Contentment?

(Jude 1:18) “They said to you, "In the last time there will be scoffers, following their own ungodly passions."

The Apostles, the forerunners of the faith have warned us of what we must be on the lookout for. This battle that we are part of is fierce and deadly and it will use whatever means it can in order to get us (God’s children) to walk in unbelief. Love will always warn us of all pressing dangers.

Judgment must begin at home, if the apostles have warned us that “in the last time,” and we are now in the year 2011, two thousand years after Jude actually penned this statement, we must conclude that the probability of scoffers being evident today is almost a banker. I must look into the mirror and ask myself am I a scoffer? Do I constantly run after my own ungodly passions? It is easy to be truthful in finding an answer to this enquiry, all I need examine is how much of my life do I lay down for others, is it all about me, or am I surrounded with an attitude of helping others in need. I will agree that we all could do more, but that is not the point. Do I serve the Lord Jesus for self gain or do I have His attitude, He laid down His life for His sheep, for if I have His Spirit then I must also bear His fruit. Can an apple tree bear thorns and thistles? In like manner a true repentant sinner will look to be more like the Lord Jesus. I also understand that we may make many mistakes along the way, of which I am chief, but there must come a time when God in His mercy begins to impart wisdom unto us in the areas we fail miserably. Wherever you may find yourself, remember you can always turn to the Lord Jesus, call out to Him and He will administer the perfect dosage of grace required. Our Father is ever wise, ever knowing and full of mercy. Repent and be free!

We can learn much from the Apostles; Paul through experience learnt to be content wherever He found Himself. (2Corinthians 12:10) “For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

Can we echo these words? Because our strength in Christ is found when we are confronted by calamities and the like, it is then that I am strong; it is then that I have no intellectual answer explaining my situation away, but I am dependant on the strength of the Spirit in me, to get me through the trail. Paul was not only willing to accept his position in Christ but he was content in it, are we? We should be, because when we show disgruntlement with or circumstance then we have not understood this principle. May God help us to find freedom in Him so that we will be effective members of His body, the church!

Signing off

Tyrone

Loves Warning!

(Luke 17:32) “Remember Lot's wife.”

Love is a trait full of warning; it must be if it will stand up to the true test. Let us consider an example, if you had knowledge about an event that only you were aware of and it was a certainty, what would you do? Hollywood has often used examples like this to illustrate a pending disaster, the C.I.A finds out that a bomb is about to go off in a certain city and they cannot save those in the city yet one of the agents family lives there. What will he do? He will warn them of the danger and advise them to get out and save themselves. He may not be able to go into the finer details about the bomb because of his pledge of secrecy to the government but as he has a son whom he loves with all his heart and would exchange his life for his without blinking an eyelid, he will warn him and get him to flee the city. Love will come to the rescue! It must if the love is sincere.

(John 3:16) “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have eternal life.”

Here we see that God knew that He would have to judge sin and therefore demonstrated His love, not with lip service, but by giving sinners an out by sending His only son, God in the flesh, to pay the price for sinners and yet He was without sin. There can be no greater example of love; this proves that God is love! All He requires now from sinners is for them to acknowledge their sin and understand that they are guilty as sinners and that God must judge sin and that the sinner’s sentence will be server, they will all be cast into the Lake of Fire (hell) for all eternity. The only way to escape that destiny is to repent and acknowledge your sin and ask God to forgive you for your sins, you must then understand that only through the Lord Jesus can you find forgiveness. There is no other way, no other god and no other formula one can apply to escape the findings of God. You must also believe that although the Lord died, on the third day he also rose again from the dead and this is why we who were once dead now live in Him. Do not worry too much about any formula that you must apply to find forgiveness, if you honestly fall to your knees and cry out unto the Lord to be saved, He will save you, He will not turn one away, for He is love! Having said that today is the day of salvation, but there will come a day when that offer will no longer be available to sinners, so I beg you to pay earnest attention to the seriousness of your pending decision. My friends, who have not yet bent the knee to the Lord Jesus, Richard, Brett, Trevor, Warren, Mike and Gavin time is still in your favour, but for how much longer, a judgment is coming, please take this decision seriously and do not put it off, act today!

How then do I use a verse like the one above to depict God’s love? Because God is love He will warn us of the potential imminent calamity that is on the horizon. Let us look at Lot’s example; I see a lot of us, my brothers in Christ falling prey to this decoy that the devil lures us with, I also am guilty of Lots mistake, but because we have been warned we must act accordingly, and turn form our error. Wisdom will cause us to act differently!

Lot believed God and acknowledged Him as the only true God, but the mistake He made when Abram asked him what land he wanted to occupy, he made a poor choice, he chose the land of Jordan that was well watered but it would come with a price as the city Sodom was there. The constant pull of sin through the lust of the eyes, and the lust of the flesh would be his wives downfall. This is why Luke tells us to remember Lot’s wife! We must be careful with all of life’s lollypops, they are designed to suck us in to the vortex of sin, be careful as carefulness it the first fruit of repentance. The more we have the more we stand to lose! Be content with what we have and give thanks for were we find ourselves, let us not strive for more, it may be our downfall, “Remember Lots wife.” Love has warned us; let us give it the attention it requires!

Signing off

Tyrone

Walk in the Spirit

(2Corinthians 10:3) “For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh…”

If only we understood the urgency Paul refers to when penning this statement;

“For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh (for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but mighty before God to the casting down of strongholds), casting down imaginations, and every high thing that is exalted against the knowledge of God, and bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ;” helping us to understand that life isn’t only about what we see, taste and handle, but rather about what Christ achieved on Calvary. By the grace of God I can say that I am convinced that whenever we try to find justification by what we do in the flesh, we have fallen prey to the enemy and his cunning devises. We have then taken our eyes off our Saviour and His accomplishments as we then place self justification on what we have done instead of what He has done. Do not get me wrong, James is very clear that faith without works is dead. Our faith must produce works; however we must not generate works from a platform of legalism but rather from a platform of grace as we fall more in love with our Saviour. We must not strive so that everything we do becomes a burden; it actually ends up crushing us and hinders our ability to bear fruit in the Spirit. I know this can get tricky to understand with clarity and we can often make the mistake of having begun in the spirit to now find justification through the flesh. Remember the Pharisees and how they learnt to manipulate the law so that they could live in the flesh with their hearts far from God and appear to be doing the right things before man, the Lord referred to them as hypocrites. (Matthew 23:13) “But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because ye shut the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye enter not in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering in to enter.” Pride will always be resisted by God.

Remember you stand or fall before God! Do not think because you find justification from men that you will be accepted by God. Only those who acknowledge the work of the cross and the Lord Jesus’ sacrifice will ultimately be justified by Him.

I am convinced that Paul understood the secret to walking in the spirit, it is there for all to see and I am also starting to understand the simplicity of it. We are multifaceted being and Satan uses our complexes against us. How, you may ask? He get us so caught up with life and all that goes with it, he makes us focus on our problems so that they become issues in our lives and when a concern has fully matured it will bring forth death. However when I remember what Christ accomplished on Calvary I then understand that…

(Romans 8:38-39) “For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Everything pivots on Jesus Christ our Lord, the devil understands this and will use our circumstances to get us to take our eyes off the Lord Jesus and on to our problems. This is where we so often fall prey to his exploits, if we knew what time the thief would break in and steel would we not make provision to catch him or keep him out, we surely would! If we now understand how we so often return to the weak and beggarly element in our lives and take our eyes off our beloved Saviour, then maybe we must approach life from a different direction. God the Holy Spirit will lead us into all truth and He does this by using the Word of God, the bible!

Why do you think Paul with all his accolades in the flesh chose to disregard all of them as he boldly declares that everything else in live besides the Lord Jesus and His death counts for very little. (1Corinthians 2:2) “For I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.”

What it means to walk in the spirit as opposed to walking in the flesh is rather a simple application, so effortless in fact that we often miss it! WE MUST TAKE OUR EYES OF OURSELVES AND LOOK AT THE LORD JESUS! Fall in love with Him, think about what He achieved while on the earth, thing about all He had to go through and remember that He did it for you and me. What a great Saviour, He who has begun a good work in you will see it through unto the end. Do you believe this, I do and I am thankful that my name has been called, are you?

I will leave you with a chorus we use to sing when I was newly saved and it is remarkably apt; “turn your eyes upon Jesus and the things of the world will grow strangely dim.” Remember this and walk in the spirit making melody in your heart and praising God!

Signing off

Tyrone

God For Us!

(Romans 8:31) “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us?”

When I consider what makes me tick, what drives me to do the things I do, I realize that I am constantly beating myself up as I lack the ability to be more Christ like on a daily basis. Some days are better than others, but they are never consistently the same. I accuse a lot more than I excuse. I appreciate that it must be this way in the context of on-going sanctification; our thrust must be to lay down our lives so that Christ may be formed in us. I just wonder how much of that driving force is from the flesh and not in the power of the spirit. If I really understood what it meant for the Lord Jesus to free me from sin and death, would I live the life I now lived? So many of us get caught up with the beggarly weakness of life as we run with the masses and are driven by all the same goals unbeliever clutch too.

May God help us be more like the saints of old, might we be willing to wander in sheep’s clothing, homeless and in the Wilderness if need be. I am not suggesting that we look for extra trials; life has enough to contend with! It is our perceptions to life that worries me, family and friends alike all seem to be caught up with the same mundane drive of life, work education, and death cover. What about all the great examples that God chose to show us through His Word, the Bible! We look at the great faith chapter and we see the praises the writer gives to His people, Rahab the harlot, Samson is also mention and what about a man named Jephthah who sacrificed his daughter for the cause of God. When these great warriors of God are mentioned, often I hear people highlighting their faults, but when I read God’s faith chapter I see Him praising them. What have you done for God lately? I ask that question to provoke you, not to push you into your shell and to be filled with worldly sorrow that leads to death, but rather to urge you to be great for God, to walk in His victory, to remember what He was willing to do for all of His siblings. If Christ laid down His life for us, then it could never be unreasonable for God our Father to ask us to present our bodies unto Him so that He may shape and mold us into the image of His beloved Son, the One who pleased His father well! We must begin to believe that He is for us and not against us. HE IS, FOR US! When we begin to raison d'être correctly we will see the things of this world growing strangely dim as the hope of heaven begins to grow into something so beautiful, that we will be willing to lay down our lives and not be so caught up with conforming to this world. For the day is soon approaching were we will stand shoulder to shoulder with Samson, Rahab and Jepthah in the New Jerusalem, Do you believe this? I certainly do! I will however confess that when people look at my life and my ensample do they really say without doubt that they can see that I believe this? Does my daily life speak of Christ and my hope? I know I am found wanting in many areas, having said that though, I will press toward the mark of the high calling which can only be found in Jesus Christ my Lord. Although I have made many mistakes and I will continue to make mistakes, I will forget all that is behind me, yet I will above all remember that if my God is for me, who then can be against me. Praise His glorious name!

“What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us?”

Signing off

Tyrone.

Life in the Spirit

(Romans 8:13) “For if ye live after the flesh, ye must die; but if by the Spirit ye put to death the deeds of the body, ye shall live.”

This verse is so importance that it should grip our hearts and bring about a change in our everyday lives. Yet if we do not acknowledge the destructiveness of the flesh and we somehow feel that we are immune to its disparaging power, then I think we cannot understand salvation and therefore may think we are saved when in fact we are not!

This war between the spirit and the flesh will continue until we put off our flesh, death will be sweet in that regard as the constant battle between these two enemies would have run its course. Death will have its reward! Having said that, when we breathe our last, then we can no longer find reparation for the mistakes we have made by seeking God’s face and finding repentance. It is a beautiful privilege to be able to call upon our God and ask for forgiveness when we have stayed from the truth and we no longer walk in the spirit but are slaves to the flesh. The flesh can only produce death; the danger of finding justification through the flesh is a constant skirmish we must always be aware of. We must put to death the deeds of the flesh by walking in the spirit and when this becomes a way of life, then we will have peace with God, and we will live.

So while we still breathe may we make it our lifetime goal to master the art of walking in the spirit. It can only ever be done through the work of Calvary and only after we have received Christ spirit at salvation. The one thing I struggle with most in my life is the consistency of applying this instruction from Paul to my life. I seem to be like a yo-yo at times and forget what it cost the Lord to free me from the bondage of sin and death. I am in constant repentance and have to often call upon my heavenly Father and ask Him to forgive me. How thankful I am that when we fail, he does not cast us aside as you would a bone once the meat has been cleaned from it. He is so great that I can barely contain my absolute bewilderment when I consider His love and mercy, and then when I consider His grace the wind is knocked out from me so that I can barely breathe. How great is our God! (Proverbs 24:16) “For a righteous man falleth seven times, and riseth up again; But the wicked are overthrown by calamity.”

No matter where you may find yourselves this morning, no matter how you may have fallen in this area of your life, if the flesh is the dictator of your life and death surrounds you, remember that God is able, not only is He able but willing to forgive you of your sins, turn to Him, repent, and you will find forgiveness, but we must acknowledge our sin and our shortcoming in this area of our lives, otherwise how will we become more like our Saviour? We must also remember His example and how God taught Him obedience through suffering. When the going gets tough may we find refuge be in our Lord and Saviour, even Jesus Christ our Lord. No matter how many times you may have fallen in a particular area of your life, remember the skin from your knees will heal as long as you call upon the name of the Lord.

Lord forgive me and all those who have received the spirit of God who struggle in this area more than most; Help us to be mindful of what it means to walk in the spirit, so that we may find life and live pleasing you by bringing honor and glory to you, our God.

So to all of us who profess to be children of God may we be mindful of this truth;

“For if ye live after the flesh, ye must die; but if by the Spirit ye put to death the deeds of the body, ye shall live.”

Signing off

Tyrone

Renewed Strength

“Let the people renew their strength.”

- Isaiah_41:1

All things on earth need to be renewed. No created thing continues by itself. “Thou renewest the face of the year,” was the Psalmist’s utterance. Even the trees, which wear not themselves with care, nor shorten their lives with labour, must drink of the rain of heaven and suck from the hidden treasures of the soil. The cedars of Lebanon, which God has planted, only live because day by day they are full of sap fresh drawn from the earth. Neither can man’s life be sustained without renewal from God. As it is necessary to repair the waste of the body by the frequent meal, so we must repair the waste of the soul by feeding upon the Book of God, or by listening to the preached Word, or by the soul-fattening table of the ordinances. How depressed are our graces when means are neglected! What poor starvelings some saints are who live without the diligent use of the Word of God and secret prayer! If our piety can live without God it is not of divine creating; it is but a dream; for if God had begotten it, it would wait upon him as the flowers wait upon the dew. Without constant restoration we are not ready for the perpetual assaults of hell, or the stern afflictions of heaven, or even for the strifes within. When the whirlwind is set free, woe to the tree that hath not sucked up fresh sap, and grasped the rock with many intertwisted roots. When tempests arise, woe to the mariners that have not strengthened their mast, nor cast their anchor, nor sought the haven. If we suffer the good to grow weaker, the evil will surely gather strength and struggle desperately for the mastery over us; and so, perhaps, a painful desolation, and a lamentable disgrace may follow. Let us draw near to the footstool of divine mercy in humble entreaty, and we shall realize the fulfillment of the promise, “They that wait on the Lord shall renew their strength.”

C.H.Spurgeon

Signing off

Tyrone

Power!

(Proverbs 3:27) “Withhold not good from them to whom it is due, When it is in the power of thy hand to do it.”

Have you ever stopped to consider the power that God wields in His voice, He speaks and creation appears, out of darkness He caused light to shine? From the deep he spoke and light appeared, and from that He caused the universe to exist, when we see with our eyes as they peer into the distant and absorb all of the beauty of creation, do we ever realize that in the beginning there was darkness. (Genesis 1:1-2) “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. And the earth was waste and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep: and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.”

We see that God can do what He wants when He wants as He at will has the ability and the power to execute all His desires. Us on the other hand do not have this ability, and thank God for that! Imagine if mankind as a fallen being, awake to sin as sinner had the same ability God had and we could choose what should or shouldn’t be. What a scary thought! Have you ever sat in a group over dinner or the like, with a mix of male and female and spoken about a controversial issue like the death penalty? If not then you will not understand my point but if you have then this summit will be clearly understood. Every individual has their own opinion and they will drive it home if given the opportunity. With that said, where would we find common ground to rule and create? I suppose we could form governments that will rule as they now do, some democratically while other rule with a soviet fist. But if we look at history, what happens when a man like Hitler comes into power and almost overthrows the world through war. Yet in the process He wipeout six million Jews! I could spent days looking at various examples through history establishing my point. Mankind has discovered and uses cloning to bring forth life, where will that eventually end? Will we begin to mass produce human embryos like the way Hollywood depicts it in the movies, like the film "The Matrix"? In conclusion it would be disastrous if we had the ability to create as God has. One last fact, we now can successfully use artificial insemination to help woman have kids. But let us consider the implications to this technique, male sperm is used to fertilize the eggs, one fertilizes egg is never the norm. Two to three gametes are them fertilized in case some die off, then the best looking embryo is chosen and placed into the woman’s womb for the duration of the pregnancy. What happens to the other eggs? They are left to die. When does life begin in Gods reckoning? Is it at birth or is it at conception? Now if I throw this out for debate, what do you think the response will be? One truth I am convinced about is that everybody will have their own outlook. Be that as it may, what if life begins at conception, what will then happen to the spirit of those unborn fertilized eggs? Are we then potentially sending our own children to hell? I do not emphatically belief that all children who die end up in hell if they have not repented and believed on Christ’s sacrifice on their behalf. And yet I do not with assurance say that all children that die prematurely will end up in heaven. This is a domain left to God’s judgment; He will be just as He is just and righteous.

Having said all of that, we must never lose sight of the power we do have in our own worlds. It is rather beautiful what God has equipped us with; we can chose to bless someone. Take a homeless man standing on a street corner begging bread, we can either turn a blind eye or reach out to him and provide provision for his need. We have it in our power to be kind when others are choosing to be mean. Think about this amazing gift God has left us with. I do not wish to force any obligation onto you in any particular area of your lives, but what I will stress is what God stresses:

(Proverbs 3:27) “Withhold not good from them to whom it is due, when it is in the power of thy hand to do it.” Sure the context of this verse instructs us to reward those who deserve rewarding, but think about the opportunity you have to reach out to someone in need. Will we think about orphans and widows? Remember how God reached out to us by sending His son to die in our place, may this cause a love to well up within our hearts and to make this year a year of giving of ourselves to the need of others, remember not to forget to entertain strangers. Why would I say that you may ask? (Hebrews 13:2) “Forget not to show love unto strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.”

Signing off

Tyrone

New Years Day

(Exodus 40:2) “On the first day of the first month shalt thou rear up the tabernacle of the tent of meeting.”

New Years Day the first day of the first month of a New Year and whether today is actually that day according to the Jewish calendar is not that important. The day on our calendar reads 1-1-2011 and is based on the death of our Saviour. We must then live in and where we find ourselves. Interestingly enough New Year’s Day for Israel was of great importance, it was the day that they were instructed to pitch the tabernacle, they were to stop what they were doing and give God the attention He required. It is a type and shadow of the New Jerusalem that we will be part of in the new heaven. God often uses examples in scripture to teach us that something greater is coming. He used the law to teach us that we were sinners and could never keep it and that is why we would need a Saviour.

Once they had erected the tent they then were to place the Ark of the Testimony inside the tent and then they had to screen it with a curtain. Even though they had received the law God made it clear that they could not look upon His glory without Him being veiled that is why a curtain needed to cover the Ark. We see God preparing them to receive a Saviour, everything God did was to point all His people to His beloved Son, Jesus Christ the Lord. Even as early as this we see Him preparing all that would call on Him to receive His Son as Saviour. How do see all of this by looking at a curtain you may ask? Do you remember when the Lord Jesus was on that cruel Roman cross and the sun was darkened and the grave gave up their dead. (Matthew 27:51-52) “And behold, the veil of the temple was rent in two from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake; and the rocks were rent; and the tombs were opened; and many bodies of the saints that had fallen asleep were raised;”

Particular mention was made of the curtain that separated man from God, it was torn from top to bottom and if you stood on the one side of the room and looked through the curtain you would have been able to see the Ark (Jesus Christ) and because of Christ’s sacrifice we now have direct access to the Father through Him, and before He came to earth, it was never like that, the children of God always had to remain behind that curtain and only the High priest could enter into the presents of the Lord (the Ark of the Testimony), If was such a fiasco that they even tired a rope around the priest leg with bells on Him so that if God did not accept the sacrifices of His people because of their disobedience and the priest died that they could retrieve him by pulling on the rope. If anyone dare to venture into the holiest of holies they would also be struck down and die. It was a very serious thing that they had to contend with. However it is no longer like that, Jesus our phenomenal Saviour has paid the price for sin and has given all God’s children access unto the Father, we all now have direct access because of Him. We all have the ability to cry Abba Father, please understand the gravity of this truth; it is such a wonderful phenomenon. As gentiles we were never considered by God as a people but now we are the children of God and only because of Jesus Christ our Lord, God who became a man and paid the price for our sin by dying n our behalf, yet on the third day He rose again and now He make intersession for all the saints that the Father has given unto Him. There is no longer a curtain or a veil that separated us from the company of God almighty, praise the name of Jesus, but please remembers it wasn’t always like this, we owe our Saviour our lives and even if we lay everything down for His kingdom, we would never even begin to pay one iota back in association to what it cost the Lord you save us, and yet He did it willingly.

So therefore on the first day of this New Year may our resolutions be to lay down our selfish wills for the sake of the kingdom of God.

“I pray 2011 will be a year where all our plans fail and our desires are shattered so that God can fulfill His glorious purposes in us.” Scott Wheeler

Signing off

Tyrone

Sons

Jeremiah 31:33 “I will put my law in their inward parts, and in their heart will I write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people:”

How we need this truth to be alive in all our hearts and especially today. The last day of the year with many empty commitments made and never kept. The New Year’s resolution flow fast and furious and people feel that maybe today will be the day with new beginnings. How I thank our God and Father that we have His laws written deep within our hearts, He has given us life in and through our Saviour, the Lord Jesus. We have been born again, Jesus Christ has opened the way for all those who believe and confess Him as Lord.

We have been made alive and our eyes have been opened to see the kingdom of heaven. How I remember the days of my youth as a boy attending church but yet the service seemed empty and I was void of understanding. But now, I can see, I was blind but now I can see! How sweet it is to have understanding, how marvelous is my Saviours love for me, how stupendous is my heavenly Father for sending His Son to die for me; He has put His law in my inward parts, and in all His children’s hearts has He written them; and He is our God, and we are His people: for He has forgiven our iniquity, and our sin will He remember no more. But only if we find ourselves amongst the fold where the Lord Jesus is the shepherd, there are many flocks in many different pastures, there also many goats amongst the sheep, but only the sheep can truly see. All of mankind was blinded from God’s truth through the fall of Adam, but when God calls our name and we find life, how sweet is that life! Remember Lazarus, how he was dead, all those around the corpse wept for him, hope had run its course as he had breathed his last, or so the bystanders thought.

The scene was set and then the King of Kings made His entrance, tears streaming from Mary’s eyes with sadness heavy upon the observers hearts. Imagine witnessing this great miracle, how breathe taking it must have been, the Lord Jesus standing in front of the tomb, silence all around with possibly the occasional whimper of sadness escaping someone’s mouth. He then turned to Martha the sister of Mary and said, “Thy brother shall rise again.” I wonder what the skeptics were muttering under their breath. Nevertheless, the Lords attention was with Martha; (John 11:24-26) “Martha saith unto him, I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day. Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth on me, though he die, yet shall he live; and whosoever liveth and believeth on me shall never die. Believest thou this?” By now He must have had everybody’s undivided attention and then it happened… (John 11:43) “And when he had thus spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth.” The stone had been rolled away and all eyes were on the open doorway, and the tomb that depicts death now brought forth life as Lazarus stepped out into the open and all the onlookers witness Christ’s ability to bring forth life, praise His name! He was dead buy now he lives, he was blind because he was dead but now he could see. We were dead but Jesus Christ the Lord spoke life into our lives and now we can see, praise His name! If you have found verve and can confess that you too believe the words of the Lord, you understand this great miracle, and like Lazarus you have found life, I know I have! Then you can claim God to be your God.

We must remember what it cost the Lord to lay down His life for us and look to find grace, particularly today when festivities will run riot and debauchery will be the order of the day. Father please help all your children find grace today as we stand and make a difference in love with gentleness that will surpass all understanding and may it be so apparent that it will even confined Mr. Worldly Wise! May our Saviour be exalted amongst your children even when the world cohorts with one another not remembering our God. We will nevertheless remember our Saviour, praise His glorious name, all hail King Jesus our Lord!

Signing off

Tyrone

Davids Understanding.

(Psalms 40:6) “…Burnt-offering and sin-offering hast thou not required.”

When I consider the requirements needed from God’s chosen people in times past, how they had to offer up sacrifice in order to find forgiveness and then they were never guaranteed absolution. How week after week they would sin and then have to perform a ritual and a life of some poor animal would need to be slaughtered so that God may accept their sacrifice. This was a never ending process that all of the seed from Abraham, Isaac and Jacob had to adhere to if they wanted to find favour with Jehovah God. Yet David pens these words in the book of Psalms; “Burnt-offering and sin-offering hast thou not required.”

Let us consider the importance of His understanding, when Moses came off Mount Sinai he had the Ten Commandments in His hand, God had just given Him the Law, the rules and regulations that they were to keep if they wanted to find support from God. Then later they received the breakdown of how they needed to apply themselves by fulfilling and keeping those bylaws and in turn have the only true eternal God as their protector. They had witnesses many miracles coming out of Egypt and they had no doubt of God’s ability to save, they had seen him in action! But God now required faith from them and obedience was needed from every individual if they wanted to make it through the Wilderness and into the Promised Land. It was a life full of does and don’ts, there was very little liberty in their religion, but they became so mundane in their application that the Lord Jesus calls their leaders vipers; (Matthew 3:7) “But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said unto them, Ye offspring of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?”

The danger we all face as religious persons is that we will want to find justification by what we do instead of resting in what the Lord Jesus has done. Test your family and friends that profess to be Christians and then ask a couple of questions and find out why they think God should let them into heaven. The answers will always be the same, they will speak of their good works and that they are good people, there is no good person in comparison to God our Father, man has fallen, and outside of Christ even the most astute do-gooder will be left expose when He stands before our awesome God, his very best deed will be like a filthy rag in contrast. That is why we see that sinners finding repentance, people that understand that they are lost and have failed God and need rescuing, you often hear of prisoners getting saved as the Lord Jesus did not come to save the self righteous but He came to call sinners to repentance. The self righteous will seldom be saved. The leaders of Israel learnt to manipulate the laws of God to try and find justification from God, but their hearts were far from Him. That is why He called them vipers. They heard that by being baptized they would find support from God and yet they were preoccupied with self, their hearts were far from Him. These were the teachers of Israel, and today we see many religions and pious leaders applying exactly the same falsehood and pretence to appear godly and yet it is the blind leading the blind.

David had understood that through his life, although he also made mistakes, that it was all about God and His purposes; He believed God and trusted in Him. When He fell into sin, he called out to the One who had the power to forgive. He did not try and find justification in doing things by sacrificial atonement in order to find forgiveness. He understood that it was impossible to keep the law and be justified by it. He realize that the Law could never be kept but it was a teacher that God implemented to show us that we required His help and that we needed to be rescued, we could never be a people that God could leave to their own devises, and if He did that we would all be lost, hell would be our final destination! David understood that God was able and because of God’s ability he was now able to kill the lion and the bear as God was on His side, not because he had spent hours training with a sling and was able to brandish it with precision. He understood that by doing things he could never be justified. What amazes me with David’s example is that he believed God before the actual account of Calvary unfolded. He understood that “burnt-offering and sin-offering hast thou not required.” He trusted in His God! Will we trust in our God, will we remember to find justification in our Saviour and not always look for acceptance by the things we do! Can we learn to rest in Him, I pray that we will become more like David on a daily basis and learn to have faith in our great King in every area of our lives? Give us a heart like David’s, may we always find the resolve to want to please you Father by obeying your voice and resting in the finished work of Calvary.

Signing off

Tyrone

Contrite Heart

(Ephesians 4:26) “Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath:”

The Word of God steams with wisdom and yet my life often chooses to reject its acumen, why? Because I am carnal and sold under sin! Yet this must change, I must learn to start using wisdom well and acknowledge her as a sister and receive her input for my life on a daily basis. I must not only look to her when I have erred and fallen short of the glory of God. I must learn to be consistent with the word of God and apply it to my life as a matter of urgency. I must be constantly reminded that I need to present my body to God as a living sacrifice which is only my reasonable service, it is no great accomplishment. In doing that I will learn what is good and acceptable before a holy God. But when my life is void of this truth, then I find sin is at the door and its desire is to take me out. Let us not be fooled if we have received the spirit of God and therefore need to act in accordance to the life giving Spirit. I get so frustrated when I do not walk worthy within the vocation in which I have been called. Often the deception is subtle and at other times obvious, but the purpose of our enemies is to get us to fall into sin, and that can be in countless areas of our life. Wherever we find ourselves and however we have wander away from the truth of God’s life aspiring Word, when the bible has not been our first point of reference, but rather the last, when we have chosen not to call upon the name of the Lord but to rather give in to the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life, it must be said that others may have written you off, you may have even disqualified yourself. You may be a reed bruise by the wind and the trials of life, the flax from your very own candle may be smoking as the flame of life have lost its ability to bring forth light. Be that as it may, God will open His arms to you and say come, a bruised reed He will not break, others will look to disregard any broken reed, they will look for the reeds that have strength and shape but He will say, come, to any that are broken! (Psalm 51:17) “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: A broken and contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.” The smoking flax of a candle will cause discomfort to those in the same room, it will aggravate their eyes and they will be quick to look to extinguish it, but not our God, He will see the glimmer of hope in the smoke, He will gently blow upon it and kindle it until a flame once again burns bright and clear. (Matthew 12:20) “A bruised reed shall he not break, And smoking flax shall he not quench, Till he send forth judgment unto victory.” This is the heart of our Father, He is long suffering and full of mercy, but He has equipped us for every good work, not everyone is the same, not all will be strong and courageous, I am amongst the weak with many of you, I have many bruises to prove my point, however God does want us all to find strength from Him and walk victoriously in His Son’s achievement. He has given us the Word to be a lamp for our footsteps and His word will give us hope to find victory in Him.

We must learn to not let the sun go down on our wrath. When we ignore this warning the hole we need rescuing from is deep and a horrible place to be. We must learn to keep short account with our heavenly Father and with one another. Father please teach us the importance of this truth, please open our eyes and give us a resolve to confess our sins to you, before the sun sets, help us be astute with one another and also apply this principle amongst one another. Forgive me Father as I am guilty of not consistently applying this truth to my life. May we all learn to become more obedient to the call upon our lives and may we begin to take your word a lot more acutely. May I learn to be more consistent! If only I could take a pen make two lists and then cross out all the unwanted attributes to my life and then make another list with all the wanted traits to enable me to be more holy and righteous. Then I am reminded that I am not justified by my own works, but by the blood of the lamb. Boasting will never play a role in the kingdom of God. There will be many sons and many with great rewards but only one hero, yes Jesus Christ our Lord will receive all the glory accolades. Praise His name! But obedience is better than sacrifice, and it is require from every child of God.

May we remember, (Ephesians 4:26) “Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath:”

Signing off

Tyrone

King over All!

(Colossians 2:10) “And in him ye are made full, who is the head of all principality and power:”

How I long for the day when I will see my King and Saviour and I will receive a body like His, it will be incorruptible and will not have tendencies that drive and urge it toward sin. It will be a body full of praise manifesting the infinite glory and wisdom of God my Father, it will continuously speak of His saving grace and yet it will be without sin. We must understand that we have been sanctified by the blood of the lamb even now as we battle will the urges of life and we fight against the haul of sin. At times we find we fall in our ability to walk in righteousness, we transgress the law of God and heaviness overshadows our joy, sin will rob us of our joy. If that is where you find yourself this morning then I implore you to call out to Jesus as He is never far away, He oversees all his sheep looking out for them. He is the great shepherd and will come to the aid of all who call upon Him. But we must find a willingness to scrutinize areas in our lives that habitually cause us to err! We must not ignore the enemy and the sin that so easily ensnares us. We must not pretend that sin is not alive in our lives if indeed it is alive, if there is no habitual sin is in your life, then praise God and continue in His righteousness to find grace to walk uprightly. If we find we need to deal with areas of our life, which I constantly find myself at war with, we must begin to use those experiences to teach us to repent and help them to lead us into the paths of righteousness. Let us not wallow in self-pity but rather find repentance confessing our sin to a just and faithful God, who will be quick to forgive us of our sin but let us remember as we seek forgiveness to also forgive those who trespass against us. (Matthew 6:12) “And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.”

We have an enemy that roars like a lion and at this time of the year with festivities and merriment the order of the day we need to be aware of his devises and the traps he will use to ensnare the children of God. Let us soberly examine ourselves and then unpack the areas where we always seem to fall. Once we have isolated those areas then we need to be careful to avoid places or situations that we know will be lead to our demise.

However having said all of this we must always remember that we are justified By His work and not our own righteousness or our own ability to walk uprightly with self justification as we excuse ourselves and accuse others. We are made full in Him! He is the head of all principalities and powers, there is no being seen or unseen that has dominion over our King. He rules sovereignly and therefore He calls the shots! If we have died with Christ, if we are born again and we are no longer ensnared by the basic principles of the world, “why, as though living in this world do we subject ourselves to regulations—do not touch, do not taste, do not handle which all concern things that perish with the using—according to the commandments and doctrines of men?” (Colossians 2:23) “Which things have indeed a show of wisdom in will-worship, and humility, and severity to the body; but are not of any value against the indulgence of the flesh.”

Remember sin was defeated on the cross by the one and only, Jesus our Lord and supreme King defeated sin and death on that cruel Roman cross. We will never be justified outside of His redeeming work, which we must never forget but must also remember to put off sin and put on the cloak of righteousness. Yes we are righteous if we have been sanctified by the blood of the Lamb; we are not a son one day and then a bastard the next. If we have the spirit of God, then we are indeed His children. Never believe that you can fall in and out of son ship! We may however fall in and out of obedience, but that in itself is a completely different topic.

We are covered by the righteousness of Christ so when God looks upon us although we may feel unworthy to enter His presence, we are worthy, and only because of what the Lord Jesus has done on our behalf.

In conclusion then we can never be justified by our own achievements even if they are commendable before men. Because we have been justified by the blood of the Lamb let us remember not to continue in sin so that grace may abound… (Romans 6:1-3) “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound God forbid. We who died to sin, how shall we any longer live therein? Or are ye ignorant that all we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?”

Signing off

Tyrone

A Reminder

“So shall we ever be with the Lord.”

- 1Th_4:17

Even the sweetest visits from Christ, how short they are-and how transitory! One moment our eyes see him, and we rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory, but again a little time and we do not see him, for our beloved withdraws himself from us; like a roe or a young hart he leaps over the mountains of division; he is gone to the land of spices, and feeds no more among the lilies.

“If to-day he deigns to bless us

With a sense of pardoned sin,

He to-morrow may distress us,

Make us feel the plague within.”

Oh, how sweet the prospect of the time when we shall not behold him at a distance, but see him face to face: when he shall not be as a wayfaring man tarrying but for a night, but shall eternally enfold us in the bosom of his glory. We shall not see him for a little season, but

“Millions of years our wondering eyes,

Shall o’er our Saviour’s beauties rove;

And myriad ages we’ll adore,

The wonders of his love.”

In heaven there shall be no interruptions from care or sin; no weeping shall dim our eyes; no earthly business shall distract our happy thoughts; we shall have nothing to hinder us from gazing for ever on the Sun of Righteousness with unwearied eyes. Oh, if it be so sweet to see him now and then, how sweet to gaze on that blessed face for aye, and never have a cloud rolling between, and never have to turn one’s eyes away to look on a world of weariness and woe! Blest day, when wilt thou dawn? Rise, O unsetting sun! The joys of sense may leave us as soon as they will, for this shall make glorious amends. If to die is but to enter into uninterrupted communion with Jesus, then death is indeed gain, and the black drop is swallowed up in a sea of victory.

C.H.Spurgeon

Our First Love!

(Matthew 15:11) “Not that which entereth into the mouth defileth the man; but that which proceedeth out of the mouth, this defileth the man.”

Boxing Day the day after Christmas, is a day that gifts will be boxed and the celebrations are over and the day is long forgotten except for some of the turkey that may be eaten well into the week. It is never an easy thing to make a stand against idolatry, whatever that may entail, and I do not make reference to positioning yourself against unbelievers, the objections normally come from believers, our hearts will often defend that which is reproachable… and the war rages on!

The reason I use this chosen verse for us to consider this morning is rather deliberate, often I may just pen what comes to mind but this morning I looked for some instruction to remind us of the work of the cross and to keep us from looking for self justification by our own works. Yesterday I said what I had to say, and I believe I endeavored to do that with a gentle spirit, I do however realize that we can get carried away by trying to make a point and then we find ourselves rather obsessed with wanting to be heard and forget Calvary and that is unacceptable! Above all things, this must never happen, we may compromise on issues, not that we must ever condone idolatry of any nature, but we must never ever fall into the trap of forgetting our first love. We are forever justified by His blood, never by any other deed. Let me say it again, we will never ever be justified by anything other than the blood of Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour.

Remember the words of the angel to the church of Ephesus, did he not instruct us and remind us of the Lord Jesus’ words to that church, ---- He did! These were His words

(Revelation 2:4-5) “But I have this against thee, that thou didst leave thy first love. Remember therefore whence thou art fallen and repent and do the first works; or else I come to thee, and will move thy candlestick out of its place, except thou repent.”

The Lord first commends the church for what it is doing correctly and then a stern warning is given; that they must remember their first love or else! In other words they need to keep in mind what it cost the Lord Jesus to lay down His life for all the sinners that found repentance and are now saints because of His atoning sacrifice. If they do not remember Him they are warned that the light (candlestick) could be removed.

So what can we learn from this instruction to them? We must resolve to never exalt anything above Him, sound doctrine, and legalism of any sort must never take preference over Him but rather because of Him. Legalism will never find alignment in grace, sound doctrine is exactly the point I now make, Christ alone will secure our salvation, but when I reason and exclude His sacrifice no matter how subtle it may be, it will lead to dead works and ultimately be burn up with fire on Judgment Day. We must never move from a mindset of our First Loves atoning sacrifice, no matter how we may grow in the knowledge and the grace of our God and Father. When we war, as we must, sifting out the rot that has crept into the church, and there is decay that needs to be purged it can never be executed with legalism or the like. We must always point people to Christ; we must show them our great Saviour and what He has done to save mankind from a potentially unthinkable end, the Lake of Fire (hell). Today is a day of hope, the gospel message still needs to be proclaimed, people still need salvation, for if that was not true then the Lord Jesus would have already returned. (Matthew 24:14) “And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world for a testimony unto all the nations; and then shall the end come.”

Let us not get caught up with decoys that divert our attention from the hope we find only in and through our salvation hero, yes Jesus Christ our Lord.

Let us always remember to speak of His work and echo the words of the apostle Paul; (1Corinthians 2:2) “For I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.” We must find grace to speak of His great exploits;

(Matthew 15:11) “Not that which entereth into the mouth defileth the man; but that which proceedeth out of the mouth, this defileth the man.”

Signing off

Tyrone

Christmas?

(2Corinthians 6:17-18) “Wherefore Come ye out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, And touch no unclean thing; And I will receive you, And will be to you a Father, And ye shall be to me sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.”

Today is a day where I can honestly say, I did not want to deal with the subject of Christmas, it is a day that traditionally is a holy celebration acceptable amongst western civilization like no other day throughout the year. Today is a day that even devout Christians will not dare to ignore, but the question of is it right or wrong I was hoping to avoid, I feel I must confront! We have been so hood-winked by this celebration, that I believe we have displeased our heavenly Father with this celebration as we run with the heathen locking hands in merriment because we have been blinded by a lie and a tradition of men. We have run with unbelievers and therefore entered into idolatry. Lets us examine some of the facts and see if we have understood anything pertaining to this holiday festivity.

The bible teaches that all things are lawful but not all things are expedient, so because Christ has paid the price for sinners and broke the enslaving hold that the law had on us (believers) and we are now not under law but under grace. We must never believe that we will be justified by works, if we begin to reason like this then we undermine the work of the cross and our great Saviours sacrifice. (Romans 11:6) “But if it is by grace, it is no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace.” And, (Galatians 5:4) “Ye are severed from Christ, ye who would be justified by the law; ye are fallen away from grace.” So we must clearly understand that we can never be justified by works, however that does not mean we must ignore the issues of life, anything that counters the truth should be addressed. If we are not willing to stand up and be counted who will plead the Christians plight! I agree there are bigger issues to address but today is a day that Christians often err by running with the masses, nearly everyone celebrated Christmas and many, if not most, have no idea of this day’s origin.

"Where did Christmas originate? Was it from the Bible or paganism? What is the real origin of Santa Claus—mistletoe—Christmas trees—holly wreaths—and the custom of exchanging gifts? Many are concerned about putting “Christ back into Christmas.” Was He ever there?"

The Reindeer, holly wreaths, decorated trees, mistletoe, season’s greetings, seasonal music, and Santa Claus are all associated with this holiday. These all bring warm feelings to those who celebrate it.

"All of this is supposedly centered on the worship of Christ. Surely the Bible instructs us to do all this—right? The answers will shock you! They surprised me as I was brought up with this tradition in our family and in fact I love it as I was the beneficiary of gifts, why would we not want to celebrate a day like Christmas?" Everyone is made to feel wanted and special, but to what extent are we willing to go to fulfill our dreams. We include so many traditions on the back of the birth of Christ. We include a man in a red suit with reindeers bearing gifts, how ridiculous is this concept, and what does he have to do with the birth of Christ? God has declared that He will not share His glory with another and yet we feel that we know better than Him and force His hand as we except Santa Claus, what rubbish! Forgive us please Father, for we have sinned!

“The Encyclopedia Americana, 1956 edition, adds, “Christmas…was not observed in the first centuries of the Christian church, since the Christian usage in general was to celebrate the death of remarkable persons rather than their birth…a feast was established in memory of this event [Christ’s birth] in the 4th century. In the 5th century the Western church ordered the feast to be celebrated on the day of the Mithraic rites of the birth of the sun and at the close of the Saturnalia, as no certain knowledge of the day of Christ’s birth existed.”

“(Matt. 15:9) Christ said, “But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men” Christmas is not a command of God—it is a tradition of men. “Christ continued, (Mark 7:9) “Full well you reject the commandment of God, that you may keep your own tradition.” Every year, throughout the world, on December 25th, hundreds of millions do just that!” I understand that Christ was addressing Jews with their traditions, but the principal remains the same. The western world has made Christmas a man centered tradition and therefore the principle of what Christ said in the books of Matthew and Mark is now applicable today with the Christmas celebration.

When we act like the world we do not depict the instruction that Paul asks us to illustrate with our lives, “Wherefore Come ye out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, And touch no unclean thing;” He is addressing believers, if we look to the context of this chapter we see reference is made to avoid unequal yoking and then the chapter concludes with “Wherefore Come ye out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, And touch no unclean thing; And I will receive you, And will be to you a Father, And ye shall be to me sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.”

So the question we must ask ourselves is do we touch any unclean thing when we celebrate Christmas with the world? You know how I feel about today, but that is my view what will yours be?

A lot more could be said proving that today is not God centered and that Christ was not born today and the proof is clear for all to see if you wish to make a study of it.

It cost the Lord His life to save us, all who believe on Him, please let us not water down that great sacrifice, may we remember His death today and how He saved us from ultimate destruction where we should have been condemned to the Lake of Fire with Satan and his angels. Forget the reindeers and the red suited man, Christ and Christ alone must only ever be exalted and praised.

Signing off

Tyrone