Royal Wedding Preparations

With the Royal Wedding day approaching we have begun to make our own preparations.

The flag was raise on a temporary and somewhat precarious flagpole. Marriage in contrast should be permanent and solid.
My prayer is that God has prepared this marriage for the good of our nation.
The writer to the Hebrews tells us marriage is honourable.
May God help us in our marriages to show something of the nature of the relationship between Christ and His church.

1000 leaflets gone

With every Easter comes an opportunity to once more spread the word to households in the village, and this year is no exception. The leaflet contained a short message about Jesus making our peace and an invitation to the Good Friday Service and Easter Sunday services.
Did they have any effect? -Nobody took up the invitation to attend the services. How many read the message?- who can tell. It reminds us of Jesus parable of the rich man and Lazarus. "though one rose from the dead, yet they will not believe.
What a comment on the hardness of mans heart. Yet every believer knows the hardness of their heart, and knows it was only the sovereign grace of God which broke it.
(edit - to correct spellings)

Condemnation?

Last Sunday I preached to a small congregation, but a listening congregation .
My subject in the morning was "Who is he that condementh?", from Romans 8. We look at the condemners - the law, Satan the accuser of the believers, other people, and our own consciences. We found that all these truly condemn us.
But we also noted the answer - It is Christ that died - yea rather is risen again. Jesus took our condemnation, suffering what we deserved - so we go free.

Earthquakes in divers places,wars and rumours of wars

This is a good summary of recent news , with the earthquakes in New Zealand and Japan,and the unrest in the middle east. These however were the words of Jesus when his disciples quizzed him about the last times,and when they would be.

We believe that none of these events has taken God by surprise. They show the groaning of creation under the curse, the dreadful effects of sin. They remind us of the impotence of man. God is the one who controls the wind and the waves.

As Christians we have a duty of love towards our fellow man that we should do good to when soever we will (Mark 14:7),and especially to the household of faith. Jesus said that in so doing to the brethren we are doing it to him (Matthew 25 from v 31).

But the question is do these things signal the end time. Jesus said the end is not yet.. first the gospel must be preached to all nations - then shall the end come. - that is what we should be looking for.

Comfort of the Scriptures - Romans 15 v 4

I realize this is the first entry of 2011 - Have I really had nothing to say??
Tomorrow it is my turn to lead the prayer meeting, and I shall, God willing speak for a few minutes on the subject of the comfort of the scriptures?
Do we find the scriptures comforting? In what do we derive comfort?
Just a few simple thoughts - They are true. They proclaim the God who comforts his people - especially by the consolation of Israel.They show the lives of those who knew the power of prayer. They see that nothing takes God but surprise - and that they are more than conquers through Christ. They look forward to the hope that is ahead of them.

Behold I Come Quickly

As it was the last Sunday of the year I spoke from the concluding words of the Bible. (rev 22 v 6 - end).
In this passage we are reminded that Jesus is one day coming again. The word quick refers to the manner rather than the timing. But in between the 3 reminders we are comforted about the faithful and true sayings, we are exhorted to faithfulness and evangelism, we are warned not to add or take away from scripture.
The Bible finishes with Johns desire that the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ might be with us. Surely this is what we need while we await his second coming.

Christmas Day 2010

The day so far

then