Category: Devotions

WEDNESDAY January 10^th

2 Timothy 1:3-7

‘I thank God whom I serve, as did my ancestors, with a clear conscience, as I remember you constantly in my prayers night and day. As I remember your tears, I long to see you, that I may be filled with joy. 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. For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands, for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.’

Paul in these verses has mentioned his own ancestors, then as he writes to Timothy, he reminds him of his ancestors, going back three generations, from Timothy to his mother Eunice and to his grandmother Lois. He highlights that the faith that was instilled in Lois, had trickled down through the generations so that Timothy himself had received the same faith. Notice that Paul uses the words ‘SINCERE faith’, that is the faith that they had displayed was genuine, real, tangible.

Now, I can look backward and I can say that I thank God for the faith that has been instilled in my life which was also instilled in the life of my mother Joy, and also of my grandmother Ethel, and although I didn’t know her, my great-mother as well. I guess that many who will read this devotion can also look backward and testify to the genuineness of their faith which was also seen in their parents and grandparents, and we give thanks to God for this generational blessing.

But then, there will be those who will read this devotion and your story may be different, you may be the first generation of your family who has come to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, maybe the only person in your family, the same cannot be said of your parents or grandparent, if they are still with us, then we can pray that God will make himself known to them.

However whatever the past, we cannot change what has been, but there is one thing for sure, we can seek to do what we can to ensure that the faith that we have experienced will also be passed onto our next generation and likewise to the generation after. I thank God for my children who like myself have come to a genuine faith and relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ and my prayer is that their children, my grandchildren will also come to the place of accepting Jesus as Saviour and Lord. May we spend time praying this year for family members to come to know the same genuine faith that we have in the Lord Jesus Christ.

TUESDAY January 9^th

When we came to an end of the devotions for 2023, I finished by high-lighting some of the verses from the various letters Paul had written, ending with 1 Timothy 3:16 ‘Great indeed we confess, is the mystery of godliness: He was manifested in the flesh’.

I want to go to his letters to Timothy again and this time to 2 Timothy 1:3-7 which I will consider through the rest of this week.

‘I thank God whom I serve, as did my ancestors, with a clear conscience, as I remember you constantly in my prayers night and day. As I remember your tears, I long to see you, that I may be filled with joy. 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. For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands, for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.’

Remember that we are looking at the life and the ministry of Paul, seeking to learn from him and from the example he has given to us as a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ.

He starts in these verses with the words ‘I thank God whom I serve’. He links his devotion and service to God with that of his ancestors, who pre-Calvary would have been devoted to everything that was required of them as Jews who worshipped the God of their fathers. For Paul, this devotion had now been for want of a better way of putting it, transferred across to his devotion toward God as a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And he served God with a clear conscience—as I read this I thought about the man Paul when he was still called Saul, making his way to Damascus, he would have said at the time that he was God-fearing, yet he hated Jesus and those who followed him! But the power of the gospel had changed him, there is absolutely no doubt whatsoever that he did not have  a clear conscience as he was making his way to destroy the Christians, he was actively fighting against God and against the convicting power of the Holy Spirit, but his encounter with Jesus changed him, he started over afresh and the wonderful news concerning the gospel is that once our sin had been forgiven we had a brand new start, our conscience was cleaned and cleared, and despite whatever we may have done we had the opportunity to start all over again with a clean slate, we began to serve God with a clear conscience.

As you read this devotion today, can you say that you stand before God with a clear conscience, what about our daily service for him, do we serve him as we ought? Are we living in such a way that we truly can say that we serve God with a clear conscience.

One hymn writer penned these words, the hymnal only has his or her initials E.H.H. but it reflects the desire of his or her heart towards being devoted to God with a clear conscience:

Nothing between, Lord, nothing between;

Let me thy glory see,

Draw my soul close to thee,

Then speak in love to me—

Nothing between, Nothing between.

Monday January 8^th

Firstly, as we recommence the daily devotions, a Happy New Year. And welcome back!

Although we are already a week into 2024, I will commence the devotions this year with the verse that I have already shared at Emmanuel as a verse for us to take hold of for this year, Zechariah 4:6

‘Then he said to me, “This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel: Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the LORD of hosts.’

It is my intention to share more from this verse on a Sunday morning, but for today it is a reminder for us that we need as individuals and as a local fellowship to know what it is to be led and empowered by the Holy Spirit as we seek to live for and serve God in the generation in which we live.

In the natural, some are physically stronger than others, therefore they can take on bigger tasks or do the things that require more energy, but in the spiritual, we can all be equally fit spiritually as we seek to live for the glory of God. He gives his Spirit to us without measure, what we need to do is to earnestly desire the Holy Spirit, to be filled with the Spirit, to be led by the Spirit and to walk by the Spirit.

Looking back to the last few days that Jesus spent with his disciples, one of the most important commands that he gave to them was to ‘wait for the promise of the Father’, which was to ‘receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you’, this Spirit infilling was to empower them to become witnesses of the Lord Jesus Christ. Just ten days later, on the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came, and the disciples immediately began to boldly proclaim the good news of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and many signs and wonders were done in His name.

See in themselves they were powerless, therefore as far as the disciples were concerned they could not move forward by their own might, nor by their own power, it needed to be, it had to be by the Spirit.

And so, two-thousand years later it is the same for the Church in the 21^st century, it is not by our might, nor by our power but, by the Spirit of the Lord.

We need to seek, to desire to know what it is to go through this year filled with the Holy Spirit, empowered by the Holy Spirit, equipped by the Holy Spirit, we have to learn to shelve our own ideas, our own preferences, our own agenda, our own programme and to be willing to allow the Holy Spirit to do what he desires, discover what his agenda is for us, his programme for us.

FRIDAY December 22^nd

I have deliberately left things to end this year with something from Paul’s letters to Timothy. And I am choosing just a few words from 1 Timothy 3:16 ‘Great indeed we confess, is the mystery of godliness: He was manifested in the flesh’.

As we celebrate the birth of our wonderful Lord and Saviour over this coming few days, we join along with Paul in saying that great indeed is the mystery yet amazing fact that God was manifested in the flesh, born as a baby in Bethlehem, held in the arms of his mother Mary!

It can become too easy for us to overlook the wonder of what this incredible birth meant for the world and for us each individually as we allow ourselves to get caught up with all the trappings that have become attached to the season.

Joy to the world, the Lord as come! A saviour has been born and he is Christ the Lord.

So to end the devotions for 2023, I want to thank you all for taking the time to read the devotions or listen to them if you use the audio version and thank you for your support to me as the pastor over this past year again. It is almost a job to believe that this will be the 4^th Christmas we will have been up here in the North East for! The first one was with all the restrictions of Covid, thank God we can now enjoy ourselves and celebrate without any restraints.

So I wish you all a very Happy Christmas and a very happy New Year. I will have a break from doing the devotions over the holiday period and will recommence them from  Monday January 8^th where we will continue the theme based around the life and the ministry of the apostle Paul.

To end the year, ‘To God be the glory, great things he hath done’.

Now, I haven’t added a song for quite a long time, so here are the words of a carol which will be added as a song at the end of the audio devotion.

Hark the herald angels sing

“Glory to the newborn King!

Peace on earth and mercy mild

God and sinners reconciled”

Joyful, all ye nations rise

Join the triumph of the skies

With the angelic host proclaim:

“Christ is born in Bethlehem”

Hark! The herald angels sing

“Glory to the newborn King!”

 

Christ by highest heav’n adored

Christ the everlasting Lord!

Late in time behold Him come

Offspring of a Virgin’s womb

Veiled in flesh the Godhead see

Hail the incarnate Deity

Pleased as man with man to dwell

Jesus, our Emmanuel

Hark! The herald angels sing

“Glory to the newborn King!”

 

Hail the heav’n-born Prince of Peace!

Hail the Son of Righteousness!

Light and life to all He brings

Ris’n with healing in His wings

Mild He lays His glory by

Born that man no more may die

Born to raise the sons of earth

Born to give them second birth

Hark! The herald angels sing

“Glory to the newborn King!”

THURSDAY December 21^st

Today we go to Thessalonians, Titus and Philemon.

Much of 1 Thessalonians is concerning the return of the Lord Jesus, so I will select the well-known verses from chapter 4:13-18, another reminder this Christmas time, that the one who came to Bethlehem, is one day going to come again, and we need to ensure that we are ready, watching, having put our faith and trust in him. ‘But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore encourage one another with these words.’

From 2 Thessalonians, chapter 2:13-17 ‘But we ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers beloved by the Lord, because God chose you as the firstfruits to be saved, through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth. To this he called you through our gospel, so that you may obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the traditions that you were taught by us, either by our spoken word or by our letter. Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father, who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts and establish them in every good work and word.’

Titus 3:4-8 ‘But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. The saying is trustworthy, and I want you to insist on these things, so that those who have believed in God may be careful to devote themselves to good works. These things are excellent and profitable for people.’

Then from Philemon, Paul’s shortest letter, 1:4-6 ‘I thank my God always when I remember you in my prayers, because I hear of your love and of the faith that you have toward the Lord Jesus and for all the saints, and I pray that the sharing of your faith may become effective for the full knowledge of every good thing that is in us for the sake of Christ.’ May the sharing of our faith also become effective.

WEDNESDAY December 20^th

Today I will highlight some verses from Philippians and Colossians, again it is difficult to choose which ones but here we go, for me the first most obvious is from Philippians 2:9-11 ‘Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.’ Another reminder for us this Christmas time, that the One who humbled himself and came as a baby in the manger in Bethlehem has been highly exalted because of his obedience to the will of his Father.

Next we will go to Philippians 4:4-7 ‘Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.’

From Colossians, chapter 1, Paul’s prayer which is a prayer that we can also pray for one another, ‘And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy; giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins’, verses 9-14.

And then I must add in from Colossians 3:16-17 ‘Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.’ I add this for as we have been quoting so many verses of Scripture over the last few devotions, we need that the word of Christ will dwell in us richly, that is we need to desire that as we read it, that it will do something powerful within us. After all as the Hebrew writer reminds us it is a living and a powerful word.

TUESDAY December 19^th

Today I will highlight some of the verses from Galatians and Ephesians.

Galatians 4:4-6 is apt for the season we have entered as we celebrate the birth of Jesus, reminding us that as our Saviour he has also brought us into adoption as the sons and daughters of God ‘But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.’

Galatians 5:22-25, Paul was without doubt a man who understood all about the ministry of and the importance of the activity of the Holy Spirit in both the life of a local Church and the life of the individual believer. In 1 Corinthians he gave clear instruction concerning the gifts of the Holy Spirit and here in Galatians as he talks about the need to be living by and walking according to the Spirit he reminds us of the fruit that should be evident in our lives. ‘But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.’

In coming to Ephesians I wish I could just cut and paste the whole of this epistle, as along with John’s gospel it is my favourite Bible book. But I will select firstly Ephesians 1:3 which reminds us of how much we have been blessed as those who have been saved, if you can make the time read from verses 3-14, but here is verse 3 ‘Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.’

From chapter two, verses 4-5 and 8-9 reminding us that we have become what we are because of God’s amazing, incredible yet undeserving grace!

‘But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved . . . For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.’

Finally for today, I will include an important ‘finally’ of Paul’s in this letter, especially in the dark and difficult days in which we find ourselves, Ephesians 6:10-11 ‘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.’

God has not only given us his grace, he has also given to us the means by which we can be enabled to remain in his grace, the armour to enable us to fight the good fight of the faith. And although this is jumping ahead it reminds us of what he wrote to Timothy ‘Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses’, 1 Timothy 6:12.

MONDAY December 18^th

As we continue to highlight some of the key verses from Pauls letters, today we will go to the two letters that he wrote to the Church at Corinth. It is in these two letters we have what is my favourite verse in the Bible and my favourite chapter.

In his first letter to them he highlights the message of the cross in the first chapter and of the resurrection in the fifteenth chapter (my favourite chapter).

So first,

‘For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.’ Now, I like this from the KJV ‘For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God’, 1 Corinthians 1:18. Oh how we need to hear this important message to be preached loud and clear today, for it is the only means of our salvation.

But we link to this from chapter 15, ‘For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve’, verses 3-5.

Then (and I suggest if you have time today, you read through this fifteenth chapter to remind yourself of the wonder of the resurrection) verses 20-24 But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power’, Beside the wonder of the resurrection these verses remind us that despite all we see going on around us, God is in control!

I love to read this chapter, it is such a great reminder that death is not the end, God has something incredible planned for each one of us who have come to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and part of this plan is that we will be raised and will have glorified imperishable bodies to be able to dwell eternally in the presence of almighty God and our wonderful Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ.

And how does it all come about? It takes us to my favourite verse in Scripture, ‘Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come’, 2 Corinthians 5:17. It will all come about because we have been made anew in Christ Jesus.

These are just a few verses from these two letters, Paul has said so much more, he touches on ethics, he touches on the life of the Church, he touches on the gifts of the Holy Spirit and of course there is the well-known chapter on love, 1 Corinthians 13. Some of these things we will look at as we continue to study something of Paul and his ministry.

FRIDAY December 15^th

As I mentioned in the previous devotion I will list the possible dates that we have for the writing of Paul’s letters today, using information often found in study books and study Bibles.

Romans 57AD

1 Corinthians 54/55AD

2 Corinthians 55/56AD

Galatians 48AD

Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians and Philemon possibility of 55AD, 58AD, or 62AD depending on which imprisonment of Paul they were written from.

1 Thessalonians and 2 Thessalonians 50/51AD

1 Timothy and Titus Unknown

2 Timothy 65/66 AD

 

These approximate dates give to us the information that Paul wrote the letters over a period of twenty years, and we know that at the same time he was involved in three of what we would call missionary journeys and while pioneering he was still concerned for the spiritual welfare of the Churches he had either planted or had heard of and wanted to encourage them.

 

But to end this week of devotions and over into next week for some of the devotions I will just give to us some key verse from some of Paul’s letters that encourage us along our way. You will see from today how difficult it is going to be to choose as I have only been to one chapter, the well-known eighth chapter of Romans.

‘There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus’, (8:1).

‘If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you’, (8:11).

‘And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose’, (8:28).

‘For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord’, (8:38-39).

These are just from ONE chapter! And I wonder how often these verses have been a powerful means of blessing to us? We are no longer under condemnation, we have the same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead dwelling within us!

Because we have been loved by God and in return we have come to love him, all things WILL work together for good!

And despite anything and everything that the enemy of our souls will seek to throw against us, nothing, absolutely nothing will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord!

Oh how blessed we are to have these wonderful truths penned for us today as a result of the Lord Jesus meeting with and transforming Saul as he travelled on the road to Damascus.

THURSDAY December 14^th

 

Psalm 119:105

‘Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.’

 

I guess in our look at the apostle Paul, it would be helpful to understand something of the chronology of his ministry, and in particular the possible dates in which he has written his letters. I mention this, for Paul’s letters have formed a significant section of the New Testament, out of the 27 books he has contributed 13 of them, ranging from Philemon that is just one chapter to Romans and 1 Corinthians that have 16 chapters, he has written to Churches and to individuals.

I am one of those who also leans toward Paul as being the unmentioned author of the Book of Hebrews.

He writes all of his letters for a particular reason, and I take from some important verses in his letter to Timothy, ‘All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work’, 2 Timothy 3:16–17.

The Holy Spirit has seen to it to ensure that what Paul had written has become a part of this ‘All Scripture’, therefore what Paul has written, and the same must also be said of the other Old and New Testament books have been breathed out by God, inspired by the Holy Spirit to be a means of being profitable or of benefit for teaching, for reproof, for correction and training in righteousness so that we today as has been the case throughout Church history, may be complete and equipped for every good work.

Notice the term for ‘every good work’, we have seen already of the good work of salvation and that we are to do the good works that God has called us to do as his children and to be able to do them, we not only need the help of the Holy Spirit, the fellowship of one another and prayer but we also need the word of God, the Scripture, to enable us to be who we should be in God and to what we need to be doing in the will and the purpose of God. It needs to be our daily bread, it needs to be our daily guide, it needs to be the lamp to our feet and the light to our path.

I will give possible dates in our next devotion.