Preaching with a purpose

Recently I started learning Russian with no particular view in mind except to keep my mind active.  To help with this I decided to watch Russian T.V. online.  Whilst doing this I came upon a talent show for kids called voicekids.  It is a spin off from The voice that we have in Britain. Whilst watching it I came across Daniel Pluzhnikov who has acondraplasia, but sings with such passion that I can see he has a personality far bigger than his body. Well he captured my heart and will yours too if you go to vk.com/voicekids.  He was in the show on 11.03.16. So you  will need to scroll down to find him, but it will be worth your while.  Alternatively you can find him on Youtube. Happy listening.

I have not seen any of my Russian readers here since I posted a few of my favourite Russian words and am very much afraid I wrote something amiss which was perhaps unintentionally offensive to them. There have always been a big part of my readers around the world.  So if I did say something I should not have done I want to apologise.

At the weekend I took part in a short mat indoor bowls tournament.  We have this once a year to raise money for charity.  The charity we chose this year provides motorcycle riders who transport blood and other medical things, such as body parts for transplants.  They are on call and able to respond rapidly to whatever is needed.  They usually have about sixteen call-outs a day. This is a very worthwhile thing to be doing both for the riders and for us raising the money.  I would encourage anyone to get involved in something worthwhile like this.  However none of this gets us any kudos or merit with God.  Never imagine that you can get into God's good books by doing stuff.  There is only one thing that pleases God and fits us for heaven and that is to put our trust entirely in Jesus.  He is the only one who lived the perfect life and the only one who can put us right with God.

Beware the tactics of those selling to us.   They present us with so many special offers.   All these schemes are to encourage us to buy more than we need or really want.   They are playing on our greed, our desire for things. When we are offered a net full of oranges and then the chance to have another net free, the seller is only making this offer because he knows he will have to throw away the second net if you don’t take it, as he has overstocked.   You will find it hard to eat all those oranges before they go off. Of course, if you have a large family buy one get one free works in your favour. Everyone wants your money and will do anything to get it from you.   Jesus told us that our worth doesn’t depend on the things we possess.   He also told us not to worry about our food or clothes.   He always promises daily bread, so really only those who live in isolated areas or kept in by snow should stock up their cupboards. Our Father knows what we need and when we will need it.

I can remember the referendum for joining Europe when I was still too young to vote.   My parents were strongly convinced that we should stay out and their reasons were based on a belief that the European Union was somehow re-creating the Roman Empire and was a sign of “the last days.” The Union has now become bigger than the old Roman Empire.   I am learning not to be frightened of World events but to see them as exciting signs that Jesus will soon come again.   My father lived in the light of that exciting event and I think it is important to live with a certain amount of that excitement, but we do have to continue to live our lives in an orderly and confident manner as many have waited and passed to glory not seeing that time.   As Cromwell said, “Trust in God and keep your powder dry.” We must plan for the future whilst still catching the vision of the glorious return of our Saviour.

Tomorrow is the Women’s World day of prayer and looking through this year’s booklet I see that it is all about justice.   Now this seems all very well, but the truth is the gospel is not about justice it is about mercy. I remember the story about a man brought before a medieval king because he had poached one of the king’s deer.   The king condemned him to death and the man cried out, “Give me justice.” The king said, “Take him away and execute him.   If he had asked for mercy I would have given it him.” God requires us to be perfect and if we ask for justice we will go to Hell.   But if we ask for mercy and put our trust in the perfect righteousness of Jesus we will be forgiven and accepted in the Beloved.

If you were to learn a new language, would you only do it if you thought you might use it?   Would you need to be planning a trip to the foreign country whose language you had chosen? That is how many people think.   I however can invest large amounts of time in learning a language when I have very little chance of using it just for the joy of the experience.   I have never had a passport or, therefore, travelled abroad, but at different times I have dabbled in French (at school), Italian, German, Spanish, Icelandic and recently in Russian.   Language is fascinating.   It worries me a little that I may be trying to reverse Babel.   After all God caused mankind to have different languages then so that they would move apart and stop hatching plans which were against God’s will. Now that the language barrier is somewhat solved by the use of interpreters at global meetings, still the things that men hatch are mostly detrimental and crises like that of the migrants through Europe a