I had gotten hold of my older brother,s air gun, what a boon for a ten year old! I raced triumphantly upstairs to the bedroom window, where was it, my first trophy? There he was in the tree next door, twittering away and swaying happily in the summer breeze, a sparrow. I beaded him up nicely, steady now. PAP it was a perfect shot, I watched with some satisfaction as he plummeted, lifeless to the ground, I took the stairs in one leap and soon had my prize in my hand, still warm, and I remembered the words of Jesus "Not a sparrow shall fall to the earth, but The Father knows" I can never forget the shame that came over me as I realised God had seen what I had done, and why? I looked at the dead bird in my hand, he was beautiful. I spent many long hours looking inside myself to try to discover what it was, what is it that dark? I promised God I would never again hurt a living thing. But it was to be many years more before I discovered just what that darkness is. We are living in a age that has progressed beyond the concept of sin, but not beyond wicked murder.Jesus said "ye shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free."Once you discover that it,s sin in the human heart that is at the root of human violence and lawlessness then you can know that God has made a way for that sin to be washed away. I look at the cross and I see a co-relation there with the darkness that was in my heart. I also see how much God loves me when I see the length He was willing to go to set me free from it. He was wounded for our transgressions He was bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace was upon Him and with His stripes we are healed. There is life for a look at the crucified One. I pray that you might find His peace.
There is water that one can drink, which will become in that person a well of water, springing up into everlasting life.I was on the tube traveling east across London. A woman got on at Earls Court Rd and sat next to me, and the car soon filled up as only the London tube can. There was nothing remarkable about the young woman except her face shone with a glow that christians will recognise as the joy of The Lord, the fact that she was carrying campaign literature of a ministry that I knew clinched it. "Been somewhere good?...you look very happy" I said. Now as soon as she opened her mouth I decided to play a little trick for she had an amazing Irish accent, it was that sharp, flat, penetrating accent that denoted she was from Belfast. My trick was to play the part of a humble enquirer, there were two people sitting opposite, another four on he other side and six standing in the aisle, hanging on for dear life to the leather straps. This was a captive audience and I was going to exploit it to the full. I expressed surprise that anybody could look so pleased after attending a religious meeting "ah...she said...if you knew Jesus, you would know that He,s a Person not a religion." The atmosphere in the train turned electric as that sharp, flat, though not unsisterly voice penetrated every corner, but there was no escape. I said I had heard of such things, could she explain what it means to be saved? could she ever? "Jesus hung on the cross for three hours bearing the sins of the world, if we only come to Him we can find forgiveness and peace." I asked if that was what meant by being born again. I thought I would have to hold her down to stop her from going up in a rapture. She explained that when we ask Jesus to come into our hearts we are filled with The Holy Spirit. By this time I perished the thought of letting on that I was saved, she was just so happy to be witnessing for her Lord, she was oblivious to the fact that at least twelve other people were listening in on all this. We reached Westminster which was her station, for she was on her way to the cathedral. "Catholic?" I was genuinely surprised. "Ah...she said...that,s not important what,s important is that we come to Jesus and recieve Him." I thanked her and promised to think and pray very carefully about all she had said. Her eyes sparkled as she got up to go, and everybody made way respectfully for her as she got off the train. I turned to wave as the train pulled away, her face was radiant with joy at having had someone to share the good news about Jesus with, little did she realise she had shared it with more people than she thought.
When the Son of man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him,then He shall sit upon His glorious throne. Before Him will be gathered all the nations, and He will separate them one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and He will place the sheep at His right hand,but the goats at the left. Then the King will say to those at His right hand "Come o blessed of My Father,inherit the kingdom prepared for you before the foundation of the world; For I was hungry and you gave Me food, I was thirsty and you gave Me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed Me, I was naked and you clothed Me,I was sick and you visited Me, I was in prison and you came to Me." Then the righteous will answer Him "Lord when did we see Thee hungry and feed Thee or thirsty and give Thee drink? And when did we see Thee a stranger and welcome Thee, or naked and clothe Thee? And when did we see Thee sick or in prison and visit Thee?" And the King will answer them, "Truly I say to you, in-as-much as you did it to one of the least of My brethren you did it to Me. Then He will say to those at the left hand, "Depart from Me ye cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels; for I was hungry and you gave Me no food, I was thirsty and you gave Me no drink, naked and you did not clothe Me, I was sick or in prison and you did not visit Me." Then they also will answer and say "Lord when did we see Thee hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison and did not minister to Thee?" Then He will answer them "Truly I say unto you, in-as-much as you did it not to the least of these My brethren you did it not to Me." Evangelical theology has always taught that the two groupings are the saved and the lost, the sheep and the goats, the christians and the sinners. This is not correct. This is the final judgement The Lord is referring to, and christian will not be judged, but have passed over from judgement, because we accept the judgement of God against sin at calvary, we believe that Jesus bore the punishment we deserved, and since the judgement of sin is death, He died for us,in our place.But besides the sheep and the goats are a third group mentioned who are identified by The Lord as "these my bretheren" they are not the sheep on the right hand of the King, nor are they the goats on the left. They are the saints of all the ages, both of the Jews and the gentiles,and indeed the scriptures teach that when He comes to judge the living and the dead, He will bring His saints with Him. The point of all this is that there needs to be a complete overhaul and re-evaluation of the so-called black and white teaching about the future life. I believe in eternal punishment and I believe it will be as awful as Jesus said it will be. I shared the gospel with a gang leader from Glasgow, he was one of the infamous razor boys, awaiting trial at the Old Bailey. He said "ye believe that book Jimmy" I said I did, he said "then ye believe in hell" I said I did, the colour drained from his face and he left the room hastily, we thought in wrath, but the very first christian he bumped into he broke down and begged to be shown the way of salvation. The last I heard he had joined the Salvation Army and was going on wonderfully with The Lord. But I believe in preaching the GOOD NEWS and salvation from sin and the judgement of it, both in this age and the next and I don,t believe I am ever called upon to make that awesome judgement as to who will or will not be punished in hell. I don,t believe anybody else is either.Notice in the scripture the curious lack of kinship between either God and the sheep on the right hand or these my brethren and the sheep. I am certain in my own mind that these are the meek who will inherit the newly re- created earth, we will also remember The teaching of Jesus about good deeds done to a prophet or a believer that will not go unrewarded. Of course the natural follow on from all this is that there is yet an age to follow this present gospel age, the millenium age.
