Cleansing
A young criminal, inmate of jail L...., attempted to commit suicide because he could't bear to continue living in despair. One day a prison chaplain visited the inmates and this young man ran after him and asked him, 'Can you take the brain out of my head and wash it clean of all the wicked thoughts which continually prompt me to do evil?'
The man of God answered' It is not necessary to have such an operation. It would not bring about any change. However, I know another means of mental purification'. The wretched inmate replied,
'What is that? 'Take this book, study it carefully in faith and your thoughts will be purified. Millions of people, throughout the ages have tried this method and found healing'. Having said that, he gave the young inmate a Bible and added, 'In a week's time I will visit you and you will tell   
me what has happened.
The young inmate began reading the Bible and it was not long before he committed his life to Christ. Next time the chaplain visited him the young inmate was full of joy and comfort of soul. 'Truly', he said, 'I see my mind being refined from the evil thoughts. Christ has filled me with His power which strengthens me and gives me light'.
If you want your mind to be cleansed and your body to be freed from its passions and be subject to your thoughts, and if you want to see the things of this world as they really are know that Christ is the only One who can set you free from the bondage if sin. Read the Bible. In it you will learn that Christ can set you free and you will be free indeed., because Christ came to seek and to save those who were lost (Matt.18:11).

Cultured or Converted
We come into the Kingdom of God, not through evolution, but by revolution. There are some who feel that they can become part of the Kingdom by exposing themselves week by week to the activities of the Christian Church and its teaching-Salvation by Osmosis. A friend of mine calls such people 'cultured Christians'. They have all the appearance of being genuine children of God, but they have never personally undergone the life-changing experience which the Bible calls conversion.
Why is it that so many struggle against Christ's insistence on repentance as being the first prerequisite to the
Kingdom of God? Is it not that the first instinctive reaction of the human heart is to raise up barriers against
an intruder? Christ demands to be admitted on His own terms in our lives, and this, of course, runs diametrically opposite to the self-centred instinct which lies deep within our beings. We struggle to preserve our ego intact, and avoid anything that challenges the pride principle that has entwined itself about our nature.
We fear 'lest having Him we have naught else beside'.
Let there be no doubt about it-the only way into the Kingdom of God is when we repent out sin, and allow God to bring us into His Kingdom by the miracle of Conversion. And what is Conversion? Someone has defined it as 'The change, sudden or gradual, by which we pass from the kingdom of self into the Kingdom of God'. May I sincerely ask whether this has happened to you?                   Skepsis

He who abides in the secret place of the Most High

Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.

I will say of the Lord, 'He is my fortress,

my God. In Him I will trust.'

Surely He shall deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the perilous pestilence.

He shall cover you with His feathers and under His wings you shall take refuge.

His truth shall be your shield and buckler.

You shall not be afraid of the terror by night

Nor of the arrow that flies by day.

Nor of the pestilence that walks in darkness.

Nor of the destruction that walks in darkness. Nor of the destruction that lays at noonday

A thousand may fall at your side And ten thousand at your right hand. But it shall not come nigh you.

Only with your eyes shall you look and see the reward of the wicked.      Ps.91

THE DOOR
Our Lord Jesus Christ likened Himself to the Door of Salvation.'I am the Door; whoever enters through Me will be saved. He will come in and go and find pasture' (John 10:9).
Let us take a closer look at every single word our Lord used. 'I am the Door' The pronoun 'I' refers to the Lord Jesus Christ. When He says I am the door, He excludes any other door, any other person. Therefore, the Church, even though it is a sacred institution , is not the door. The preacher, even though he has the ability to point his congregation to the door, is not the door. Good works, though they are necessary for believers, are not the door.
The Lord is the Door. He said, 'No one comes to the Father except through Me' (John 14:6). It is also written, 'Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under Heaven given to men by which we must be saved' (Acts 4:12). The word 'am' deserves serious consideration. He did not say, 'I was the door' as if  He was proclaiming a truth that applied to Him only in the past. He said 'I am' the door. He is the door in the present, right now. Therefore we have been called 'to come now' and to 'enter now, at this very moment. The Scripture tells us, In the time of My favour I heard you and in the time of Salvation I helped you' (2 Cor.6:2).
The next word we need to pay close attention is the definite article 'the'. The Lord did not say, 'I am a door' as if there were many doors. The Lord is not one of many doors but the 'Door', the one and only Door.
We all know what a door is and what is used for. It is an entrance, a way of getting to a place. The Lord Jesus is the way to Salvation, to Peace, to Eternal Life, to God's Glory and to our Heavenly Home. He deserves to be the Door because He is the One who died for our sins in order to bring us back to God'.
Christ is the One who shed His precious blood so that we can have forgiveness of our sins (Eph.1:7). He is the only One worthy and capaple of saying, 'I am the Door; whoever enters through Me will be saved'.
Note the simplicity of the way of Salvation: 'Whoever enters through Me will be saved'. Not through the Law, not through good works, not through a good reputation, not through proper behaviour, not through money, but 'Through Me'. 'Whoever enters through Me', i.e. everyone, man or woman, girl or boy, young or old, 'whoever enters will be saved'.
The door is wide open. My dear friend, you have an invitation to enter-'Come to Me all' (Matt.11:28). Will you come now? If you come in you will join the sheepfold of the Great Shepherd, you will come and go out amongst His sheep, and you will find pasture. In Christ you will be a new creation and your life and your behaviour will reflect this reality through the power that He has put at your disposal.

I don't have Time
Quite often, when you talk to people about God, His love and His Salvation and you ask them to read something from the Bible, their answer is 'I don't have time'. However this is an excuse which shows there is no interest in the things of God.
I don't have time to spend on God, I don't have time to read His Word. This is what you hear them say. Without doubt, they have time to read any other book other than the Word of God. This kind of person justifies himself by saying he does not have time for God, only for all these other things. He has time for food, for sleep, for work and for earning money. He has time to see friends, to enjoy himself and for pleasure. He has no time at all for only one thing, that is, God. If we place all these things in a logical sequence we would make a big list in which God has the last place. This means one thing. I am NOT interested in the subject of GOD.
Quite often, people excuse themselves by saying 'I don't have time' because they want to distance themselves from God and avoid the whole subject. They have the idea that they will live better lives without God. They would satisfy themselves fully and they would not have anybody to answer to. But God is not mocked!
We learn to manage our lives down here on this earth and to fool people. We think we can manage to fool God in the same way but, soon, we are going to leave this earth and when we stand before the Throne of God with tears and remorse we shall hear these words 'You did not have Time'
 

Things we Throw Away
An irritated reader of a national newspaper wrote to the Editor, calling this country 'The Island of Rubbish'. The sad truth is, this complaint was not an isolated incident. A short walk in the area where we live confirms the truth of this complaint. One notices ravines, building plots, fields and yards with all kinds of rubbish and refuse.
Some years ago, in a neighbouring country the street cleaners, whilst emptying the refuse bins, heard a noise from one of them that sounded like an infant crying. Thinking it was a doll they were astounded to find that in fact it was a new born baby. One more life sacrificed on the altar of Molech for the sake of convenience and social acceptability!
What things do we really throw away? Usually whatever we do not like. We throw away old clothes, kitchenware and many other things. We throw our children out of the house because they do not do what we ask them to do.  We throw out our wives because they do not satisfy us any more. But one thing we do not throw away but keep tenaciously is our ego which is the root cause of all this evil. When we change our circumstances we find a temporary satisfaction but we refuse to change our own selves and one day we shall end up on the everlasting garbage dump for unrepentant souls.
The words of Jesus on this subject 'What shall a man profit if he gains the whole world and loses his soul?' (Matt.16:26) encourage us to make correct decisions and get our priorities right. Let us rid ourselves of the things that are useless in our lives, for example, enmity, jealousy, evil desires, selfishness and many other burdens that would deprive us of Eternity. When we lighten our load then we can take on the better part of life. Jesus said, 'Take my yoke upon you.... for my yoke is easy and my burden is light' (Matt.11:29-30).

I Am Alive
Suddenly, without realizing it, a big lorry approached me and literally flattened me while I was crossing the road. All its wheels went over my body and I was amazed to feel no pain at all.
It was a dark night when I was heading home and obviously the lorry driver had not seen me. The result was that I ended up under the wheels of the lorry. To my amazement I discovered that I could move and slowly I got out from under the vehicle. At that moment the driver appeared and he could hardly believe that I was still alive. He was astonished and relieved to see me get up and stand on my feet. I told him I was fine but he pointed to the tyre marks on my shirt.
When I arrived home all my friends and acquaintances insisted that I should make sure I had not suffered any internal injuries which I had not. When the incident was made known a big crowd of people came from far and wide to see if it was really true. Whenever anyone asked for proof I pointed to the tyre marks on my shirt and I said 'God wants me to continue to live'.
So I have hung my shirt on the outside of the entrance to my house so that everyone can see what God can do for us.                                          Cheng Kwang Mi          China.

The Lord's Prayer (Luke 11:1-4)
'Forgive us our sins for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us'
Forgiveness is one of the most difficult subjects to learn in the Christian life. It affects us spiritually,
psychologically and physically. In the verse above, there is a condition. For forgiveness to work out in our lives both parts of the verse must agree, i.e. since God has forgiven our sins we must also forgive those who sin against us. We usually find no great difficulty with the first part but we often are unable to practice the second.
The Bible declares that God has forgiven our sins because of the work of the Cross-without any reservations. This is the forgiveness that brings to the heart of the sinner who is saved peace, so that he can live a life with God. Psalm 32:1 says, 'Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered'.
But let us turn to the subject which troubles us so much. Why do we find it so difficult to forgive those who wrong us? Though we want to forgive them, nevertheless we find ourselves, repeatedly, not able to do so. I believe this is mainly because of the wounds suffered to our personality from all kinds of relationships we have in our lives. Our character and personality play a big part in this matter. We find it difficult to forgive because deep in us there are roots of bitterness that poison our being and resist our willingness to forgive. If we do not take care to deal with this problem we shall end being slaves to the person we do not forgive and severing the bridge that leads to reconciliation. God calls us to forgive. Why? Because if we do not our whole life is negatively affected.
Enmity, guilt and refusal to forgive will create in us psychological, mental and physical disorders. Apart from these problems, unforgiveness will push us into a cell where we shall be imprisoned by the enmity against the person we do not forgive. The Parable in Matt.18:23-25, tells us about the servant who did not forgive his fellow servant despite the fact that his Lord forgave him an enormous sum he owed him. His Master delivered him to the tormentors until he paid the debt. The same punishment will meet us if we do not forgive from our hearts-tormented by bitterness and hate. We shall become slaves to the hate and bitterness in us forever, until we learn to forgive. In addition to being slaves, God's hand will cease to rest upon us. The result will be a sterile life, unable to minister effectively to those who are in need.
We have a perfect example of forgiveness we need to imitate: our Lord Jesus Christ. To those who crucified Him and mistreated Him He said, 'Father forgive them....'