If our lives were measured in words we would not waste one. We would treasure every word that passed our lips and, make sure we wanted to say them. They would be our most precious commodity. Arguments and quarrels would cease; pop songs would also disappear, and so would all the irrelevant chit – chat that goes on, on the television.

The world would know the peace that was intended for us from the beginning.

I am going to relate to you a story I heard many years ago. I cannot acknowledge the author because I never knew who wrote it, but if anyone reads this and recognises it I would like to know.

The story is about a sleepy little village that nestled at the foot of a small mountain. The people of the village lived in great comfort, and wanted for nothing. Though they did no work to speak of, yet they lived in great fear.

The ‘mountain’ was actually a sleeping giant of such huge proportions that when it walked about it created havoc. The villagers asked the giant to leave their shores, but the giant refused. The giant it seemed could not sleep because it had nothing to think about.

" Ask me a question I cannot answer" he said, " and I will sleep for a hundred years."

The villagers got together and set up a body of Scholars, they drew up a list of very obscure questions to ask the giant, who when he was asked the first question, immediately fell asleep.

The village council decided to offer the Scholars free living in return for keeping the giant asleep, in perpetuity for them and their descendants forever.

Three hundred years went by, the Scholars who compiled the first list of questions were long forgotten. Their descendants were lazy and thought only of their good life and how to enjoy it.

The villagers though they found it hard on occasions, never forgot their obligation to provide for the Scholars. The giant gradually became covered in dirt, and grass covered him over so he was known as the ‘Man Mountain.’

The time came when the giant stirred. The Scholars had long since abandoned their studies, they had become pleasure seekers, and cared for nothing else. The giant lifted his arm, stones and earth crashed down upon the houses below. The people trembled with fear, which was replaced by anger when they realised the Scholars they had provided for did not have a question to ask.

The villagers gathered in the little church, which had been abandoned by many over the years because they felt that the Scholars were all they needed.

The priest looked at his fearful little flock being pushed aside by the rich and self important people and as his anger started to rise, the Lord God gave him a question to ask, he walked slowly out of the church to the foot of the giant who was now sitting up and shouted " to whom did God say ‘let there be light’?" the giant lowered himself down and went back to sleep. DO WE KNOW THE ANSWER?

[Gen. Ch 1 1Vs 3-]

" In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was empty, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.

And God said " let there be light," and there was light."

By his word God created everything. God spoke, and what he said came into being. Such is the enormous power of our great magnificent God!

Just imagine the waters would have been crystal clear, brightly coloured fish of all kinds just appearing and swimming away as if they had always been there, Wow! We see documentaries on the coral reefs and the fish that live there and we are lost for words for the wonder of it.

God is speaking to Job.

Look at the behemoth,

Which I made along with you

And which feeds on grass like an ox.

What strength he has in his loins,

What power in his belly!

His tail sways like a cedar;

The sinews of his thighs are close knit.

His bones are tubes of bronze,

His limbs like rods of iron.

He ranks first among the works of God,

Can you pull in the leviathan with a fishhook?

Or tie down his tongue with a rope?

Can you put a cord through his nose?

Or pierce his jaw with a hook?

Will he be begging you for mercy?

Will he speak to you with gentle words?

Will he make an agreement with you?

For you to take him as your slave for life?

Can you make a pet of him like a bird,

Or pit him on a leash for your girls?

Will traders barter for him?

Will they divide him up among the merchants?

Can you fill his hide with harpoons,

Or his head with fishing spears?

If you lay hand on him

You will remember the struggle

And never do it again!

Any hope of subduing him is false;

The mere sight of him is over – powering.

No one is fierce enough to rouse him.

Who then is able to stand against me?

Who has a claim against me that I must pay?

Everything under heaven belongs to me."

I think of the leviathan whenever I hear someone say, " Jonah was swallowed by a whale." I have never believed that for one minute. The leviathan could have swallowed Jonah and the boat! What a fearsome creature, the description God gives us of him goes on and gets more frightening. God is right who could stand against him? No one should want to. Who is to say that the leviathan is not living still in some deep part of one of the great oceans?

Praise God for all the wonders that he has made. Think of the flowers how delicate the petals are, how subtle the perfumes of them, how brilliant the colours and how beautiful they make the world around us, how much they are used as tokens of gratitude, for encouragement, and for saying, ‘thank you, and I love you’. How often do we thank God.

We expect thanks and praise whenever we make something. Good manners tell us to thank people for gifts we do not want, or like. We pay vast sums of money for paintings of landscapes and sunflowers, people and places. God has given all of this real and free for us to admire, but we hardly notice it, people prefer the artists work before God’s handiwork, and they are even willing to kill for it.

God inhabits the praises of his people. Why, oh why are we so reluctant to praise him who created the artist’s subject?

I love daisies, the simplicity of them the colours of the flowers, the deep purple petunias, the velvet softness of the petals and I am very fond of cabbage, tell me, what is nicer than a tree full of red apples?

For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and there foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.

Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshipped and served created things rather than the creator – who is forever praised amen."

Well don’t flash your art collection or any other posh niceties before our Lord, it will not impress him. Quite the opposite in fact. But why do we value the lie of a painted landscape far more than the truth of God’s created one?

When we are children we are taught to say ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ for every little gift we receive. We say things like ‘ oh how lovely, thank you very much’. When was the last time we looked at a tree or a cloud formation, or the sunset and said, ‘Oh Lord, how beautiful is your creation, thank you Lord that I, as a part of that creation can praise you for the rest of it? Or just said ‘ thank you God for this lovely refreshing orange’?

God gave the word and all things came into being. Each person is different from the next, each snowflake, each leaf, and each blade of grass. God only makes one of everything, although we may all look alike, physically we are all different, to our eyes our DNA may perfectly match but God knows each of us for what and who we are.

How fortunate were the people of those days. They went outside after dark and they saw the moon and the stars in all their glory, they had no bright lights to keep their eyes focussed upon the earth, nothing to distract them from God’s wonderful creation.

Duet Ch32 Vs3 – 6.

" I will proclaim the name of the Lord.

Oh, praise the greatness of our God!

He is the rock, his works are perfect,

And all his ways are just.

A faithful God who does no wrong.

Upright and just is he.

They have behaved corruptly towards him;

To their shame they are no longer his

Children,

But a warped and crooked generation.

Is this the way you repay the Lord,

O foolish and unwise people?

Is he not your Father, your creator,

Who made you and formed you?"

Everything changes everything that is except our God. He is the one who brings about the changes, the seasons are all the works of his hands. There are more creatures in the earth, sea and sky than man has ever seen.

Have we ever thought about what happens when a caterpillar changes into a butterfly? We have all seen one hanging around all wrapped up like a mummy, waiting for the change to take place. A caterpillar, with its greedy little mouth and its multiple little legs, how does that compare to the delicate symmetric beauty of a butterfly? It surely must be one of God’s wonders especially if we compare it with the giant proportions of the Behemoth.

I thank God that he gave man an insatiable curiosity. Without it we would miss out on such wonders as the metamorphosis, and how it occurs. This from the book, " Butterflies and Moths by J Wilkinson and M Tweedie"

" The change from larva to pupa is remarkable enough, but the internal processes involved in the change are even more so. When the caterpillar hangs itself up to pupate, or if that of a moth spins its silken cocoon, a process called histolysis commences. In the course of this almost all its muscles and those of its internal organs that cannot serve the imago, [an insect in its final mature state.] are destroyed by wandering cells in the blood called phagocytes. These digest and liquefy the tissues so that the greatest part of the body cavity is filled with sort of living soup.

This substance provides the material and energy for building the organs and appendage of the imago. These arise from clumps of cells called imaginal buds, which have resisted the process of dissolution and remained alive. In this way the substance of the larva is reconstituted to form a butterfly."

Absolutely amazing!

The changing of the caterpillar, the changing of the seasons, the motions of the planets, no scientist could possibly compete with God as creator because whatever they ‘create’ God has already made the makings.

" For it is written, ‘ I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.’ Where is the wise man? Where is the Scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For since the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe.

Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling – block to the Jews and foolishness to the gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength."

What strength our God has, he speaks and the earth quakes, one breath from his nostrils and a mountain erupts into flame and molten rock. Nothing can withstand his command we can only step back and say ‘ my God, how great you are’ and this one God who has created all things is interested in you and me, willing to listen to all our groaning, and comfort us in all our trials. Only our merciful magnificent, mighty majestic God is capable of such things.

Praise is to his name forever.

At that time there were no great prophets of note even though there were always priests and prophets, for the people had a great need to communicate with God. God also wanted to communicate with the people, though not as directly as he did with Adam. God told them what he wanted them to do, and how he wanted them to live.

See I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction. For I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in his ways, and keep his commands, decrees and laws; then you will live and increase, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess.

But if your heart turns away and you are not obedient, and if you are drawn away to bow down to other gods and worship them, I declare to you this day that you will certainly be destroyed. You will not live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess.

This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life so that you and your children may live and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice and, and hold fast to him. For the Lord is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham Issac and Jacob."

God gave the people a choice and the free will to make it. He gives us the same freedom of choice today. How often have we warned our children of the perils of life only to find that they have not listened, to their sorrow? We pick them up, kiss them better and tell them not to be so silly in future, but how soon they go back to doing the same thing again, why? Because it is their will to do it.

Good or bad God will never break a promise to us. When God promised ‘life and prosperity’ he did not mean that all believers would amass a great fortune. We can prosper in many ways; to live a life free from want, loved by our families, to enjoy good health and be able to work for our living, and the greatest wealth of all to know God as our Lord and to share everything with him knowing that he will in turn let us share eternity with him.

God knows the heart of all men. As creator he has foreknowledge of each of us. When an accident occurs people say inevitably ‘ where was God when this happened?’ how far had they pushed him away? How many times had they said they did not want to know him? If your street was on fire who would you save first you’re own children or strangers who had insulted and demeaned you?

" The Lord said to Moses, ‘ now the day of your death is near. Call Joshua and present yourselves at the tent of meeting, where I will commission him." So Moses and Joshua came and presented themselves at the tent of meeting.

Then the Lord appeared at the tent in a pillar of cloud, and the cloud stood over the entrance to the tent. And the Lord said to Moses: ‘ you are going to rest with your fathers, and these people will soon prostitute themselves to the foreign gods of the land they are entering. They will forsake me and break the covenant I made with them. On that day I will become angry with them and forsake them; I will hide my face from them, and they will be destroyed. Many disasters and difficulties will come upon them and on that day they will ask, ‘ have not these disasters come upon us because our God is not with us? And I will certainly hide my face on that day because of all their wickedness in turning to other gods."

Our Lord God did not forsake his people, he withdrew a little from them. He was never more than a whisper away. How sad he must have been, [and still must be] to suffer such rejection. What a fabulous offer he made to the Israelites; and they turned it down: after all the miracles they had seen, after all the evidence of God’s power. They witnessed the destruction of the great pharaoh’s army and still they rejected God.

They chose death and destruction. They preferred to bow to false gods and sacrifice their children to them a thing that God hated. God used Moses to give them the law by which they should live, then he chose for himself what I believe to be the first of the great prophets Samuel.

This is what is written in the first book of Samuel.

We can safely assume that Samuel was the first named prophet and that all Israel as the prophet of God accepted him.

My favourite prophet is Isaiah. To my mind he is the greatest of them all. His gift of words is something I envy, they are so beautiful, and they are God’s words.

So let the words of God speak out! They know no boundaries; no colour, no creed, they are there for all men. The word belongs to God. No man has the right to restrict it or withhold it from another. It is itself the vehicle of God’s love and his offer of eternal glory with him

, if we obey it.

All words of peace and reconciliation, all words of love and adoration, words of thanksgiving and songs of praise and worship we must offer up to God.

We see a new born child and our heart swells up with love that comes up into our throat and almost chokes us; we are without words for just that moment in time: when God through our eyes sees the child and blesses it with his love. Ninety per cent of us hang on to that love and our children are blessed, some do not acknowledge it, and sadly, so sadly their children’s lives are blighted with abuse. Unspeakable things are done to those innocent lovelies, too small and fragile to help themselves unable to cry out to our Lord for help, so he waits for them with a heart so full of love for them, that when he receives them all else is forgotten.

Our God gives us the choice, he does not force his will on anyone no matter how many times we cry out in our anguish, ‘ where is God when these things happen?’ I tell you my friend he is where you have put him in your life. He is as near or as far away as you want him to be. The prophecies he gave to his prophets are still coming true today.

" The Lord almighty has declared in my hearing:

Surely the great houses will become

desolate,

The fine mansions left without

occupants

A ten-acre vineyard will produce only

a bath of wine,

a homer of seed only an ephah of

grain."

Woe to those who rise early in the

Morning

To run after their drinks,

Who stay up late at night?

Till they are inflamed with wine.

They have harps and lyres at there

Banquets,

Tambourines and flutes and wine,

But they have no regard for the deeds of

The Lord,

No respect for the work of his hands."

Sound familiar? The scourge of our age drunken parties, and no respect for God. These words are thousands of years old and yet as familiar as ‘good morning’.

Some people see God as someone to call upon in a crisis, the rest of the time they just hope he is not taking an interest in what they are doing. Quite often our Lord said " their will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." God warns us of the dangers of being disobedient, he is faithful to forgive us if we repent. We ignore him at our peril.

" Wash and make yourselves clean.

Take your evil deeds

Out of my sight!

Stop doing wrong,

Learn to do right!

Seek justice,

Encourage the oppressed.

Defend the cause of the fatherless,

Plead the cause of the widow.

"Come now, let us reason together,"

Says the Lord.

Though your sins are scarlet,

They shall be as white as snow;

Though they are red like crimson,

They shall be like wool.

If you are willing and obedient,

You will eat from the best from the land;

But if you resist and rebel,

The sword will devour you.

FOR THE MOUTH OF THE LORD HAS SPOKEN.

No flesh shall ever glory before God. No one can come before him and demand to see him. God owes us nothing, the debt is ours we owe God everything. He has created all things and is higher than mere man could possibly imagine. Whenever I think God is great for showing me something that is right before my eyes, but that I had never noticed, he shows me something greater. Form this I rightly assume that God’s greatness cannot be measured. Yet this great and glorious God says to us " come let us reason together." Inviting us sinners to not only speak to him, but to reason with him and he with us. He is willing to hear our excuses and if we turn away from our sin he will wash us in the blood of Jesus, making us clean and new all past sins forgotten.

How much more loving can our merciful Father be? How much longer will we be disobedient. Care for the unfortunate, love the unlovely no matter who they are. We all have problems some we can identify others we can’t but whether they are physical, mental or spiritual God knows and he can cure them all. God would not turn away the vilest offender who came to him repentant.

" Seek the Lord while he may be found;

Call on him while he is near.

Now let the wicked forsake his way

And the evil man his thoughts.

Let him turn to the Lord

And he will have mercy on him,

And to our God,

For he will freely pardon.

" For my thoughts are not your

thoughts,

Neither are your ways my ways,"

declares the Lord.

As the heavens are higher than the

Earth

So are my ways higher than your ways

And my thoughts than your thoughts.

As the rain and the snow

Come down from heaven

And do not return to it

Without watering the earth

And making it bud and flourish,

So that it yields seed for the sower

And bread for the eater,

So is my word that goes out from my mouth

It will not return to me empty,

But it will accomplish what I desire

And achieve the purpose for which I sent it."

The rain and snow water the earth and gives it life, we can understand that because we know nothing will grow without water. God’s word nourishes our soul and gives it life and without it our soul will surely die. God’s word blesses us and it curses us; because we are doomed if we ignore it. God has given us the choice life in his word, death without it.

We will all physically die but the death God is talking about is eternity in the darkness without him, God is eternal and the choices he gives us are for eternity.

Some men pretend to be speaking for God for different reasons; some for financial benefit, some for the power it seems to give them over certain people who find it easier to believe a lie than the truth that has come from the very mouth of God!

Anyone can prophesy, only God can fulfil it. God does not like impostors, it is no good pretending for he will surely find us out it is always better to try and find him, tell him your needs and desires.

God was listening to what Hananiah had to say his proud boasting which led people to believe his lies. God sent Jeremiah to tell him his fate.

" Then the prophet Jeremiah said to Hananiah the prophet, " listen Hananiah! The Lord has not sent you, yet you have persuaded this nation to trust in lies. Therefore this is what the Lord says: ‘ I am about to remove you from the face of the earth. This very year you are about to die, because you have preached rebellion against the Lord.’

In the seventh month of that year Hananiah died."

There are plenty of false prophets around today. They are to be pitied because they will surely suffer the same fate as Hananiah. Do not make the mistake of listening to them. There is only one mediator between God and us and that is his only Son Jesus Christ.

For hundreds of years prophets foretold the coming of Christ. They told of his birth to a virgin and also of his death on the cross for us. Some of us have difficulty with the virgin birth, why I do not know because nothing could be easier for God to do than to make for himself a Son. He has made three for me and also three daughters.

Obedience is a great thing with our God. Although Mary knew she could be stoned for becoming pregnant, she did not flinch when the angel told her she would be. She asked how this could be, and was more than willing to be obedient to God when he explained. Mary sang a song to God in her joy of being chosen, " blessed am I among women," she said and so she was. Mary was the first Christian because she was the first to believe in our Lord’s miraculous power.

There is not one thing that it is not possible for God to give us, nor is there anything he cannot do for us. But we must ask believing that we will receive.

" Who has believed our message,

and to whom has the arm of the

Lord been revealed?

He grew up before him like a tender

Shoot,

And like a root out of dry ground.

He had no beauty or majesty to attract

Us to him,

Nothing in his appearance that we

Should desire him.

He was despised and rejected of men,

A man of sorrows and familiar with

Suffering.

Like one from whom men hide their

Faces

He was despised and we esteemed

Him not.

Surely he took up our infirmities

And carried our sorrows,

Yet we considered him stricken by God,

Smitten by him, and afflicted.

But he was pierced for our

Transgressions,

He was crushed for our iniquities;

The punishment that brought us peace

Was upon him,

And by his wounds we are healed.

We all, like sheep, have gone astray,

Each one of us has turned to his own way;

And the Lord has laid on him

The iniquity of us all.

He was oppressed and afflicted,

Yet he did not open his mouth;

He was led like a lamb to the slaughter,

And as a sheep before her shearer is

Silent,

So he did not open his mouth.

By oppression and judgement he was

Taken away,

And who can speak of his

Descendants?

For he was cut off from the land of the

Living;

For the transgression of my people he

Was stricken.

He was assigned a grave with the

Wicked,

And with the rich in his death,

Though he had done no violence,

Nor was any deceit in his mouth.

Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him

And cause him to suffer.

And though the Lord makes his life a

Guilt offering,

He will see his offspring and prolong

His days.

And the will of the Lord will prosper

In his hand.

After the suffering of his soul,

He will see the light of life and be satisfied;

By his knowledge my righteous servant

Will justify many,

And he will bear their iniquities.

Therefore I will give him a portion

Among the great,

And he will divide the spoils with the

Strong,

Because he poured out his life unto death,

And was numbered with the

Transgressors.

For he bore the sin of many,

And made intercession for the

Transgressors."

I used to think, ‘they took him and crucified him,’ they, being nothing to do with me personally; then I realised that if I did not acknowledge the fact that my sins nailed him to that awful cross, I cannot claim the blood of Christ to wash them away. As I did believe that there is no other way into heaven only through him, I had to admit my guilt. Jesus found it easy to accept my confession of guilt because he had already died to save me; I however found it hard to accept my responsibility.

How could God love me so much that he was pleased to let his holy, innocent wonderful Son die in agony, to save me. Have you ever thought about it? We cannot bring a bucket of darkness into the light, for the light will disperse it immediately. While we live in our sinful state, God sees us only as darkness, but when we get down on our knees to ask his forgiveness, a wonderful thing happens.

Let Isaiah tell us about it.

Arise, shine, for your light has

Come

And the glory of the Lord rises

Upon you.

See darkness covers the earth

And thick darkness over the

Peoples,

But the Lord rises upon you

And his glory appears over

You!

THE WORD MADE FLESH.

Every year on December the twenty fifth, we celebrate a birthday. It is a world-wide celebration, it is also the most expensive celebration ever to be held. It is a time when people put their differences to one side and come together in peace and love. But most of the celebrants are unaware of the true reason for celebrating.

I mean, it was only the most awesome, selfless act of love in the history of life or death, for it was the giving of the only Son of the most high God to the world.

In the beginning was the word,

And the word was with God,

And the word was God.

He was with God in the beginning.

Through him all things were made;

Without him nothing was made

That has been made.

In him was life,

And that life was the light of men.

The light shines in the darkness,

But the darkness has not understood it.

There was a man, who was sent from God,

His name was John.

He came as a witness to testify

Concerning that light,

So that through him all men might believe.

He himself was not the light;

He came only as a witness to the light.

The true light that gives light to every man

Coming into the world.

He was in the world,

And though the world was

Made through him,

The world did not recognise him.

He came to that which was his own,

But his own did not receive him.

Yet to all who received him,

To those who believed in his name,

He gave the right to become

Children of God ---

Children not born of natural descent,

Nor human decision,

Or a husbands will,

But born of God.

The word became flesh and

Made his dwelling among us.

We have seen his glory,

The glory of the one and only,

Who came from the Father,

Full of grace and truth.

John testifies concerning him,

He cries out saying,

" This is he of whom I said,

‘ he who comes after me

Has surpassed me because

he was before me.’"

From the fullness of his grace

We have all received

One blessing after another.

For the law was given through Moses;

Grace and truth came

Through Jesus Christ.

No one has ever seen God,

But God the one and only,

Who is at the Fathers side,

Has made him known."

This then is what we celebrate at Christmas, or is it? Are all the people who celebrate Christmas, Christians? I very much doubt it. Very few of us even bother to attend church services at Christmas time. We are either too busy, too tired, or too drunk. I have been all of these at some time or another before I became a Christian but thank God not all three at the same time.

It was a special event to only a chosen few when Jesus was born. They did not understand the importance, or the honour bestowed on them by God at that time, or grasps the glory of the moment any more than we can today.

So, in the midst of all the tinsel and the wrapping paper; the alcohol and food, the wanted and unwanted gifts, we have found Jesus, God’s sacrificial lamb, born to die for us: sent into a cruel world that would reject and despise him. He was bursting with truth yet people would not believe him, he did the most incredible things ever done but people chose to deny him. How sad.

The shepherds could not have known that the child in the manger embodied the God they had worshipped for hundreds of years, nor could they have known that he would change the world and its peoples attitude to life forever with just his words.

More words have been written about him, more songs and poetry written about him before he was born and after he gave up his life than any other human being on the planet.

Words! We use them to express our joy and our sorrow; our love and our hatred, we curse and we bless, we deceive and we dictate, we flatter and we comfort with our words, we gossip and spread rumours without even bothering to find out the truth.

" You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks. The good man brings out good things out of the good stored up in him, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him. But I tell you that men will have to give account on the day of judgement for every careless word they have spoken. For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned."

I think we should read that portion of scripture through a few times and then pray about it. I know, speaking for myself, even as I was writing it down that I have said many spiteful and unnecessary things. I have criticised people I did not know and I have had my share of arguments. I sorely need to be forgiven or I will have so many words to answer for.

The evil we have stored up is all the malice and envy, the loathing and racism that we hug inwardly, disguised as the ‘opinions’ we are entitled to, but are we?

I pray that our loving God will bring to our mind by his Spirit the things we need to remember, those words that we uttered out of spite against people we do not even know, but we did not like the look of them.

I cry out to God most high,

To God, who fulfils his purpose?

For me.

He sends from heaven and saves me,

Rebuking those who hotly persues me;

God sends his love and his faithfulness."

Jesus I love you! Say it in your heart and feel the response from your spirit, go on no one will hear it but him and he wont reject you.

Jesus came, the word of God donned the mantle of flesh to see what we see and to feel what we feel. His only motivation is love, there is no vanity in God. He does not want a pat on the back for what he has accomplished no! he saw that everything he made was perfect. Just take a look at the fungus that grows out of a dead tree trunk next time you are out for a walk in the wood, it is beautiful.

Some people would say that Jesus was murdered, some would give the devil credit for the crucifixion, but believe me God was the instigator of this event, as he provided the sacrifice for Abraham, he knew that his only begotten Son was the only perfect sacrifice for our sin so it pleased him to provide his Son for us.

God was to taste death for all men even those who would reject him, and his offer of sonship, a share in his glory, and eternity in the love of God. However he did not come to place blame on anyone, nor did he come to judge the world, he came as an advocate of the great love of God and he was totally obedient.

Jesus replied’ the hour has come for the Son of man to be glorified. I tell you the truth, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies it produces many seeds.

The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.

Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am my servant will also be. My Father will honour the one who serves me.

Now my heart is troubled and what shall I say? ‘ Father, save me from this hour? NO! It was for this very reason I came to this hour, Father, glorify your name!’

Then a voice came from heaven, ‘I have glorified it, and will glorify it again.’

The crowd that was there and heard it said it had thundered; others said an angel had spoken to him.

Jesus said ‘ this voice was for your benefit, not mine, and now is the time for judgement on this world; now the prince of this world will be driven out. But I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself. He said this to show the kind of death he would die."

Have you noticed when you read the Bible how full of words it is? [No I am not being funny] words of wisdom; of instruction, of love but no dead useless words only living words. It does not speak of frustration, which I imagine our Lord must have felt when he spoke to people and they turned a deaf ear. There is no boredom, not much is spoken about our bad days or our moods. Jesus never said ‘ I am cheesed off these people are getting me down.’ No he just did as his Father told him to do and walked with him to the end of his journey through life.

Do you ever get trapped in your own bad mood? You know, in a filthy mood over nothing at all, but you cannot control that nagging empty lump of discontent that has swollen up inside and threatens to consume you? Nothing is pleasing to you and you hate everybody, life is at its worst. Depression gets the blame, which leads me to the question, ‘ what is depression?’

" I cried out to God for help;

I cried out to God to hear me.

When I was in distress, I sought the Lord;

At night I stretched out untiring hands

And my soul refused to be comforted.

I remembered you O God, and I groaned;

I mused and my spirit grew faint.

You kept my eyes from closing;

I was too troubled to speak.

I thought of former days,

The years of long ago.

I remembered my songs in the night.

My heart mused and my spirit

Enquired:

Will the Lord reject forever?

Will he never show his favour again?

Has his unfailing love vanished forever?

Has his promise failed for all time?

Has God forgotten to be merciful?

Has he in his anger withheld his?

Compassion?"

I think the psalmist was feeling pretty low in spirit when he wrote those words, don’t you? He poured out his misery to the Lord God and then asked six questions, the answer to each one is the same NO!

Had God forsaken him NO! Our sin removed our God from the sight of our Lord it did not remove God from our Lord’s side. God being Holy cannot look upon sin. The psalmist who wrote psalm seventy-seven probably had unconfessed sin, hence his feeling of rejection. The questions he asked show that he felt that God was not listening to him, that God no longer loved him or showed him any mercy or compassion. He was questioning God about the very essence of his character which is love; mercy, compassion, promises which cannot fail: all the reasons why he sent his Son to save us.

We also bow down under the weight of our sin, what we call our troubles. We tell our friends who for the most part cannot help us, but we gain a certain relief from ‘sharing’

We need to tell Jesus our troubles, we need to share every aspect of our life with him. He will remove every negative feeling we have and give us a feeling of self worth that no friend or relative could give us.

Consider this, we are like the pebbles on the beach washed to and fro by the tide, wearing away as the years go by but never any cleaner.

One day someone comes along and gathers us up and decides to really see what we are like underneath. So in we go into the polisher. One week in the rough stuff that cleans away the years of real filth; one week in the smoother stuff that gentles away the next layer of worldly deposits and the third week in the polishing powder. We emerge so bright and so beautiful we do not recognise ourselves, we are new people.

The polisher has done what hundreds of years of washing by the sea could never accomplish, why? Because the seawater is contaminated by the world. It needs a pure cleansing. and we never know how filthy we are until Jesus picks us up and begins the cleansing process which is to be washed in his blood. It is the only way!

" Because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jews persecuted him. Jesus said to them " my Father is always at his work to this very day, and I too, am working." For this reason the Jews tried all the harder to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.

Jesus gave them this answer: " I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can only do what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does."

Jesus the word made flesh; he could do no wrong, he could not lead anyone astray from God, he could only bring us to God as a gift of love. He was not only equal to God but God had given him power over all things. He knows all that has been and all that is to come, he is the Lord.

In one Thessalonians chapter four verses sixteen and seventeen St Paul writes.

" The Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the air: and so shall we be with the Lord."

A Christian’s life should be spent listening and doing. Hearing what Jesus has to say to us and doing what he wants us to do. We will not miss out on anything in this world that is here to give us true pleasure and joy.

All the prophets give witness for our Lord, of his coming and his kingdom there will never be a substitute for it. False prophets have come and gone over the years none have been able to fulfil one of the prophesies made about God’s messiah. Jesus warns us about false prophets, as did Jeremiah.

" Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. By their fruit you will recognise them. Do people pick grapes from thorn bushes, or figs from thistles?

Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus, by their fruit you will recognise them.

Not everyone who says to me ‘ Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, " Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name cast out demons and perform many miracles?"

Then I will tell them plainly, ‘ I never knew you. Away from me you evildoers!"

Wow! I do not really know what to say about that. So few prophesy or do any miracles these days and demons run riot because more people let them in than cast them out.

So where does that leave us? If the people who did these things in Jesus name are cast out as evildoers, what of us who have done none of these things?

I will tell you what I feel the Lord is saying to me about this. The very name of Jesus is power! He has complete authority over all things, so, I believe that people can use the name of Jesus to do many things, without really knowing God, or having any respect for the person of Jesus.

Demons flee at the very mention of his name because they must. We can read that in mark chapter one verse twenty-one to twenty-seven.

" They went to Capernaum, and when the Sabbath came, Jesus went into the Synagogue and began to teach. The people were amazed at his teaching, because he taught them with authority, not as the teachers of the law.

Just then a man in their Synagogue who was possessed by an evil spirit cried out, " what do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are – the holy one of God."

" Be quiet!" Jesus said sternly. " Come out of him!"

The evil spirit shook the man violently and came out of him with a shriek.

The people were so amazed that they asked each other " what is this? a new teaching – and with authority! He even gives orders to evil spirits and they obey him."

News of him spread quickly over the whole region of Galilee."

Our Lord’s authority is absolute!

Yes there are those who believe that they can use the name of Jesus for their own glory and even financial gain. Preachers who preach part of the word but withholding important information; because they feel it is not important, or they personally do not believe it, or they think we are too dull to understand what our Lord is saying, not recognising the fact that our Lord is the giver of understanding to the people who listen to his word.

People who enter the Church for a job without being called by God are also in trouble for they do not see Jesus as ‘ the word of God,’ only using head knowledge to teach and lecture on the Bible.

These people climb the promotion ladder rapidly in the hierarchy of the church, because they are eloquent speakers. God will use these people, but let us not forget that he also used Judas Iscariot.

He is like a man building a house, whom dug down deep and laid the foundation on rock. When the flood came, the torrent struck that house but could not shake it, because it was well built. But the one who hears my words and does not put them into practice is like a man who built his house upon the ground without a foundation. The moment the torrent struck that house it collapsed and its destruction was complete.

‘ Its destruction was complete,’ Wow! Is that scary or what? Complete means finished; done for, total wipe out, no more to be added and no more to be taken away. There one minute and gone the next never to be remembered because it is gone forever!

When we are in a bad situation that we cannot understand, we must call upon the Lord in prayer to help us. We must ask him " what do we do now Lord, what would you do in our place? " the answer may surprise us It may be there is nothing the Lord wants us to do so he will just calm our fears and give us peace. He may also bring us to a true realisation of the situation we are in. all to often we act upon the impulse of the moment and make a bad situation worse.

" But Jesus went up to the Mount of Olives. At dawn he appeared in the Temple courts, where all the people gathered round him, and he sat down to teach them. The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group and said to Jesus, " teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?" they were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him.

But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, " if any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her." Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.

At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. Jesus straightened up and asked her " woman where are they? Has no one condemned you?"

" No one, sir," she said.

" Then neither do I condemn you," Jesus declared. " Go now and leave your life of sin."

How wonderfully did our Lord handle that situation which was for that woman a matter of life and death. He wrote on the ground with his fingers, and prayed in his heart to the Father who showed him exactly what to do. He was the only one left with the woman, because he was the only one without sin, her accusers crept away without a word. I wonder did they feel the Spirit of our Lord convincing them of their own sin? He forgave her instantly!

On our own Jesus is a role model it is as impossible to live up to as to impersonate. Fortunately we are not on our own, our Lord is always with us. Remember he is " THE WORD OF GOD MADE FLESH."

God’s word is always available to us because we carry it in our heart. Thrown any stones lately?

" I walk in the way of righteousness,

Along the paths of justice,

Bestowing wealth on those who love me

and making their treasuries full.

" The Lord brought me forth as the

First of his works,

Before his deeds of old:

I was appointed from eternity,

From the beginning before the world

Began

When there were no oceans, I was given birth.

When there were no springs

Abounding with water;

Before the mountains were settled in

Place.

Before the hills, I was given birth.

Before he made the earth or its fields

Or any of the dust of the world.

I was there when he set the heavens in

Place,

When he marked out the horizon on

The face of the deep.

When he established the clouds above

And fixed securely the fountains of

The deep,

When he gave the sea its boundary

So that the waters would not overstep

His command.

And when he marked out the

Foundations of the earth.

Then I was the craftsman at his side.

I was filled with delight day after day.

Rejoicing always in his presence,

Rejoicing in his whole world

And delighting in mankind."

Words of wisdom always cherished by simple people always sought after by great scholars, but sadly there own ‘ wisdom’ is not necessarily the true wisdom of God.

To end this little book as I am pleased to call them, I would like to impart to you words of wisdom from our Lord God as told to us by St Paul who had this to say about Christ our saviour.

" He is the image of the invisible God, the first born over all creation. For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or power or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the first born from among the dead, so that in everything he might have supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.

The End