eChurch Blog

Christian Research has revealed some new research which shows that folks are searching for a new meaning in life as a result of the credit crunch. Apparently a large percentage of folks interviewed, stated that they were turning to friends and family to discover their ‘new meaning’ in life.

This is the telling point however:-

The research also threw up some challenges for the church, however. While 23 per cent of unchurched respondents said they were searching, only three per cent said they had considered going to church. Of them, only one per cent actually went – equivalent to around 60 respondents – and none said they would go again.

“This presents a real challenge for the church,” said Ms Hewitt. “Research also shows that the Dow Jones plummeting has not affected churchgoing. We’re not on the spiritual map at all.”

Christian Research found that out of the non-religious respondents, 45 per cent said they had turned to family and friends, 25 per cent to past friends, eight per cent to voluntary work, eight per cent to an art or music hobby, and another eight per cent to reflective time alone.

“The research shows that if you are from a church background, then going to church helps, but if you are among the unchurched then they don’t find it helpful. More than that, they aren’t even going in the first place,” said Ms Hewitt.

She added: “Our message to all Christians is to remember that three out of four people you know are looking for more meaning and now is the time to talk to them about that. They are looking for meaning in relationships, in love, in community, and that’s what we can give them.”

This really does seem to tie in to my previous post ‘Back to Church Initiative‘. I know I am bleating on about this but searching for a new meaning in life is never going to simply equate to going to church. This is the wrong focus. What Christians have to act upon regarding folks searching for a new meaning in life is to bring them to Jesus Christ not church. Joining with the believers comes afterwards.

Why would non-believers consider going to church in their quest for a new meaning in life? From my experience most (not all) churches don’t adequately handle the Word of life which would offer new meaning in life!

I wish Christians obsessed as much about getting folks to join with Jesus as they do to join the church, the two are not necessarily the same thing!

Get online and share your and His story with folks who are in the comfort of their own home and inhibition free – Contact me to get started. Then feed them into churches, once they are saved. God works through the written testimony and word as well!

Folks are getting the ‘bad’ news everyday, man cannot rule himself without God, lets get online and communicate the Good news. The truth will set them free! Folks need to know about eternity and the horrors of hell and the Good News.

We can’t take anything with us when we die…..except people!

Get your own blog, website, forum, social networking website and ‘pump’ the good news of Jesus Christ to a perishing generation.

Blessings Webmaster

I have just been reading about the ‘Back to Church’ initiative, which is held on the 27th September this year.

The plan is for church goers to invite folks to a service who used to attend church, but now don’t.  I saw this described as ‘one of the largest ecumenical evangelism events staged across Britain.’

There is a website dedicated to this cause Back to Church

Whilst I do applaud this idea and hopefully it will bear fruit, I think I struggle with the definition of ‘evangelism event’.  I have read quite recently that a substantial percentage of Christians don’t attend church for various reasons and if it is these folks that are being targeted, then I don’t think this could be called ‘evangelism’, perhaps a better term ‘churchelism’ (just made that up).

If the type of folks targeted are non-believers then I sincerely hope that the ‘true’ unadulterated, powerful Gospel message, will be preached to them. Sadly from my own experience this is not always the case and if this is not done then it certainly won’t be an ‘evangelism’ event, more a ‘come back to the social club’ event.

I personally wouldn’t of been seen dead in a church before I was a Christian (Ironically I suppose that dead would have been my only time in a church). It took the Jehovah Witnesses to bang on my door and introduce me to the Bible, for me to realise that the Bible was not written by man but written by God. I won’t go into the lengthy story here, but suffice it to say that by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit I was led to see that the Jehovah Witnesses were themselves in error and landed in a good local Anglican church.

A quick aside on the Jehovah witnesses, God can draw a straight line with a crooked stick.

Now as I said I wouldn’t have even darkened the door of a church before my conversion and the irony is that I lived one street from the church I eventually attended and had done all my life and they had a full time paid evenagelist from the London City Mission. He had never banged on my door and as it happens, in my case, thank God the Jehovah Witnesses did.

Today’s church thinks that evangelism is to say to folks ‘come’, but in actually fact Jesus told the church to ‘go’ and preach the message.

Why would folks be interested in church if they are not Christian. I used to describe church as the only place where time moved more slowly than work….and that was as a Christian.

The church needs to ‘go’ and evangelise and that includes on the Internet and I can help you with that, so you have no excuse.

Sorry to be so hard on this topic, it’s not like me, I just feel a little passionately and I am as guilty as the next man!

Blessings Webmaster

“And that lord answered the man of God, and said, Now, behold, if
the Lord should make windows in heaven might such a thing be?
And he said, Behold, thou shalt see it with thine eyes but shalt not
eat thereof.” 2 Kings 7:19.

ONE wise man may deliver a whole city; one good man may be the means

of safety to a thousand others. The holy ones are “the salt of the earth,” the

means of the preservation of the wicked, Without the godly as a conserve,

the race would be utterly destroyed. In the city of Samaria there was one

righteous man-Elisha, the servant of the Lord. Piety was altogether extinct

in the court. The king was a sinner of the blackest dye, his iniquity was

glaring and infamous. Jehoram walked in the ways of his father Ahab, and

made unto himself false gods. The people of Samaria were fallen like their

monarch: they had gone astray from Jehovah; they had forsaken the God of

Israel; they remembered not the watchword of Jacob, “The Lord thy God

is one God;” and in wicked idolatry they bowed before the idols of the

heathens, and therefore the Lord of Hosts suffered their enemies to oppress

them until the curse of Ebal was fulfilled in the streets of Samaria, for “the

tender and delicate woman who would not adventure to set the sole of her

foot upon the ground for delicateness,” had an evil eye to her own

children, and devoured her offspring by reason of fierce hunger.

Deuteronomy 28:56-58. In this awful extremity the one Holy man was the

medium of salvation. The one grain of salt preserved the entire city; the

one warrior for God was the means of the deliverance of the whole

beleaguered multitude. For Elisha’s sake the Lord sent the promise that the

next day, food which could not be obtained at any price, should be had at

the cheapest possible rate-at the very gates of Samaria. We may picture the

joy of the multitude when first the seer uttered this prediction. They knew

him to be a prophet of the Lord; he had divine credentials; all his past

prophecies held been fulfilled. They knew that he was a man sent of God,

and uttering Jehovah message. Surely the monarch’s eyes would glisten

with delight, and the emaciated multitude would leap for joy at the

prospects of so speedy a release from famine. “Tomorrow,” would they

shout, “to-morrow our hunger shall be over, and we shall feast to the full.”

However, the lord on whom the king leaned expressed his disbelief. We

hear not that any of the common people, the plebeians, ever did so; but an

aristocrat did it. Strange it is, that God has seldom chosen the great men of

this world. High places and faith in Christ do seldom well agree. This great

man said “Impossible!” and, with an insult to the prophet, he added, “If the

Lord should make windows in heaven, might such a thing be.” His sin lay

in the fact that after repeated seals of Elisha’s ministry, he yet disbelieved

the assurances uttered by the prophet on God’s behalf. He had, doubtless,

seen the marvellous defeat of Moab- he had been startled at tidings of the

resurrection of the Shunamite’s son; he knew that Elisha had revealed

Benhadad’s secrets and smitten his marauding hosts with blindness- he had

seen the bands of Syria decoyed into the heart of Samaria; and he probably

knew the story of the widow, whose oil filled all the vessels, and redeemed

her sons; at all events the cure of Naaman was common conversation at

court; and yet, in the face of all this accumulated evidence, in the teeth of

all these credentials of the prophet’s mission, he yet doubted, and

insultingly told him that heaven must become an open casement, ere the

promise could be performed. Whereupon God pronounced his doom by the

mouth of the man who had just now proclaimed the promise: “thou shalt

see it with thine eyes but shalt not eat thereof.” And providence-which

always fulfils prophecy, just as the paper takes the stamp of the typedestroyed

the man. Trodden down in the streets of Samaria, he perished at

its gates, beholding the plenty, but tasting not of it. Perhaps his carriage

was haughty, and insulting to the people; or he tried to restrain their eager

rush; or, as we would say, it might have been by mere accident that he was

crushed to death; so that he saw the prophecy fulfilled, but never lived to

enjoy it. In his case, seeing was believing, but it was not enjoying.

I shall this morning invite your attention to two things-the man’s sin and

his punishment. Perhaps I shall say but little of this man, since I have

detailed the circumstances, but I shall discourse upon the sin of unbelief

and the punishment thereof.

I. And first, the SIN. His sin was unbelief. He doubted the promise of

God. In this particular case unbelief took the form of a doubt of the divine

veracity, or a mistrust of God’s power. Either he doubted whether God

really meant what he said, or whether it was within the range of possibility

that God should fulfill his promise. Unbelief hath more phases than the

moon, and more colors than the chameleon. Common people say of the

devil, that he is seen sometimes in one shape, and sometimes in another. I

am sure this is true of Satan’s first-born child-unbelief, for its forms are

legion. At one time I see unbelief dressed out as an angel of light. It calls

itself humility, and it saith, “I would not be presumptuous; I dare not think

that God would pardon me; I am too great a sinner.” We call that humility,

and thank God that our friend is in so good a condition. I do not thank

God for any such delusion. It is the devil dressed as an angel of light- it is

unbelief after all. At other times we detect unbelief in the shape of a doubt

of God’s immutability; “The Lord has loved me, but perhaps he will cast

me off to-morrow. He helped me yesterday, and under the shadows of his

wings I trust; but perhaps I shall receive no help in the next affliction. He

may have cast me off; he may be unmindful of his covenant, and forget to

be gracious.” Sometimes this infidelity is embodied in a doubt of God’s

power. We see every day new straits, we are involved in a net of

difficulties, and we think “surely the Lord cannot deliver us.” We strive to

get rid of our burden, and finding that we cannot do it, we think God’s arm

is as short as ours, and his power as little as human might. A fearful form

of unbelief is that doubt which keeps men from coming to Christ, which

leads the sinner to distrust the ability of Christ to save him, to doubt the

willingness of Jesus to accept so great a transgressor. But the most hideous

of all is the traitor, in its true colors, blaspheming God, and madly denying

his existence. Infidelity, deism, and atheism, are the ripe fruits of this

pernicious tree; they are the most terrific eruptions of the volcano of

unbelief. Unbelief hath become of full stature, when quitting the mask and

laying aside disguise, it profanely stalks the earth, uttering the rebellious

cry, “No God.” striving in vain to shake the throne of the divinity, by lifting

up its arm against Jehovah, and in its arrogance would

“Snatch from his hand the balance and the rod,

Re-judge his justice — be the god of God.”

Then truly unbelief has come to its full perfection, and then you see what it

really is, for the least unbelief is of the same nature as the greatest.

I am astonished, and I am sure you will be, when I tell you that there are

some strange people in the world who do not believe that unbelief is a sin.

Strange people I must call them, because they are sound in their faith in

every other respect; only, to make the articles of their creed consistent, as

they imagine, they deny that unbelief is sinful. I remember a young man

going into a circle of friends and ministers, who were disputing whether it

was a sin in men that they did not believe the gospel. Whilst they were

discussing it, he said, “Gentlemen am I in the presence of Christians? Are

you believers in the Bible, or are you not?” They said, “We are Christians

of course.” “Then,” said he, “does not the Scripture say, ‘of sin, because

they believed not on me?’ And is it not the dawning sin of sinners, that they

do not believe on Christ?” I could not have thought that persons should be

so fool-hardy as to venture to assert that “it is no sin for a sinner not to

believe on Christ.” I thought that, however far they might wish to push

their sentiments, they would not tell a lie to uphold the truth and, in my

opinion, this is what such men are really doing. Truth is a strong tower and

never requires to be buttressed with error. God’s Word will stand against

all man’s devices. I would never invent a sophism to prove that it is no sin

on the part of the ungodly not to believe, for I am sure it is, when I am

taught in the Scriptures that, “This is the condemnation, that light is come

into the world and men love darkness rather than light,” and when I read,

‘He that believeth not is condemned already, because he believeth not on

the Son of God,” I affirm, and the Word declares it, unbelief is a sin.

Surely with rational and unprejudiced persons, it cannot require any

reasoning to prove it. Is it not a sin for a creature to doubt the word of its

Maker? Is it not a crime and an insult to the Divinity, for me, an atom, a

particle of dust, to dare to deny his words? Is it not the very summit of

arrogance and extremity of pride for a son of Adam to say, even in his

heart, as God I doubt thy grace; God I doubt thy love; God I doubt thy

power?” Oh! sirs believe me, could ye roll all sins into one mass,-could you

take murder, and blasphemy, and lust, adultery, and fornication, and

everything that is vile, and unite them all into one vast globe of black

corruption, they would not equal even then the sin of unbelief. This is the

monarch sin, the quintessence of guilt the mixture of the venom of all

crimes; the dregs of the wine of Gomorrha; it is the A 1 sin, the masterpiece

of Satan, the chief work of the devil.

I shall attempt this morning, for a little while, to shew the extremely evil

nature of the sin of unbelief.

1. And first the sin of unbelief will appear to be extremely heinous when we

remember that it is the parent of every other iniquity. There is no crime

which unbelief will not beget. I think that the fall of man is very much

owing to it. It was in this point that the devil tempted Eve. He said to her,

“Yea, hath God said, ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?” He

whispered and insinuated a doubt, “Yea, hath God said so?” as much as to

say, “Are you quite sure he said so?” It was by means of unbelief-that this

part of the wedge-that the other sin entered; curiosity and the rest

followed; she touched the fruit, and destruction came into this world, since

that time, unbelief has been the prolific parent of all guilt. An unbeliever is

capable of the vilest crime that ever was committed. Unbelief, sirs! why it

hardened the heart of Pharoh-it gave license to the tongue of blaspheming

Rabshakeh-yea, it became a deicide, and murdered Jesus. Unbelief!-it has

sharpened the knife of the suicide! it has mixed many a cup of poison;

thousands it has brought to the halter; and many to a shameful grave who

have murdered themselves and rushed with bloody hands before their

Creator’s tribunal, because of unbelief! Give me an unbeliever-let me know

that he doubts God’s word — let me know that he distrusts his promise

and his threatening; and with that for a premise, I will conclude that the

man shall, by-and-bye unless there is amazing restraining power exerted

upon him, be guilty of the foulest and blackest crimes. Ah! this is a

Beelzebub sin; like Beelzebub, it is the leader of all evil spirits. It is said of

Jeroboam that he sinned and made Israel to sin; and it may be said of

unbelief that it not only sins itself; but makes others sin, it is the egg of all

crime, the seed of every offense; in fact everything that is evil and vile lies

couched in that one word-unbelief.

And let me say here, that unbelief in the Christian is of the self-same nature

as unbelief in the sinner. It is not the same in its final issue, for it will be

pardoned in the Christian; yea it is pardoned: it was laid upon the scapegoat’s

head of old: it was blotted out and atoned for; but it is of the same

sinful nature. In fact, if there can be one sin more heinous-than the unbelief

of a sinner, it is the unbelief of a saint. For a saint to doubt God’s word-for

a saint to distrust God after innumerable instances of his love, after ten

thousand proofs of his mercy exceeds everything. In a saint, moreover,

unbelief is the root of other sins. When I am perfect in faith I shall be

perfect in everything else: I should always fulfill the precept if I always

believed the promise. But it is because my faith is weak, that I sin. Put me

in trouble, and if I can fold my arms and say, “Jehovah-Jireh the Lord will

provide,” you will not find me using wrong means to escape from it. But

let me be in temporal distress and difficulty, if I distrust God, what then?

Perhaps I shall steal, or do a dishonest act to get out of the hands of my

creditors; or if kept from such a transgression, I may plunge into excess to

drown my anxieties. Once take away faith, the reins are broken; and who

can ride an unbroken steed without rein or bridle? Like the chariot of the

sun with Phaeton for its driver, such should we be without faith. Unbelief is

the mother of vice; it is the parent of sin; and, therefore, I say it is a

pestilent evil-a master sin.

2. But secondly; unbelief not only begets, but fosters sin. How is it that

men can keep their sin under the thunders of the Sinai preacher? How is it

that, when Boanerges stands in the pulpit, and, by the grace of God, cries

aloud, “Cursed is every man that keepeth not all the commands of the

law,”-how is it that when the sinner hears the tremendous threatenings of

God’s justice, still he is hardened, and walks on in his evil ways? I will tell

you; it is because unbelief of that threatening prevents it from having any

effect upon him. When our sappers and miners go to work around

Sebastopol, they could not work in front of the walls, if they had not

something to keep off the shots; so they raise earthworks, behind which

they can do what they please. So with the ungodly man. The devil gives

him unbelief; he thus puts up an earthwork, and finds refuge behind it. Ah!

sinners, when once the Holy Ghost knocks down your unbelief-when once

he brings home the truth in demonstration and in power, how the law will

work upon your soul. If man did but believe that the law is holy, that the

commandments are holy, just, and good, how he would be shaken over

hell’s mouth; there would be no sitting and sleeping in God’s house; no

careless hearers; no going away and straightway forgetting what manner of

men ye are. Oh! once get rid of unbelief, how would every ball from the

batteries of the law fall upon the sinner, and the slain of the Lord would be

many. Again, how is it that men can hear the wooings of the cross of

Calvary, and yet come not to Christ? How is it that when we preach about

the sufferings of Jesus, and close up by saying, “yet there is room,”-how is

it that when we dwell upon his cross and passion, men are not broken in

their hearts? It is said,

“Law and terrors do but harden

All the while they work alone

But a sense of blood-bought pardon

Will dissolve a heart of stone.”

Methinks the tale of Calvary is enough to break a rock. Rocks did rend

when they saw Jesus die, Methinks the tragedy of Golgotha is enough to

make a flint gush with tears, and to make the most hardened wretch weep

out his eyes in drops of penitential love; but yet we tell it you, and repeat it

oft, but who weeps over it? Who cares about it? Sirs, ye sit as unconcerned

as if it did not signify to you. Oh I bellow and see all ye that pass by. Is it

nothing to you that Jesus should die? Ye seem to say “It is nothing”. What

is the reason? Because there is unbelief between you and the cross. If there

were not that thick veil between you and the Savior’s eyes, his looks of

love would melt you. But unbelief is the sin which keeps the power of the

gospel from working in the sinner: and it is not till the Holy Ghost strikes

that unbelief out-it is not till the Holy Spirit rends away that infidelity and

takes it altogether down, that we can find the sinner coming to put his trust

in Jesus.

3. But there is a third point. Unbelief disables a man for the performance

of any good work; “Whatsoever is not of faith is sin,” is a great truth in

more senses than one. “Without faith it is impossible to please God.” You

shall never hear me say a word against morality; you shall never hear me

say that honesty is not a good thing, or that sobriety is not a good thing; on

the contrary, I would say they are commendable things; but I will tell you

what I will say afterwards-I will tell you that they are just like the Dowries

of Hindostan; they may pass current among the Indians, but they will not

do in England; these virtues may be current here below, but not above. If

you have not something better than your own goodness, you will never get

to heaven. Some of the Indian tribes use little strips of cloth instead of

money and I would not find fault with them if I lived there, but when I

come to England, strips of cloth will not suffice. So honesty, sobriety, and

such things, may be very good amongst men-and the more you have of

them the better. I exhort you, whatsoever things are lovely and pure, and

of good report, have there-but they will not do up there. All these things

put together, without faith do not please God. Virtues without faith are

whitewashed sins. Obedience without faith, if it is possible, is a gilded

disobedience. Not to believe, nullifies everything. It is the fly in the

ointment; it is the poison in the pot. Without faith, with all the virtues of

purity, with all the benevolence of philanthropy, with all the kindness of

disinterested sympathy, with all the talents of genius, with all the bravery of

patriotism, and with all the decision of principle- “without faith it is

impossible to please God.” Do you no see then, how bad unbelief is,

because it prevents men from performing good works. Yea, even in

Christians themselves, unbelief disables them. Let me just tell you a tale-a

story of Christ’s life. A certain man had an afflicted son, possessed with an

evil spirit. Jesus was up in Mount Tabor, transfigured; so the father

brought his son to the disciples. What did the disciples do? They said “Oh,

we will cast him out.” They put their hands upon him, and they tried to do

it; but they whispered among themselves and said, “We are afraid we shall

not be able.” By-and-by the diseased man began to froth at the mouth, he

foamed and scratched the earth, clasping it in his paroxysms. The demoniac

spirit within him was alive. The devil was still there. In vain their repeated

exorcism, the evil spirit remained like a lion in his den, nor could their

efforts dislodge him. “Go!” said they; but he went not, “Away to the pit!”

they cried; but he remained immoveable. The lips of unbelief cannot

affright the Evil One, who might well have said, “Faith I know, Jesus I

know, but who are ye? ye have no faith.” If they had had faith, as a grain of

mustard seed, they might have cast the devil out, but their faith was gone,

and therefore they could do nothing. Look at poor Peter’s case, too. While

he had faith, Peter walked on the waves of the sea. That was a splendid

walk; I almost envy him treading upon the billows. Why, if Peter’s faith

had continued, he might have walked across the Atlantic to America. But

presently there came a billow behind him, and he said, “That will sweep me

away;” and then another before, and he cried out, “That will overwhelm

me;” and he thought-how could I be so presumptuous as to be walking on

than top of these waves? Downs goes Peter. Faith was Peter’s life-buoy;

faith was Peter’s charm-it kept him up; but unbelief sent him down. Do you

know that you and I, all our lifetime, will have to walk on the water? A

Christian’s life is always walking on water-mine is-and every wave would

swallow and devour him but faith makes him stand. The moment you cease

to believe, that moment distress comes in, and down you go. Oh!

Wherefore dost thou doubt, then?

Faith fosters every virtue; unbelief murders every one. Thousands of

prayers have been strangled in their infancy by unbelief. Unbelief has been

guilty of infanticide; it has murdered many an infant petition, many a song

of praise that would have swelled the chorus of the skies, has been stifled

by an unbelieving murmur, many a noble enterprise conceited in the heart

has been blighted ere it could come forth, by unbelief; many a man would

have been a missionary; would have stood and preached his Master’s

gospel boldly; but he had unbelief. Once make a giant unbelieving, and he

becomes a dwarf: Faith is the Samsonian lock of the Christian; cut it off,

and you may put out his eyes-and he can do nothing.

4. Our next remark is-unbelief has been severely punished. Turn you to

the Scriptures! I see a world all fair and beautiful; its mountains laughing in

the sun, and the fields rejoicing in the golden light. I see maidens dancing,

and young men singing. How fair the vision! But lo! a grave and reverend

sire lifts up his hand, and cries, “A flood is coming to deluge the earth: the

fountains of the great deep will be broken up, and all things will be

covered. See yonder ark! One hundred and twenty years have I toiled with

these my hands to build it; flee there, and you are safe.” “Aha! old man;

away with your empty predictions! Aha! let us be happy while we may!

when the flood comes, then we will build an ark- but there is no flood

conning; tell that to fools; we believe no such things.” See the unbelievers

pursue their merry dance. Hark! Unbeliever. Dost thou not hear that

rumbling noise? Earth’s bowels have begun to move, her rocky ribs are

strained by dire convulsions from within; lo! they break with the enormous

strain, and forth from between them torrents rush unknown since God

concealed them in the bosom of our world. Heaven is split in sunder! it

rains. Not drops, but clouds descend. A cataract, like that of old Niagara,

rolls from heaven with mighty noise. Both firmaments, both deeps-the deep

below and the deep above-do clasp their hands. Now unbelievers, where

are you now? There is your last remnant. A man — his wife clasping him

round the waist — stands on the last summit that is above the water. See

him there? The water is up to his loins even now. Hear his last shriek! He is

floating — he is drowned. And as Noah looks from the ark he sees

nothing. Nothing! It is a void profound. “Sea monsters whelp and stable in

the palaces of kings.” All is overthrown, covered, drowned. What hath

done it? What brought the flood upon the earth? Unbelief. By faith Noah

escaped from the flood. By unbelief the rest were drowned.

And, oh! do you not know that unbelief kept Moses and Aaron out of

Canaan? They honored not God — they struck the rock when they ought

to have spoken to it. They disbelieved: and therefore the punishment came

upon them, that they should not inherit that good land, for which they had

toiled and labored.

Let me take you where Moses and Aaron dwelt-to the vast and howling

wilderness. We will walk about it for a time; sons of the weary foot, we

will become like the wandering Bedouins, we will tread the desert for a

while. There lies a carcase whitened in the sun- there another, and there

another. What means these bleached bones? What are these bodies-there a

man, and there a woman? What are all these? How came these corpses

here? Surely some grand encampment must have been here cut off in a

single night by a blast, or by bloodshed. Ah, no, no. Those bones are the

bones of Israel; those skeletons are the old tribes of Jacob. They could not

enter because of unbelief. They trusted not in God. Spies said they could

not conquer the land. Unbelief was the cause of their death. It was not the

Anakims that destroyed Israel; it was not the howling wilderness which

devoured them; it was not the Jordan which proved a barrier to Canaan,

neither Hivite or Jebusite slew them; it was unbelief alone which kept them

out of Canaan. What a doom to be pronounced on Israel, after forty years

of journeying: they could not enter because of unbelief!

Not to multiply instances, recollect Zechariah. He doubted, and the angel

struck him dumb. His mouth was closed because of unbelief. But Oh! if

you would have the worst picture of the effects of unbelief-if you would

see how God has punished it, I must take you to the siege of Jerusalem,

that worst massacre which time has ever seen, when the Romans raised the

walls to the ground, and put the whole of the inhabitants to the sword, or

sold them as slaves in the market-place. Have you never read of the

destruction of Jerusalem, by Titus? Did you never turn to the tragedy of

Masada, when the Jews stabbed each other rather than fall into the hands

of the Romans? Do you not know, that to this day the Jew walks through

the earth a wanderer, without a home and without a land? He is cut off, as

a branch is cut from a vine — and why? Because of unbelief. Each time ye

see a Jew with a sad and sombre countenance-each time ye mark him like a

denizen of another land, treading as an exile this our country-each time ye

see him, pause and say, “Ah! it was unbelief which caused thee to murder

Christ, and now it has driven thee to be a wanderer; and faith alone — faith

in the crucified Nazarene — can fetch thee back to thy country, and restore

it to its ancient grandeur.” Unbelief, you see, has the Cain-mark upon its

forehead. God hates it — God has dealt hard blows upon it: and God will

ultimately crush it. Unbelief dishonors God. Every other crime touches

God’s territory; but unbelief aims a blow at his divinity, impeaches his

veracity, denies his goodness, blasphemes his attributes, maligns his

character; therefore, God of all things, hates first and chiefly, unbelief,

wherever it is.

5. And now to close this point — for I have been already too long — let

me remark that you will observe the heinous nature of unbelief in this —

that it is the damning sin. There is one sin for which Christ never died; it is

the sin against the Holy Ghost. There is one other sin for which Christ

never made atonement. Mention every crime in the calendar of evil, and I

will show you persons who have found forgiveness for it. But ask me

whether the man who died in unbelief can be saved, and I reply there is no

atonement for that man. There is an atonement made for the unbelief of a

Christian, because it is temporary, but the final unbelief-the unbelief with

which men die-never was atoned for. You may turn over this whole Book,

and you will find that there is no atonement for the man who died in

unbelief; there is no mercy for him. Had he been guilty of every other sin;

he had but believed, he would have been pardoned; but this is the damning

exception- he had no faith. Devils seize him! O fiends of the pit, drag him

downward to his doom! He is faithless and unbelieving, and such are the

tenants for whom hell was built. It is their portion, their prison, they are

the chief prisoners, the fetters are marked with their names, and for ever

shall they know that, “he that believeth not shall be damned.”

II. This brings us now to conclude with the PUNISHMENT. “Thou shalt see

it with thine eyes, but shalt not eat thereof.” Listen unbelievers! ye have

heard this morning your sin, now listen to your doom: “Ye shall see it with

your eyes, but shalt not eat thereof.” It is so often with God’s own saints.

When they are unbelieving, they see the mercy with their eyes, but do not

eat it. Now, there is corn in this land of Egypt; but there are some of God’s

saints who come here on the Sabbath, and say, “I do not know whether the

Lord will be with me or not.” Some of them say, “Well, the gospel is

preached, but I do not know whether it will be successful.” They are

always doubting and fearing. Listen to them when they get out of the

chapel. “Well, did you get a good meal this morning?” “Nothing for me.”

Of course not. Ye could see it with your eyes, but did not eat it, because

you had no faith. If you had come up with faith, you would have had a

morsel. I have found Christians, who have grown so very critical, that if the

whole portion of the meat they are to have, in due season, is not cut up

exactly into square pieces, and put upon some choice dish of porcelain they

cannot eat it. Then they ought to go without; and they will have to go

without, until they are brought to their appetites. They will have some

affliction, which will act like quinine upon them: they will be made to eat

by means of bitters in their mouths; they will be put in prison for a day or

two until their appetite returns, and then they will be glad to eat the most

ordinary food, off the most common platter, or no platter at all. But the

real reason why God’s people do not feed under a gospel ministry, is

because they have not faith. If you believed, if you did but hear one

promise that would be enough; if you only heard one good thing from the

pulpit, here would be food for your soul, for it is not the quantity we hear,

but the quantity we believe, that does us good-it is that which we receive

into our hearts with true and lively faith, that is our profit.

But, let me apply this chiefly to the unconverted. They often see great

works of God done with their eyes, but they do not eat thereof. A crowd

of people have come here this morning to see with their eyes, but I doubt

whether all of them eat. Men cannot eat with their eyes, for if they could,

most would be well fed. And, spiritually, persons cannot feed simply with

their ears, nor simply with looking at the preacher; and so we find the

majority of our congregations come just to see; “Ah, let us hear what this

babbler would say, this reed shaken in the wind.” But they have no faith;

they come, and they see, and see, and see, and never eat. There is someone

in the front there, who gets converted; and some one down below, who is

called by sovereign grace- some poor sinner is weeping under a sense of his

blood-guiltiness, another is crying for mercy to God: and another is saying,

“Have mercy upon me, a sinner.” A great work is going on in this chapel,

but some of you do not know anything about it; you have no work going

on in your hearts, and why? Because ye think it is impossible; ye think God

is not at work. He has not promised to work for you who do not honor

him. Unbelief makes you sit here in times of revival and of the outpouring

of God’s grace, unmoved, uncalled, unsaved.

But, sirs, the worst fulfillment of this doom is to come! Good Whitfield

used sometimes to lift up both his hands and shout, as I wish I could shout,

but my voice fails me. “The wrath to come! the wrath to come!” It is not

the wrath now you have to fear, but the wrath to come- and there shall be a

doom to come, when “ye shall see it with your eyes, but shall not eat

thereof.” Methinks I see the last great day. The last hour of time has

struck. I heard the bell toll its death knell-time was, eternity is ushered in;

the sea is boiling; the waves are lit up with supernatural splendor. I see a

rainbow-a flying cloud, and on it there is a throne, and on that throne sits

one like unto the Son of Man. I know him. In his hand he holds a pair of

balances; just before him the books,-the book of life, the book of death, the

book of remembrance. I see his splendor and I rejoice at it; I behold his

pompous appearance, and I smile with gladness that he is come to be

“admired of all his saints.” But there stands a throng of miserable wretches,

crouching in horror to conceal themselves, and yet looking for their eyes

must look on him whom they have pierced; but when they look they cry,

“Hide me from the face.” What face? “Rocks, hide me from the face.”

What face? “The face of Jesus, the man who died, but now is come to

judgment.” But ye cannot be hidden from his face; ye must see it with your

eyes: but ye will not sit on the right hand, dressed in robes of grandeurand

when the triumphal procession of Jesus in the clouds shall come, ye

shall not march in it; ye shall see it, but ye shall not be there. Oh! methinks

I see it now, the mighty Savior in his chariot, riding on the rainbow to

heaven, See how his mighty coursers make the sky rattle while he drives

them up heaven’s hill. A train girt in white follow behind him, and at his

chariot wheels he drags the devil, death, and hell. Hark, how they clap their

hands. Hark, how they shout. “Thou hast ascended up on high- thou hast

led captivity captive.” Hark, how they chaunt the solemn lay, “Hallelujah,

the Lord God omnipotent reigneth.” See the splendor of their appearance;

mark the crown upon their brows; see their snow-white garments; mark the

rapture of their countenances; hear how their song swells up to heaven

while the Eternal joins therein, saying, “I will rejoice over them with joy, I

will rejoice over them with singing, for I have betrothed thee unto me in

everlasting lovingkindness.” But where are you all the while? Ye can see

them up there but where are you? Looking at it with your eyes, but you

cannot eat thereof. The marriage banquet is spread; the good old wines of

eternity are broached; they sit down to the feast of the king; but there are

you, miserable, and famishing, and ye cannot eat thereof. Oh! how ye

wring your hands. Might ye but have one morsel from the table-might ye

but be dogs beneath the table. You shall be a dog in hell, but not a dog in

heaven.

But to conclude. Methinks I see thee in some place in hell, tied to a rock,

the vulture of remorse knowing thy heart; and up there is Lazarus in

Abraham’s bosom, You lift up your eyes and you see who it is. “That is the

poor man who lay on my dunghill, and the dogs licked his sores; there he is

in heaven, while I am cast down. Lazarus-yes, it is Lazarus; and I who was

rich in the world of time am here in hell. Father Abraham, send Lazarus,

that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, to cool my tongue.” But no! it

cannot be; it cannot be. And whilst you lie there if there be one thing in hell

worse than another, it will be seeing the saints in heaven. Oh, to think of

seeing my mother in heaven while I am cast out! Oh, sinner, only think, to

see thy brother in heaven-he who was rocked in the selfsame cradle, and

played beneath the same roof-tree-yet thou art cast out. And, husband,

there is thy wife in heaven, and thou art amongst the damned, And seest

thou, father! thy child is before the throne; and thou! accursed of God and

accursed of man, art in hell. Oh, the hell of hells will be to see our friends

in heaven, and ourselves lost. I beseech you, my hearers, by the death of

Christ- by his agony and bloody sweat-by his cross and passion-by all that

is holy- by all that is sacred in heaven and earth-by all that is solemn in time

or eternity -by all that is horrible in hell, or glorious in heaven-by that awful

thought, “for ever,”-I beseech you lay these things to heart, and remember

that if you are damned, it will be unbelief that damns you. If you are lost, it

will be because ye believed not on Christ; and if you perish, this shall be the

bitterest drop of gall-that ye did not trust in the Savior.

The following article is from our friends at the Christian Legal Centre

The reaction of many to the appointment of Muslim, Aaqil Ahmed to the post of Head of Religion and Ethics at the BBC must be—“How is this possible”? Until now, our public national broadcaster has been charged with reflecting our Country’s Christian heritage and ethos. Aaqil Ahmed’s appointment is controversial because his background and previous work at Channel 4 has revealed a noticeable bias towards Islam and multiculturalism

According to The Daily Telegraph, senior bishops wrote to the BBC’s Director General Mark Thompson when it was envisaged that Mr. Ahmed might be appointed, to question the BBC’s commitment to Britain’s Christian audience. The Archbishop of Canterbury had also raised concerns with Mr. Thompson that the ‘Christian voice is being sidelined’ after Mr. Ahmed was first connected to the role.

The appointment could be seen as the inevitable result of our multicultural society, in which all religions are viewed as of equal value. This is the secularist point of view—that religion should be confined to the home and the church and excluded from the public square and the workplace. A cursory survey of the Christian Legal Centre’s website (www.christianlegalcentre.com) will reveal the increasing intolerance of this ideology as far as Christians are concerned.

It could also be seen as another sign that our country is in danger of becoming Islamised, alongside, for example, the fact that under pressure from Muslims, the Qur’an is now placed on a higher shelf than the Bible in courtrooms, or the fact that Shari’ah Law is used to judge disputes in Muslim Arbitration Tribunals (now officially part of the English Legal System). Our Government appears to make concessions to the Muslim community, in contrast to its marginalisation of Christianity and the rights of Christians in recent years.

Another interpretation is that the appointment is the result of the European Directive of 2000, which was implemented in the UK by the Employment Equality (Religion or Belief) Regulations 2003. These ‘equalitarian’ provisions force employers to appoint an applicant to a role who is broadly the ‘best person’ for the job—if the candidate’s religion is ignored, that is. This applies to every role, except where there is a ‘genuine and determining occupational requirement’ that they should be of a particular religion.

According to The Guardian, Jana Bennett, director of BBC Vision, said that the areas of broadcasting that the ‘Knowledge’ jobs commission (such as religion and ethics) ‘go to the very heart of the BBC’s public purposes’. Clearly, the BBC did not think that the Head of religion and ethics in our country where 70% of the population still align themselves with Christianity needed to be a Christian.

The Lord Jesus said that if the eye is single the whole body will be full of light. He went on to warn that if the light becomes darkness how great will be that darkness (Matt 6:22-3). When Christianity is no longer the light of a nation then the nation becomes full of darkness. Christianity is the only way by which man may know God. What is required today is for Christians in this country to stand up for the Faith and act on what they believe—that Jesus Christ is indeed the way, the truth and the life for all that live in 21^st century Britain.

Please see also our web article entitled: Controversial Muslim programme-maker appointed head of BBC religious broadcasting at: http://www.ccfon.org/view.php?id=736

“This do in remembrance of me.” — 1 Corinthians 11:24

It seems, then, that Christians may forget Christ. The text implies the possibility of forgetfulness concerning him whom gratitude and affection should constrain them to remember. There could be no need for this loving exhortation, if there were not a fearful supposition that our memories might prove treacherous, and our remembrance superficial in its character, or changing in its nature. Nor is this a bare supposition: it is, alas, too well confirmed in our experience, not as a possibility, but as a lamentable fact. It seems at first sight too gross a crime to lay at the door of converted men. It appears almost impossible that those who have been redeemed by the blood of the dying Lamb should ever forget their Ransomer; that those who have been loved with an everlasting love by the eternal Son of God, should ever forget that Son; but if startling to the ear, it is alas, too apparent to the eye to allow us to deny the fact. Forget him who ne’er forgot us! Forget him who poured his blood forth for our sins! Forget him who loved us even to the death! Can it be possible? Yes it is not only possible, but conscience confesses that it is too sadly a fault of all of us, that we can remember anything except Christ. The object which we should make the monarch of our hearts, is the very thing we are most inclined to forget. Where one would think that memory would linger, and unmindfulness would be an unknown intruder, that is the spot which is desecrated by the feet of forgetfulness, and that the place where memory too seldom looks. I appeal to the conscience of every Christian here: Can you deny the truth of what I utter? Do you not find yourselves forgetful of Jesus? Some creature steals away your heart, and you are unmindful of him upon whom your affection ought to be set. Some earthly business engrosses your attention when you should have your eye steadily fixed upon the cross. It is the incessant round of world, world, world; the constant din of earth, earth, earth, that takes away the soul from Christ. Oh! my friends, is it not too sadly true that we can recollect anything but Christ, and forget nothing so easy as him whom we ought to remember? While memory will preserve a poisoned weed, it suffereth the Rose of Sharon to wither.

The cause of this is very apparent: it lies in one or two facts. We forget Christ, because regenerate persons as we really are, still corruption and death remain even in the regenerate. We forget him because we carry about with us the old Adam of sin and death. If we were purely new-born creatures, we should never forget the name of him whom we love. If we were entirely regenerated beings, we should sit down and meditate on all our Saviour did and suffered; all he is; all he has gloriously promised to perform; and never would our roving affections stray; but centered, nailed, fixed eternally to one object, we should continually contemplate the death and sufferings of our Lord. But alas! we have a worm in the heart, a pest-house, a charnel-house within, lusts, vile imaginations, and strong evil passions, which, like wells of poisonous water, send out continually streams of impurity. I have a heart, which God knoweth, I wish I could wring from my body and hurl to an infinite distance; a soul which is a cage of unclean birds, a den of loathsome creatures, where dragons haunt and owls do congregate, where ever evil beast of ill-omen dwells; a heart too vile to have a parallel—”deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.” This is the reason why I am forgetful of Christ. Nor is this the sole cause; I suspect it lies somewhere else too. We forget Christ because there are so many other things around us to attract our attention. “But,” you say, “they ought not to do so, because though they are around us, they are nothing in comparison with Jesus Christ: though they are in dread proximity to our hearts, what are they compared with Christ?” But do you know, dear friends, that the nearness of an object has a very great effect upon its power? The sun is many, many times larger than the moon, but the moon has a greater influence upon the tides of the ocean than the sun, simply because it is nearer, and has a greater power of attraction. So I find that a little crawling worm of the earth has more effect upon my soul than the glorious Christ in heaven; a handful of golden earth, a puff of fame, a shout of applause, a thriving business, my house, my home, will affect me more than all the glories of the upper world; yea, than the beatific vision itself: simply because earth is near, and heaven is far away. Happy day, when I shall be borne aloft on angels’ wings to dwell for ever near my Lord, to bask in the sunshine of his smile, and to be lost in the ineffable radiance of his lovely countenance. We see then the cause of forgetfulness; let us blush over it; let us be sad that we neglect our Lord so much, and now let us attend to his word, “This do in remembrance of me,” hoping that its solemn sounds may charm away the demon of base ingratitude.

We shall speak, first of all, concerning the blessed object of memory; secondly, upon the advantages to be derived from remembering this Person; thirdly, the gracious help, to our memory—”This do in remembrance of me;” and fourthly, the gentle command, “ This do in remembrance of me.” May the Holy Ghost open my lips and your hearts, that we may receive blessings.

I. First of all, we shall speak of the glorious and precious object of memory—”This do in remembrance of me.” Christians have many treasures to lock up in the cabinet of memory. They ought to remember their election—”Chosen of God ere time began.” They ought to be mindful of their extraction, that they were taken out of the miry clay, hewn out of the horrible pit. They ought to recollect their effectual calling, for they were called of God, and rescued by the power of the Holy Ghost. They ought to remember their special deliverances—all that has been done for them, and all the mercies bestowed on them. But there is one whom they should embalm in their souls with the most costly spices—one who, above all other gifts of God, deserves to be had in perpetual remembrance. One I said, for I mean not an act, I mean not a deed; but it is a Person whose portrait I would frame in gold, and hang up in the state-room of the soul. I would have you earnest students of all the deeds of the conquering Messiah. I would have you conversant with the life of our Beloved. But O forget not his person; for the text says, “This do in remembrance of me.” It is Christ’s glorious person which ought to be the object of our remembrance. It is his image which should be enshrined in every temple of the Holy Ghost.

But some will say, “How can we remember Christ’s person, when we never saw it? We cannot tell what was the peculiar form of his visage; we believe his countenance to be fairer than that of any other man—although through grief and suffering more marred—but since we did not see it, we cannot remember it. We never saw his feet as they trod the journeys of his mercy; we never beheld his hands as he stretched them out full of lovingkindness; we cannot remember the wondrous intonation of his language, when in more than seraphic eloquence, he awed the multitude, and chained their ears to him; we cannot picture the sweet smile that ever hung on his lips, nor that awful frown with which he dealt out anathemas against the Pharisees; we cannot remember him in his sufferings and agonies, for we never saw him.” Well, beloved, I suppose it is true that you cannot remember the visible appearance, for you were not then born; but do you not know that even the apostle said, though he had known Christ after the flesh, yet, thenceforth after the flesh he would know Christ no more. The natural appearance, the race, the descent, the poverty, the humble garb, were nothing in the apostle’s estimation of his glorified Lord. And thus, though you do not know him after the flesh, you may know him after the spirit; in this manner you can remember Jesus as much now as Peter, or Paul, or John, or James, or any of those favoured ones who once trod in his footsteps, walked side by side with him, or laid their heads upon his bosom. Memory annihilates distance and over leapeth time, and can behold the Lord, though he be exalted in glory.

Ah! let us spend five minutes in remembering Jesus. Let us remember him in his baptism, when descending into the waters of Jordan, a voice was heard, saying, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” Behold him coming up dripping from the stream! Surely the conscious water must have blushed that it contained its God. He slept within its waves a moment, to consecrate the tomb of baptism, in which those who are dead with Christ are buried with him. Let us remember him in the wilderness, whither he went straight from his immersion. Oh! I have often thought of that scene in the desert, when Christ, weary and way-worn, sat him down, perhaps upon the gnarled roots of some old tree. Forty days that he fasted, he was an hungered, when in the extremity of his weakness there came the evil spirit. Perhaps he had veiled his demon royalty in the form of some aged pilgrim, and taking up a stone, said, “Way-worn pilgrim, if thou be the Son of God command this stone to be made bread.” Methinks I see him, with his cunning smile, and his malicious leer, as he held the stone, and said, “If,”—blasphemous if,—”If thou be the Son of God, command that this stone shall become a meal for me and thee, for both of us are hungry, and it will be an act of mercy; thou canst do it easily; speak the word, and it shall be like the bread of heaven; we will feed upon it, and thou and I will be friends for ever.” But Jesus said—and O how sweetly did he say it—”Man shall not live by bread alone.” Oh! how wonderfully did Christ fight the tempter! Never was there such a battle as that. It was a duel foot to foot—a single-handed combat—when the champion lion of the pit, and the mighty lion of the tribe of Judah, fought together. Splendid sight! Angels stood around to gaze upon the spectacle, just as men of old did sit to see the tournament of noted warriors. There Satan gathered up his strength; here Apollyon concentrated all his satanic power, that in this giant wrestle he might overthrow the seed of the woman. But Jesus was more than a match for him; in the wrestling he gave him a deadly fall, and came off more than a conqueror. Lamb of God! I will remember thy desert strivings, when next I combat with Satan. When next I have a conflict with roaring Diabolus, I will look to him who conquered once for all, and broke the dragon’s head with his mighty blows.

Further, I beseech you remember him in all his daily temptations and hourly trials, in that life-long struggle of his, through which he passed. Oh! what a mighty tragedy was the death of Christ! and his life too? Ushered in with a song, it closed with a shriek. “It is finished.” It began in a manger, and ended on a cross; but oh, the sad interval between! Oh! the black pictures of persecution, when his friends abhorred him; when his foes frowned at him as he passed the streets; when he heard the hiss of calumny, and was bitten by the foul tooth of envy; when slander said he had a devil and was mad: that he was a drunken man and a wine-bibber; and when his righteous soul was vexed with the ways of the wicked. Oh! Son of God, I must remember thee; I cannot help remembering thee, when I think of those years of toil and trouble which thou didst live for my sake. But you know my chosen theme—the place where I can always best remember Christ. It is a shady garden full of olives. O that spot! I would that I had eloquence, that I might take you there. Oh! if the Spirit would but take us, and set us down hard by the mountains of Jerusalem, I would say, see there runs the brook of Kedron, which the king himself did pass; and there you see the olive trees. Possibly, at the foot of that olive, lay the three disciples when they slept; and there, ah! there, I see drops of blood. Stand here, my soul, a moment; those drops of blood—dost thou behold them? Mark them; they are not the blood of wounds; they are the blood of a man whose body was then unwounded. O my soul picture him when he knelt down in agony and sweat,—sweat, because he wrestled with God,—sweat, because he agonized with his Father. “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me.” O Gethsemane! thy shades are deeply solemn to my soul. But ah! those drops of blood! Surely it is the climax of the height of misery; it is the last of the mighty acts of this wondrous sacrifice. Can love go deeper than that? Can it stoop to greater deeds of mercy? Oh! had I eloquence, I would bestow a tongue on every drop of blood that is there; that your hearts might rise in mutiny against your languor and coldness, and speak out with earnest burning remembrance of Jesus. And now, farewell, Gethsemane.

But I will take you somewhere else, where you shall still behold the “Man of Sorrows.” I will lead you to Pilate’s hall, and let you see him endure the mockeries of cruel soldiers: the smitings of mailed gloves; the blows of clenched fists; the shame; the spitting, the plucking of the hair: the cruel buffetings. Oh! can you not picture the King of Martyrs, stript of his garments; exposed to the gaze of fiend-like men? See you not the crown about his temples, each thorn acting as a lancet to pierce his head? Mark you not his lacerated shoulders, and the white bones starting out from the bleeding flesh? Oh, Son of Man! I see thee scourged and flagellated with rods and whips, how can I henceforward cease to remember thee? My memory would be more treacherous than Pilate, did it not every cry, Ecce Homo,—”Behold the man.”

Now, finish the scene of woe by a view of Calvary. Think of the pierced hands and the bleeding side; think of the scorching sun, and then the entire darkness; remember the broiling fever and the dread thirst; think of the death shriek, “It is finished!” and of the groans which were its prelude. This is the object of memory. Let us never forget Christ. I beseech you, for the love of Jesus, let him have the chief place in your memories. Let not the pearl of great price be dropped from your careless hand into the dark ocean of oblivion.

I cannot, however, help saying one thing before I leave this head: and that is, there are some of you who can very well carry away what I have said, because you have read it often, and heard it before; but still you cannot spiritually remember anything about Christ, because you never had him manifested to you, and what we have never known, we cannot remember. Thanks be unto God, I speak not of you all, for in this place there is a goodly remnant according to the election of grace, and to them I turn. Perhaps I could tell you of some old barn, hedge-row, or cottage; or if you have lived in London, about some garret, or some dark lane or street, where first you met with Christ; or some chapel into which you strayed, and you might say, “Thank God, I can remember the seat where first he met with me, and spoke the whispers of love to my soul, and told me he had purchased me.”

“Dost mind the place, the spot of ground,
Where Jesus did thee meet?”

Yes, and I would love to build a temple on the spot, and to raise some monument there, where Jehovah-Jesus first spoke to my soul, and manifested himself to me. But he has revealed himself to you more than once—has he not? And you can remember scores of places where the Lord hath appeared of old unto you, saying, “Behold I have loved you with an everlasting love.” If you cannot all remember such things, there are some of you that can; and I am sure they will understand me when I say, come and do this in remembrance of Christ—in remembrance of all his loving visitations, of his sweet wooing words, of his winning smiles upon you, of all he has said and communicated to your souls. Remember all these things tonight, if it be possible for memory to gather up the mighty aggregate of grace. “Bless the Lord. O my soul, and forget not all his benefits.”

II. Having spoken upon the blessed object of our memory, we say, secondly, a little upon the benefits to be derived from a loving remembrance of christ.

Love never says, “Cui bono?” Love never asks what benefit it will derive from love. Love from its very nature is a disinterested thing. It loves; for the creature’s sake it loves, and for nothing else. The Christian needs no argument to make him love Christ; just as a mother needs no argument to make her love her child. She does it because it is her nature to do so. The new-born creature must love Christ, it cannot help it. Oh! who can resist the matchless charms of Jesus Christ?—the fairest of ten thousand fairs, the loveliest of ten thousand loves. Who can refuse to adore the prince of perfection, the mirror of beauty, the majestic Son of God? But yet it may be useful to us to observe the advantages of remembering Christ, for they are neither few nor small.

And first, remembrance of Jesus will tend to give you hope when you are under the burden of your sins. Notice a few characters here tonight. There comes in a poor creature. Look at him! He has neglected himself this last month; he looks as if he had hardly eaten his daily bread. What is the matter with you? “Oh!” says he, “I have been under a sense of guilt; I have been again and again lamenting, because I fear I can never be forgiven; once I thought I was good, but I have been reading the Bible, and I find that my heart is ‘deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked;’ I have tried to reform, but the more I try, the deeper I sink in the mire, there is certainly no hope for me. I feel that I deserve no mercy; it seems to me that God must destroy me, for he has declared, ‘The soul that sinneth it shall die;’ and die I must, be damned I must, for I know I have broken God’s law.” How will you comfort such a man? What soft words will you utter to give him peace? I know! I will tell thee that there is one, who for thee hath made a complete atonement; if thou only believest on him thou art safe for ever. Remember him, thou poor dying, hopeless creature, and thou shalt be made to sing for joy and gladness. See, the man believes, and in ecstasy exclaims, “Oh! come all ye that fear God, and I will tell you what he hath done for my soul.”

“Tell it unto sinners, tell,
I am, I am out of hell.”

Hallelujah! God hath blotted out my sins like a thick cloud! That is one benefit to be derived from remembering Christ. It gives us hope under a sense of sin, and tells us there is mercy yet.

Now, I must have another character. And what does he say? “I cannot stand it any longer; I have been persecuted and ill-treated, because I love Christ; I am mocked, and laughed at, and despised: I try to bear it, but I really cannot. A man will be a man; tread upon a worm and he will turn upon you; my patience altogether fails me; I am in such a peculiar position that it is of no use to advise me to have patience, for patience I cannot have; my enemies are slandering me, and I do not know what to do.” What shall we say to that poor man? How shall we give him patience? What shall we preach to him? You have heard what he has to say about himself. How shall we comfort him under this great trial? If we suffered the same, what should we wish some friend to say to us? Shall we tell him that other persons have borne as much? He will say, “Miserable comforters are ye all!” No, I will tell him, “Brother, you are persecuted; but remember the words of Jesus Christ, how he spake unto us, and said, ‘Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for great is your reward in heaven, for so persecuted they the prophets that were before you.” My brother! think of him, who, when he died, prayed for his murderers, and said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” All you have to bear, is as nothing compared with his mighty sufferings. Take courage; face it again like a man; never say die. Let not your patience be gone; take up your cross daily, and follow Christ. Let him be your motto; set him before your eyes. And, now, receiving this, hear what the man will say. He tells you at once—”Hail, persecution; welcome shame. Disgrace for Jesus shall be my honor, and scorn shall be my highest glory.

“‘Now, for the love I bear his name,
What was my gain I count my loss,
I pour contempt on all my shame,
And nail my glory to his cross.’”

There is another effect, you see, to remembering Christ. It tends to give us patience under persecution. It is a girdle to brace up the loins, so that our faith may endure to the end.

Dear friends, I should occupy your time too much if I went into the several benefits; so I will only just run over one or two blessings to be received. It will give us strength in temptation. I believe that there are hours with every man, when he has a season of terrific temptation. There was never a vessel that lived upon the mighty deep but sometimes it had to do battle with a storm. There she is, the poor barque, rocked up and down on the mad waves. See how they throw her from wave to wave, and toss her to mid heaven. The winds laugh her to scorn. Old Ocean takes the ship in his dripping fingers, and shakes it to and fro. How the mariners cry out for fear! Do you know how you can put oil upon the waters, and all shall be still? Yes. One potent word shall do it. Let Jesus come; let the poor heart remember Jesus, and steadily then the ship shall sail, for Christ has the helm. The winds shall blow no more, for Christ shall bid them shut their mighty mouths, and never again disturb his child. There is nothing which can give you strength in temptation, and help you to weather the storm, like the name of Jesus Christ, the incarnate Son of God. Then again, what comfort it will give you on a sick bed—the name of Christ! It will help you to be patient to those who wait upon you, and to endure the sufferings which you have to bear; yea, it shall be so with you, that you shall have more hope in sickness than in health, and shall find a blessed sweetness in the bitterness of gall. Instead of feeling vinegar in your mouth, through your trouble, you shall find honey for sweetness, in the midst of all the trial and trouble that God will put upon you, “For he giveth songs in the night.”

But just to close up the advantages of remembering Christ, do you know where you will have the benefit most of all? Do you know the place where chiefly you will rejoice that you ever thought of him? I will take you to it. Hush! Silence! You are going up stairs into a lonely room. The curtains hang down. Some one stands there weeping. Children are around the bed, and friends are there. See that man lying? That is yourself. Look at him; his eyes are your eyes; his hands are your hands. That is yourself. You will be there soon. Man! that is yourself. Do you see it? It is a picture of yourself. Those are your eyes that soon will be closed in death—your hands, that will lie stiff and motionless—your lips that will be dry and parched, between which they will put drops of water. Those are your words that freeze in air, and drop so slowly from your dying lips. I wonder whether you will be able to remember Christ there. If you do not, I will picture you. Behold that man, straight up in the bed; see his eyes starting from their sockets. His friends are all alarmed; they ask him what he sees. He represses the emotion; he tells them he sees nothing. They know that there is something before his eyes. He starts again. Good God! what is that I see—I seem to see? What is it? Ah! one sigh! The soul is gone. The body is there. What did he see? He saw a flaming throne of judgment; he saw God upon it, with his sceptre; he saw books opened; he beheld the throne of God, and saw a messenger, with a sword brandished in the air to smite him low. Man! that is thyself; there thou wilt be soon. That picture is thine own portrait. I have photographed thee to the life. Look at it. That is where thou shalt be within a few years—ay, within a few days. But if thou canst remember Christ, shall I tell thee what thou wilt do? Oh! thou wilt smile in the midst of trouble. Let me picture such a man. They put pillows behind him; he sits up in bed, and takes the hand of the loved one, and says, “Farewell! weep not for me; the kind God shall wipe away all tears from every eye.” Those round about are addressed, “Prepare to meet your God, and follow me to the land of bliss.” Now he has set his house in order. All is done. Behold him, like good old Jacob, leaning on his staff, about to die. See how his eyes sparkle; he claps his hands; they gather round to hear what he has to say; he whispers “Victory!” and summoning a little more strength, he cries, “Victory!” and at last, with his final gasp, “Victory, through him that loved us!” and he dies. This is one of the great benefits to be derived from remembering Christ—to be enabled to meet death with blessed composure.

III. We are now arrived at the third portion of our meditation, which is a SWEET AID TO MEMORY.

At schools we used certain books, called “Aids to Memory.” I am sure they rather perplexed than assisted me. Their utility was equivalent to that of a bundle of staves under a traveller’s arm: true he might use them one by one to walk with, but in the mean time he carried a host of others which he would never need. But our Saviour was wiser than all our teachers, and his remembrances are true and real aids to memory. His love tokens have an unmistakeable language, and they sweetly win our attention.

Behold the whole mystery of the sacred Eucharist. It is bread and wine which are lively emblems of the body and blood of Jesus. The power to excite remembrance consists in the appeal thus made to the senses. Here the eye, the hand, the mouth, find joyful work. The bread is tasted, and entering within, works upon the sense of taste, which is one of the most powerful. The wine is sipped—the act is palpable. We know that we are drinking, and thus the senses, which are usually clogs to the soul, become wings to lift the mind in contemplation. Again, much of the influence of this ordinance is found in its simplicity. How beautifully simple the ceremony is—bread broken and wine poured out. There is no calling that thing a chalice, that thing a paten, and that a host. Here is nothing to burden the memory—here is the simple bread and wine. He must have no memory at all who cannot remember that he has eaten bread, and that he has been drinking wine. Note again, the mighty pregnancy of these signs—how full they are of meaning. Bread broken—so was your Saviour broken. Bread to be eaten—so his flesh is meat indeed. Wine poured out, the pressed juice of the grape—so was your Saviour crushed under the foot of divine justice: his blood is your sweetest wine. Wine to cheer your heart—so does the blood of Jesus. Wine to strengthen and invigorate you—so does the blood of the mighty sacrifice. Oh! make that bread and wine to your souls tonight a sweet and blessed help of remembrance of that dear Man who once on Calvary died. Like the little ewe lamb, you are now to eat your Master’s bread and drink from his cup. Remember the hand which feeds you.

But before you can remember Christ well here, you must ask the assistance of the Holy Spirit. I believe there ought to be a preparation before the Lord’s Supper. I do not believe in Mrs. Toogood’s preparation, who spent a week in preparing, and then finding it was not the Ordinance Sunday, she said she had lost all the week. I do not believe in that kind of preparation, but I do believe in a holy preparation for the Lord’s Supper: when we can on a Saturday if possible, spend an hour in quiet meditation on Christ, and the passion of Jesus; when, especially on the Sabbath afternoon, we can devoutly sit down and behold him, then these scenes become realities, and not mockeries, as they are to some. I fear greatly that there are some of you who will drink the wine, and not think of his blood: and vile hypocrites you will be while you do it. Take heed to yourselves, “He that eateth and drinketh” unworthily, eateth and drinketh—what?—”damnation to himself.” This is a plain English word; mind what you are doing! Do not do it carelessly; for of all the sacred things on earth, it is the most solemn. We have heard of some men banded together by drawing blood from their arms and drinking it all round; that was most horrid, but at the same time most solemn. Here you are to drink blood from the veins of Christ, and sip the trickling stream which gushed from his own loving heart. Is not that a solemn thing? Ought anybody to trifle with it? To go to church and take it for sixpence? To come and join us for the sake of getting charities? Out upon it! It is an awful blasphemy against Almighty God; and amongst the damned in hell, those shall be among the most accursed who dared thus to mock the holy ordinance of God. This is the remembrance of Christ. “This do in remembrance of me.” If you cannot do it in remembrance of Christ, I beseech you, as you love your souls, do not do it at all. Oh! regenerate man or woman, enter not into the court of the priests, lest Israel’s God resent the intrusion.

IV. And now to close up. Here is a sweet command: “This do in remembrance of me.” To whom does this command apply? “This do ye.” It is important to answer this question—”This do ye,” Who are intended? Ye who put your trust in me. “This do ye in remembrance of me.” Well, now, you should suppose Christ speaking to you tonight; and he says, “This do ye in remembrance of me.” Christ watches you at the door. Some of you go home, and Christ says, “I thought I said, ‘This do ye in remembrance of me.’” Some of you keep your seats as spectators. Christ sits with you, and he says, “I thought I said, ‘This do ye in remembrance of me.’” “Lord, I know you did.” “Do you love me then?” “Yes, I love thee; I love, Lord; thou knowest I do.” “But, I say, go down there—eat that bread, drink that wine.” “I do not like to, Lord; I should have to be baptized if I joined that church, and I am afraid I shall catch cold, or be looked at. I am afraid to go before the church, for I think they would ask some questions I could not answer.” “What,” says Christ, “is this all you love me? Is this all your affection to your Lord. Oh! how cold to me, your Saviour. If I had loved you no more than this, you would have been in hell: if that were the full extent of my affection, I should not have died for you. Great love bore great agonies; and is this all your gratitude to me?” Are not some of you ashamed, after this? Do you not say in your hearts, “it is really wrong?” Christ says, “Do this in remembrance of me,” and are you not ashamed to stay away? I give a free invitation to every lover of Jesus to come to this table. I beseech you, deny not yourselves the privilege by refusing to unite with the church. If you still live in sinful neglect of this ordinance, let me remind you that Christ has said, “Whosoever shall be ashamed of me in this generation, of him will I be ashamed, when I come in the glory of my Father.” Oh, soldier of the cross, act not the coward’s part!

And not to lead you into any mistakes, I must just add one thing, and then I have done. When I speak of your taking the ordinance of the Lord’s Supper, do not imagine that I wish you for one moment to suppose that there is anything saving in it. Some say that the ordinance of baptism is non-essential, so is the ordinance of the Lord’s Supper, it is non-essential, if we look upon it in the light of salvation. Be saved by eating a piece of bread! Nonsense, confounded nonsense! Be saved by drinking a drop of wine! Why, it is too absurd for common sense to admit any discussion upon. You know it is the blood of Jesus Christ; it is the merit of his agonies; it is the purchase of his sufferings; it is what he did, that alone can save us. Venture on him; venture wholly, and then you are saved. Hearest thou, poor convinced sinner, the way of salvation? If I ever meet thee in the next world, thou mightest, perhaps, say to me, “I spent one evening, sir, in hearing you, and you never told me the way to heaven.” Well, thou shalt hear it. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, trust in his righteousness, and thou art saved beyond the vengeance of the law, or the power of hell. But trust in thine own works, and thou art lost as sure as thou art alive.

Now, O ever glorious Son of God, we approach thy table to feast on the viands of grace, permit each of us, in reliance upon thy Spirit, to exclaim in the words of one of thine own poets:

“Remember thee, and all thy pains,
And all thy love to me—
Yes, while a pulse or breath remains,
I will remember thee.

And when these failing lips grow dumb,
And thought and memory flee;
When thou shalt in thy kingdom come,
Jesus, remember me!”

For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. Romans 1:20

Created by God seen by Hubble – Light Echoes From Red Supergiant Star V838 Monocerotis

A controversial Muslim programme-maker has been appointed as the BBC’s new head of religious broadcasting.

Aaqil Ahmed will move to the corporation from Channel Four, where he upset Roman Catholic priests by commissioning documentaries that appeared to contain a pro-Islam bias.

His appointment will also raise fears at the top levels of the Church of England, which has expressed its concerns over the BBC’s treatment of religion and warned that it must not ignore its Christian audience.

Dr Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, has met with Mark Thompson, the BBC’s director-general in March to challenge him over the corporation’s religious broadcasting.

Senior bishops have also written to Mr Thompson to question its commitment to Britain’s Christian audience.

Leading church figures suspect that the BBC is giving preferential treatment to minority faiths, with a Muslim now in charge of its programming on television and a Sikh producing Songs of Praise, its flagship Christian show.

Christina Rees, a member of the Archbishops’ Council, has warned: ” The vast majority of the population identifies itself as Christian and as the established Church in England we would be negligent not to take an active concern in the changes happening with the BBC’s religion and ethics department.”

Rt Rev Nigel Mcculloch, Bishop of Manchester, said yesterday that Mr Ahmed’s appointment came “at a time when the BBC’s coverage of religion has caused some disquiet”.

He said: “The Church of England will be watching how the future of religion and ethics develops. We wish him well in this very important post.”

Mr Ahmed is understood to have impressed BBC executives by commissioning a series on Christianity that featured high-profile names, including Cherie Blair and Michael Portillo.

However, the series, Christianity, A History, was criticised by Church figures for trivialising the religion.

Furthermore, Channel 4 was accused of being biased towards Islam and failing to show enough respect to Christianity under Mr Ahmed, who was head of religious broadcasting.

Last summer, the channel screened a week of special programmes on Islam including a feature-length documentary on the Qu’ran, and a series of interviews with Muslims around the world talking about their beliefs.

Yet the main Christian documentary broadcast for Easter that year, called The Secrets of the 12 Disciples, cast doubt on the validity of the Pope.

It argued that St Peter died in Palestine, not in Rome, as the Church has always taught and as he was not the first Pope those elected following him would not have been true successors.

Mr Ahmed’s appointment follows claims by Mr Thompson that Islam should be treated more sensitively by the media than Christianity.

“There’s no reason why any religion should be immune from discussion, but I don’t want to say that all religions are the same,” he said.

“To be a minority I think puts a slightly different outlook on it.”

Mr Ahmed will split the role of overseeing religious broadcasting with, Christine Morgan, who has been promoted to head of Religion Radio.

Why has this happened when in the 2001 Census 72% of the British population stated that they were Christain and 2.7% Muslim?

How many Christians head up public service broadcasting of religion in Islamic countries? I wonder…..

“I am the Lord, I charge not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.” Malachi. 3:6.

It has been said by some one that “the proper study of mankind is man.” I
will not oppose the idea, but I believe it is equally true that the proper
study of God’s elect is God; the proper study of a Christian is the Godhead.
The highest science, the loftiest speculation, the mightiest philosophy,
which can ever engage the attention of a child of God, is the name, the
nature, the person, the work, the doings, and the existence of the great God
whom he calls his Father. There is something exceedingly improving to the
mind in a contemplation of the Divinity. It is a subject so vast, that all
our thoughts are lost in its immensity; so deep, that our pride is drowned in
its infinity. Other subjects we can compass and grapple with; in them we feel
a kind of self-content, and go our way with the thought, “Behold I am wise.”
But when we come to this master-science, finding that our plumb-line cannot sound its depth, and that our eagle eye cannot see its height, we turn away with the thought, that vain man would be wise, but he is like a wild ass’s
colt; and with the solemn exclamation, “I am but of yesterday, and know
nothing.” No subject of contemplation will tend more to humble the mind, than thoughts of God. We shall be obliged to feel-

“Great God, how infinite art thou,
What worthless worms are we!”

But while the subject humbles the mind it also expands it. He who often
thinks of God, will have a larger mind than the man who simply plods around
this narrow globe. He may be a naturalist, boasting of his ability to dissect
a beetle, anatomize a fly, or arrange insects and animals in classes with
well nigh unutterable names; he may be a geologist, able to discourse of the
megatherium and the plesiosaurus, and all kinds of extinct animals, he may
imagine that his science, whatever it is, ennobles and enlarges his mind. I
dare say it does, but after all, the most excellent study for expanding the
soul, is the science of Christ, and him crucified, and the knowledge of the
Godhead in the glorious Trinity. Nothing will so enlarge the intellect,
nothing so magnify the whole soul of man, as a devout, earnest, continued
investigation of the great subject of the Deity. And, whilst humbling and
expanding, this subject is eminently consolatory. Oh, there is, in
contemplating Christ, a balm for every wound; in musing on the Father, there is a quietus for every grief; and in the influence of the Holy Ghost, there is a balsam for every sore. Would you lose your sorrows? Would you drown your cares? Then go, plunge yourself in the Godhead’s deepest sea; be lost in his immensity; and you shall come forth as from a couch of rest, refreshed and invigorated. I know nothing which can so comfort the soul; so calm the swelling billows of grief and sorrow; so speak peace to the winds of trial, as a devout musing upon the subject of the Godhead. It is to that subject that I invite you this morning. We shall present you with one view of it,- that is the immutability of the glorious Jehovah. “I am,” says my text,
“Jehovah,” (for so it should be translated) “I am Jehovah, I change not:
therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.”

There are three things this morning. First of all, an unchanging God;
secondly, the persons who derive benefit from this glorious attribute, “the
sons of Jacob;” and thirdly, the benefit they so derive, they “are not
consumed.’ We address ourselves to these points.

I. First of all, we have set before us the doctrine of THE IMMUTABILITY OF
GOD. “I am God, I change not.” Here I shall attempt to expound, or rather to
enlarge the thought, and then afterwards to bring a few arguments to prove
its truth.

1. I shall offer some exposition of my text, by first saying, that God is
Jehovah, and he changes not in his essence. We cannot tell you what Godhead is. We do not know what substance that is which we call God. It is an existence, it is a being; but what that is, we know not. However, whatever it is, we call it his essence, and that essence never changes. The substance of
mortal things is ever changing. The mountains with their snow-white crowns, doff their old diadems in summer, in rivers trickling down their sides, while the storm cloud gives them another coronation; the ocean, with its mighty floods, loses its water when the sunbeams kiss the waves, and snatch them in mists to heaven; even the sun himself requires fresh fuel from the hand of the Infinite Almighty, to replenish his ever burning furnace. All creatures change. Man, especially as to his body, is always undergoing revolution. Very probably there is not a single particle in my body which was in it a few years ago. This frame has been worn away by activity, its atoms have been removed by friction, fresh particles of matter have in the mean time constantly accrued to my body, and so it has been replenished; but its substance is altered. The fabric of which this world is made is ever passing away; like a stream of water, drops are running away and others are following after, keeping the river still full, but always changing in its  elements. But God is perpetually the same. He is not composed of any substance or material, but is spirit-pure, essential, and ethereal spirit-and therefore he is immutable. He remains everlastingly the same. There are no furrows on his eternal brow. No age hath passed him; no years have marked him with the mementoes of their flight; he sees ages pass, but with him it is ever now. He is the great I AM-the Great Unchangeable. Mark you, his essence did not undergo a change when it became united with the manhood.  When Christ in past years did gird himself with mortal clay, the essence of his divinity was not changed; flesh did not become God, nor did God become flesh by a real actual change of nature; the two were united in hypostatical union, but the Godhead was still the same. It was the same when he was a babe in the manager, as it was when he stretched the curtains of heaven; it was the same God that hung upon the cross, and whose blood flowed down in a purple river, the self-same God that holds the world upon his everlasting shoulders, and bears in his hands the keys of death and hell. He never has been changed in his essence, not even by his incarnation; he remains everlastingly, eternally, the one unchanging God, the Father of lights, with whom there is no variableness, neither the shadow of a change.

2. He changes not in his attributes. Whatever the attributes of God were of
old, that they are now; and of each of them we may sing “As it was in the
beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end, Amen.” Was he
powerful? Was he the mighty God when he spake the world out of the womb of nonexistence? Was he the Omnipotent when he piled the mountains and  scooped out the hollow places for the rolling deep? Yes, he was powerful then, and his arm is unpalsied now, he is the same giant in his might; the sap of his nourishment is undried, and the strength of his soul stands the same for ever. Was he wise when he constituted this mighty globe, when he laid the foundations of the universe? Had he wisdom when he planned the way of our salvation, and when from all eternity he marked out his awful plans? Yes, and he is wise now; he is not less skillful, lie has not less knowledge; his eye which seeth all things is undimmed; his ear which heareth all the cries,
sighs, sobs, and groans of his people, is not rendered heavy by the years
which he hath heard their prayers. He is unchanged in his wisdom, he knows as much now as ever, neither more nor less; he has the same consummate skill, and the same infinite forecastings. He is unchanged, blessed be his name, in his justice. just and holy was he in the past; just and holy is he now. He is unchanged in his truth, he was promised, and he brings it to pass; he hath saith it, and it shall be done. He varies not in the goodness, and
generosity, and benevolence of his nature. He is not become an Almighty
tyrant, whereas he was once an Almighty Father; but his strong love stands
like a granite rock, unmoved by the hurricanes of our iniquity. And blessed
be his dear name, he is unchanged in his love. When he first wrote the
covenant, how full his heart was with affection to his people. He knew that
his Son must die to ratify the articles of that agreement. He knew right well
that he must rend his best beloved from his bowels, and send him down to
earth to bleed and die. He did not hesitate to sign that mighty covenant; nor
did he shun its fulfillment. He loves as much now as he did then, and when
suns shall cease to shine, and moons to show their feeble light, he shall
love on for ever and for ever. Take any one attribute of God, and I will
write semper idem on it (always the same). Take any one thing you can say of God now, and it may be said not only in the dark past, but in the bright
future it shall always remain the same: “I am Jehovah, I change not.”

3. Then again, God changes not in his plans. That man began to build, but was not able to finish, and therefore he changed his plan, as every wise man
would do in such a case; he built upon a smaller foundation and commenced
again. But has it ever been said that God began to build but was not able to
finish? Nay. When he hath boundless stores at his command, and when his own right hand would create worlds as numerous as drops of morning dew, shall he ever stay because he has not power? and reverse, or alter, or disarrange his plan, because he cannot carry it out? “But,” say some, “perhaps God never had a plan.” Do you think God is more foolish than yourself then, sir? Do you go to work without a plan? “No,” say you, “I have always a scheme.” So has God. Every man has his plan, and God has a plan too. God is a master-mind; he arranged everything in his gigantic intellect long before he did it; and once having settled it, mark you, he never alters it. “This shall be done,” saith he, and the iron hand of destiny marks it down, and it is brought to pass. “This is my purpose,” and it stands, nor can earth or hell after it. “This is my decree,” saith he, promulgate it angles; rend it down from the gate of heaven ye devils; but ye cannot alter the decree; it shall be done. God altereth not his plans; why should he? He is Almighty, and therefore can perform his pleasure. Why should he? He is the All-wise, and therefore cannot have planned wrongly. Why should he? He is the everlasting God, and therefore cannot die before his plan is accomplished. Why should he change? Ye worthless atoms of existence, ephemera of the day! Ye creeping insects upon this bayleaf of existence! ye may change your plans, but he shall never, never change his. Then has he told me that his plan is to save me? If so, I am safe.

“My name from the palms of his hands
Eternity will not erase;
Impress’d on his heart it remains,
In marks of indelible grace.”

4. Yet again, God is unchanging in his promises. Ah! we love to speak about
the sweet promises of God; but if we could ever suppose that one of them
could be changed, we would not talk anything more about them. If I thought
that the notes of the bank of England could not be cashed next week, I should decline to take them; and if I thought that God’s promises would never be fulfilled-it I thought that God would see it right to alter some word in his promises-farewell Scriptures! I want immutable things: and I find that I have immutable promises when I turn to the Bible: for, “by two immutable things in which it is impossible for God to lie,” he hath signed, confirmed, and sealed every promise of his. The gospel is not “yea and nay,” it is not promising today, and denying tomorrow; but the gospel is “yea, yea,” to the glory of God. Believer! there was a delightful promise which you had yesterday; and this morning when you turned to the Bible the promise was not sweet. Do you know why? Do you think the promise had changed? Ah, no! You changed; that is where the matter lies. You had been eating some of the grapes of Sodom, and your mouth was thereby put out of taste, and you could not detect the sweetness. But there was the same honey there, depend upon it, the same preciousness. “Oh!” says one child of God, “I had built my house firmly once upon some stable promises; there came a wind, and I said, O Lord, I am cast down and I shall be lost.” Oh! the promises were not cast down; the foundations were not removed; it was your little “wood, hay, stubble” hut, that you had been building. It was that which fell down. You have been shaken on the rock, not the rock under you. But let me tell you what is the best way of living in the world. I have heard that a gentleman said to a Negro, “I can’t think how it is you are always so happy in the Lord and I am often downcast.” “Why Massa,” said he, “I throw myself flat down on the promise- there I lie; you stand on the promise-you have a little to do with it, and down you go when the wind comes, and then you cry, ‘Oh! I am down;’ whereas I go flat on the promise at once, and that is why I fear no fall.” Then let us always say, “Lord there is the promise; it is thy business to fulfill it.”
Down I go on the promise: and remember, every promise is a rock, an
unchanging thing. Therefore, at his feet cast yourself, and rest there
forever.

5. But now comes one jarring note to spoil the theme. To some of you God is
unchanging in his threatenings. If every promise stands fast, and every oath
of the covenant is fulfilled, hark thee, sinner!-mark the word-hear the
death-knell of thy carnal hopes; see the funeral of thy fleshly trustings.
Every threatening of God, as well as every promise shall be fulfilled. Talk
of decrees! I will tell you of a decree: “He that believeth not shall be
damned.” That is a decree, and a statute that can never change. Be as good as
you please, be as moral as you can, be as honest as you will, walk as
uprightly as you may,-there stands the unchangeable threatening: “He that
believeth not shall be damned.” What sayest thou to that, moralist? Oh, thou
wishest thou couldst alter it, and say, “He that does not live a holy life
shall be damned.” That will be true; but it does not say so. It says, “He
that believeth not.” Here is the stone of stumbling, and the rock of offence;
but you cannot alter it. You must believe or be damned, saith the Bible; and
mark, that threat of God is an unchangeable as God himself. And when a
thousand years of hell’s torments shall have passed away, you shall look on
high, and see written in burning letters of fire, “He that believeth not
shall be damned.” “But, Lord, I am damned.” Nevertheless it says “shall be”
still. And when a million ages have rolled away, and you are exhausted by
your pains and agonies, you shall turn up your eye and still read “SHALL BE

DAMNED,” unchanged, unaltered. And when you shall have thought that eternity must have spun out its last thread-that every particle of that which.we call eternity, must have run out, you shall still see it written up there, “SHALL BE DAMNED.” O terrific thought! How dare I utter it? But I must. Ye must be warned, sirs, “lest ye also come into this place of torment.” Ye must be told rough things; for if God’s gospel is not a rough thin & the law is a rough thing; Mount Sinai is a rough thing. Woe unto the watchman that warns not the ungodly! God is unchanging in his threatenings. Beware, O sinner, for “it isa fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”

6. We must just hint at one thought before we pass away and that is-God is
unchanging in the objects of his love-not only in his love, but in the
objects of it.

“If ever it should come to pass,
That sheep of Christ might fall away.
My fickle, feeble soul, alas,
Would fall a thousand times a day.”

If one dear saint of God had perished, so might it all; if one of the
covenant ones be lost, so may all be, and then there is no gospel promise
true; but the Bible is a lie, and there is nothing in it worth my acceptance.
I will be an infidel at once, when I can believe that a saint of God can ever
fall finally. If God hath loved me once, then he will love me for ever.

“Did Jesus once upon me shine,
Then Jesus is for ever mine.”

The objects of everlasting love never change. Those whom God hath called, he will justify, whom he has justified, he will sanctify; and whom he sanctifies, he will glorify.

1. Thus having taken a great deal too much time, perhaps, in simply expanding the thought of an unchanging God, I will now try to prove that He is unchangeable. I am not much of an argumentative preacher, but one argument that I will mention is this: the very existence, and being of a God, seem to me to imply immutability. Let me think a moment. There is a God; this God rules and governs all things; this God fashioned the world: he upholds and maintains it. What kind of being must he be? It does strike me that you cannot think of a changeable God. I conceive that the thought is so repugnant to common sense, that if you for one moment think of a changing God, the words seem to dash, and you are obliged to say, “Then he must be a kind of man,” and get a Mormonite idea of God. I imagine it is impossible to conceive of a changing God; it is so to me. Others may be capable of such an idea, but I could not entertain it. I could no more think of a changing God, than I could of a round square, or any other absurdity. The thing seems so contrary, that I am obliged, when once I say God, to include the idea of an unchanging being.

2. Well, I think that one argument will be enough, but another good argument may be found in the fact of God’s perfection. I believe God to be a perfect being. Now, if he is a perfect being, he cannot change. Do you not see this? Suppose I am perfect tomorrow after the alteration? If I changed, I must either change from a good state to a better-and then if I could get better, I could not be perfect now-or else from a better state to a worse-and if I were worse, I should not be perfect then. If I am perfect, I cannot be altered without being imperfect. If I am perfect today, I must keep the same tomorrow if I am to be perfect then. So, if God is perfect, he must be the same; for change would imply imperfection now, or imperfection then.

3. Again, there is the fact of God’s infinity, which puts change out of the
question. God is an infinite being. What do you mean by that? There is no man who can tell you what he means by an infinite being. But there cannot be two infinities. If one thing is infinite, there is no room for anything else; for infinite means all. It means not bounded, not finite, having no end. Well,
there cannot be two infinities. If God is infinite today, and then should
change and be infinite tomorrow, there would be two infinities. But that
cannot be. Suppose he is infinite and then changes, he must become finite,
and could not be God; either he is finite and then changes, he must become
finite, and could not be God; either he is finite today and finite tomorrow-
all of which suppositions are equally absurd. The fact of his being an
infinite being at once quashes the thought of his being a changeable being.
Infinity has written on its very brow the word “immutability.”

4. But then, dear friends, let us look at the past: and there we shall gather
some proofs of God’s immutable nature. “Hath he spoken, and hath he not done it? Hath he sworn, and hath it not come to pass?” Can it not be said of
Jehovah, “He hath done all his will, and he hath accomplished all his
purpose?” Turn ye to Philistia; ask where she is. God said, “How Ashdod, and
ye gates of Gaza, for ye shall fall;” and where are they? Where is Edom? Ask
Petra and its ruined walls. Will they not echo back the truth that God hath
said, “Edom shall be a prey, and shall be destroyed?” Where is Babel, and
where Nineveh? Where Moab and where Ammon? Where are the nations God hath said he destroy? Hath he not uprooted them and cast out the remembrance of them from the earth? And hath God cast off his people? Hath he once been unmindful of his promise? Hath he once broken his oath and covenant, or once departed from his plan? Ah! no. Point to one instance in history where God has changed! Ye cannot sirs; for throughout all history there stands the fact that God has been immutable in his purposes. Methinks I hear some one say, “I can remember one passage in Scripture where God changed!” And so did I think once. The case I mean, is that of the death of Hezekiah. Isaiah came in and said, ‘Hezekiah, you must die, your disease is incurable, set your house in order.’ He turned his face to the wall and began to pray; and before Isaiah was in the outer court, he was told to go back and say, “Thou shalt live fifteen years more.” You may think that proves that God changes; but really I cannot see in it the slightest proof in the world. How do you know that God did not know that? Oh! but God did know it; he knew that Hezekiah would live. Then he did not change, for if he knew that, how could he change? That is what I want to know. But do you know one little thing?-that Hezekiah’s son

Manasseh, was not born at that time, and that had Hezekiah died, there would have been no Manasseh, and no Josiah and no Christ, because Christ came from that very line. You will find that Manasseh was twelve years old when his father died; so that he must have been born three years after this. And do you not believe that God decreed the birth of Manasseh, and foreknew it? Certainly. Then he decreed that Isaiah should go and tell Hezekiah that his disease was incurable, and then say also in the same breath, “But I will cure it, and thou shalt live.” He said that to stir up Hezekiah to prayer. He spoke, in the first place as a man. “According to all human probability your disease is incurable, and you must die.” Then he waited till Hezekiah prayed; then came a little “but” at the end of the sentence. Isaiah had not finished the sentence. He said, “You must put your house in order for there is no human cure; but” (and then he walked out. Hezekiah prayed a little, and then he came in again, and said) “But I will heal thee.” Where is there any contradiction there, except in the brain of those who fight against the Lord, and wish to make him a changeable being.

II. Now secondly, let me say a word on THE PERSONS TO WHOM THIS UNCHANGEABLE GOD IS A BENEFIT. “I am God, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.” Now, who are “the sons of Jacob,” who can rejoice in an immutable God?

1. First, they are the sons of God’s election; for it is written, “Jacob have
I loved, and Esau have I hated, the children being not yet born neither
having done good nor evil.” It was written, “The elder shall serve the
younger.” “The sons of Jacob”-

“Are the sons of God’s election,
Who through sovereign grace believe;
Be eternal destination
Grace and glory they receive.”

God’s elect are here meant by “the sons of Jacob,”-those whom he foreknew and fore-ordained to everlasting salvation.

2. By “the sons of Jacob” are meant, in the second place, persons who enjoy
peculiar rights and titles. Jacob, you know, had no rights by birth; but he
soon acquired them. He changed a mess of pottage with his brother Esau, and thus gained the birthright. I do not justify the means; but he did also
obtain the blessing, and so acquired peculiar rights. By ‘the sons of Jacob”
here, are meant persons who have peculiar rights and titles. Unto them that
believe, he hath given the right and power to become sons of God. They have
an interest in the blood of Christ; they have a right to “enter in through
the gates into the city;” they have a title to eternal honors; they have a
promise to everlasting glory; they have a right to call themselves sons of
God. Oh! there are peculiar rights and privileges belonging to the “sons of
Jacob.

3. But, then next, these “sons of Jacob” were men of peculiar manifestations.
Jacob had peculiar manifestations from his God, and thus he was highly
honored. Once at night-time he lay down and slept; he had the hedges for his
curtains, the sky for his canopy, a stone for his pillow, and the earth for
his bed. Oh! then he had a peculiar manifestation. There was a ladder, and he
saw the angels of God ascending and descending. He thus had a  manifestation of Christ Jesus, as the ladder which reaches from earth to heaven, up and down which angels came to bring us mercies. Then what a manifestation there was at Mahanaim, when the angels of God met him; and again at Peniel, when he wrestled with God, and saw him face to face. Those were peculiar manifestations; and this passage refers to those who, like Jacob, have had peculiar manifestations.

Now then, how many of you have had personal manifestations? “Oh!” you say
“that is enthusiasm; that is fanaticism.” Well, it is a blessed enthusiasm,
too, for the sons of Jacob have had peculiar manifestations. They have talked with God as a man talketh with his friend; they have whispered in the ear of Jehovah; Christ hath been with them to sup with them, and they with Christ; and the Holy Spirit hath shone into their souls with such a mighty radiance, that they could not doubt about special manifestations. The “sons of Jacob” are the men, who enjoy these manifestations.

4. Then again, they are men of peculiar trials. Ah! poor Jacob! I should not
choose Jacob’s lot if I had not the prospect of Jacob’s blessing; for a hard
lot his was. He had to run away from his father’s house to Laban’s; and then
that surly old Laban cheated him all the years he was there-cheated him of
his wife, cheated him in his wages, cheated him in his flocks, and cheated
him all through the story. By-and-bye he had to run away from Laban, who
pursued him and overtook him. Next came Esau with four hundred men to cut him up root and branch. Then there was a season of prayer, and afterwards he wrestled, and had to go all his life with his thigh out of joint. But a little further on, Rachael, his dear beloved, died. Then his daughter Dinah is led astray, and the sons murder the Shechemites. Anon there is dear Joseph sold into Egypt, and a famine comes. Then Reuben goes up to his couch and pollutes it; Judah commits incest with his own daughter-in-law; and all his sons become a plague to him. At last Benjamin is taken away; and the old man, almost broken-hearted, cries, “Joseph is not, and Simeon is not, and ye will take Benjamin away.” Never was man more tried than Jacob, all through the one sin of cheating his brother. All through his life God chastised him. But I believe there are many who can sympathize with dear old Jacob. They have had to pass through trials very much like his. Well, cross-bearers! God says, “I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.” Poor tried souls! ye are not consumed because of the unchanging nature of your God. Now do not get fretting, and say, with the self-conceit of misery, “I am the man who hath seen affliction.” Why “the Man of Sorrows” was afflicted more than you; Jesus was indeed a mourner. You only see the skirts of the garments of affliction. You never have trials like his. You do not understand what troubles means; you have hardly sipped the cup of trouble; you have only had a drop or two, but Jesus drunk the dregs. Fear not saith God, “I am the Lord, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob,” men of peculiar trials, “are not consumed.”

5. Then one more thought about who are the “sons of Jacob,” for I should like
you to find out whether you are “sons of Jacob,” yourselves. They are men of
peculiar character; for though there were some things about Jacob’s character which we cannot commend, there are one or two things which God commends. There was Jacob’s faith, by, which Jacob had his name written amongst the mighty worthies who obtained not the promises on earth, but shall obtain them in heaven. Are you men of faith, beloved? Do you know what it is to walk by faith, to live by faith, to get your temporary food by faith, to live on spiritual manna-all by faith? Is faith the rule of your life? if so, you are the “sons of Jacob.”

Then Jacob was a man of prayer-a man who wrestled, and groaned, and prayed. There is a man up yonder who never prayed this morning & before coming up to the house of God. Ah! you poor heathen, don’t you pray? No! he says, “I never thought of such a thing; for years I have not prayed.” Well, I hope you may before you die. Live and die without prayer, and you will pray long enough when you get to hell. There is a woman: she did not pray this morning; she was so busy sending her children to the Sunday School, she had no time to pray. No time to pray? Had you time to dress? There is a time for every purpose under heaven, and if you had purposed to pray, you would have prayed. Sons of God cannot live without prayer. They are wrestling Jacobs. They are men in whom the Holy Ghost so works, they they can no more five without prayer than I can live without breathing. They must pray. Sirs, mark you, if you are living without prayer, you are living without Christ; and dying like that, your portion will be in the lake which burneth with fire. God redeem you, God rescue you from such a lot! But you who are “the sons of Jacob,” take comfort, for God is immutable.

III. Thirdly, I can say only a word about the other point-THE BENEFIT WHICH THESE “SONS OF JACOB” RECEIVE FROM AN UNCHANGING GOD. “Therefore ye sons Jacob are not consumed.” “Consumed?” How? how can man be consumed? Why, there are two ways. We might have been consumed in hell. If God had been a changing God, the “sons of Jacob” here this morning, might have been consumed in hell; but for God’s unchanging love I should have been a faggot in the fire. But there is a way of being consumed in this world; there is such a things as being condemned before you die-”condemned already;” there is such a thing as being alive, and yet being absolutely dead. We might have been left to our own devices, and then where should we have been now? Revelling with the drunkard, blaspheming Almighty God. Oh? had he left you, dearly beloved, had he been a changing God, ye had been amongst the filthiest of the filthy, and the vilest of the vile. Cannot you remember in your life, seasons similar to those I have felt? I have gone right to the edge of sin; some strong temptation has taken hold of both my arms, so that I could not wrestle with it. I have been pushed alone, dragged as by an awful satanic power to the very edge of some horrid precipice. I have looked down, down, down, and seen my portion; I quivered on the brink of ruin. I have been horrified, as, with my hair upright, I have thought of the sin I was about to commit, the
horrible pit into which I was about to fall. A strong arm hath saved me. I
have started back and cried, O God! could I have gone so near sin, and yet
come back again? Could I have walked right up to the furnace and not fallen
down, like Nebuchadnezzar’s strong men, devoured by the very heat? Oh! is it possible I should be here this morning, when I think of the sins I have
committed, and the crimes which have crossed my wicked imagination? Yes,  I am here, unconsumed, because the Lord changes not. Oh! if he had changed, we should have been consumed by ourselves; for after all, Mr. Self is the worst enemy a Christian has. We should have proved suicides to our own souls; we should have mixed the cup of poison for our own spirits, if the Lord had not been an unchanging God, and dashed the cup out of our hands when we were about to drink it. Then we should have been consumed by God himself if he had not been a changeless God. We call God a Father; but there is not a father in this world who would not have killed all his children long ago, so provoked would he have been with them, if he had been half as much troubled as God has been with his family. He has the most troublesome family in the whole world- unbelieving, ungrateful, disobedient, forgetful, rebellious, wandering, murmuring, and stiffnecked. Well it is that he is longsuffering, or else he would have taken not only the rod, but the sword to some of us long ago. But there was nothing in us to love at first, so, there cannot be less now. John Newton used to tell a whimsical story, and laugh at it too, of a good woman who said, in order to prove the doctrine of Election, “Ah! sir, the Lord must have loved me before I was born, or else he would not have seen anything in me to love afterwards.” I am sure it is true in my case, and true in respect most of God’s people; for there is little to love in  them after they are born, that if he had not loved them before then, he would have seen no reason to choose them since their good works did not win his affection, bad works cannot sever that affection; since their righteousness did not bind his love to them, so their wickedness cannot snap the golden links. He loved them out of pure sovereign grace, and he will love them still. But we should have been consumed by the devil, and by our enemies-consume d by the world, consumed byour sins, by our trials, and in a hundred other ways, if God had ever changed.

Well, now, time fails us, and I can say but little. I have only just
cursorily touched on the text. I now hand it to you. May the Lord help you
“sons of Jacob” to take home this portion of meat; digest it well, and feed
upon it. May the Holy Ghost sweetly apply the glorious things that are
written! And may you have “a feast of fit things, of wines on the less well
refined!” Remember God is the same, whatever is removed. Your friends may be disaffected, your ministers may be taken away, every thing may change, but God does not. Your brethren my change and cast out your name as vile: but God will love you still. Let your station in life change, and your property by gone; let your whole life be shaken, and you become weak and sickly; let everything flee away-there is one place where change cannot put his finger; there is one name on which mutability can never be written; there is one heart which never can alter; that heart is God’s-that name Love.

“Trust him, he will ne’er deceive you.
Though you hardly of him deem;
He will never, never leave you,
Nor will let you quite leave him.”

An Appeal from the great guys at the Christian Legal Centre

Dear Friends

I am writing to share with you about a wonderful Christian lawyer who has been doing great work to help the Christian Legal Centre over the past two months, and to ask you if you would please consider helping us to meet the costs of his work.

Onn Sein is a very committed Christian and qualified Barrister I have known for many years. For close to ten years he was involved with litigation work and was a partner of a very successful law firm. When he contacted me to say that he would be ready to stand with us in our work at a tiny fraction of his usual rate of pay I felt this was an exciting opportunity to further strengthen our team and enable us to meet the growing challenge before us.

Over recent months our caseload has grown dramatically. At the end of last year we were typically fighting five cases at any one time. Now, due to the increased threat posed to Christian believers in the workplace we are now receiving as many as a dozen new calls every week and we have a current live caseload of as many as twenty.

What is vital when we have so many cases running is to have an experienced lawyer to oversee and manage the caseload, as well as providing support to the younger lawyers in the team.

The cost to the organisation is very low for the amazing value Onn adds. In fact he has been drawing less than one-third of a trainee city solicitor’s starting salary – extraordinary for a 30-hour per week commitment with many hours of unpaid overtime.

When I wrote to you at the beginning of March we were wonderfully encouraged by the tremendous response. The messages of support were so marvellous and the donations you so kindly sent have enabled us to continue our work. I thank God for you all.

Now I am hoping you will help us once again with a donation so that we can meet the cost of employing Onn Sein for the next year. That way I can ensure this vital service to Christians under threat in the workplace will be covered at least for the meantime.

Please help us if you can with a contribution by clicking on the ‘donate’ below and choosing which option you would like to use. It really will make a huge difference to what we can do for Christians under threat for speaking truth.

With my kindest regards and deep gratitude as always.

DONATE

Andrea Minichiello Williams

Christian Legal Centre Ltd

07712 591164

This is the second article of this type today on Christian news websites, talking about the Internet and evangelism, which just shows how important this is becoming:-

Source: Evangelicals Now

These days many people seek answers to life’s questions on the internet. Looking for God is a ministry for Christ which taps into this modern phenomenon.

Looking for God is a website accessed through a Google search when buzz words like ‘God’, ‘peace,’ ‘faith’, etc. are typed in. The aim of the website is to draw people to consider Christianity.

The umbrella organisation is a French group called ‘Top Mission’ which runs a server in Switzerland. Looking for God is simply the English version hosted by United Christian Broadcasters (UCB) in Stoke-on-Trent. But there are many other versions in different languages, including Chinese and Arabic.

Losing inhibitions

EN was able to talk recently to Henryk Krol who heads the Polish version of the outreach. Its website http://www.szukajacboga.com receives around 1,000 hits per day and Henryk is very enthusiastic about the possibilities. He believes that, as a consequence of the anonymity of the internet, people’s natural inhibitions disappear as they surf the web. This, of course, has its bad side, but there are positives.

People are prepared to ask questions and share very personal problems which they would be afraid to air in face-to-face conversations because of social constraints. Certainly religion is a taboo subject of conversation these days for many in the real world. But with the anonymity of the internet people feel able to express themselves much more freely and openly. Henryk recommends the book by Dutchman Peter Scheele, Why? Question-driven coaching, where all this is explained.

Making contact

From the 1,000 hits which szukajacboga.pl receives daily, around 130-140 press a key to ‘accept Jesus’. ‘Of course, this is very superficial’, admits Henryk, ‘and could mean anything.’ But what is interesting is what happens next. From those 130-140, about 20-25 ask to be followed up through anonymous email contact. Approximately 50% of these go on to work through an interactive Bible course titled Why Jesus? And then 50% again actually ask to meet up with someone in real life to find fellowship and further discipleship. It is at this last level that there is evidence that something valuable has happened and that people have either turned to Christ or are at least seeking him seriously.

Geared up

‘How many ministries do you know which are producing five or six converts or serious seekers a day?’ asks Henryk. One of Henryk’s difficulties is finding enough churches in Poland who are geared up to handle this amount of response.

As an aside, Henryk comments that the Arabic version of Looking for God receives around 4,000 hits a day.

This ministry costs money. To continue the link to the Google search costs something like US$1,500 a month for the Polish operation.

e-coaches

In many ways the key to the success of Looking for God is the availability and commitment of Christians who are willing to interact with the seekers over the internet. Henryk refers to these Christians as ‘e-coaches’. A whole army of such people is needed for the follow up.

The word ‘coaches’ is deliberately chosen to describe the kind of people required and what they do in linking up with enquirers. ‘They are not pastors’, says Henryk, ‘for they are not talking to people in church’. ‘They are not evangelists’, he continues, ‘for an evangelist refers everything to Christ and to God’s word and these people are often not ready for that yet.

‘The coach gives person-to-person attention. He wants to bring people to God but is prepared to go down to the level where they are. He wants to find out where they are by asking intelligent questions.’

New lease of life

Interestingly, being involved as an e-coach has re-ignited the spiritual lives of many Christians.

‘In church, many people stagnate’, claims Henryk. He is talking especially about Christians who are quiet people, who lack courage and find it hard to witness in real life. ‘But here, given the anonymity of the internet, they find the opportunity to be useful’, says Henryk. ‘They get involved with people. They listen to them. They pray about their problems. They ask others and research Scripture for answers. They really start growing.’ So this whole venture is not only reaching out to thousands but also giving many people in the pews a new lease of life. ‘One woman e-coach I know’, adds Henryk, ‘recently told me that for the first time in her Christian life she knows what it is to pray without ceasing.’

People and problems

There are many different types of people who access Looking for God and many of them come with all kinds of baggage and personal problems.

‘In the Polish context’, says Henryk, ‘given that it’s a Catholic country, the most frequent scenario which leads people to szukajacboga.pl is loss of faith. They say things like, “Once I was a believer, but now I am far away from God. I would like to be back with God, but when I pray there is no response”.’ Others who hit the szukajacboga.pl website have substantial family problems. Often they are people caught up in love triangles and feeling guilty about adultery. There are many hits too from homosexuals who see themselves as on the way to hell with no hope and are seeking help. Others are depressed and lonely. The anonymity of the system assists such people and, of course, they can take the contact as far as they like. They are free to continue or pull out at any time.

But many find it difficult to disconnect simply because they find the internet relationship so helpful. Henryk relates that many e-coaches find themselves being told, ‘You are the first person who has ever really cared for me’.

In the UK, Looking for God is hosted by UCB radio under Ian Mackie. For further information see http://www.lookingforgod.com

John Benton

I always urge Christians to get online and ‘pump’ the message in any way possible, you just don’t know who might be touched by reading your testimony! As Christians we have the MOST important message for folks to hear and God can use YOUR experiences and testimonies. Don’t let the Evil One convince you that you have nothing to say that is of any worth and that it would be a waste of time.

The Internet also allows us Christians to communicate with one another and support and encourage each other and the more of us that are online with our own websites, blogs or whatever, linking together, the more powerful our voice online will become!

If you have just read this and feel a prompting in your Spirit to get online, don’t ignore this, but get in contact with me now, it won’t be as expensive or as hard as you think and it could be the best investment for the Kingdom that you have made.

Share His and your story with the World.

Blessings Webmaster