Fear not, for I have redeemed you;

Isaiah 43

1 But now, this is what the LORD says-- he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: "Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine.

2 When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze.

3 For I am the LORD, your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior; I give Egypt for your ransom, Cush ^[1] and Seba in your stead.

4 Since you are precious and honored in my sight, and because I love you, I will give men in exchange for you, and people in exchange for your life.

5 Do not be afraid, for I am with you; I will bring your children from the east and gather you from the west.

6 I will say to the north, `Give them up!' and to the south, `Do not hold them back.' Bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the ends of the earth--

7 everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made."

8 Lead out those who have eyes but are blind, who have ears but are deaf.

 

9 All the nations gather together and the peoples assemble. Which of them foretold this and proclaimed to us the former things? Let them bring in their witnesses to prove they were right, so that others may hear and say, "It is true."

10 "You are my witnesses," declares the LORD, "and my servant whom I have chosen, so that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he. Before me no god was formed, nor will there be one after me.

11 I, even I, am the LORD, and apart from me there is no savior.

12 I have revealed and saved and proclaimed-- I, and not some foreign god among you. You are my witnesses," declares the LORD, "that I am God.

13 Yes, and from ancient days I am he. No one can deliver out of my hand. When I act, who can reverse it?"

14 This is what the LORD says-- your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: "For your sake I will send to Babylon and bring down as fugitives all the Babylonians, ^[2] in the ships in which they took pride.

15 I am the LORD, your Holy One, Israel's Creator, your King."

 

(...)

25  "I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions, for my own sake, and remembers your sins no more.

Remember the Lord!

Don't be afraid of them.

Remember the Lord,

who is great and awesome

and fight for your brothers,

your sons and your daughters,

your wives and your homes.

When our enemies heard that we were aware of their plot and that God had frustrated it, we all returned to the wall, each to his own work

Nehemiah 4: 13-15

This passage in the Old Testament is so encouraging for us even in our days.
Further down, we read that Nehemiah tells all his fellow Jews:

Our God will fight for us! Indeed our God did just that many times all through the Old Testament, helping his people even in this present time of distress, He was helping them and He is helping us now

For those of you who haven't tackled the Old Testament yet, here is an explanation I share with you:

God, in His long suffering, gave people a chance: by sacrificing an animal without blemish, the people could get forgiveness. Once a year the high priest could enter the Holiest of Holies, carrying the blood of the sacrifice, and obtain atonement for the people. Through the spilling of the blood of an innocent sacrifice, the debt of sin could be paid. (Leviticus 17:11; Hebrews 9:22)

However, the blood of animals couldn’t take away the root cause of the problem, the sin in human nature. After their sins were forgiven, the people continued to sinTo commit sin is to consciously do something that you know goes against God’s will. This can be in word, deed, or even thought. (James 1:14-15)... More

, meaning that they had to come back and sacrifice again, year after year. Not even the high priest could help them; he himself was a sinner, and the sacrifice was for himself just as much as for the people. (Hebrews 10:1-4)

God hated this frightful state of affairs. His longing was to have communion with people and to save them. He looked for someone who could lead the people out of the vicious circle of sinning and forgiveness. But, despite the fact that there were righteous, God-fearing people throughout history, none of them were blameless, and none of them could “stand in the gap” between God and mankind. So then God sent His own Son to carry out this greatest work in history. (Ezekiel 22:30; Isaiah 41:28; Isaiah 60:16; Isaiah 63:5; John 3:16-17)

Jesus was the Son of God, but He willingly “emptied Himself” and became the “Son of Man” – a human being in every sense of the word, with the same human nature as all of us. This meant that Jesus was tempted as we are. But Jesus was also born of God’s Spirit, and this Spirit accompanied Him His whole life, giving Him the strength to carry out the task He was sent for. (Luke 1:30-35; Philippians 2:5-8; Isaiah 61:1-3)

“And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.” Philippians 2:8. It was as a man that Jesus had to learn obedience, because, being a man, He had His own self-will, or sin in the flesh, and was tempted. There He learned to deny Himself, “take up His cross daily” and put that sin to death. The result was that He never sinned and was without sin. (Hebrews 2:18; Hebrews 4:15; Hebrews 5:7-8)

Being blameless, the only human being in all history who was completely pure and without sin, Jesus was the only one who could “stand in the gap,” the only one on whom Satan had no claim. He was the only one who had not deserved death, either physical or spiritual. But, fulfilling the purpose for which He had come to earth, Jesus voluntarily offered Himself. 

He was crucified as the ultimate, blameless sacrifice. 

He died as the Lamb of God, the atonement for all mankind. 

He bore the punishment of all our sins, and died, the just for the unjust. (Romans 5:10; 2 Corinthians 5:21; 1 Peter 3:18)

Not only did He die a physical death, but He even experienced separation from God while He was hanging on the cross Jesus was physically crucified on the cross at Calvary. 

Though blameless, He took upon Himself the punishment for sin, which was death, so He could pay our debts and forgive us our sin if we are willing to believe in Him and follow Him. 

The Apostle Paul wrote: “I have been crucified with Christ…” (Galatians 2:20) This is a metaphorical... More. (Matthew 27:46; Mark 15:34) Through this sacrifice, all those who believe in Him are able to obtain forgiveness.

Jesus’ death on the cross

When the cross is mentioned in the Bible, it most often does not refer to a physical wooden cross, except when specifically describing Jesus’ crucifixion on Calvary.

 “Taking up your cross” refers to the metaphorical cross that Jesus’ speaks about in Luke 9:23. “Taking up your cross” is the act of denying the sinful thoughts that come up in you...

  More on Calvary, though absolutely one of the most momentous and powerful events ever on earth, is actually only part of the Christian story. 

By the strength of the Spirit that was with Him from birth, Jesus had “suffered in the flesh” by denying it and not giving in to the inclination to sin that He had in His nature as a human being. In this way the sin in His flesh was condemned and He “put it to death,” “crucifying” the lusts and desiresThe desires that we experience that go against God’s will. In other words, a desire for anything sinful.

 See James 1:14. Also called “sin in the flesh.” Although the expression “youthful lusts” is often thought of in connection with sinful sexual desires, lusts include anything that go against what is good and right in God’s eyes. 

(2 Timothy 2:22.; Galatians... More. So though He was tempted, He never sinned. (Hebrews 2:18; Hebrews 4:16)

When Jesus died on the cross, He cried out, “It is finished!” At that moment, every last shred of the sin He had inherited in His human nature had been crucified, and His work on earth was finished. When Jesus died, the heavy veil in the temple was torn from top to bottom. The debt had been paid; the way back to the Father was open.

Jesus’ victory over sin“Victory over sin” means that you do not commit conscious sin – that which you know would be sin at that time when you are tempted. It doesn’t mean that you are without sin, but that temptation is overcome before it can become sin. (Romans 8:37; 1 Corinthians 15:57; Revelation 2:7)... More was also a victory over death. He did not remain in the grave, but arose from the dead with a glorified body, containing the whole fullness of God’s own nature. Forty days later He ascended to heaven, where He is sitting today at the right side of His Father. (Philippians 2:5-11; Colossians 2:9)

I will extol the Lord at all times

Today, our bible reading is Psalm 34, and the author of  the Scriptures Union commentary stresses the importance of testimony. 

Of David. When he pretended to be insane before Abimelek, who drove him away, and he left.
1 I will extol the Lord at all times;
his praise will always be on my lips.
2 I will glory in the Lord;
let the afflicted hear and rejoice.
3 Glorify the Lord with me;
let us exalt his name together.
4 I sought the Lord, and he answered me;
he delivered me from all my fears.
5 Those who look to him are radiant;
their faces are never covered with shame.
6 This poor man called, and the Lord heard him;
he saved him out of all his troubles.
7 The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him,
and he delivers them.
8 Taste and see that the Lord is good;
blessed is the one who takes refuge in him.
9 Fear the Lord, you his holy people,
for those who fear him lack nothing.
10 The lions may grow weak and hungry,
but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing.
11 Come, my children, listen to me;
I will teach you the fear of the Lord.
12 Whoever of you loves life
and desires to see many good days,
13 keep your tongue from evil
and your lips from telling lies.
14 Turn from evil and do good;
seek peace and pursue it.
15 The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous,
and his ears are attentive to their cry;
16 but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil,
to blot out their name from the earth.
17 The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears them;
he delivers them from all their troubles.
18 The Lord is close to the brokenhearted
and saves those who are crushed in spirit.
19 The righteous person may have many troubles,
but the Lord delivers him from them all;
20 he protects all his bones,
not one of them will be broken.
21 Evil will slay the wicked;
the foes of the righteous will be condemned.
22 The Lord will rescue his servants;
no one who takes refuge in him will be condemned.

Listening to other brothers or sisters in Christ is not only encouraging for everybody in the assembly but it also gives us strength to do the same. We may be led to share our testimony when we fellowship, prompted by the Holy Spirit. Also, we may witness to other people outside church, those who don't know yet about the love of God . Planting seeds. 

I find it a delight to remember those precious and numerous moments in my life. Testimonies are those heartfelt experiences when the Lord has touched our heart. 

Psalm 34 verse 8 says: 

Taste and see the the Lord is good; 

blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him

This verse is awesome! You may wonder why it says 'taste' here. We need to feed on the Word of God all the time otherwise we will wither. Thus, the Lord Jesus said,“Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out through the mouth of God” (Matthew. 4:4). Jesus is quoting the Bible, Deuteronomy 8, the end of verse 3:

2 Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way in the wilderness these forty years, to humble and test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands. 3 He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. 4 Your clothes did not wear out and your feet did not swell during these forty years. 5 Know then in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, so the Lord your God disciplines you.

Also, the Old Testament prophet Jeremiah spoke about this spiritual nourishment, he said, “Your words were found and I ate them, and Your word became to me the gladness and joy of my heart” (Jeremiah 15:16).

A prayer tonight!

Thank you Lord for those precious moments when we know that your are by us, looking after us, caring for us. Thank you for what our Lord Jesus-Christ did for us on the cross, thank you for the promise of our salvation. Holy Spirit, help us witness to other as when you lead us. We ask you in the mighty name of our Saviour Jesus-Christ amen.

Blessed assurance!

Where do you turn to when your soul is in turmoil? Why? 

We are having a great Sunday, this morning in Ambernac, worship and teaching was great and we had a lovely time with our friends afterwards.

Tasty lunch and restful afternoon.

It's getting dark and suddenly I find myself besieged by questions that bring worries!

Only one solution. 

Speaking the truth to my soul and tell her to rest in the Lord's unfailing love!

This is the answer. Jesus-Christ told us: 26 But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.'

Psalm 1

2 But his delight is in the law of the LORD, 

And in His law he meditates day and night. 

3 He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water,

Which yields its fruit in its season 

And its leaf does not wither; 

And in whatever he does, he prospers. 

4 The wicked are not so, but they are like chaff which the wind drives away.…

Trust God to take away your fear!

2 Timothy 1:7
7 For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.
In some versions, it says 'cowardice' instead of fear, in others, it speaks of 'timidity'

Our King and Saviour, Jesus tells us in the gospel of John 14:27

27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.

Again, in the  Gospel of Matthew 6:34 Jesus tells us: Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

The apostle Peter encourages us too, he says in 1 Peter 5:6:7
6 Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time.
7 Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.

So brothers and sisters in Christ, let's us be joyful today and confident in Jesus-Christ, our rock and King, not letting our heart tremble by what we hear or see in the news for He loves us, we are his beloved children.  Amen.

The Lord's unfailing love

Psalm 33:18-19

But the eyes of the Lord are on those who fear him,

on those whose hope is in his unfailing love,

to deliver them from death

and keep them alive in famine.

Though our Lord is in charge of everything, he does care for us personally.. His “eyes” are on those who “fear Him” and upon those who “hope in His unfailing love”. This is such a comforting thought. The other day, a dear friend was telling me how she delights in reading the psalms. I do too. In this psalm, the Lord promises to save us and care for us...

One question: what does 'fearing the Lord' mean? In Proverbs 7:1, we read that "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. Fearing the Lord is about respecting what He tells us. If we love the Lord, then we do what is pleasing to Him and not what we want to do. It is not always easy..however if we think that Jesus died for us and conquered death for us to be reconciled with our Father in heaven, then we must carry on and persevere. Have a blessed week-end. N.

An evening prayer

In Jesus-Christ, amen.

This morning, I asked my form to think about a topic of discussion and these are two of their answers: their concern about the disappearance of the Malaysian plane and one word, heartbroken. Sometimes just a key word. We talked about the causes of the disparition of the plane and the suffering of the families who have lost their loved ones.

Father, when we don't understand what's going on and we are upset, we come to you and lay our fears, our burdens at the feet of Jesus, our Lord and Saviour. May you bless and comfort all the families who want to know what happened in this tragedy. We know that You are awesome and just, and that you have a special plan for each of us. Bless us Lord as we go about our business this week. May you guide us and surround us with your love. In Jesus-Christ. Amen.

God's love letter

"The Bible is God's love letter to us, and it describes the Lord Jesus, who said, "I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full." John 10:10."

“Is prayer your steering wheel or your spare tire?”

“There is no panic in Heaven! God has no problems, only plans.”

“Trying to do the Lord's work in your own strength is the most confusing, exhausting, and tedious of all work. But when you are filled with the Holy Spirit, then the ministry of Jesus just flows out of you.”

“Do you know what hurts so very much? It's love. Love is the strongest force in the world, and when it is blocked that means pain. There are two things we can do when this happens. We can kill that love so that it stops hurting. But then of course part of us dies, too. Or we can ask God to open up another route for that love to travel.”

― Corrie ten Boom

Do not worry about your life...

 Matthew 6:25-33

When I was a youngster it was meat and two veg, by and large. There were no curries, pizzas, spaghettis - unless it was from a tin, no Chinese meals and some of the fruit and veg was delivered by Mr Jarvis with his horse drawn trailer and the horse ate oats from it's nose bag. The veg we got were the more traditional; carrots, peas, cabbage, cauliflower, various beans and I am not sure about broccoli - don't think that was around much.

 We didn't have a TV until I was six and there were two channels with 405 lines - no 625 lines or pixels or colour for that matter and it wasn't all day and night. We didn't have a phone until I was about 13 and I didn't have a mobile phone till I was 50 and it was a phone and had text and nothing else.

 It was only in the mid 60's we started to try curry and from that time that the world started to shrink in a variety of ways and it wasn't because I was getting bigger. It was the advent of what we might now refer to as instant global communications - I remember Sputnik 1 the first satellite and a few years later the first transatlantic satellite broadcast which lasted about 30 minutes. Men going to the moon, the first digital watches in the 70's. I started with computers - if you could call them that - in 1984; 1k of memory!

 The world has got smaller, in a way, and we know more about what is happening; what people eat, how they live and we hear more about earthquakes, famines, storms etc. and all very quickly. We see graphic pictures from far and wide and a lot of the world comes to our living room or even mobile phone!Hence, knowing so much about our world and being able to enjoy a much wider variety of what is produced our Harvest Celebration can take on something bigger and with that has to come our care for planet earth which we realise has been increasingly abused since probably the late 17th century and the start of industrialisation. Of course, some things have improved in our corner of the world: beaches are cleaner, rivers that had lost fish have them again and the old pea-souper fogs seem to have gone. But we hear of climate change - is it or isn't it? Who knows except I can't help but think we are doing some damage and that therefore part of our husbandry - a duty given by God in the first pages of Genesis  and which should naturally arise from Harvest Celebration - is something we should take seriously as a matter of course and not because of fear.

 Planet earth is awesome and what it can produce - often with a little (or much) help from our friends - is incredible, and, today we have the opportunity to enjoy more of it . Wearing it, eating it, going to It, experiencing it etc.

 Thanksgiving is good and proper; appreciation is helpful and the two should lead us to respect and use aright, as best we can, what is here so that whatever changes are taking place, natural or otherwise, we and others can continue to enjoy the good things that are around.

   There is no point worrying about the basics of life as life is more than this.

 Jesus was speaking into the materialism of his day which compared to ours was very different. However, materialism is not about how much or what we can get and have, it is an attitude of mind and anyone in any society in any age can be materialistic. What Jesus is saying is that there is more. Having it all, whatever it all is, does not make life or indeed happiness.

 There is much in the world that looks after itself very nicely

And he gives some simple examples of birds and flowers and the wonder of what they are without toil and the like. He is not laying down concrete facts but is being illustrative. We know that much in the world about us can be devastated by adverse conditions and Jesus knew that too. But he doesn't dot i's and cross t's because he is using broad pictures that are meant to make a simple point to us, and if we let them, they do. He is also saying that this life is passing and not lasting so why look to things that are and which will perish and fade.

 The Priority is God, his Kingdom and what he wants

 Here we come to the focus and pattern of Jesus and what he calls us to and that is, above all, to be in tune with God and His ways, His rule and His priorities.

In Jesus' book here we have a focus that is beyond the passing and of the things that fade and perish. More, this is a regular thrust from him in one form or another. Don't get it wrong, Jesus isn't anti the material world. He made it and enjoyed lots of the good things in life whilst he was here. What he is saying is there is more . . don't miss is, don't lose sight of it.

Thanksgiving, such as we are doing today, giving, receiving, sharing and celebrating are an antidote to being materialistic  because then we are appreciating the giver rather than what is given in a wrong way and being bound to it.

We live in a material world but we don't have to be bound to it. It is a world God loves and for which Jesus died so it and those within it can be restored and made new.

Conclusion

 I wonder - if we could look at the world, life, what we have and don't have more as Jesus would have us look - how would it be different? Would we be more chilled, a little less held by the growing grip of consumerism. Liberated more to see the beauty and wonder of the natural world as we see how it is and the awesome way it is held under God's creative care and love?

S. Abram

I hated life and wanted to die...

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