December 11-12 - Appetite

“My intercessor is my friend as my eyes pour out tears to God; on behalf of a man he pleads with God as a man pleads for his friend” - Job 16: 20-21

It's the Christmas season, the supermarket shelves are spilling over with a mind boggling variety of foods from all over the world, and people everywhere seem to be obsessed with buying as much as their shopping trolleys will hold – not because they're hungry, because a large amount of the food purchased won't be eaten, it will end up on a landfill site when Christmas day is over.

That is our physical hunger, but what about spiritually - are we hungry for God?

It is possible to maintain a spiritual hunger for God for the rest of our lives. Here are five ways to keep a spiritual appetite.

1. Remind ourselves how much God loves us.

The more we understand how much God loves us, the more we’re going to love him. The Bible says in Ephesians 3:18-19, “May you have the power to understand … how wide, how long, how high, and how deep His love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God” (NLT, second edition).

2. Stop filling up on junk food.

Forget the fast food, we are spiritual beings with a God-shaped hole in our hearts that only God can fill. When we try to fill it with salary, status, success, passion, possessions, power, prestige, or anything other than God, it’s not going to be fulfilling. Like our physical bodies, fill our stomachs with junk food and our health will decline.

Proverbs 15:14 says, “A wise person is hungry for knowledge, while the fool feeds on trash.”

3. Make knowing God your number one goal.

We are known for who we are by the friends we keep, and happiness is a byproduct of knowing God. Jesus says in Matthew 6:33, “Seek first God’s kingdom and what God wants. Then all your other needs will be met as well” (NCV).

4. Get into God’s Word every day.

The Bible is food for our souls. There's no way eating a meal once a week will keep us healthy. In the same way, we need to feed on God’s Word every day.

“You must crave pure spiritual milk so that you will grow into a full experience of salvation. Cry out for this nourishment” (1 Peter 2:2 NLT, second edition).

5. Appetite is influenced by association.

If we hang out with people who only care about politics, that’s all we’re going to care about. If we hang out with people who only care about sports, that’s what we’re going to care about.

The best associations we can have is a small group for support, because whatever we talk about when we’re with others is what we’re going to hunger for. Proverbs 2:20 says, ”Join the company of good men and women, and stay on the paths of the righteous” (MSG/NLT, second edition).

Today's music is “Lord Feed Your Children” - the Gaithers. Click on the picture to listen.

December 10 - His way

“Save me, O God, for the waters have come up to my neck....I am worn out calling for help, my throat is parched. My eyes fail, looking for my God” - Psalm 69:1,3

This text comes to mind as I watch footage on TV of rising flood waters in Cumbria and Lancashire. Storm Desmond has done it's worst and devasted villages, hamlets and towns. Desperate people now left to pick up the pieces and reconstruct their lives.

In our daily lives, emotionally, we often feel as though the waters have risen to our necks and we are sinking fast. We scan the horizon for the faintest sign of rescue – nothing. We feel cornered, desperate. We are in good company, because down through the centuries, many of God's people have felt the same. We are not the first, and certainly will not be the last to go through these ordeals.

Whenever we are tempted to throw a fit or tantrum because we can't cope – our world has gone awry, we need to remember the principle proposed by Joni Eareckson Tada – stop whining and dining.

Stop whining: our complaints are so loud we can't hear God's voice of calm, saying 'Take five.' The voice that has shaken mountains is dulled by our negative spirit....we don't hear His comfort, or His solution to our problems, we're so full of self pity.

Stop dining: O, how many of us know this solution! The problem barrier descends, disaster threatens, and out come the biscuits, cakes and chocolates We work feverishly to sort things out under our own steam....it doesn't work! The ordeal goes on, and we are left bloated and defeated.

What are we whining and dining on? God is waiting for us to end it, then He will intervene with quietness and strength – the crisis passes – God has His way, and all things work together for good

Let's see it for ourselves today!

“It Won't Rain Always" (LIVE)” is the assurance to be found in our music today.

Bless those who curse you, and pray for those who spitefully use you. Luke 6:28

This letter has gone viral. It was sent by the owner of a Louisiana coffee shop which was robbed recently, with the thieves stealing hundreds of dollars; money that is vitally important to the tiny business.

Dear Person Who Broke In This Weekend: We hope that you really needed what you stole from us. We hope that your child got extra special food to eat, that your water bill was paid and service restored, even that your dog got a special treat. We hope that you donated to one of our favourite local causes. The money that we earn through our honest living goes to these things—our employees, our family, our loved ones, and the causes and community programs we support. Your actions make it difficult for us to do these things so at least we want to know that you will put our money to the same purpose we would have. We will rally with forgiveness and not respond with anger. Our fans and friends will rally with us and come to our aid by showing their continuing support of the honest, high quality work that we do and continue to help us provide services to this community that we love so much.

The bible commands us to bless those who curse us and to pray for those who spitefully use us. Hard words to put into practise but this shop owner did.

Do you think that you could have done the same thing? Think about it.

Commissioned sing ‘Love isn’t love’ for today’s music. Click on the picture to listen.

December 7

“Be ye therefore ready also, for the Son of Man cometh at an hour when ye think not.” Luke 12:40

I recently met some new people, a Christian couple. In a different phase of my life I have to be honest and say that in the back of my mind I would have been thinking somewhere ‘I wonder how I can get the doctrine of the Sabbath into this conversation?’ But I didn’t for two reasons

As I inferred I am in a different phase spiritually where I am leaning on God more and realising allowing him to do the saving while I serve. Some of you have been there way longer than I have but we are all at different stages and I am just being honest.

Even though a different religion, they were already Sabbath keepers, who actually had attended our church whilst seeking the Lord. But that’s another story.

In my own personal study and devotion I have been looking at how quickly world events are moving. For example the current bombing in the name of ‘protecting our freedom’ that the European countries are doing. Also the displacement of all of the refugees that has suddenly fallen off the news stories. They are still there in holding in countries around Europe waiting for the New World Order to kick in. I am also concerned about how the media is controlling what we see and hear.

To my surprise all of these concerns were shared by this new couple who I had never met before. We both agreed that this was confirmation of the end times. Regardless of your religious beliefs God is coming soon for a prepared people.

Are you ready and waiting for his soon return?

The Master’s College Chorale sing ‘Soon ah will be done’. Click on the picture to listen.

December 4-5 – Wasted years

“I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten....You will have plenty to eat, until you are full, and you will praise the name of the Lord your God, who has worked wonders for you” - Joel 2:25-26

It was still dark, I remember rolling over and turning off the alarm, but the next I knew it was an hour and half later – I was VERY late arriving at church! I got to wondering about the times we all ignore God's alarm calls and run the risk of being late for more than a church service.

If we were to take an inventory of our spiritual growth, beginning at the time of our decision to be baptised, marking off the milestones, I'm sure we will have come across chunks of spiritual wasteland where we had rolled over and turned off the alarm.

Speaking on this aspect of her life, Joni Earekson Tada is recorded as saying, “In my early teens I memorised the words of entire Beatles albums but felt bored with memorising Scripture. I turned down a summer mission trip because I didn't want to be away from my boyfriend Then came my accident in 1967 and more years of spiritual dryness as I sneered at nurses and took out my anger on my family.

Even after I got my act together, I wasted time. For almost a year I let die a habit of prayer. For ages I ignored Bible reading. Worthless years. Futile. Wasted.” For Joni, all alarm calls were totally ignored.

Alarms are going off all over the world – Christ is coming soon – continue to ignore the alarm and we run the very real risk of being too late. He says, “My reward is with me, and I will give to everyone according to what he has done” - Hebrews 10:37

Thinking of my own inventory I am tempted to grieve to think I will never recover or redeem what has been lost as I have ignored God's alarm calls. Then I remember the promise of Joel 2:25 The Lord promises that losses shall be repaired – He will make good the damage I have done. God vows He will restore our loss.

Today's music is sung by an SDA group - Inner Missions – The Lord is Coming (Are you ready?)

December 3 - Burned Biscuits....

“Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you” - Ephesians 4:31-32

....a lesson we all should learn. When I was a kid, my Mom liked to make breakfast food for dinner every now and then. I remember one night in particular when she had made breakfast for dinner after a long, hard day at work. On that evening so long ago, my Mom placed a plate of eggs, sausage and extremely burned biscuits in front of my dad. I remember waiting to see if anyone noticed!

All my dad did was reach for his biscuit, smile at my Mom and ask me how my day was at school. I don't remember what I told him that night, but I do remember watching him smear butter and jelly on that ugly burned biscuit. He ate every bite of that thing...never made a face nor uttered a word about it!

When I got up from the table that evening, I remember hearing my Mom apologize to my dad for burning the biscuits. And I'll never forget what he said, "Honey, I love burned biscuits every now and then."

Later that night, I went to kiss Daddy good night and I asked him if he really liked his biscuits burned. He wrapped me in his arms and said, "Your Mom put in a hard day at work today and she's real tired. And besides - a little burned biscuit never hurt anyone!" As I've grown older, I've thought about that many times. Life is full of imperfect things and imperfect people.

I'm not the best at hardly anything, and I forget birthdays and anniversaries just like everyone else. But what I've learned over the years is that learning to accept each other's faults and choosing to celebrate each other’s differences is one of the most important keys to creating a healthy, growing, and lasting relationship.

And that's my prayer for you today...that you will learn to take the good, the bad, and the ugly parts of your life and lay them at the feet of God. Because in the end, He's the only One who will be able to give you a relationship where a burnt biscuit isn't a deal-breaker!

We could extend this to any relationship. In fact, understanding is the base of any relationship, be it a husband-wife or parent-child or friendship!

"Don't put the key to your happiness in someone else's pocket - keep it in your own."

So, please pass me a biscuit, and yes, the burned one will do just fine.

And PLEASE pass this along to someone who has enriched your life - I just did!

Be kinder than necessary because everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle.

"Life without God is like an unsharpened pencil - it has no point"

-Anonymous

Click on the picture to listen to “You Are My All in All” Canon in D (LIVE)

And I urge you also, true companion, help these women who labored with me in the gospel, with Clement also, and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the Book of Life. Philippians 4:3

Sport, like religion, has a way of either uniting or dividing opinion. Take last week for example. Tyson Fury became the boxing heavy weight champion of the world beating Vladimir Klitschko who hadn’t been beaten in 9 years. Listening to the radio the next day I was surprised to hear the amount of negativity his victory generated. Instead of sports fans being happy many were slating him saying things like, the victory was hollow because Klitschko was past his best.

The real reason however was the manner in which he won the fight. In all his interviews pre and post the fight, Fury has boasted that he was the best fighter since the great Mohammed Ali and how the world would have to recognise him now. Sure I guess you have to have some bravado to get up in to a boxing ring and take punches from a man who weighs over 18 stone and is taller than 6 foot. But for Fury it was about re writing the record books. He said,

“I don’t care what people think or say about me now. I did what I said what I would and they can’t take history away from me now!”

In whatever field of life you are in, it doesn’t have to be sport, it could be work, college, retirement even, consider this; would you rather have a record to your name for some achievement or would you rather have you name recorded in the book of life?

Think about it.

To him who strikes you on the one cheek, offer the other also. And from him who takes away your cloak, do not withhold your tunic either. Luke 6:29

I was surprised when I read this article. It is about a ban which the group Digital Cinema Media has put on a 1 minute film about the Lord’s Prayer being shown. The group which owns Odeon, Cineworld and the Vue has refused to show the one-minute film in the run-up to Christmas stating it was discriminatory and an assault on religious freedom.

What has surprised me is that rarely nowadays does the church take a stand on religious matters. Rather it has tended to take the world view standpoint, as in the case for same sex marriages that the church has to move with the times.

Like the institution of marriage, the ‘Lord’s prayer’ is something which most children in British schools was taught 40 years ago. In fact in 2012 to mark 40 years since Newsround was first broadcast, the programme surveyed over 1,000 children aged 6-12 and 1,000 adults who'd have been that age 40 years ago, and compared the answers.

The results suggest that children today are twice as likely to say that religion is important to them compared with 40 years ago - but they are now half as likely to know the text of the Lord's Prayer.

Whilst it is encouraging that twice as many children contend that religion is important to them, this has not to be confused with having a faith. A real working faith should not ‘turn the other check’ when put under scrutiny but rather stand its ground.

Even though in reality one does not have to attend a Cinema to watch a film, I am watching with interest to see how this one plays out.

So if you have to turn the other check, stand your ground.

Our song today is 'The Lord's prayer' sung by David Phelps.

November 27-28 – Friends in need

Be happy with those who are happy and weep with those who weep.” (Romans 12:15 TEV)

One way or another we have all experienced suffering in life, situations that nobody should ever have to go through alone, times when we need people to weep with us. Such as waiting alone in the hospital while a loved one is undergoing life-and-death surgery. No woman should ever have to wait alone for the lab report on a cancer biopsy or problem pregnancy. No parent, husband or wife should have to wait alone for news of a loved one from a battlefield. And we all know the gut wrenching pain of standing at the edge of an open grave – no one should stand there alone, or spend the first night alone after a spouse has died or walked out.

It is inevitable that some of these things are going to happen to us. We’re going to go through tragedy - get bad news - experience heartache. Only a fool would go through life totally unprepared for something that we know is going to happen. The time to build a safety net — the network of supporters and friends — is now.

God offers us a safety net - a group of other believers. We don’t need a hundred. We only need five or six — a group of other believers who are committed to us and we are committed to them.

Rick Warren writes: 'There was a guy who came to Saddleback Church for seven years. He sat up in the bleachers. He never got involved in anything, never joined a small group. He just came to worship and then left right after the service. One day he had a heart attack and was in the hospital for two weeks. I was traveling and didn’t even hear about it until I got back. When he got out of the hospital, he came to church and said, “I’m leaving the church.” I said, “Why?” He responded, “Because it’s unfriendly. Nobody visited me in the hospital.” As he left I thought, “It’s your fault!”

He never cared about anybody but himself. He never cared enough to even meet anybody. He never got in a small group, never gave, never shared. It was his fault that when the crisis came, nobody was there for him, because he never made any connections.' Does this sound familiar? Does this describe you? Or maybe it's someone you know who attends your church?

God never intended any of us to go through life isolating ourselves, being friendless. Here’s God’s plan: “Be happy with those who are happy and weep with those who weep” (Romans 12:15 TEV). To do this we have to reach out to others, care about and for them – be a living, mixing,thriving member of our community. Community is God’s answer to despair. We were not made to be alone, but to share our lives with others!

Now is the time to find the people who will support us through life. People who will rejoice with us in our victories and weep with us in our troubles.

Music to go with today's blog is “Loving God Loving Each Other” - the Gaither Vocal Band

November 26 – Do it now!

“Whatever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest” - Ecc. 9:10

The sun was already up and the day promised to be bright. Sitting on the edge of the plain the city in the early light looked magnificent. A lake stretched between the hills on the Northside, mirroring in it's waters the mountains fronting the Eastern side. Workers were leaving the city to work in the vineyards and fields, and shepherds were leading the flocks up the hills to find grazing....a scene of perfect tranquility....no portents of impending doom in the sky....no earth tremours, but despite this, life in the cities of the Plain was materialistic, characterised by luxury, idleness, gluttony and drunkeness – in Sodom and Gomorrah violence, crime, and sexual perversion was rife. It is no surprise that eventually the hour of doom struck and the Plain became a plain of desolation – all because of sin and procrastination.

Sadly, as in the days of Sodom and Gomorrah, the temptations dangled before our young people are much the same. In many cases procrastination is by far and away the hardest to overcome.

James was in the prime of life – just completed a 1^st degree in medicine and had been assigned to work in a district hospital. James had proposed to his girl-friend, and the future looked bright with opportunity. James attended his local church and was having studies with the minister, but came up with excuse after excuse whenever the subject of fixing a definite date for his baptism was raised. The problem was, his girl-friend had little time for religion. James was playing for time – marry first, get baptised second – he felt that once married there would be no danger of her leaving him. James promised the minister that, as soon as possible after the wedding, he would make his commitment.

The day of the wedding drew near and James set off, head in the clouds, to drive home after finalising the arrangements. Rounding a bend a tyre blew out causing a fatal accident....James was killed. The only son of a widowed mother....bright prospects....about to commit to marriage – but not to Christ.

The attitude of James reflects that of Felix when the Apostle Paul reasoned with him about the judgement to come. Felix replied “Go thy way for this time; when I have a convenient season, I will call for you.”

At one time civilisation changed slowly, but today it seems to be in over-drive. Days and years fly by. Satan is reving up his deception that there is plenty of time. Not so, Christ is on the doorstep.

Many hear the appeals and are persuaded they should accept, but instead they laugh it off – put off their decision until another day. Every excuse is put forward – 'It will interfere with my reputation, my lifestyle. If I accept I'll lose my job, and my partner and friends will definitely walk!'

Are we ready? What about our children, family, our friends? Today may be the last day we have to choose – there's no time for fence sitting.

Today's music - “I Have Returned” - (LIVE). Click on the picture.