‘A happier New Year 2021?

President Joe Biden and a United Ireland!

Will this 46th U.S. President do what JF Kennedy was stopped from doing, because it was just not the right time or will he be another talker and a do very little?

Trusting in other humans is well known not to be wise, since we are all failures by our natural inheritance of sin! But on the other hand God is perfect and He loves us to seek Him, repent and turn to His one and only son to find forgiveness and be saved for Eternity!

The other choice of refusing Him and rejecting him is Eternal punishment in the never ending fires of Hell and the crimson maggot that never dies, or continual pain and separation in deepest darkness from God!

Job 8:3, Psalm 112:2, Isaiah 30:5, 66:24, Mark 9:46-48, John 4:42, Acts 3:16, 2 Peter 3:9, 15.

I Patrick a Sinner! One.

Many claims on Him?

We now know that there were several Patricks sent to Ireland to convert the pagans to Christianity, but this Patrick was different in that he did come on a mission but rather as he says a slave!

Today the many traditions each place their own claim on him in relation to nationality, but it was Patrick who said later in life, ‘We Irish!

Patrick was a British-Romano Christian and his times have nothing to do with the Britain that has been existence this last thousand years! His family perhaps felt no need to return to Italy and stayed on working their lands, but Celtic pirate raids started to become more and more widespread and eventually Patrick was captured!

He tells from his writings that he was a rebel and most youth are to their parents? But he had some faith and this came to play in his mind and heart, when faced with the west and cold conditions he was expected to work in!

His whole life from these two sets of writings reveal and ordinary man, struggling to cope with the conditions around him like so many of us today!

2 Corinthians 4:1-5,  5:1-2,  1 John 4:10-11,  19.

Easter. Part-One.

Death.

The many traditions that have grown up around this time of the year are associated with New Life, flowers, bunnies and eggs. Life is indeed the outcome, but it was of death first and these symbols have nothing much to do with the reality of these middle-eastern events.

Jesus had to die on the tree of cursing, so that His death as the Passover Lamb all who believed in Him would come to a knowledge of Salvation and enter into relationship with God once more through the final atonement.

2 Corinthians 6:2,  Isaiah 49:8,   Matthew 26:26-28,   Acts 2:23,   1 Corinthians 5:8,   Hebrews 3:15.

Jesus First. Part-One.

Emphasis on Him.

We are now entering the traditional Christmas Season starting on the 1th December and running to the 19th of January, depending on what Christian branch one belongs to?

We tend today in the hype of Christmas to foget who is the centre, religion and conviction of tradition can cover and limit it to one or two days. The reason for this wide period is, because no one knows exactly when He Jesus was born.

But what we do know is that over the last 2000 years He has changed the lives of Billions of people around the world, starting from Jerusalem in Israel to the farthest points known on our world.

Luke 1:35-37,  Mark 16:5,   Acts 2:7-21,  8:27,  Romans 15:24-28.

Religion. Part-Two.

Good works and Tradition.

Sadly this is a fact of world Christianity today, it is based more on the physical elements of being seen to do rather than doing and not being seen by faith.

The sin of our fallen conditions prompts us to be seen, so that we will be praised and the keeping of a tradition makes us look good to the world.

It really has to be Jesus and Him alone that we are to be accountable to than humans!

Matthew 6:1, 5, 23:5, 25:36-44, Romans 5:1-6,  Galatians 5:1-6.

Xmass. Part-One.

For Many..

The traditional Christmass is becoming very much now one without the baby in the crib as it is replaced by snowmen, fairy’s, angels, Santa and modern childrens characters. One could call this commercialism, when it is sadly really a road o securalism.

The west is determined to start a war with Russia over the Ukraine and yet it is modern Russia that is more Christian than the west and they remain determined to uphold their faith.

Psalm 12:3-4,  Acts 7:38.  1 Thessalonians 4:8,  Jude 1:8.

Which First? Part-One.

Keeping Traditions or Faith in Jesus?

We as humans like to keep traditions, they make us feel good and easy. They are safe, because we have got to know them so well and they were part of what our ancestors have done and kept.

Traditions are also found in the Christian community, going to Church, taking the Lords table, Christmas and Easter, reading from a certain version of the bible, prayerbook and singing certain types of songs.

Faith on the other hand is trusting in what is not seen and its about risk, knowing that God will help us and change our lives, when we believe. It is also about the work of the Holy Spirit in us daily.

Matthew 5:27, 38, John 3:15-21, Hebrews 11:1.

Stephen..

Speaking the Truth.  Acts 6:5-8:3.

Stephen was the first Christian Martyr of the Ekklesia, he died like his Lord Jesus on trumped up aligations. But he was not murderd because he had faith, but rather because he told the people hearing and questioning him a truth that they could not bear to hear.

Today many people go the Church, Mass for many other reasons that actually have to do with Jesus. We find that we can end up keeping dates and celebrating festivals through the year, without knowing why we are doing so. This is the dangers of becoming religious and keeping traditions.

Christianity and the New Life are dynamic events, that are supposed to continue in us and be seen by others. Loving those who hate us, not reacting to provocation, forgiving those who persecute us and may even kill us.

Psalm 26:3,  71:19,   Acts 20:24,  Hebrews 8:12,  1 Peter 3:8,  2 Peter 1:7.