Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him. ... “ Luke 10:30-37 ESV

The Samaritans Suicide Statistics Report 2016 states:

• There were 6,581 suicides in the UK and Republic of Ireland, in 2014.

• The highest suicide rate in the UK in 2014 was for men aged 45-49 at 26.5 per 100,000.

• Female suicide rates increased in the UK (by 8.3%), England (by 14%), Scotland (by 7.8%) and Republic of Ireland (by 14.7%) between 2013 and 2014. Female suicide rates decreased in Wales (by 38.2%) and Northern Ireland (by 17.7%).

There are those of you out there who will feel discouraged when you read that. "Where is my friend?" you say. "I haven't turned down any friendships; I'm lonely for a friend." Maybe your lifestyle over the years has cut you off – your career ladder choice – shift worker....asleep when others are socialising – a sole carer whose attention 24/7 is required by the person in need – death of, or desertion by, a husband or partner – disability – redundancy....causes are numerous Over the years the friends you had have gradually stopped calling you...asking you out. So many desperate people.

God never intended us to go through life alone. “The LORD God said, ‘It is not good for the man to be alone’ ” Genesis 2:18 God’s commentary on Adam being alone in the garden is striking . After each stroke of his creative power: “God saw all that he had made, and it was very good” (Genesis 1:31). Until, that is, He made Adam. At that point, something was not good: “It is not good for the man to be alone” (Genesis 2:18). So He fixed it and did something really good—He made Eve! Being alone is not a good thing for anyone. God made us in His image—which means that we, like Him, are relational beings.

Maybe there is someone close by just waiting for YOU to come into their life and be their friend. Start looking around. Ask God to open your eyes. Maybe God has planted a potential friendship for you that you have never considered before. Maybe you never thought of it before because the person doesn't match some criteria in your mind but you can change your mind.

We all need to stay on the alert and ready to extend the hand of friendship. Who might need you right now? A smile, an encouraging word, an offer of help, an invitation to lunch - these can all turn into friendships. Look at how you can fulfill a need that might be there for the other person. Give first; receiving will come.

“Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ” (Gal 6:2)

Where is your friend? I believe God has one for you, probably more than one.

"What a Friend we Have in Jesus" – a good old favourite gospel song is today's music choice. Click on the picture to hear.

September 14 - SPENDING TEMPTATIONS: You NEED the new iPhone 7!

“Vanity[of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity. 3 What does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun?,,,,the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing. 9 What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun. 10 Is there a thing of which it is said, “See, this is new”? It has been already in the ages before us” Ecclesiastes 1.

“Pre-order the iphone 7 today to have it delivered at your door for free, or buy online to pick up at an Apple Store near you!”

That was the message in my email inbox following the release of the Apple’s iPhone 7. I had to check out the features, they're cool and undeniably attractive but here is what I thought:

*Dual 12MP cameras on iPhone 7 Plus – Really, my 8MP camera takes great pics, thanks a lot!

*Wide colour gamut – I don’t even know what that means!

*A10 processor, up to 2x faster than iPhone 6 – I am not in a hurry anyway; Neither have I tried the iPhone 6.

*Longest battery life ever in an iphone – Of course, you would expect a new release to have improved battery performance; I have a charger at home and at work; I can buy an Anker 20,000mha Portable charger for only £20 or so and recharge for weeks! Turning off wifi and other apps will also make my battery last longer.

*New stereo speaker system – I can always play my music through a variety of other home gadgets and systems

*Splash and water resistance – would be nice to have but I do not shower with my phone and will do my best to guard against the risk of water damage!

MORAL: With more than £6,000 spent on marketing for every person in the UK, for instance, it means there a numerous SPENDING TEMPTATION for you to part with your money, even when you do not need to will be huge!

Buy things what you really NEED, can AFFORD and will actually USE.
Remember, they say:
“A fool and his money are soon parted”

If you have a Smartphone in your pocket, any Smartphone, do you really need an upgrade? Considering that your Smartphone is much more powerful than the computer that put man on the moon!

ComputerWeekly.com has this to say:
"It’s absolutely amazing that the computers used to guide the Apollo 11 mission to the moon were no more powerful than a pocket calculator or a mobile phone."

The so-called Apollo Guidance Computer (AGC) used a real time operating system, which enabled astronauts to enter simple commands by typing in pairs of nouns and verbs, to control the spacecraft. It was more basic than the electronics in modern toasters that have computer controlled stop/start/defrost buttons. It had approximately 64Kbyte of memory and operated at 0.043MHz!

Do you still need to upgrade to iPhone 7? Don't tell me you have already pre-ordered it! Well, who am I to say what you should or should not do!

Apple has now adopted the car lease model for iPhones; you pay monthly forever for the pleasure of a new iPhone every year. Catch: you never really own the iPhone (unless you pay another large sum) and you never stop the monthly repayments.

What a Smart idea by Apple: guaranteed monthly income by playing to the VANITY of gullible consumers.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/825816587526111/

Music today is brought to us by Michael English and the Gaither vocal band, “I Am Satisfied”. Click on Jesus to listen.

For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. Romans 1:16

Do you sometimes question what you believe in? I have the privilege of being raised in a Christian home, however I had to develop my own relationship with God in order to take me through some of life’s sudden turns. If you were asked this question ‘Why believe in a God?’ what would be your response?

Well firstly I noted the subtle article ‘a’ which appears before the word God – why believe in a God has an altogether different tone to ‘why believe in God’ as the bible tells us that there is only one true God.

For though there be that are called gods, whether in heaven or in earth, (as there be gods many, and lords many,) but to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him. 1 Corinthians 8:5-6

When posed with this question amongst other as many as 10,000 people left the Church of Denmark between April and June, statistics from the Scandinavian country have shown, due in part to a nationwide atheist campaign urging people to question the divinity of Jesus, and the importance of believing in God.

The Independent noted that the 10,000 people who left the faith in that time period is almost double the number who did the same between January and March, which has led the Danish Atheist Society to celebrate the news. Wow, now that is a lot of people isn’t it? Read the full story here.

Friends we really have to know what we believe and in whom we believe.

And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat: 32 but I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren. Luke 22:31-32

We do not want to be sifted like wheat!

Trey McLaughlin sings ‘For your glory’. Click on the picture to listen.

‘A gentle answer makes anger disappear, but a rough answer makes it grow. Listening to wise people increases your knowledge, but only nonsense comes from the mouths of fools.’ Proverbs 15:1-2

I wish that I understood the bible more. There are some things that even though I read time and again I just don’t seem to understand. That is why it is good to talk with other likeminded individuals who share the same Christian view. Even so, once I have a fixed idea unless you can show me the context and not just the text, I will stubbornly not move my stance until I have prayerfully considered it and enquired God for his intervention. Scriptural disagreements do not always have to be bad as long as you remember that God is love and everything should be done in order that his love still shines through.

I was shock to read then about a 67-year-old retired pastor who reportedly shot a fellow retired pastor when the two got into an argument about the Bible in the senior home where they both lived.

According to ChristianToday.com, 67-year-old wheelchair-bound Ted Merchant shot 80-year-old Allen Smith twice in the head, killing him immediately after the two men had a disagreement about the Bible. Residents of Senior Suites of Rainbow Beach in Chicago where Merchant and Smith lived reported that the two former pastors often debated about the Bible out on the complex’s back patio.

I really feel for the family of both men especially that of the deceased. More than that I feel sorry for the damage this has done to the Christian community. Since the bible times there have been religious wars and these continue even in recent times. They paint a picture of God who is purely a God of war and does not give us the option whether to love him out of choice. This is not true of the God that I love and serve.

Christian community we have a responsibility to share a true picture of God through the lives that we lead, in the conversations we have about him and also how we share him.

Let us think before we speak.

CeCe Winans sings ‘Alone in his presence’. Click on the picture to listen.

September 9-10 - Heart gift

“And I will give them singleness of heart and put a new spirit within them.
I will take away their hearts of stone and give them tender hearts instead.” - Ezekiel 11:19

Overnight I haven't been able to get the futility of Mary's life, (yesterday's blog) out of my mind, the tragic waste of time and money spent on a search for considered perfection. It brought to mind an article I had read about a young man, Dan Olsen, who has also known more than his fair share of surgery, but for a very different reason.

Dan Olson is a marathon runner and long-distance cyclist. He’s also a heart transplant recipient. Dan thought his athletic lifestyle would ensure having a healthy body. But at age 38, he was diagnosed with cardiomyopathy— the weakening and thickening of the heart muscle.

Damaged beyond repair, Dan needed a heart transplant. His donor was a 15-year-old car accident victim. Making the decision to generously donate their daughter’s organs in the midst of their tragedy, the teenager’s parents gave Dan a new life. “I think of my donor every day,” says Dan. “And I want to show her family all that their gift has allowed me to do.”

Before we became believers in Jesus, we had spiritual “cardiomyopathy”—the hardening of our heart (Ephesians 4:17). The Great Physician called our condition “a heart of stone” (Ezekiel 36:26 NIV). According to His prognosis, our stony heart was unable and unwilling to respond to God (Ezekiel 11:19). Untreated, we would have been dead, devoid of life (Ephesians 2:1; Colossians 2:13).

But then we received major surgery. We are also heart transplant recipients. This procedure was performed by the divine Surgeon (Deuteronomy 30:6; Colossians 2:11). He said, “I will give you a new heart . . . . I will take out your stony, stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart. And I will put My Spirit in you so that you will follow My decrees and be careful to obey My regulations” (Ezekiel 36:26). Without this new heart, we could not be a believer in Jesus.

Dan's need for surgery was far from a vanity trip – it was essential to save his life. We also have received a new heart and it has saved us to a new life! Like Dan, do we think of our Donor every day? May this new heart empower us to “love Him with all our heart and soul and so we may live” (Deuteronomy 30:6).

(Acknowledgements to K.T.Sim)

The music choice today is “I Give You My Heart” - Hillsong – Holly Dawson. Click on the picture to listen.

September 8 -

The Lord your God will change your heart . . . so that you will love Him with all your heart and soul and so you may live! (Deuteronomy 30:6).

Mary (not her real name) is aged 32, and during her adult years she has undergone 25 private cosmetic operations to the cost of £165,000. Some of these operations were corrective but the majority were the result of Mary's dissatisfaction with her body shape and facial features.

Mary sounded confident, assured, and very pleased with her actions, but what struck me as I listened to her responding to questions from a radio DJ was just how insecure and inadequate she must be feeling deep down inside. What is lacking in her life and relationships that she feels the need to constantly seek 'perfection' under the surgeon's knife with all the risks entailed in every operation?

If Mary continues to build her identity on her body image, she will struggle with insecurity all her life. We can build our identity on our jobs, but we can lose our job. We can build our identity on how good-looking we think we are, but we may lose our good looks – we will all grow old one day. We can build our identity on the person we married, but he or she is going to die. We can build our identity on being popular, but we’re not always going to be popular.

Sooner or later this will dawn on Mary and she will realise that the only way to happiness is to base her identity on Jesus, understanding that he loves her unconditionally, that she is His - valuable, and He has a purpose and plan for her life.

The Bible says in Proverbs 29:25, “The fear of human opinion disables; trusting in God protects you from that” (MSG).

What is needed is a heart transplant to give Mary and us a new perspective beyond the vanity and competitiveness of society. Fortunately, God specializes in them. We don’t have to find our identity in our job, bank account, good looks or relationships, because we find our identity in God. God gives a brand new heart and a brand new identity. It’s called salvation! Just reach out....

“He is Here” LIVE – Gaither vocal group. Click on the picture to listen.

So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. 2 Corinthians 4:18

Have you been tired, I mean really tired. So tired that you can’t even eat? Next door to us they are building a new housing estate and they begin their drilling and earth moving early! Which is fine if you haven’t been to work the night before. In my household we have night workers and trying to sleep in the day has been a nightmare!

I was trying my best to think about how I could turn this situation into a positive, especially when I had done a night shift myself, and then the thought occurred to me. I wonder how the construction work is doing for my mansion. Yes, that’s right, I said MY mansion.

The gospel of John 14:2-3 reminds us;

In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. 

Not only does God live in a place where there are many mansions, but he has gone to build one especially for you. So, when you are kept awake by road digging machines and the dust from the construction coats your vehicle and garden vegetables, remember the key text and dream of heaven and the master builder.

Heritage Singers give us a rendition of ‘I bowed my knees and cried holy’. Click on the picture to listen.

“Therefore comfort one another with these words.” 1 Thessalonians 4:18 (NKJV)

Bereavement is a cruel thing. It effects people in different ways. Recently friends of ours, who we regard as family, have been numbed by this earthly affliction and our hearts go out to them. You too may know someone in your circles or indeed it might be you this affects. I want to share this article I read which I found comforting for its practical advice.

Professor Tony Campolo once attended the funeral of an acquaintance, and by mistake ended up at the wrong funeral parlour. The body of an elderly man was laid out, and his widow was the only mourner there. She seemed so lonely, Campolo stayed for the funeral and then accompanied her to the cemetery. After the committal service, as they were driving away Campolo confessed that he hadn’t actually known the lady’s husband. ‘I thought so,’ she replied. ‘I didn’t recognise you. But it doesn’t matter. You’ll never, ever, know what this means to me.’

Philip Yancey writes: ‘Simple availability is the most powerful force we can contribute … We rightly disparage Job’s three friends for their insensitive response to his suffering. But read the account again: “When they came, they sat in silence beside Job for seven days before opening their mouths” … those were the most eloquent moments they spent with him.

Instinctively I shrink back from people in pain. Who knows if they want to talk about their predicament or not? Do they want to be consoled or cheered up? What good can my presence possibly do? My mind spins out these rationalizations and as a result I end up doing the worst thing possible: I stay away … No one offers the name of a philosopher when I ask, “Who helped you the most?” Most often they describe a quiet, unassuming person … who was there … who listened more than they talked, who didn’t keep glancing down at a watch, who hugged and touched, and cried … someone who was available and came on the sufferer’s terms, not their own.’ That’s how you minister to others.

Courtesy of UCB

Kirk Franklin sings ‘Don't cry?’ Click on the picture to listen.

September 2-3

"There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known. What you have said in the dark will be heard in the daylight, and what you have whispered in the ear in the inner rooms will be proclaimed from the roofs." (Luke 12:2)

Back in the 1980s Barbara Lardinais recalls, and writes about, a Sunday school class studying the book of Ephesians. She still has notes from that class in the margin of the Bible she was using at that time, and remembers how remarkable and insightful that teaching was and the young man who taught the class. A gifted teacher who went go to ordination and an apparent earnestness about serving God. He started an inner city church from scratch which grew and prospered. Eventually he moved out of the district into other ministry, but his original church still, today, is vibrant and effective.

Tragically however, that same man today, sits in a prison cell, sentenced for the cold blooded murder of his wife. His teenage children are now basically orphaned, his wife is dead and his life is destroyed. What happened between that Sunday school class and now? How did he cover up her disappearance from the family's life and his ministry? The first thought is that at some point he must have ditched the ministry and gone the way of the world to have 'a good time'. But that is not the case. Up until the time of the murder, he and his wife were operating as the children's pastors in their church. Church members recall that they seemed an ideal couple with a successful ministry.

Either conscience caught up with him, or someone eventually reported his wife was missing, because he finally admitted the murder he has never expressed sorrow for.. Over the intervening years he had lived a double life undetected, with the appearance of someone who had it all together - but his heart was far from God. Was he a fraud from the very beginning? Was he arrogant enough to think he was fooling even God? Psalm 10:11 says; "He has said in his heart, 'God has forgotten; he hides His face; he will never see.'"

We can't hide from God. He created us....He knows our thought before we think them. What is hidden in the heart of a man will eventually come out into the open. This young minister is clear proof of that.

We need to check our hearts continually, search for any seeds of deception operating. Accept nothing unless it can stand up to the test of the Bible. We must live transparent lives before God and men. Otherwise we will experience what Jesus said; "There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known. What you have said in the dark will be heard in the daylight, and what you have whispered in the ear in the inner rooms will be proclaimed from the roofs." (Luke 12:2)

“I Can't Make it Lord Without You” - the Isaacs -today's music choice.