“NEIGHBOURS DAY AOTEAROA

24 – 25 March 2012″

“It’s good to know your neighbours”

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NEIGHBOURS

Let me give you first of all two definitions. The first is from THE COLLINS CONCISE DICTIONARY and the second is from the BIBLE.

— “a person who lives near or next to another.” (The dictionary)

— A neighbour is someone who shows mercy to someone else. (THE BIBLE, Luke 10:30-37)

GOD HAS MERCY ON US.

Peter, one of Jesus’ twelve disciples writes in his first letter about the great mercy God has given us. What is his great mercy?

He has given us new birth.

That means that we have a second birthday and that we begin a new life. My second birthday was when I was eighteen years of age.

He has given us a living hope.

The Lord Jesus Christ is coming back. That is also my HOPE! Titus 2:13, RSV

Please read First Peter 1:3-9.

WE MUST HAVE MERCY ON OTHERS.

How can we do that? In many ways of course.

But I think that we show others the greatest mercy when we tell them about the Lord Jesus Christ, wenn we tell others about our living hope and the new birth.

“ARCHIVISTS report that more information has been lost in the past decade than in the preceding 150 years.  It is too easy to press the delete button.” –

Reader’s Digest , February 2010,  IS IT JUST ME? Lamenting the dying art of handwriting,  page 23.

 The Graffiti Artist GRAHAM HOETE  at work in KAITAIA.

THE LOVE OF GOD……..     THE WRATH OF GOD……

John 3:16 tells us about THE LOVE OF GOD and  I am able to quote John 3:16 from memory in three languages, namely in German, English and Thai. John 3:16 ‘”For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.'”

But when it comes to THE WRATH OF GOD  I had to look up the concordance at the end of my Bible to find a verse that speaks about the wrath of God. I found Romans 1:18 where it says, “The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness,…”

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THE LOVE OF GOD

I have been thinking for a long time that we are putting too much emphasis on the love of God in our preaching  – my pulpit is the world – and not enough on the wrath of God. The balance is not right. Psalm 5:5 “The foolish shall not stand in thy sight: THOU HATEST ALL WORKERS OF INIQUITY.”

Today I found that confirmed when I read something written by Martyn Lloyd – Jones.

He says that for the last onehundred years we have talked and written much about the love of God. But true appreciation of God’s love has been much less evidence in spite of all that.

Why is that? 

THE WRATH OF GOD

I don’t think we want to hear about the wrath of God.

People who read the Bible and listen to good Bible Teaching know about the wrath of God.  I have learnt about the wrath of God before and read about the wrath again today.(  Martyn Lloyd – Jones again! )

When can we really see the love of God? When can we really appreciate the wonder of the gospel? When can we really appreciate the glory of the gospel?

The GOSPEL is the “power of God” and “in the GOSPEL a righteousness from God is revealed.” (Romans 1:16,17)

 We can do all that only in the light of God’s hatred of SIN! 

I think Jonathan Edwards got it right when he preached his sermon “SINNERS IN THE HANDS OF AN ANGRY GOD.” “Their foot shall slide in due time.” – Deuteronomy 32:35.

Preached  on July 8, 1741, at Enfield, Connecticut.

 I have the sermon here and I think I will read the sermon!

“I Love…..”

“I LOVE my library,” it says on the bookmark, I picked up yesterday at the local library here in Kaitaia.

I LOVE your commands. “I love your law!”  “I love your statutes.’ “I love your precepts.” says the writer of Psalm 119 in the Bible.  (Psalm 119:47; Psalm 119:97; Psalm 119:119; Psalm 119:159)

I have many books in my library, but the book I love most in my library is the BIBLE. Why? Because the BIBLE is the WORD OF THE LIVING GOD!

 “I LOVE you, O LORD,…” says David in Psalm 18:1 and the writer of Psalm 116 says also “I love the LORD,….” (Psalm 116:1)

 I also belong to those who love the Lord Jesus Christ, because the main theme of the BIBLE is  the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ is also the key to understanding the BIBLE.

And this is what  John, the beloved disciple, says in First John 4:20

“If anyone says ‘I love God,’ yet hates his brother, he is a liar.”