There's no denying!

William Tyndale was strangled and burnt at the stake in 1536 for heresy because he dared to stand up for Christ and translated the Bible into English.

Pastor Saeed Abedini is currently in his 3rd of an 8 year sentence for daring to tell others of his faith - Saeed , a former Muslim converted to Christianity and set up house churches in Iran.

Persecution like Saeed's and even further to Tyndale is pretty much unheard of here in the west, but in my opinion we should be warned - it will come our way and sooner maybe than any of us can expect.

Just recently, tolerance for such things as homosexuality, is rife and there are laws afoot that make it a 'hate crime' to voice your opinion on what the Bible plainly teaches.

Here in Australia, scripture in schools is being 'outed' as 'cultish', outdated, fairy tales and fantasy. Many schools have had to make a choice between allowing scripture or facing a backlash of media scrutiny and parent protest.

I can see in the not-to-distant future it will become a crime to voice your opinion on Christianity and doing so could lead to prison sentences simply for taking a stand for Christ.

We can't allow ourselves to be persuaded to 'water-down' our faith; to compromise the very grace of God that saved us just so we don't 'offend' someone in the community.

Jesus himself warned His disciples of the hypocrisy of the Pharisees - an act which ultimately led to His death on the cross.

We have to be so careful and be so aware of hypocrisy in our own lives. Would we be prepared to confess our Lord Jesus when we are under pressure?

Pressure for us, as those living in Christ, will certainly come to us if it hasn't already; whether it will be severe persecution or social rejection, we as Christians will have to give an account to our peers at some stage.

The BIG question we have to ask ourselves is "How will I react? Will I confess Jesus or will I deny Him? This very question is not some 'airy-fairy-pie-in-the-sky' question - It is deadly serious!

Jesus Himself warns us that our very eternal destiny hangs on this question. If we deny Him under pressure then we become hypocrites; saying one thing then acting another: all hypocrites will face God's judgement!

In Matthew 10:33 Jesus says "But...whoever denies me before men, I will also deny before my Father in Heaven" (New Living Translation)

Even unto death we have to confess Jesus before all people: and I truly believe that there is coming a time, and sooner than we think when we will have to do just that - Are you prepared? am I?

I believe too that even our sins are an act of denial of God. We so often deliberately sin, turning our backs on God and doing the "I did it my way" thing! How dare we!

God never turns His back on us, not ever and yet we so often fall for Satan's tricks and feel we can do it ourselves; we get offended and put out; we try, ever so hard, to confirm to the world's standards, when all the time, God's grace, mercy, forgiveness and love are extended to us constantly.

Yes: denying Christ can take all sorts of forms; whether it be our sins of rebellion or failing to own His amazing name.

Jesus recognised that our words and deeds can have a huge bearing on how we are spend eternity: we would be so foolish to simply ignore or shrug off as inconsequential His mighty words of warnings here in Matthew.

We must make a choice and once made to 'stick with it' even in the face of potential persecution, imprisonment or even death.

God bless you as you speak out for Jesus; Make His name known to all and let the world know where you stand.

Indescribable

Do you like me rush around and get into your day, hardly thinking about just how amazing 'the day' actually is?

When you think about it here we are perched on a spinning giant ball hurtling through space at a rate of half a km every second - we are spinning at 1,675 km's an hour.

That borders on the bizarre really - freakish even - when you actually take time to analyse it.

We are the only planet in this huge amazing cosmos that supports life - lunging through the atmosphere, circling a gigantic fiery planet big enough to fit 1.3 million 'earths' in it's vastness at 108,000 km's an hour.

That is totally  mind blowing - when you stop and actually think of our sun - it's huge; amazing - spell binding - a fiery ball of gas and plasma which can blind us if we look at it for any length of time.

The sun is the very centre of the solar system and here we are hurtling around it at incredible speed and yet the very force of our spinning creating 'gravity' which keeps our feet on the ground. We don't appear to be spinning and we feel we are on a firm footing and yet we are actually rushing at incredible speed.

You can't possibly feel that all of this just happened to fall into place - the balance of the universe alone is enough to make God real in every sense.

The Bible says in Romans 1:20 that we have no excuse WHATEVER in not knowing God. - the whole creation screams at us of a Creator God -  God: awesome in power, majesty and might Our God that you can see in everything.

God has revealed Himself plainly in creation: he created you and me - we didn't just evolve - we were created uniquely and divinely not just some accident in space spat out in an explosion of molten fluid and gases.

God created and we sinned - we were the ones who turned our backs on Him - He has always been the same and will be for eternity - This old world of ours will gradually teeter and spin out of control BUT God will remain - Yesterday, today and for eternity.

You have really got to to hear this! - God loves us - you and me - He sent His own Son to bear the punishment which should have been metered out to us - Our punishment - not His - Our sin - not His. He took our sins and killed them stone dead on that cross all those years ago.

Its totally and utterly crazy that God; the creator of this amazing spinning universe had His own son punished for us and why?

Because he loves us that much - The very God, the Creator God, the majestic God, the awesome God, loves you; actually LOVES you.

He loves us and wants desperately to have a personal relationship with us: again, how spellbinding is that!!! - the very Architect of the Universe wants to have a personal relationship with you!!!

We have to make a choice here; Gods wants desperately to forgive your sins  and have that personal relationship with Him BUT you have to choose to accept Him.

Thing is - when we actually stand before our Mighty God we only have one plea and that is JESUS - He paid my penalty for me - He paid the price that should have been mine. When God looks at me He will see Jesus - Will you be able to say the same?

Today, even right now you can KNOW for sure that when you die you will spend eternity with God. You need to get alone with God and accept His amazing offer of forgiveness and let Him change your life.

Begin this awesome walk with God - You will never be the same again - even in the bad times He is there with you.

The God of the universe LOVES you! - He wants so much for you to come to Him.

Don't delay there is nothing to delay about! - You can know today for sure that Heaven is yours - It's time to stop, think and act. Today is the day of salvation.