Sorrowful – greatly so – but wasted

For the sorrow that is according to the will of God produces a repentance without regret, leading to salvation, but the sorrow of the world produces death.

In Australia this week there was a massive child porn crackdown with dozens of people all over the country charged. Some of those charged included a teacher, a top cop and others. 

I’m not judging them but already one person has committed suicide and about 5 others have attempted suicide. (Exactly the same thing happened a couple of years back with 2 people committing suicide.)

What shame they feel and what distress at the pain they’ve caused themselves and their families. This is what the Bible calls “worldly sorrow”. What they are mainly sorry about is that they were caught. That kind of sorrow is worthless even if the person feels it deeply enough to take their life.

The Bible says that sorrow which leads to repentance – that causes a person to admit their guilt to God and to plead for mercy and to turn away from sin – is the kind of sorrow that leads to life.

We are all guilty of sin – that’s why I do not judge these people. But if we do not find Godly sorrow now, we will definitely gnash our teeth in sorrow when we stand before God in judgement.

If you’ve never experienced Godly sorrow – if you do not believe you’ve done anything bad enough, why not ask God to show you how He sees you in your unrepentant state.

Until next time, so long.

Dead whilst alive

It is harder to be dead while still living than to be dead when you are dead. The apostle Paul said, “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.” What he meant was that he no longer lived for himself but he lived his life for the service (as a servant) of Jesus Christ.

To do this means that you effectively have to die to your own desires, pleasure, will, reputation, well-being, etc. Then to live for the desire, pleasure, will, reputation (or name, or character), etc. of another, namely that of Jesus Christ.

When you die physically, you really do not care about anything – you won’t care what they say about you, you won’t care what they do with your money, you won’t care if they throw out your favourite rocking chair, you just won’t care.

But when you’re dead whilst alive, it is amazing how many times you will care about YOU! If you decide to follow Jesus fully and die to yourself and live for Him, you will have to remind yourself over and over and over and over again. And you will have to practise the art of not caring…about you.

The love of God

Been too busy to look in (also illness in the family) but a reminder of God’s love through the following hymn (a German hymn translated into English).

The Love of God
The love of God is greater far
Than tongue or pen can ever tell;
It goes beyond the highest star,
And reaches to the lowest hell;
The guilty pair, bowed down with care
God gave His Son to win;
His erring child He reconciled,
And pardoned from his sin.

Chorus
O love of God, how rich and pure!
How measureless and strong!
It shall for evermore endure
The saints’ and angels’ song.

When years of time shall pass away,
And earthly thrones and kingdoms fall,
When men, who here refuse to pray,
On rocks and hills and mountains call,
God’s love so sure, shall still endure,
All measureless and strong;
Redeeming grace to Adam’s race
The saints’ and angels’ song.

Could we with ink the ocean fill,
And were the skies of parchment made,
Were every stalk on earth a quill,
And every man a scribe by trade,
To write the love of God above
Would drain the ocean dry.
Nor could the scroll contain the whole,
Though stretched from sky to sky.

sunDAY’s end

It’s been a great day. Attended my church this morning where I was fortunate enough to preach (see yesterday’s entry). Visited my daughter who has just moved into a brand new house (she’s renting, not buying). Took my wife to lunch and then visited a friend who’s going through a tough time (took her out for coffee and cake at a brilliant little cafe close to where she lives).
It’s strange how routine our lives become and then something dramatic happens to destroy that routine but it’s not long before we fall into a different routine. Call me boring but I like routine.
Tomorrow is the beginning of a new week filled with the usual weekly routine but who knows what that week will hold. Still, we commit it into God’s hands. Have a great week.
Until next time, so long.

Husbands love your wives

I’m in the middle of preparing a sermon for tomorrow morning. (The pastor of the Baptist church I attend kindly lets me preach about once a month – I am an ex Pentecostal preacher but back in secular work for a while.)

I’m preaching on this topic because my sister has just got divorced and some very good friends of ours have just got divorced. My sister and her husband are Christians and so are these friends. Both couples have been married for nearly 30 years. So we are alarmed at the number of Christian marriages that are breaking up.

It’s not my place to judge them however, as a minister I have counselled dozens of Christian couples having marital problems and some of them think the solution to the problem is divorce. There are three questions I usually put to them. The first is, “What do you think God’s will is for your marriage?” No-one has ever answered that God wants them to divorce. At some point my second question is, “What do you have to do to fix your marriage?” There follows a lot of discussion and usually, both of the couple know what needs to be done. When they agree that the marriage is “fixable” and understand what work they need to do to fix it, I then ask the third question, “Are you prepared to fix it?”

What prevents our marriage from ending in divorce? and what prevents us from in-house fighting in church and home? and what prevents us from getting bitter? and what prevents us from all the other pitfalls that would destroy our lives? Surely it is loving God and serving Him with all our hearts. If we make that the goal, we may fail from time to time, but as surely as a compass needle always finds north, we will find ourselves always “fixing” our mistakes and pressing on with God.

May the Lord bless you.

So long until next time

In the beginning

Not as dramatic a beginning as Genesis (the Beginning) but my first post – so it is the beginning.

I firstly want to acknowledge that the picture in my header was taken off John & Mel Kots’ flickr photostream and that can be viewed here: Door Art

You may notice that my blog address is “hypodermic.wordpress.com”. What’s with “hypodermic”? Well, I tried using several other names but they were taken. It’s too long a story to tell how “hypodermic” came to the fore but as I looked up the exact meaning, it is a combination of two Greek works which literally mean just below the skin.

That’s exactly what Christianity does – get’s under people’s skin. I won’t try to do it on purpose but Jesus’ teachings weren’t popular then and have never been to this day. Of course, I hope more than anything that things that I post are helpful to some, encouraging to others, and strike a chord of agreement with many so that we can share things in common.

Until next time, so long.