Truth u can Trust

TRUTH U CAN TRUST
The Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons, and the money-changers sitting there. And making a whip of cords, he drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and oxen. And he poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables. And he told those who sold the pigeons, “Take these things away; do not make my Father’s house a house of trade.” His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.” So the Jews said to him, “What sign do you show us for doing these things?” Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” The Jews then said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?” But he was speaking about the temple of his body. When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.
DIRECT BIBLE QUOTATIONS - JOHN 2:13-22


For more posts and info visit www.seekthetruth.org.uk

Location:Liverpool

The Value of a Soul

Dr Luke tells the first of three stories that Jesus told. The point is being made that God loves every sinner and is seeking their salvation. Have a listen and remember - you are loved!

https://soundcloud.com/seekthetruthpodcast/dr-lukes-diaries-luke15-the-value-of-a-soul-part-1?utm_source=soundcloud&utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=email


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Liverpool

Effective Communication

An extract from Dr Luke's Diaries looking at the teaching Jesus gave his disciples on communicating effectively. These are guidelines that are worth listening to:

https://soundcloud.com/seekthetruthpodcast/communicating-effectively?utm_source=soundcloud&utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=email


For more posts and info visit www.seekthetruth.org.uk

Location:Liverpool

Eternity

The proverb ‘Time and tide wait for no man’ is first credited in another form to St. Maher in 1225, but we all get the point that time is marching on and none of us can stop it. To me, it seems like only yesterday that we were celebrating the new millennium with many brilliant displays seen on TV from all over the world. One of the first to appear when the clock chimed twelve was Australia, and the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Amidst the illuminations on the Bridge the word ETERNITY stood out in bold copperplate writing, a replica of the word that Arthur Stace wrote on the pavements of Sydney for over thirty-five years.

 Who was Arthur Stace?  According to Wikipedia ‘Arthur Malcolm Stace (9 February 1884 – 30 July 1967), otherwise known as Mr Eternity, was an Australian reformed alcoholic who converted to Christianity and spread his form of gospel by writing the word "Eternity'" in chalk on footpaths in Sydney over a period of approximately 35 years. Stace was born in Balmain, in the inner-west of Sydney. The child of alcoholics, he was brought up in poverty. In order to survive, he resorted to stealing bread and milk and searching for scraps of food in bins. By the age of 12, Stace, with virtually no formal schooling, had become a ward of the state. As a teenager, he became an alcoholic and was subsequently sent to jail at 15. Afterwards, he worked as a "cockatoo" or a look-out for a Two-up "school". In his twenties, he was a scout for his sisters' brothels. In March 1916, at age 26, he enlisted for World War I with the 19th Battalion 5th Brigade AIF, entering with the 16th Reinforcements, service number 5934. He suffered recurring bouts of bronchitis and pleurisy, which led to his medical discharge on 2 April 1919. 

Stace converted to Christianity on the night of 6 August 1930, after hearing an inspirational sermon by the Reverend R. B. S. Hammond at St. Barnabas Church, Broadway. Inspired by the words, he became enamoured of the notion of eternity. Two years later, on 14 November 1932, Arthur was further inspired by the preaching of evangelist John G. Ridley,^[3] MC on "The echoes of Eternity" from Isaiah 57:15:"For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth Eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones."

John Ridley's words,"Eternity, Eternity, I wish that I could sound or shout that word to everyone in the streets of Sydney. You've got to meet it, where will you spend Eternity?" proved crucial in Stace's decision to tell others about his faith. In an interview, Stace said, "Eternity went ringing through my brain and suddenly I began crying and felt a powerful call from the Lord to write Eternity." Even though he was illiterate and could hardly write his own name Arthur, legibly, "the word 'Eternity' came out smoothly, in a beautiful copperplate script. I couldn't understand it, and I still can't."

The Sydney City Council brought him to the attention of the police as they had rules about the defacing of pavements, so much so that he narrowly avoided arrest around twenty-four times. Each time he was caught, he responded with, "But I had permission from a higher source".

Several mornings a week for the next 35 years, Stace left his wife, Pearl and their home in Bulwarra Road, Pyrmont around 5am to go around the streets of Sydney and chalk the word "Eternity" on footpaths, train station entrances and anywhere else he could think of. It is estimated that he wrote the word around 500,000 times over the 35 years. Workers arriving in the city would see the word freshly written, but not the writer, and so, "The man who writes Eternity" became a legend in Sydney. The mystery was solved when Reverend Lisle M. Thompson, who preached at the church where Stace worked as a cleaner, saw him take a piece of chalk from his pocket and write the word on the footpath.

Thompson wrote about Stace's life and an interview was published in the Sydney Sunday Telegraph on 21 June 1956’. 

Arthur Stace left his mark upon Sydney and all the world with the word ‘Eternity’.

Eternity, like God Himself has no beginning and no end. The word eternity is found only once in the Bible (Isa. 57:15) quoted above but the word eternal is found 47 times (twice in Old Testament and 45 in the NT) 21 of these present the fact of eternal life, and John’s writings have 15 of these. 

In John 3:14 to 16 we read, “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” 

‘Eternal’ and ‘everlasting’ in those verses are the same Greek word so can be interchangeable. Christ’s death on the cross is the only way to obtain eternal life and faith in Him is the only means of receiving it, for sinners like you and me.

 John Ridley’s words, "Eternity, Eternity, I wish that I could sound or shout that word to everyone in the streets of Sydney. You've got to meet it, where will you spend Eternity?" were aimed locally, but they apply globally. Have you got eternal life? If not, then before you do anything else, tell God about your sin and ask His forgiveness. He will save you and give you eternal life. God bless.

Written for FTMP by a Guest Blogger

For more info visit www.seekthetruth.org.uk

This weeks radio program's

Why not tune into Vintage Radio (http://www.vintageradio.org.uk) to listen to the thought for the week. Listen live on Monday 5th May 2014 between 10-11 am/4-5 pm or 10-11 pm. If you prefer Saturdays listen on 10th May 2014 from 9-10 am/12-1 noon/3-4 pm/6-7 pm/9-10 pm.

May God bless you this week.



For more posts and info visit www.seekthetruth.org.uk

All Fools Day

Sunday, March 31^st 1957 was a life-changing day for my wife. She accompanied me to a Gospel meeting at Selbourne Hall Luton, where we heard a visiting preacher named Mr King of Walthamstow, London. He preached from Revelation chapter five and it was not until the last five minutes of his message that he got my wife’s interest. In those few minutes the Holy Spirit convicted her of her sin and showed her that to be safe she must repent and place her faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. How lovely it was for me (I had been saved a month) to kneel with her and two other believers and hear her ask the Lord to save her. That moment she was born again! Up until then she had been dead in sin, spiritually dead, but then in a moment of time she was quickened, made alive. What a wonderful miracle of grace took place that night. The next day was ‘All Fools Day’, and I said to her that she was no longer fooled by the devil into thinking that she did not need salvation. Wisdom prevailed, and her faith in Christ secured eternal salvation for her soul. “The wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord”, Romans 6:23.

April 1^st. is known in many countries as All Fools Day and is associated with playing pranks and practical jokes on people. Wikipedia has some humorous examples of happenings in newspapers and radio stations. One such quote was as follows:- 

Planetary Alignment Decreases Gravity

During an interview on BBC Radio 2, on the morning of 1 April 1976, the British astronomer Patrick Moore announced that at 9:47 AM a once-in-a-lifetime astronomical event was going to occur that listeners could experience in their very own homes. The planet Pluto would pass behind Jupiter, temporarily causing a gravitational alignment that would counteract and lessen the Earth's own gravity. Moore told his listeners that if they jumped in the air at the exact moment this planetary alignment occurred, they would experience a strange floating sensation. When 9:47 AM arrived, BBC2 began to receive hundreds of phone calls from listeners claiming to have felt the sensation. One woman even reported that she and her eleven friends had risen from their chairs and floated around the room. Moore's announcement (which, of course, was a joke) was inspired by a pseudoscientific astronomical theory that had recently been promoted in a book called The Jupiter Effect, alleging that a rare alignment of the planets was going to cause massive earthquakes and the destruction of Los Angeles in 1982.

The majority of these pranks can be harmless fun but others carry serious consequences, so caution should be the rule so that one is not taken in by a deception. None of us like to appear gullible, and yet scientists and natural history folk, who promote evolutionary theories as fact, deceive many people. The more millions of years that they ascribe to the universe ‘big-bang’ theory, the more credible it sounds, but it is a lie!  

In 2 Samuel ch.3 we read, “And when Joab was come out from David, he sent messengers after Abner, which brought him again from the well of Sirah: but David knew it not. And when Abner was returned to Hebron, Joab took him aside in the gate to speak with him quietly, and smote him there under the fifth rib, that he died, for the blood of Asahel his brother……And king David himself followed the bier. And they buried Abner in Hebron: and the king lifted up his voice, and wept at the grave of Abner; and all the people wept. And the king lamented over Abner, and said, Died Abner as a fool dieth?” Joab wanted to revenge his brother Asahel’s death, at the hand of Abner, so he lured him back to the gate of Hebron and slew him there. Hebron was one of the six cities of refuge for a manslayer to flee to, to be safe from the avenger of blood. Abner was in the gate of the city of Hebron, just a step from safety but Joab deceived him by feigning to speak quietly with him but instead killed him. King David was appalled with Joab’s actions and mourned Abner’s death as unnecessary and foolish. It could have been and should have been so different. Abner perished because he did not see the danger that he was in and ignored the security that Hebron offered. He died a foolish man. Similarly, there are people today who do not see that their soul is in danger of perishing in Hell and they ignore the provision that God has made for them to be saved by trusting and receiving Christ as their Saviour.

Jesus told a parable about a wise man and a foolish man. The wise man built his house on the rock and when the storms came and the wind blew, the house on the rock stood firm. The foolish man built his house on the sand and when the storms came and the wind blew the house on the sand fell flat. The Saviour said, “Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock.” The sayings of Christ are rock like, dependable and trustworthy whereas the atheistic teachings of evolution are like the shifting sands and will let you down.

The foundational truths of the gospel, of the death and resurrection of Christ are brought to our attention at Easter time, bringing us close to the gate of salvation. Jesus said, “I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved.” Don’t be like Abner who missed his opportunity to be saved, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved, to do otherwise would be the height of folly.

A year before my wife and I became Christians an American Missionary named Jim Elliot (see Wikipedia) was killed with four other evangelists in Ecuador. A memorable quote of his was this, "He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose.”  I say “AMEN” to that. God bless.

Posted by a Guest Blogger for FTMP