Author: emmanuelpcgateshead

FRIDAY March 21^st

 

This is the final devotion that I am going to write based around words related to ‘prepare’ and I will use an illustration from when I worked in the motor trade.

 

I was for twenty years a paint sprayer involved for 15 of them in vehicle accident recovery and repair, and so much of my time was spent in preparation of the vehicles to ensure that they were ready to be painted, that is if I can put it this way, to be re-coated with paint and finished off ready for the owner to drive away.

 

Well, we were all damaged individuals, damaged because of sin, but God had an accident recovery plan, it was prepared in eternity past and put into effect at Calvary, and as we have come to the Cross we have come to the place where God has recovered us and has been busy working on us to make us fit for his kingdom. He has become our rightful owner, and he has given so much to enable us to be refinished and prepared for eternity.

 

We have become new creations, this gives me an opportunity to quote my favourite verse again, 2 Corinthians 5:17 ‘Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.’ The next verse (v18) says that God has reconciled us to himself, can I put it this way, ‘God has recovered us to himself. Therefore, as Paul puts it in 2 Corinthians 6, ‘You are

not your own, for you were bought with a price. So, glorify God in your body’.

 

God has taken us into his workshop and as we read in Ephesians 2:10 we have become his workmanship; therefore, we need to ensure that we ‘put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness’, (Ephesians 4:24).

 

The illustration I want to give from when I was in the motor trade is this: I had been given a particular car to work on, which I had been told was the pride and the joy of its owner, it was a Mazda MX-5 and as far as I was concerned it was in the best possible colour which was red and that when the repair and repaint was done he was going to be exceptionally fussy, he even made regular visits to see the work in progress.

 

Well, I did what I considered to be an okay job, and the car was ready for the owner to collect. He arrived and I remember hearing someone calling me to say that I was required in the office and my heart sank thinking that there was a problem with the car. Well, you can imagine my surprise when the owner came out to me and was overwhelmed with his car and I shall always remember what he said, ‘This car looks better than the day I drove it out of the showroom’ and he shook my hand. (he also left a very good tip in the office too which I never received!)

 

Well, God has recovered us, he has worked on us at the Cross, he is still working on us every day and one day he will take us into his eternal presence in a far better shape than which we were, for we were lost, we were sinners, but he has saved us and we have been re-coated in the righteousness of Christ and one day we will be re-clothed in a new eternal and glorious body.

 

What a wonderful work the work of redemption is. We can but bow our hearts and say thank you God for sending Jesus, thank you Jesus that you came.

 

I will close with a final verse:

 

‘“Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honour and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen,”’ Revelation 7:12.

THURDAY March 20th

I wonder if you have ever gone into a task without preparing for it and wished afterward that you had. I have and I lived with regret.

Well, we have seen that God has everything worked out, he has prepared all things before the foundation of the world, he had the whole work of redemption planned and he has all of eternity planned for those who have come to love him and to accept Jesus. And we are reminded by some verses in the book of Job that ‘no purpose of God can be thwarted’. (42:2) What he has prepared stands for eternity.

I want to ask the question today and it fits in with a lot of what I have already shared on this word ‘prepare’ and of ‘being prepared’, are you truly preparing for eternity? Am I?

Too often we seem to live today as if eternity doesn’t matter. We live to satisfy ourselves in the here and know, without as I have mentioned previously keeping to the forefront of our minds that we will one day have to give an account of ourselves before God.

I have just mentioned Job, and he says this in 19:25-27

‘For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. My heart faints within me!’

It is very personal, notice how Job uses ‘I’, three times. ‘I know’, ‘I shall’, ‘I shall’.

‘I know that my Redeemer lives’, ‘I shall see God’, ‘I shall see for myself’, and it causes him to say, ‘My heart faints within me’. He is overwhelmed with the wonder of one day standing before God, and I ask us (myself included) today as I write and as you read this devotion are you overwhelmed with the wonder that one day we also will see God and stand in his presence.

If we are, it would cause us to truly live our lives not for the temporal but for that which is eternal, knowing that when that day arrives, we will have to give an account of ourselves. Let’s give more time toward preparing for the future, for eternity so that when that moment comes, we will not be filled with regret.

WEDNESDAY March 19^th

 

Hebrews 11:16

‘But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.’

 

Hebrews 11:39-40

‘And all these, though commended through their faith, did not receive what was promised, since God had provided something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect.’

 

We all know this chapter so well, we often refer to it as the chapter that contains the catalogue of the heroes of faith, men and women who did extraordinary things because they had an extraordinary faith in God, and they are all what we would consider to be Old Testament characters, men and women who knew nothing of the grace of God as displayed at Calvary—yet they trusted in God.

 

And why? The Hebrew writer tells us that they had their desires set not on the temporal but on that which was spiritual, and which mattered for eternity. They trusted in God for they knew that despite whatever was thrown at them and if you look at verses 32-38 it was tough for many of them, that God had prepared something for them that was worth waiting for and worth working and walking towards, a better country, a heavenly one with an incredible city and yet they all died without yet receiving what was promised!

 

And again, we ask why? Well, the same chapter tells us that God has provided something better for us, that is those of us who fall under what we call the day of grace. The Old Testament heroes were under the law, but in Christ we are under grace, and grace is far better than the law, for under the law man had to strive to live it out and to fulfil it, but under grace, Christ has fulfilled the law on our behalf. But the good news for all the OT heroes of faith is that as they learned to live by faith, is that they too will have been justified by faith and when the day comes which we spoke of yesterday when the great resurrection takes place they along with us will be made perfect, and together we will dwell in the city of God, a city that we read of in Revelation 21:3-4 which has been prepared by God and will be called the new Jerusalem, and this is what John tells us what it will be like ‘Behold the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.’

 

Again. I remind us, God has it all worked out!

TUESDAY March 18^th

 

2 Corinthians 5:1-5

‘For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling, if indeed by putting it on we may not be found naked. For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened—not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.’

 

In our previous devotion I made this statement: ‘God has something much better prepared for us.’ Yes, these old creaky and cracked vessels we live in will one day no longer creak nor crack again. In these verses Paul puts it this way ‘For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened—not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life’, and he reminds us that He who has prepared us for this is God.

 

One day we will clothed again, that which will have perished, the outer man will be clothed in that which is eternal, for just as our spirit has been made alive again as we have come to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, so one day in the future, the body will be raised and transformed into that which God has prepared for each one of us, a spiritual glorified body, which will never again be tainted by sin and will never again perish, will never again decay nor waste away and will never know sickness or be racked with pain and the best way to understand how and what it will be like is to read what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:42-44 and 52-53

 

‘So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonour; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body . . . For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality.’

 

See God has taken care of everything! He had it all prepared and worked out even before the foundations of the world were laid, now, that tells me that I can trust God, for he knows the end from the beginning, he knows all about each one of us, he had already written in his book, even before we were formed in the womb, the number of days which were allotted to us, (Psalm 139) he has prepared every detail, and he is never caught out unaware. So, we trust him, knowing that even in those things that we do not understand, God knows and he in ‘this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal’, 2 Corinthians 4:16-18.

MONDAY March 17^th

 

2 Corinthians 4:16-18

‘So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.’

 

Today’s verses automatically run into the verses we will be turning to tomorrow, so if you want to read them ahead of time then it is 2 Corinthians 5:1-5.

 

It is an undeniable fact, whether we like it or not that our outer self is wasting away! Okay, maybe some are faring a little better than others.

 

But because of the fall of man, sin entered humanity and therefore the wages of sin pronounced upon mankind, was death. But thank God, that although there is an outward sign of the perishing and decay, Paul reminds us that in Christ, the inner man is being renewed day by day.

 

While the outer is declining the inner is renewing! And when we look in the mirror, we may feel a little deflated sometimes, but God knows what he is doing, and Paul explains it to us with the word I have been exploring over the last week or so, and it is that the momentary affliction of wasting away is a preparation for something that is both better and eternal. And I am jumping ahead to tomorrow already, but just to warm our appetite, God has something much better prepared for us. Yes, these old creaky and cracked vessels will one day no longer creak nor crack again.

 

But rather than concentrate on that today, we need to ensure that we are allowing the inner man to be renewed every day. For when we came to accept Jesus, we were made alive again spiritually, and that is the most important part of who we are, the spirit, the soul, the inner man.

 

We can spend so much time looking after the outer man, regular exercise, eating well, and whatever else we can do to keep us looking as best we can, but we need also to be putting the same, in fact I would say even more effort into maintain spiritual wellness, for that which we see, the external is transient, but that which is unseen is eternal.

FRIDAY March 14^th

 

1 Peter 3:13-17

‘Now who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good? But even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled, but in your hearts honour Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defence to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect, having a good conscience, so that, when you are slandered, those who revile your good behaviour in Christ may be put to shame. For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God’s will, than for doing evil.’

 

Every one of us who has come to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ will face difficult and challenging times, despite how well we seek to live out our lives for the glory of God there will be those who will seek to cause us to suffer, to mock us, try to slander us and try to put us to shame. Jesus himself at the commencement of his ministry said while preaching from the mountain, ‘“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you’, Matthew 5:10-12.

 

Persecution has always come to the people of God, for some it is extremely intense and leads to great suffering, both emotionally and physically, for others it is not so severe but can still cause us to fear and to have a feeling of rejection or unwantedness, but thank God we have the help of the Holy Spirit, the blessing of the written and preached word of God and the fellowship of one another to help us to be encouraged and spurred on. And God will always give to us a great dollop of grace to give us the much-needed strength to carry on.

 

But as we are encouraged here in our verses today, we should also be prepared when going through the times of trial to be able to make a defence to anyone who asks for the reason for the hope that is in us.

 

We need not only to have believed in the gospel, but we need also to understand the gospel. I think of Stephen in Acts 6 and 7, and we need to remember that this was still during the infancy of the Church, and when Stephen was seized and persecuted for his faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, he was able to give an answer in defence of the hope that he had. He knew what he believed, and he knew why he believed. We don’t need to be theologians, but we should be able to understand the basic truths concerning the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ to enable us to be always prepared to give an answer when it is asked of us.

THURSDAY March 13^th

 

There are a few more occasions for the word prepare that I want to turn to and the first is following on from the Passover Lamb and it is found in Luke 22:7-13, I suppose chronologically I should have put this devotion earlier, it was one of the first I thought about, but I have deliberately left it till now.

 

‘Then came the day of Unleavened Bread, on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed. So Jesus sent Peter and John, saying, “Go and prepare the Passover for us, that we may eat it.” They said to him, “Where will you have us prepare it?” He said to them, “Behold, when you have entered the city, a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him into the house that he enters and tell the master of the house, ‘The Teacher says to you, Where is the guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?’ And he will show you a large upper room furnished; prepare it there.” And they went and found it just as he had told them, and they prepared the Passover.’

 

The day before Jesus was crucified, the evening in which he was betrayed, taken and arrested, was the day of unleavened bread, the celebration of what had happened way back in Egypt with the children of Israel. And Jesus wanted to share in this feast with his disciples and so he sent them ahead to the upper room to prepare for what was going to become a special moment not just for the disciples but also for you and me today.

 

And notice that Jesus had already got the directions prepared for them, ‘When you have entered the city, a man carrying a jar of water will meet you’, and they were to follow him and ask for the guest room.

 

And that night as Jesus was at supper with his disciples, he instituted what to me is what should be one of the most important features or aspects of our coming together and something that we need to be regularly participating in as the Church, the body of Christ and that is what we call the Lords Supper. In Acts 2, after the Holy Spirit had come on the day of Pentecost, and Peter along with the eleven had preached the gospel, 3000 souls were saved, and it says in Acts 2:42 that ‘they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.’

 

Too often and I have been in churches where this has happened, it would seem that the celebration of communion is just an add on if you want to participate, and only once in a while and quickly rushed over, I recall going to one church where it was just stated that if you want communion just go to the corner over there and help yourself, Jesus intended it to be far more than that. The annual memorial Passover Feast for the Children of Israel was important to them and it has become what we as the body of Christ call our memorial of what Christ has done for us in allowing his body to be broken and his blood to be shed, for the remission of our sin, but it is also our signpost toward the future, for we do this, that is celebrate communion together until he comes again, and when he comes again we will enter into all that he has prepared for those who love him.

WEDNESDAY March 12^th

 

Exodus 12:5

‘Your lamb shall be without blemish’

 

This was one of the important phrases which was given to the Children of Israel as they began to prepare for what we now call the ‘The Passover’, the night where God came and delivered them from out of Egypt—but not until a sacrifice had been made, and the blood of the lamb (or goat according to the size of the family) had been applied to the doorpost and lintels of their homes.

 

Well, Christ Jesus has become our Passover Lamb, and the scripture says that God had prepared a body for Jesus in readiness for him to come into this world and become the sinless and spotless Lamb of God who in going to Calvary would shed his blood which would be sufficient to cleanse us and wash us from our sin, to bring to us the salvation and deliverance that we need.

 

But we need to remind ourselves that Jesus wasn’t some last minute emergency measure that God decided to put into action when Adam and Eve failed in the garden, no, it was a plan that had been decided way before even the creation or foundation of the earth, for Paul tells us in Ephesians that God chose us to be in Christ even before the foundation of the world, (Ephesians 1:4) the Cross was no afterthought, God knew even before he created mankind what mankind would do through his action of disobedience and rebellion, and God was prepared for it and so in the fulness of time, he sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, (Galatians 4:4-5) and when John the Baptist saw Jesus walking toward him on one occasion he cried out to those around him, ‘Behold, look and see, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!’

 

And the Lamb of God, offered himself, as an eternal sacrifice, the Hebrew writer puts it this way, ‘And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified’, Hebrews 10:11-14.

 

The exodus of the Children of Israel must have been incredible, to finally be delivered from the power and the stronghold of their enemy, and with the promised land ahead of them.

 

Well, In Christ our Passover Lamb, we have had an even more incredible deliverance from the power of sin and an incredible cleansing for there is power in the precious blood of Jesus. I am glad that God the Father had it all planned out and prepared, and I am glad that Jesus was willing to take up the body that had been prepared for him, and was willing to be the atoning sacrifice for my sin, and not just for mine, but for yours, and not just for ours, but for the sin of the world.

TUESDAY March 11^th

 

Now, I don’t have a physical, book edition of an English Standard Version concordance, I only have the smaller, condensed concordances that you often find at the end of the ESV Bible as you do in other versions as well, but I do have a physical copy of the Strongs Exhaustive Commentary of the KJV of the Bible and so at this point while preparing these devotions I decided to look up the words ‘prepare’, ‘prepared’ etc. to see how often they are to be found in the scripture and it is used quite frequently in the KJV while the other versions will use an alternative without losing the meaning. So, preparing, being prepared and preparation are an important part of what it is to be a part of God’s family, I hope this has already come out as I have covered the last few devotions.

 

There is another occasion where preparation was essential and it is found in the book of Exodus, where we come to the occasion where the exodus of the Children of Israel was about to take place—but not before they had prepared properly for it according to the instruction that God gave to them through Moses.

 

Here are the verses from Exodus 20:3-13 and we read the verses today and then return to them again in the next devotion.

 

‘Tell all the congregation of Israel that on the tenth day of this month every man shall take a lamb according to their fathers’ houses, a lamb for a household. And if the household is too small for a lamb, then he and his nearest neighbour shall take according to the number of persons; according to what each can eat you shall make your count for the lamb. Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male a year old. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats, and you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month, when the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill their lambs at twilight. “Then they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. They shall eat the flesh that night, roasted on the fire; with unleavened bread and bitter herbs they shall eat it. Do not eat any of it raw or boiled in water, but roasted, its head with its legs and its inner parts. And you shall let none of it remain until the morning; anything that remains until the morning you shall burn. In this manner you shall eat it: with your belt fastened, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. And you shall eat it in haste. It is the LORD’s Passover. For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the LORD. The blood shall be a sign for you, on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt.’

 

For today, notice the instructions that needed to be followed through exactly to God’s specification which would result in the protection and the deliverance of the Children of Israel. God made the provision, they needed to accept it, obey it and apply it and as a result they would be prepared, ready for their deliverance and salvation.

 

These verses point to an even more important preparation that God had made for you and me and made for every man and women to allow us to also know deliverance and salvation and it was in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ who came to be our Passover Lamb.

MONDAY March 10^th

 

Well, because I looked at the table that the Lord prepares for us in the presence of our enemies from Psalm 23 in our last devotion, I want us to consider our enemies again today and take on board something else that has been provided for us so that we can be prepared to stand firm as our enemies surround us and it is found in Ephesians chapter 6:10-18

 

‘Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armour of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armour of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication.’

 

If you are observant, you will notice that the word prepare does not appear in any of these verses, unless you use for example the NLT where it says in verse 15 ‘For shoes, put on the peace that comes from the Good News so that you will be fully prepared.’

 

But the whole thrust of this important section of Pauls letter to the church at Ephesus is that they back then as he wrote the letter, and we today as we read the letter are in a spiritual battle, and the battle is against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

 

It is a battle that is against the enemies that stand and watch us as we are feasting at the table that the Lord has prepared for us and mark this, the moment you get up from the table, your enemies, my enemies, for there are many of them will begin to do whatever they can to attack us. Therefore, we need to not only be prepared by feasting daily at the table, that is by getting our daily spiritual bread and our daily spiritual water, but by also preparing by putting on the whole armour of God so that ‘you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm.’