The Return of the king

Loved the Lord of the Rings - The Return of the KING!!

"The eye of the enemy is moving - the end has come - Frodo moves closer to Mordor - It is time - give him the sword of the king - claim who were born to be"

WOW!!! Gives me chills - the return of the king saw the gruesome end of Saruman the once great powerful wizard and finally corrupted by his desire to own THE ring.

The end of Sauron the amazing dark Lord and maker of the THE ring

The end of the trolls those horrible and nasty protectors all out to receive THE ring and so it goes on.

So what does a king do to those who rebel against him.

In days gone by and history records it vividly there was no going back once you were labelled a traitor to the King - there was no hope for you - none whatever.

Why on the 8th February 1587 Queen Elizabeth 1 executed her cousin Mary Queen of Scots and this year marks the 432nd anniversary of that dreaded time. Bad and cruel times indeed all in the name of power, intrigue, lies and mayhem. It took three whacks with the axe to finally decapitate the young Queen of Scots. I trust Elizabeth could rest easy after that.

If you were labelled a traitor as was the beleaguered Mary, you were imprisoned, tortured and finally executed in the most abhorrent ways ever thought of by a human mind.

Kings have been named and famed for years and years - cities and countries lost and gained throughout history by wayward kings and queens - overthrowing their enemies left and right to gain the power of the King/Queen.

But God has named His king: Jesus Christ Himself. Those who continue in rebellion against King Jesus have another fate in store which we will discuss a little later on.

Jesus as King gave His life so that we didn't have to - His love was far greater, more far reaching, more immense than anything that we have encountered. His love was SO great that he died to make us alive.

Jesus was labelled a traitor, a rebel, a blasphemer and a rabble rouser. He was tortured and nailed to a cross to die in abject horror and excruciating pain. He was mocked and scourged, flogged and ridiculed yet he did it for us anyway.

Today the majority of people choose not to accept Christ - they mock him and treat His saving power as a falsehood - a myth - a fantasy to be believed by the 'tooth fairy crowd' just like they did on that day at Calvary over 2000 years ago

Christians and believers are treated with a growing pessimism and yes even hatred - Christians have been hounded over the centuries and today it seems to be getting worse with more and more countries bowing to the lies of the enemy in the name of tolerance - all very sad because so many even in our own families giving into the watering down of the faith that saved them originally.

Many strange and wayward thinking contradicting the Bible has surfaced and re-surfaced again and again ad-nauseum. Many today don't believe that Jesus rose from the dead as foretold many times in the old testament - many years before Jesus came and died for us.

Many refuse to believe in hell! A place described again and again as the place where all non-believers and haters of God are going to end up for eternity. It's so easy to live life in your own little world if you believe you are just going to die and that's that. Jesus Himself talks about an eternity without Him.  Mark 9:43.

The latest I have personally heard is that many Christians believe that evangelising is wrong - so much for Jesus saying "Go into all the world and preach the Gospel"  Mark 16:15.

There are still many who believe in rituals to come to Jesus - eg You must do certain things you must go certain places, you must eat certain foods on certain days, you must bow down to statues and keep lots of rules and regulations and if you don't Jesus will turn His back on you

So you can see that there are many falsehood surrounding Christianity and many believe that the Bible is a myth and Jesus never came at all.

Whatever the reasons many reject Jesus, their rejection according to the Word of God will have disastrous effects and eternal consequences.

This in Acts 4:12 Jesus is the only name under heaven by which men and women can be saved ie Jesus is the ONLY way - there is no other.

Then again Matthew 25:30 which I will let you read for yourself describes utter anguish for those who reject Him and it's for eternity!

Honestly!! If you feel like you have blown it with Jesus - If you feel you are just TOO far gone and nothing you can do will make God love you and forgive you, then I have great news for you and there is still great hope for you right now even as you may be reading this blog.

No matter what you have done you can't erase His love and what Jesus did for you on Calvary all those years ago.

Right now there has never been a better time for you get honest with God and yourself  - there has never been a better time to ask forgiveness of God - run to the cross and claim His love and mercy for yourself.'

No matter what you have done - no matter who you have been with - who you may have cheated - who you may have hurt - what you have taken from someone - no matter what you have been through and the list goes on  - While you still have breath IT IS NEVER TOO LATE TO COME TO CHRIST.

Ask His forgiveness today, repent of your past and be washed clean through the very sacrifice of Jesus who paid for your sins in the past, right now and in the future.

Yes! we all fail - we will never be perfect until Jesus comes again BUT he has left us an amazing legacy of continuing forgiveness and repentance.

AND YES!!! Jesus is COMING AGAIN - Yes! Our King is coming back.

Are you ready for Him or are you going to be left behind to face the consequences?

Come to Him right now - Our King is the King of the impossible - no matter that you have doubts or just how HUGE they are are, or just how little your faith is - He died for YOU and loves you and is waiting for you to come to Him right now.

God bless you this week as you consider just where you stand with Jesus.

When life takes a hideous detour

How  do we cope when things go radically wrong??

People, events, attitude and even the weather can change our lives in often dramatic ways - things we never even thought of before can come thumping into our lives in the most unexpected ways and times. Things that can floor you and change your life forever.

Thinking along these lines my hearts and thoughts go to the horrific murder of a young women and her 2 year daughter in 2008.

The murders ripped the very soul out of the small town where they lived and because it was murder and also of the sheer brutality of both I doubt the family will ever be the same again.

So how do you cope when life takes a hideous detour?
It is certainly way too hard to lose a  loved one anyway, but to add a brutal murder to the events of death the complexities become 100% deeper because of denial and shock.

Murder, and again I am thinking of this particular shocking one, is especially horrifying because another person, a third person, felt that your loved one's life was worth nothing and took innocence and through their own decision blotted it out.

The very shock of losing a dear one, a friend or acquaintance grabs hold of you immediately and leaves you totally devastated.

I guess after the shock comes anger -which up to now may be completely unknown to the Christian especially in regards to a family member if they are involved.

Many people feeling this way, beat themselves up because of guilt - it would not be uncommon to be so angry at people, jealous of other families.and even angry at God. In lots of cases I can imagine that this anger and heartbreak will never go completely away.

It is so natural to feel anger and the need for revenge that your minds and your lives can think of nothing else.

So understandably, the very thought of forgiveness is way out of your comfort zone if I can call it that! It doesn't even make a blip on your radar. Again please don't beat yourself up for this. It is understandable and completely natural.

Yet, forgiveness can be a soul/life restoring huge event that is really not about the perpetrator at all - it's about you! Letting go of your anger, your jealousy, your need for revenge and yes, even your guilt and anything else that is holding you back can point you in the direction of living a fulfilling life.

Can we do this on our own? This is a question I struggled with for years after an event in my own life that has affected me constantly. I have come to the conclusion that YES in a way we can but not fully!

Believe me I tried. But it was only after I decided to let God have 100% of my life was I finally was able to put a full stop to that period and let go of my guilt and anger and the ever-present need for revenge.

I realise now that no matter what we do or the legal system does to the perpetrator or even if he/she seemingly "gets away" with the crime, nothing will leave you with any feeling of completeness and finality as forgiveness does,

With time and when I say that, it took years and years in my case, (so please don't be hard on yourself) to feel any sort of forgiveness to the perpetrator. The sheer fact that you even commence to feel forgiveness or even to allow the thought to fly through your heart and brain is a HUGE step forward.

So in the case mentioned above, to begin to feel a sort of forgiveness towards the killer will be an amazing step - a huge leap actually!

Now, this is something that I learned and would dearly love to pass onto you.

I would suggest that we don't forgive him for his horrendous crime but for his erroneous, flawed and counterfactual humanity. It is so natural to feel hatred, when you face evil and honestly. With the case mentioned above that is what we are dealing with - pure evil.

But with forgiveness comes the miraculous feeling of self preservation and a release of guilt. It's not saying 'go ahead and let the perpetrator off the hook' far from it!  But it is a release to let compassion heal your own heart and soul.

God really is the only one who can forgive the perpetrator fully and properly. Let's face it we are all flawed we all have erroneous and counterfactual personalities and really we are the ones that need forgiveness too.

Should hatred, spite and the need of revenge rule our lives or are we ready to at least entertain forgiveness?

Below is a eye-popping website to visit - please take the time to do just that but I must warn you that it is very very heart rending.  It tells the story of Marietta Jaeger and her family who were out camping when her young daughter, Suzie aged 7, was seized and brutally murdered about a week later. It's a heart rending account and really quite horrific but also shows how Marietta coped and still coping.

https://jjie.org/2015/10/14/forgiving-someone-who-kills-your-loved-one-seems-impossible-until-it-isnt/

Forgiveness takes courage and a trust in God - it takes boldness to confront your own thoughts, angers and the
 need for revenge but with God we can be overcomers and we can grow in love, mercy and forgiveness.

Will we ever 'get over' such atrocities as this? I hardly think so. But God alone knows the outcome of EVERY situation in our lives and knows what is the best way for us to move or inch forward to grow us into Christ followers regardless of the atrociousness that has marred and scarred our lives.

God bless you all this week as we move on with God and we may even consider for a fleeting moment what it would be like to forgive.

With God's grace leading us, you never know we may find security in knowing we are in a healthy place again.