Remember, you have a soul

It is important to remember that you have a soul or a spirit. We are not only bodies and minds. There is also an invisible part that makes up a human being – the soul or heart. One of the biggest problems facing us today is that people have forgotten about their souls. They think that as long as their bodies and minds are okay, all will be well. That is a foolish mistake to make. It''s like a child who thought his toy would work without plugging it in or having batteries or a child who thinks he can have fun with a balloon that has no air in it.

Never trust a chapel person

My dad was not a Christian for most of his life. He would sometimes snipe at Christians if he could. He used to say ‘Never trust a chapel person’ which I hated when I first heard it but I came to see he had a point. I remember how disgusted he was with a professing Christian we heard of in the same line of business as my dad who was found dealing with money in a less than acceptable way. He was not stealing but it was dishonest, a fiddle. Double dealing is entirely anti-Christian.

Unbeliever, don’t make hypocrites an excuse. Believer, don't give unbelievers an excuse to criticise. Above all, never forget that Christ can be fully trusted.

A good compromise

I’m always impressed with a story of Eric Liddell – the athlete famous through the film Chariots of Fire but later a missionary in China interned with other westerners when the Japanese invaded. He tried to keep the youngsters busy with games but true to his principles when he was asked to referee a Sunday hockey game, he refused. However, when he heard they’d tried to play one Sunday and hacked pieces out of each other he agreed to referee the following Sunday feeling it was better to prevent a riot rather than stick with his previous plan.

This is compromise in the good sense. This is rigidity and flexibility without forsaking integrity. You see it chiefly in Jesus himself.

Sincerity and integrity

Sometimes we hear of men dying who have lived double lives – they have two (or three) wives, even more sometimes. Deceivers live complicated lives, saying different things to different people. This is never found in God. Those who follow him must be the same - uncomplicated, straightforward in their dealings, full of integrity. Like Paul they must also follow God’s sincerity.

Paul uses an interesting word - it reminds me of shopping with my mother as a boy and how she would take an article outside the shop into the street, if she was allowed - to see it in natural light. The word could literally be "judged by the sun". The thing may look okay in the dark recesses of an ancient bazaar but what about in the sunlight?

Alternatively, it could be literally "judged by sifting/sieving". What God does is free of impurities - again his followers should do the same. Their actions should be pure, sincere, open to scrutiny.

So Paul is not simply saying that he is honest but that his inner life has been touched by God and so everything he does conforms to the Lord’s standards. He cannot but be straightforward and sincere.

Catcher in the Rye

I can't always pray when I feel like it. In the first place, I'm sort of an atheist. I like Jesus and all, but I don't care too much for most of the other stuff in the Bible. Take the Disciples, for instance. They annoy the hell out of me, if you want to know the truth. They were all right after Jesus was dead and all, but while He was alive, they were about as much use to Him as a hole in the head. All they did was keep letting Him down. I like almost anybody in the Bible better than the Disciples. If you want to know the truth, the guy I like best in the Bible, next to Jesus, was that lunatic and all, that lived in the tombs and kept cutting himself with stones. I like him ten times as much as the Disciples, ....

(Catcher in the Rye, J D Salinger p. 130)

Not like the others

"One Of These Things (Is Not Like The Others) One of these things is not like the others, 

One of these things just doesn't belong, Can you tell which thing is not like the others 

By the time I finish my song?" 

They used to sing that on the children's programme Sesame Street. There'd be three red balloons and one blue or three tools and a shoe say, three birds and a frog, etc. Now when it comes to being a Christian then we are the thing that is not like the others, the one thing that doesn't belong. This doesn't mean that we should cultivate looking weird - wearing dated clothing or talking in a strange voice - but it does mean that our outlook has to be different.

Messiah the Hope of Israel

If you watch sport then one of the things you look for is an individual or a team that is invincible – that win everything. 

The “old invincibles” were the Preston Northend football team of 1888-89 who won all their games in league and cup that season. It has been also used for teams like Arsene Wenger's Arsenal in 2003-04 and in Scotland Glasgow Celtic in 2016-17. 

Do you know the term the great white hope? The expression was originally used in the early 20th Century when the heavyweight boxing champion was an African American called Jack Johnson. He seemed invincible and people wondered if they would ever see a white man as champion again. 

It doesn't happen so much in politics these says but there was a time when people were looking for someone who could fix everything. 

Now Jesus is our champion. He is our Saviour if we trust in him. He is the hope of Israel. By nature we are without hope and without God in this world but he has come and if we trust in him, there is hope. Trust in him today.