Understanding the monarchy!

All photos courtesy of Unsplash

The Queen celebrates two birthdays each year: her actual birthday on 21 April and her official birthday on a Saturday in June with the Trooping of the Colour Parade in Horse Guards Parade.  The Queen turned 96 this year, a remarkable milestone but one tinged with sadness after the loss of her beloved husband, Prince Philip.

The Queen of England

All photos courtesy of Unsplash

This week the Queen was missing from the State Opening of Parliament. During her long reign of 70 years the Queen has only been absent from this annual event on two other occasions, the last one being in 1963. This is the first time the Queen has passed this responsibility to a family member. It was an action with great significance. Prince Charles, the future King, carried out the duties with Prince William sitting close by. It was an brief preview of the future, God willing.

Previously, the Queen had been absent from the Remembrance Service commemorations at the Cenotaph in London after spraining her back, leaving other royal family members to honour the UK’s war dead in public. A wreath was laid on her behalf by her son, Charles, the Prince of Wales.

The palace said the Queen, head of the armed forces, had missed only six other Cenotaph ceremonies during her long reign. She had made the decision not to attend “with great regret” and was “disappointed” to miss it. The rendition of “God Save the Queen” during the service was notably loud as the crowds of spectators joined in with gusto.

What on earth is happening to the world?

Are you frightened about the state of the world at the moment? Many people find it very scary, as every day seems to bring another disaster. Murder seems to be so commonplace! On a daily basis we hear of someone else going on the rampage and killing people! Individual acts of terrorism are on the increase resulting in the tragedy of people being deprived of their loved ones by an act of violence. Events of yesterday seem so long ago as we wake up to hear of another tragic evil act being perpetrated.

I find it all very distressing and yet I, sadly, can see the inevitability of the way the world is going. The Bible teaches that conditions in society will get worse and worse as time progresses. Paul, an old man, wrote to Timothy, a young man – ‘but understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with deceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness but denying its power,’ 2 Timothy 3:1-5. I think what the Bible is saying in these verses is staring us in the face. Do you recognize a description of our society?

If we reject the moral compass of the Bible then ultimately there are consequences. In effect morality becomes subjective and personal. There is no absolute standard of right and wrong. Everyone does what is right in his or her own eyes. This is not a new problem. It happened in Bible times, and many times since but every time is happens the results are disastrous. The old book says ‘there is a way that seems right to a man but its end is the way of death,’ Proverbs 14:12.

If we don’t get back to the Bible we can expect society to get worse and worse. We need to educate the next generation so that they don’t make the mistakes that we have made. The Bible says ‘train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it,’ Proverbs 22:6

I'm also glad to say that the Bible states that ‘where sin increased, grace abounded all the more,’ Romans 5:20. This means that the gospel of Jesus Christ can meet the needs of a wicked society. Forgiveness starts with the individual. The promise of scripture is still true – ‘If we confess our sins, he (God) is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness,’ 1 John 1:9. Society will never change by enforcement but by the transforming power of God working in the each individual’s life through the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Are you fearful? Scripture says ‘perfect love casts out fear,’ ‘the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord’.

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Why do we die?

The Bible states that 'it is appointed unto men once to die'. This most obvious of facts is among the most distressing things that we human beings face. I have a friend who committed suicide just before Christmas about ten years ago - why I can guess but I do not really know. Shortly after that one of my contacts in Liverpool found that her partner's nephew has been found dead in his flat. 

Death comes to us all but why?

The Bible tells us why. It is because of sin. 

The Bible states that we die because we were born into a fallen race. The first man, Adam, brought 'sin into the world and death by sin'. 

We also are all in the habit of sinning and the Bible states 'sin, when it is finished bringeth forth death'. We all sin, fail, hurt, lie, disobey etc, and therefore the moral and physical result is death.

But Jesus said 'I am come that they might have life'. 

How can that be true? We all still die! That is true physically but when a person comes to Jesus, by confessing our sin and asks him for forgiveness, they receive eternal life. The Bible says 'He that hath the Son hath life'. God promises in his word, The Bible, that 'he that cometh to me I will no wise cast out'. The Lord Jesus said 'come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest'.

This is actually only possible because 'Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners'. The Bible puts it like this 'The Father (God) sent the Son (Jesus) to be the Saviour of the world'.

Amazing! God intervened to solve the human tragedy of death but His only course of action legally was for someone else to die in my place. The only person who qualified was Jesus. His death was voluntary because death had no claim on him, He could not sin, and did not, which is why death had no claim on him. The Lord Jesus willingly died to save me from eternal death in Hell and the Lake of Fire.

What about you will trust the one who can deliver from the 'fear of death'?

To access podcasts and videos explaining the good news of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ visit www.seekthetruth.org.uk

This site will give you access to Bible Teaching Audio's and Video's as well

Thank you for the music

Music and songs create passion in our hearts and evoke vivid memories. Some of these memories are good some are sad! 

Songs are very emotive and help us store memories. A very effective method of learning is linked to the rhythm in repeating words that somehow glue the words or the facts to our minds. Most of us didn’t necessarily enjoy it but we often learned facts or figures (times tables for example) by musical rhythm. If you were dragged off to Sunday School (maybe you loved going) you may remember learning bible verses, for example, “For God so loved the world that..” or “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and ..” or maybe “Honour your Father and your Mother”. All of this was to get some important facts from the bible into your young mind for the purpose of living life and one-day meeting God.