Why must we die?

The Bible states that 'it is appointed unto men once to die'. This most obvious of facts is among the most distressing things that we human beings face. I have a friend who committed suicide just before Christmas about eleven years ago. Why - I can speculate but I do not really know. One my friends in Liverpool then found that her partner's nephew has been found dead in his flat. Death comes to us all but why?

How to change your life in a moment

I remember once that my attention was caught by a Scottish Widows advertising campaign slogan, it said...

‘Change your life today’! 

That seems a bit dramatic - Is it really possibly to have a personal revolution in a day?

Being honest there are not many things that cause a transformation in a day; but it could happen. Let me give you one example  there are others. For instance, you could meet an individual who changes your life for ever. The love of your life! You have just been introduced or your paths have only crossed but immediately your heart is captured and things are never quite the same again. 

For some people their first encounter with Jesus of Nazareth changed them from that day forward. His grace and love captured their hearts. The voice of God stirred their spirit and they became aware of their failings and sin. The feeling of guilt was crushing as they discovered how rebellious they were by nature and why life hurt so much. The outcomes and consequences of sins were devastating but what blew them away was that 'Christ died for our sins'. He, the holy Son of God paid in person the full price God required to clear the guilty and forgive the fallen.

The words of the Bible, despite being shocking in their starkness and truthfulness, ring true to reality and are in tune with the human conscience. 

Let me remind you of the blunt, basic but honest truths of the Bible:

In respect of wrong that is found in every human being: 

‘All have sinned’

‘The soul that sins shall die’

‘The wages of sin is death’ 

Sinful people 'will be cast into hell’

In supporting the claim that Jesus is the only means of rescue (salvation) 

Jesus said ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life no one comes to the Father (God) but by me’

'Neither is there salvation in any other' (only Jesus)

'Through this man (Jesus) is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins'

In explaining what you need to do to take advantage of God’s rescue plan

'Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved'

'Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved'

'Repent and believe the gospel'

The truth is there!

The choice is will you believe!

Your life could be changed, in a moment!

A message for everyone in Liverpool

The first man Adam died, the oldest man Methuselah died, the wisest man Solomon died, the meekest man Moses died. 

Patriarchs, prophets, princes, princesses, prime ministers, presidents, politicians, philosophers, peasants and paupers all die. 

The mighty Pharaohs passed away, the conquering emperors of Rome had to succumb to this mighty foe, Alexander the Great could not withstand the onslaught of death. 

The rich, the poor, the famous, the unknown, the wise and unwise, the religious and the heathen, the terrorist and the law abiding alike must fall beneath its cruel stroke.

Is your life being refined?

This blog really only applies to those who are saved and trusting in Jesus Christ for their eternal welfare. It may have an application in measure to others in the experiences of life but you can't claim that God is working in your life and seeking to refine you if you don't trust Him for your destiny in the next life.

For many people there is an unanswered question in life. ‘If God really loves us why does he allow storms to come into our lives at all?’ Two reasons. First, we bring many of our problems on ourselves. Someone has said, ‘If you could kick the person responsible for most of your troubles in the backside, you wouldn’t be able to sit down for two weeks’.

Joy & Sadness - the offering of Christmas

Joy and sorrow are opposite emotional experiences that all of us know throughout our lifetime. Life is like a tapestry of bright and dark colours and often the bright parts shine the brighter when set against a dark background. 

I am reminded of Benjamin Malachi Franklin’s poem ‘Just a Weaver’, 

Does anybody care?

Does Anyone Care?

Does anyone care? That’s a question that lonely people often ask themselves throughout the winter season. Everyone else seems to have people to share the Christmas season with, and the first weeks of the year can be dreary and depressing.
Life is full of questions and often the answers are difficult. Stephen Baker seeks to answer various questions about life and faith using the Bible as his only source. Listen to Stephen’s show, “Life Questions,” on HopeStreamRadio as he tackles the challenge of life questions.

Does Anyone Care?

This time of the year can be a lonely time for many people! Everyone has their family, or do they? There are a lot of people about who are very private and keep themselves to themselves. They would not trouble anyone with their problems and would not presume that anyone else is interested.

Key facts about the Bible

This is a short statement explaining the key message of the Bible. 

It starts with the fact that God created us. Subsequent to our creation Adam, the first man, made a choice to disobey God. The result is that we as a human race do not know God personally. This is because we all inherited sin and are children of disobedience. The Biblical statement summarising this fact is found in Romans chapter five - 'by one man sin entered into the world and death by sin'.

Stages of life and the forgiveness of God

We pass through many stages of life on our journey. Stephen Baker points out that this is normal but we shouldn’t miss out on the forgiveness of God.

Are You Affected by the Weather?

What was the first thing you noticed this morning when you got up? Maybe I should reword that_ I am not thinking about your beautiful spouse or children_ My question really is – did you notice if it was sunny or rainy? Did the weather annoy you or concern you?

In the UK the summer of 2018 was really a bit of a non-event. I am not fully aware of the precise statistics but it seems that summer came and went with little evidence that we had one.

Life Passing Us By

Life is like that for a lot of us. Some people feel that it has passed them by. The dreams of yesterday never quite became the reality of today. The wish list remained just that – a wish list. If only. Life need not be like that. I believe that God’s desire for humanity is to lift our gaze from the mundane things of life and to give us hope; but more of that in a moment.

Wonderfully Made - Part 6 - The Cells

Our fifth and final subject for study in the series is the cells, the basic building blocks of our bodies. There are an awful lot of them, about 40 trillion (million million), with a mere 35 billion, thousand million, skin cells, and around two billion cells in our hearts. 

There are about 200 different kinds of cell, including blood, muscle, skin, nerve, glandular cells, etc. Half our cells are taken up by red blood cells.

Wonderfully Made - Part 5 - The Heart

Our fourth subject for study in the series is our heart. This is our amazing blood pump, which sends about seven and a half tonnes of blood around our body every single day, delivering this fresh delivery to the tens of trillions of cells in the body through its 100,000 miles of blood vessels. Our hearts beat more than 100,000 times a day to do this job. It is hardly surprising therefore that the human heart has been called one of the biggest engineering miracles in the whole world.

Wonderfully Made - Part 4 - The Liver

David, the author of most of the psalms in our Bible wrote that he was ‘fearfully and wonderfully made’. In this series of short studies, we are looking at five parts of our wonderfully made human bodies, and finding out what spiritual lessons they have for us today. 

Our third subject for study in the series is our liver, the largest of our internal organs, situated on the right hand side of the belly. It is also one of our most complex organs, doing about 500 jobs at once, including fighting off infection; neutralizing poisons; manufacturing essential proteins and hormones; controlling blood sugar and helping with the clotting of our blood. However the liver's main job is to clean up the blood coming from the digestive tract, before passing it on to the rest of the body. At any one time, the liver contains about one eighth of all the blood in our bodies, and it pumps out about one and a half litres of purified blood per minute.

What is our most valued possession?

What is Your Most Valuable Possession?

It’s a good question; I wonder how you would answer it? If we are being honest our answer will depend, to some extent, on our circumstances. For instance, if I was terminally ill what I thought was important would be completely different to my choice in sunnier days. Car, homes, holidays and technology might be important to me now, but they have little value if life is slipping from my grasp. I hope that family, relationships and my spiritual condition will be my focus if I get time to contemplate my departure from this life to the next.

Is Your Most Valuable Possession a Bucket List?

So be honest with me – if you were facing the dying moments of your life on Earth what would your checklist look like? I often hear people talk about a bucket list of things they would like to do before they die. It might be to climb this mountain, fly to this destination or enjoy this particular experience. Please don’t get me wrong, I understand that you would be creating memories for those who will be left behind. I appreciate that you may be seeking to ensure that the final moments of life are full of genuine rich and familial experience.

20% of people in the UK admit to loneliness!

I discovered recently that ‘1 A national commission investigating loneliness in the UK in January 2017 showed that a fifth of the population privately admits they are "always or often lonely”’.

Herbert Van Zeller, 1905-1984, once wrote ‘the soul hardly ever realises it, but whether he is believer or not, his loneliness is really a homesickness for God’. That’s quite a statement. Loneliness is deeper than a lack of company and it affects people in all stages of life.

Life Is Unpredictable, But God Is In Control!

There are so many things that we as humans cannot control, including death. Stephen Baker reminds us that God 

is in control, and through His forgiveness, we can be saved forever.

Contact us now if you have questions about salvation.

We Cannot Control Our Circumstances

Life is so unpredictable. At times this can be very exciting but sometimes it can be very frightening.

That flood in the house, the illness that took us by surprise! How were we to know? It’s can be disconcerting! As mere mortals, we cannot control our circumstances and have to try to cope with what is inevitable as well as we possibly can.

There are many situations like this in life. Illness cannot be avoided at times and most circumstances are outwith our control. The ultimate uncontrollable event is death. We may be able to take our life, by force – it is very sad when someone gets to that level of despair, but we cannot and do not live for ever and we have no power over the day of our death.

The Anchor of the Soul - what is the foundation for your life?

Life can be uncertain! Things can change in an instant! So, what keeps your feet on the ground? What gives you certainty? What is the foundation that your life is built on? Maybe you have never looked at life from this perspective. Well, there's no better time to do it than now. This message may get you thinking. I hope so

The first-century symbol of Christianity was an anchor, not a Cross. Christians adopted the anchor as a symbol of hope in the future because the anchor was regarded in ancient times as a symbol of safety. The message of the biblical message of the gospel teaches us how we can be ‘safe’ or ‘saved’.

You may ask why we need that safety or what we need to be saved from? 

The answer is that, in reality, life without God life is hopeless, There is an absence of hope. Life does not make sense without God who is the creator, the source of all things. This may not be your world view but it makes sense of the world and everything fits when God is in the picture.

A New Year - A New Challenge

NEW YEAR CHALLENGES & CHANGES

A new year brings challenges and changes. Can I remind you of some of the more important challenges we may meet in this life, and the changes we need to make to be prepared.

NEW YEAR CHALLENGES

A New Year brings fresh challenges and opportunities but life is so unpredictable! At times, the variety life brings can be very exciting but sometimes it’s a bit frightening. That flood in the house, the illness that took us by surprise! The speed of change and our helplessness can be disconcerting! As mere mortals, we cannot control our circumstances and have to try to cope with what is inevitable as well as we possibly can.

UNAVOIDABLE SITUATIONS

There are many situations like this in life. Illness often cannot be avoided, we are affected by what other people do, and often circumstances are out of our control. Most of the time we are quite skilful at coping 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.

DEATH

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! I believe, and the Bible teaches, that there is hope in Jesus.

JESUS HAS CONTROL OVER DEATH

He is the only man who ever had control over his own death. It is recorded that Jesus brought at least three people back to life – see the accounts in the Bible in John 11, Luke 7:11-17 and Luke 8:40-56. When it came to His own death, Jesus voluntarily sacrificed His life. By this, I don’t mean only that He went the place of His execution willingly but that at His crucifixion His life did not ebb away, as it would with us. He consciously laid down His life so that we might have eternal life. Read it for yourself in the Bible, Luke 23.46. The Bible states it explicitly when it says ‘Christ died for our sins’.

THE PROFOUND MESSAGE OF CHRISTIANITY

The profound message of Christianity is this! My sinful behaviour has moral consequences. God is loving but He is also holy. His distaste of sin is such that it would be an insult to His character to allow people into His presence who have been marked by it. The dilemma is that God wants to share eternal life with His creatures but we, historically, have distanced ourselves from Him.

THE BIBLICAL SOLUTION

What is the solution according to the Bible? The Son of God became a man through a miraculous conception but a normal birth. In His life of thirty-three years, He demonstrated that He was God by His miracles and His knowledge. He proved that He was holy and flawless in character by how he lived – even his enemies stated that there were no flaws in Him. All men die because of sin but Jesus could not die as He was without sin, fault, wrong or error. His death was a voluntary payment for guilty humanity. As a result, God offers us pardon and forgiveness.

RECEIVING FORGIVENESS

So how do you get this forgiveness? God treats His creatures as thinking individuals. He has given them the capacity to choose. The offer is still on the table. Consider, grieve about and admit your sin to God, not a religious person or organisation. Believe and depend on what the Lord Jesus has done and accept Him as your Saviour.

NEW YEAR CHANGES

I cannot describe the change that you will find when you come. It cannot be defined in words. It does not guarantee a problem-free existence. It will bring about changes in your lifestyle, not enforced change as a result of rules but changes in interests and desires for better things. It will mean your guilty status before God has been resolved. You will be saved forever.

Read the Bible and seek the Lord while He may be found.

Images Courtesy of:

2019   – Covi

Cafe – Pexels

Cemetery – TazzAnderson

Woman and clock  –EnginAkyurt

As you start the New Year consider this!

All photographs courtesy of Unsplash

In the Bible the Psalmist reminds us that we are all "fearfully and wonderfully made" so here are some amazing facts about some of our body organs.

The skin is the largest organ of the body, covering it from the top of the head to the soles of the feet. In a full grown adult, it weighs about 11lb. Its thickest point is on the soles, at up to 5mm thick (0.2in). Its thinnest point is on the eyelid at only ½ mm. 1 square inch of skin may hold 650 sweat glands, 20 blood vessels and more than 1,000 nerve endings.

The heart will beat 2.5 billion times in an average life of 72 years. It beats at around 60 times a minute with each beat pushing blood around the body 1,440 times every day.  It can increase to 200 beats a minute when running.

Key Principles for Successful Living

How we live our lives is vitally important. There are principles that guide each one of us. These could be positive or negative guidelines by which we live our lives. If we will live by God’s principles, we can expect to see His favour and blessing.  If we live by what ‘seems good to us’ it can often take us down a path we would later regret. Have you ever considered what are the principles by which you live your life?   The earlier we discover and apply these, the better, but it is never too late to begin!

 

Principle No 1 – You can be forgiven

 

We can and need to receive forgiveness from God. ‘If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.’ Because Jesus paid for our sins in full; we can know what it means to be forgiven. ‘He cancelled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross.’ God is willing to remove our sin from us. ‘As far as the east is from the west’, so far is He willing to remove them from us.

 

Why does the Bible say, ‘as far as the East is from the West?’ Why did does it not say as far as the North is from the South? This is one great picture of God’s love. The North and South pole are definite points. You can go to those spots. But there is no East or West pole. When you get there, you can still go further to the East. So, in a very real sense, when God says, ‘as far as the East is from the West’ He means that He has totally and forever removed our sins, they are not coming back to haunt us.

Prince Philip 1921 - 2021

The first photo is courtesy of Unsplash, the rest by permission of Kirkcaldy Gospel Hall

“Know ye not that there is a prince and a great man fallen this day?” (2 Samuel 3:38).

“They buried him ... among the kings, because he had done good ... , both toward God, and toward his house” (2 Chronicles 24:16).

Towards the end of Prince Philip’s funeral service, the Garter Principal King of Arms proclaimed the Styles and Titles of His Royal Highness:

Farming Life in East Sussex

There is a Christian farmer in East Sussex who has spent years planting and pruning thousands of willow trees to create a Bible verse that can be read-only from the sky. The farmer started this incredible task in the 1990s on his farm near Whitesmith, East Sussex.   He chose John chapter 14 verse 6 to patiently cultivate. The willow trees spell out words spoken in answer to the question, ‘How can we know the way?” Jesus replied, ‘I am the Way, the Truth and the Life’. As well as a message, his carefully spaced “many thousands” of willow trees form a maze. 

 

The maze has been used by friends and members of his local church and although the farmer knew that his maze was well set out, it was only after a number of years he was shown a picture of it taken from above from a helicopter. Now every time he sees a plane going over, he offers up a little prayer that people will see the verse and it will help them to trust in and follow Jesus. So, close up it is a maze with people trying hard to find their way through, but from above it is an easily read message.