Category: Devotions

THURSDAY May 1^st

 

Genesis 2:9

‘And out of the ground the LORD God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.’

 

Two trees that stood out from all the other trees in the Garden of Eden, one called the tree of life, the other called the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. It is later in chapter 2 that we read the instruction that God gave to Adam concerning one of these trees, it is in verses 16-17 ‘And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”’

 

It was after this instruction that God created a helper for Adam, but before this happened, Adam had the task of giving names to all the livestock, beasts and birds then God caused Adam to go into a deep sleep and from one of his ribs he formed a woman and presented her to Adam.

 

This is what Adam said, ‘This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man’ (v23).

 

There then follows a divine pattern that stands for the history of time ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed’ (vv24-25) Jesus himself repeated it in Matthew 19:4-6 ‘He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”’

 

Marriage was God’s idea, and it is still is. Despite the ideology of mankind today and the so-called redefining of marriage and relationships, God’s pattern is the pattern that we must follow as the family of God. The coming together is that of a man and woman, not same sex couples, and the becoming one flesh, the union of a man and a woman takes place once they are married and not before. God set these standards for a very good reason, and it was to maintain purity in sexual relationships and to produce the environment of a home in which to ‘be fruitful and multiply’ (Genesis 1:27-28) and as we see later to bring a family up in the ways of the Lord. (Psalm 127:3, Deuteronomy 4:4-7)

 

So just as we saw a few devotions ago the need to pray for the protection and the sanctity of human life, we also need to pray for the sanctity of marriage and the protection of God over families. Consider praying today for the families of our fellowship that God will bless them and that the children will come to the place of salvation.

WEDNESDAY April 30^th

 

Genesis 2:8-9

‘And the LORD God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground the LORD God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.’

 

There is absolutely no doubt that the Garden of Eden would have been the most spectacular garden that there as ever been, yes, because it was created and planted by God himself, and secondly because it would have been completely free of weeds! A gardeners dream!

 

Although it was God who planted this spectacular garden, he gave the responsibility of looking after it to a man, the man called Adam who God had created from the dust of the earth (Genesis 2:7). The same chapter says in verse 15 ‘The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it’.

 

Wow, what a job to have, in fact being given the responsibility of this garden to me would have been a dream job! And I can imagine (for this is how I would have responded) Adam walking around the garden checking the sights, the smells and the sounds as he would see one after another the variety of trees, the many species of flowers and plants and hear the chirping of the many birds flitting about from tree to tree. He would have walked up to one flower after another touching them and smelling the sweet aroma that came from out of them. Monty Don would have had a field day filming here for Gardeners World, in fact I would have been lost in wonder, to me it would have been heaven on earth.

 

I wonder at this point, that although we live in a world that has become tainted because of sin, do we fully appreciate the wonder of all that God has created as he spoke the word, and it all came to be. Yes, then the created world was perfect, but even today we can see the hand of God, we can still marvel at the way in which as he spoke, he not only spoke things into being, he also spoke the biological science into it all to allow for continual regeneration, so that today however many thousand years later it is we can enjoy the same sights, smells and sounds.

 

Psalm 8:3 contains the words ‘When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers. . .’ and then continues with the psalmist saying ‘What is man that you are mindful of him’, the psalmist then declares ‘. . . You have given him dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen, and also the beats of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the sea.’ The psalmist realises that man was the pinnacle of all that God had created, he also realised his God given responsibility over all that was around him, and despite by now, living in a fallen world, it led the psalmist to declare ‘O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!’

 

Well, something went wrong back then in the Garden of Eden, we will come to that in our devotion, but for today spend some time marvelling our Great Creator and respond by exalting him, expressing praise to him for his name is still majestic in all the earth.

TUESDAY April 29^th

 

In the previous devotion, I used a gardening theme, and I am going to continue in a similar vein as I will consider some verses of Scripture with a horticultural theme, and we turn first to the time of creation, Genesis 1:11-13,

 

‘And God said, “Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind, on the earth.” And it was so. The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their own kinds, and trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning, the third day.’

 

The words ‘God said’, which appears eight times in this first chapter remind us that God is the creator of heaven and earth and of all that fills them. And we need to remain firm in our belief in God as the creator, and as the one who sustains it all.

 

The verses teach us that the various species or kinds have all come from the hand of God, and he created them in such a way that each species of vegetation, plant and tree would produce the seed that would allow them to reproduce their species bringing about multiplication. That is one of the things that fascinates me when I am in the garden, that I can take a handful of seeds that look dead, and as I plant them, they will grow into an exact replica of the plant or flower from which the seeds have been taken. It is mind boggling (to me anyway) that contained within that seed is all the information that God has set within it for the species to be multiplied.

 

Now, I am going a little off track today, because as I have just written what I have for this devotion, I am reminded of the importance of human life. If God has set such exact details in the vegetation, trees, fruit and flowers then he has also done so in human beings and we can say even more, for we are created in his image (Genesis 1:27). Therefore life is precious and life is valuable. We know this as we read such portions of Scripture such as Psalm 8 and Psalm 139 but more importantly in that God didn’t send a Saviour for any of the other parts of creation, only for men and women, that is how valuable we are to him, therefore if God sees human life as valuable and as worth saving then so should we. And I encourage every one of us to be fervent in our praying that the ‘Assisted dying bill’ that is being discussed at this present time will not pass, we need that those who are for it will come to understand that life is too precious to bring it to an end. Instead, we should promote all we can to be able to help those who are suffering to live with dignity and with all the help that is already available for them.

 

For more information to help you to know what you can do and how to pray visit the website of the Christian institute www.christian.org.uk

 

MONDAY April 28^th

 

The last few weeks has seen spring burst into life in my garden, it has been amazing as I have kept a close eye on the plants and flowers, especially the tulips, daffodils and the buds on the fruit trees and watched as they began to open and then to bloom. It was almost like overnight a transformation took place.

 

I have taken lots of photographs, and each day has seen a difference. One morning in a pot maybe just one tulip opened, the next day a couple more, then by day three all of them, radiant as they had the sun shining on them.

 

Now my garden is small and relatively insignificant compared to many gardens and parks, but together they display to us something of the wonder of creation and especially the wonder of new life. Even just a month or so back the garden was bare, but now it is full of beauty.

 

The difference has come about a) because I had made the effort to plant before the winter b) because the weather has got warmer as the sun has begun to shine and warm up the soil and what a difference a bit of sunshine makes. Even we feel better!

 

And what a difference to our lives as the seed of the word of God is planted in our hearts and we allow the Son of righteousness to shine not just upon us but also within us. He makes a world of difference; he drives away all the doom and gloom and replaces it with joy that is unspeakable and full of glory.

 

If you were to consider your heart as being like a garden, what would the condition of it be? Would it be overgrown with the weeds of this world and the cares of this world or are you allowing it to be tenderly cared for and nurtured by allowing the seed of the word of God to be planted within and to produce its fruit, and allowing the Son of righteousness to do his work by shining upon it with the radiance of his love and grace.

 

See I love to see a beautiful garden, one that has been well tended, one that is full of colour and life, and that’s how we should be as the children of God, our lives like well-tended gardens, radiating the glory of God and the beauty of Jesus to others.

 

What about a verse? Well, how about my favourite, 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.’ I will put it this way, if we claim to be in Christ, then the old, that is the weeds and rubbish that was once in the garden of our hearts must have been got rid of, and the new, the fruit of the implanted seed of the word of God should be there in its place.

 

May we each reflect something of the change that Jesus has made, may who we are, how we live and what we do and say be a true reflection of the transformation that has taken place in the garden of our hearts.

FRIDAY April 25^th 

 

I am going to give a heading for today’s devotion, it is this:

 

Jesus really was who he said he was!

 

Jesus made many claims when he was with the disciples as an itinerant preacher, and we probably recall so many of them. He declared himself to be the light of the world, the bread of life, he claimed to have come from the Father, he even said that he was the way, the truth and the life and that no one could come to the Father except through him. But did all these claims stack up?

 

Well, the answer is a definite yes, and I suggest that one of the reasons we can say this is because of one of the other claims that he made which seems to be the most outrageous, for what he said seemed as far as mankind was concerned to be impossible. It is the claim that he made to Martha in John 11:25-26 ‘Jesus said to her, “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?”’

 

Can a dead man or woman live again? Well, yes, according to Jesus, but only because he himself was the resurrection and the life. Jesus was declaring that he had power over death, that he had power to grant life and what is more it would be eternal life, in other words those who believed in him would live forever, and that is forever and ever and ever, no end.

 

Now it was only a few minutes later, that Jesus demonstrated his power over death, for he walked over to the tomb where the body of Lazarus had been laid for four days, his sister Martha says to Jesus that it is probably stinking by now,  yet Jesus called him to come forth, and Lazarus came forth, and they unbound the grave clothes from around his now raised back to life body. And Lazarus was very much alive again, for we read in the next chapter that Jesus went again to the home of this family, and it says that ‘Lazarus was one of those reclining at the table’. The conversation that would have been had among them as family and friends would have been riveting. But unfortunately for Lazarus, he would one day have to face death again! But what about the claim of Jesus.

 

Well, when Jesus had died and been buried, death could not hold him, for he was life itself, he had created life, he was the one who sustains life, I’ll put it this way, he was the very kernel of eternal life and so on the third day, he tore the bars away and up from the grave he arose. See as God the Son he had power over death, his death had come about not because of any sin that he had done, but because of the sins that we had committed, he had taken our place, therefore God having accepted the atoning sacrifice that Christ had made on our behalf, in our place, raised him from the dead and has exalted him to the highest place.

 

So, what seemed to be outrageous claims were the truth. Jesus really was who he claimed to be, the Son of God who loved us, that is loved you, loved me, and loved us so much that he lay down his life as a ransom for our sin, for the sins of the world, and he was buried, and he rose again.

 

We end this week with these few thoughts around the resurrection with some well-known verses from Philippians 2:5-11

 

‘Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 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.’

THURSDAY April 24^th

 

1 Corinthians 15:3-5

 

‘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.’

 

I wonder how many of us, especially when we were children, would have been going somewhere or doing something with someone other than our parents and beforehand mum or dad would say to us, ‘Remember to say thank you’. See saying thank you was important. And Paul is not reminding the believers to say thank you in these verses, although it is important that we give thanks to God from grateful hearts, but he is reminding them of the important essentials, and just as mum or dad would say to us as children ‘don’t forget’, Paul likewise says to the Corinthian believers and to us as well, ‘don’t forget’. REMEMBER these important truths.

 

The first is that ‘Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures’, the doctrine or truths concerning the death of the Lord Jesus Christ are paramount to our Christian faith, and of course it needs to be coupled up to ‘that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures’, and not forgetting that in between he was buried.

 

Going back to the words of the song I quoted a few devotions ago,

 

‘If there were no resurrection

We ourselves could not be raised’

 

Now, I love this time of the year in the garden, first because at long last it is getting warmer, but more so because we finally see the results from the planting of the bulbs in the autumn and the opportunity to be planting the seeds in readiness for them to germinate and to produce either flowers or vegetables sometime in the near future.

 

I always marvel when I put a bulb into the ground or hold a few dozen tiny seeds in the palm of my hand and realise that what seems to be dead is pregnant with life! But for that life to become feasible it must be buried in the ground. Then excuse me for putting it this way, the magic happens. Soon a little bit of life pushes up through the soil, the seed or the bulb has sprung to life and the beauty of what was contained in the seed is revealed for all to see.

 

And Christ was placed in the tomb dead. The life had flowed from his body, it seemed like the song says that Jesus mission had failed, but no, it was all a part of God’s important master plan, his death was just the beginning of something new and something powerful, for up from the grave he arose with a mighty triumph o’er his foes. And he appeared in his resurrection power and glory for the world to see.

 

It was then that the disciples began to understand what Jesus meant when he had told them just a few days earlier prior to being arrested, as recorded in John 12:24 ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.’

 

That little word ‘unless’, in other words the death, the burial and the resurrection were important, for unless they happened there would be no new life for you and for me. Unless Jesus as the seed had died and had been planted into the ground there would not be new life, resurrection life, abundant life.

WEDNESDAY April 23^rd

 

1 Corinthians 15:3-5

 

‘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.’

 

Paul was passing on to the Corinthian church what he himself had received, and he calls it those things which he considered to be of first importance. Now, although Paul at some time would have heard all about the birth, death and the resurrection of Jesus from the other disciples, or apostles, he tells us in Galatians 1:12 that initially he had received it from Jesus himself.

 

‘For I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.’

 

In an earlier chapter in 1 Corinthians 11:23 when he talks about the Lord’s Supper, he also says that he received the information from Jesus himself ‘For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread . . .’

 

Imagine how it must have been for Paul to have received all this important information from Jesus, it would have been a great encouragement to him, that he the one who had been blaspheming and speaking out in opposition against the followers of Jesus was almost being uploaded, to use a modern computer term, with all the essential and what Paul calls important information from Jesus himself.

 

And he tells the Corinthians ‘What I have received I’m passing on to you’. He is going to reaffirm to them the essentials, which are of first or of utmost importance regarding the faith.

 

I believe these things of first importance are so important that if we get them wrong or choose to reject them, then everything else that we believe will be of no use. The firm foundation must be in place. We need to defend the virgin birth, we need to defend the sinless life of the Lord Jesus Christ, we need to defend his atoning death, we need to defend his resurrection, and I add also his ascension, for they are all vital parts of God’s great plan of redemption. We will consider them as we move forward.

TUESDAY April 22nd

 

‘If there were no resurrection

We ourselves could not be raised

But the Son of God is living

So our hope is not in vain’

 

These are the words of a well-known song which are based on some verses in 1 Corinthians 15:12-20, they remind us of the importance of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is one of the pivotal doctrines of our faith. If Christ has not been raised, then we are not saved, we would still be in our sins, we would be without hope and we would be eternally lost. But verse 20 reads ‘But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead’, the earlier verses (vv5-8) testifies that many saw the risen Saviour, he did die, there is also no doubt about that, he was also buried, again there is no doubt about that but he also rose again and there is no doubt about that as well.

 

But although Jesus has died and risen again, and in doing so, providing eternal salvation for all who will believe, sadly many choose not to believe, and not to accept their need of a Saviour, therefore all who have failed to believe are still in their sins, are without hope and will be eternally lost.

 

The events that we have just celebrated over the last weekend are to use one of my favourite words, important. It is such a shame that Easter is almost an event that passes without a lot of reference or thought to what it is all about. The birth of Jesus is important, especially the means of his birth which led him to be born without sin, but salvation would not be possible with just that, it required the shedding of his blood, and that would still be insufficient, Jesus would need to conquer death, to take away the sting of sin, and he did by rising again, he did conquer death and as a result he is able to save us and to grant us resurrection life. The same song that I quoted at the beginning continues

 

He has risen

He has risen

He has risen

Jesus is alive

 

In the grave God did not leave Him

For His body to decay

Raised to life the great awak’ning

Satan’s pow’r He overcame

 

He has given life immortal

We shall see Him face to face

Through eternity we’ll praise Him

Christ the Champion of our faith

 

We have such a wonderful Saviour, therefore, to quote again from 1 Corinthians 15 and verse 58 ‘. . . be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord’.

 

We will return to this incredible subject again.

FRIDAY April 18^th

 

Luke 23:33

‘And when they came to the place that is called The Skull, there they crucified him, and the criminals, one on his right and one on his left.’

 

I don’t usually send out devotions on bank holidays, but today I am just going to send the words of the following songs as we contemplate the wonder of Calvary, as you read the lyrics, allow your heart to be touched by his eternal love as you consider the cost of your great redemption.

 

‘. . . knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.’ 1 Peter 1:18–19.

 

‘. . . he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption.’ Hebrews 9:12.

 

Three crosses stood on Calvary’s hill, twas crucifixion day

The time had come to pay sin’s debt, and death was the only way

A hammer and a soldier’s swing beat out redemption’s sound

And from those hands that healed the sick, the blood came streaming down

 

And from precious veins, sinners’ chains were broken by the blood

Those rusty nails that shook the gates of Hell, had started a crimson flood

To one and to all, who would heed this gospel call, are waiting liberty

And the truth remains and will never change, the blood still sets men free

 

There is no curse on old Golgatha, like there was when Jesus died

The crowd has passed away, that stood to watch Him be crucified

Two thousand years have come and gone since that day on Calvary

But the blood that flows from God’s own Son, it’s till setting sinners free

 

 

On Cal’vry’s hill of sorrow

Where sin’s demands were paid,

And rays of hope for tomorrow

Across our path were laid.

 

I see a crimson stream of blood,

It flows from Calvary,

Its waves which reach the throne of God,

Are sweeping over me.

 

I wish you all, those who are a part of our fellowship in Gateshead and those of the wider audience, who read or listen to the devotions a very happy Easter.

THURSDAY April 17^th

 

Matthew 26:39, 42

‘And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.”’

 

‘Again, for the second time, he went away and prayed, “My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done.”’

 

Luke 22:41-42

‘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.”’

 

Hebrews 12:2

‘. . . looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.’

 

For me it was in the garden

He prayed—“Not my will, but thine:”

He had no tears for his own griefs,

But sweat drops of blood for mine.

 

I wonder how often we get so familiar about something that we fail to stop and consider it with the consideration it deserves—how about this story of redemption. Perhaps it would behove us all to spend some time today, on the eve of Good Friday, to consider afresh the price that was paid for our eternal salvation.

 

As I suggested Sunday, today may be a suitable time to read and meditate Isaiah 53 and to remind ourselves while reading it that this is what Jesus was willing to undergo for me (make it personal).

 

He loved me so much so that he was willing to suffer for me, that is to be betrayed, mocked, beaten, whipped and much more, he was willing to take the punishment of my sin for me, he was willing to bear the wrath of God toward that sin for me, he was willing to be forsaken by God and to die for me. ‘Such love, weeps for the shame I know, such love, paying the debt I owe, O Jesus such love’