Storm Christoph swept across Britain. A couple in danger of severe flooding in Manchester said that this trouble came on top of BREXIT and Covid. With a wry smile, they added that they would “hope for the best and open a bottle of wine!” Arnold Schwarzennegger had his first dose of Covid vaccine, and urged everyone to follow suit, saying “Come with me if you want to live.” And America has a new president.

Joe Biden swore to serve America, quoting Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Declaration of 1863. This declaration, which ultimately led to the abolition of slavery in the USA, was his proudest achievement. Lincoln said that his ‘whole soul’ was in it. Referring to his new role, President Biden echoed these sentiments saying that his ‘whole soul’ was ‘in it’. He spoke repeatedly of truth and peace.

The young poet Amanda Gorman spoke passionately about a way forward, and quoted a Bible promise about people sitting peacefully and without fear

‘under their own vine and fig tree’

Micah 4:3-5

The source of unequivocal truth is the Bible:

The entirety of Your word is truth  

Psalm 119:160

The Bible contains an amazing message: hope of eternal life, and freedom from the slavery of ‘sin’. It says of true Christian believers

having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life

Romans 6:22

So, what are our hopes? What will be our legacy? Where is our heart and soul? The Lord Jesus Christ said

I am the way, the truth, and the life

John 14:6

..you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ This is the first commandment. And the second, like it, is this: ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these

Mark 12: 29-30

Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid

John 14:27

If you abide in my word, you are my disciples indeed.  And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free

John 8:31

We can have absolute truth and the best hope imaginable. If we ‘want to live’ (for ever) we need to love God and follow Jesus. Let us put our ‘whole souls’ into doing that.

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The deal is done and we have left the EU. But we are assured that we will retain friendship with Europe because we share its values.

A few days before this, a disgraced former British MI6 spy died in Russia. He had said that he did not feel that he ‘belonged’ to Britain because he could not share its values. He believed fervently in Communism, and so was a traitor to Britain, betraying many British spies to death during the cold war.

There have been many traitors in history. The most famous in the Bible was the disciple Judas Iscariot who betrayed Jesus into the hands of the religious rulers. Jesus himself was accused of being disloyal. At his fake trial, the Jews said to Pilate:

“If you let this man go, you are not Caesar’s friend. Whoever makes himself a king speaks against Caesar”

John 19:12

In fact, Jesus had not been disloyal to Caesar at all. While agreeing that he was indeed to be a king, Jesus had already told Pilate:

“My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would fight, so that I should not be delivered to the Jews; but now my kingdom is not from here”

John 18:36

And later, in a letter to believers, an apostle wrote the following words about faithful men and women who shared ‘heavenly’ values and hopes.

These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth…..But now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly country. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them

Hebrews 11:12-14

So we ask the question. What are our most important values? Let our New Year resolution be to find out what God’s values are. Then we can be loyal friends of Jesus and not traitors. If we do this then God will not be ‘ashamed’ of us, but pleased to give us a place in His wonderful kingdom with Jesus as king.

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Our government has done a massive U-turn and reversed their decision to relax the rules over Christmas, and so disappointed millions of people. How could they have anticipated the mutant strain of the virus which is spreading so fast?

We all promise things in good faith and then find ourselves unable to keep our promises. And so we often disappoint people.

The Bible describes God as sometimes changing His mind, or relenting, but this is almost always when He decides to defer or to revoke threatened punishment. This is because He is so longsuffering and merciful:

“…a God full of compassion, and gracious, longsuffering and abundant in mercy and truth”

Psalm 86:15

In fact He knows what is going to happen, so nothing can surprise Him or spoil His plans. This includes offering eternal life to us human beings.

“…in hope of eternal life which God, who cannot lie, promised before time began”

Titus 1:2

And His promise of a wonderful kingdom on earth with a perfect king is an important part of this. As the angel Gabriel said to Mary

“And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call his name Jesus.He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give him the throne of His father David. And he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end” (Luke 1:31-33).

And the old man Simeon recognized that the baby Jesus would fulfil God’s promises by bringing salvation to both Jews and non-Jews.

“For my eyes have seen Your salvation which You have prepared before the face of all peoples, a light to bring revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of Your people Israel”

Luke 2:30-32

This is an uncertain world where decisions are hard and often frustrated. Let us all determine to trust in God and resolutely prepare for the return of Jesus. God will not make a U-turn about this promise.

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