In our own homes – may the light of God’s love shine upon us.

“Your Word is a lamp to my feet, and a light to my path” (Psalm 119:105).

Without the Word of the Lord, we’re stumbling around in the dark; We’re trying to make sense of life, but it’s not quite working, There’s something missing. The Word of the Lord comes to us. It brings light into our lives. Everything changes when the light of the Lord shines upon us. No longer do we feel like we’re travelling through life on our own. The Lord is with us. Do we, always, feel close to God? No. We don’t. There are times when we feel that He is far away from us. Is He far away from us? or Are we far away from Him? Do not think that God is far away from us. He loves us. He doesn’t stop loving us when the going gets tough. He keeps on loving us. His love for us is unchanged, unchanging and unchangeable. What about our love for Him? It’s very different from His love for us. Sometimes, we’re up. Sometimes, we’re down. How can our love for God grow stronger? Our love for God grows stronger when the light of his love shines upon us. How do we know that the light of the Lord is shining upon us? We look away from ourselves to Jesus. We look at His crucifixion. There, at the cross, we see how much God loves us. We look at His resurrection. We see that His love triumphs over death. With our eyes fixed on Jesus, our Saviour and Lord, we move forward with hope. This hope is, always, more than human optimism. An “everlasting light” has shone upon us (Isaiah 60:19-20). It’s the light of “everlasting love” (Jeremiah 31:3). This everlasting light is leading us on to “everlasting life” (John 3:16).

Shine upon us, Lord. Shine upon us with Your love. When our love for You is weak, May we know that Your love for us is strong. Your love is ‘always and forever’ love.

‘In heaven’, there’s ‘an open door’(Revelation 4:1).

Who has opened heaven’s door for us? – Jesus Christ: ‘He only could unlock the gate of heaven, and let us in’, ‘Jesus loves me! He who died heaven’s gate to open wide; He will wash away my sin, let His little child come in’(Church Hymnary, 241,418).
From heaven’s open door, we hear the voice of love. Jesus calls us – ‘Come up here’(Revelation 4:2).
What happens when we respond to Christ’s call? – ‘At once I was in the Spirit’: ‘God sends the Spirit into our hearts’(Revelation 4:2; Galatians 4:6).
The Spirit fills our hearts with worship: ‘You are worthy, our Lord and God…’. ‘Worthy is the Lamb who was slain…’(Revelation 4:11; Revelation 5:12).
Jesus invites us to catch a glimpse of heaven, to catch the Spirit of worship, to be filled with the ‘glory’ of God (Revelation 4:8,11; Revelation 5:12-13).

Lord, give us a glimpse of heaven. Teach us to worship You. Fill our lives with Your glory.

“Thus says the Lord of hosts: ‘Let your hands be strong, you who have been hearing in these days these words by the mouth of the prophets, who spoke … ‘” (Zechariah 8:9). 
We hear the Word of the Lord so that we might become strong in the Lord. God’s Word is not to go in one ear and out the other ear. When that happens, Satan is winning a great victory over us – “When they hear, Satan comes immediately and takes away the word that was sown in their hearts” (Mark 4:15). When we “hear the Word of God”, let us pray that we will “accept it and bear fruit” (Mark 4:20).

Lord, give us Your strength – the strength that we need to walk with You in the way of victory.

“The blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, cleanses us from all sin” (1 John 1:7).

This is the cleansing which everyone needs. No matter how healthy we may be in our bodies, we are spiritually diseased because of sin, and we need Christ’s cleansing.

Thank You, Lord, for the cleansing that is brought to us through the shedding of the precious blood of Christ.

“Here  is the man whose name is Branch … He will rebuild the Lord’s Temple” (Zechariah 6:12).

We read these words. We think of Jesus and His promise, “I will build My Church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18). The servants of the Lord are sent out to different places (Zechariah 6:1-7). The “Spirit” of the Lord goes with them (Zechariah 6:8). It is the Spirit of the Lord who brings blessing when the Word of the Lord is preached. “Those who are far away will come and rebuild the Lord’s Temple” (Zechariah 6:15). By ourselves, we are “far away”: far from God. Through Christ, we have been brought near – near to God. By His grace, he has saved us. By His grace, He will use us in the rebuilding of His Temple. There will be blessing when we are fully obedient to the Lord. This will happen if you obey the Lord your God completely” (Zechariah 6:15).

Lord, lead us on to a closer walk with You and a more fruitful witness for You.

‘Take the little scroll and eat it. It will turn your stomach sour, but in your mouth it will be as sweet as honey’ (Revelation 10:9).

We are to feed on God’s Word – the difficult parts as well as those passages which make us feel good.

God’s Word speaks about judgment as well as salvation. Before we can rejoice in ‘the Kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ’, we must hear about His ‘wrath’: ‘The time has come for judging the dead’ (Revelation 10:15,18).

‘Sweet and sour’: For a balanced diet of God’s Word, we need both . We need the ‘sour’ – ‘It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God’ – as well as the ‘sweet’ – ‘God so loved the world…’ (Hebrews 10:31; John 3:16). The ‘sour’ – ‘Flee from the wrath to come’ – creates a hunger for the ‘sweet’ – ‘the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world’ (Matthew 3:7; John 1:29).

When, Lord, we hear the bad news concerning ourselves – we are sinners, help us to be thankful for Your Good News – Jesus is our Saviour.

Keep on praying for our troubled world – and keep on thanking God for answers to prayer.

God bless you all.

Charlie