Christ for the Personal Crisis-Jack Bond

The Truth of the Gospel

Becoming a Christian Frank Hunting

...At the Same Time! Patti Height Testimony - The Becket Cook Show Ep. 168

One word only!

"Into thy hands I commend my spirit" by Pastor Harold Long

Continuing Salvation-Becoming the best person you can be.

"Into thy hands I commend my spirit" by Pastor Harold Long

Is Jesus a stranger to you? by Harold Long

"The Spirit of the Lord is now Upon Me". Harold Long

The First Adam v the Last Adam by Pastor Harold Long

 

This video is about The First Adam v the Last Adam by Harold Long.

The opening Bible readings are by the late Pastor Frank Hunting.

The late Harold Long was a Churches of Christ minister and the one who was instrumental in my becoming a Christian.
It  is an important message to enable us to understand the Gospel. It shows how we are born "in Adam", a life that leads to death and when we become Christians we are "in Christ" and have entered into eternal life and freedom.It is also important to note how important the opening Chapters of Genesis are and that we should read them as literal truth.   Geoff Thompson

The Centrality of the Cross

Below is an extract from a book or series of sermons with the above title by Jessie Penn-Lewis.
Every serious Christian should consider her work and teachings.
These are a few paragraphs taken from her writings.
You can find all this book at the following link.

http://www.worldinvisible.com/library/jessiepenn-lewis/8791/8791tc.htm

Put simply the cross of Christ is the key to Christian Living,Experience and Victory.
Some teachers like John Stott,Neil Anderson, Charles Solomon,Frank Hunting and others will show you how we can exchange our lives for the life of Jesus.
The Great Exchange.
Romans 6 is the key.

from Jessie Penn-Lewis

"Now let us pass on to see the Cross as the centre, or 'fixed point', for VICTORY OVER SIN, OVER THE WORLD, OVER THE FLESH, AND OVER THE DEVIL. For a clear unveiling of the Cross as the 'fixed point' for the Christian's victory over sin, we turn to Romans 6. It is the basic chapter in the whole of the New Testament, where the deep meaning of the death at Calvary is set forth, in language which is extraordinary in its simplicity and clearness, and marvellous in its comprehensive explanation of the gospel. No wonder that the "god of this world" has influenced so many to relegate Romans 6 to the theologians, so as to keep believers from understanding its simple truth, because the deceiver knows it to be the CRUCIAL MESSAGE OF THE GOSPEL from the experimental standpoint.
God-ward, the death of the Lord Jesus Christ was the atonement, and the propitiation for sin, but in Romans 6 we are shown the Cross in its manward aspect-in its dealing with the sinner. Here is the practical, deep and vital message to the sinner, showing him the way of deliverance from the power of sin, from the world, the flesh and the devil. Here in the Romans 6 message of Calvary, Paul laid the foundation deep and, strong. Here lies the bed-rock depth of the Cross, as the 'fixed point' for the personal life of the believer, personal equipment, and personal victory in every aspect of need.
Let us read the passage slowly and carefully: Verses 1-2, "What shall we say then? Shall we persist in sin that the gift of grace may be more abundant? God forbid! WE WHO HAVE DIED TO SIN." Here is the Cross in its aspect of the death of the sinner with the Saviour. It is clear from this that Christ's Cross was the sinner's cross, not, of course, in the matter of atonement God-ward, but in the taking of the old creation life to the Cross, that the believer should be delivered from the power of sin; and that, not by conquering it, but by dying to it. Here is the key to victory. The deepest things are the simplest.
The real trouble about understanding the sixth of Romans is not a theological, but a moral one. When we sincerely want deliverance from the power of sin, it is within our reach. It lies just here for the simple soul who will take the statements as a fact. For the sake of a lost world, let us have no 'moral' hindrances to our knowing the reality of the Cross. If men and women would be utterly willing for the deepest work of the Cross to be wrought in or applied to them, there would be a trembling of the powers of hell, a shaking of the kingdom of darkness. The pivotal secret of God's plan for the redemption of a lost world lies in the meaning of Romans 6. The central fact of the Cross being the sinner's cross, as well as the Saviour's.
Moreover, this Romans 6 meaning of the Cross must be recognized as the root foundation of the Christian life, just as the 'root' is necessary to the life of the tree. A tree cannot part with its root, but must strike it deeper into the ground, so that all external growth may have strong support in the earth, and strong life-force for its maintenance.
" We who have died to sin," how can we any longer live under the mastery of sin? Or "have you forgotten that all of us ... were baptized into fellowship with His death?" writes the Apostle. 'All of us'-not the few who wish to be advanced souls, but young converts also! If every convert to Christ was 'born again' through the gospel message of this chapter, and they knew its power in experience at the very beginning of their Christian lives, there would be less backsliding, and need of careful nursing lest they fell away, for a new life would be imparted to them in stronger power, and Christ as the Living One would be known as a real Saviour."

About this blog by Geoff Thompson

This post is probably lost at the beginning of my archives so repeated here for new followers.

I have formed this blog as I have decided to post sermons from my collection of Christian Tapes that are from my own past Pastors and others from time to time.
They will feature the recorded sermons of Harold Long and Frank Hunting.
Both men have gone to be  with their Lord some  time ago now.
Some of these have already been posted on my other blog.
You can also access them at my youtube channel as per the below link
https://www.youtube.com/user/pembridgehouse
I am concerned that today's generations of young Christians are not always getting exposed to quality and discerning preaching.
I believe we,today's Christians,  are in danger of being members of the apostate church in the book of Revelation of which Jesus says "you  are neither hot nor cold, I spew you out of my mouth!"(you can find this if you look)
I have a very large collection and I doubt that I can digitise them all before I part this earth but that is no reason not to start.
Below are some outlines about Frank Hunting and Harold Long.

Please note that some podcasts  in this series do not always  stop at the end of the the address.
That is because I have not perfected my editing.
When you get a silence of at least a minute at the end of an address that means it's finished.
I apologise for any convenience.

I have now added some transcripts of some of my own messages which are delivered as a layperson at the Parkrose Nursing Home in Adelaide and also in the Renmark Uniting Church Congregations in Renmark South Australia.These are in a voluntary capacity.

ABOUT FRANK HUNTING

Frank Hunting on the left and Harold Long on the occasion of Frank's 80th Birthday

Frank Hunting was a Churches of Christ Minister who was my minister at the Grote St. Church of Christ when he came there in
1975 after many years Ministry in Ballarat,Victoria and other places before that. He was my minister in tandem with Pastor Harold Long from 1975-1980 (approx) .Frank is now with His beloved Lord. Frank had a very distinctive teaching and counselling ministry. His gifts were very much in counselling people with troubled spiritual and emotional problems , what some would call mental illness. He was Frank by name and Frank by nature. Without Frank’s ministry to myself and my wife and family I doubt that I would have remained a Christian. He taught such things as the necessity to keep in right relationship with God and others through going to Jesus on a daily basis. He alerted us to the fact we have a very real enemy. “ we wrestle not with flesh and blood.” who is out to destroy our homes.
He taught about prayer and also how when we become Christians it
does not mean that everything will now be a bed of roses. He taught that many of our troubles as adults have their roots in not only the effects of our sin but that often we have problems from early childhood and adolescence that we tend to push down into our subconscious minds that the Bible calls the Heart. These problems are usually to do with rejections or abuse that we might have suffered and quite often we are not consciously aware of. He counselled many including myself on how these things affect us and how to take them to Jesus for healing. Even though we may be Christians ,unless these things are brought to Jesus ,we can have much trouble in our relationships and in life and indeed may never come to know the abundant life that Jesus promises us. I have many Bible studies that Frank prepared for use in Churches , booklets on important Christian themes and may cassette tapes of his teachings.
With permission from Frank’s family, for which I am very grateful, my aim is to bring his teaching to a world that is desperate for healing and hope.I will be progressively putting up  material for the use of people who currently call themselves Christians and those who are seekers after God’s truth.

ps Frank Hunting was also a champion Australian Rules footballer in his younger days and played 4 games for Essendon in 1933.

ABOUT HAROLD LONG

Harold was a long serving Churches of Christ Minister who had Ministries in Victoria,NSW and South Australia.
He did his Bible College Training at the College of The Bible at Glen Iris which was a Churches of Christ Theological College.
We met Harold Long and his wife and family when we were attending the Church of Christ in Adelaide at Grote Street in South Australia.
I sat under Harold's teaching for some 3 years before I ran out of arguments as to why I should not become a Christian after listening to many of his sermons.
My wife was already a Christian.
We had the privilege in our formative Christian years of both Harold's ministry and also Frank Hunting.
I have often said Harold was the one who God used to bring me to Jesus, and Frank was the one who God used to keep me there.
Both men were Pastors in the Churches of Christ movement and were very gifted expositors of the Bible.
Harold was well known and loved for his prophetic teaching on the end times of the age and the Church and the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.
I have many tapes by both men and also other Church of Christ Ministers who have been our Pastors and many who were guest Preachers.
I will post some of the others at a later date, God willing.
One set of Harold's sermons  I intend to post are a series called "What Churches of Christ Believe."
 There was a time when most Churches of Christ in Australia would have believed the things Harold expounded on but sadly I think there has been a falling away in some of our Churches on what was held dearly by some.
When you listen to them you can judge for yourself.
Harold's son Rob has given me the ok to publish these tapes.
Ps As at January 2014.
As I am now in my retirement speaking in Church services on a more regular basis as a lay person I am also going to start posting my own sermons as shared in the Renmark Uniting Church and the Parkrose Nursing Home.
I have been posting these to this point on my main blog but will attempt to double up on here.
Also you can access them on my youtube channel as below
https://www.youtube.com/user/pembridgehouse
I do not presume that my messages are any where near the quality of my mentors but you will find a lot of the things I have learnt from Harold and Frank in these.

The Rich Man and Lazarus by Geoff Thompson

On the weekend of 27/10/13 I had the privilege of being guest speaker at 2 Church Services in Renmark,South Australia.
The churches were the Renmark West Uniting Church and Renmark(Town) Uniting Church.
This has come about becuase when visiting my wife's Renmark family reasonably frequently we have attended Renmark West Church with her mother.
The Uniting Church has long had lay people preach in their services.
WEhen it became known hat I occasionally spoke at services in Adelaide I was asked if I could help out from time to time in Renmark.
This weekend was the second time I have spoken in Renmark.
It has been a really wonderful privilege to share with people in both of these churches.
Church is a great place and institution for many reasons.
Worshipping God,fellowship,christian instruction, and much more.
These are indoor Church experiences.
I am equally in awe of God and His creation when in the great outdoors of Australia.
Some say, like my late father in law, that the outback was their Cathedral.
The music of the birds, the wind and colour and wildlife bring me closer to God.
Indoor Church was Sunday.
Outdoor Church was on the Saturday before when I went with my mother in law to the Sunset National Park  for a picnic and drive.
God's majesty was on display there and also closer to home.
Below are some pics and also an outline of the sermon I presented on Sunday.

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Sermon  for Renmark 27/10/13

Scripture.   Luke 16:19-31

The Rich Man and Lazarus

¹⁹ “There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. ²⁰ At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores ²¹ and longing to eat what fell from the rich man’s table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores.

²² “The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried. ²³ In Hades, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. ²⁴ So he called to him, ‘Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.’

²⁵ “But Abraham replied, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony. ²⁶ And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been set in place, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.’

²⁷ “He answered, ‘Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my family, ²⁸ for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.’

²⁹ “Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.’

³⁰ “‘No, father Abraham,’ he said, ‘but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’

³¹ “He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’”

 

Over the years when I have tried to talk to people about their need for salvation , the gaining of heaven and the avoidance of hell, this is a common retort I have been given.

“No one has ever come back to tell us what happens after death.”

But in actual fact Jesus has done just that.

Jesus Himself rose from the dead after His crucifixion and also then appeared to the disciples and others  in His resurrected body.

He had meals with them and talked with them.

Thomas of “Doubting Thomas” fame is reported to have claimed He would not believe  until He saw Jesus himself.

When he did meet Jesus and saw His nail pierced hands , he believed.

The evidence to him must have been overwhelming.

But Jesus blessed Thomas and told him how blessed he was to have seen and believed but even more blessed were those who were not to see but still believed.

That means us of course who have not seen in person the living resurrected Lord Jesus.

A friend of mine has told me over recent months that he can’t believe until he has seen for himself in effect, Jesus standing in front of Him.

I have argued with him that even a blind person can believe in Jesus but can never physically see anyone.

My friend has also argued how can you believe anything is there if you can’t see it.

I have then said well you watch TV and listen to the Radio but you can’t see those electricity waves or tv signals in the air but they are there.

Our radios and TVs or computers of course translate the signal for us to visibly see or hear the result.

Think of the marvel of the internet where we can now be instantly in touch with anyone any where in the world and also actually see them on a screen and talk to them.

All those waves of communication as they travel through the air and even outer space cannot be seen until they are received in a device of some sort specifically designed for the job.

It is of interest in the book of Job that  God foretold these means of communication centuries before they became possible.

He was reminding Job of His sovereignty and absolute power over the whole of creation.

The marvels of His creation.

Job 38: 1. Then the Lord spoke to Job out of the storm. He said:

² “Who is this that obscures my plans
    with words without knowledge?
³ Brace yourself like a man;
    I will question you,
    and you shall answer me.

Reading furher down;

Job 38:35       Do you send the lightning bolts on their way?
                          Do they report to you, ‘Here we are’?

Or as another translation puts it

“Who among you can send lightnings and say I am here or there?”

This is communication as we know it today.

The Bible tells us that faith comes by hearing,hearing the Word of God.

By hearing the word of God for a period of 3 years, hiding in the back corner of the Church,I became convinced this must be really God speaking and He has a plan for me and anyone else who will listen.

I was hearing the Bible regularly read out and the minister expanding on the passages.

I heard enough to take a calculated leap of faith.

It was not blind faith as some like to describe Christians and their faith.

But faith does not come by seeing the Bible says.

“faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”

In my own l conversion to Christianity I came to faith as I had committed as part of my marriage, to attend Church with my Bible believing Christian wife and my eyes were opened.

Even someone rising from the dead today will not convince anyone of their need to respond to Jesus.

Human nature will always find and excuse or argument to get around even something like that.

Why?

Because it is not in our nature to put ourselves under the Lordship of the Lord Jesus Christ.

We want to be “captains of our souls and masters of our fate”

A very smart and eloquent turn of  phrase but if followed it leaves us bankrupt when we depart this earth and often in his life.

We do want to demand our right to our selves.

To be captain and master.

Our Creator is the only one who can set us free from the law of sin and death.

If you have never said yes to  Jesus in your life it is not too late.

If you have said yes to Him have you really turned your life over to

Him.

The apostle Paul tells us that the unspiritual man is blinded and cannot see or experience the miracle of new birth and faith until he or she makes that step of faith.

We were all in that state ie. Blinded, if we are Christians ,until we said yes to Jesus.

We see a very sad story in our scripture brought to us today.

There is a rich man, we are not told his name, and a poor man named Lazarus.

(There is another story in the NT of a rich young ruler asking Jesus what he must do to inherit eternal life and also another story of another Lazarus being raised from the dead)

Back to these two.

They had both died and “passed on”  as we describe death today.

The rich man is dismayed when he can see the poor man Lazarus enjoying the company of Abraham in Heaven.

The rich man is in torment in Hades or if you like Hell.

Theologians of course argue about Hades and Hell.

We won’t explore that argument today.

It seems to me on reading this passage that the rich man is stuck for eternity.

Abraham tells him there is no hope of crossing over to where he is.

He,the rich man, apparently can converse with Abraham and begs him to send Lazarus back to earth to tell his family in the hope that they will be spared from where he is.

Abraham points out that if the rich man’s family had listened to the prophets  and Moses and acted on the message  they would have been able to avoid the rich man’s predicament.

He goes on to say if they will not listen to Moses and the prophets,they will not be convinced even if someone were to rise from the dead.

The rich man had obviously not heeded God’s commandments through Moses and the Prophets.

And this is true of all mankind today.

Ie. As we now have the word of God as explained in the New Testament.

It has been revealed that we now live in the age of grace,not the age of the Law that these two lived under.

As I listened in Church   to the Word of God faithfully expanded on ,and explained, and the actual words of God  read out, I grew into a believer.

Those words of God were touching my soul,my heart, they were reaching in and ministering at a deeper level than I had known before.

And I did have some deep needs that had seen me floundering in life as a 20 year old.

After 3 years of listening I made a conscious decision to let Jesus into my life.

I was 28 at the time.

I have never been disappointed in that decision made nearly 40 years ago.

I have experienced nothing that can assure me there is a better answer for all our fears and frailties than the living, resurrected Lord Jesus.

I have experienced much that convinces me even further. 

That doesn’t mean life has been a bed of roses.

There is a huge chasm separating us from God unless we accept the living way Jesus has prepared for us.

He is “the bridge over troubled water”

Some of us can remember the Simon and Garfunkel song of that name.

The way of salvation that was open to the rich man and Lazarus is different to  what is available to anyone who has been born since the day of penetcost.

We are living under a new covenant.

The message of today’s reading is very relevant to us in that we need to respond to Jesus and the message of the New Testament.

I realise that in a place like this I may be preaching to  the converted.

But I am one of those converted people and  I too need to make room for Jesus in the busyness and sometimes sillyness and laziness of my life.

Have you any room for Jesus in your life?

We need to give Jesus His rightful claim to our lives for our immediate and future well being now, not before it is too late.

My wife Lesley and I were married in the Cong Church here in Renmark in 1971.

One of our guests was my late Grandmother who apart from my mother was a hugely influential and much loved person in my life.

She was very frail and unwell at our wedding.

We went to live in Darwin straight after our marriage and we had only been their a short while when my Dad rang one night and said my Grandma had died.

I wasn’t a Christian at he time although coi- incidently we had a  room full of Christians in our house on that night.

I never had talked to her about God that I know, not much any way.

She had given me a Bible for a Christmas present on one occasion.

Years later I found in her Bible,(hold up) some important verses underlined.

One was John 1:12

“As many as received Him, to them He gave the power to become the sons of God,even to them that believe on His name.

There is a big gulf between my grandma and I at the moment but Jesus has provided the bridge to walk over.

He has also provided the bridge between us and God.

"In Between" by Geoff Thompson

Below is the message and order of service  I brought to The Parkrose Nursing Home on 29/12/13.

Order of Service 291213

Call to worship  Geoff

Psalm 95:1-7

Hymns 58     This is my Father’s world

            529  All Things Bright and beautiful

Announcements:  Dean

Prayer:  Geoff

Reading:  Ephesians 1:3-10

Hymn 96 Never in a human story was a sight so wondrous seen.

Communion

Offering

Prayer

Hymn     28  Great is thy faithfulness.

Message:   “In between”  Geoff

Hymn  586  I know not why God’s wondrous grace

                           V1-2,4-5

Benediction 

Vesper   A new commandment I give unto you.

  

SERMON FOR PARKROSE 291213  IN BETWEEN

Call to worship

Psalm 95

¹ Come, let us sing for joy to the Lord;
    let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation.
² Let us come before him with thanksgiving
    and extol him with music and song.

³ For the Lord is the great God,
    the great King above all gods.
⁴ In his hand are the depths of the earth,
    and the mountain peaks belong to him.
⁵ The sea is his, for he made it,
    and his hands formed the dry land.

⁶ Come, let us bow down in worship,
    let us kneel before the Lord our Maker;
⁷ for he is our God
    and we are the people of his pasture,
    the flock under his care.

 

Scripture Reading:

³ Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. ⁴ For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love ⁵ he^[b] predestined us for adoption to sonship^[c] through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— ⁶ to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. ⁷ In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace ⁸ that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and understanding, ⁹ he^[d] made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, ¹⁰ to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment—to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ.

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IN BETWEEN

At this time of the year we are about to see off the current year and welcome the next.

It is a time between Christmas and New Year for reflection.

Reflection on what has just gone by in the last 12 months, or even longer than that and what is just around the corner.

What does the future hold?

In the last 12 months we may have experienced some wonderful moments.

We may have been through some heartache.

We may have lost a loved relative or friend.

We may have had the joy of seeing a cherished son or daughter or granddaughter get married.

We may have seen the arrival of new babies in the family.

There may have been wonderful birthday celebrations.

Our emotions have been up and down and all over the place.

We may have struggled with continuing ill health.

Our Bible reading tells us if we are Christians,

^“3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.”

There will have been times in the last 12 months where we have certainly felt blessed but times when probably we haven’t .

The hardest thing of course is losing someone we loved dearly.

We may still be grieving.

Jesus is still grieving with us and wanting to comfort us.

What lies ahead in the new year?

More than likely more of the same we have just experienced this year.

Of course we are always kept up to date with all the latest disasters and atrocities if we watch the news or read the papers.

That is usually interspersed with some feel good stories.

A Christian Minister we learned much from once said he was, as he got older and more mature in his faith, able to look back on each year and say that it was better than the year before.

I can’t say I have had that experience very often.

I have personally known some very dark times with depression in particular.

Looking back on this year in many ways it has been overall, a great year for Lesley and I but you never know what’s around the corner.

Two days ago we found our favourite cat,”little Cat” we call him,(he’s anything but that) had broken his back leg in 2 places.

We were given a choice.

Amputate his leg or do corrective surgery.

We will be going ahead with the surgery.

This Monday in fact.

Our pets can be such a blessing and we grieve much when we lose them or can no longer care for them.

One young woman across the road has dubbed “Little Cat” as “The Captain of Clement Street” such is his popularity with everyone in the street.

I digress a little.

So what was the minister on about?

He wan’t discounting all those things that are bound to happen to all of us one way or another.

In fact this same Minister in his later years became bed ridden after suffering a stroke and lost his ability to speak properly.

Amazingly he could still say the Lord’s prayer fluently.

He could also sing Hymns.

But normal speech had deserted him.

He still had an amazing smile though.

He was talking about how if we continue to grow in our relationship with God, as we spend genuine time with Jesus each day,

He is the source of Joy and Peace.

We were in Renmark last weekend and Lesley just about bought out the local Christian bookshop.

She bought back this amazing wall plaque or sign.

“GOD I AM IN YOUR HANDS.

I KNOW YOU WON’T DROP ME”.

It says much about the concept of knowing not what the future holds but  knowing who holds the future.

He holds us in the palm of His hand.

We have a favourite Fridge magnet also which we sometimes share with others.

It goes like this.

“I was regretting the past

      and fearing the future

Suddenly the Lord was speaking:

“MY NAME IS I AM!”

He paused.

I waited.

He continued.

“When you live in the past

    with its mistakes and regrets,

    it is hard.

I am not there.

My name is not I WAS!

When you live in the future, with its problems  and fears, it is hard.

I am not there.

My name is not I WILL BE!

When you live in this moment,

It is not hard. I am here.

My name is I AM”

We may think

“that’s all very well for you to say but you don’t know how hard it is for me at this moment.”

I don’t of course.

But  Jesus , the God of all the universe, He does .

He knows your circumstances.

He knows our circumstances.

He loves each one of us individually.

By His death and resurrection he made it possible for us to know eternal forgiveness from our sins.

Possible to know assurance of having a place prepared for us when we pass out of this life to the next.

We may not  have arrived yet, as fully fledged mature Christians on top of everything.

In fact that is a lifetime process and we should be wanting to grow as Christians to the very end.

I read these words the other day as attributed to John Newton who wrote the hymn “Amazing Grace”

It I think encapsulates the experience we all have as growing Christians.

It sounds a lot like someone “In Between”

“I am not what I ought to be, I am not what I want to be, I am not what I hope to be in another world; but still I am not what I once used to be, and by the grace of God I am what I am”

We will sing our closing Hymn

1.  I know not why God’s wondrous grace
  To me He hath made known,
Nor why, unworthy, Christ in love
  Redeemed me for His own.

o   But “I know Whom I have believed
And am persuaded that He is able
To keep that which I’ve committed
  Unto Him against that day.”

o    

2.  I know not how this saving faith
  To me He did impart,
Nor how believing in His word
  Wrought peace within my heart.

4.  I know not what of good or ill
  May be reserved for me,
Of weary ways or golden days,
  Before His face I see.

5.  I know not when my Lord may come,
  At night or noon-day fair,
Nor if I’ll walk the vale with Him,
  Or “meet Him in the air.”

Vesper

A new commandment
I give unto you
That you love one another
  As I have loved you,
That you love one another
  As I have loved you.
    By this shall all men
    Know you are My disciples
    If you have love one to another.

Enemies of God by Frank Hunting

This is a tape from the 1970's by Frank Hunting about the things that separate us as Christians from an effective relationship with God.It was recorded at the Church of Christ at Grote Street Adelaide,South Australia.See this link below for info about Frank Hunting.
http://geoffthompsonstapelibrary.blogspot.com.au/2012/09/introduction-to-this-blog.html