Looking To The Lord, We Are ‘Radiant.’

The Lord has ‘delivered’ us. He has ‘saved’ us (Psalm 34:4-6). Rejoicing in God’s salvation, we say, ‘I will bless the Lord at all times’(Psalm 34:1). We call upon others to worship the Lord with us – ‘O magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt His Name together!’(Psalm 34:3). We invite them to trust in the Lord and come to know the joy of His salvation – ‘O taste and see that the Lord is good! Happy is the man who takes refuge in Him!’(Psalm 34:8). We encourage them to keep on hearing the Word of the Lord so that they may learn to walk with God – ‘Come, O sons, listen to me, I will teach you the fear of the Lord’(Psalm 34:11). We seek to lead people on to spiritual maturity. We say to them, ‘Depart from evil, and do good’, praying that they will become ‘mature’, ‘trained by practice to know the difference between good and evil’(Psalm 34:14; Hebrews 5:14). To those who live in obedience to His Word, God gives the promise of His blessing – “Blessed is he who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book” (Revelation 21:7).

When You’re Down, Look To The Lord. He Loves You. He Will Lift You Up..

Life is full of ups and downs. For Elijah, there was a very high point. He prayed. ‘The fire of the Lord fell’. ‘All the people said, ‘The Lord, He is God’’(1 Kings 18:37-39). This was followed by a very low point: ‘O Lord, take away my life’(1 Kings 19:4). We are so changeable. Often, we feel like we are being torn apart. Our emotions pull us in different directions. Sometimes, we are full of joy. At other times, we are at the point of despair. We find ourselves in a turmoil of confused emotions. What are we to do? Are we to ‘pull ourselves together’? This seems to be the very thing we can’t manage to do. Are we to ‘hope for the best’- ‘Some day, some way, things will get better’? We think about this, and we wonder, ‘What happens if things get worse?’! Look to the Lord. His love is unchanged, unchanging and unchangeable. In all the many changes of our life, He still says to us, “I am the Lord, I do not change” (Malachi 3:6).

There Can Still Be A Spiritual Harvest ...

If, in today’s world, we are to enjoy a spiritual harvest which will be both satisfying to ourselves and glorifying to God, there are two things we must do. we must confess our sins. we must trust Christ for salvation. We look at our human situation – personally, locally, nationally and internationally – , and we say, “Apart from God, our situation is hopeless. Without Him, it will be nothing else but the downward slope.” We look then to the Cross of Christ, and we see that there is hope. If the Cross of Christ teaches us anything, it teaches us this, “No situation is too hopeless for the grace of God. However hopeless our situation may seem, it can be changed by the power and love of God.” There can still be a spiritual harvest, even in our difficult and distrssing times, but it will not come unless we put Christ at the centre of our lives.
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A Harvest Sermon (Psalm 8).

"Sit, Walk, Stand" in Ephesians and Psalm 1

"Sit, Walk, Stand" - This is a useful summary of the message of Ephesians: "And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus" (2:6); "I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called" (4:1); "Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil" (6:11).
"Sit, Walk, Stand" - We also find these words in the first Psalm: "Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful" (v. 1). Concerning those who persist in walking in the counsel of the ungodly, standing in the way of sinners and sitting in the set of the scornful, the first Psalm says this: "Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous" (v.5).