Preaching with a purpose

How often when something suddenly becomes a problem, we panic. It is as if problems are not common place, whereas life is full of problems.   We just need to know how to tackle them one step at a time.   Everyone has ways to tackle these problems.   The first way is to panic!   It has taken me a long time to cope with this in life, probably because my problems have mostly been very small.   This morning I began to panic when I remembered    that my usual road to go to my Russian lesson was closed.     How would I manage? Panic began to set in but then I remembered that all things are in God’s hands.   Now that alone is not enough to stop panic; because God might want something bad to happen to me;   but no, I am accepted in the beloved (Jesus) and God loves me as He loves His Son(amazing!)    Yes God might plan some difficulty for me, but it would ultimately be for His glory and my good.   If you can’t trust G...

  So many of today's establishments are based on the pride of man in what man can do and achieve in his own strength.  Our universities are full of this pride , especially our scientists who never stop to think how often, after some wonderful revelation of theirs they have to admit they got it wrong five years down the line. In Britain we were once told that eggs were bad for us because of the cholesterol in them.  Sometime later we were told eggs had good cholesterol and we could eat as many as we liked. There is no trusting these self glorifying people.  I have noticed that such people are lacking in common sense.  They fill their heads with equations but hardly know how to look after themselves on a practical level.  They say "Pride comes before a fall." Although this is a misquote, it is true.  When man thinks so much of himself he is in for a rude awakening.  If his life consists of his cleverness he will one day come down to earth with a bum...

If you had told me this time last year that I would be looking forward to a holiday in Russia later this year, I would not have believed you.  At that point I had no passport and had never been abroad!! It is amazing how life unfolds.  With my Saviour beside me anything can happen.  Each day I say, "Your will be done." Then I wait to see what will happen.  I can trust Jesus to give me what is best.  That best sometimes feels wonderful, but sometimes that best can feel uncomfortable.  But I know I can trust Him.  The uncomfortable things are just as important in bringing us closer to our Lord.  Just as a soldier has to go on assault courses to bring him to the peak of fitness, so the christian needs to be trained and made fit to do the master's will. In the past I have had to suffer depression but now  there appears to be an exciting adventure ahead.

When I first started to learn Russian, last year, my daughter was very supportive.  She looked up films in Russian with English subtitles and sent me the link to them.  Then she found someone on the internet who was offering to write a letter in Russian.  When I received the letter it was alarming as written Russian is quite different from the printed words.  I am only just beginning to use handwritten Russian, perhaps I could now reply to that letter. Next my son found me a keyboard with Russian characters.  He showed me how to tell my computer to accept the Russian alphabet.  This I can now do quite quickly.  Maybe I will write a post in Russian some time soon.  Before I have used Google translate to do this, but it is not very satisfactory.  In any case I want to improve my Russian.My friends are also very tolerant of my great enthusiasm for all things Russian, a special mention goes to the friend Hazel who is coming to Russia with me in t...

This is the undeserved favour of God which all who put their trust in Jesus alone, receive.  It is God's forgiveness given to His children which no one can take away from them.  They do not have to do anything to get this favour, in fact it is an insult to God if they try to earn it in any way. No one can require them to do anything to deserve it , but some will try to take away their peace and joy,people who should know better.  Some people preach the freedom of God's people and then behave in another way suggesting they should not have the joy and peace.  Don't let anyone try to steal away what you have in Jesus."He(or she) who has been forgiven much, loves much."  with that love comes joy. Your sins are between you and Jesus and He has washed them all away. Forget them, but remember how much He loves you. And don't go poking around in someone else's failures.

Tonight I went to a meeting where two missionaries told us of their former life in Papua New Guinea. I was particularly interested in how the people there are affected by the mining companies.  This lifestyle brings alcohol and cigarettes to a people who have no understanding of the health consequences of these things.  Also there is more money, but with another addiction, gambling.  The missionaries bring the promise of peace with God through Jesus but there are anthropologists who claim the missionaries are destroying the natural life of the tribes people.  But there is much cruelty among the people and the gospel brings light and true happiness.  What hope is there for a people where mining is taking over their land? You only have to look at The Congo to see the affects of mining on indigenous people.  You will be hard pressed to find any coverage of this in Western news! I think I saw it on RT. This doesn't mean that I believe all that I see on RT, but ...

Yesterday I had my first proper Russian lesson, face to face with a teacher.  Previous to that I have been learning on the internet.  I discovered that although I had been working very hard at learning for nearly a  year now, there were many times when I had simply not got the pronunciation right.  The problem is that some letters we don't know in English, but more confusing some letters look like ours and are pronounced differently.  No matter how hard you try it is difficult to get it right,  but when you have a teacher they can correct you and put you on the right road.   In all sorts of things in life it is likely that we will get the wrong message and go astray.  We need a teacher to help us.  There are many charlatans out there who would lead us further astray.  There is only one we can trust and that is Jesus.  To find out about Him we need to read our Bibles and find someone we can trust to help us understand it, but mostly...