A State of Shock in the UK

It is almost twenty years since Diana, Princess of Wales died in a car crash in a tunnel in France. It was the 31^st August 1997 and her funeral at Westminster Abbey was on the 9^th September 1997. During that period of time the Nation was in a state of shock and needed a spiritual voice to be heard that would guide people to have faith in God but it was not heard!

Expressions of grief were displayed by the million plus bouquets of flowers placed at the gates of Kensington Palace and Althorp House which stacked to over five feet high.

A clear spiritual message was not heard in the Abbey, but the voice of a pop singer instead.

Would you have been ready?

In most homes when someone is going out for the evening or leaving for work it is normal to hear someone shout 'are you ready yet'?

Preparing to go out or getting ready for various events in life is a major part of human activity. When two people fall in love and decide to get married then great preparation is made for the wedding day. Later on if they discover that they are expecting a baby there is equally as much planning that goes into the preparation for the arrival of the little one. Life is full of times of preparation. Often this is exciting and sometimes it makes life very hectic. 

As I consider the tragic events that took place in Manchester, England in the last week I wonder how many people who entered that arena were prepared for the end of their life. Please don't get me wrong I'm not trying to make mileage out of a sad event and I don't think that they shouldn't even have had to consider that life may have ended in such an awful way. But my question remains the same - how prepared was each individual, in that arena, to leave this world and enter the next. My heart breaks when I consider the age of the children that died. The tragedy of teenagers who had hardly begun to live and life was taking forcibly from them but the question remains the same – how prepared were they for this final step from this life to the next?

Please let me turn the question round and address it to you. Are you prepared for the next life? Do you understand that there is life on the other side of death? Do you realise that this life is about the preparation for the next?

There are a lot of other questions that sit alongside the ones that I have posed. Questions that might challenge some of the things that I have send! You might say that I'm making assumptions. Or you may deny the validity or the basis of the statements that I make. I would, with all due respect, ask you to read some of my other blog posts before passing judgement as they go into more detail about why I believe the Bible and the gospel of Jesus Christ to be the truth. 

I want to leave you with a couple of statements from the Bible and I want to request that you take time to consider them and reflect upon them. 

Proverbs 14:12

There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.

Proverbs 16:25

There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.

This statement is repeated twice by a man who is renowned to be the wisest man who ever lived. Basically he is saying that we think we know the truth, we think we know what is right but actually we get it wrong and our way ends in death. 

You are no doubt a very good person as measured against other people but we all are flawed and sinful and need salvation from a God who is holy and against whom we have sinned. 

Ecclesiastes 12:1

Remember now -- thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them;

This is a warning to young people to think about God early in life. You might be well beyond 'the days of your youth' but if it was important to think about God when young then it must be even more important and urgent as life progresses. God is concerned about all his creation, he hates evil, he will judge the perpetrators of evil but he does not pick and choose which sins he judges. He judges grosser sin more severely than lesser forms of sin. However that will not be much of a comfort when you are excluded from heaven, God's grace and all that our hearts desire. God will judge all sin and humanity fairly and justly.

Amos 4:12

Therefore thus will I do unto thee, O Israel: and because I will do this unto thee, prepare to meet thy God, O Israel.

This recommendation was made to a nation. They had sinned against God and were about to be judged by him. The advice of the prophet Amos was that they should prepare to meet God. The advice is just as significant for us today in the 21st-century. We need to be prepared for the day when we meet God. 

I am praying that God would give help in our country to reduce and control terrorism. I doubt that will ever eradicate it but I hope that we can minimise it and reduce the horrible events of Manchester being repeated elsewhere. 

But let us learn a lesson. A lesson that we would rather not learn. We need to be prepared for the unexpected, prepared for the end of life, prepared even though we might not be in the age bracket where we expect life to end. It could, and did and the tragedy is that many were most likely not prepared. 

The ultimate advice in the Bible is that we should believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved, Acts 16:31. Would you take that advice today.

Manchester - your reaction ?

After the events that have taken place in Manchester this week we in the United Kingdom are feeling very vulnerable. 

You wonder sometimes about the twists and turns that life takes and why the road goes the way it does. Evil seems to be given free range and acts of evil are perpetrated to the devastation of society.

Night Away

   

 

  

My wife (Carole) and I have enjoyed a night away in Manchester. We stayed in the Hilton for one night. This was a gift kindly given to us by friends. We really enjoyed it. The Hilton stands high above the Manchester skyline. Our room was on the 10th floor as Carole didn't want to go too high up. After we enjoyed the pool and the spa in the morning we 'risked' going to the 23rd floor to the Cloud 23 Lounge & Restaurant. The views were amazing; we could see Runcorn, Manchester Airport etc. 

Anyway back to business tomorrow. Three days and then we head to Ireland for a wedding. The change of routine in the summer is so refreshing. 

After Ireland I'm off to Leicester to give a series of talks at a girls camp. Variety is the spice of life. Watch this space for further updates, bible talks, video talks and info about the bible. 

To get regular updates visit www.seekthetruth.org.uk. 

Important Message for everyone who reads this blog!

If I could have everything I wanted would I give it up under any circumstances?

http://goodnews4liverpool.wordpress.com/2014/10/13/barrow-in-furness/

Needless deaths - could it be different?

We are all affected when we hear of someone being murdered in the course of their work life. This is especially pertinent when the victims are people involved in public duties i.e. police, nurses, teachers, firemen etc. We feel that our freedom has been violated and we are more vulnerable as a result. The murders of PC Nicola Hughes and PC Fiona Bone are just the most recent examples of the violent and sick society that we live in. Sadly this is not a lone incident, as it is not long since we mourned the death of PC David Rathband who found life impossible to go on living after losing his sight  as a result of violent crime in July 2010.

Can we do anything to change the course that society is on or is it just something that we have to live with?

I know that what I believe is not popular but I believe that it is the truth. The Bible teaches that 'righteousness exalts a nation and sin is a reproach to any people". Our society is now so far removed from the word of God (the Bible) that the basic principles that govern behaviour and cultivate a good society have been lost. The reason we need laws, police etc is because we all have a bias to do what is self centred and wrong. Thankfully this does not manifest itself in the grosser forms of evil in every individual but we all do things that are wrong and have the capacity to do all sorts of evil.  The Bible states the case plainly when it says 'for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God'. God's standard is majestic and not just at the level of rule keeping and ticking boxes.  The bible teaches that the heart of man is deceitful and desperately wicked. This is the potential that we saw unleashed in these acts of violence.

What can we say then about good citizens like PC Hughes and PC Bone? They, like us, had a sense of justice, they wanted to improve society and they gave their lives to see that happen. As one of their senior officers promised when he was being interviewed his aim is to make sure they did not die in vain. My prayer is that they will succeed in this.

As I close can I give you some hope. Things can be different! This is precisely what the message of Jesus, his death and resurrection is all about. Christ died for our sins, he knew that we could not save ourselves or improve our society without his redeeming grace and forgiveness. He is willing to forgive those who confess their sin and accept his forgiveness. When this happens in the experience of the individual they become a whole new person, old things pass away, all things become new. Believe me, I have seen it in the lives of the most unlikely individuals.

Yes we do need great police officers on the beat, we need laws and law enforcement to prevent tragedies like we have witnessed reoccuring but we need to preach the life changing and soul saving gospel of Jesus Christ to reform the people of our country from the inside out.

Read, listen or watch more at www.seekthetruth.org.uk