Author: admin

Chickens in a coop

~ admin ~ Leave a comment

Why is offence so easily taken?

What should the chickens do?

Did you hear the one about the chickens in the çoup?

Well, the story goes something like this:

Once upon a time there were hundreds of chickens in a coop. They had plenty of room and really had quite a nice life. Food came regularly and they were pretty much left to their own devices for most of the time. They had a lot of good friendships among themselves, and some interesting family relationships. But news had started to filter through to them from the outside world that there might be a small problem, and one day they may need to do something about it.

None of the chickens really took this to heart until they heard about what had happened in a coop some distance away. A fox had somehow managed to gain access to the coop. Normally foxes are kept well away by a ‘security ring’ which the keepers of the coop had placed around them. What had gone wrong? It was reported, on no mean authority, that almost half of the coop had been taken out, and those that were left were suffering badly from PTSD.

This news prompted the governing committee of the coop to meet to discuss the situation. How were they going to meet the challenge if a fox managed to enter their coop? They were aware of two outcomes for the occupants of the coop and needed to make preparations both for the chickens who would be taken out and the consequences for those who would remain. It seemed to them that they would have to engage in some preparatory exercises with the members of the coop so that in the event of such an incursion they would know what to do and how to behave in order the limit the damage that the presence of a fox in the coop would cause. However how could they do this without increasing the sense of unease that had begun to develop in their closely knit community.

They decided that they would continue to trust in the well established security ring rather than risk a panic or riot in the coop. This head in the sand attitude was however swiftly blown away when a neighbouring coop reported a breach in the security ring. The fox, or was it foxes, had not actually gained entrance, but it was thought that they may have simply been testing the strength of the system and a full scale incursion into the coop would soon follow.

So what were they to do? It seemed that some kind of practice exercise would be required. They would identify and train several of their fellow chickens, as policemen and security personnel. Their jobs would be to protect the other members of the coop. They would do this by patrolling the coop and keeping an eye open for trouble and possible damage to the perimeter of the coop in order if at all possible to forestall any possible attempt to gain access to the coop.

The committee also understood that they would have to prepare for an incursion. The security personnel would have particular responsibilities in such a case and the other members of the community would also need to know what to do. It seemed inevitable that they would have to stage a fake incursion in order that the community may learn what the proper response should be.

Now a practice run would be quite an undertaking. How could they realistically hope to do this? It was unthinkable that they could use a real fox in the staged attempt, but something had to be found to produce an air of realism or else the whole exercise would be, not only a complete waste of time, but of no value in teaching the community how to respond in the face of a real emergency.

Well, said one member, a fox is a dog, is it not? We shall use a dog. We shall invite one of the local dogs to come in a pretend to be a fox for the purpose of this exercise.

The other members of the committee were quick to take up the suggestion and an invitation was drafted to the chief shepherd dog.

The proposal caused an outcry! The dogs were enraged. Foxes may be extremists they cried, but not all dogs are extremists. Most dogs are moderates and peace loving. They don’t want to hurt chickens. If you use a dog in your show you imply that all dogs are extremists and you risk turning the entire dog community against you. We shall provide a suitable actor for you.

No amount of protest that no such thing was meant, that the chickens understood that not all dogs are extremists intent on harm, but the reality was that foxes – all foxes – are. So, some weeks later after much planning the exercise would go ahead: What to do in the event of an incursion into the coop.

The chickens had been taught that the first thing to do is to remain calm. If they become agitated they will lose control of the situation giving the upper hand to the incursant (no longer called a fox). They had been taught to move themselves to the highest parts of the coop which the incursant would not be able to scale. They had been taught that if cornered to make themselves look bigger by puffing out their feathers and stretching their wings, by doing this they may frighten away smaller incursants. If the incursant was a larger animal then they should stay close together and present a united front to the incursant.

Nobody knew quite what to expect or when, apart from a few committee members and the chief shepherd dog who had agreed to assist and brief the actor in the role. For a few days there was an eerie quietness in the coop. You could tell that the chickens were getting uneasy. And then it happened. There was an outcry outside the coop. This distraction caused the security forces inside the coop to turn away for a few minutes from their job of watching the perimeter and it was at that moment the incursion took place.

Suddenly, and unnoticed by anyone – how did he get there? Where was the breach in the perimeter? No one knew, but it had happened. The incursant had arrived. But the chickens knew what to do. Keep calm. Move to the high places. Puff yourself up if cornered. Stick together.

The chickens moved calmly, swiftly and almost silently to their chosen places high in the rafters and eves of the coop, safely out of the way of the incursant.

The incursant did not seem to be at all surprised at this. He investigated all of the places within his reach. He moved swiftly around the floor of the coop where no chickens were to be found. Then with a hop, skip and jump he decided, as there were no playmates there, it was time to leave, so returned to his entry point to make his egress.

It was then that the chickens gasped in horror. Just as they had been watching the incursant as he roamed around the hutch so they also watched as he left the coop and they, from the dizzy heights of the coop, saw what he did not see. Alas, for our poor little lamb had not noticed the two extremist dogs. The foxes, whom they so much dread, had crept up stealthily whilst the exercise was being undertaken and positioned themselves ready for ambush.

Where now were the moderate dogs who had chosen the lamb for an actor? History does not record for us either the fate of this lamb nor of the coop, but rumour has it that when Alexander passed that way he cried out: What coop was this?

The prophet wrote:

⁴Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. ⁵But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; ⁷he was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; he was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth.
Isaiah 53:4-5,7

And the Lord himself said:
³³Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and to the scribes; and they will condemn him to death and deliver him to the Gentiles; ³⁴and they will mock him, and scourge him, and spit on him, and kill him, and the third day he will rise again.
Mark 10:33-34


Inspired by an apology(sic.)

The folly

~ admin ~ Leave a comment

The pacific galaxy of languages may be extraordinary

Bure da! Wie geht’s, s’il te plait?

Now wouldn’t you think I was a bit of a Dummkopf if I came up to you in the street and started talking to you like that? Well, there was a day when something like that happened, and it was not just one man who did it, there were hundreds if not thousands who suddenly found that they could not understand the man who was working next to them.

The Bible tells us what happened in Genesis 11¹, which you may read below. The corroboration for what happened on that day, about 5ky ago, is all around us today, and is found in every record we have of human civilisation. Evolutionists would have us believe that our languages derived from the babblings of animals and gradually became the complex languages we have today. Sadly, for them, the evidence is against it. Far from languages becoming more complex, languages have become much more simple. English is a relatively simple language compared with most other languages, but it has not always been so, and the other languages of Europe in the main have been derived from the far more complex languages of ancient Greece and Rome. We also find that languages appear in history fully formed. There is no halfway house where a language is struggling to find expression.

But what we find in the experience of men is exactly what we would expect to find when we look at what the Bible says actually happened – and remember that the Bible was written by men who were there, who saw what took place. So then Genesis 11: This is somewhere around 3-500 years after the flood.

Now notice that this is a judgement of God on men. The fact that you cannot understand what people are saying when you visit Paris – or even some parts of Wales – is evidence of this that God is angry with us and has already judged us. You see God has left us without any excuse. We cannot say to him, I did not know you were angry. Just as he left evidence of the flood everywhere over the earth, so also he has left evidence of this judgement everywhere over the earth.

But notice also that in this judgement God is merciful. He had promised Noah that he would not send another great flood over the earth. He simply confused our languages so that men run away from one another and become scattered. Can you imagine the devastation and chaos that that would cause? But God kept his word. He had other things in mind, he knew that one day he would send a Saviour to undo all of the evil that men had done and pay the penalty for it.

And so it was about a week after Jesus went into heaven he sent his Spirit and the disciples who were together in Jerusalem at that time found themselves speaking languages that they did not know, so that all the strangers and visitors to Jerusalem could understand what these simple men were saying in their own language. Again that is in the Bible in the New Testament Acts 2².

You see in his Son, Jesus Christ, God is undoing the judgements that men deserve. I told you last time about the dreadful day of judgement that is coming. It is far more terrible than men have ever seen or could ever imagine, but that same judgement day sees the renewal of everything that there is. This old earth will be transformed into something far more wonderful than anything we can ever imagine, where God’s people shall live in peace for ever. The language barriers that we see around us today will be gone. Whether we will all speak one language or whether we will speak many different languages and pick and choose the best one for what we want to say at any time, who knows? We don’t know yet, but we do know this, it will be well worth getting there.

And God has provided the way. On the day when God began to undo the language barriers the people who heard Peter preach asked him: What shall we do? Peter said: Repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the cancellation of sins! The promise is to you – to all – as many as the Lord calls³.

So then, we are without excuse. The evidence of God’s anger is all around us, but he has given us a way of escape – follow Jesus. Turn from your sins and trust him. He will save you. No one else can.

¹ Now the whole earth had one language and one speech. ²And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and they dwelt there. ³Then they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They had brick for stone, and they had asphalt for mortar. ⁴And they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top is in the heavens; let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.” ⁵But the LORD came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built. ⁶And the LORD said, “Indeed the people are one and they all have one language, and this is what they begin to do; now nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them. ⁷Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.” ⁸So the LORD scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they ceased building the city. ⁹Therefore its name is called Babel, because there the LORD confused the language of all the earth; and from there the LORD scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth. Genesis 11:1-9

² Now when the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. ²And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. ³Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. ⁴And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.
⁵And there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men, from every nation under heaven. ⁶And when this sound occurred, the multitude came together, and were confused, because everyone heard them speak in his own language. ⁷ Then they were all amazed and marvelled, saying to one another, “Look, are not all these who speak Galileans? ⁸And how is it that we hear, each in our own language in which we were born? ⁹Parthians and Medes and Elamites, those dwelling in Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, ¹⁰Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya adjoining Cyrene, visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, ¹¹Cretans and Arabs–we hear them speaking in our own tongues the wonderful works of God.” ¹²So they were all amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “Whatever could this mean?” ¹³Others mocking said, “They are full of new wine.” Acts 2:1-13

³ “Men and brethren, what shall we do?” ³⁸ Then Peter said to them, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. ³⁹ For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call.” Acts 2:37-39

Pharisee!

~ admin ~ 2 Comments

Not all Pharisees remain Pharisees

Last time we considered how Job¹ changed his mind when he met God.

I want to look here at how another man was changed when God met him.

When he was a young man you would have said of him that the world was his oyster. We only know a little about him, but this much is clear, if he had been alive today it would have been straight As at GCSE, A* at A level and his choice of a place in the best university. He was a man of great learning. He could have gone anywhere he wanted to go. But there was one thing that stopped him.

As well as being brilliant, he was religious. You would probably say he was a bit of an enthusiast, a fanatic, but that is perhaps to overstate it. He was certainly a good man. You could trust him. He took his faith seriously. He was a Jew, and not only was he a Jew – well listen to his own words:

[I was] circumcised on the eight day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews, concerning the law, a Pharisee, [concerning zeal, persecuting the church,] concerning the righteousness which is in the law, blameless².

He wanted to live in a way that pleased God, so he did everything he could to keep the law of God. He studied the law: he was taught by one of the greatest teachers of his day. He joined the strictest sect of his day, the Pharisees. Note: pharisee does not mean what we mean by it today. He thought that by doing this he would earn his way into heaven. That was the common teaching of the Pharisees: Do good and you shall live by it.

Saul did recognise however that he had sinned. The law said: you shall not covet, and Saul saw that that condemned him. But he also thought that these other things were worth having – being a Jew, being a Pharisee, keeping the law in all external matters, and that they would count for more than the mistakes he had made.

This all changed when Jesus died and rose from the dead. His disciples taught that good works would never get you into heaven, you had to trust the one who died on the cross, and had been raised from the dead. Saul hated that message, just as those before him who had crucified Jesus. He wanted to get to heaven on his own merits, and in any event, the Messiah would never have let anyone crucify him. His zeal as a young man hardened into a fanatical hatred, and he set about persecuting the church. He thought that he was doing the right thing and that this would earn him favours with God, until one day when bent upon destruction the Lord stopped him.

Listen again to what he said:

At midday I saw a light from heaven, brighter than the sun shining around me and those who were with me. When we had all fallen to the ground, I heard a voice speaking to me and saying: Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? I said: Who are you, Lord? And he said: I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting³.

Saul then understood. Jesus is the Messiah. The one who died on the cross had been raised from the dead. If that were so, then the other things that the disciples of Jesus taught were also true. He would not get to heaven on his own merits, he had to trust in Jesus who died for sinners. So years later, we find him saying to others who were beginning to think that they could earn their way into heaven:

We have no confidence in the flesh…[all those things] that were [supposed to be] gain to me, I have counted loss for Christ².

His way of thinking had been changed, just as Job’s was. Job had to learn that God could do as he pleased with him. Saul did not need to learn that, he knew it. But Saul needed to learn that, even though he was a good man, even though he kept the law in every way that he possibly could, it was not enough. He was a sinner, condemned by the law, and that the only salvation there was was in Jesus Christ. It was his encounter with Jesus that changed his way of thinking.

Now what about you? Where do you stand? What needs to be changed in your way of thinking? It is only when we change that, and say to Jesus that we shall follow him, that we can be saved.

¹ See Job, Paul and two thieves
² Philippians 3:3ff
³ Acts 26:13ff

Nettles

~ admin ~ Leave a comment

The use of nettles

Did you think that the only good that could come of nettles was soup?

Then think again.

The past few times you have been here, I have taken your thoughts to judgement. There is a day coming when Jesus will return as king and judge of all men. We can be sure of this because God has always kept his word in the past. We can also be sure that God is judge because there is evidence all around us that he has already judged this world in a number of ways. We briefly considered Noah’s flood, which came upon this earth about 4500 years ago. Soon after that followed the destruction of the tower at Babel which is when men started to speak in different languages. The evidence for these is still around for us to see.

I want you now to consider two more evidences. It is evidence as to what was meant when God spoke to Adam in the garden of Eden on the day that Adam disobeyed God. You will find it here in Genesis 3¹

Notice two things: Dust you are and to dust you shall return. God here confirms to Adam that he must die, and so in time Adam died. All men since then have died – apart from 2, which we can tell you about another time – and the others who have not yet died, that is we who are alive today, can expect to die and return to the dust. There is nothing that we can do to prevent this, and though we may try to delay that day as long as we can it will come.

Secondly, the earth will produce thorns and thistles. I understand this to be a picture, which would soon become very clear to Adam, of everything that was going to go wrong with the world in which he lived. The garden would no longer be a place of beauty of its own accord as it were, Adam would be constantly having to weed it out to remove the thorns and thistles from the ground. You have similar things to think about – your bedroom does not stay tidy of its own accord, you have to do something everyday to keep it that way. If you leave it alone it goes from bad to worse. And thinking about the garden again, Henman would not be able to play on the courts at Wimbledon if the gardeners did not do their job to keep the courts in their best condition.

But see also there is a promise here: someone will come to sort this mess out. I went across the common this evening and found these two things – nettle and dock – God’s judgement had fallen on this earth, but God has not forgotten men. He still cares for us, and provides remedies for us even though we don’t deserve them. If you are stung by the nettle you may soothe the sting with the dock leaf and generally speaking where you find nettles there will be dock leaves not far away. If you fall ill, then we have found cures for many things – not found for all! – or your body just fights against it and you may recover. The younger you are the better your body is at fighting. And when we consider the problem of sin, for it is sin that brings these judgements on us, God has provided the remedy, just as he promised here to Adam and Eve.

He sent Jesus, born of the woman, who took the curse of our sin and the wrath of God on himself so that we could be free of it.

And the promise he makes he gives to all who will come to him for forgiveness. We have all sinned, and all deserve to fall under the wrath, anger and judgement of God, but everyone who comes to Jesus will be saved from this. So when you see the nettles, remember the nettle is part of the penalty for our sin and that God will judge us, but have a look around for the dock – and remember that God is merciful and though we deserve judgement he provides relief for us in Jesus Christ – and then put your trust in him.

¹ Genesis 3:1-15
Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?”
²And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; ³but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.’ “
⁴Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. ⁵For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
⁶So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate. ⁷Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings. ⁸And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden.

⁹Then the LORD God called to Adam and said to him, “Where are you?”
¹⁰So he said, “I heard your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself.”
¹¹And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you that you should not eat?”
¹²Then the man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate.”
¹³And the LORD God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?”
The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
¹⁴So the LORD God said to the serpent: “Because you have done this, you are cursed more than all cattle, and more than every beast of the field; on your belly you shall go, and you shall eat dust all the days of your life. ¹⁵And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”

Rights?

~ admin ~ Leave a comment

There is much talk about human rights in the present age.

But there is little talk of duty.

What good is it if a man presses his rights, but forgets his duty towards his fellow citizens? He is no better than the Pharisees who were condemned by the Lord, Jesus Christ, who said to them, “All too well you reject the commandment of God, that you may keep your tradition. For Moses said, ‘Honour your father and your mother’; and, ‘He who curses father or mother, let him be put to death.’ But you say, ‘If a man says to his father or mother, “Whatever profit you might have received from me is Corban”‘ (that is, a gift to God), then you no longer let him do anything for his father or his mother, making the word of God of no effect through your tradition which you have handed down.” (Mark 7:9-13 NKJV)

By applying the law of rights – I have a right to do what I like with my money – the Pharisee, or indeed anyone who wished to do so, was able to lay aside his duty to provide care for his parents. All too often we press our rights without thinking of the consequences for others. Better to be wronged surely than deprive another of his rights or to fail to do your duty! The apostle Paul writing to the Corinthian church, where people were all too ready to press their rights, said: Now therefore, it is already an utter failure for you that you go to law against one another. Why do you not rather accept wrong? Why do you not rather let yourselves be cheated? No, you yourselves do wrong and cheat, and you do these things to your brethren! (1 Corinthians 6:7-9 NKJV)

What of the conflict of rights? What of the right to smoke? If such a right, to slowly destroy oneself, could possibly exist. Does this right not conflict with a right to clean air? I do not doubt that it would not be difficult to come up with a list of rights that conflict with one another on a very practical level, but also much more seriously on an ethical and moral level.

When we arrived in Winnipeg early in the evening we heard others speaking about going to visit the cathedral. Looking around we saw a cathedral like structure not far from the station. Could that be it? It looked like a cathedral. As we walked towards the bridge which passed nearby, we saw that indeed it was a cathedral, in a very secular sense of that word, for it was a museum to the god of the post modern age, Human Rights. Men fall down at the feet of this god, as if he must always be satisfied, whatever the outcome may be, and whatever common sense might say. Human Rights must be obeyed even if the granting of a right to one deprives another of a right. Who is granted and who is deprived depends more upon the ephemeral wishes of public opinion, or perhaps more upon the wishes of the liberal elite, rather than objective truth, so rather than human rights being granted, we are subject to the tyranical rule of the new despots of liberalism.

I have no wish to belittle the importance of rights, but to come back to the words of the Lord, rights cannot relieve us of our duties. The duty of the king to protect his people must at times mean that he will deny some of his people their rights. A man may have a right to family life, but if that man is a danger to the king’s other subjects, then it is the duty of the king to deprive him of his rights for the protection of his people. The king’s duty trumps the rights of the individual.

I do not think for one moment that this is popular teaching! Our response to a rebellion in the middle east shows that the West has lost its direction in this regard. Rather than supporting the king in his efforts to do his duty and maintain peace for his people, just because we disagreed with the king, we encouraged the rebels. Did we not think! Or did we naïvely think that by replacing one ‘rights’ violator we would not end up with another ‘rights’ violator?

There is a better museum of human rights to be found in Winnipeg than this monstrosity. In the grounds of St Boniface’s cathedral just a short walk from the CMHR, there is a pastiche, though a very serious pastiche, on the theme of the tomb of the unknown soldier. A young women leans forlornly on a marble grave stone. It is not clear whether she is the mother or the child, but whether she is the mother of the child she is one of whom the grave stone speaks eloquently, but silently, in French and in English:

  • À la memoire des victimes de l’avortement
  • In memory of the victims of abortion

The right to life has in our (post)-modern (so called) world been trumped by the right to do as you please with your own body. The mother is persuaded by the abortionist that the cathedral of her womb may expel the bishop whenever she wishes, after all it is her body, not the body of another. And so we prove that we are no better than the Spartans, and certainly no less cruel.

The sign outside the CMHR suggests that it is both a keeper of the past and a beacon for the future. As keeper of the past, then perhaps one can only suggest that it keeps the past so well that compassion has been lost within her. Of what use is compassion in a world dominated by rights!

For my part, there is only one thing that can follow a claim to be keeper of the past and beacon of the future – a folly of the present. Oh that men may see that the Lord who made the heavens and the earth, desires righteousness above rights, and compassion from and towards humanity.

The prophet Micah made this plain when he spoke out: Hear now what the LORD says:… He has shown you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God? (6:8)

My parable of the banker shows whereup, when rights trump duty, we can end.

I suppose I should let the CMHR speak for itself. Without contradicting what I said above they do some good. What is a pity is that the doctrine to which they hold, not being derived from Biblical teaching, leads them at times to reach the wrong conclusions.

Questions?

~ admin ~ 2 Comments

Ultimately the question is not going to be: Did you hate Britain?

Questions, questions, questions!

Are there too many questions?
Why can’t a bicycle stand up? It’s too tyred
What does a clock do when it is hungry? Go back for seconds.

Have you heard about – or seen – The man who sued God?

Who can tell me what it is about in one sentence?
Might this is have been modelled on Job?

Let me tell you about one man who wanted to sue God, and then another time about another one.

So first of all we shall consider Job.

Job was very upset with God, and demanded an audience. Listen to him:
Job 23:1-8 (or so) Where is he! Why doesn’t he answer?

I suppose we could ask those questions, couldn’t we, when things are not going right, when we consider what a mess the world is in?

How should God answer Job?
Should God tell him what he is doing?
Should God tell him why he is doing it?

God has something different in mind to what we might think.
God wants Job to get the big picture right first,
then he might begin to understand the detail:

Job 38 God starts to ask Job questions.
Job 40 He shows Job just how irrational he is being.
How Job contradicts himself in making his complaint:
If Job is right, then God is wrong (v8).
If God is wrong how can Job expect a fair hearing?

Job gets the picture Job 42:5

What happened to Job?
His outlook was turned around! He got a new way of looking at things.
Nothing changed overnight for Job, but he certainly saw things differently.

It is the same for us – when we come to Jesus,
he changes the way we look at things,
he changes our way of thinking.
We become new creatures in him.

If any man be in Christ he is a new creature. Old things have passed away, and all has become ´new. (2 Corinthians 5:17)

Scoffer?

~ admin ~ 1 Comment

Are you ready for the day that is coming?

Do you wait for Jesus Christ?

Coco has already tried to turn your thoughts to four people who met Jesus. For three of them it was a life changing experience. The Bible tells us that a day is coming when all men will meet him. Rev 1:7 – Behold he is coming with clouds and every eye will see him, they also who pierced him. Coco has more to say about that day another time, but for now, let us think about the fact of his coming.

Peter tells us that even in his day men scoffed at the idea that Jesus Christ would return to this world and bring it to an end. 2 Peter 3:3-4. We have plenty of men around today who scorn this whole idea, and prefer to believe in the fables of what pretends to be science, but is really just old fashioned atheism wearing different colours.

But do you know God has left us plenty of evidence that Jesus will return, quite apart from what is written in the Bible where we have for example, in his own words:

The Son of man is coming at an hour you do not expect him. Matthew 24:44

And the testimony of the angels after went into heaven: This Jesus who was taken up into heaven from you will come in a similar way as you saw him go into heaven. Acts 1:11

In the same place that Peter reminds us about the scoffers he goes on to remind his readers about Noah’s flood. The great flood that covered the whole of this planet about five thousand years ago. Only a little while ago we heard about and saw the results of a tidal wave spreading out across the Indian Ocean and Bay of Bengal. The flood that caused brought devastation and disaster to millions of people. But that was a small flood compared with this one. You may also have heard recently – Coco doesn’t know how widely it has been published – about a meteorite of immense proportions which crashed into the gulf of Mexico thousands of years ago. Some scientists have been able to identify the effects of this strike, before which the recent one in SEA becomes insignificant. Quite how they do this amazes Coco! Huge amounts of water were thrown out of the Gulf onto the adjacent land as well as sending tsunami out. The water dragged fossil bearing rock off the land and into the sea and left behind mud deposits now solidified as much as 15 feet thick. But again that was little compared with the great global flood which destroyed life on this planet and left mud deposits all over the world thousands of feet thick. They are what we call the sedimentary rocks.

But Peter tells us: Men wilfully forget this, that the heavens and earth were made of old by the Word of God, and that that world perished being flooded with water.

Every – well so far as Coco is aware – culture has a record of this flood. They differ in the details which is to be expected having been embellished or corrupted as they were passed down. It is good for us that we have had a written record of it preserved. The Bablyonians have a record. The people of South America have a record. The ancient Greeks had a memory of Atlantis, the lost city that perished in the sea.

But men wilfully forget this. They deny the flood despite the abundant evidence for it, in the history and culture of men and in the very rocks of which the surface of this planet it made.

Why do they deny this? Because if this flood did take place, if God did judge the world by water, then they must also acknowledge that he is coming again to judge the world the next time by fire.

If there was a flood, and there was, then there is a judgement to come. We do not know when it will be, but coming it is. Are we ready for it? There is only one who can prepare us – the judge is also the saviour who died for our sins to put us right with God. If we are right with God the judgement will pass us by.

The day

~ admin ~ Leave a comment

Dies iræ!

Dies illa solvet sæclum in favilla

We have thought about four men¹ who met God and how God dealt with them. One day we must all meet God. The Bible says: Prepare to meet your God². I want to tell you something about that day – not very much as we don’t have time to look at it all this evening – because we need to be ready for it. So three brief things: The day is coming. The day is dreadful. The day is unknown.

The day is coming.

Just is case we are in any doubt about it when Jesus tells us about this day that is coming, he reminds us of another day when God judged the earth. Jesus told us: But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be³.

The last time⁴ I stood here I told you about the flood that covered the whole earth about five thousand years ago. There is ample evidence that that happened. We have no doubt about it. So we can be just as sure that the day is coming when everyone will meet Jesus. There will be no choice about it. Jesus tells us that there is much in common between the day the flood came and the day that he will return.

So we know that he is coming.

What is the day like? The day is dreadful.

In the same part of Matthew’s gospel⁵ we read: the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he will send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.

It is a terrible description of what the day will be like when we shall all meet Jesus. In another place⁶ we read: I looked when he opened the sixth seal, and behold, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became like blood. And the stars of heaven fell to the earth, as a fig tree drops its late figs when it is shaken by a mighty wind. Then the sky receded as a scroll when it is rolled up, and every mountain and island was moved out of its place. And the kings of the earth, the great men, the rich men, the commanders, the mighty men, every slave and every free man, hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains, and said to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! For the great day of his wrath has come, and who is able to stand?”

On that day men will search desperately for somewhere to hide from God. But they will not find any where. Men know that have made him angry, and know that when they meet him they will have to answer for what they have done wrong, so they will try to find any possible means to escape – even preferring to be crushed under falling rocks than have to face the judgement but it will be no use.

God holds out the way of escape for us now. Jesus has paid the price for our sins. Jesus has been judged for us. Jesus has taken away God’s anger for us. Will we take what he offers?

So then the day is coming, and it is a dreadful day. The day is unknown.

And finally there is nothing that men can do about it, either to bring it forward or to put it back, for the day is not known to us. Only God the Father knows when that day will come. Jesus told us: But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but my Father only⁷.

It could be tonight. It could be next week. It could be in a hundred years time, or a thousand. We do not know. We do not know how long God has given this earth, just as we do not know how long each one of us has to live here. Jesus said: Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming. But know this, that if the master of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken into. Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.⁸

The day is coming. It is a dreadful day. The day is unknown. We do not know when. So we need to be ready now. And the only way to be ready is to find a new life in Jesus Christ. To turn to him and away from your sins, asking him to help you live a new life for him. God grant that we might be ready for the return of the Lord Jesus, and not be taken away like those who were taken away by the flood.

But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. Then two men will be in the field: one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding at the mill: one will be taken and the other left.⁹

Pray God that you be not among those who are taken but among those who are left.


¹ See Job, Paul and two thieves
² Therefore thus will I do to you, O Israel; because I will do this to you, prepare to meet your God, O Israel! Amos 4:12
³ And as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man: They ate, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. Luke 17:25-28
⁴ Scoffers
⁵ Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he will send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. Matthew 24:29-31
⁶ I looked when he opened the sixth seal, and behold, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became like blood. And the stars of heaven fell to the earth, as a fig tree drops its late figs when it is shaken by a mighty wind. Then the sky receded as a scroll when it is rolled up, and every mountain and island was moved out of its place. And the kings of the earth, the great men, the rich men, the commanders, the mighty men, every slave and every free man, hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains, and said to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! For the great day of his wrath has come, and who is able to stand? Revelation 6:12-7:1
⁷ But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Mark 13:32
⁸ Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect. Luke 12:40
⁹ And as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man: They ate, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. Likewise as it was also in the days of Lot: They ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built; but on the day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all. Even so will it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed. In that day, he who is on the housetop, and his goods are in the house, let him not come down to take them away. And likewise the one who is in the field, let him not turn back. Remember Lot’s wife. Whoever seeks to save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it. I tell you, in that night there will be two men in one bed: the one will be taken and the other will be left. Two women will be grinding together: the one will be taken and the other left. Two men will be in the field: the one will be taken and the other left. Luke 17:26-36

Christians persecuted by Islamists, says Prince Charles

~ admin ~ Leave a comment

This post has been obtained from an external source which does not permit its pages to be embedded here (at least Coco had not successfully found a way to do it), it has been necessary to take a suitably edited version of the original page to embed here. As a consequence updates made by the writer may not appear here. If you find anything that is different in a significant manner, please notify Coco using the comments section below. Thank you.