A word given

The Lords plans are greater and higher and unforeseen, but know this He only has plans for your good, this His heart that you should know Him and seek Him .

For your God is a Good God, who walks in  Holiness and splendour, who lives in unapproachable Light and yet you can walk to Him and draw near to Him and walk into the Holy of Holies approaching His throne

Those who have clean hands and a pure heart who have sought after righteousness and loved peace, your eyes shall see the King

Fear not, for I am with you and walking with you and carrying you, fear me, that you would know and walk in my ways, for the fear of the Lord is the beginning of all wisdom

Draw near to me and I will draw near to you, I open the door to you , that you might walk in and feast with me and taste and see that I am good

The Lord your God , Father of lights He is your Father and has always been there with you, from the dawning of your first thought to your last breathe, I am with you and after your time is complete and you have breathed your last breathe, this is only the beginning

I have great plans for you and know and be confident that I who have started a good work in you will carry it through

amen

WHAT CAN I DO FOR YOU,VIDEO

-------------------------------

Lord Father God , Lord of lights and Lord of the Children of the Light, who walk in the light, show us your ways and bring revelation to us, that your light would bring revelation, and make us see things we have never seen before.

Bring light into the dark places of the heart and iluminate sin, expose and bring to the surface,  those things you want to deal with

Lord God thankyou that we were once all like those who had gone astray, we all wandered off, we all went our own ways, we all walked the Damascus Road and saw that light and became conscious of the darkness that we walked in and your light lifted the scales from our eyes and we in fear and in trembling came to you

Lord although its hard to see why certain things happen to us, we thankyou that only when the fruit is crushed can the aroma be found, only when the fruit is crushed can the wine be produced, only when the fruit is crushed can we taste and see that you are good,
and your kindness and goodness extends and goes out to all generations.

We come to you now and we look to your word and we come with listening hearts and we open ourselves to your word, we eagerly seek to honour and obey, in fear and reverence,
in seeking you, we come in obedience in Jesus name amen

--------------------------------------------

We have seen in recent studies and messages that salvation is free at a cost

We have seen that the Love of God is freely given , but also has requirements


Now we look to Psalm 34 and at Cross references in this nurture group message

And we find that there is no fear in love ( God )

But we see that we are to fear God

We find the double edged sword swooping accross from different directions and we ask the question..." What is the 'fear of the Lord ?'

We also see in Psalm 34 that David prayed to the Lord and at some point read through Psalm 34 yourself, slowly and digest this psalm

You see even at salvation we found a requirement, we found that salvation required an active participation on our part..we found ourselves responding, we found that even at salvation when we first found the Lord and came to Him and became Christians, that
there was a requirement..

So what was the requirement ? the requirement was that we prayed to God, in other words we responded back to Him, we asked Him to save us, this is a response...an active participation, an action, and we find that as we go on in our walk with God that He continues to save us and He requires us to take an active participation in responding to Him and in talking and crying out to God , God delivers us.

Not always in the way we think and not always in our small time scale, God is not a supermarket for purchasing  items or meeting our requirements as and when it suits us.

In psalm 34 we find many promises and blessings, that call for an active participation on our part

David prayed to the Lord in Psalm 34:4 he prayed and asked God to free Him from all his fears...

And God freed him from his fears

Here we see a continued salvation, an ongoing salvation as God free's David from ongoing attack and ongoing fears and ongoing attacks from his enemies, you see it does,nt stop the moment we are saved..

In verse 6 we see that David prayed and asked the Lord to free him from his troubles,

And God freed him from his troubles

Then we see the fear that David had being turned to fear of God and this fear transforms and renews us as we seek to be obedient to God, for the fear of God brings us to obedience

This is the start of wisdom, we find wisdom as we fear God and seek His face, knowing that this fear of God leads us to know His voice and to be obedient to Him.

Solomon is known for wisdom and David has wisdom, this wisdom is available to all, because this wisdom is the wisdom of God that calls out in the streets to anyone who may hear her voice, the voice of wisdom and the wisdom of God comes as we see the
Holiness of God and the greatness of God and we seek God above all else, this led David to obedience time and time again and led Solomon back to God time and time again.

This obedience was seen in Jesus who was obedient even to the Cross

And here in Psalm 34:7 once again we see " the Angel of the Lord " mentioned who surrounds and defends all who fear Him

Remember we looked at the angel with the sword last week ?

Verse 8: Taste and see that the Lord is good

Again we see an active participation here on our parts, we taste and see, this requires action on our parts....to taste


We see Jehovah Jireh here as David speaks of the God who provides for our needs. in verses 9 and 10, and those who fear Him will have all they need, because as we walk in obedience to Him, He in turn will reward

Verse 11,     Requires another repsonse...."Come my children and listen to me and I will teach you the fear of the Lord "

verses 17 and 18: " the Lord is close to the broken hearted "

And now we suddenly change to a prophetic word as David utters about  the " Cross "

And this is where we tie into this series which is entitled " Cross references"

You see only at times when the fruit is crushed can the odour be found in a life

Sometimes only at the point of a person coming to the end of themselves do they find themselves

Sometimes only once the person has lost their life, do they find it

Sometimes only when a person cries out to God for help does God come and rescue them

Sometimes only once the pain and the suffering has ended do we find the wine

Sometimes only when  a bone is broken can the shepherd stop the sheep from wandering off and only then can the Shepherd of the sheep carry the wandering lamb back to the fold

Here in Psalm 34: 20 we find a prophetic utterance as David speaks of the Cross, where " Not one bone shall be broken "

Now before we go on and see what lies behind this Psalm of David, lets look at some " Cross references " and you will see how these references tie in and come together as we go on

"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom" Proverbs . 1:7

Isaiah 66:2 (New King James Version)

2 For all those things My hand has made,And all those things exist,”Says the LORD.

 “ But on this one will I look:On him who is poor and of a contrite spirit,And who trembles at My word.
     
Philippians 2:12-14 (New International Version)

Shining as Stars

 12Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, 13for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.

NOR BREAK ANY BONE
OF IT: according to all the ordinances of the PASSOVER they shall keep it" Exodus 12:46 & Numbers  9:12.

Psalm 34:20

 "HE KEEPETH ALL HIS BONES: NOT ONE OF THEM IS BROKEN"

John 19:36

"For these things were done, that the scripture should be fulfilled, A BONE OF HIM SHALL NOT BE BROKEN"

1 Corinthians 11:24

He brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is My body, which
is broken for you: this do in remembrance of Me."

1 Corinthians 10:16-17, Romans 12:4. & 1 Corinthians 12:12

"For as THE BODY IS ONE, and hath MANY MEMBERS, and all the members of that ONE BODY, being MANY, are ONE BODY: so also is CHRIST."

 Psalm 51:7-8

"Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Make me to hear joy and  gladness; that the BONES WHICH THOU HAST BROKEN may rejoice."

?  ...The bones that you have broken may rejoice ?

Hold on....you see sometimes there is no fragrance until the fruit is bruised.

Sometimes the Shepherd may have to break the  bone of the wandering lamb to stop it from its wanderings, not because The Shepherd is ill treating the lamb, but out of love the Shepherd has to stop the lamb from coming into harm, from walking into danger and from falling into a trap,

Once the lamb walks with a limp, and is unable to walk on its own the Shepherd will then take the lamb up in His Arms and carry the lamb back to the fold, where it is safe and will no more wander off, but will from that time onwards stay in the safety of the fold .

Genesis 32:22-31....remember Jacob who walked with a limp ?


Sometimes only when this has happened will the fruit become evident, sometimes and so many times this brokeness becomes the testimony that brings us to God and where we find salvation, that calls us back to the fold and brings us into the family of God, where
we fear God in obedience and protection and love and that love in itself casts out all fear

Although not one bone was broken in the body of Jesus , the bread is broken for all, that all might share in His body and be in unity in His body, the body that is united and not broken.

Here again we see the paradox as with one scripture we here the utterance of David proclaiming and prophesying about Jesus on the Cross and yet with another scripture we read of his body broken for all and we read about the brokeness that leads to salvation
of the sinner into His glorious light and into Gods riches and into Gods body, which is the body of Christ of which no bone shall be broken and yet the bread is broken  which is the body of Christ

And in our brokenness he gives us beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the Spirit of praise for the spirit of heaviness....

Isaiah 61:3 (New International Version)

 3 and provide for those who grieve in Zion—to bestow on them a crown of beauty  instead of ashes,the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise  instead of a spirit of despair.They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the LORD for the display of his splendor.


You see this psalm of David ...Psalm 34, was written at a time when David knew fear and David again speaks out of his life and experience and I challenge you to read through Psalm 34 again at some point and to read it with your heart.

Now we look to where David is coming from in this Psalm as we go to , I samuel 21:10

At the time of writing this Psalm David knew deliverance from fear as we read

1 Samuel 21:10-15 (New International Version)

 David at Gath

10 That day David fled from Saul and went to Achish king of Gath. 11 But the servants of  Achish said to him, "Isn't this David, the king of the land? Isn't he the one they sing about in their dances:" 'Saul has slain his thousands, and David his tens of thousands'?"

 12 David took these words to heart and was very much afraid of Achish king of Gath.

13 So he pretended to be insane in their presence; and while he was in their hands he acted like a madman, making marks on the doors of the gate and letting saliva run down
his beard.

 14 Achish said to his servants, "Look at the man! He is insane! Why bring him to me?

 15 Am I so short of madmen that you have to bring this fellow here to carry on like this  in front of me? Must this man come into my house?"

Here David is running from Saul in fear and what does he find ?

He finds himself in fear of king Achish

David prays that he be delivered from this fear and God hears his cries and delivers him.

Ongoing salvation ..................


And so we read Psalm 34 again in a fresh way as David speaks about " the fear of the Lord"

As David speaks of "deliverance from fear "...this is where David is coming from in Psalm
34,

And we come to another paradox and I leave you to think upon this paradox

 Psalm 51:7-8

"Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Make me to hear joy and  gladness; that the BONES WHICH THOU HAST BROKEN may rejoice."

Psalm 34:20

For the Lord protects the bones of the righteous,not one of them is be broken.

-------------

Lord God you poured out yourself on the Cross and took on yourself the sins of the world, that we might be free, your heart was broken that the hearts of the broken might be healed.

You did not have one bone broken, that the broken might come to you, having been broken, that we might be made whole and complete and be in unity as one body

You were bruised and crushed that your blood would be the new wine that takes away our sin and gives fredom and liberty to captives.

You never put out a smouldering wick nor crush or break  a bruised reed as Isaiahs word proclaims and yet we find brokeness and bruising brings us to you and brings out the fragrance of yourself

We are one in Christ and are many, we come to you as broken that you would mend us

We find deliverance from fear and find fear in you delivering us from fear

We find your two edged swordm and we delight in you Lord

You are our all in all In Jesus name amen

Father God Jesus creator , sustainer, miracle  and covenant maker we come to you now and ask that you might fill us afresh with your Holy Spirit ...breathe into us now that we might have hope in you the hope of glory...in Jesus name amen

Colossians 1:24-29 (New International Version)

Paul's Labor for the Church

 24Now I rejoice in what was suffered for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ's afflictions, for the sake of his body, which is the  church.

 25I have become its servant by the commission God gave me to present to you  the word of God in its fullness— 26the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and  generations, but is now disclosed to the saints.

27To them God has chosen to make
known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

 28We proclaim him, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may  present everyone perfect in Christ.

29To this end I labor, struggling with all his  energy, which so powerfully works in me.

Genesis 1 (The Message)

26-28 God spoke: "Let us make human beings in our image, make them reflecting our nature


At the beginning of time God the Father created Adam and Eve in His image, male and  female He created, He created because God is a God of relationship.<BR><BR>

You could say this was Jesus's first miracle, forming mankind from the dust !!

John 1:1-2 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was  God. He was in the beginning with God.

Although The foremost miracle of Jesus  was too create from nothing the dust from which we are formed

Is'nt the sun amazing ? blazing away every day, keeping us warm and cosy, depicting the seasons and changes and weather !!

Have you ever wondered how the suns ignite themselves ? how the miracle of  takes place ?

Have you ever wondered how our sun ignited itself and how it just happened to be at  the exact distance and exact size and exact orbit to sustain life ?

As Christians we do not believe that the sun sustains life but we believe that the Son sustains life, who in turn sustains the sun

Have you ever wondered how a person can become a Christian without Christ ?

It would be impossible would'nt it ?

How can a person be a reflection of God and made in the image of God if there is no God ?

How can a person be ignited by God ...without God ?

In this nurture group we are going to go back to basics and look at "God in us "

You see the Ark of the Testimony would be no testimony without God

The Ark of the Covenant would not be a covenant, for God is the covenant maker

The Ark was simply a box, a wooden box, a box made of acacia wood,

What made the Ark special was that it had Gods Prescence

You could say " It had Christ In "

Gods prescence was there and where Gods prescence is we find blessing, but in the hands of the wrong person that which is a blessing can become a stumbling block

So how do we see Gods prescence and how do we know Gods prescence ?

You could say that God ignited that box, .... nothing about the box , it was what was inside the box that made it special

Theres nothing really special about our sun, its really an insignificant star compared to some, but what makes it special is that it is used to sustain life by the creater of all

Theres nothing really special about our earth ...again its an insignificant planet compared to some, but what makes the earth special ?

Isa 66:1 Thus saith the LORD, The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool: where is the house that ye build unto me? and where is the place of my rest?

King David wanted to build a house for the Lord to dwell !!

He wanted to house God in a place of worship !!

But God cannot be contained, Jesus cannot be contained...the Holy Spirit cannot be contained !!

The Ark could never contain Jesus, but we have Gods prescence, His shekinah Glory,

His visible presence....here we have the visible manifestation of God, a visible God in the Shekinah Glory

When Gods prescence was there in the Ark we could see the effects, we have evidence of the prescence of God by what we see with our eyes.

We of course can read about the Ark and how God blessed those around, we see how He did not bless the Philistines

Mark 12:36 For David himself said by the Holy Ghost, The LORD said to my Lord,  Sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool.

We note that  Uzzah was smited when he reached out to steady the Ark

We note that dagon fell face down before the Ark and we read many other references that speak of  the prescence of God, the visible manifestation of a Living God

We are the very evidence of a life giving God...but what of the prescence of God ?

You see to be a Christian is to have Christ in us and to have Christ in us we need to ask Jesus Christ into our hearts and lifes...this is the start of an ongoing relationship that lasts throughout this lifetime and into the next

Each day we present ourselves to the Lord as an army of ordinary people...

We start again each new day and we ask for the continued ongoing help of the Lord to sustain us and renew us and to give us strength

For We are saved but we are being saved, we are restored but we are being restored.

We are renewed but we are being renewed, we are converted but we are being converted.

We are healed but we are being healed, we are transformed but we continue to be transformed..

We are delivered but we continue to be delivered, we are evolved into the spiritual realm, but we continue to evolve as Christians, ever changing from one glory to another

We are the reflection of Christ as Christians becasue we have " Christ in us "

The hope of glory, who is our glory and the glory in us

As the Ark of the Covenant maker is nothing without God, so we too cannot reflect God unless we have God in us

As God bowed down and put His mouth to the nostrils of Adam, He kneels down and blows new life into bones, into flesh and blood, into the valley of dry bones and we rise up like Lazarus into new life

An army of ordinary people rise up in God and reflect His glory becasue they have the Glory of God in them, the prescence of God ..the Shekinah Glory

The covenant maker, the miracle maker begins His work in and through ordinary people

Only He can create out of nothing and mould and shape a life, sometimes its needs the waters of that life to stir and sometimes it takes a Rock to fall into that water to make the waters of the heart stir up , sometimes it takes a mighty wind to stir up the waters and to cause a parting...

Sometimes it is only in the storms of life that the work of the miracle maker...the great covenant maker can start to dig deep into a heart and to remould and reshape a life

When this happens the Covenant becomes the testimony, a Christian carries with them a testimony of God in the prescence of God and with God in them

What a miracle to have God in us ? what a miracle to have the testimony of what the Lamb  has done ? what a miracle to have the testimony of the Lamb ?

What a miracle to carry the Ark of the Testimony ? to have God in our mortal bodies !!

To have Gods shekinah glory in us that reflects Him ? as the Ark was filled with Gods prescence so we too can be filled with Gods prescence !!

This is not a once off thing that happened many years ago, this can be an everyday  experience as we open up ouselves....our container...our box....our tent ....our hearts ...our lifes to God who is Jesus

The one who was and is and is to come...

He was there  before you became a Christian...He has always been and always existed

Here is Here now and in you if you know Christ as your savior and He will always be there

But God The  Holy Spirit wants to fill and shine through you that you might be ignited by His shekinah glory

David the King knew of Gods Holy Spirit and the worship and inspiration that the Holy Spirit spoke into Davids life and heart...Davids life became a reflection of God Jesus the Great Shepherd God and miracle maker

Davids life spoke out of Jesus God Father and we see the visible evidence of a living God through David and his Life

David cries out in Psalm 51:11

Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me.

RESTORE UNTO ME THE JOY OF YOUR SALVATION...

GOD CAN AND DOES RESTORE HOPE ...

GOD CAN AND DOES RESTORE LIFE ...

GOD CAN AND DOES RESTORE HEARTS ...

GOD CAN AND DOES RESTORE AN EMPTY VESSEL ...

GOD CAN AND DOES FILL AN EMPTY VESSEL ...

GOD CAN AND DOES FILL THE ARK ...

GOD CAN FILL YOU AND ME ...

David shone like a star but who ignited the star ?

Some are afraid that they will loose their identity if they were to ask Holy Jesus God  Father and miracle covenant maker into their lifes, but in fact the reverse is true

When you become a Christian God draws out of you your true self and as you find your identity in Christ so Christ finds His place in you and draws out your true character and works through your real personality.

God simply wants you to be you because He loves you as you are and for who He knows you really are inside...

Not a world robotic view of the perfect person with more makeup than skin ..always looking perfect in every way and having all the signs of outward success

But a person who is in Christ reflecting Him through you and as you seek to be more like  Him your own character and personality shines out , because thats what God made you to  be..YOU

He made you to be like you are that He might use you as you are and love you as you are

And He can draw out of your character and personality which is the way He made you in the first place to also reflect His prescence

Once you find your identity in Father God Jesus covenant miracle maker and creator then you will find your true identity, and your true character and personality

Because God is more interested in character bulding than in appearance

He is more interested in personality shaping and strengthening than He is in you being perfect as the world defines perfect

He is more interested in what goes on   deep down in your heart than He is in your hair style

He wants to shine through you as you are and to draw out the " REAL YOU "

He wants to breathe His breath into you so that you might rise up like the bones in the valley

Ezekiel 37:1-14 (New International Version)

 The Valley of Dry Bones
 1 The hand of the LORD was upon me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the LORD  and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones.

2 He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were
 very dry. 3 He asked me, "Son of man, can these bones live?"
 I said, "O Sovereign LORD, you alone know."

 4 Then he said to me, "Prophesy to these bones and say to them, 'Dry bones, hear the word of the LORD! 5 This is what the Sovereign LORD says to these bones: I will make breath [a] enter you, and you will come to life.

 6 I will attach tendons to you and
 make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you  will come to life. Then you will know that I am the LORD.' "

 7 So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a  rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone. 8 I looked, and tendons  and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them.

 9 Then he said to me, "Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it,  'This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe  into these slain, that they may live.'

" 10 So I prophesied as he commanded me, and
 breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet—a vast army.

 11 Then he said to me: "Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They say, 'Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off.' 12 Therefore  prophesy and say to them: 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says: O my people,

 I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them; I will bring you back to the  land of Israel. 13 Then you, my people, will know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves and bring you up from them.

14 I will put my Spirit in you and you will
 live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I the LORD  have spoken, and I have done it, declares the LORD.' "

('Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off.)

What are bones without the miracle maker ?


Have you lost hope ? let God breathe that new life into bones gone dry !!

Let Him fill you with His shekinah glory !!  to be a testimony of the living God !!

Lord Father Jesus and Miracle maker of the covenant we pray to you now and knowing that you are listening we speak out to you in faith In Jesus name amen

I'm going to use words now that might be familiar to you as a pray to God and I challenge you to speak out these words, we are going to speak them out to God rather than to  someone else

Jesus I ask you into my life today

Jesus you are faithful you are by my side from this day forward;and have always been and always will be there.


And I will follow you ....for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer,
in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish,

With my body I honour you, all that I am I give to you,
and all that I have I share with you, within the love of God,
Pour down your Holy Spirit .' In Jesus name amen

Lord Father Shepherd of our lifes we give you this time tonight and every day, we give you back the time you have given us and speak now Lord whatever our circumstance or situation  In Jesus name amen

And so we look at Psalms 20 to 23 together and you may wonder why we are looking and glancing through these four songs to God.

Well the Lord was speaking to me about trust and about trusting Him and as I worked away I began a kind of dialogue with the Lord and I saw a vision

 I felt God speaking to me about intimacy, He wanted me to draw nearer to Him

This scripture came to me

Matthew 6:31-33 31 So do not worry, saying, What shall we eat or What shall we drink or What shall we wear? 32 For the pagans run after all these things,

and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. (NIV Bible)

To seek Him through the noise and fears and worries, to seek Him and to simply seek a close and real relationship, putting aside the " Lord do this and Lord do that and Lord I have this problem and that problem and this thing and that thing "

To seek Him for whom He is and not for what He might do

As I worked away and talked to Him I saw a vision of steps, the steps were cold and concrete and hard and I looked for a meaning and a voice but there was none

And so as we walk on our journey of life things can seem hard and cold at times and difficult but God longs to have intimacy and to take us up those steps . not looking to what we can see , but looking to Him alone.

A few days or so later, again this word about trust came to me  and so I turned to what this  message might be about and saw that Psalm 21 was about   King David singing to the Lord about how he rejoiced in Gods strength.

This was confirmed by meerkat in our chat rooms speaking about strength in God

Then I saw that David went on to sing to God about trust in Psalm  21

And so a few days later again God began to speak to me and this time again it was about trust and how His rod and staff guide us and guide me and how He is the Shepherd of the sheep.

And so as I looked at these psalms so I saw how they came together and how maybe we were to look at psalms 20 - 23 as a continious song and Psalm of David together.

And so this week we will look at Psalms 20,21 and 22 and next week we shall look into the Father heart of God as the Shepherd Father.

The week after we will be looking at Psalm 23

so lets begin this week under the usual theme of " Cross references "

You know David was a man after Gods own heart, David being a shepherd Himself would have sang from His heart , to the Father God, Psalms that were new songs and David is known to sing out later in the Psalms " sing a new song to the Lord all the earth"

This is exactly what David was doing, He was composing from his heart  new songs of praise and worship all the time, he was composing psalms or songs of the heart, inspired by the Holy Spirit within Him.

David sang psalms,songs to Father God that were prophetic and spoke of things past, presentt and future... things that were to happen as we see in Psalm 22

You could say the Holy Spirit was singing through David to God

And In Psalm 20 we read a few verses

 Psalm 20

For the director of music. A psalm of David.

 1 May the LORD answer you when you are in distress may the name of the God of Jacob protect you.

 2 May he send you help from the sanctuary and grant you support from Zion.

 3 May he remember all your sacrifices and accept your burnt offerings Selah

4 May he give you the desire of your heart and make all your plans succeed.

 5 We will shout for joy when you are victorious and will lift up our banners in the name of our God.
 
May the LORD grant all your requests.!!

 6 Now I know that the LORD saves his anointed; he answers him from his holy heaven with the saving power of his right hand.

This Psalm reminds us of Gods steregth , you can change the word "support" in verse 2 to "strength"

And in verse 6 we see the "right hand "  strength

We also see here that David sings of God giving us our hearts desire and make all our plans succeed !!  wow

As we walk in Gods will ...as we pray in Gods will...when we seek God above all else ..

Not looking at what is in front, but looking to God alone for who He is and not for what we might get ....as David indeed did ...then we find Gods strength as we trust in Him alone.

Note this

4 May he give you the desire of your heart and make all your plans succeed.

And verse 5 , May the LORD grant all your requests.

Trust is hard, trust requires that we trust in Him that He knows what is best.

Its trusting that no matter what pathway He may lead us down with His Rod and Staff that He knows the path we should take

And while we walk down this faithwalk path we do what His voice tells us and we then speak back to Him ...(May the LORD grant all your requests.)


Then the Shepherd will give us what we need, He will hear us speaking back to Him, ( He will hear our prayers ) as we walk with Him in His will.

Do not always expect Him to do this ...if you are not walking with Him, in the way..

Do not be a King Saul, but be a King David.

And so we begin to look at Psalm 22 and we hear the new song from the heart of  the Shepherd King David singing a prophetic song looking into the Future being inspired by the Holy Spirit David sings of " The Lamb of God " the servant King.

The Holy Spirit sings through David and David composes a song about the Saviour to come.

The Great Shepherd who would lead His people , a shepherd who would be a Servant King and be like a Lamb led to the slaughter.

We again see in Psalms 22 and 23 some more simple pictures or images, this imagery displays before us the picture of The Shepherd and the sheep and the LAmb and the rod and the staff, but we shall look more into this when we look at psalm 23 in two weeks  time.

Lets now look and focus on Psalm 22 and go through some Cross references as we look at " The Lamb Of God " and again you will notice the word "trust"

I shall post a few verses as the Psalm is 31 verses long

Psalm 22

For the director of music. To the tune of "The Doe of the Morning." A psalm of David.

 1 My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, so far from the words of my groaning?

2 O my God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer, by night, and am not silent.

 3 Yet you are enthroned as the Holy One; you are the praise of Israel.

 4 In you our fathers put their trust; they trusted and you delivered them.

 5 They cried to you and were saved; in you they trusted and were not disappointed.

 6 But I am a worm and not a man, scorned by men and despised by the people.

 7 All who see me mock me;  they hurl insults, shaking their heads:

8 "He trusts in the LORD; let the LORD rescue him. Let him deliver him, since he delights in him."

and

12 Many bulls surround me;  strong bulls of Bashan encircle me.

 13 Roaring lions tearing their prey open their mouths wide against me.

 14 I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint. My heart has turned to wax; it has melted away within me.

 15 My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth  you lay me  in the dust of death.

 16 Dogs have surrounded me; a band of evil men has encircled me,
 they have pierced  my hands and my feet.

 17 I can count all my bones; people stare and gloat over me.

 18 They divide my garments among them and cast lots for my clothing.

 19 But you, O LORD, be not far off; O my Strength, come quickly to help me.

Indeed David hear is singing about Jesus on the Cross, he utters the very words of Jesus who was to come, the Lamb of God led like a Lamb to the Slaughter ,

The servant King, the Shepherd of the Sheep ,

And so we look at Cross references and we glance at the book of Matthew as we hear the words uttered once more

Matthew 27:46 (New International Version)

About the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, "Eloi, Eloi,[a]
 lama sabachthani?"—which means, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"

Psalm 22: 1 My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so far from saving me, so far from the words of my groaning?

You see sin separates, our sin, my sin separates us from the Shepherd Father, it is as if He cannot hear us, as if He is not there, it is as if the earth has grown dark, it is as if He has turned away from us and we cry out to Him ...

Jesus took our sin and the sin of the world upon Himself and the punishment He bore, that we might be free, He paid the price, and He cries out to the Father,My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

And again Matthew

Matthew 27:39 (New International Version)

39Those who passed by hurled insults at him, shaking their heads

Matthew 27:43 (New International Version)

43He trusts in God. Let God rescue him now if he wants him, for he said, 'I am the Son of God.' "

Now

Psalm 22:7 and 8,   All who see me mock me; they hurl insults, shaking their heads:

We see comparisons in Job...could Job be a type or kind of Christ ?

Job 25:6 (New International Version)

 6 how much less man, who is but a maggot— a son of man, who is only a worm!"


Psalm 22:6 But I am a worm and not a man, scorned by men and despised by the people.

You see God lives outside of our time and we read and hear the same words spoken out by the Holy Spirit through mouths

And Davids mouth and heart sing a prophetic song of the suffering servant in Psalm 22,  who now lives and moves in our hearts as we sing out songs of prasie to our God the  great Shepherd,

We may sing a song of " Where are you God ? why does it seem you are not there ? "

We might know the pain of rejection, of suffering, of bitterness, of feeling like a worm, we may give all we have and yet people mock and scorn, we may be persecuted, we may go through a similiar journey as Job and loose everything.

We may be led by the rod and staff on a journey of correction, we may be led by the rod and staff on a journey of discipline, we may be led by the rod and staff on differnet and unique  journeys.

You know you might read about sparing the rod and spoiling the child, but the Staff was used to direct amongst other things, the Rod was used against those wild beasts who come at night and try to tear the sheep apart.

It was also used to prod and direct the sheep on the journey, and we know that sheep are timid and shy and that they huddle together seeking a haven and they walk by still quiet  waters because they do not like raging noisy waters.

And the Shepherd would never hit the sheep with the rod or use it in that way because He knows that the sheep would scatter, He knows that the sheep would loose trust, He knows that the best way to train His sheep is to lead them on journeys with His rod and staff,
that may have pitfalls and snags if only to train and teach them.

I always wondered about the scripture , " Do not lead us into temptation " ?

Would God lead us into temptation ?  ....and the answer is " YES "

You see the Shepherd does'nt use the rod to beat up the sheep ...to discipline by hitting.

He disciplines the sheep by directing then on a different journey...

And there are many roads in life that can cause us to turn back to God the Shepherd, there are many roads in life that are more than able to discipline and correct.

You know Jesus was led out by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil ?

Do we think His rod will spare us of this ? maybe..maybe not,, and so we pray " Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from the evil one "

Psalm 22:12 and 13

12 Many bulls surround me; strong bulls of Bashan encircle me.

 13 Roaring lions tearing their prey open their mouths wide against me.

Bashan was a land of plenty,the cattle there were strong and without need, it was known for its well fed cattle ( Amos 4:1)

Here the Shepherd would use the rod against the enemy to defend the sheep



And so We now can sing a new song of praise from our hearts to God and so David  continues..

You see in the middle of these two Psalms that we have glanced at is Psalm 21..... The Victory song !!

I wonder what happened to job after His sufferings ?

Psalm  22;14 I am poured out like water  and all my bones are out of joint. My heart has turned to wax;  it has melted away within me.

Job 30:16 (Amplified Bible)

16And now my life is poured out within me; the days of affliction have gripped me.


----------------------------------------
 16 Dogs have surrounded me; a band of evil men has encircled me,
       they have pierced  my hands and my feet.

 17 I can count all my bones; people stare and gloat over me.

 18 They divide my garments among them and cast lots for my clothing.

Matthew 27:35 (Amplified Bible)

35And when they had crucified Him, they divided and distributed His garments [among them] by casting lots [a]so that the prophet's saying was fulfilled, They parted My garments among them and over My apparel they cast lots.

--------------------------------------

Hebrews 5:7 (Amplified Bible)

7In the days of His flesh [Jesus] offered up definite, special petitions [for that which He not only wanted [a]but needed] and supplications with strong crying and tears to Him Who was [always] able to save Him [out] from death, and He was heard because
 of His reverence toward God [His godly fear, His piety, in that He shrank from the horrors of separation from the bright presence of the Father].

Psalm 22:24 (Amplified Bible)

24For He has not despised or abhorred the affliction of the afflicted; neither has He hidden His face from him, but when he cried to Him, He heard.

And so we turn to Davids song of Psalm 21 right in the middle of Psalm 20 and 22 and we read how the Shepherd was welcomed back to the Throne  and clothed in splendour and majesty

You see these pictures and peoples can be seen as  interchangeable, David can be a type of God shepherd or A Jesus singing to The Great Father Shepherd.

We Also see David welcomed and His prayers and desires met as He seeks after Gods heart, so we see David established and His Kingdom reigning and the Crown upon His head.

We can identify with Christ, be identified with Him,He is your identity, you are unique, you are a unique individual, but you also identify with Jesus.

You are as David...

"You And I  have been crucified with Christ,"  Galatians 2:20

"You died with Christ,"...Colossians 2:20

"God raised us up with Christ" Ephesians 2:6

"God made you alive with Christ" Colossians 2:13

"You have been raised with Christ" Colossians 3:1

Could the Holy Spirit have uttered through David your words ?

You are rejected ? aha, identify with Christ

You are presecuted mm ..Idenfity with Christ

But also as Christ is raised up , we are raised up, and we soar with wings as eagles

The Strong Tower at the right hand

In Psalm 22

We see the suffering servant , despised and rejected in David as He is fleeing from His enemies, we see one who betrayed David  to His own men and Davids own men coming up against Him in battle, we read that Davids own son led a rebellion against David  and so too we see the comparisions over and over again as the King of Kings the Lamb of God is betrayed by one of His own disciples and the very ones whom he loved handing Him over to the Cross .

We see David trusting in God Alone, not looking at what layed before Him , not looking at the stairs in front,but looking to God

And so as we walk on our journey of life things can seem hard and cold at times and difficult but God longs to have intimacy and to take us up those steps . not looking to what we can see , but looking to Him alone.

Lets pray

Father Shepherd of my heart who directs me in ways I cannot comprehend and does things I can never imagine, Father Shepherd of my heart teach me the right way to go and lead  me by the still waters of your voice instead of the rushing waters of the world.

Teach me not to fear your rod that may direct me in ways I might not always want to go, but help me to see that you know best and teach me to trust you.

Lead me into those green pastures,,the land of milk and honey, where my want is a want for more of you and my needs are met Jehovah Jireh.

Lead me in ways that I must go because you know best and even though I may not always want to go, help me to see that in so doing I am following you and then you will hear my prayers,
and see the inward desires of my heart and answer me.

Help me not to be a Saul, but A David and to seek after your heart in all things.

In Jesus name amen

Lord God Father of lights let us shine like stars in the universe for all to see and
let us not hide away ..

Let our prescence and radiance be seen by all in a dark world that people would look
and be amazed as they gaze at the children of the light and day...

Lord let us not be swallowed up and be sucked in by the world but let us know your
power and strength within us ..as an never ending source burning inside and radiating
out.

Fill us to overflowing Lord that others might be attracted to our light and be pulled
in to circle round us as we serve a God that made and created all things in Jesus name
 amen
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

And so we continue tonight looking at Cross references and the " Stars " and we
continue our theme of worship .

Before we start I have to add that we do not worship created things but we worship
instead the creater of all things, but we merely look at the created that points to
the creator.

We do not worship or live our lifes based on the star signs neither do we base our
future on fortune telling, but we base our future in Christ Jesus, who has far more to
offer ...not that we would follow     Him  simply because He offers more !!

We ( of course ) neither run after those people seen as " more gifted " to get prophesies
or words of knowledge as if we would use others in our family like fortune tellers !!

No of course not we seek God alone and run after Him don't we ?

We would not follow great teachers or scholars or mere men with anointed ministeries ?
would we ? no we follow them not because they have a gifting but we follow them because
we want to learn from them because they point us to the creator.

We follow a Rabbi because he points to the Great Rabbi and we would never follow them
simply because of their gifting !!  would we ? or seek for them to predict our future..
as if they would be fortune tellers on our behalf because we can seek God ouselves....
can't we ?

We follow these men and women because they are leaders of
a flock and because they point to God.....don't we !!

And so we look at the stars not as if it were astrology but because it is astronomy,
that points to the creator of all things.

The stars can no more predict the future than an atom can, which in itself is the
miniature universe.

Incidently, I wonder why people seem to put so much emphasis on how the moon and the sun
and the planets affect us ?  and  they do whether we like it or not, the sun predicts
the day and night and has been placed there by God to give us life as also the Son.

The moon displays the seas and waves in splendour as they trot to and fro gallopping
accross the land.

The stars may also have an effect on us, but we do not look to these things even though
they do have an effect on us  and why not ? because when we use these things to predict
our future we are taking our eyes off God and making these things our God instead.

Its funny is'nt it ? how we can place such a great emphasis on celestial bodies and yet
when it comes to the other celestial bodies that are spiritual bodies we seem to put these
in second place ?

We see more force behind the sun and moon than we do behind God and the enemy ummm
thats strange, so lets begin our journey into astronomy and learn a lesson from the
creator of astronomy.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Lord God Father of light in Jesus name we come to you and we give you our very lifes
and in return you give us your life, we come to you now as children of the light and
we wonder at the magnificence and splendour and glory of all that speaks and proclaims
your name.

For the heavens speak of you and the universe cries out to you and longs and yearns
for the day when it shall be transformed into something new and the very stones cry
out to you and speak of the maker.

Since earliest times men and women have gazed at the stars and known of your existence
Lord therefore there is no excuse.

We worship You Lord for you alone are the maker of all things and all things cry out to
 you and point to you and direct to you.

We thankyou now Lord as we come to your word that we will come eager in anticipation
wanting to hear from you Lord and the wonders of your creation but most of all Lord we
come to you because we want to know more of you In Jesus Name amen
---------------------------------------------------------------------------


The universe and astronomy has always fascinated people since earliest times and I
have to say " It is one of my favourite subjects " although throughout the years I
have come to the conclusion that " The more we learn about the universe and the planets ,
solar system, black holes, space and the mind blowing expanses of outerspace and galaxies...
the more we need to find out.

Delving into astronomy reminds me of looking into Gods heart ...as the more you learn the
more there is too learn and we have to come to the conclusion that " we know very little "

I find myself having to throw out the " text book teaching " I learnt as a child about the
planets because as  scientists learn more about the expanses of space ..they realise how
little they knew.

We now find pluto downgraded from a planet  !!  we find we have a second moon !!  be it
very small and more like an orbiting piece of small rock a few miles wide ...but nonetheless...
a moon.

We find that our knowledge and our understanding of our own small solar system is very
limited and scientists are still to ascertain what " space " is, being a " dark matter "

Maybe if we were ever to find the answer to what lies beyond a " black hole " we might
find our questions growing ever more and again find another expanse of unanswerable
questions !!

It makes us seem so small ...does'nt it ?

And yet as we look at the immenseness of space we can look also to the tiny atom....
a universe within itself with the nucleus and nuetrons and protons and electrons
encircling like miniature planets .

How could a God that is so big and mighty know every tiny atom that we cannot even see ?

I wonder if He names them ?

I wonder if He has named every tiny atom ? He being in every tiny atom knows about every
molecule and partical because if He did not He would not be God.

For there is nothing that God does not know about, for He is everywhere and in all things
at once.

And as we look at the atom and we wonder at the creation that proclaims God we also can
look at the stars in the sky and wonder in wonder.

And men and women can imagine about  other civilisations and peoples and yet we know that
there cannot be aliens do we not ? if such a thing did exist it might exist in animal form
or vegetable or as a bacteria or germ...

But we know that Jesus the Son died on a Cross of wood once for all and we know that the
earth is Gods footstool and we know that Christ did not die once for all 1000 times over
and over again on different planets all over the universe ....!!  don't we ?

We also know that Jesus did not give up His life as a ransom for many on other planets,
 using this planet as a mere platform to proclaim salvation to all life forms don't we ?

And yet there are some that like to have imaginations that exalt above Gods word but as we
let Christ trasnform our way of thinking, we begin to see that Christ has cast down those
imaginations and fanciful ideas of the heart and He takes into captivity those thoughts
and leads us on in His train. 2 Corinthians 10:5   2 Corinthians 2:14

Lets look at some more scripture and go from the beginning of time that God made to the
end of time that God made and lets Go into Gods time who is at the beginning and at the end
at the same time.

And we go to Genesis at the beginning of time or before time and we see Lucifer " the
morning star " being cast down...the is the fallen one who brought a "third" of the angelic
hosts down  with him

This is not Jesus mentioned in 2 Peter 1:19 (English Standard Version)

19And we have something more sure, the prophetic word, to which you will do well to
 pay attention(B) as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and
the morning star rises in your hearts,

This is Jesus who came to earth to proclaim liberty and freedom and salvation to captives
and to take them captive in His Train.

I wonder what third of angelic hosts went down as a falling star to Earth ?

I wonder if the higher ranking angelic hosts were involved here ?
 
We can see these scriptures as speaking about the fallen third of angels cast down from
their lofty place or we can see these scriptures as speaking about the end times and
the stars falling from the sky...

Revelation 12:4

Its tail swept away one-third of the stars in the sky and knocked them down to the earth.


REV 8:12  The fourth angel sounded his trumpet, and a third of the sun was
struck, a third of the moon, and a third of the stars, so that a third of
them turned dark. A third of the day was without light, and also a third of
the night.

ISA 13:10  The stars of heaven and their constellations will not show their
light. The rising sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its
light.


MAT 24:29  "Immediately after the distress of those days "'the sun will be
darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from
the sky, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.'

ACT 2:19  I will show wonders in the heaven above and signs on the earth
below, blood and fire and billows of smoke.


Wow what a powerful God we serve ? one who can command the universe? why ? because He
created the univers and flung stars into space and the same hands that moulded and shaped
the universe ....the same hands that moulded and shaped you and me and the same hands
that continue to shape and mould our lifes as we walk on in this journey are the same
hands that bled for our salvation.

The same nail pierced hands that created and shaped this vast universe and every minute
atom were pierced for you and for me .

The same breathe that spoke and created in the beginning breathed a final breathe on the
Cross of wood and said " Father forgive them for they know not what they do "

The same feet that made the earth His footstool bled for you and for me.

The same robe that was torn from the maker of the universe is worn by us, .....
it is called the robe of salvation and the blood sets us free.

The same breathe that breathed life into adam and into you and me...that stretches down
and breathes into our nostrils the breathe of life is the same breathe that said " Father
why have you forsaken me ? "and at this time the earth grew dark !!!

The same hands that stetched out the heavens bore our sin !

I wonder how big and how wide and how deep Gods love is for us ?

Ask yourself how big and how wide and how long and how high is the universe ?

Now lets look up at the stars in wonder and see Gods creation speak of the creator !!


When we consider " sun spots " the size of our earth or ten times larger !! when we
consider " dwarf stars " and collapsing giant stars imploding into themselves and causing
themselves to become " anti matter " huge holes in the surface of the universe..that
scientists call " Black holes "

I have always thought that their name really does not describe or even begin to touch upon
their immenseness and grandness and this in turn reminds me of God. And I consider what
 name I might give Him ? what name might we give God ? for we cannot give God a name nor
can we even begin to describe Him, for He already has a name and He already has many names.

And it was never for us to name Him, but only for us to name the animals.....I wonder in
our understanding if we could ever imagine God already choosing our names before we were
born ?

"O NOOO   GAURDIAN ....MY PARENTS GAVE ME MY NAMEEE.." ?

Did they ? think about that....and consider that God knows the names of every planet,
every star, every galaxy, every obiting sphere , every black hole and tiny particle that
exists and has its being even before man was born in the heart of God, if man and woman
was ever born in the heart of God !! or was man always in the heart of God ?

Consider for a moment this scripture

Luke 1:13

But the angel said to him, "Stop being afraid, Zechariah, because your prayer has been
 heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to name him John.

?
I wonder who named Jesus ?

When we consider that the same hands that flung stars into space were pierced by our sin !!

The same hands that spoke and gave life and created the immense expanse and unmeasurable
expanse of space and time and light and darkness and life and breathed life into us...

Gasped His last breath on a Cross of wood ...to give you life !!

Lets pause with this scripture for a moment !!

Job 9:2 - 10 RSV


But how can a man be just before God? If one wished to contend with him, one could not
answer him once in a thousand times. He is wise in heart and mighty in strength -
 who has resisted him, and succeeded?

He who removes mountains and they know it not
when he overturns them in his anger who shakes the earth out of its place and its
 pillars tremble who commands the sun and it does not rise, who seals up the stars
who alone stretched out the heavens, and trampled the waves of the sea,

Who made the
Bear and Orion, the Pleiades and the Chambers of the South, who does great things
beyond understanding and marvellous things without number..."


When we consider Vast black holes in the universe sucking in matter and engulfing
anything and everything that may wander past.

These black holes in the universe sucking in matter like giant vacuum cleaners, cleaning
up space.

A white dwarf or red giant comes about once a star
or sun has exhausted itself and burnt itself out it, the star will then  implodes on
itself,

 if the sun or star
is smaller in size it will become a red giant and once it has shed its outer layers
becomes what scientists call " A white Dwarf " and eventually become ( although none are
known of YET ... a "black dwarf "

A "black hole" is basically a star that once shone and exhausted its energies, it then
implodes back into itself and the forces involved are so immense that it will keep on
imploding on itself until it becomes anti matter.


When we consider one of the largest black holes in the universe that man has found up until
this date !!  which is called M87..( sounds like a motorway does'nt it ? )

This black hole is 3 billion times larger than our own sun !!  IMAGINE ..? 3 billion times
larger ? and scientists with their techniques and equipment can only wonder as they measure
the data and consider the verosity and chaos and violence of this huge black hole, sucking
into itself immense amounts of matter.


ISA 34:4  All the stars of the heavens will be dissolved and the sky rolled
up like a scroll; all the starry host will fall like withered leaves from
the vine, like shriveled figs from the fig tree.

Matter that becomes anti matter once it reaches temperatures of millions of degrees and shoots
out of the black hole as  what we call " x rays "

No light is emmitted from a black hole and the mass of a black hole, some balck holes can
be so dense they are said to be equal to 3 billion times the weight or mass of our own sun.

( for there is no light in Him ) although he is likened to a star !! and can be seen as
an angel of light...2 Corinthians 11

This one single black hole measuring 3 billion times the size of our own sun is situated
within what the scientists call " Virgo " cluster, a cluster of galaxies ....not just one or
two clusters but thousands upon thousands of clusters and in the center of these thousands
upon thousands of galaxies lies this black hole.

Psalms 19:1
 

David speaks in psalm 8

When I consider your heavens,

The work of your fingers, The moon and the stars,

Which you have set in place , What is man that you are mindful of him,

The son of man that you care for him? You made him a little lower than the heavenly
beings

And crowned him with glory and honor. You made him ruler over the works of your hands;

You put everything under his feet: All flocks and herds, and the beasts of the field,

The birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, All that swim the paths of the seas.

 O Lord, our Lord,How majestic is your name In all the earth!


This cluster of galaxies where the largest black hole found up until now is situated is
ten times the mass of the milky way..

And lets consider our own sun 870,000 miles accross (solar radius)..our own sun accounts
for 99% of all matter in our solar system..and our own planet earth could fit 1 million
times into our sun !!

The largest star known to man is called ( by us..not God or are we merely repeating the names
God has already given in prophetic utterance ? )

VY Canis Majoris !!  which is 5 thousand light years from earth and measures 2,100 times
the size of our  Sun. !!

When we consider the works of His hands ?  what are man that you are mindful of him ?


God speaks through
His creation and  the vastness of God cannot be fathomed or imagined or comprehended,
nor perceived in the minds of man or woman.


Lets look at another scripture

JOS 10:12  On the day the LORD gave the Amorites over to Israel, Joshua
said to the LORD in the presence of Israel: "O sun, stand still over
Gibeon, O moon, over the Valley of Aijalon."


Wow !!  thats cool or hot should I say ? God who made the universe and everything in it
who stretched out the expanse of stars that we see with our eyes !!  stopped the sun ?
which is 870,000 miles accross !!  wooooooo  ..what a mighty God we serve !!

Why did He do that ? ...for one man ? God would stop the sun for one man ?

JOB 9:7  He speaks to the sun and it does not shine; he seals off the light
of the stars.

wooo   wow...who can comprehend God ?


2PE 3:10  But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will
disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the
earth and everything in it will be laid bare.

ummm  a new heavens and a new earth ? maybe when we become Christians this new
earth and heavens already comes into being because when we change soo too does
that which encircles us !!

Maybe the new heavens and the new earth is already set in place ? for if it were not
then God would not know all things and we would not be seated in heavenly places now
with Him..

REV 21:1  Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and
the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea.

Wow God can destroy that which He soo lovingly made ? why would He do that ?

Why would God change us and renew us ? maybe things are not the way He planned ?

Maybe in His love for us He gave us free will !!  and maybe we kind of messed things up !!

I remember when a certain person left home and what a mess they left behind, what a mess
their lifes were in !!  what a mess they had made with their own free will !! what a mess
they left behind in torn and tattered lifes !! what a mess they made of their hearts and
of those around !!

But God gave them a second chance !!  they could start again from scratch like a new day !!

A bit like a new start... a new beginning...  a new chance to start again...

A new heart...wow how they had fallen !!  wow how they had swept with them so many people !!

Wow how they had tried to play at being God Himself !!  wow they said " ITS MY LIFE "

oooo  dear,,,,  but God in His mercy gave them a new start ,,a new beginning..

a new family, new friends..  new brothers ....new sisters....a new Father ....

A new day, a new universe, a new heavens, a new earth... !!  


JOB 37:18  can you join him in spreading out the skies, hard as a mirror of
cast bronze?

PSA 8:3  When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon
and the stars, which you have set in place,


PSA 136:7  who made the great lights--His love endures forever.


JER 31:35  This is what the LORD says, he who appoints the sun to shine by
day, who decrees the moon and stars to shine by night, who stirs up the sea
so that its waves roar--the LORD Almighty is his name:

And so we like stars in the universe shine out fo all to see.....don't we !!

Astronomers have recently discovered an amazing object in the heavens. Some
have dubbed it the  "celestial cross."

But is it any wonder that throughout this entire huge space that we live in and
amongst the trillions upon trillions of stars , galaxies , planets and mass of celestial
dust we should find a cloud shaped like a Cross ?

We only have to look at the stars like David did and say " When I consider the works of
your hands "

And so to summarise...we look at the stars in the sky to see the splendour and the glory
of God..

But we do not put these things before God nor do we use the things created by God to predict
our futures, but we lean on God and cast aside astrology becasue we know that these things
are merely temporal and God is eternal and He will decide whether we are to know the
future or not.

Because He knows what is best for us and He knows what will harm us, and a little knowledge
is very dangerous in the hands of the created .

We neither worship man nor a gifting a  man may have, nor do we worship money, becasue
we know these things are only temporal and we look to God and we worship Him alone.

Lets pray.

Lord Father God In Jesus name you who flung stars into space and have called us by name,
how great is your name in all the earth and in all the universe, you who have called us
by name placed the stars in the sockets and designed the vast expanse of the stary skies.

You named each celestial body and you made the Earth your footstool and gave us authority
to name the animals and to subdue the Earth and not the planets.

Your creation speaks of your glory and even the very rocks would cry out and the trees would
clap for joy and the mountains tremble at the sound of your voice.

We worship you alone Lord God who created all these things for us to marvel at and we remind
ouselves of your love for us..that you should make all this for us, that we might come to
you.

We marvel at your splendour that you might think of us and be in love with us, that you
 might always say and then do in demonstration ...for there is nothing that you say that
you do not do yourself, becuase you speak and do...you believe in us and we believe in
you...you love us and we love you...you want us to worship you as you always think of us
and we are always on your mind so too you are always on our minds and we meditate on your
word to us day and night.

We demonstrate your love to us becuase you demonstrate your love to us, we sacrifice our
lifes to you becuase you sacrificed your life for us.

We lay down anything that gets in the way of our relationship because you layed down all
things.

We lay down astrology before you now and we lay down anything that would predict the
future because you are the one and only God and we lay down our worship of the stars
that predict our lifes and hearts.

We repent of our belief in astrology and turn from our worship of the stars and we bow
before the creator of all things

And anything else that might exalt itself above you Lord who made the stary skies and
the heavens that we survey and we look to your creation and we prasie you that you are such
a mighty God who is in every universe and in every atom in Jesus name amen

Video Here

Chatrooms here

And so in this Nurture Group we are continuing the theme of the Psalms and as we
 look to  Psalm 15 & 16 we continue to look at Worship.

We have seen how we can let things get in the way between us and God and how
things can desolate  our lifes ...how sin can lead to death and shipwreck

How we can be in a desert experience, where the golden
calf can become an idol or we can look back at Egypt and long for the old times.

In our old life When it seemed we had all we needed and even though we were slaves to
Egypt ( the world )we felt we were looked after and now here we are in this wilderness
and we hunger and we thirst and we cam moan and groan and we walk on with God before us
and yet we still look back and moan and groan and long for days gone.

We can seek to serve two masters and yet we have neither one nor the other.

We can watch the Moses ahead of us and we can see the way he worships
 and the sacrifice He makes and how he lays down His life to serve
us and yet we complain.

For we let that abomination that causes desolation effect not just our past life but
our new life now and that desolation effects our worship of God who leads us on.

We watch Moses go up that Holy Hill and we stay at the bottom " unclean " and we
worship the god in our life

And as it says in Psalm 15

" WHO may enter your prescence on your Holy Hill ? "

Lets come to Him now and lay down that god before His feet and see ( dagon 1 Samuel 5 )
tumble over and smash before the one and true God ,

Lord God In Jesus powerful name we lay down anything that may get between us and you,
if we have a god, Lord we lay it down before your feet.

We lay down our very lifes and
let us know joy when you know joy and sadness when you know sadness and pain when you
know pain and anger when you know anger and hurt when you know hurt.

Laughter when
you laugh and fellowship as you see fellowship and friendship as you see friendship and
let us see through your eyes and know as you know and perceive as you perceive and think
as you think and begin to love as you love.

Let us know your heart Lord...

Let us be a representation of you, as Jesus was and is an exact representation of you.

Let us represent you Lord and show others what you are like

Not some made up, make believe story but a story of a true and living God who works in
and through His people that people might say " HE IS ALIVE "

Not some religious out working of man or some outpouring of a heart that seeks it own
ends but that of a heart layed down ...that lets go of self in order to gain.

Let us not hide behind good works and charity, as though these things would cover us
over and hide our sin and hide our false charade, but let us hide in you Lord and
let others see the result of what you do through us

 Let that work be a work that
does not fall down over time and become a house built on sand but let it be an enduring
work from you and of you .

 Not of flesh but of Spirit and let that storm come and let that
house stand and let not the thief steal away from that house but let Yourself come and
steal us away and let us be in complete abandonment to you

We do not seek to gain and loose our souls, but we seek to loose in order to gain and
our gain is you Lord for in you is all and all is in you.

We lay down these things to  gain life .......... everlasting life not of ourselves but
of you ,  an eternal spirit world of our own is nothing withotu you Lord...

 YOU ahve eternity and YOU are eternity.... what is eternity without you ?

We lay down our lifes to gain Your life, that we might have life and have life in
abundance in Jesus name amen

And so lets begin with the first mention of the Cross figuratively speaking,
and we come to the Tree in Genesis and we turn to Genesis  2:16 - 17

You see ? we could say that through our disobedience that we fell !!

Did you have parents who  never seemed to be satisfied with anything you did ?

Are you a parent who wants your children to be what you could never be ?

Have you found that you had too prove yourself to others ?

did you in your need to be accepted do things you regret because you wanted to be in
a certain group ?

Have you known peer pressure ?

None of us will ever be good enough, all of us have missed the mark...

All have sinned and fall short, all of us are or were guilty and sentenced.

But God in His love ...in His unconditional love...sends a valentine gift..

Not just for one day but for eternity and He says He loves you and me..

Whatever we have done and whatever we have been and however far we have fallen and
however much we have missed the mark and however guilty the enemy may make us feel.

God in His Son says " YOU ARE FREE.,...I LOVE YOU....YOU ARE NOT GUILTY "

In this relationship He gives us a love that outpours and saturates and overflows.

His blood can make the foulest clean and He loves you no matter what...

All of us whether we are Christians or not fall, but have we anyone to pick us up ?

We cannot always rely on man ,....can we ?

When was the last time someone let you down ?

GOD NEVER LETS US DOWN,.......it may seem that He might...BUT HE NEVER LETS
 US DOWN.

His promises are true and what HE says... He does, He is a God of action .

And so we come to the Tree in Genesis ...what do you think or Whom do you think the
tree might signify ?

Look at this another way maybe ?

Lets look at this story from a different angle and see ourselves taking from this tree !!

Philippians 1:21-23

"For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain...having the desire to depart and be
 with Christ, for that is very much better"

Said Paul in one of his letters...

Paul had learnt the secret of loosing His life to gain,he had learnt the secret of
" The Sabbath Rest "

You see when in disobedience we take from the Tree.....God knew we would !!!

Jesus knew we would ?  you see we eat from the Tree of life and we have eternal life
with God , nothing can separate us can it ?

But then we eat from the Tree of ? good and evil !!!

We find separation don't we ? even as Christians we might feel like theres something
there ? something is getting in the way ? an abomination ? a god ? a sin ?

So we take from the Tree of the knowledge of good and evil , in other words we as Christians
are disobedient

Picture Jesus on the Tree/Cross  taking our sin away and here is where we die to sin.

We lay down before the feet of Jesus that sin that is separating us.

We basically fall down and here Jesus takes on Himself our sin that we might continue
to eat from the Tree of life.

Which Tree are you taking from ?


But again you come back to Christ as you eat from His Tree of life now and when again now
as a Christian you do that thing you know you should'nt !!  you turn and die ....

You lay down that thing before the feet of Jesus and you cause that thing to die in your
life for if you do not it will desolate you , it will cause you to fall.

Sin leads to death...cut it off

He prunes us, He gives us the nourishment to produce fruit that He uses, He forgives, but we
also play a part

But as you come to that Tree and you come to that Cross so Jesus takes that sin on
Himself even now ...who was and is and is to come, He takes that sin right now at this
very moment and takes it upon Himself.

You see it takes two in a relationship, it takes you to go to God and talk to God and In Jesus
name you give over to Him and ask for forgiveness and repent and in turn He takes it and
releases you and makes you new and cleanses you and your relationship is restored and
He forgets.

But you also die to self in Him, you die to your ways and live in His ways.

You cut off that thing that causes destruction and harm , for far better to enter heaven
without that sin than to enter hell..Mark 9:43-48

God also prunes us and as we abide in Him we produce fruit  John 15:1 - 8

But it takes two in a relationship and we put to death htose things which are not of God
Colossians 3:5

You put that thing to death at the Tree and it dies and you gain.

What do you gain ? the Tree of life !!

Now lets go on and look at some  Cross References and a Cross reference takes us to !!

Genesis 3:1 - 3

" The serpent said "  EAT OF THE TREE  YOU WON'T  DIEEEE  !  ?

Don't believe the enemy, you will die, for one sin leads to another and to another.

And we all have testimonies of where we went and the journeys we walked before salvation

Sometimes we might have to get to a place in our lifes where we eat and feed with the
pigs like the prodical son, sometimes we have to get to a place where we cannot go
on ourselves..

And we get to a place where we meet with Jesus and we might find He takes us and
welcomes us back home and we reach a place where we die to self to gain Christ
who is life

But What a great thing to loose your life and gain eternal life !!

What a great thing to see that sin die, what a great thing to lay down to gain.

This is exactly what Jesus did Himself...He layed down His life to gain and what an
inheritance, what a train....what a family He has

You see Adam and Eve would take from that Tree ..they always have...we always have

But this is the reason for Jesus hanging on the Tree that we might have life and
have life in abundance not just in eternity but NOW.

We all have a choice, many may want to live in the " world " but some walk through
the narrow way and find the Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of...

To die is to gain and to live is to serve as Christ served and gave Himself as a ransom
for many

that many might have life and have it in abundance not in a desert experience
all the time ...

But we have to go through a desert experience to learn and to grow and to seek
and to find..it is in the desert experience that we learn the most sometimes and
this is where the tree grows its roots the deepest, let your roots grow deep into
Gods word .


We  walk
into that garden of plenty and take from that Tree of life that we might have that
abundant life now and take from the fruits of the land of plenty and know that fruit in
our lifes NOW.

To take from the Tree of life and to know that land flowing with milk and honey NOW.

Yes we have to go through the wilderness to reach the promised  land and in that
preparation God teaches
us and prepares us and talks to us.

 He leads us and nurtures us and cares for us and
provides fo us and gives us manna and quail and water and food and oasis and spring and
well and mountian and hill and times of plenty and times of distress and times of hunger
and times of plenty.

But He has also given us this land that He has prepared called the promised land,
 we can walk into it NOW and taste  and see
IN THIS LIFE..NOT JUST IN  THE LIFE TO COME.

Now we can begin to live the fullness of life in abundance and know the inheritance
and begin to live now in eternity

But what of the Tree of the knowledge of good and evil ? its still here is'nt it ?

Very tempting is'nt it ?

Very tempting to disobey...is'nt it ? even as Christians we can be disobedient can't
we ? the tree is still around is'nt it ?

satan said to Jesus " You can have the whole world ..all these kingdoms" in Matthew
4 verse 8..

But  what is the  profit  if you gain the whole world .. but loose your soul ?

Lets look at Another Cross Reference

Isaiah 14

In Isaiah 14 and from verse 12 onwards we read about pride and those lofty things
that would set themselves above God and seek to be above the Holy One who made all
things.

Whether you interpret Isaiah 14: 12 onwards as satan falling from heaven or whether you
interpret this as Senacherib or King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylohn makes no difference,
the forces that lie behind this are pride and greed and those things that would try to set
themselves above God Himself.


2 CORINTHIANS 10:3-5

3For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh:
4(For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the
pulling down of strong holds;)

5Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the
 knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of
Christ;

We can seek to build our own kingdoms, we can seek in our hearts to be empire
builders and build a " tower of babylon " we can seek in our hearts to have power and
influence before man, we can seek to build our house , but unless the Lord builds the
House they labour in vain that build it.

We can believe that we are  gods unto ourselves and our lifes are ours for the making and
the world is our oyster and seek to build and own and live for our needs and wants and
pleasures and prosper and enjoy life now and live for today.

But this is folly and satan himself knows that time is short and the demons know that time is
short and even if you gain the whole world and even if satan comes to you and shows
you all the empires and kingdoms of the world with all its wealth and all its glory and
says to you " you can have all this if you worship me "

It is nothing compared to Christ....

What do you think it means when satan says " worship me " ?

What does He mean by worship him ? the moment we start to think about taking from
that fruit of that tree of disobedience and begin to walk in the opposite direction
 to what God would want for us and what God has planned  for us and we turn away from
God and we seek to build our own lifes ...

Do our own thing and  we deny God and we take from that tree of the world ....

the moment we start to think about
how good Egypt was ( our past lifes ) and start to think about going back and we turn
and take !!

We begin to worship another god and sin starts to creep in and begins to creep up slowly
like an ivy but the world with all its pleasures and all its attractions are nothing
compared to Christ.

Why take from the Tree of good and evil when we can take from the tree of life ?

In Isaiah 14 we read about the one who fell from heaven and we come back to where
we started in the Garden of eden where we see the serpent full of pride and greed

We also see kings mentioned here which can be interpreted as kings of the earth and
babylon but whatever way you look at it and interpret these verses it is satan behind
the pride , satan is speaking and deceiving.

Funny how sometimes we can hear the enemy speak but not God is'nt it ?

Strange how people can be more excited about spirits and the dead than God is'nt it ?

Strange how the world always looks more atractive than Church is'nt it ?

Strange how the forbidden can always seem more atractive than those things that
are allowed is'nt it ?

satan fell from heaven here in Isaiah as the king of babylon falls and anything that tries
to exalt itself above God will fall.

Lets look at one more Cross reference

Luke 10:18

 18And He said to them, I saw Satan falling like a lightning [flash] from heaven.

Jesus was there when satan fell ....

satan tried to exalt himself above God and he was cast down..

kings try to exalt themselves as gods and are cast down...

people try to exalt themselves above God by thinking they are gods themselves and
are cast down.

Our very thoughts and imaginations  can exalt themselves above God and are cast down

5Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the
 knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of
Christ;

Anything that exalts itself above God will always be cast down because there is no
other God.

And again we see that when we take of Christ we have the authority robe of Christ

19Behold! I have given you authority and power to trample upon serpents and
scorpions, and [physical and mental strength and ability] over all the power that the
enemy [possesses]; and nothing shall in any way harm you.

    20Nevertheless, do not rejoice at this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice
 that your names are enrolled in heaven.

Lets come to Jesus now and lay down those things that would seek to get in the way
and exalt themsleves in our lifes above God and become an abomination that leads
to desolation

Lets come to God now and lay down our very lifes at the Tree that we might loose
our lifes to gain life.

To be in complete abandonment..... to let Him have control...to walk up that hill and
be a sacrifice of a life laid down for Him

Let us holf nothing back but come to Him who is above all things that when we let go
and let God......we might see that by loosing we gain

Pray with me and let go at the Cross

Lord I come to you and lay my life down before you that I might gain you above all
else and nothing else matters and nothing is above you for in you all things move
and have there being and hold together.

Lord I come to the Cross and I lay myself down before you , use me Lord and take
my life ,

Let me know the power of your resurrection life as I abandon myself to you.

Lord I take from the Tree of life and I walk away from all that which would seek
to have control over me

That you might reign and rule and have your way in me In Jesus name amen

How can light mingle with darkness ?

Chatrooms Here

I often hear fellow Christians  say " Do not be unequally yoked with none
believers "

As if we are not to have anything to do with " non believers "

We are not to befriend nor be seen to agree with them...

So I ask you this question..

How can we be unequally yoked with non believers ?

You see before I knew the Lord, He was speaking to me, He was gently nurturing me,
His Holy Spirit was speaking into my life and heart, the Light of the world was
speaking to me while I was walking in darkness.

The light of the world was iluminating my heart and mind and even though I did'nt
know His voice or recognise His calling at the time, my heart was responding to
Him.

All of us who are Christians now at some point walked along the Damascus Road and
had a light shine down on us.

While we still walked in sin, While we still walked in the " I "  Instead of the " O "

The " "I" in the middle of  s "I" n

Instead of the  "O"  in the middle of S " O " N.

We all had that " O " , that God hole inside that needed to be filled..

It was no good blaming anyone else...it was no good blaming Adam and Eve...

Adam and Eve were not the only people to disobey and be rebellious.

We were enemies of God, walking in disobedience, Walking in the " I " , walking
the wide path, walking along when sudenly a light began to shine down.

And God spoke to us whether we recognised His voice or not...

And as God said to Paul " Paul why do you persecute me "

He could have been saying it to any one of us, because all of us held Jesus to
the Cross.

And the light shone down upon us and we fell and responded...

Now we suddenly realised the way in which we had been walking and for the first
time we began to realise that maybe we needed to change and walk another way.

Before that time we knew no different, before that time we were walking in darkness,

But at the point of the light coming down then...even though we were blinded by the
Light of the world and we walked knowing that we were blind...this was the turning
point of our lifes .

Now we knew we were blind and we sought to have our blindness taken away.

Now and only now could we see the way we had walked in our previous life.

Now and only now could we see that we had been walking in darkness and now we
realised how dark that darkness was.

Now as Paul ....walked along in blindness, we too walked in blindness instead of
darkness.

Because for the first time our eyes had been opened to the truth that we were blind.

I wonder how many of us had a ......." Ananias.." praying for us ?

Now having sat and sought God we knew the lifting of the scales from our eyes and
at last we walked in the light, now we could go out and see the world in new eyes.

Now we could mix as Paul mixed with the gentile and the jew.

You see most of us walk alongside those who are called ( by the Christian community )
" non believers "

A lot of us work with non believers, a lot of us mingle with non believers, a lot of
us have more contact with non believers than we do with believers.

Every day we walk alongside those who still walk in darkness...

We mingle with these people, as Jesus Himself mingled with people.

Jesus did not spend all His time at the local synagogue, neither did he spend His
time with the religious people of that day.

In fact as we read , He spent most of His time as the light of the world mingling
with the people who walked in darkness and the people who walked in darkness had
seen a great light.

He walked and mingled with those who were prostitutes and thieves, those who were
down and out and those who were beggars of that time.

Those who were tax collectors and shepherds, who were not seen as the " top " of
society at that time.

He walked and talked with the lady at the well and told her how she was living,
because the light was shining in the darkness and iluminating the hearts of those
around.

In fact you know who Jesus could see into more than anyone ?

The pharisees and the sadducees !!

His light exposed the hearts of those religious teachers of the law...

Jesus looked past the external things and His light saw into the hearts of the
people around Him.

And so we see that Paul himself saw the light, and we see that we ourselves saw and
 the light and we now as Paul walk in the light and we see that the Magi, those
magi ..cians followed the light to the place of Jesus .

To the manger, that was a feeding trough in a stable, so that all could feed from
the bread of life as in a manger.

And the shepherds of the sheep saw a light and heard heaven rejoicing...

So in fact we see time and time again that instead of the light hiding away, the
light in fact does the opposite and exposes and shines out into the darkness and
the darkness can never hide the light.

For the light of the world exposes the darkness and the darkness in a heart.

And as Paul , it is not until the light exposes that we realise that we are blind.

And we seek to have our blindness taken away.

So what does it mean when we read " Do not be un equally yoked with non believers " ?

Surely we spend all our time with " non believers "

We watch television, we listen to the radio, we read the newspapers...

We are in the world but not of the world.

Our enemy is not far out there somewhere, but in fact our enemy is all around us.

We are living in the enemy camp, but "stronger is He that is in us, than he that
is in the world "

And so we read these scriptures and we ponder what they might mean ?


2 Corinthians 6:14 (New International Version)

14Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and
wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?


2 Corinthians 6:14 (Amplified Bible)

14Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers [do not make mismated alliances with
them or come under a different yoke with them, inconsistent with your faith.


Some time ago I had to reach a  decision regarding my business..

At that time I had just split from a partnership of three that employed five people,
and was launching out on my own, I employed two people to carry on my own cleaning
business, but I had come up against some interesting decisions that I had to make
some conclusion on.

One of the people working with me at that point was not a Christian  and the other
was, during the years I employed people  I met and employed many " non believers "

And I am sure that a little of me rubbed off on them and I am sure a little of
the character of God rubbed off on them.

They probably saw all the bad points about me and workinbg alongside me all the time,
they saw me on my bad days and my good days, they saw all the jagged edges.

They probably saw things about me that I never saw, they saw my bad hair days,
and they probably made up their own decisions based on what they saw.

In fact I could say that at that time of employing people I would prefer to employ
non believers because this gave an open doorway for God, and the Christians who
worked for me probably knew me too well and probably had preconceived ideas about
" what I was like "

They saw me as I was and not as I am...

In other words they had already made up their minds what I was like by what they
had heard about me.

They did not really see me as God was moving me on, but saw me as they had seen me
years ago.

You know beware of people who read into things that are'nt really there...

The devil can get a foothold on these things, never try to read into situations
without knowing the full story and seek God above all else, never base your
thoughts on " lack of knowledge "

But back to the topic at hand..

At this point in time while I was running this business several firms were joining
up together and this was a great idea, it strengthened firms and made for more
profit.

I had several firms come to me asking if I would be interested in joining together !!

This would have meant doubling or tripling turnover, this would have meant joining
our ideas together and our teams together and putting our knowledge of the cleaning
business together.

This might have meant expanding into all kinds of areas and possibilities...

But I had to reach a decision on this as I had done many times before and time and
time again I found myself unable to go ahead in these decisons..

Why ?

Because you cannot be unequally yoked with non believers...

Light cannot mingle in the things of the darkness...

In other words, although I worked alongside " those who did not believe at that
 point "

Although I worked in a dark world, although I walked as a light in the darkness
and alonside those who had not yet been blinded by the light

I could not join forces with other people and do the things they did.

I had to "take up my Cross " if you like...

I had to out my walk with the Lord before the world..

It is one thing to work and walk alongside those who have not yet seen,
but quite another to do as they do.

Amalgamating   with and joining up in partnership with non believers would
have meant taking on their practices and their ways of doing the books, it would
have meant , not just working alongside them but saying in effect " I am like you "

I had to walk away and stand my ground even though it meant " loosing out "

because you see there is a cost, but far greater the reward in the life to come.

You see you cannot be in the Kingdom of light and in the kingdom of darkness.

You cannot serve two masters..

Although Jesus walked alongside those that were in darkness and walking in darkness.

He did not do as they did..

So simply ....try to avoid at all cost forming alliances with those who are in
the world.

BUT try to befriend and walk alongside these people " at all cost "

Now there are some who find they " see the light " while in a marriage and
united with a " non believer "

Here you have the two kingdoms living together.

The reason that Gods word says " do not be unequally yoked "

Is not to say " this is a law "

It is not to say " you are wrong "

It is not to condemn and blast a Christian with scripture.

It is simply God saying " be wise.. be careful my son or daughter "


" you are walking in the light as children of the light so do not
do as the children of the dark do "

A simple illustration  is this..............

If you stand on a chair and you try to pull someone else up onto that
chair....you will find it quite difficult ?

Much easier for them to pull you down !!!

This is a simple rule to follow


the scripture we have looked at goes on...



17"Therefore come out from them
      and be separate, says the Lord.
   Touch no unclean thing,
      and I will receive you."[d]
 18"I will be a Father to you,
      and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty

Although we come out of Egypt ( the world )

We carry things along with us, we can still hold onto the gods of Egypt

We can still carry the rich foods of Egypt in us and it is not until we
come to the waters of Marah that we find our cleansing from the inside
out.

It is not until we come to the springs of Elim that we find our filling.

It is not until we come to the base of the mountain and look up at the
mountain when things seem impossible that we start to see the gods that
we had held onto become the gods that we worship.

And we find ourselves unclean, unable to touch the mountain..

We can have a " golden calf " in our lifes.

We can carry the " golden calf "

And once we melt down those things we worship...tv...a person...car...
house...marriage....house....work ....then and only then do we see the
idol for what it is.

It is not until the light comes that we see the darkness..

It is not until we are blinded by the light that we see that we were blind.

It is not until we come to the foot of the mountain that we see the " gods "
as they are.

Once the children of the light walk alongside the children of the
dark then the children of the dark will see a light and see that they have
been blinded and want to turn and follow the light.

And so to conclude..

Let us be a beacon light to those around, but not join forces with those around.

Let us be " the light of the world " in a dark place.

And let us walk up the mountain of God instead of joining with those who sit at
the bottom of the mountain.

For how can the army of the Lord join forces with the enemy ?

Lets pray.

Lord God in Jesus name you have given us so many gifts to use in the season of
salvation, you have given us the sabbath rest, the day of all days...

To walk in and to be lights shining in the darkness, that others might be
blinded by your light and see what they have been walking in and desire to see
and have their eyes opened.

You have given us Jesus who has been born in our hearts and reborn every time we
come to Him, you have given us so many gifts for this season...

Let us not follow the ways of the world but walk in the world, let us not be as
they are, but be as you are, let us not sit on the throne of judgement, but let you
be the judge, let us not pull others down but see you pull them up.

Let us walk alongside those who are weary and heavy laiden that they might find
" rest " from their labours and walk in yours.

Let us walk alongside those who are weary and heavy laiden that they might find,
" your sabbath rest "

Let us not walk past the stranger at the wayside, but let us help them and pick
 them up.

Let us not walk past the stranger at the wayside but go to their aid as indeed
you first picked us up  as the " good samaritan " and helped us to our feet and
continue to do so.

Let us not walk past the stranger at the wayside but pick them up as indeed you
pick up the Church.

Let us not join in and do things as other do , but do the things that you would do.

Let us in all things seek what you would want and not speak out of our fleshy nature.

In Jesus name amen

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1aFCHwhTx4

chatrooms here


The gift of repentance

You know we see Paradoxes in Gods word or what seem to be paradoxes

We have the " Paradox Box "

We are saved and yet we are being saved,

We are not saved by works and yet we have works to do for without works our faith
is dead.

We ask for forgiveness and yet we are forgiven.

Jesus comes to bring peace and yet he does not come to bring peace but a sword.

We see in love that Jesus suffered a violent slaughter, that by His stripes we are
healed.

We see that there is no life without death,

Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find
 it. Matt 11:39 NIV

When we are cursed, we bless;

when we are persecuted, we endure it;

when we are slandered, we answer kindly.

Up to this moment we have become the scum of the earth, the refuse of the world.
1 Cor 4:9 - 13 NIV

We have the wisdom of fools, and the folly of the worlds wisdom is paramount it seems.

We rely on Gods wisdom which indeed is a gift...

We have our  strength in weakness and our treasure stored up in God.

It seems when we are weak God gives us His strength and He lifts us up.

This is not of ourselves but is God given.

Now we have paradox after paradox, we seem to have different messages coming at us
in different directions.

We might think that we are the ones in control and yet we find that God is.

We might believe that we come to God when in fact, no one can come to God unless
it is permitted.

We say God is in control and yet if we do give Him the controls of our lifes
He may not be.

We say " God can do anything" and yet He sometimes cannot because of man.

God cannot or will not force our wills, nor can He make or force us to love Him.

As puppets the world is carried along on strings and yet they look at the Christian
believer as if they are the ones on strings.

The world says " I am in control " when God is.

The Christian might say  " God is in control " and yet not allow God entry into the
heart.

Nothing can separate us from God and yet it can, we ourselves can separate ourselves
from God, and we can deny God rule in our lifes.

The rich and famous seem to prosper while the poor and forgotten seem to have no life.

The wisdom of the world can seem to be above all things while the wisdom of God in fact
is.

It is finshed and the work is done and yet , we race on towards the prize.

We are forgiven and yet we seek forgiveness


And so we look at this message .....THE GIFT OF REPENTANCE......
-----------------------------------------------------------------

"No man is able to come to me if he is not given the power to do so by the Father"
 (John 6:65, Bible in Basic English).

Paul tells us: "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of
yourselves; it is the gift of God" (Ephesians 2:8).

"Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out ..."
(Acts 3:19).

Repentance and faith are like two sides of a coin.

Repentance is simply turning around, repentance is simply not just saying " sorry "
and is not just simply not doing it again !!!!

What do I mean by this ?

I can remember before I was saved ...long before I found salvation...

I had a conscience...I knew when I was doing a " bad " thing, I knew when I was in the
 wrong and sometimes my parents or someone would guide me in the right direction.

Maybe sometimes I would be punished for my wrong, maybe sometimes I turned from
the wrong I was in because I saw the affect it was having on me.

Even as a " Non Christian " even as a " non believer " I knew and had a God given
Conscience that my actions were wrong and I sometimes would turn from my actions.

Simply because everyone has a God given Conscience , I suppose you could say " it is a
method of survival " as an action begins to destroy life or affect ones life a person may
decide to change his or her course, sometimes this turning around may not be a choice.

I remember my own father had to choose to give up smoking or face an early death, I
remember he had in fact to change his whole lifestyle and direction.

Could it be that a " non believer" can repent ?

Can it be that a person not walking in " salvation " can turn ?

lets discuss this now.

"No man is able to come to me if he is not given the power to do so by the Father"
 (John 6:65, Bible in Basic English).

I remember as a child that I prayed to God and my prayers were answered, even though
I was not classed at that time as a " Christian believer "

How can this be ?


Repentance itself is not a human act, but comes only from
God Rom.2:4 -- it is a divine gift of God  Acts 5:31; 11:18; 2 Tim. 2:25

Once I found Gods salvation which was a gift to me, I found the gift of repentance..

Before this time I did'nt really think anything was wrong in my actions or life as I
simply followed every one else  and although I did have a conscience I simply followed
the survival pattern.

Now as a Christian I found Gods working inside of me and started to sense the Holy Spirit
working within, for the first time I  experienced  " Holy Spirit conviction "

For the first time I heard God speaking to my heart and working from the inside out and
instead of things changing around me , I found myself changing and as I changed so the
things that were once a problem were no more .

Now I had received the " Gift of Salvation " I had also received the " Gift of the Holy
Spirit
 "

And with the " Gift of the Holy Spirit " of which was speaking into my life long before
my salvation, I received the " Authority Robe "  and the gift of " repentance "

Now the Holy Spirit was able once I had received salvation to work inside of me and so
convict me of sin, now for the first time I began to see things that I had never seen
 before.

Now slowly over the years God began to bring to my attention ...through His Holy Spirit..
those things which got between Himself and me.

Now for the first time I found the " gift of repentance "

Now I was able to turn from my way to Gods way, before this I only knew my way.

Now I was able to turn to Gods way, becasue through His salvation now I had His Holy
Spirit guiding me,.

You see before I would say " this is my life " I can do what I want"

Now it was His life, now I had received the "Gift of repentance "

Now what is repentance ?

How can you turn unless you have something to turn too?

What is the differnece between my past turning and this turning now as a Christian ?

Could it be that I am taking  up the Cross ?

What does it mean when i take up my Cross ?


You see I can repent and turn to God and this is a gift , this is a gift that I receive
because I have the Holy Spirit within me and what might be wrong for me and what might
convict me might not convict another person !!!

Why do you think this might be ?

How can something be wrong for me and yet be okay for someone else ?

When I hear God speaking through His Holy Spirit into my heart I feel I need to repent,
I feel an urging, a wanting, a bubbling up within me, a spring rising up, a drawing, a
need to repent and turn to God.

Sometimes this repentance and need to repent might may not mean that I have to repent
in sack cloth and ashes, in other words I do not need to pubicly express my repentance,
but my repentance can be before God alone.

It does not mean that we have to punish ourselves and go for a length of time letting
people know about our sorrow.

We do not have to be like the Pharisee and screw up our faces to let everyone know about
our discomfort and our agony.

This is a repentance that is between us and God.

I have known times when in fact I have seen the need for repentance but also have not seen
the wrong I have done or have felt the Holy Spirit showing me something and yet I do not
want to repent because I simply canot see the need or because I want to continue in
that way.

This then becomes what I call the " yo yo "

Where the Spirit convicts me to turn and yet I want to continue in my way ,

I then have a struggle between my flesh and thinking and the Spirit that works within me.

I can ask for forgiveness and God may have already forgiven me and yet afterwards I can
still continue in my way and so I go back to ask for forgiveness and yet still I go on
and continue to do the same thing over and over again.

And at this point some can feel as if they have failed, they start to feel as if they
are are useless and the enemy begins to take a foothold.

Do you think there is a difference between " asking for forgiveness " and  " repenting " ?

Has'nt God already forgiven ?

Is saying " sorry " enough ?

or does it require an action ?


This then becomes a struggle between the flesh and the Spirit and between my will and
His will and at these times I find myself wrestling with God and I simply ask that God
would give me the desire to repent from the thing He is showing me, give me the desire
Lord.

Make that thing repulsive to me, make that thing vile to me, that everytime I consider
that way it might be repulsive to me like a bad odour.

Often times when I pray for the desire to change and the desire to repent from something
I often find that , that thing that had a hold on my life has been removed.

Or I find that the " thing " has lost or is loosing its power over me.

Learn to pray for the desire within ....

Soemtimes we may find that we know of a " sin " and we become convicted of a sin that
has lodged itself between us and God, sometimes we may want to hold onto this " sin "

PRAY for the desire to be loosed...

Remember salvation is a gift, the opposite of repentance is faith, this is a two
sided coin.

Sometimes it may be that we need to act out our repentance before God.

Once just after salvation I became convicted and I knew I had an addiction that was
affecting my Christian life, at that time I had to act, before God, the addiction was
drink, yes alchohol and this had a hold on my life at this time as a young Christian
of 6 months old.

I also had a medical condition brought on by drinking that affected my life at this
time, one night I opened the cupboard and before God I emptied the bottles of drink
down the drain and I asked Gods forgiveness.

Since that time drink has held no hold on me and my medical condition was after wards
healed.

As if instantly I was healed and restored.

Sometimes our sin can be hidden sin that is revealed by God and is suddenly open for
all to see, at these times God in His mercy shows a sin in His light that all might
see and that we might repent and show before others a Godly sorrow.


Now we feel a shame as we know that others know and sudenly our sin is revealed before
others and at these times we want to hide away and we feel shame and we feel Godly sorrow
as God reveals and yet forgives as others forgive !!!!! ( or do they ? )

O it is hard when we see our old friends ... the people who knew us as we were...

OO  how we like to hold onto our old ways and those things which we felt made us
 accepted by others.

ooo how we like to be liked and have our old friends around us and have it like it
was once before.

But now things have changed and we have a new life and we are no longer the same
( inside ) but a new life has begun and yet we still struggle as Jacob.

Do you know when God forgives He forgets ?

 when God forgives us He forgets our past sins. "For I will be merciful to
their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more"
 (Hebrews 8:12; compare Psalm 103:11-13).

Your slate is wiped clean, you are forgiven, IT IS FINISHED.

your salvation is an ongoing salvation as you turn and walk with God every day.

Repentance is an ongoing thing, turning to God , turning to God, turning to God....

Every day ..Every day ..Every day ..Every day ..Every day ..Every day ..

I cannot count the number of time I have said " sorry " to God as He has revealed certain
things to me.

I cannot count the number of times I have had to repent and turn backor the times I have
had to ask for the desire to turn back, to ask Him for that inward working of The Holy
Spirit to give me that inward desire to turn away  and to follow Him.

These times have not been evident to anyone else accept God Himself and at these times
I have known the evidence of a changing and the thing that held me pass away.

It has not been that the problem has diminished but it has been that I have changed
therefore although the problem is still there it is no longer a problem.

You see Paul himself while on the road to damascus suddenly knew he was wrong. He
repented. His life was so completely changed that he immediately
 risked his life to preach in the synagogues that Christ is the Son of God (Acts 9:20-25

Repentance is a gift at salvation and of salvation...


The problem is "all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God" (Rom.3:23)


The message that Paul preached was: "repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord
Jesus Christ" (Acts 20:21). In repentance, there will be confession of sin to God
(Psa. 32:5; 51:1-4).


Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return
unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly
 pardon" (Isa. 55:7); "He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth
 and forsaketh them shall have mercy" (Prov. 28:13).

"... to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they
 may receive forgiveness of sins ...although the slate is wiped clean the Holy Spirit may
draw out those things we must bring to God, this is not a working of ourselves but a
working of The Holy Spirit.


When we repent and turn to God ...this also is a working of the Holy Spirit and
not of ourselves, although we need to put the inward repentance into words before
God , God so too gives us the words to utter" (Acts 26:18,20).

"... I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance" (Matt. 9:13).

Sometimes we can actually pray to God without words, soemtimes we can respond in the
heart or by our actions.

This too is an enabling and ability given through the Holy Spirit.

For is it was left to us we would indeed not see or understand or be equipped or have
the ablility to walk away.

Time after time through Gods word we see that the dog always returned to its vomit.

We see that Gods people had hardened hearts and such was the death of animal sacrifice,
time after time  and so God called out to His people and we see again and again there was
nothing that could save, was there anyone in heaven or on earth who could save ?

"No man is able to come to me if he is not given the power to do so by the Father"
 (John 6:65, Bible in Basic English).

Jesus died ...once for all and we now have the ability which is the anointing, the
Holy Spirit, He leads us into all truth and it is He who shows us the right way to walk and
lights our path.


"I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish" (Luke 13:3,5).

We do not want an abomination to desolate our lifes ....do we ?

Lets come before God now and in His light and in His mercy and in His grace and in His
Love and in His compassion and in His revealing Holy Spirit consider our ways and each day
confess to Him and repent and have a right spirit renewed and have the joy of His
 salvation.

Let us come to Him now and let Him search us and see if there is anything,

Psalm 139:23-24 says, "Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me and know my
anxious thoughts; 24 And see if there be any hurtful way in me, and lead me in the
everlasting way."

He searches and He knows the secrets of our hearts (Ps. 44:21)

Lets pray

Father God in Jesus name we kneel before your throne and we ask for the desire to
follow deeper with you, for the inward desire to seek that which is your will for
our lifes, that inward drive through your Holy Spirit to work within us, we give you
permission Holy Spirit to search deep within us and bring out those things that might
be a stumbling stone to your work through us.

Lord we ask you now into our lifes and into our deepest fears and thoughts and motives,
that you might work within us and that the gift of repentance might see a turning point
that would bring many others to salvation, that others would follow on as we walk and
follow the Great Rabbi.

Enter in Lord and have your way among us in Jesus name amen