In Christ, there is so much blessing.Let's enjoy it! Be what you already are. Be what God has made you in Christ. This is what God is saying to us here. ‘You have been raised with Christ... You died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God’ (Colossians 3:1,3). Paul is describing the …
Continue reading Feast of the Holy Family: Colossians 3:12-21; Matthew 2:13-15,19-23
What's Christmas all about? Is it about coming to church, coming to a service? No. There's more to it than that. It's about coming to Christ, coming to the Saviour. What a welcome you will get when you come to Jesus. Whatever this year's been like, you can end the year on a high note …
Bible readings for New Year's Day - Ecclesiastes 3:1-13; Psalm 8; Revelation 21:1-6a; Matthew 25: 31-46 These readings are taken from the Revised Common Lectionary. How excellent is our Saviour – He takes away the emptiness of life without Him. ‘God has put eternity into man’s mind’ (Ecclesiastes 3:11). In every human heart, there is …
January 1: when observed as New Year’s Day – Ecclesiastes 3:1-13; Psalm 8; Revelation 21:1-6a; Matthew 25: 31-46 - The same readings are suggested for Year B and Year C. Let’s begin the year with worship: “O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is Your Name …” (Psalm 8:1). How excellent is our Saviour – He …
2 Chronicles 30:6-12; Mark 1:1-13 "Then the runners went throughout all Israel and Judah with the letters from the king" (2 Chronicles 30:6). A message had been given to them. They passed the message on. They "spoke according to the command of the king" (2 Chronicles 30:6). What we see here, in 2 Chronicles 30, …
Continue reading A New Year Sermon: 2 Chronicles 30:6-12; Mark 1:1-13
We stand between the past and the future. We are to give thanks for the past. Let us “give thanks to the Lord”, remembering “the wonderful works that He has done” (1 Chronicles 16:8,12). We are to commit our future to the Lord in prayer. God promises His blessing to those who call upon Him …
1st January: Psalm 119:105-112 We begin the year with the words of verse 105: 'Your Word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path'. This is a great text with which to begin the year. It is a great starting-point for these studies in God's Word. As we journey through life …
The old year is almost over. Soon - it will be the New Year. Will the New Year really change anything? Sadly - we need more than New Year Resolutions. We need new life. "Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you" (Ephesians 5:14). Here - the emphasis is placed …
Whatever you may think of Christmas - in our modern world, you will not be disappointed with Jesus. He comes to us from the past - and He leads us on into the future. We're no sooner past Christmas, and we start thinking about the New Year. We wonder what the New Year will bring. …
We live in a world in which many people are trying to grab our attention. There is more interest in making a profit than listening to the prophet. We need to listen to what the prophet says to us: Emmanuel - God with us - has come to us (Isaiah 7:14; Matthew 1:23). God has come …
Continue reading Out of an old year, into a New Year – with Jesus!
1st December: Haggai 1:1-15 '"Why is everyone saying it is not the right time for rebuilding My Temple?" asks the Lord. His reply to them is this: "Is it then the right time for you to live in luxurious homes, when the Temple lies in ruins?"' (2-4). God's people had forgotten about God. They were …
Continue reading Daily Devotional Readings: Year Three – December
"Remember your journey... so that you may know the victories of the Lord" (Micah 6:5). It is a good thing to recall what the Lord has done for us. This gives us strength to face the future with confidence in the Lord. "The voice of the Lord calls out to the city" (Micah 6:9). God …
Continue reading It is a good thing to recall what the Lord has done for us.
'Tis winter now... and yet God's love is not withdrawn (Church Hymnary, third edition, 632)
Luke 1:1-4 We begin with the first four verses of Luke’s Gospel. In our first look at Luke’s Book, we ask four questions: (1) What is Luke’s story about? (2) Where did Luke get his story from? (3) How are we to read Luke’s story? (4) What can we learn from Luke’s story? —– (1) …
Luke 1:5-25 In the Gospel of Luke, the central character is Jesus Christ. Before the Name of Jesus appears in Luke 1:31, we read of John the Baptist who paved the way for Jesus. In the opening chapter of Luke’s Gospel, we remember a man whose name was given to him by God. The man’s …
Luke 1:26-38 * At the beginning, we see God’s initiative (Luke 1:26). * At the end, we see Mary’s response (Luke 1:38). * In the centre, we see Jesus (Luke 1:31). —– We see here a picture of the Christian faith and the Christian life. * “In the beginning, God” (Genesis 1:1). * We say …
Luke 1:39-56 While at Elizabeth’s house, Mary praised the Lord. Her song of praise comes from the Lord and rises to the Lord. At the heart of this song of praise, there is the “Saviour” – “my soul rejoices in God my Saviour” (Luke 1:47). Mary’s song of praise is both a joyful testimony and a …
Then the Lord said to Cain, ‘Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.’ (Genesis 4:6-7). Does our situation seem …
Luke 1:26–38 No ordinary child! Jesus would be special - very special! This was the message the angel brought to Mary - ‘He will be great…the Son of the Most High…the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God’ (32,35). We celebrate the birth of a child. How much more should …
Continue reading Jesus is more than a “lovely baby”. He is our wonderful Saviour!
The years come - and the years go. We leave a very difficult year behind us. We move forward into the New Year with many fears. Are things going to get worse? We hope not - but we don't know. When we're tempted to forget you - help us - Lord - to remember that …
Luke 1:57-66 * “The hand of the Lord was with him” (Luke 1:66). The words of Hebrews 11:4 – “he died, but through his faith he is still speaking” provide us with an apt description of John the Baptist. He belongs to the distant past, yet his words continue to speak to us today. * …
Continue reading “The hand of the Lord was with him” – Sermons on Luke’s Gospel (Luke 1:57-66).
‘I, the Lord, am your Saviour, your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob’. Help us, Lord, not to keep this to ourselves. You want ‘all mankind’ to ‘know’ (Isaiah 49:26). ‘Jesus, the Name to sinners dear, the Name to sinners given, it scatters all their guilty fear, it turns their hell to heaven’ - This …
Continue reading “Go Into All The World And Preach The Good News.”
Luke 1:67-80 Prior to the birth of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, there was the birth of John the Baptist. At the time of John’s birth, his father, Zechariah, sang a song of praise to God. It is a song of praise which (a) gives thanks to God for His blessings in the past; …
Isaiah 19:1-20:6 ‘The Lord Almighty will bless them, saying, “Blessed be Egypt My people, Assyria the work of My hands, and Israel my heritage”’ (Isaiah 19:25). ‘There is neither Jew nor Greek… you are all one in Christ Jesus’ (Galatians 3:28). How, Lord, can people who seem to be opposites be brought together? Jesus Christ brings them …
Continue reading How, Lord, can people who seem to be opposites be brought together?
The sinful and shameful times, described in the book of Judges, are summed up in the book’s final verses of chapters 19, 20 & 21. “Never has such a thing happened or been seen from the time the people of Israel came out of Egypt until today” (Judges 19:30). “Then the men of Israel went …
Continue reading We must pray for the triumph of God’s grace over human sin.
Esther 5:1-6:14 Haman wanted ‘to have Mordecai hanged’(5:14). Herod wanted to have Jesus killed (Matthew 2:16-18). Neither Haman nor Herod were successful in their evil plotting (6:13; Matthew 2:19-21). Even when Jesus Christ was ‘crucified at the hands of wicked men’, this was not a victory for the devil. God was in control of the …
Continue reading ‘It Was Impossible For Death To Keep Its Hold On Jesus.’
"an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time" (1 Peter 1:4-5) Salvation is being kept for us. We are being kept for salvation.
Christmas is a great time of the year. What do we mean when we say this kind of thing? Are we saying that we prefer “the bleak mid-winter” to the “summer suns” (Church Hymnary, 178, 624)? We endure the bleak mid-winter - “Frosty wind made moan, earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone; snow had …
"Be ready... Be ready... " (Luke 12:35,40). When Jesus returns, we are to be ready. This doesn't mean that we need to have all the answers to all the questions that can be asked about his return. It means that we're to be waiting for him in faith. We're to be loving him and living …
"We will devote ourselves to prayer and the ministry of the Word" (Acts 6:4). Prayer and the ministry of God's Word: these are to be important priorities in the lives of God's servants, but this is not all that's done by the people of God. When we read these words in the light of the …
Continue reading Pray to God, preach His Word – and care for the people.
Ezekiel 9:1-10:22 - For many people, the time of blessing had come to an end and the time of judgment had begun. Some, however, would escape the judgment, They had been obedient to God. He protected them in the time of judgment: ‘Put a mark on the foreheads of those who grieve and lament over …
Psalm 147:1-20 ‘The Lord builds up Jerusalem. He gathers the exiles of Israel. he heals the broken-hearted and binds up their wounds’(2-3). This is much more than the building of the city of Jerusalem with bricks and mortar. This is God building up His people in their ‘most holy faith’(Jude 20). This is God blessing …
Continue reading God ‘Blesses’ Us Through ‘His Word.’ He ‘Blesses’ Us In ‘The Spirit.’
The Building and Dedication of the Temple (1 Kings 5-8)
Jesus' words, known as "the Sermon on the Mount" (Matthew 5-7), need to be taken as a whole. We're not to pick out the bits that we like, and ignore the bits that we don't like so much. We're not to come, looking for "comfort" (Matthew 5:4), if we're not also seeking for "righteousness" (Matthew …
God takes sin very seriously. He sends his judgment upon sin. The unleashing of His fury turns the sinful nation into a wasteland (Ezekiel 5:13-14). When we read of such things, we wonder, “Is there any hope?” When we are reading so much about sin and judgment, we must not lose sight of the love …
Luke 13:1-35 Jesus stresses the need for both repentance (Luke 13:1-5) and the fruits of repentance (Luke 13:6-9). God’s Word, planted in our hearts at conversion, is to bear fruit. This requires continual repentance and faith (Colossians 2:6; Galatians 3:1-5). Don’t put it off till tomorrow! Today is ‘the day of salvation’. Don’t ‘neglect’ God’s …
Jesus Christ is God’s beloved Son – the Saviour sent to us by the God of love.‘Here is My Servant, whom I uphold, my Chosen One in whom I delight; I will put My Spirit on Him, and He will bring justice to the nations’ (Isaiah 42:1; Matthew 12:15-21). These words turn our thoughts towards …
Continue reading Let’s Help Each Other To Preach God’s Love.
John 6:35 Have you ever been really hungry or thirsty? – Find food. Find drink. Eat it. Drink it. Are you spiritually hungry and thirsty? Find the Bread Of Life, come to Him and be fed. John 6:36 Some do not believe. They will not believe. They refuse to believe. John 6:37 What is God’s …
For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to …
The great works, done by Jesus, provoked the question - "What sort of man is this?" His mighty works led to the declaration: "Nothing like this has ever been done in Israel" (chapter 9). To come face-to-face with Jesus Christ is to encounter His uniqueness. He's no ordinary man. He's the eternal Son of God …
"On the third day he will raise us up, that we may live in his presence" (Hosea 6:2). As we read Hosea's words, we think of Jesus - "he was raised on the third day" (1 Corinthians 15:4). Jesus' resurrection points forward to our resurrection in him - "we know that the one who raised the …
Can... a leopard change its spots? Neither can you do good who are accustomed to doing evil" (Jeremiah 13:23). A leopard can't become a lion or a tiger. A sinner can't stop being a sinner. Sinners: that's what we are. Sinners: that's what we always will be. Looking at ourselves, looking at what we are: …
Continue reading Bad News About Ourselves, Good News From God
"You shall tell your son on that day, ‘It is because of what the Lord did for me when I came out of Egypt.’ And it shall be to you as a sign on your hand and as a memorial between your eyes, that the law of the Lord may be in your mouth. For with a strong hand the Lord has brought you out …
Luke 9:1-27 It was a short mission (1-6) - short but important! They were being trained for future work. There and then, people were hearing the Gospel, believing in Christ and being saved. There was opposition (7-9): There’s always plenty of that - ‘We are more than conquerors through Him who loved us’(Romans 8:37). There …
Continue reading Hearing the Gospel, believing in Christ and being saved
We have to speak to today's world - but we must make sure that it's God's Word that we speak. What are we to say to the world? We must begin with another question: What is God saying to us? If we are to hear what God is saying to us, we must make time for …
Our life seems so ordinary. Nothing out of the ordinary seems to happen to us. What are we to say when we say this kind of thing? Are we saying that having Jesus in our life is to be described as ordinary? We must never forget that something extraordinary has happened to us. Jesus has …
Hoping for ‘good luck’, some people expect good things to happen to them, all the time! God says, ‘Seek wisdom. Be ready for the hard times’. Wisdom comes from God. He speaks to us with words of wisdom (Proverbs 2:6; Proverbs 8:6-8). Wisdom is not only for ‘kings and rulers, princes and nobles’. It is …
The Holy Spirit opens up the Scriptures to us, and he leads us to Christ. As we learn from the Scriptures, and are led to Christ, our way of thinking changes. This changes our way of living. This is the work of the Holy Spirit in us.
Lord, we want blessing - but we're not so keen on obedience. Help us to learn from Jesus. For Him, obedience was everything. He was fully obedient. For Him, it meant the Cross (Philippians 2:8). Lord, help us not to be thinking, "What are we going to get out of this?" Help us to be …
Continue reading Lord, we want blessing – but we’re not so keen on obedience.
Lord, we thank You that You bring us out of our darkness and into Your light: "One thing I know. I was blind, now I see" (John 9:25). We only catch a glimpse of Your light. There is still so much darkness. It's not only the darkness around us. It's the darkness in us. Lord, …
Continue reading Lord, we thank You that You bring us out of our darkness and into Your light.
Deuteronomy 16:1-17:20 “Honour the Lord your God” (Deuteronomy 16:1) – We are to worship the Lord. Our worship is to be filled with thanksgiving, praising the Lord for His redemption – “The Lord your God brought you out of Egypt.” Moving from the land of bondage, we move, by faith, into the land of salvation: …
Continue reading From the land of bondage – to the land of salvation
Lord, if we are to become holy, it must be Your doing - not our own achievement. We come to our Saviour with our sin. We receive from Him Your forgiveness - and the Spirit of holiness. Our past is put behind us. Our sins are forgiven - and forgotten. You call us on into …
Continue reading Lord, if we are to become holy, it must be Your doing – not our own achievement.
Deuteronomy 31:1-32:52 Moses’ time of leadership was coming to an end. Joshua would replace him as the leader of God’s people. With God’s command – “Be strong and courageous” – and promise – “you will bring the Israelites into the land that I swore to give them, and I will be with you” (Deuteronomy 31:23), …
Job 32:1–33:18 When doubts fill your mind - remember this: "God does speak ... though man may not perceive it"! ‘The Bible is the Word of God’ - What do we mean when we say this? Two statements from Elihu may help us to think about this question. (a) ‘Understanding’ comes from ‘the breath of …
‘The Lord is high above all nations... Who is like the Lord our God, who is seated on high?... Tremble, O earth, at the presence of the Lord, who turns the hard rock into springs of water’(Psalm 113:4-5; Psalm 114:7-8). Lord, You are greater than we could ever imagine. There is no greatness like Your …
Lord, You have blessed us so much. Help us never to forget this. We look at the world You have made for us - and we say, "Thank You, Lord." We look at the Saviour You have sent to us - and we say, "Thank You, Lord." Why must we keep on remembering You? - …
Lord, we don't go out looking for problems - but, sometimes, we can't avoid them. Help us, Lord, to turn obstacles into opportunities. When we're on the verge of collapse, may Your grace lead us on to spiritual growth.
"Since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, they are justified by His grace as a gift, through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus" (Romans 3:23-24). Here, we read about our sin and God's salvation. Once we have received God's salvation, we must not forget about our sin. We have been …
Luke 24:13-53 ‘In all the Scriptures’, Jesus teaches ‘the things concerning Himself’(27). Do ‘our hearts burn within us... while He opens to us the Scriptures?’(32). He calls us to be His ‘witnesses’, to preach His message of salvation ‘to all nations’(47-48). Before we can preach, we must listen to Him. Before we can proclaim His …
Let Christ be born in you! - "O Holy Child of Bethlehem... Be born in us today". ----- Matthew 1:18-25; Luke 2:1-7 'The old, old story - it is ever new'. With each passing year, we move further away from the time when Christ was born. Further away from the time when He was born, …
Wisdom Seeker
Following Jesus while Seeking Joy and Contentment in the Christian Life
In The Beginning Man Tried Ascending To Heaven via The Tower Of Babel. Now He Tries To Elevate His Existence To A Heavenly State of Consciousness Thru The Use Of Hallucinogenic Drugs. And, Since The 20th Century, He Continually Voyages Into Outer Space Using Spacecrafts. Prayer Thru Christ Is The Only Way To Reach Heaven.
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There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn’t true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true. —Soren Kierkegaard. "...truth is true even if nobody believes it, and falsehood is false even if everybody believes it. That is why truth does not yield to opinion, fashion, numbers, office, or sincerity--it is simply true and that is the end of it" - Os Guinness, Time for Truth, pg.39. “He that takes truth for his guide, and duty for his end, may safely trust to God’s providence to lead him aright.” - Blaise Pascal. "There is but one straight course, and that is to seek truth and pursue it steadily" – George Washington letter to Edmund Randolph — 1795. We live in a “post-truth” world. According to the dictionary, “post-truth” means, “relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief.” Simply put, we now live in a culture that seems to value experience and emotion more than truth. Truth will never go away no matter how hard one might wish. Going beyond the MSM idealogical opinion/bias and their low information tabloid reality show news with a distractional superficial focus on entertainment, sensationalism, emotionalism and activist reporting – this blogs goal is to, in some small way, put a plug in the broken dam of truth and save as many as possible from the consequences—temporal and eternal. "The further a society drifts from truth, the more it will hate those who speak it." – George Orwell “There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn’t true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true.” ― Soren Kierkegaard
Debra Pedrow: Christian Author and Blogger
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Jesus answered and said to her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, 'Give Me a drink,' you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water." John 4:10
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