Starting the year well!!

A New Year brings fresh challenges and opportunities, but life is unpredictable! At times, the variety life brings can be very exciting, but sometimes it’s a bit frightening. Problems at home, business pressures, ongoing health issues and uncertainty! The speed of change and our helplessness to manage events can be disconcerting! Yet, as mere mortals, we cannot control our circumstances and must try to cope with what seems inevitable as well as we possibly can.

There are many situations like this in life. Sometimes illness cannot be avoided, we are affected by what other people do, and often things are out of our control. We are quite skilful at coping most of the time, but sometimes we just have to ‘go with the flow’. I am not a laid-back type of person, so I often wonder what it must be like to be relaxed and unaffected by changeable circumstances.

The ultimate uncontrollable event is death. It creeps up on every one of us. We may prolong life and improve the quality of our twilight years, but we cannot evade death in the long term! But I believe, and the Bible teaches, there is hope in the Lord Jesus Christ.

The most remarkable book in the world.

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The Bible is a remarkable book, we can even say totally unique.  It is divided into Old Testament, completed four hundred years before the birth of Jesus and the New Testament, completed by the end of the first century AD. The Old Testament has many strands of predictive prophecy and the most important of those predictions apply to the Lord Jesus.  It has been worked our that there are sixty prophecies focused  upon various aspects of Jesus including His birth, death, burial and resurrection. This is an amazing number and they came true in the minutest detail.

Following Jesus

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My Bible reading this morning was about the conversion of a Roman Centurion. He was a most unlikely candidate to become a follower of Jesus (the term Christian was not used at that time, but that was what he became).

Roman Centurions (I am generalising now) were usually battle hardened, professional, cynical, no nonsense type of people. Faith in the unseen or putting your trust in someone else was not how they normally operated unless, of course, it was obeying their commanding officer. They usually liked to be in control, pragmatic and deal in realities i.e. things that could be seen, touched and controlled. Maybe you are like that and quite cynical about spiritual matters.

Before I talk about Cornelius, that was his name, let me tell you about another Centurion. The Gospel writer, Matthew, tells us about him. Jesus had just arrived in Capernaum when a group of men from a synagogue approached him asking him to come to this unnamed Centurion’s house to heal his servant who was dying. There are a couple of things that are unusual about this story (read it in Luke 7:1-10 or Matthew 8:5-13). 

Welcome home Mr President

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Hubert Horatio Humphrey Jr. was an American politician who served as the 38th Vice President of the United States under President Lyndon B. Johnson from 1965 to 1969.  When he died in 1978 hundreds of people from across the world attended his funeral. All were welcome, but one – former President Richard Nixon, who had not long dragged himself and his country through the humiliation and shame of Watergate. As eyes turned away and conversations ran dry around him Nixon could feel the ostracism being ladled out to him.

Then Jimmy Carter, the serving US President, walked into the room. Carter was from a different political party to Nixon and well known for his honesty and integrity. As he moved to his seat President Carter noticed Richard Nixon standing all alone. He immediately changed course, walked over to Richard Nixon, held out his hand, and smiling genuinely and broadly embraced Nixon and said “Welcome home, Mr President! Welcome home!”  

Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 1926 - 2022

Photo courtesy of Ards Evangelical Bookshop

Her Majesty
Queen Elizabeth II
1926 - 2022

“To what greater inspiration and counsel can we turn than to the imperishable truth to be found in this treasure house, the Bible.”

We are deeply saddened by the death of Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II. Only eternity will reveal the blessing of having upon the throne, a Sovereign who recognised the King of Kings, the Lord Jesus Christ.

She had the privilege of being brought up by parents who knew the Saviour. Her father, King George VI was known to be a regular attender of Bible teaching meetings before he became King.On one occasion, her parents were on a state visit to Canada. His hosts had arranged for a well-known Native American, Chief Whitefeather, to sing for them, assuming he would choose a traditional native song. Being a Christian himself, he chose to sing his favourite hymn, I’d Rather Have Jesus.

Visit to the USA

I’ve just arrived in the USA for a few weeks. It seems like we’ve been travelling for ever. We left Liverpool at 7:30 am yesterday morning and have just touched down in Chicago and it’s now 2:02 GMT. For some reason I’m not tired but I’m sure I will be tomorrow. We’ve one more leg of the journey to do by plane (1 hour 30 minutes) and then a drive by car to our destination. 

I’m in the US to tell people about how God is working in the UK, Pakistan and Uganda. Despite the flooding in Pakistan many people are becoming true believers in Jesus Christ. 

Over the coming days I’ll update you when I have more details of the conditions in Pakistan. In the meantime keep well. 

Kind regards,

Stephen

Deception

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None of us likes to be deceived, yet we may be subject to some kind of deception almost every day. Perhaps you have been deceived in the purchase of some commodity; for example, if the car you bought was ‘clocked’. That means the milometer (the device recording the number of miles the vehicle has travelled) had been turned back to give the impression that the distance travelled was a lot smaller than the true mileage. Along with this, the price was increased because supposedly you were buying ‘a very nice low mileage car’. Sometimes a soccer player is tackled and the tackler hardly touches him but he rolls around the turf so that the referee is deceived into awarding a ‘free kick’. Many people have been deceived by politicians who promised lots but delivered little.

We remember, when we were at school, the excuses we made because we did not have our homework done. We deceived the teacher. One of the worst deceptions was when we deceived our parents by lying to them about places we had been and the company we were with. As we look back over the past our cheeks blush and we feel most uncomfortable.

Caught by his own camera

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In recent years, many car drivers have installed dashboard cameras, so that, if they are involved in an accident, the footage can be used to help establish liability. The trend has also been taken up by some cyclists, who have cameras fitted, not only for use in case of accidents, but also for recording careless driving by motorists. The photographic evidence is then forwarded to the authorities, and those who pose a danger to cyclists can be prosecuted, even if no collision has occurred. A couple of years ago, a cyclist in Ireland successfully implicated two drivers by this method. However, to his dismay, the investigators, on examining his video, found that he too had been guilty of breaking the law during his journey, and he was prosecuted, along with the drivers he had filmed.

In the early chapters of the Epistle to the Romans, Paul shows how people are guilty of having broken, not the laws of the road, but the Law of God: the holy, righteous standard that He demands of all mankind. In Romans 2.1-3, Paul addresses someone who criticises others for their misdeeds, but who, in doing this, is condemning himself, for he does "the same things". He states that God will judge everyone according to righteous principles, and that no-one should think that he will "escape the judgment of God". Like the cyclist, we may try to pronounce others guilty, but in so doing we are declaring our own guilt, for "there is none righteous, no, not one" Romans 3.10. "What things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God there is no difference: for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God" Romans 3.19,22,23. We are all "without excuse" Romans 1.20, and deserve "wrath, tribulation and anguish" Romans 2.9.

Who can you trust?

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When I was a young lad financial institutions were so secure that we thought that it was impossible for one to "go bust". That is probably why I joined one at the age of 20, but here we are in the 21st century and we cannot even trust a financial institution. What is left that is dependable? What worries me is that we are told one day that everything is fine by the very people, who then have to admit that everything has gone wrong so soon afterwards.

Truth seems to disappear, all for the sake of public confidence in something that is already destined to fail. Well those of you who have been reading these messages for any length of time, will know that I believe that God can be trusted. The Bible affirms that 'God cannot lie' and that the things that He says are 'true and faithful' i.e. they are to be trusted.

Happy New Year

For some of you 2022 has started, for some it’s still a couple of hours until the old year passes and the new arrives. Whichever camp you are in Happy New Year to you. 

May you know the blessing of God in 2022, Kind regards, Stephen