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“O Israel, return unto the LORD thy God; for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity. Take with you words, and turn to the LORD: say unto him, Take away all iniquity, and receive us graciously: so will we render the calves of our lips. Asshur shall not save us; we will not ride upon horses: neither will we say any more to the work of our hands, Ye are our gods: for in thee the fatherless findeth mercy. I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely: for mine anger is turned away from him. I will be as the dew unto Israel: he shall grow as the lily, and cast forth his roots as Lebanon. His branches shall spread, and his beauty shall be as the olive tree, and his smell as Lebanon. They that dwell under his shadow shall return; they shall revive as the corn, and grow as the vine: the scent thereof shall be as the wine of Lebanon. Ephraim shall say, What have I to do any more with idols? I have heard him, and observed him: I am like a green fir tree. From me is thy fruit found. Who is wise, and he shall understand these things? prudent, and he shall know them? for the ways of the LORD are right, and the just shall walk in them: but the transgressors shall fall therein,” Hosea 14:1-9.

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I write this on the day of my 82nd birthday. I will be sixty two years a Christian in six months time.

Today, the wonderful love of God toward this unworthy sinner has been brought before me by another portion of God’s Word I read this morning.

The glorious words of psalm 139:13-18 have caused me to marvel afresh at the truly incomprehensible kindness of God toward me — this is something every true believer may say!

“For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother’s womb. I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well. My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them. How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! how great is the sum of them! If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand: when I awake, I am still with thee,” Psalm 139:13-18.

Today I think particularly of one of the innumerable mercies the Lord has bestowed upon me. It was sixty one years ago, in September past, that I first met the one who was to become the love of my life, my dear Ann. She went to be with her Saviour 17 months ago on 8th June 2024.

I have much to consider and rejoice over on this day!

Another of my readings was the last chapter of Hosea. There is stated the purpose of God for Israel in the days following the Saviour’s victorious and glorious return.

“I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely: for mine anger is turned away from him. I will be as the dew unto Israel: he shall grow as the lily, and cast forth his roots as Lebanon. His branches shall spread, and his beauty shall be as the olive tree, and his smell as Lebanon,” verses 4-5. (more…)

These are perplexing days for everyone, including the Christian. It is said of the Christian, “The meek will he guide in judgment: and the meek will he teach his way,” Psalm25:9. Nevertheless, such is the spirit of the days that are beginning to break forth upon us, many believers are at a loss to know what to expect or what is happening!

Within a lifetime, the basic standards that governed the behaviour in our land has been overturned completely. Truly, there has been a calling “evil good, and good evil”, a putting of “darkness for light, and light for darkness” and a putting of “bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!” Isaiah 5:20.

Compass

The moral compass and map of God’s Word has been cast aside and the nation is adrift on an ocean of depravity and degeneracy with no knowledge or understanding of what is taking place!

Governments and churches are swept along by this tsunami of wickedness. Even fundamentalist denominations have felt the power of this spiritual earthquake and many within their ranks have faltered and lost their footing and stumbled from off the “old paths, where is the good way,’ Jeremiah 6:16.

Few pulpits seem able to define what is happening and what it is the people of God should be expecting to break forth all around them!

That ought not to be so!

It ought not to be so for the Lord has given us clear and precise descriptions of these days so that we ought neither to be surprised nor alarmed at what is happening.

I want to set before my readers just three of the many portions of God’s Word which reveal what it is that is taking place all around us, in every nation!

I. THE FIRST OF THESE HAS OFTEN BEEN QUOTED BY ME.

“This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. . . . . ,” 2 Timothy 3:1. The word translated “perilous”, ‘chalepos’ appears in only one other place.

“And when he was come to the other side into the country of the Gergesenes, there met him two possessed with devils, coming out of the tombs, exceeding fierce, so that no man might pass by that way,” Matthew 8:28.

It is translated in the above verse by the word “fierce”!

So, Christian, there are to come ‘fierce” times in the last days!

1. The “fierceness” manifested by the two men who encountered the Lord in “the country of the Gergesenes”, was the result of their possession by many devils. The hatred of the devils for the Saviour was seen in that the two men “met” the Saviour. The word has a military and hostile connotation! It was a warlike spirit toward the Saviour that they manifested. Indeed, that was their disposition toward all men for “no man might pass by that way.”

2. We must never forget that the “devil . . . was a murderer from the beginning.” “He abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it,” John 8:44. He is the embodiment of all evil and where he is is a most “perilous” place!

Where the devil is able to possess men and women, there you have a most evil society, marked by every form of debauchery and cruelty! (more…)

“«To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David.»

The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament (the vault of heaven above) sheweth his handywork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge. There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard. Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun,” Psalms 19:1-4.

The creation is the ‘hand work’ of God. The Psalmist endorsed this truth. “Of old hast thou laid the foundation of the earth: and the heavens are the work of thy hands,” Psalm 102:25. David said of the creation: “I meditate on all thy works; I muse on the work of thy hands,” Psalm 143:5.

Obviously David knew that such was the creation structure as to set forth the glories of God’s wisdom and power and mercy! By meditation he could draw out great truth and light and so educate himself in the ways of God.

What the Bible teaches, creation illustrates. It is God’s picture book of illustrations.

In my experience, the creation is the perfect ‘graphic design’, to which we may refer children, in order to set forth and demonstrate the meaning of Holy Scripture.

The whole process involving the labouring of the earth to bring forth food wonderfully portrays for us the gospel work the Lord is engaged in. The making of the creation a many-paged picture book, that confronts us in an inescapable manner, illustrates that the Lord would have us take note of the gospel message. How often the Lord Jesus said: “And he said unto them, He that hath ears to hear, let him hear,” Mark 4:9.

Again, surely we must see the love of God in that He is most desirous that we heed and learn the gospel lesson! How earnest and ardent is our ‘Divine Teacher’ that we grasp the truth set forth in Holy Scripture and gloriously illustrated in the large volume of ‘nature’?

THE TERMINOLOGY OF THE BIBLE INDICATES THAT THE HARVEST DOES INDEED PICTURE THE LORD’S  GOSPEL WORK.

1. From the first of the year to the last, all is ordered that the earth produce a harvest and we see in this a parallel in the work of the gospel.

Thus the Saviour teaches us that the work of grace begins with the sowing of the gospel seed. “And he spake many things unto them in parables, saying, Behold, a sower went forth to sow,” Matthew 13:3. (more…)