When he prepared to pay for his coffee, to his surprise, he was told that it had already been paid for by someone who had just left. When a young university student tried to pay for his gas, he was told that it had been paid for by a lady who was driving away. We call these events random acts of kindness. A greater act of kindness happened during the days of Jesus. He was travelling about the cities and villages of Palestine. We are told, “…when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them because they were weary and scattered like sheep having no shepherd.” He later performed the greatest of all acts of kindness, when He went to the cross and died for the sins of the world. He now invites us, “Come to me…and I will give you rest.”
 

Pastor Alex Rockwell
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Nancy Breberg a sixty-seven-year-old diabetic from Minneapolis, was trapped when her SUV slid off the road, and into a pond. For eighteen hours she prayed for help. She might not have survived had it not been for bicyclist Geoffrey Racette, who spotted her and stopped. He found her medication, and stayed with her until paramedics arrived. Racette recalled, “… she wasn’t able to get out of the car and was stuck there.” Nancy Breberg needed outside help, and got it. Her story illustrates what Jesus did for us. Paul explained, “…when we were without strength, Christ died for the ungodly.” He added, “God demonstrates His own love toward us… while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” We all need outside help, because to become a Christian, it is “not by works of righteousness that we have one, but according to His mercy He saves us.” God’s help is available.
 

Pastor Alex Rockwell
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In the year 1914, twenty-nine men sailed from England to Antarctica to cross the Antarctic Continent on foot. But early in their voyage, their ship became entrapped in an ice pack and sank. The leader of the group, Sir Ernest Shackleton left his men, and set out to cross the Antarctic sea in a lifeboat to bring back rescuers. One hundred and five days later, Shackleton returned, as he promised, and the crew was rescued. And our Leader too, the Lord Jesus has promised to return to earth to rescue His children. He wrote, “…I go and prepare a place for you. And …I will come again and receive you to myself. “If you do not believe Christ will return, please remember that it was He who promised centuries earlier that scattered Israel would one day return to Palestine and become a country again. In 1948 the State of Israel was born. Jesus will return.
 

Pastor Alex Rockwell
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Dr. John Stott, in his book “The Birds Our Teachers” writes of a Manx Shearwater, bird of the open ocean, which was taken from Stockholm and released at Boston’s Logan Airport. Twelve days later, the same bird, was home, three thousand miles away. Dr. Stott called that a “homing instinct.” What a God we have, who is able to instill such an instinct into birds. But even more amazing is the fact that He also gives to humans a “homing instinct”. When we are estranged from Him, we feel restless and unfulfilled and try in vain to satisfy our lives with other things. The wise Augustine wrote hundreds of years ago, “…our hearts are restless until we find our rest in God”, adding, “when we come to rest in Him, He comes to rest in us.” The Apostle Paul explained this, writing, “…being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
 

Pastor Alex Rockwell
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Jenny Lind was the best-known singer in the world in her lifetime, thanks to P.T. Barnum, who brought her to America in eighteen fifty. Born in Sweden in eighteen twenty, she became known as “The Swedish Nightingale.” Lind had a brilliant career in opera and on the concert stage. When she came to the USA, she made highly successful tours and concert appearances, attracting thousands, becoming famous and wealthy. But in eighteen fifty-two, she gave up opera and stage. Considering her voice, a gift from God, she once said, “I will sing for God.” And this she did for the rest of her life and donated generously to charitable and Christian causes. She personifies the great truth that, as the Bible says, “…our bodies are the temples of the Holy Spirit and we are not our own…”. Because of this we are exhorted to “glorify God in our bodies and in our spirits, which are God’s.”
 

Pastor Alex Rockwell
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A Time Magazine once had as it cover story- “The Pursuit of Happiness.” The article inside made mention of “The American Declaration of Human Rights”, signed in seventeen seventy- six, attempting to guarantee the right of everyone to happiness. Often, we think of it as personal gratification, a state we want for ourselves. Unfortunately, the more we pursue happiness, the more elusive it becomes. If it depends on our circumstances, friends or financial success, it will be fleeting, because circumstances can change. But when our happiness is found in a personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ we have peace with God and assurance of a home in heaven. It need never change since Jesus is the source of our happiness and He never changes. He promised, “I am the Lord, I change not.” He is “the same, yesterday and today and forever.” We can all trust Him for our happiness.
 

Pastor Alex Rockwell
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If you are fifty or over, I’m sure you have been amazed at the changes which have taken place during your lifetime. The computer is a huge factor. But think of the changes which take place in our lives when all the children move out, medical problems come, or we lose employment. Remember the words of the old hymn, “Change and decay in all around I see…” And thankfully, in this world of enormous changes, there is one constant. The God of the Bible never changes. He said, “I am the Lord, I change not.” Our Saviour never changes. The way to heaven never changes. Timothy, in the New Testament, wrote “…For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself a ransom for all.” Church attendance, baptism and other religious acts do not prepare us for the next life. Jesus said, “…no one comes to the Father except through me.”
 

Pastor Alex Rockwell
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From time to time, huge diamonds come on the market and are auctioned off at fabulous prices. But these beautiful gems were once lumps of carbon buried deep in the earth- not beautiful until discovered, cut, polished and perfected. And did you know that God can take a life that is broken, seemingly of no value, and transform it? Bill Gaither’s song expressed this wonderful change. “Something beautiful, something good, all my confusion He understood. All I had to offer Him was brokenness and strife, but He made something beautiful of my life.” And Paul gave us God’s description of what happens when we give our lives over to Christ. He wrote, “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. Old things have passed away, behold all things have become new.” God sees us as “ diamonds in the rough”, until we place ourselves in His hands.
 

Pastor Alex Rockwell
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Blaise Pascal was a brilliant French mathematician, physicist, inventor, writer, and God-fearing man who lived in the sixteen hundreds. “He once expressed his philosophy of life as follows: “Man wants to be happy…but how shall he go about it? …we don’t want to think about our frail lives, the fact that someday our lives will end, so we fill our lives with toys that numb our minds and help us forget.” Pascal was correct. Pretending there is no afterlife, using diversions is not the answer. But when we face the reality of the next life it is comforting to hear that Jesus our Saviour promises “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me, though he may die, shall live.” Blaise Pascal believed that, and so should we, because it is the truth. Jesus offers us the gift of eternal life, since He died and rose again to make that possible.
 

Pastor Alex Rockwell
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According to Mothers Against Drunk Driving or MADD, on average, approximately four people are killed each day in crashes involving alcohol and/or drugs, and surviving family members are left with a lifetime of pain. In some cases, drunk drivers with rich families receive reduced time in jail. But God does not minimize our wrong-doing. He tells us “There is none righteous, no not one.” And to those who think they have gotten away with hurting innocent people, He says, “Be sure your sin will find you out.” He is a God of holiness, but also a God of grace who “… demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” When we repent and ask His forgiveness, He assures us, “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
 

Pastor Alex Rockwell
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