De.4:24 Say's, "For the Lord thy God, is a jealous God." The Apostle Paul say's in 2Co.11:2, " For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy:" God is jealous over us, He wants our love as it was when He saved us. Our First love!

Throughout our life we are bombarded by the enemy to side track us with good ideas and opportunities not to be missed. As a result, we so easily become obsessed with so many things in life, even addicted to what might be acceptable for non Christians. You say what am I addicted to? Just think a minute what is it that you just have to do today. Something you have to watch, somewhere you just have to go, is there something repetitive that's got hold of you, without you noticing it. If there's anything taking the edge off that quickened relationship we have with God it's wrong, no matter how good it might be.

We need to ask ourselves regularly are we pleasing Him, is He our first priority. We also need to look at who we are associating with, are they of God, if they are not, are they influencing our thinking, actions and direction. It's so easy to get into things that are not profitable for God's Kingdom. Before we know it we are into unprofitable areas for God's purpose for our lives.

I am not saying we should cut ourselves off from people, we need to reach out with Christ to all we meet. But we have to be different and to have boundaries in our lives that cannot be crossed. Our every day priorities must be firstly God ward.

I am not saying we should cut ourselves off from people, we need to reach out with Christ to all we meet. But we have to be different and to have boundaries in our lives that cannot be crossed. Our every day priorities must be firstly God ward.

No I'm not talking about getting religious and holier than those we mix with, but we do have to have an impact for Him on all we meet. We do have to be different from the world that goes on around us, so many of the things around us are not necessarily bad but not for us. One of the issues of the age we live in is the speed that everything is happening. Today people don't have time to stop and take stock of the important things in their lives, but are just about making it through there work and home routine each day. Daniel 12:4 says,"But you, Daniel, close up .... the scroll until the time of the end. Many will go here and there to increase knowledge."

There's so much we can know and involve ourselves with, so many lines of interest we can follow. When I retired 13 years ago, I had such plans to do so much that I hadn't had time for while at work. So many doors to open so much I could learn about. Since then I have found that I am busier than ever and find it hard to believe where all that extra time I thought I would have is going.

I am not saying being busy is wrong. I am saying we have to prioritise and let God have first place. The devil cannot hinder our relationship with God directly because he is excluded from the realm that God's Spirit moves in within us. His main tool is to try and fill our lives with things which attract and dull our senses to what God wants to do through us and more importantly stop our response to Him. So many things seem to have deadlines we must meet before we do anything else.

In talking about the last days Jesus indicated the days would be shortened. Mk.13:20 "And except that the Lord had shortened those days, no flesh should be saved:"

I believe the times we live in are being shortened, time is a very precious commodity we have to spend our time here as much as we can in the awareness of God's presence.

People often find it hard to find time to attend church regularly, it seems peoples intentions are good but when the time comes something happens to divert them to some other more pressing issue. We have as Jesus did to focus on getting into God's presence Lu.9:51 says,"He steadfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem,"

"It's a must", we as Christians need to attend somewhere regularly, fellowship is so very important. We lose out if we are not disciplining ourselves to get into His manifest presence. There is so much criticism and excuses about local churches and nowhere to go near me, etc. It's just one of the enemy's ploys to isolate us from His body, His people! No church is perfect or is going to meet all our expectations or personal preferences. We don't go to church to meet with the people we go to meet with God. God, I believe shows up at every church meeting and is there to touch and change us and above all to bless us if we will let Him. Please don't get side tracked and slip back from God's best for you! I speak from experience! I hear it all to often it doesn't matter if I miss the meeting, I will be OK. Soon they don't go anywhere for fellowship, then they are led back into the world system on the enemies escalator to disaster. It's so subtle, so sad, so difficult to get back to where we all as Christians belong. We need Holy Ghost Fellowship to survive in the times we live in, we must stay firmly connected to God's body it's His life support system for each one of us.

I ask it all in Jesus Name! Now! Amen.

Alan Churchill Editor