Every preacher knows what I mean when I say, sometimes you just can’t get a message out of your head. Long after the benediction is over, the wheels in your mind are still turning. That’s what I’ve been going through all morning. Ever since my message yesterday morning I just keep thinking about the fault-finders and critics. I’m talking about people who had a glorious opportunity and blew it– men who were in the very presence of Christ, yet focused on the faults of a woman caught in the very act of adultery, rather than the perfections of Christ! While most of us would give just about anything to hear Christ preach, His preaching meant nothing to those men. They were so self-righteous that they saw no need of Christ. They were so full of hate they couldn’t love anybody else. They were so selfish that they cared nothing about their neighbor. They were so intent on justifying their views they would rather see a woman die rather than be delivered. It is sad to think that anyone could be in such a wretched condition, yet we see people like this all the time.

There are many instances where the worst people think they are the best people. They feel superior to others in the church and as a result they become hyper-critical. Unless things go their way they are going the wrong way, in their mind, and they are quick to voice their disapproval. Unless they are getting the attention they crave they are never happy. And if they can’t get it in one place they go to another. They create conflict in churches, ruin relationships, forsake friends, and make a mess of their marriage. While it is easy to get angry with these folks, due to the great harm they cause, they are to be pitied. In pursuit of their selfish desires they make themselves and everyone around them miserable. There is more hope for the guilty soul caught in the very act of sin, who dares not deny it, than the person who is so self-righteous that they see everyone’s sin but their own. Be wise and heed the warning given in Ex. 23:1-2 ” Thou shalt not raise a false report: put not thine hand with the wicked to be an unrighteous witness.  Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil—“. Such people are a danger to everyone around them. Rather than waste your energy fighting against them and becoming bitter, remain vigilant lest you believe their lies, succumb to their influence and become like them. It is better to be accused by them than to join in affinity with them.

“For all have sinned , and come short of the glory of God“–Rom. 3:23
Ask a thousand people if they believe justice should prevail and just about everyone would answer “Yes”. So let’s ask another question–“Do you believe God is just?” Again the answer would normally be in the affirmative. If you answered anything other than “Yes” you don’t know God. He is always honest, fair, holy,and righteous. He is perfect in every way.

Now let’s make this personal– Do you believe God is just in regards to you? It’s easy to demand justice for others, but it’s a whole new ball game when it comes to us personally. Here’s my point–what do you think about what God thinks about you? Do you agree with His indictment against you when He declares you are a sinner, when He says you are “condemned”? Do you still think justice should prevail? Do you still believe God is just? Whether you agree or not, the fact remains that all have sinned and all are justly condemned by a righteous God who declares us sinful and deserving of hell. Until we believe that there is no hope of us being saved.

Now let’s shift the focus. We’ve been talking about God, now let’s talk about you. In light of God’s perfection and your sinfulness there can be no justification for you rejecting Him. Doing so would be a terrible injustice. It would be an insult to God to be rejected by sinful man. Think about it. God gives us life and every good thing, has never done us wrong, and provides a way for us to be delivered from wrath and then we reject Him. Is that not unjust? Does that not prove that we are sinful? The fact is, there is never a just reason for us to reject God, and it is shocking that we would.

It is amazing that sinful man would reject a holy God, but it is even more amazing that a perfect God would accept a sinful man. There is only one word to explain that–“grace”, and there is only one person who can make it possible–“Christ”. Only because of Him can God “be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus” (Rom. 3:26). The Bible “commandeth all men every where to repent” (Acts 17:30), and that is rightly so. God isn’t just inviting you to trust Jesus and be saved, He is commanding you to do so. He does so because He loves you and wants the best for you. If you truly understood blessings of obeying this command you would do so without hesitation. The believers benefits are many and marvelous. Receive Him and be saved. Reject Him and you will suffer His wrath. Either way He is just– your choice doesn’t change His character, but only by you receiving Him are you justified. Your decision decides your destiny—heaven or hell. What shall it be?

“Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended : but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,  I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. “— Phip 3:13- 14

ALWAYS STAND at the bow! Leave the stern with its backward look and make for the bow. To spend time in sad review of past sins and failures is not to put them to the best account. Confess them, and believe that for Christ’s dear sake they are absolutely forgiven! Failure often provides the material for success, and our dead selves may become the stepping-stones to better things. Did not our Lord say to His disciples: “Sleep on now and take your rest”–the past is irreparable, but immediately added: “Arise, let us be going!”–the future is available. Therefore, leave the stern with its backward look, and make for the bow.

True, the sky before us may be dark with storm-clouds. The weather-prophets say that the world is shedding its old sanctions without replacing them with better ones; that seven civilizations have already passed, and we are to see the death of the eighth. Be it so, but they forget that God holds the stormy waters in the hollow of His hand; that Jesus walked the threatening billows to succour His friends. They forget that when the earth was without form and void, the Spirit of God brooded in the chaos and darkness, creating the heavens and earth. They cannot detect the voice of the Creator saying, “Behold, I make all things new!” Out of chaos is born the cosmos. Each age ends in travail, out of which a new age is born.

Look out to the vast circle of the horizon, and prepare for the new lands to be explored, the wonderful discoveries that await us, the great missions hidden in the future which are waiting to be fulfilled. Never doubt that the clouds will break. Never dream that wrong will triumph. Never count yourself God-forsaken or forgotten. The Master may seem to be asleep on His pillow, oblivious and uncaring, but His hand is on the helm. He guides your course. He rules the waves and they obey Him.

He maketh the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still. Then are they glad because they be quiet; So He bringeth them in the haven of their desire. Oh that men would praise the Lord for His goodness! AMEN. — F B Meyer

“He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said , out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.”–John 7:38

A river touches places of which its source knows nothing, and Jesus says if we have received of His fulness, however small the visible measure of our lives, out of us will flow the rivers that will bless to the uttermost parts of the earth. We have nothing to do with the outflow – “This is the work of God that ye believe. . . .” God rarely allows a soul to see how great a blessing he is.

A river is victoriously persistent, it overcomes all barriers. For a while it goes steadily on its course, then it comes to an obstacle and for a while it is baulked, but it soon makes a pathway round the obstacle. Or a river will drop out of sight for miles, and presently emerge again broader and grander than ever. You can see God using some lives, but into your life an obstacle has come and you do not seem to be of any use. Keep paying attention to the Source, and God will either take you round the obstacle or remove it. The river of the Spirit of God overcomes all obstacles. Never get your eyes on the obstacle or on the difficulty. The obstacle is a matter of indifference to the river which will flow steadily through you if you remember to keep right at the Source. Never allow anything to come between yourself and Jesus Christ, no emotion, or experience; nothing must keep you from the one great sovereign Source.

Think of the healing and far-flung rivers nursing themselves in our souls! God has been opening up marvellous truths to our minds, and every point He has opened up is an indication of the wider power of the river He will flow through us. If you believe in Jesus, you will find that God has nourished in you mighty torrents of blessing for others.—Oswald Chambers

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” Genesis 1:1

Before there was a Milky Way–there was God!
Before there were galaxies, solar systems, constellations, and nebulae–there was God!
Before Mercury, Venus, and Mars were plugged into their sockets–there was God!
Before Polaris was fastened above the North Pole–there was God!
Before Orion the hunter had a belt, and Saturn had its rings–there was God; all alone, perfect and content, glorious in His solitary existence as the eternal I AM!

Before there was a sun, a moon, or an earth;
before there was grass to clothe the field, and flowers to adorn it;
before the mountains were brought forth, and the sea filled the depths;
before the eagle soared through the sky, and the fish swam through the sea;
before angels, devils, and men had their being–there was God alone!

If we would understand things aright, we must not begin with man, but with God, for He is the beginning of all things. To begin with man is folly, for man is but a creature–a production of the Creator. We must back up and begin where the Bible begins, with God!

God’s people know, and have always known, what continues to baffle the minds of the scholars and scientists of our day, that “in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” Through faith, God’s people understand the mystery of creation.— “Why are we here? What is our purpose? What is God’s purpose?” Can we even know the answer to these questions? Indeed we can. The twenty four elders seated around God’s throne in Heaven give us the answer in Revelation 4:10-11, “The four and twenty elders fall down before him that sat on the throne, and worship him that liveth for ever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying , Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created . “

You, me, angels, animals, plants, rocks, and all other things, exist and were created for one reason–the pleasure of the Creator. We were created according to His will and purpose, for His pleasure and glory. 

God did not create the Heaven and the earth arbitrarily. He created them to be the stage upon which He would perform His eternal purpose of grace, and reveal all the wonders of His goodness and mercy toward His elect. It is upon the stage of time, that God displays His eternal purpose and shows forth His glory in the salvation of chosen sinners. He created this world for the salvation of His people, that they would be recovered from their sin by His almighty grace.—Frank Hall
“ Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me, 10 Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done , saying , My counsel shall stand , and I will do all my pleasure: “ Isaiah 46:9-10