Author: emmanuelpcgateshead

TUESDAY October 1^st

 

Isaiah 7:14

‘Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.’

 

To move forward from my thoughts concerning Jesus before he came to Bethlehem, we move on to consider some of the Old Testament scriptures that promised, predicted or prophesied that he would come into the world. Again, think about how incredible this was going to be, that God would come into this world as a man.

 

And what is more, his conception and birth would be unique for never had a baby been born which hadn’t involved the union of a man and a woman, that is a birth that did not involve the seed of the man, just the egg of the woman. But with God all things are possible. That is exactly what the angel Gabriel said to Mary when the news of her impending pregnancy was announced to her in Luke 1:37.

 

Now the scripture I have used as our text is not the only OT prophecy, for we are familiar also with the verses a little later in Isaiah 9:6 that say ‘For to us a child is born, to us a son is given’ it continues to list what he would be called, ‘Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father and the Prince of Peace’.

 

These two verses from Isaiah confirm to us again the deity of the Lord Jesus for in the first his name was to be called Immanuel, which means ‘God with us’ and in the second, he was to be given other names which can only be linked to deity, such as Mighty God and Everlasting Father.

 

We cannot go through all the verses, but there are those verses that predict where he would be born, where he would live, what he would do and even the details concerning how he would suffer and die. And it was all for the purpose of becoming the atoning sacrifice for the sins of the world.

 

So, throughout the Old Testament period, God was at work, first with individuals, then with the nation of Israel, and it was all leading up to the moment when this promised child would be born, and the promised son would be given. And this child, this son would become our wonderful Saviour, Jesus who we have come to love and to know, the one whose name is the sweetest name.

Now, before we move forward, we need to understand why Jesus needed to come, and I know these devotions are primarily for those who already know, but because they are also found on-line, for any that might wonder what this is all about, it is because way back in the beginning when Adam and Eve were created, they disobeyed God and sin came into the world. As a result, we are all born as sinners and we are all under the judgement of death, not just physical death, but spiritual death. But God out of his great love and his incredible mercy was willing to put a plan into action whereby we could know our sins to be forgiven and the verdict of death be taken from off us, and it would all come about through his plan of redemption, a plan which involved sending Jesus into the world to die in our place and then as we come to believe on him, we will be forgiven and made right with God again. You can read more of this incredible story in the Bible, and I suggest as a good starting point to read the gospel according to John for more information.

MONDAY September 30^th

 

There is, following on from our previous devotion another answer to the question as to what did Jesus do in the time before he came into this world as a babe in Bethlehem?

 

The clue is found in some of the Old Testament accounts where we read of a particular Angel of the LORD appearing to individuals and conversing with them. It is widely accepted that these are what theologians call a ‘Theophany’ or a ‘Christophany’ where the pre-incarnate Jesus appeared in the form of a man, generally described as an angel to give a message or an instruction to an individual.

 

The following are examples, first in Genesis 16:7-10 where it says ‘The angel of the LORD found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, the spring on the way to Shur. And he said, “Hagar, servant of Sarai, where have you come from and where are you going?” She said, “I am fleeing from my mistress Sarai.” The angel of the LORD said to her, “Return to your mistress and submit to her.” The angel of the LORD also said to her, “I will surely multiply your offspring so that they cannot be numbered for multitude.”’

 

Then in Judges 6:11-14 where we read ‘Now the angel of the LORD came and sat under the terebinth at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, while his son Gideon was beating out wheat in the winepress to hide it from the Midianites. And the angel of the LORD appeared to him and said to him, “The LORD is with you, O mighty man of valor.” And Gideon said to him, “Please, my lord, if the LORD is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all his wonderful deeds that our fathers recounted to us, saying, ‘Did not the LORD bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the LORD has forsaken us and given us into the hand of Midian.” And the LORD turned to him and said, “Go in this might of yours and save Israel from the hand of Midian; do not I send you?”

 

Then the third in Daniel 3:28 at the time when Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego had been thrown into the fiery furnace and we read these words

 

‘Nebuchadnezzar answered and said, “Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who has sent his angel and delivered his servants, who trusted in him, and set aside the king’s command, and yielded up their bodies rather than serve and worship any god except their own God.

 

If you go back to verse 25, we read ‘He (Nebuchadnezzar) answered and said, “But I see four men unbound, walking in the midst of the fire, and they are not hurt; and the appearance of the fourth is like a son of the gods.”’

 

The account from Daniel reads differently in the KJV compared to the NIV and the ESV, and this was a bone of contention when the NIV was first released and was one of the reasons which caused (and still causes) many to be anti any version but the KJV. Here are the other translations,

 

NIV ‘He said, “Look! I see four men walking around in the fire, unbound and unharmed, and the fourth looks like a son of the gods.”’

 

KJV ‘He answered and said, Lo, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt; and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God.’

 

What we need to learn is this. The KJV has translated the scene as to who the fourth person was in the furnace, as being ‘like the Son of God’ and is with hindsight or is  a  retrospective translation, but the modern versions translate it to exactly as it would have been seen to those who were actually there, ‘like a son of the gods’, for remember they were pagans, they believed in multiple gods in contrast to the Hebrew lads who believed in the one and only true and living God, that is why they were in the furnace! so they the pagans who didn’t believe in the One and only true God would have assumed it was a son of one of the gods. But thankfully the King soon recognised that this was no mere god, but rather an Angel sent from God, who was none other than the Son of God, for he had heard the lads say back in verse 17 ‘ If this be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king.’

 

And save them he did. So, this was just a few thoughts over the last few devotions answering the question, ‘What was the Son of God doing before he came a babe to Bethlehem.’

FRIDAY September 27^th

 

John 1:2-3

‘He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.’

 

I have continued with the next two verses from John 1, verses 2-3 for we see here more detail concerning the Son of God, which verse 1 had referred to as the Word of God. But first a question.

 

Have you ever wondered what Jesus was doing as the Word before he came into this world in Bethlehem as a baby?

 

Well, I am going to attempt to give an answer, for firstly we can say that as the eternal Word, the eternal Son of God, or as we sometimes say as the second person in the Trinity, he would have been enjoying the eternal fellowship that would have and still does exist between God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

 

Imagine it if you can, for they exist in perfect unity, nothing between them, in pure unspotted or untainted fellowship, total, absolute agreement.

 

I know that there are those (such as the Jehovah Witnesses) who argue that the word Trinity does not appear in the Bible and so it is a word conjured up to bolster the churches doctrine of the tri-unity of God, and those who oppose it cannot and will not accept the perfect eternal unity and eternal existence of the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit. But just because a word doesn’t appear in the Scripture, it doesn’t mean that what the word describes does not exist, and there is sufficient biblical evidence to use such a word, to describe the eternal co-existing and co-equality of the three persons of the Godhead.

 

In fact this takes us to the second point concerning what Jesus as the eternal Word did before he came to this world as a baby, it is found in the creation story in Genesis where we see that the three, (yes, here is a reason for the word again, the trinity), Father, Son and Holy Spirit worked together in the work of creation, and one verse in particular is found in Genesis 1:26 which says ‘Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.”’

 

Notice it is in plural, God said, ‘Let US . . . in OUR’ I like to think that because of the perfect unity in the Godhead, that they literally all three spoke the words together in unison at exactly the same time with exactly the same emphasis! and so John in our text confirms it for us, ‘All things were made through him, and without him (Jesus the Word) was not any thing made that was made.’

 

And of course, we can go to Colossians 1:15-17 where we read ‘For by him all things were created . . . all things were created through him and for him . . . And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together’. And these verses lead us to the third thing we can list that Jesus was doing before he came into this world, (and still does) he was sustaining all that had been created, or upholding it by the word of his power, (Hebrews 1:3).

THURSDAY September 26^th

 

John 1:1

‘In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.’

 

We are all familiar with these verses, they are the opening words of the gospel that John had written and in which he says toward the end in chapter 20 that he had written it so ‘that we might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name’ John 20:31.

 

Already in just John’s opening verse (1:1) and this one (20:31), we discover so much about Jesus.

 

He was there in the beginning, he was with God in the beginning, and he is himself God, summed up, as the Word, the Lord Jesus Christ is eternal.

 

Remember he wasn’t called Jesus until he had been born—something we will come to again, he always has been the Word and as our second reference tells us, he always has been the Son of God.

 

So straightaway, when we are talking about Jesus, we are not talking about a run of the mill ordinary person or character like you and I, we are talking about One who is far superior, One who existed eternally before he entered this world as a baby in Bethlehem, One who was willing to take on flesh, become a man, not for any personal gain as such, for he already was God, (although we know that as a result he was exalted to the highest place, but again that is for another time), but for the purpose of being the means of bringing about our eternal redemption.

 

This is to me one of the incredible wonders about Jesus and about our salvation, that way back even before the beginning of time, so that is way before the creation of the world and the eventual fall of man, the Son of God was willing to become a man (and that was even before a man had ever been created) to be the atoning sacrifice for the sins of the world. Is that not a perfect picture of selfless love. Peter puts it this way ‘He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God’, 1 Peter 1:20-21.

Thank God for Jesus, who was willing as God to take on flesh to become a man and to come and dwell among mankind. Is there ever a sweeter richer story? Never, no way, for this is the story of redemption, with which without we would still be lost in our sin and heading for an eternity in Hell.

 

‘Wonderful story of love, tell it to me again, wonderful story of love, wake the immortal strain! Angels with rapture announce it, shepherds with wonder receive it; Sinner, O won’t you believe it? Wonderful story of love.’

WEDNESDAY September 25^th

 

Now, as I have said, these devotions are going to be a look at Jesus our wonderful Saviour, and we have so much in scripture that tells us all about him, and then, there are so many hymns or songs, even the little choruses we used to sing that define Jesus for us in so many wonderful ways. I wonder how many or which ones would spring to your mind. Songs about his person, or about his character, maybe something of his attributes, or maybe what he has done for us and who or what he has become to us, such as our shepherd, friend, etc.

 

There is absolutely no doubt that there is no one else like Jesus, he has no equal, he is unique, he is indescribable, for we cannot fully comprehend all there is about him, he has the best name, using the same word again as the previous devotion, he has the sweetest name as we often sing, ‘Jesus is the sweetest name I know, and he’s just the same as his lovely name, that’s the reason why I love him so, for Jesus is the sweetest name I know’ or how about,

 

‘Jesus!’ oh how sweet the name! ‘Jesus!’ Every day the same! ‘Jesus!’ Let all saints proclaim its worthy praise for ever.

 

It doesn’t matter how many devotions I will write concerning Jesus, nor in whatever order I bring them, there will still be far much more to discover, but the purpose is that in the words of another song that did the rounds a few years ago that we will just keep falling in love with him, over and over and over and over again, he gets sweeter and sweeter as the days go by, there’s none so happy as my Lord and I, I just keep falling in love with him, over and over and over and over again.

 

Now perhaps some of the most important verses I can remind us of concerning Jesus are found in Hebrews 1:1-4, which reminds us that God speaks to us through the Lord Jesus Christ, and it also expresses to us something of who Jesus is. As we move forward with these devotions, I will not always have the scripture to start with, but it will be included somewhere in the text of the devotion. Here is what it says in Hebrews, and as you read them, remind yourself that this is Jesus our wonderful Saviour.

 

‘Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.’

TUESDAY September 24^th

 

Psalm 104:34

‘My meditation of him shall be sweet: I will be glad in the LORD.’ (KJV)

 

A few weeks back, Elaine and I took a friend out to have a bite to eat and a drink. I had a coffee, Elaine and the friend had tea. Now we don’t take sugar in our drinks, and I just assumed the friend didn’t either and we sat down. He quickly told me he needed sweetener, so I went and got one which I gave to him. He gave me a look and I thought I had got the wrong one, then he said to me, ‘Only one, I need at least three of these’, so I quickly returned and got a few more. I cannot drink sweet tea or coffee (although if the coffee is very strong, I may add a little sugar) but some like the friend, prefer it sweetened up.

 

Well, there is one thing for sure, we all need to have our lives sweetened up, and what better way to do it than to allow Jesus to come into our lives, and not only to sweeten us up but to clean us up as well. And there is no doubt that Jesus is the one who everyone needs, yet just as I don’t want my tea or coffee sweetened up, so many don’t want their lives sweetened up, they have decided they can manage without Jesus—or at least they think they can manage without Jesus. It is our responsibility to make sure that we live our lives in such a way that others will see that Jesus has made such a difference that they too will want to come to know him.

 

Going back to the tea and coffee, once added, the sugar or sweetener needs stirring up, perhaps we need to allow Jesus to be stirred up in our lives, to sweeten us up more so that the world will see him.

 

Yes, Jesus, the very thought of thee, with sweetness fills my breast, and I long, I want, I desire, that others too will know the sweetness of Jesus in their lives and that they will see his sweetness reflected through me. Going back to the tea and the friend, ‘I need at least three of these’, well, when it comes to Jesus, I need more of him, not in spoonful quantities but barrel full quantities in my life, not only to sweeten me up, but that I may enjoy the sweetness of who he really is.

In the words of another song

 

‘Every day with Jesus, is sweeter than the day before’. We don’t need to fill up our lives with the rubbish of this world, we need to fill them up with Jesus.

 

MONDAY September 23^rd

 

Psalm 104:34

‘My meditation of him shall be sweet: I will be glad in the LORD.’ (KJV)

 

At the time when I was considering the next series of devotions, a hymn had been running through my mind over a few days which I couldn’t seem to get away from. Time and time again I found myself either humming or whistling the tune or singing the words. It is a well-known hymn, or at least it used to be, maybe not so well-known now that so many of the older hymns that are rich in content are being abandoned. It is a hymn that most definitely impacted me as I was much younger and into my teenage years and impacted the way my life was shaped into becoming who I am today, because it helped me to deepen my love for the Lord Jesus Christ.

 

In the Redemption Hymnal, which was the hymn book we used back then it was number 89, in Making Melody, 79.

 

Here are the words of the first verse, it is a prayer of Bernard of Clairvaux

 

Jesus, the very thought of thee

With sweetness fills my breast;

But sweeter far thy face to see,

And in thy presence rest.

 

As I have said, these words kept coming back to my mind, and so as I move into another series of devotions, I am going to use the hymn as my inspiration and give this series the title ‘Jesus, the very thought of thee,’ and spend some time taking us through some devotions concerning our wonderful Saviour and Lord.

 

There are many things that we can spend our time thinking about, in fact Paul tells us in Philippians 4:8 what to think about, this is what he says, ‘Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honourable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.’

 

Well as we think about Jesus, he is true, he is honourable, he is just, he is pure, he is lovely, he is commendable, he is excellence, he is worthy of praise, therefore as we think of Jesus, he is the sweetest one we can think about, he is the sweetest one we can fill our lives with, and as we think about him, it should fill our hearts with sweetness. So, this is where we are heading over the next however long it may take us.

FRIDAY September 20^th

 

Proverbs 1:8-9

‘Hear, my son, your father’s instruction, and forsake not your mother’s teaching, for they are a graceful garland for your head and pendants for your neck.’

 

It is always important to take scripture and to understand it in its context and of course who or what is it referring to. And when it comes to the instruction here that is given to a son (or a daughter) from a father and the teaching from a mother, the first thing we would need to ask is about the father and the mother and then that which they are instructing or teaching.

 

These proverbs are the words of Solomon, the son of David, and in the verse before our text he has said ‘The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction’. and so, the answer we draw from this is that the reference to a mother and father is to parents who themselves ‘fear the LORD’, they are godly, God-fearing parents, thus the instruction they offer, the teaching they give is godly instruction, and godly teaching. Back in the book of Deuteronomy the instruction was given to the children of Israel that they were to take the words that God had instructed them with, and they were to teach them diligently to their children. In 2 Timothy 1:5 Paul says to Timothy ‘I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now I am sure dwells in you as well.’

 

It would be fair to say that these verses cannot apply to every instruction or teaching, from any and every parent, because for example, there are those of other religions or of no faith at all who would seek to instruct or teach their children that which is opposed to the truth of the word of God.

 

I am so glad that I had godly parents and grandparents, who played an important part in instructing me and in teaching me godly values because they had learned what it was to fear the LORD.

 

May God help each one of us that has children or grandchildren, not to neglect our Christian responsibility of giving godly instruction and teaching to them, to instruct them in the ways of the Lord.

 

We also thank God for every one of the children who attend our fellowship, and I encourage us once again to ensure that we pray for them, that they in turn as they begin to understand something of the gospel will come to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and we pray for those who may have been brought up in a Christian home but have fallen away, that the Holy Spirit will bring them to a place of ‘coming to their senses’ and that they will come back to faith and a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. Pray for every family that attends, that the parents especially will have the wisdom that comes from above to help them navigate nurturing a family in the faith in these days in which we find ourselves.

 

Next week we will start a new series of devotions.

FRIDAY September 20^th

 

Proverbs 1:8-9

‘Hear, my son, your father’s instruction, and forsake not your mother’s teaching, for they are a graceful garland for your head and pendants for your neck.’

 

It is always important to take scripture and to understand it in its context and of course who or what is it referring to. And when it comes to the instruction here that is given to a son (or a daughter) from a father and the teaching from a mother, the first thing we would need to ask is about the father and the mother and then that which they are instructing or teaching.

 

These proverbs are the words of Solomon, the son of David, and in the verse before our text he has said ‘The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction’. and so, the answer we draw from this is that the reference to a mother and father is to parents who themselves ‘fear the LORD’, they are godly, God-fearing parents, thus the instruction they offer, the teaching they give is godly instruction, and godly teaching. Back in the book of Deuteronomy the instruction was given to the children of Israel that they were to take the words that God had instructed them with, and they were to teach them diligently to their children. In 2 Timothy 1:5 Paul says to Timothy ‘I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now I am sure dwells in you as well.’

 

It would be fair to say that these verses cannot apply to every instruction or teaching, from any and every parent, because for example, there are those of other religions or of no faith at all who would seek to instruct or teach their children that which is opposed to the truth of the word of God.

 

I am so glad that I had godly parents and grandparents, who played an important part in instructing me and in teaching me godly values because they had learned what it was to fear the LORD.

 

May God help each one of us that has children or grandchildren, not to neglect our Christian responsibility of giving godly instruction and teaching to them, to instruct them in the ways of the Lord.

 

We also thank God for every one of the children who attend our fellowship, and I encourage us once again to ensure that we pray for them, that they in turn as they begin to understand something of the gospel will come to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and we pray for those who may have been brought up in a Christian home but have fallen away, that the Holy Spirit will bring them to a place of ‘coming to their senses’ and that they will come back to faith and a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. Pray for every family that attends, that the parents especially will have the wisdom that comes from above to help them navigate nurturing a family in the faith in these days in which we find ourselves.

 

Next week we will start a new series of devotions.

THURSDAY September 19^th

 

Proverbs 3:5-6

‘Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.’

 

I ended the previous devotion with these verses which we are all very familiar with. Three things we are required to do and in doing so, the Lord will make our paths straight!

 

We are all on a journey of faith which we commenced on the day that we committed our lives to the Lord Jesus Christ, and the road that I have travelled on and will continue to travel on will be different to yours and vice versa, but what is essential that we make the journey with Jesus.

 

In the order of which the instructions appear in these verses, we first need to trust in the Lord. We can consider this firstly as being when we first put our faith in him, and what a day that was, even if we may not have fully understood everything at the time, but as we have grown and matured spiritually, we will have realised it was a defining moment in our life. But secondly, we also learn to trust the Lord daily and wholeheartedly. For every new morning is a new and a fresh day as we walk with him. We entrust each day to him, knowing that he knows best.

 

Then we are to ensure that we do not lean on our own understanding. As we walk, we don’t try to work things out according to our own will or desire, we seek to know and to understand what his will is for us, if we don’t, we will so easily go astray.

 

Then we are to acknowledge him in all our ways, this to me points to making Jesus the centre of who we are, what we are and all that we do, it is his way and not my way, his path and my path, it is seeking not only the mind of God but the will of God over every aspect of my life, being it personal, family, work etc.

 

Then the Lord will direct our paths, making sure they are straight for us.

 

Are you feeling a little lost spiritually, sometimes if I am going to a new place which I don’t know too well, I will try to navigate my way through, and at times I get lost, when all along especially in the car or while walking with my phone a map is readily and easily available! But no, my independence wants to try to work it out!

 

Perhaps someone is reading this today and you have sought to live independently from the good, perfect and acceptable will of God for your life, if you are not already lost you soon will be, consult the map, the instruction that God has given, to enable you to reach the destination that he is wanting you to reach.