#Love Not War - The Daily Diary of a Bible Blogger

I am going to Northern Ireland on Saturday until the following Thursday to preach in Cardy Gospel Hall. 

My topics for the week is all based around the Christian, the love of God and how we relate to the world round about us. 

Our main focus this coming week is going to be on the subject of 'love'. Last year we focused on 'the family'. This years topic includes the family but it is wider. 

The unique characteristic of the Christian believer is love. So we are going to look at some of these topics:

1. The Love of God & Love for God

2. Falling in love or staying single

3. Marrying the wrong person!

4. Love for your fellow believer

5. The danger of loving the world

6. The danger of loving money

7. The need to love our fellow man

I watched a video clip this week. It was produced by Al Jazeera TV. It showed ISIS fighters training small children to use guns, hand grenades and Kalashnikov's in a mountain village. They were teaching them to kill and shoot in the head the infidels i.e. all who refuse to submit to Islam. This is so different from Christianity. 

In Matthew 22:37-39 the Lord Jesus teaches that for every believer two priorities are approved of God. First priority - Love God, second - Love your neighbour.  

What do we mean by love - the Bible uses mainly two words for love - Phileo, Agape. The world adds a third, Eros, which is mainly about sexual desire. God sees sexual desire within the context of genuine love. 

Mounce's Complete Expository Dictionary says "a biblical definition of love starts with God, never with us". You would agree with that when you look at 1st John. 

The key is that 'The Love of God' will produce 'Love for God'.

The Love of God

1 John 4:7 - 'Love is of God; and everyone that loves is born of God and knoweth God'

1 John 4:10 'He loved us'

1 John 4:11 'if God so loved us....'

1 John 4:12 - 'if we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us'. 

1 John 4:16 'the love that God hath to us. God is love and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him'

1 John 4:17 'herein is our love made perfect that we may have boldness in the day of judgment'.

Love to God

This is seen in:

1. Confessing who Christ is, 1 John 2:22-24 

2. Keeping God's word i.e. His commandments, 1 John 2:5, 

3. Loving your brother, 1 John 4:20,

4. Enjoying the abiding presence of God, 1 John 4:16,

5. Refusing to love the world, 1 John 2:15,

6. Having boldness before God, 1 John 4:17,

7. Loving your enemies, from Matt & Luke as above. 

For more information visit www.seekthetruth.org.uk

#Paris - Should we be shocked? The Daily Diary of a Bible Blogger

The situation in Paris has shocked the world. Evil men perpetrating evil crimes in the name of their God and religion. While I feel that Islam is being misrepresented when it is stated that these wicked men represent it I do think that we must not ignore the fact that parts of the Koran do promote violence. The fact is that many Muslims ignore the violent passages and are as grieved as we are at the violence that is done in the name of Islam BUT there are also many who read the passages that encourage violence and feel justified in the world view of aggressive jihad that they espouse. 

If you read the Bible carefully you would not be surprised that the world is in such a mess. The Bible predicts wide-ranging changes in the world some of which we could be witnessing at the present time. Many of the things that we are seeing are among the catalogue of changes that are defined in the Bible which include increased violence, global changes, increased seismic activity, political upheaval, changes in the social and economic fabric of society and a lowering of our levels of self control.

What is the answer? 

The answer is found in a person – the Lord Jesus Christ. 

The word of God teaches that just as he came to Bethlehem 2015 years ago in fulfillment of ancient predictions so he will come again towards the end of this world’s history. Next time he comes the Bible teaches he will come to Jerusalem (check the reference’s in Zechariah 14 and Matthew 24). His first purpose will be to deliver the nation of Israel who by that stage will be surrounded by the armies of the

world. As has been the case for many years Israel’s very existence will be threatened. But Jesus the Messiah will come to deliver them and establish his worldwide empire, which will be administrated from Jerusalem. I think that all would agree that the State of Israel has always been very vulnerable. If the

West and in particular America turns against them and the nations of the Middle East have their way they would find it very hard to survive. Ultimately they will survive, as they are key to world history and the nation through which God intended to and still intends to bless the world – though His Son, Jesus Christ.

Finally. Before all this happens something else needs to take place. Jesus Christ promised before he died for sin on the cross that he would rise from the dead, go back to heaven and, one day, return to take the Christian Church to heaven. If the Bible is true and the words of Jesus can be trusted this must take place. You can read about this in the New Testament in John 14.

Think it through. The Bible and the claims of Christianity will ultimately be either proved true or demonstrated to be false. If they are right (and I suggest all the evidence points to this fact) then time is short and the issues we face as individuals are massive. We need to 'seek the Lord while he may be found'. Tomorrow could be too late. Call it scaremongering if you like but I believe that the issues are real and the solution is fail proof if we come God’s way.

As always visit www.seekthetruth.org.uk to get in touch or for more information. 

Learn to Trust the Bible Way

Many stories have come down to us about the French tightrope walker Jean-François Gravelet – ‘The Great Blondin’. Some of them are true but others cannot be substantiated as fact. Blondin made his name by crossing the Niagara Gorge below the Niagara Falls in America on a tightrope. He did it for the first time on June 30^th 1859 walking on a rope 50 metres (160 feet) above the water, nearly half a kilometre (over quarter of a mile) long and just 7.5cm (three inches) in diameter. Later he crossed blindfold; then pushing a wheelbarrow, and once he even carried a stove, stopped half way across and cooked himself an omelette, which he then ate as his amazed audience looked on. Yet another time he crossed on stilts and on August the seventeenth 1859 he crossed the gorge with his manager Harry Colcord - clinging tightly - on his back. The railway companies laid on special trains and tens of thousands of spectators assembled to watch Blondin’s escapades - seventeen return crossings in all.

The next year, 1860, the Prince of Wales, later king Edward VII, watched Blondin cross the Niagara Gorge. After Blondin had done one crossing, he suggested that the Prince allow him to carry him over the gordge on his back. The Prince, while not doubting Blondin's ability, refused. This story is well substantiated and appeared in many contemporary UK and Canadian newspapers.

The next year, 1861, Blondin performed at the Crystal Palace in London and was paid – in today’s money – over £10,000 per performance! He then performed at other venues around the country and was met by vast crowds in Birmingham, Sheffield and Edinburgh. In Liverpool he actually pushed a lion strapped into his wheelbarrow along the tightrope. Performing until he was in his 70s, he later developed a cycling act on the tightrope. His final performance was in Belfast in 1896, and he died in London aged 75. In all his 5000-odd performances Blondin never had one serious accident!

One Blondin story, with quite a number of variations, has been repeated many times as a gospel illustration. However, it appears in no official documents of the time that I can find. It tells of Blondin crossing Niagara Gorge pushing his wheelbarrow, but before he does so he asks the crowd if they think he could safely wheel someone across in the barrow. They shout their approval, saying that of course he could. So he asks for a volunteer, and the hitherto enthusiastic crowd fall silent – not one person being prepared to entrust themselves to Blondin. Although we cannot prove that this incident actually happened, it is very clear that it could have happened! If it did occur, then it provides us with a very simple explanation of the difference between what appears to be belief and what proves itself to be real faith. Even if it did not take place, it certainly serves as a good contemporary parable!

Many people today really believe that there was a person called Jesus. They will not disagree with one of His disciples, Peter, who said that he went about doing good. Neither will they argue with anyone who says that He was a wonderful teacher. Probably they will agree that Jesus died and rose again, and later ascended up to heaven. However, although this looks like belief, it is not faith. The Houdini story has people believing, but none have the faith to get into his barrow.

Real faith is entrusting our eternal souls to Christ for salvation. One day, a man who had faced death asked the apostle Paul what he must do to be saved. He realized that he was not ready to die, and he wanted to be saved (rescued) from the penalty of his sin. The answer was ‘Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved’, Acts 16. 31.

‘God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life’, John 3. 16. God’s love resulted in Christ’s death for us on the cross. Faith in Him as Saviour results our in eternal salvation.

Written by a Guest Blogger.

For more information visit www.seekthetruth.org.uk

Good Monday - The Blogger's Daily Diary

Today was a free day for me. Hurrah, how good to have a day when you don't have to do emails, phone calls, meetings and the like. Not that I don't enjoy my work, I enjoy it very much, but sometimes you just need to clear your head.

What have I been up to today? Well I got out into the garden and did the pre winter clear out. We filled our 'green bin' until it was full and overflowing and jumped on the contents three times to make sure we got everything in. It's very satisfying to get a job finished. Especially when you are satisfied with it. 

The Bible says that when God was making the world he looked at what he had made on Days 1,3,4,5 & 6 and announced that 'it was good'. On Day 6, when reviewing the whole of creation, God states 'it was very good'. God was satisfied with what he had made. I don't think God is satisfied when he looks at the world today. For sin came into the world and along with sin, death (Romans 5:12). This has devastated God's creation and damaged the human race with eternal consequences.  

Some people have puzzled over why God didn't say that Day 2 of creation was good. I wonder if it was because on that day he created a firmament that divided water surrounding the earth from water at the centre of the earth. This would be used to flood the world in the days of Noah (Genesis 6-9). I take it that God did not like the coming judgment despite the fact that mankind deserved God's judgment. Therefore God didn't say that Day 2 was good. 

God loves you. He would be within his rights to condemn you for your sin. He will condemn you to eternal judgment (John 5:24 & 28) if you refuse His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ as our Saviour. 

For more information about this vital subject please contact me via Seek the Truth Bible Media (www.seekthetruth.org.uk).