Category: Devotions

TUESDAY April 9th

Romans 8:28

‘And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.’

Well, as we pick up again from Romans Chapter 8, we have come to what is probably one of the most well-known and quoted verses from this incredible chapter, we have all quoted it or had it quoted to us and there is absolutely no doubt it has been a powerful source of strength when we may have gone through difficult situations when we have not been able to see the sunshine through the rain.

It is important to note that all things work together for good to those who LOVE God and who are called according to his purpose.

I want to emphasise today, the importance of loving God. And how do we love God, how should we love God? Well, we know that we begin to love God by responding to the love that he has shown toward us, especially as we have just been remembering through the person of Jesus and all that he accomplished for us at Calvary.

A verse I have often quoted in the devotions is from 1 John 4:10 ‘In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.’ Verse 9 says that this is how God’s love was manifested or made known to us. When you picture the Cross in your mind, when you see the suffering Saviour on that Cross, you are seeing the most powerful demonstration of love that has ever and will ever be demonstrated, the love of God for this world, for you and for me (John 3:16).

This letter from John also gives us one of the answers as to how we can show our love for God, and it is by loving one another! Verses 11-12 ‘Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.’

In the context of our verse for today, we also show that we love God by giving ourselves over to him and to his will and purpose for our lives and we do so wholeheartedly!

When God spoke to the Children of Israel through Moses in Deuteronomy 6:4, he said to them, ‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.’ When Jesus was challenged by the Pharisees concerning what is the greatest of all the commandments, this is how he replied ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment.’ (Matthew 27:37)

Can I suggest that when we read Romans 8:28 we should understand it this way ‘‘And we know that for those who love God [with all their heart and with all their soul and with all their might] that all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

After all, surely, ‘When I survey the wondrous Cross on which the Prince of glory died . . . Love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all.’

Monday April 8th

Well, today is a special day for the devotions! This is devotion number 1000! It is the 520^th which I will have recorded as an audio devotion.

Yes, since the very first one on March 23^rd, 2020, as we went into lockdown because of Covid and through to today, despite only expecting to do devotions for the period of the lockdown I have continued, firstly every day including weekends until I changed it to sending over weekdays only. It also means that I have been pastoring Emmanuel for just over four years as well, as you may remember we had our induction just a few weeks before on Feb 23^rd, 2020. Where has the time gone!

There is one thing for sure we can say that God has been faithful. For so many, life has changed in many ways since that first devotion went out, sadly some have lost family members while others have gained family members, for others, circumstances have changed, the world around us has changed and most certainly our own nation has changed. But God is still the same, he is our faithful and unchangeable friend. Our Saviour hasn’t changed, he is the same yesterday, today and forever.

I wonder if we have changed over the last four years, and by this, I mean spiritually and for the better. For as we have become new creations in Christ, it is not for us to just be saved and that is it, but we are called to become more like Jesus and to be effective in our service for him.

Back four years ago we didn’t have a little lad called Marco, nor a little girl called Zoey in our fellowship, but we rejoiced when they arrived in this world, (well we did as their grandparents!) and as a Church we have seen them change from the new-born babies into the toddler stage and now as Marco has had his third birthday we see the advancements that are being made almost on a daily basis. Wouldn’t it be sad if they were both still the same today as they were on the day they were born! No development, no learning, no growth, no maturing.

In like manner we too having been born again by the Spirit of God and we need to grow, mature and develop as believers. That is why we need to regularly participate in spiritual practices, such as prayer, reading the word and fellowship, moving on from being babes in Christ to those who have become mature in Christ.

I trust that the devotions may have been a help towards this, and I will continue to produce and send them, but they must not be the be all and end all, each one of us needs to be found in the place where we are getting all the spiritual sustenance we require through the various ministries and meetings available to us enabling us to be fed from the word of God, to be in a place of spiritual prayer and fellowship, regularly found where we can be an encouragement toward one another.

Well, to God be the glory. All the praise goes to Jesus. We have a faithful God and he keeps all his promises as we keep on track with him.

FRIDAY March 29^th

Because today is what we call Good Friday I am just going to highlight a few Scriptures for us to spend time meditating upon over this Easter weekend.

For today:

Luke22:39-44

‘And he came out and went, as was his custom, to the Mount of Olives, and the disciples followed him. And when he came to the place, he said to them, “Pray that you may not enter into temptation.” And he withdrew from them about a stone’s throw, and knelt down and prayed, saying, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.” And there appeared to him an angel from heaven, strengthening him. And being in agony he prayed more earnestly; and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.’

Luke 23:44-49

‘It was now about the sixth hour, and there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour, while the sun’s light failed. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two. Then Jesus, calling out with a loud voice, said, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” And having said this he breathed his last. Now when the centurion saw what had taken place, he praised God, saying, “Certainly this man was innocent!” And all the crowds that had assembled for this spectacle, when they saw what had taken place, returned home beating their breasts. And all his acquaintances and the women who had followed him from Galilee stood at a distance watching these things.’

For Saturday

Isaiah 53:1-9

‘Who has believed what he has heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?  For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth. By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people? And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth.’

For Sunday

Luke 24:1-12

‘But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared. And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they went in they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel. And as they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise.” And they remembered his words, and returning from the tomb they told all these things to the eleven and to all the rest. Now it was Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary the mother of James and the other women with them who told these things to the apostles, but these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them. But Peter rose and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves; and he went home marvelling at what had happened.’

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ISAIAH 53 Cross References

Verse 1

‘Who has believed what he has heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?’

John 12:38, Romans 10:16

Verse 3

‘He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.’

Mark 9:12, John 1:10-11

Verse 4

‘Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.’

Matthew 8:17

Verse 5

‘But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.’

Romans 4:25, 1 Peter 2:24

Verse 6

‘All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.’

1Peter 2:25, 2 Corinthians 5:21

Verse 7

‘He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth.’

Matthew 27:12, Matthew 26:63, Acts 8:32

Verse 9

‘And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth.’

Matthew 27:57-60, 1 Peter 2:22

Verse 11

‘Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities.’

1 John 2:1, Romans 5:18-19

Verse 12

‘Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors.’

The first part speaks of his victory over the enemy! Colossians 2:15, Jesus is exalted as Lord! Philippians 2:9-10

Matthew 27:38, Luke 23:34

THURSDAY March 28^th

Romans 8:26-27

‘Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.’

I just love these verses, because of myself, I very often just would not know what to pray in so many circumstances, first in relation to myself, and secondly when considering the needs of others. I think we would all agree that we would always want what we want, when the heart should be seeking that which God wants! Remember when the moment came for Jesus to go to Calvary, we read this in Luke 22:42 ‘“Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.”’

We need the Spirit to help us to earnestly pray that God’s will be done in our lives and in the lives of those who we bring to the throne of grace. It is aligning our hearts and our praying with what our Lord taught us to pray, ‘Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven’ Matthew 6:10.

But then there are those times when we simply do not know what to ask or say, and it is not because we are wanting our own way, but rather because the need is so great and so desperate we cannot put together in our own words what we want to say and Paul reminds us that in those moments the Spirit himself intercedes for us and he does so with groanings that are too deep for words. The Holy Spirit searches our hearts, he sees exactly what it is that we are desiring to bring through prayer into the presence of God and he does it for us! And the wonderful thing is that when we can’t seem to discern or work out what is the will of God in these situations, the Holy Spirit knows, and he sorts it all out for us, 1 Corinthians 2:11 ‘So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.’

Now of course it is important to realise that this doesn’t mean we don’t need to worry about praying, thinking ‘O well, the Holy Spirit knows. He’ll deal with it’, no. he comes to help us, we need first to be doing all we can, then when we have reached the point of intercession where we just do not know what to say, then he takes over for us, we leave him to search our hearts and to make groanings on our behalf.

The word intercede is linked to advocate, the Holy Spirit as come to be an advocate among us and in Hebrews we read that Jesus is an advocate for us in the very presence of God, as the family of God we are in a win, win situation!

I don’t usually send devotions over bank holidays, but I will send a devotion out tomorrow which will just include some Scriptures to read over the weekend, and for those who were at the services recently where I was taking us through the Old Testament references that pointed to the death and resurrection of Jesus I will also add the references which we didn’t get to do from Isaiah 53 so that you can go through them in your own time. There won’t be an audio version. I am having a few days holiday next week, so will resume the devotions on Monday April 8^th.

WEDNESDAY March 27^th

Romans 8:26-27

‘Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.’

Well, so far Paul has highlighted the involvement of the Holy Spirit in the lives of the believer and as we come to verse 26, he says ‘Likewise’, we pause and look back at what the Spirit has already done or is presently doing and then say ‘Likewise’, in the same way he will help us in our weakness.

The Holy Spirit understands the world in which we are living in, he would have understood what it would have been like for Jesus to enter this world as a babe and to grow up as man, going through the same temptation as we do (yet he was without sin) Hebrews 4:15. It was Jesus who said that he would ask the Father to send the Holy Spirit to come alongside us as a Helper or a Comforter. That is to do amongst other things to ‘help us in our weakness’.

I wonder how often we have been faced with a situation through which we did not know how we were going to manage or cope. Maybe even a situation that has raised itself against us and we just did not know how to rise against it, but somehow, we look back and are amazed at how we manged to get through it or rise above it—the Spirit helped us, supported us and brought us through victorious.

We should never ever forget this aspect of the ministry of the Holy Spirit for and toward each one of us. Maybe we of a Pentecostal persuasion highlight (and rightly so and possibly should be getting back to it) the empowering and infilling of the Holy Spirit with the accompanying gifts to the detriment of forgetting that he also wants to be alongside us to assist us, and not just upon us to anoint us.

He wants to elevate us above our circumstances as well as to energise us in our Christian walk.

But here as Paul continues, he highlights a particular weakness we have and it is in prayer, ‘For we do not know what to pray as we ought’ and continues to remind us that the Holy Spirit comes to help us, and we will continue to look at this in the next devotion. For today, consider honestly those areas which you would consider to be a weakness in your Christian experience and ask the Holy Spirit to draw alongside you to help you overcome them.

TUESDAY March 26^th

Romans 8:24-25

‘For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

These verses link back to the previous verse we considered in yesterday’s devotion, our hope is based upon the future reality of the resurrection or the redemption of our bodies. It is a hope that is based not upon something we can see but upon something that we wait for with patience and eager anticipation.

It is also a hope which is a confident hope that we are assured of because of the fact of the resurrection of Jesus and based upon the promises of Jesus.

Remember when Jesus went to the grave of Lazarus, he spoke to Martha the words we know so well, ‘“I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?”’  John 11:25-26.

We can hope for many things in this life, but many of those things we hope for may never happen, because the hope is based upon several other things that need to fall into place somehow or other to make it happen. But not with the future resurrection, everything that needed to fit into place has already happened, Jesus has died and has risen again, as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:20 he is the firstfruit, his own resurrection is a guarantee that the graves will one day open and the dead in Christ will be raised.

Job had this confident hope even before Jesus had proven he had power over death! Listen to what he has said in Job 19:25-27 I will capitalise some of it for emphasis, ‘For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth. AND AFTER MY SKIN HAS BEEN DESTROYED, YET IN MY FLESH I SHALL SEE GOD, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another.’

This hope should cause us to wait with encouragement, perseverance and with a full commitment to the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, for we have not put our hope, nor our faith in empty promises, or based them upon wishful thinking. We have put our hope fully and confidently on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness. He is our hope, therefore we live in earnest expectation.

MONDAY March 25th

Romans 8:23

‘And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.’

Before we turn to the text, this last weekend marked the 4^th anniversary since I started sending out the devotions (March 23^rd, 2020) I will comment more in a weeks’ time.

Paul after speaking of the creation groaning as we saw in our previous devotion, then turns to speak of those who are belonging to Christ as also groaning inwardly as we wait for the redemption of our bodies. To more easily understand what Paul is saying we can turn to what he has written in 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.’

The wonder of being a new creation is, that although the outer man is perishing and will one day die, and not one of us can get out of this, the promise of God is that the day is coming when the body will be redeemed! I know that primarily we think of redemption as being all about the salvation of our souls, being made spiritually alive again, the outworking of salvation also has an eternal effect on our bodies, for as we have already covered in 1 Corinthians 15, there is going to be a resurrection of the dead, more specifically the resurrection of those who have died in Christ, and that resurrection is all about the redemption of the body, and just as we have been made into new creations spiritually, our bodies will be restored, redeemed, resurrected to become new spiritual, glorious, immortal bodies fit to be found in the new heaven and the new earth wherein we will dwell.

So, we all suffer physically, we all grow older and start to creak and stiffen up, we all suffer with various ailments, because sin not only separated us from God, but it caused the human body to falter and frail and eventually fail. So, we groan, longing for and to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling.

But the good news for the present is this, that while the outer man is perishing, we can continually know what it is for the inner man, the new creation to be daily renewed! And we live with this confident hope that God who has planned everything out, has given to us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing for us what is to come. And every guarantee that God gives is a rock-solid guarantee, he who raised Jesus from the dead, will also give life to your mortal bodies through (or BECAUSE NIV) of his Spirit who lives in you (Romans 8:11).

So as Paul continues in 2 Corinthians 5:6 because of this future hope, ‘We are always of good courage.’

FRIDAY March 22^nd

Romans 8:19-22

‘For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.’

If we look back to the fall of mankind in Genesis chapter 3, we will discover that the consequences of his rebellion toward God also affected the created world.

In verse 17 we read ‘cursed is the ground because of you’, a few chapters later we see how the flood that God brought upon the earth because the wickedness of man was great in the earth (6:5) destroyed everything except Noah, his family and the animals etc. that God had instructed him to take into the ark.

When the waters resided, creation began to sprout again, but the curse from Genesis 3 was not taken from it, and the ground remains cursed until the day that Romans 8 speaks about, the revealing of the sons of God, or as the Amplified puts it, ‘Creation waits eagerly for the children of God to be revealed’.

Just as we who have placed our faith in Christ will one day be raised to a new glorious state for eternity, so a wonderful renewal, recreation of the world will take place, and creation is groaning under the curse, waiting for that glorious day.

We often sing with the hymn writer the words of the hymn ‘How great thou art’ and in it we sing of the wonder of creation as we see the beauty in all that God has created, yet, how more wonderful it would be if it had not been for the curse of sin! Likewise, for us, as sinners we were under the curse of sin, we were not very attractive as sin filled or sin riddled individuals, yet Jesus came and he made it possible through his suffering and death for us to become new creations, and we are all still a work in progress until that glorious day when we shall be like Jesus! Raised with new glorified, immortal, eternal, spiritual bodies.

And then God will restore the earth, it says in 2 Peter 3:7 that ‘the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of Judgement and destruction of the ungodly’, verse 13 continues ‘But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.’

In Revelation 21, John saw into the future and God allowed him to see and record for us in verse 1 ‘Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away and the sea was no more’.

If we look at this world around us and consider how wonderful and how beautiful it all is despite the curse being upon it because of sin, how much more wonderful is the new earth going to be, sin free, pain free, disease free, curse free and it says in verse 3 ‘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.’

THURSDAY March 21^st

Romans 8:12

‘So then, brothers, (and sisters) we are debtors not to the flesh. To live according to the flesh’.

So far as we have been navigating through Romans 8 we have discovered that in coming to know Christ, we are no longer under condemnation, we have been set free from the law of sin and death, we have had our minds set upon the things of the Spirit, we have the Spirit of life dwelling in us, we have been settled into the family of God, and we need to learn to trust God as we suffer in this life, knowing that he has prepared a spectacular future for us, in which we will be glorified with him.

I will use today a few words found in Romans 8 and verse 12 ‘So then, brothers, (and sisters) we are debtors not to the flesh. To live according to the flesh’.

Considering what we have already discovered or rediscovered we need to remind ourselves that we are not debtors to the flesh, in other words, the flesh owes us nothing! The flesh just gets us into trouble, into tight spots, the flesh is that which wars against what we should now be as those who have been born again by the Spirit of God. We who know the Lord Jesus Christ have become debtors to Christ and all that he has done for us through his Spirit! The flesh continually got us into trouble, and will get us into trouble, but the Spirit has gotten us out of trouble and as we learn to live and walk by the Spirit, he will keep us out of trouble.

One hymn says this:

A debtor to mercy alone,

Of covenant mercy I sing;

Not, fear, with God’s righteousness on,

My person and offering to bring.

The terrors of law and of God

With me can have nothing to do;

My Saviour’s obedience and blood

Hide all my transgression from view.

 

The work which his goodness began,

The arm of his strength will complete;

His promise is Yea and Amen,

And never was forfeited yet.

Things future, nor things that are now,

Nor all things below or above,

Can make me his purpose forgo,

Or sever my soul from his love.

 

My name from the palm of his hands

Eternity will not erase;

Impressed on his heart it remains,

In marks of indelible grace.

Yes, I to the end shall endure,

As sure as the earnest is given;

More happy, but not more secure,

The glorified spirits in heaven.

A M Toplady

 

Whenever the flesh seeks to draw you, remember you owe it nothing, keep in step with the Spirit and remember that all the glory goes to Jesus.

WEDNESDAY March 20^th

Romans 8:18

‘For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us.’

We return to the same verse again, but this time to look at the latter part, ‘compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us.’

How often have we heard the saying when it comes to persevering at something, ‘keep your eye on the ball’. It means don’t let anyone or anything distract from achieving whatever it is you are seeking to do.

Well, as Christians we need firstly, to keep our eyes on Jesus, for he is the author and the finisher of our faith and secondly we need to keep our eyes on the future, and by this I don’t mean tomorrow or next week or maybe what we may be doing in a year’s time, but rather to keep our eye on eternity, for as we saw in the previous devotion from this verse the future will outweigh anything we experience here in the present. In fact, Paul says anything we undergo here is not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us.

Think of something that you had prepared for in this life, and you waited in anticipation for the day to arrive and when it did, you were so excited, and you ensured that you made the most out of the experience. And you look back and think wow it was worth all the waiting for.

Well, God has prepared what Paul calls ‘glory’ that will one day (although the word ‘day’ will mean nothing when it happens) will be revealed to us. And when we experience it, we will say ‘Wow, it was worth waiting for, all the suffering, all the difficult and trying times were worth it, in fact they have paled into insignificance.’

The other exciting thing is this, as I have already mentioned, the word day will not actually mean anything, for the glory that is to be revealed is not just for 24-hours, a quick period for us to enjoy and then it will all be over, it is going to be for eternity! For ever and ever! Doing what, being where? In the presence of almighty God, dwelling in his glory, worshipping around the throne, truly knowing what it is to be as the hymn writer of the best hymn to have ever been written, says, ‘Changed from glory into glory . . . lost in wonder, love and praise.’

We cannot really truly begin to imagine what it is going to be like, but one thing is for sure it is going to out of this world, God is going to be there, our wonderful Lord and Saviour is going to be there, and John in the book of Revelation tells us that there will be no more death, no mourning, no crying, no pain, for all that has been will have passed away and all things we be made new.

So, keep your eye on the ball, so to speak, keep focused upon Jesus and upon eternity. It will be worth it all when we see Jesus.