Paul acknowledges that he was still a work in progress.   

“But I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.” (Romans 7:23): - And it was our great Saviour the Lord Jesus that taught us; “and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.” (Matthew 6:12)   

It therefore is obvious that as Christians sin plays its part in our lives. What is a man to do? Well it is obvious a person must never become complacent with ones sin! We must always seek out God’s grace to put to death the sin of our bodies. I confess that I am particularly weak in this area and ask you to pray for me, so that I too can echo the words of Paul on a daily basis; “but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own.” I am a selfish individual who bears the scar of disobedience in my body. This is not a confession to excuse my sin but rather a plea to God and to my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ as I ask for your help through prayer, so that my life would in turn begin to honour and glorify our God. We have been instructed by the Apostle James; “Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.” (James 5:16)

We must continue to fight against the sin in our lives, as we have been commanded to put off the old man, in other words to kill the sin that remains active in our lives. If this is not our resolution we may find ourselves standing before this awesome God as a consuming fire; “For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.” (Romans 8:13) - And – “Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these the wrath of God is coming.” (Colossians 3:5-6)

These instructions from our heavenly Father are not optional but we are at war and we must learn to act like good soldiers, we must learn to fight and to kill.

Signing off

Tyrone

Much of these thoughts and references were taken from John Pipers book “A Godward Life”.

  

Child-like Faith!

(Matthew 9:29) "According to your faith be it done to you."

I am learning, although rather slowly, but with absolute certainty to be grateful for God’s faithfulness in my life. When we ask with intent we most certainly receive! Just as we are taught by God’s Word. Assumptions must be classed as an enemy of the cross. What then is an assumption? Something that is believed to be true without proof and it carries with it a certain amount of guess work, “will I or wont I”? James is very specific with his teaching; it is the prayer of the faithful that we must follow and learn in like manner to imitate their example with even a greater zeal than the day before. God our Father has so established this truth for all of His children and He beckons all to come unto Him, in and through this wonderful Redeemer of ours, the one and only Lord Jesus Christ, praise His name and again I say Praise His glorious name!

Last night was a night of troublesome dreams; deception the theme, and therefore I woke with a heavy heart, feeling somewhat troubled. Instinctively I had a need to call out to God for help, and I could say “low and behold” but that statement would reflect doubt. No! Rather faithfully God poured out a measure of His grace to my troublesome heart as I cried out to Him, praise His name! I now sit with a peace upon my heart that surpasses all understanding. Why? I believed that I would be heard as I was heard and God in His mercy abundantly pour out a measure of grace as my initial mourning has now turned to joy, thank you Father God. Your love is never ending and for it I am ever thankful. Ask and we shall receive, is not a probability but rather a certainty. So long as what we ask for is fused with faith.

“…The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.” (James 5:16)

It is not as if we in ourselves through our own merits could ever qualify us as a righteous person, we had been made righteous through the shed blood of the lamb, through our great Saviours accomplishments on Calvary and nothing else. He has sanctified us! It is when we learn to believe this truth that we begin to walk by faith. We may all say we believe, but if we have doubt then we are double minded and unstable in all our ways. We are volatile Christians tossed to and fro by ever wind of doctrine. Elijah believed God and so when he prayed that it would not rain it didn’t and when he prayed for it the rain came down. There was no supposition to his prayer! He asked in faith and He received by faith!

Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness sake. Even Rahab the harlot believed the report of who God was to be true and she was saved while those around her perished. The time for over-thinking must be placed on the back-burner and we must in simple child-like faith trust God’s Word, and call out to Him in simple faith.

Remember the Roman centurion…

“When he entered Capernaum, a centurion came forward to him, appealing to him, "Lord, my servant is lying paralyzed at home, suffering terribly." And he said to him, "I will come and heal him." But the centurion replied, "Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof, but only say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I too am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. And I say to one, 'Go,' and he goes, and to another, 'Come,' and he comes, and to my servant, 'Do this,' and he does it." When Jesus heard this, he marveled and said to those who followed him, "Truly, I tell you, with no one in Israel have I found such faith. I tell you, many will come from east and west and recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, while the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth."” (Matthew 8:5-12)

When the Lord Jesus teachers us as children to ask and with it makes a promise that we will receive, or if we seek we shall find and finally when we knock the door will be open to us, there are no if’s attached to what He says. We by now should understand that whatever we ask for must be in accordance with God’s will, for when it is we will most certainly receive that which we ask. God has declared it and it will come to pass! Will we believe the Lord’s teaching on the subject, believe it we must or our lives will be no different to the ostrich that continuously looks to place its head in the sand.

Simple child-like faith is my cry, please Father! Help all your children believe and increase the measure to our faith daily, Amen!

O Lord how I (we) need thee.

Signing off

Tyrone

Our Ever Conquering King!

(Psalm 73:24-26) “My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.”

It is that time of the year again where I see many holiday goers reading books, but not many; in fact no one that I have notice has been reading the Bible, in public anyway.

When I consider the greatest of all Books, the Bible, I must conclude that although the book in itself is unadulterated and full of Godly wisdom, it is not the book that changes a person but paragraphs from it. Portions of text jump out at us and in its season, it is life changing. There is no greater book on the planet! And it is the Bible that we must look to devour with all our hearts. I would say read only the Bible, but then I would be speaking in contradictions as I pen a blog and hope people read it. However the purpose I have in writing is to point people to the Word of God and nothing else and hopefully a portion of what is penned, under the unction of the Holy Spirit jumps out and changes a life forever.

We all see through a glass darkly and only know in part, but my prayer would be that I end my days as a man that bleeds bible, a man that is always looking for direction from God’s Word and not from the opinions of men. I will accept the fact that I have often been very shallow in understanding when considering certain topics, but we all grow in knowledge and in faith, it is a process. The objective for life is to know the difference between man-centered moralizing and God-centered meanings behind the Word of God. It must help us understand our great Saviour with purpose. The Lord Jesus is the Word of God!

To be a man or woman that would leave a legacy behind as that of John Bunyan; C.H.Spurgeon had this to say about him; “prick him anywhere, and you will find that his blood is bibline.” If any Christian book does not bleed the bible it is of no value. The bible is a never-ending fountain of life, but it is the verse or paragraph that one is encapsulated by under the power of the greatest of teachers, God the Holy Spirit that changes lives as it takes us into a deeper meaningful relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ, bless and praise His name now and forever more! All we need is a seed from it to germinate, take root and before long we are eating from the abundance of its fruit, not only do we feed ourselves but those we come into contact with also enjoy their palatable nourishments.

John Piper puts it like this, “God is most magnified in us when we are most satisfied in Him.” There is nothing capable of robbing us from this truth, and it is a paragraph from the bible that teachers us this; “For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:38-39): - But until this these verses become our own, what help will they be to us if they fall on deaf ears? However if it becomes a reality in our lives, what could ever hinder our love for our great Lord and Master? As the text teachers nothing will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Father God I pray that we would fall more in love with the darling of heaven, our great and merciful Saviour, open our eyes I pray that He would burn bright and clear and that the cares of this world would grow strangely dim. More of Christ, much more of Him! My pray then goes out to you my great Saviour as I know you would be saying much more of my Father, help us to embrace our God with open arms and to pay Him due benevolence, He is so worthy, Hallowed be His name and His will be done! “You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will receive me to glory. Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.” (Psalm 73:24-26)

Remember when we embrace the Word of God we embrace the Lord Jesus.  

Signing off

Tyrone

Our Seasons!

(Ecclesiastes 3:4) “A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;”

One if the hardest virtues to master would have to be self-control. We understand that it is impossible to master in the flesh as we are slaves to sin as a dead man. The flesh is a body of death and therefore if we continue to look to it for victory we will continue to fail. Self-control is a fruit of the Spirit and must be exercise by and through the Spirit. We must embrace Christ if we are to achieve self-control with any consistency.

I am weak in this area of my life but then again there is room for vast improvement in many areas. To fall in love with Jesus so that my love for Him would be sweeter than the day before should be a given and yet we are emotional beings with so many pressing issues that look to deprive us of our entitlement, which is to love the Lord our God with all our minds, souls and strength.

We can measure our commitment to this truth and this is how we know where we stand in this regard; “But may all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you; may those who love your salvation say continually, "Great is the LORD!" (Psalm 40:16): - Are we continually thankful for what we have received? Is there a smile on our face and a spring in our step? All the great men of God had their seasons when it came to the joy of the Lord, look at Jeremiah the prophet and how he felt abandoned, not that God would ever forsake one of His own; “I am the man who has seen affliction under the rod of his wrath; he has driven and brought me into darkness without any light; surely against me he turns his hand again and again the whole day long. He has made my flesh and my skin waste away; he has broken my bones; he has besieged and enveloped me with bitterness and tribulation; he has made me dwell in darkness like the dead of long ago. He has walled me about so that I cannot escape; he has made my chains heavy; though I call and cry for help, he shuts out my prayer; " (Lamentations 3:1-8): - He was a man full of depression and yet he realized that his hope was to be found in no one else, but the Lord; “But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. "The LORD is my portion," says my soul, "therefore I will hope in him." The LORD is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him. It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD. It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth. Let him sit alone in silence when it is laid on him; let him put his mouth in the dust-- there may yet be hope; let him give his cheek to the one who strikes, and let him be filled with insults. For the Lord will not cast off forever, but, though he cause grief, he will have compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love; for he does not willingly afflict or grieve the children of men. To crush underfoot all the prisoners of the earth, to deny a man justice in the presence of the Most High, to subvert a man in his lawsuit, the Lord does not approve. Who has spoken and it came to pass, unless the Lord has commanded it? Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that good and bad come? Why should a living man complain, a man, about the punishment of his sins? Let us test and examine our ways, and return to the LORD! Let us lift up our hearts and hands to God in heaven: (Lamentations 3:22-41)

So much of our life and the sorrow of it is because of so many bad choices and yet our great saviour, the Lord Jesus is just a cry away. Call we must and we must now always learn to rest in His finished work. There is nothing or no one He hasn’t conquered! And yet we also understand that there is a time for all emotions to play their part in our lives; “a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;” (Ecclesiastes 3:4): - Nevertheless through it all we must as John Piper says always looking for joy in the Lord, regardless of our current circumstance. God give us the insight to embrace His love with all we have regardless of our current emotional state.

Signing off

Tyrone

Abhor that which is Evil!

(Romans 12:9) “Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good.”

A question came up last night around a meal, what is sin? We all had much to say about what we thought sin was and from there specific sins were examined. Before we run off on some goose chase nitpicking, singling out the sins of others and excusing our own. We have now understood that as God’s children when we ask we most certainly receive; “Ask and we shall receive”, this is very apt when we sin as we ask for forgiveness and then receive it. This is a daily exercise or should be!

Suppositions about this question needs to be shelved and we need to find answers from God’s Word the Bible, what and how does God view sin? It must also be the way we learn to view it; “Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good.” (Romans 12:9)

Love can be measured on how we abhor that which is evil and how we hold fast to that which is good. Sin is everything that God is not! It is evil, as it looks to oppose God who is good. In fact it took an ultimate sacrifice from God through the death of His only begotten Son to allow God to once again accept sinful men and woman back into his holy presence. Sin caused separation between God and man! There is nothing that the Lord  detests more than sin. Sin has now been dealt a final blow; “But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.” (Hebrews 10:12-14)   

Sin therefore has in God’s economy been dealt with once and for all, although it still plays its part in this world, as we see that which is evil often unjustly victorious, but this will only last for a time as sin and all that opposes God will eventually be made Christ’s footstool. The work of the cross has far reaching considerations that we have yet to discover. However, what I am persuaded about is that it is a complete and perfect work, nothing can be added to it and nothing can be taken from it, even though sin continues to nag away in the lives of believers, it does not and never will change the fact that Jesus Christ our Lord has defeated Satan, sin and the final enemy death. The work is finished! God the Father is well satisfied and proved it by the resurrection of His Son.

Now as Christians we need to Abhor what is evil and cling to what is good, and yet we have a tendency to want to cling to what is evil because of these bodies of death that persistently look to avoid that which is good. We know that it is impossible to please God in the flesh and it must be understood in order to battle away with any precision! Our minds are where the battle begins, it is where we process the information we receive; “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.” (Romans 7:25)

Sin is everything that opposes God’s law! We can see the fruit of sin which is manifest as it plays out its part in actions. If we are carnal and walk as we once did prior to salvation, with no regard for the Spirit of God then the fruit to our lives will be obvious not only to ourselves but to those around us. On the other hand if we walk by and in the Spirit we will be those who cling to that which is good and abhor that which is evil. Why? Because God abhors that which is evil, we then would want to please Him, and therefore walk obediently before our Holy Father.

Finally can sin be measured? I suppose that would be true; the test to see how we fit into being obedient children would be measured by the fruit we produce.

With that said if we are led by the Spirit we are no longer under the law as they once were, praise the name of Jesus now and forever more! However the works of the flesh are easily seen; “Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. (Galatians 5:19-21): - these then are the fruits to all that which is evil and we must not only avoid them but abhor (detest, loathe and despise) them!

The only way we will every achieve this goal is if we walk by the Spirit; “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.” (Galatians 5:22-25): - And these are the fruits we must cling to because they are good!

Signing off

Tyrone

    

Come!

(Matthew 11:28) “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”

This verse just blows my mind it has phenomenal depth to it. In this day and age we have received such a lifeline, as Christ beckons us to come. Stop and consider that for just a minute and then once it has resonated consider the walk of those under the law.

The cry to the Christian is a gentle word, “come” but the Jewish law harshly said “take care" and if they were to break their covenant they would surely perish. The law a hard task master driving them to obedience or else! But the gospel, the good news of our great Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ draws and pulls at the heartstrings with bands of love. As Spurgeon puts it the law repels but the Gospel attracts. The law shows the vast distance between God and man and yet the gospel is able to bridge that gap, praise the name of Jesus! He removed that chasm and brings the sinner across the gap. Something the law could never do!

“From the first moment of your spiritual life until you are ushered into glory, the language of Christ to you will be, “Come, come unto me.” As a mother puts out her finger to her little child and woos it to walk by saying, “Come,” even so does Jesus. He will always be ahead of you, bidding you follow him as the soldier follows his captain. He will always go before you to pave your way, and clear your path, and you shall hear his animating voice calling you after him all through life; while in the solemn hour of death, his sweet words with which he shall usher you into the heavenly world shall be-”Come, ye blessed of my Father.”

Nay, further, this is not only Christ’s cry to you, but, if you be a believer, this is your cry to Christ-”Come! come!” You will be longing for his second advent; you will be saying, “Come quickly, even so come Lord Jesus.” You will be panting for nearer and closer communion with him. As his voice to you is “Come,” your response to him will be, “Come, Lord, and abide with me. Come, and occupy alone the throne of my heart; reign there without a rival, and consecrate me entirely to thy service.”” (Charles Spurgeon)

This once again confirms that when we ask we will receive and when we knock the door will be opened unto us. The more we begin to ask the more we recognize the faithfulness of our Saviour. Not that there could ever be any doubt to His faithfulness, but when we begin to hold His hand as it were our fellowship is even sweeter than the day before. As I sit on the beach and watch the couples pass by, those who walk hand in hand seem a little more energetic, there is a glint in their eye, it may well be that the relationship is fresh and new, but their joy is hard to miss. Come and walk with me, hand in hand beckons our Lord and Saviour, He will not turn one away, but we must come in faith believing God to be faithful to His Word. Have you ever lost someone in a crowd seeking them out with due benevolence, our eyes go from person to person scanning out the lost target. We must seek to find! With it comes a promise; if we seek out our Lord and Saviour, the darling of heaven, our darling, we will find Him, we will then ask of Him and we will receive. He owns the cattle on a thousand hills, all good things belong to Him, He is capable and yet even more, He is willing to give to those who love Him, to those willing to submit to His final authority. He beckons us to come!

Christ delights to look on His church and on her beauty; He delights in giving the members His love, even so Come is His plea!

Father God help us to walk by faith and not by sight as we in the natural understand it, Amen!

Signing off

Tyrone

To swim with the stream!

(John 14:27) “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you.”

The Lord Jesus said to Saul; “it is hard to kick against the pricks”, in other words it is very hard to swim upstream when a torrent of water is flowing against the swimmer, it is near impossible. It is the same for us who have been called, when we try and find wiggle room we find life becoming very uncomfortable. The lesson is to obey and not to resist and yet because we carry with us these bodied of death there always seems to be some form of resistance. However when we realize our mistake we should like Saul, be diligent to change.

Here is his very first encounter with the Lord Jesus; “And Saul, yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went unto the high priest, And desired of him letters to Damascus to the synagogues, that if he found any of this way, whether they were men or women, he might bring them bound unto Jerusalem. And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus: and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven: And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks. And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? And the Lord said unto him…” (Acts 9:1-5)

A couple of considerations to reflect on…

We found mention made of Saul two or three times in the story of Stephen. He was born in Tarsus, a city of Cilicia, a free city of the Romans, and himself a freeman of that city. His father and mother were both native Jews; therefore he calls himself a Hebrew of the Hebrews; he was of the tribe of Benjamin, which adhered to Judah. He really believed he was doing the work of God and yet in ignorance he was an enemy of the cross. How much of our lives are also enemies of the cross? We will have to all independently give an account for the way we live our lives and I suppose we will make our own decisions; no one can make them for us. Paul was living his own life and with such zeal that no one could stand in his way, until he met the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. It was like that for all of us somewhere in time passed. The day we came face to face with our Saviour, our lives changed dramatically, we were transported from death into the Spiritual realm of life. We were blind but now we see!

But my concern for my own life and the life of others that are close to me is somewhere along the way so many seem to lose their way. And yet, all our bad decisions send us into a tailspin, so many bad choices get us to kick against the pricks. At the end of the day all our kicking will be futile and amount to nothing but wood hay and stubble. O to be like Paul and to cry; “And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?”  It seems to be a completely different response, to Lord, what can I get away with!

It is not about the dos and don’ts of life we are no longer under law but under grace, the law should no longer have its hold on us. It is about our obedience to our great God; to “present our bodies a living sacrifice”. We are new creatures in Christ! We have been called to a specific function no differently to a hand working as a hand in unity with one’s body. We have all been given a specific gift, not that we should now be obsessed with our gift but rather faithful to the Lord and the gift will make way for itself.

“Do not neglect the gift that God has given you” means; be faithful to God as we become more dependent upon him from day to day and not more self dependant. If it is a gift of teaching that one has received then that individual will study to be approved. He will spend time seeking out doctrinal truths. But if that is at the exclusion of seeking direction from God the Holy Spirit, how will that help him and others? It will be man-centered and not God-centered. There is away we need to function as new creatures in Christ and that is clearly seen in this portion of scripture; God first in every decision and with every thought before we act. Or at least acknowledging this to be the way we should respond to this wonderful gift of salvation. It was God who first loved us; it was never the other way round. We now are instructed to return the favour by laying down our lives which is proof that we love Him; “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” (Matthew 6:21)

Why is it that I so often tend to be topical on this exact point? Because we carry with us bodies of death, which will by default always look to go in the opposite direction to the call that God has placed on our lives and so we need to be reminded about their persistent rebellion and often.

God help us to love you more as the days go by, we will be able to measure our love in that sense, and we will find you all the more often through sweet fellowship when we seek you out; “I love them that love me; and those that seek me early shall find me.” (Proverbs 8:17)

The sooner we realize to get on with what God has called us to do the happier will be in Him. Peace will be our banner!

Signing off

Tyrone     

Avoid death but preach Life!

(Titus 3:9) “But have nothing to do with foolish questionings, and lists of generations, and fights and arguments about the law; for they are of no profit and foolish.”

 

It is over this time of the year that we probably spend more time with loved one than any other time throughout the year. Many of them are not saved and yet we have been called to be the salt of the earth, to let our beacons shine bright and clear. It may well be the last time we see some of them, let us pray to God our Father to give us an urgency to point them in the direction of the cross, many may say they believe but if examined it is obvious they do not believe. We have a responsibility to carry our cross and to lay down our lives so that others may take note and that Christ may be glorified. There is something about family gatherings that brings the worst out of some people. But we are the salt of the earth; let us seek grace to be exactly that. Even though a prophet is without honour amongst his own; “And they were bitter against him. But Jesus said to them, A prophet is nowhere without honour but in his country and among his family.” (Matthew 13:57): - It is for that exact reason that we need to spend more time on our knees before our Holy Father seeking out His grace to help in time of need.

We see our uncles and aunts and even grandparents, this may well be the last time they spend the holidays with us. They may soon pass from life to death, a scary but very real thought. We need an urgency to be stirred up within us; life may very well depend upon it. Not that we are able to save, but faith comes from hearing and hearing the Word of God, which gives us life and adds to our faith. We must proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ and with accuracy. Address each straw man independently if one has to but never lose sight of the simplicity of the Gospel; Jesus cams from heaven, leaving behind His heavenly authority and from a boy grew up into a man. His objective to live a life on earth amongst sinners and yet never to be influence by sin, never once to fall prey to it! Remarkable but very true! Training up men to carry His legacy, to proclaim the good news to the ends of the world teaching all men to repent and believe on HIM. Believe what? That He died for sinners and that God the Father raised Him from the dead. He alone came to pay the price for our sin, these truths He will not share with any other and why should He, as it was Christ alone who died and suffered a cruel death on that Roman cross. He alone defeated the devil and his beguiling sin; it was not Mohammad, Buddha, the pope or even the Virgin Mary who achieve what He alone could achieve. This must be evident in what we preach and when we witness; Christ paid the price for sin, so what will the individual do with this? The questions we must always present is this; has Christ died for your sins and if so what will you do about it, make it personal and avoid general objections about others. Get people to realize and examine their own sin.

God chooses who will be saved, in fact that has long been established in his foreknowledge, but we are not God and have no idea how involved His plan actually is, let us therefore leave that domain to our great God and Father, we must preach to all as if it will be there last breath, for it may very well be and there will be no reruns to life.

God please place urgency upon us to be more zealous in preaching the gospel to others. We are the salt of the earth and if it loses its flavour, how then will we be of any use? We won’t be!

“Let your talk be with grace, mixed with salt, so that you may be able to give an answer to everyone.” (Colossians 4:6) 

That answer is the simplicity of the gospel; Christ and Him crucified! We must avoid vain and foolish arguments for all they will do is lead o more ungodliness; “But have nothing to do with foolish questionings, and lists of generations, and fights and arguments about the law; for they are of no profit and foolish.” (Titus 3:9) 

Signing off

Tyrone

Salt of the Earth!

(Colossians 4:6)  “Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.”

What an amazing privilege to carry the surname “Saint”! Every child of God who has been born of the Spirit, all who have been born again carry that name. No longer do we respond to sinner, yes there will still be sin that needs to be dealt with on an individual and personal level but that has nothing to do with Christ's perfect work, we once were sinners but are all now saints. We may well sin from day to day but the price has been paid in full, praise the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. We are numbered amongst God’s army that is if we have His Spirit and of a certainty we belong to Him; we are in one of two camps; we either have His protection or we don’t. Remember the children of Israel when God sent the angel of death to kill all the firstborn sons throughout Egypt; unless they had blood on their doors they would not have escaped God’s judgment. Picture the scene, would you image the angel of death stopping at each individual door to have a debate on whether or not to carry out God’s sentence. Absolutely not! If there was no blood on the lintel death for every firstborn son was imminent, no discussion and no debate!

We have Christ’s Spirit if God has called us and we have responded to that call. Let us now not debate how that happens but rather has it happened. Do you believe in your heart that God has raised Jesus from the death and if so do you now make it a habit to confess Jesus as Lord is His blood evident in your life, is it clears for all to see that the Lord Jesus Christ’s blood has washed you clean? If so the angel of death has and must continue to pass us by!  

To be counted amongst the righteous is almost unconceivable and yet it is true. What manner of love is this that we should be called the sons of God! How great is the only true God, Jehovah God, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob? He is our God, One and the same! Thank you Father God for sending you’re only begotten Son to pay the price for my sin and for the sins of all your children.

I speak to my brothers in Christ as the day passes by and yet I do not see this realization as the most evident part of my day. There is not a day that goes by, where we do not talk Christianity but where is the fire, where is the salt to our conversation? Forgive us Father, change the way we view salvation I pray!

Where is the zeal that once burnt bright and clear? If God is for us who can be against us? Why then is it not evident in conversation. How I long for that day when I will be like Jesus Christ my Lord. The day when I hear “well done my good and faithful servant enter into your rest”. So many distractions, and yet there is no excuse, we understand that the Lord Jesus laid down His life even unto death. Make the Apostles Paul’s persuasion become ours I pray; “But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ.” (Philippians 3:7-8): - Deep down we all know it will be worth it all, but we are still so weak, strengthen our faith I pray. Help us become the salt of the earth! How much salt is enough?

“Salt without prescribing how much.”

- Ezr_7:22

“Salt was used in every offering made by fire unto the Lord, and from its preserving and purifying properties it was the grateful emblem of divine grace in the soul. It is worthy of our attentive regard that, when Artaxerxes gave salt to Ezra the priest, he set no limit to the quantity, and we may be quite certain that when the King of kings distributes grace among his royal priesthood, the supply is not cut short by him. Often are we straitened in ourselves, but never in the Lord. He who chooses to gather much manna will find that he may have as much as he desires. There is no such famine in Jerusalem that the citizens should eat their bread by weight and drink their water by measure. Some things in the economy of grace are measured; for instance our vinegar and gall are given us with such exactness that we never have a single drop too much, but of the salt of grace no stint is made, “Ask what thou wilt and it shall be given unto thee.” Parents need to lock up the fruit cupboard, and the sweet jars, but there is no need to keep the salt-box under lock and key, for few children will eat too greedily from that. A man may have too much money, or too much honour, but he cannot have too much grace. When Jeshurun waxed fat in the flesh, he kicked against God, but there is no fear of a man’s becoming too full of grace: a plethora of grace is impossible. More wealth brings more care, but more grace brings more joy. Increased wisdom is increased sorrow, but abundance of the Spirit is fulness of joy. Believer, go to the throne for a large supply of heavenly salt. It will season thine afflictions, which are unsavoury without salt; it will preserve thy heart which corrupts if salt be absent, and it will kill thy sins even as salt kills reptiles. Thou needest much; seek much, and have much.” (Charles Spurgeon)

Signing off

Tyrone

The Body of Death!

Our bodies and our carnal minds are so ferocious and yet we try our utmost to excuse them. There is no real struggle is we choose to live a lukewarm Christian life, but when we look to put the body under the battle is intense. It is important that we understand how it operates and that it is a body of death and can never be anything else. If we believe it to be any different we will continue to walk in circles with our understanding clouded. Give the carnal mind any latitude and watch it do the most amazing acrobatics. It will be such a show stopper that we may even find ourselves applauding.

Do we realize what it took Paul to make this statement; “But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.” (1Corinthians 9:27): - I cannot make a similar statement when I reflect on my life. However now that which is passed is conceded, I want by the grace of God to rectify my mistakes and press towards the mark of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus my Lord. I do not want to make the same mistakes!

What then did Paul have to endure, was it not a constant battle of the sinful nature, of the flesh looking to oppose the law of God. On what grounds can I make such a catastrophic statement? We are all sold under sin, there is none righteous no not one! Sin caused death to reign in our mortal bodies. It is when we begin to believe that once we have been saved that we somehow hope we are now nice people and no longer subject to the enslavement of sin, which is true! However it is not the flesh that now gives us power to overcome but God’s Spirit.

I understand that I may be repeating myself, but it is crucial we understand the fundamentals when it comes to the warfare between the flesh and the Spirit. Only of late have I been reminded of the pain we must suffer in the flesh when looking to put to death the deeds of the flesh by the Spirit.

To be a near perfect example as Paul seemed to be it will cost us our lives in the flesh, it will be a life full of tears and sorrow and yet hope will overshadow it all. This is what Paul went through; “Are they servants of Christ? I am a better one--I am talking like a madman--with far greater labors, far more imprisonments, with countless beatings, and often near death. Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. And, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches.” (2Corinthians 11:23-28)

If we are serious about our great God’s call upon our lives it will cost us, yet it will be worth it all, do not let the acrobatics of your flesh, “lust and pride” win the day but rather cleave to the promises of God for they are sure and true!

Let us not be surprised with how we so often as Christians have the wrong thoughts or react in the wrong way, it will continue to happen until the day we die, we carry with us this body of death. It is what we now do with the evil it looks to generate that counts; “For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.” (Romans 7:22-25)

We must always look to be doing the right thing according to God’s law as it is a delightful set of ordinances. Yet we will always have our carnal natures resisting God’s law and looking for an easy out. We must now flee to the living waters to find substance in time of need, we must learn to approach the throne room of Grace constantly, and that is 24/7 if we are to walk obediently before our righteous Father. Never think it strange when an unwelcomed thought seems to appear out of the blue, it will and must happen as we carry with us this body of death.

We all have the opportunity to put this body with all its sinful tendencies under, but there is no other way to achieve this, but by suffering; we must arm our minds with this truth; “Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking, for whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, so as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for human passions but for the will of God.” (1Peter 4:1-2)

It is often the misunderstanding of this warfare between the flesh and the spirit which leads to us often stumbling.

Signing off

Tyrone

    

   

O people, pour out your heart before Him!

(Psalm 62:7-8) “On God rests my salvation and my glory; my mighty rock, my refuge is God. Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your heart before him; God is a refuge for us. Selah”

“In God is my salvation and my glory. Where our salvation is there our glory is; for what is our salvation but the glory to be revealed, the eternal weight of glory? And there our glorying must be. In God let us boast all the day long. “The rock of my strength (that is, my strong rock, on which I build my hopes and stay myself) and my refuge, to which I flee for shelter when I am pursued, is in God, and in him only. I have no other to flee to, no other to trust to; the more I think of it the better satisfied I am in the choice I have made.” Thus does he delight himself in the Lord, and then ride upon the high places of the earth, Isa_58:14.” (Matthew Henry)

How is it we should ever put our trust in uncertain riches and yet so many do. We may claim to be amongst the number that does not trust in unsure riches but is that really the truth, do we honestly share David’s sentiment? I long to be more like our brother David! Do we hear the echo’s of God’s voice ringing true to our ears; “he is a man after my own heart?” Father please I pray make me more like David and even more like my great Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ. Help all your children across the globe, that are still running the race, embrace you with due benevolence. If we embrace, help us embrace tighter still! “Fill my eye oh my God with the vision of a cross” is my cry and I pray the same for all who have your Spirit. It seems so easy to get lost in translation in this world, forgive me Lord! How I long for that glorious day when I will see you face to face.

I sit in the still of the night and I too echo the words of my brother John Newton; “Amazing grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me.” It is almost unconceivable and yet it is true, how great is my God and his mercies beyond finding out! This thought even now is sweeter than honey in the rock, bless your glorious name sweet Jesus; without your obedience and your willingness to die on that cruel Roman cross I would be like a dumb ostrich with my head in the sand, but now I have eyes that can see and for this I am truly grateful! When I gaze into the beauty of the vast sea and the fruitful mountain range I stand in awe when I see your creation and it cause me to cry out, “how great is my God!” Many will attribute creation to some other god or choose to worship the creation not acknowledging the creator.

My lips will proclaim and declare that Jesus is Lord and I acknowledge Him as the Word of God, the method used for all of  creation, bless His name!

Magnificent Holy Father what would be my destination if you did not love? Hell and all its torment would be just on the horizon awaiting my last breathe. I struggle to convey with words how thankful I am, but I have been given a glimpse of what it meant for you to send your Son to die for me on Calvary. THANK YOU FATHER GOD!

When we ask we do receive, I now knock and look for this great door to now open in my life like never before, Lord Jesus a pray for a portion of your obedience, help me live a more obedient life bringing glory to our great Father! He alone is worthy, so worthy and I feel so undeserving. I understand that I have been saved by grace through faith which is not of works lest any man should boast and that it is a gift of God. I have nevertheless been instructed by Paul to present my body a living sacrifice and I ask for you to help me with this request. Awaken those parts which sleep, give me eyes to see and ears to pay attention as each day passes me by.

Yes I have made many mistakes, but let those mistakes grow strangely dim and help the light that once shined bright and clear to once again shine, bringing glory to my great Father and to your Holy name, Amen!

You are forever faithful help me walk by faith, heaven is just on the horizon I can almost see it!

“Heaven is a place where we shall never sin; where we shall cease our constant watch against an indefatigable enemy, because there will be no tempter to ensnare our feet. There the wicked cease from troubling, and the weary are at rest. Heaven is the “undefiled inheritance”; it is the land of perfect holiness, and therefore of complete security. But do not the saints even on earth sometimes taste the joys of blissful security? The doctrine of God’s word is, that all who are in union with the Lamb are safe; that all the righteous shall hold on their way; that those who have committed their souls to the keeping of Christ shall find him a faithful and immutable preserver. Sustained by such a doctrine we can enjoy security even on earth; not that high and glorious security which renders us free from every slip, but that holy security which arises from the sure promise of Jesus that none who believe in him shall ever perish, but shall be with him where he is. Believer, let us often reflect with joy on the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints, and honour the faithfulness of our God by a holy confidence in him.

May our God bring home to you a sense of your safety in Christ Jesus! May he assure you that your name is graven on his hand; and whisper in your ear the promise, “Fear not, I am with thee.” Look upon him, the great Surety of the covenant, as faithful and true, and, therefore, bound and engaged to present you, the weakest of the family, with all the chosen race, before the throne of God; and in such a sweet contemplation you will drink the juice of the spiced wine of the Lord’s pomegranate, and taste the dainty fruits of Paradise. You will have an antepast of the enjoyments which ravish the souls of the perfect saints above, if you can believe with unstaggering faith that “faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it.” (Charles Spurgeon)

Signing off

Tyrone

Ask and we will receive!

(Psalm 62:2) “For God alone my soul waits in silence; from him comes my salvation.

He only is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be greatly shaken.”

When David’s psalm becomes our reality when we ask will receive, seek and we shall find, and finally knock and the door will be opened to us. Like we have all learnt to understand, the proof is in the pudding. When we ask, let it be with diligence and with sincerity and we will receive what we ask for. 

However our request must be in line with the Lord’s will, He must receive all the glory and we know that the Lord Jesus must be in the forefront of our minds when we ask. It is when we learn to ask in the name of the Lord that we will be heard, if we ask amiss we will not receive our request, as it discounts the work of Calvary. James puts it like this; “You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.” (James 4:2-3)

When we ask with the mind of Christ, how will we not be heard, it would be impossible! We must ask in faith, why? Because God has so ordain it for us to ask! We must never tempt God and test His Word to prove whether or not it will come to pass, is shall come to pass!

It is beautiful when we see our prayers being answered. Forgive me Father for this consideration; it is in itself evil; it speaks of surprise as if it is almost unbelievable. Surprise should be the furthers thought from our minds, God loves to bless his children, why else would He have sent His only begotten Son to pay the price for our sins, and that was when we were the enemies of the cross. Sinners and haters of God! We are now His children and are capable of crying “ABBA FATHER”, what a wonderful privilege!

We must ask in order to receive; the time to remain silent must be yesterday problem, today is the day of salvation, let us seize the day in Christ by asking our heavenly Father for blessings that makes us more like our glorious Saviour; this is the call for all who believe in their hearts that God rose Christ from the dead and for them who now confess Jesus as Lord.

It is when we learn to ask with purpose that our requests make us become more dependants on God and our beloved Saviour the Lord Jesus. This then helps us reach our final objective and that is to Glorify God even in our mortal bodies; we will become living epistles known and read by all men.

If we ask God to watch over us, He certainly will, if we pray that He sends his angels to look out for us on a dangerous journey, they certainly shall protect us and we will never beg bread!

On Friday morning I prayed to my heavenly Father in the name of Jesus Christ my Lord and asked Him to watch over us on our journey down to Plettenburg Bay; it was a simple prayer and went something like this; “Please Father watch over us on our travels and please send your angels to prepare the way, keeping us safe, and thank you for hearing my prayer, Amen!”

About 2 hours into our journey at around 4:15 am with the visibility still very poor with the sun still hidden below the horizon. The road was no longer a dual carriageway but had narrow into a single lane with a no barrier separating the oncoming traffic. The road although reasonably quite had its fair share or trucking, with Mongi in the passenger seat and Laverne, my sister in the back seat. I approached a blind rise and for no particular reason (some would conclude) felt myself sit up more astutely as I gave the corner more attention than I normally would. As I came around the corner a truck was overtaking another truck and I realised we were on a collision course, a head on accident imminent with certain death on the cards. However I felt an amazing calm flicked my lights vigorously and then move over onto the shoulder of the road as both trucks passed me. They had occupied the entire road as I now hugged the fringe.

Now some would conclude this as a coincidence, but I will not entertain such a wicked thought. I am thankful for the answer to my prayer, God did send his angels to watch over us and we were kept safe. I asked and I received, what would have happened if I had not asked, that is uncertain so let us deal with the facts. I did ask just as we have been instructed to do and I did receive. Why did I receive? Firstly, I believe that God would watch over us and my prayer was a prayer of faith, believing I would be heard. Secondly, God now receives all the glory as I thank Him for his mercy and his grace. Although we were the beneficiaries of His grace, He is the One would receives the glory, I cannot now claim that I missed the truck because I have great driving skill, I am now aware that I missed the truck because God had placed certain parameters in place to help us avoid the accident. My prayer was heard, I asked and I received, praise the mighty name of Jesus, all honour and glory belongs to our great God and our King now and forevermore, Amen!

We must learn to ask, so that we may be built up in faith; it is the just that shall live by faith!

Signing off

Tyrone

The decaying flesh!

My great Father and King how great is thy faithfulness and your mercies beyond searching out. To get a taste of your sweet grace is almost uncontainable. The body is not sure how to react but the soul finds absolute delight as it causes wells of living water to gush forth, and for this I am thankful. To be quickened in the Spirit is beyond containment in the flesh! The Spiritual realm is higher than the natural realm and God is the Father of spirits, in fact He is the Father of all. Even the evil entities in this universe have been ordained by God, yes they are responsible, yes they are guilty as charged but God has a specific place for them in helping us work out our salvation. We know that all things worked together for the good of those called by God. We sometimes forget to end off that sentence when we quote it to ourselves; it ends like this; according to His purpose!

Let no one convince you that God has nothing to do with all that is evil; He has allowed it to work its trickery but only for time. It is part of His ingenious plan and yet all had been subjected to His governing authority. But before I am misunderstood let me reiterate that God is good and that no evil thought is capable of ever contaminating God, He is perfect! Satan tried to achieve that when God the man, the Lord Jesus in the flesh was led away into the Wilderness to be tempted of the devil. He was led, or instructed if you prefer; get the idea?

And yet God has allowed evil to exist and run its course. Now what the carnal man looks to do is blame others and excuse himself, it is a byproduct of sin. However where we must not make our mistake is to misunderstand the role evil plays in the believer’s life. It is a tool used to conform us into the image of Christ. Not that we are to be evil but because of the evil we see and witness it is a reminder of how great God actually is, how holy, how righteous! It reminds us of our objective and that is to be more Christ minded. It is a reminder of what Christ overcame whilst on earth; He never once yielded to even one of those taunting temptations. He overcame sin and all its lures perfectly, praise His name! It is the enemy and we are at war!

It would be good for us to understand our enemy and where he likes to attack; every great leader always seemed to study his enemy, let us do the same. Who then is the enemy? Satan and all his demonic forces have their role to play but never forget this important truth, we in ourselves are the enemy, our flesh is corrupt and it is dead because of sin, and can never be anything different; “Let no one say when he is tempted, "I am being tempted by God," for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death. Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers.”(James 1:13-16): -  Some like to imagine that now because we have been saved our bodies which are decaying will somehow be patched up and begin to act in a different manner, it is impossible to please God in the flesh! For this very reason we need to be born again and that is a Spiritual birth, it has nothing to do with anything corrupt. It is impossible for you to sin in the Spirit, when we sin we sin through the flesh.

I have personally wrestled with this frustration for many years and it has eaten at me with great ferocity, the flesh can never attain to perfection, this does not however excuse our sin, we must strive for perfection just as our great heavenly Father is perfect; “You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Matthew 5:48)

The key to living in faith is not how many times we fall but rather when we fall we dust the dirt from our knees and we march on.

We need to arrive at this understanding and the Apostle Paul gives us great insight into the war between the flesh and the Spirit. It is impossible for the two to be reconciled no differently as if one was to try and integrate light with darkness; they cannot coexist in the same sphere. Flip a light switch and the darkness must flee! If we try and use the flesh with all its corruption and to try achieve spiritual height we will always fail. This then was my great dilemma for so many years; I was led to believe a lie! The truth is this we carry with us a body of death, our carnal natures remain with us even after salvation but we like to pretend that is no longer has any hold on us, which is a lie!

Ask yourself this question, after being saved have you ever sinned or had a thought that was unwelcome, the answer is obvious! The reason for this is the body of death! This is how Paul explains it; “So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.” (Romans 7:21-25): - He is not speaking of the man prior to salvation but refers to his dilemma after understanding salvation.   

Our natural capabilities will always fall short of the glory of God. For this very reason God sent His son to die for sinners. If it could be any other way, then Christ would have died in vain and yet He has set the captives free. Therefore we must now walk in the Spirit and we with not succumb to the trapping of sins and be slaves to it. We will fall, but faith then demands that we look heavenward as we call out for help to the only one who is capable of helping us, our great Saviour, our great God, praise the holy name of Jesus now and forever more!

If we purposely chose to reason with any other mindset we make God a liar and we know that there is no lie in our great God; “Let God be true and every man a liar!”

We must learn to depend on the finished work of Calvary and nothing else! Anything outside of that will lead us down into a dark ditch. God help us to always remember to put on the full armour of God and never to forget that this is done thru the Spirit and not the flesh.

Signing off

Tyrone

Holiday Time!

It is that time of the year, holiday time, where in years past I have dropped my guard and seen others do the same. It is when we are most vulnerable and this is why we need to be more attentive. This morning I leave for my year-end vacation, Plettenberg Bay my destination. Holidays seems to give us an excuse to go on leave even as Christians, I know that is a ridiculous thought in itself, but the mind loves to look for easy outs. We are Christians 24/7; this leaves us either walking obediently before our Holy Father or as disobedient children when we excuse what we normally wouldn’t.

A good thought to take with us on our break is this; “For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. While people are saying, "There is peace and security," then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape. But you are not in darkness, brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief. For you are all children of light, children of the day. We are not of the night or of the darkness. So then let us not sleep, as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, are drunk at night. But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation. For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1Thessolonians 5:2-9)  

May we remember that we have a great hope that is just on the horizon, but it is yet to arrive, let us therefore be zealous to attain to the resurrection and be the beacons of light we were called to be, wherever that may be, and not to run with the rest of the crowd but to be the salt of the earth. God help us we pray to grow more and more into our glorious Saviour image, Amen!

An encouraging thought as we venture off to our various destinations…

Thou hast a few names even in Sardis which have not defiled their garments; and they shall walk with me in white: for they are worthy.”- Rev_3:4

“We may understand this to refer to justification. “They shall walk in white”; that is, they shall enjoy a constant sense of their own justification by faith; they shall understand that the righteousness of Christ is imputed to them, that they have all been washed and made whiter than the newly-fallen snow.

Again, it refers to joy and gladness: for white robes were holiday dresses among the Jews. They who have not defiled their garments shall have their faces always bright; they shall understand what Solomon meant when he said “Go thy way, eat thy bread with joy, and drink thy wine with a merry heart. Let thy garments be always white, for God hath accepted thy works.” He who is accepted of God shall wear white garments of joy and gladness, while he walks in sweet communion with the Lord Jesus. Whence so many doubts, so much misery, and mourning? It is because so many believers defile their garments with sin and error, and hence they lose the joy of their salvation, and the comfortable fellowship of the Lord Jesus, they do not here below walk in white.

The promise also refers to walking in white before the throne of God. Those who have not defiled their garments here shall most certainly walk in white up yonder, where the white-robed hosts sing perpetual hallelujahs to the Most High. They shall possess joys inconceivable, happiness beyond a dream, bliss which imagination knoweth not, blessedness which even the stretch of desire hath not reached. The “undefiled in the way” shall have all this-not of merit, nor of works, but of grace. They shall walk with Christ in white, for he has made them “worthy.” In his sweet company they shall drink of the living fountains of waters.” (C.H.Spurgeon)

Let us rest well, for we may well deserve it, but let us ensure all that is done is concluded in the name of the Lord.

Signing off

Tyrone