Category: Devotions

THURSDAY 23^rd

Luke 2:8-14

NIV (vv10-11) ‘But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Saviour has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord.”’

ESV (vv10-11) ‘And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord.”’

Over the next couple of days, I will share some thoughts on Christmas using both Scripture and one of the carols we sing during this festive and special season.

Today I have chosen one of my favourites, ‘Joy to the world’. This song was written in 1719 by Isaac Watts who was an English minister and hymn writer. It is based upon Psalms 98:4, 96:11-12, and Genesis 3:17-18. (Source – Wikipedia)

Joy to the World, the Lord is come!

Let earth receive her King;

Let every heart prepare Him room,

And Heaven and nature sing,

And Heaven and nature sing,

And Heaven, and Heaven, and nature sing.

Joy to the World, the Saviour reigns!

Let men their songs employ;

While fields and floods, rocks, hills and plains

Repeat the sounding joy,

Repeat the sounding joy,

Repeat, repeat, the sounding joy.

He rules the world with truth and grace,

And makes the nations prove

The glories of His righteousness,

And wonders of His love,

And wonders of His love,

And wonders, wonders, of His love.

Wikipedia shows that the song originally had four verses, here is the fourth:

No more let sins and sorrows grow,

Nor thorns infest the ground;

He comes to make His blessings flow

Far as the curse is found,

Far as the curse is found,

Far as, far as, the curse is found

There is no doubt that the coming of the baby called Jesus into a manger in a little town called Bethlehem was going to be the means of joy to the world, for his arrival heralded the moment in time which we read as being ‘when the fulness of time came’, it was when God sent his Son, born of a woman under the law, to redeem those who were under the law so that we might receive adoption as sons. (Galatians 4) It is one of the most pivotal moments in the history of the world, for through the birth of this One who was the eternal Son of God, God was putting into plan the work of redemption that would lead to eternal salvation for all who would believe.

We have just come through another year that like the one before it has been full of gloom, the pandemic stretching its terror week after week, what will happen, when will it come to an end, what should we do, what can we be doing, masks or no masks, vaccine or no vaccine, meeting or not meeting together be it as Church or as family – and even as I write this a few weeks in advance the threat of a new strain, where will it lead to, but despite it all the good news that was of great joy to the shepherds on the mountain side two thousand years ago is still good news of great joy today, the Saviour was born, thirty three years later he went on to die as a sacrifice for the sins of the world, and then three days afterward rose from the dead victorious. He had fulfilled what God had sent him to do, he had arrived in the fulness of time to redeem those who were under the law, and as we come to receive him by faith we are adopted into the family of God. JOY to the world, we who have come to know him as our Saviour and Lord have good news to tell, we have great joy to share so may we take the opportunities given to us to let the world know that this is a season for great joy, for Christ has come, and hope is available for all, he comes to grant pardon and give eternal life.

WEDNESDAY 22nd

Revelation 3:20

NIV (v20) ‘Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.’

ESV (v20) ‘Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.’

I wonder how busy we have been with all our Christmas preparations, making sure that we have written all the cards, making sure we have got the right gifts ready for those we are giving to, the tree decorated and taking a prominent place in the hallway or living room, the food shopping done, the baking perhaps taking place, the lights up inside and maybe outside, and no, it wasn’t the drive to my house that Iain portrayed while speaking in the family service the other day! We will all have been busy in some way, making sure that everything is ready for when the day arrives and the guests come to join with us for the festivities, we will want to ensure that a good time is had by all.

Preparation is so important, for how well we prepare will determine the outcome we get.

When it came to that first Christmas morning, the night that Christ was born, God had it all prepared, not just a few weeks or months before, but even before time began, way back in eternity past he had redemptions story all worked out, he knew exactly what he was going to do and exactly when he would do it, and how he would do it, and no matter what anyone or anything tried to do, they would not be able to stop it, and because God had prepared and planned well, the outcome is absolutely phenomenal. The birth of this One, who was the eternal Son of God was going to lead to the defeat of the enemy of our souls, it was going to lead to the means of our eternal redemption, it was going to lead to the sting of sin, which is death being taken away, and the power of sin, the law being broken, it was going to lead to an incredible victory over all that was opposed to God and to his right to rule.

As we draw close to this another day in which we celebrate the birth of Christ, in all your preparations, don’t leave Jesus out, make sure now, determine in your heart today that during this season you will make ample room for him, time to worship him, time to give thanks to him, time to honour him, time to commune with him,  and if you are reading this devotion and you have never partook of the amazing victory that he has provided at Calvary, that is you have never opened up your heart to him and allowed him to become your Saviour and Lord, make room for him today allow him to come and dwell in your life.

Room for Jesus, King of glory,

Hasten now, his word obey,

Swing the heart’s door widely open,

Bid him enter while you may.

______________________

The Saviour is waiting to enter your heart,

Why don’t you let Him come in?

There’s nothing in this world to keep you apart,

What is your answer to Him?

Time after time He has waited before,

And now He is waiting again

To see if you’re willing to open the door:

O how He wants to come in.

If you’ll take one step toward the Saviour, my friend,

You’ll find His arms open wide;

Receive Him, and all of your darkness will end,

Within your heart He’ll abide.

Time after time He has waited before,

And now He is waiting again

To see if you’re willing to open the door:

O how He wants to come in.

TUESDAY 21^st

1 John 1

NIV (vv5-7) ‘This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.’

ESV (vv5-7) ‘This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.’

Today is what we know as the shortest day, from tomorrow we should get a little extra light until we build up to the middle of June next year for the longest day. It’s strange that we do not notice the difference immediately, tomorrow will pass with us not even noticing the fraction of extra bit of daylight, and yet by the time we get to June we will bask in the extra hours of sunshine and the warmth it brings—hopefully!

What happens is that each fraction builds up more each day till we get to the longest day, but each fraction counts, each fraction is important. I want to remind us today that as we progress in our daily walk with God, it is a little like us moving further away from the darkness and closer to the light. Each day as we live for him, and as we seek to grow and mature, it is as if little by little we are becoming more Christlike as we allow his grace to change us and to transform us.

We used to sing a song,

From glory to glory He’s changing me,

changing me, changing me;

His likeness and image to perfect in me,

The love of God shown to the world.

For He’s changing, changing me,

From earthly things to the heavenly,

His likeness and image to perfect in me,

The love of God shown to the world.

I wonder as we look back over this last year, do we see and feel a change in our lives as God has been working in our hearts, do we feel that we have become more Christlike, can we truly say that he has continually been changing us and transforming us more to the image of his Son? The end of a year is a good time to take stock and the new year is an opportunity to seek to improve, to be more like what He wants us to be.

Maybe its possible that you are still drawn back towards the darkness, you want to draw closer to God, you want to allow his light to shine more brightly through your life but something of the old desires, the old nature keeps dragging you back or holding you back, then make today the day when you draw a line in the sand and say ‘no more’, decide that as the days get lighter so I want also to allow more of the light of life to shine in my life, and as you make that decision ask God by the power of his Holy Spirit to help you, to strengthen you, to be able to say no to the ways of the flesh and yes to the ways of the Spirit.

MONDAY 20^th

1 John 4:10

NIV (v10) ‘This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.’

ESV (v10) ‘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.’

I ended the previous devotion with this verse of Scripture, and I want to use it today again for us to ponder something of the wonder of the love of God.

In the words of the well-known song:

The love of God is greater far,

Than tongue or pen can ever tell.

It goes beyond the highest star,

And reaches to the lowest hell.

The guilty pair, bowed down with care,

God gave His Son to win,

His erring child He reconciled,

And pardoned from his sin.

Could we with ink the ocean fill,

And were the skies of parchment made.

Were every stalk on earth a quill,

And every man a scribe by trade.

To write the love of God above,

Would drain the ocean dry.

Nor could the scroll contain the whole,

Though stretched from sky to sky.

We are familiar with the various Scriptures that speak of the love of God, for example it was such that he sent his one and only Son into the world, (John 3:16) it is so immense and powerful that nothing shall ever separate those who trust in him from the love of God. (Romans 8:31-39) As the song I have quoted says, it reaches to the lowest hell, that is to the most depraved of all sinners, (and we are all utterly depraved) all can be reached with the love of God, it is so deep and so powerful it can make the worst of wretches into the greatest of saints, it can take the lowest of the low and set them in high places. To me the most amazing thing about God’s love is that he loves me! Our text says that this is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us! God didn’t wait for me to show a flicker of love in my heart toward him, he loved me as I was and he loved me so much that he gave his Son to die for me, and the same is for everyone of us, there is not one of us outside the reach of the love of God.

You may have come across this devotion today ‘by accident’ and you may have absolutely no time for God, you may even have a heart that is full of hate toward him, but it doesn’t change the fact that however you feel, nor whoever you are that God loves you, he came to die for you so that you could enter into a living and powerful relationship with him. He awaits with his arms held out toward you to accept you, to embrace you regardless of who you are or what you may have done, and to grant you forgiveness and bring wholeness to you. What should you do? Simply put, you come to him admitting you are a sinner, you accept that Jesus came to die for you as an atoning sacrifice for your sin and you believe in him, you put your faith and trust in what he has done for you and allow him to come as Saviour and Lord in your life.

FRIDAY 17^th

Psalm 8

NIV (v4) ‘. . . what is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them?’

ESV (v4) ‘. . . what is man that you are mindful of him,

      and the son of man that you care for him?’

When we were returning from New York in November, our flight was an overnight flight and fortunately I had a window seat, once we had got to the cruising altitude, we had come above what few clouds and mist there had been and the sight was amazing, as I looked up, I could see the stars, and the moon, while we had been in New York there had been a lunar eclipse, one of the longest lasting eclipses for a long time, unfortunately we didn’t see it, but I did see the full moon earlier the same evening. There is something enchanting about the moon, I love to try and photograph it from our house, especially when the sky is crystal clear, to me it is no wonder that there has been all the effort made to get to the moon, not just to see it from afar but to land on it. (Incidentally I have photographed the moon tonight December 16^th)

David the psalmist was enchanted with the moon and the heavens, in our psalm today he says ‘When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place . . .’ I don’t know how much they knew about the moon back then, how little, or how much they understood about it, but whatever, David looked at it in awe and as he considered it, he continued with ‘what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?’ David was thinking ‘what or who am I in comparison to everything else you have created. Look at the glory and the splendour and the wonder of the heavens stretched out before me, who am I, what is my worth in comparison?’ But he then considers that man has tremendous worth to God because in all that had been created, man had been given the greatest responsibility of all, that of looking after the earth. (v6)

What is man? What is our worth? Well, we could come up with many answers, but perhaps the most important is this, God considers every single human being as a person of worth, so much so that he was willing to become a man and step into this world to save sinners. As we have entered a Christmas season again,

may we never forget this wonderful truth, Jesus came into this world because of God’s immense love for us, remember what it says in 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.’

THURSDAY 16^th

Psalm 106

NIV (vv44-45) ‘Yet he took note of their distress when he heard their cry; for their sake he remembered his covenant and out of his great love he relented.’

ESV (vv44-45) ‘Nevertheless, he looked upon their distress, when he heard their cry. For their sake he remembered his covenant, and relented according to the abundance of his steadfast love.’

This is another psalm a little like yesterdays which shows how God intervened with the children of Israel, with an emphasis on the fact that he remained faithful towards them even when they sinned and turned from him. Yes, God at times had to punish them, yes at times God was angry with them, but through it all he was still a merciful God and he looked upon their distress, when he heard their cry. (v44)

I wonder how often we forget about what God has done for us or have sought to do things our way rather than God’s way? (Verses 13, 21) I wonder how often we have acted in such a way that we deserved the anger of God toward us rather than his favour, or we have gone off in the direction of our choosing rather than in the pathway that he had set before us? What about how often we have given our time to worthless things that could be considered as our ‘golden calves’ instead of giving our lives wholeheartedly to God? (Verses 19-20) Or I wonder how often we have murmured when we should have been thankful and more appreciative of what God has done and for the ministry of those who God has placed among us to be a means of blessing towards us? (Verse 25) The list could go on and on as it seems to in this psalm concerning the Children of Israel, but God who was patient toward them is also patient toward us, and we are grateful that he always gives us opportunity to return to be who he wants us to be, and to be the people he wants us to be and to be going in the direction he wants us to go so that we end at that which is his destiny for us.

I don’t know about you, but I admit that I have failed many times and I need to come to the Lord and seek his mercy, I need for him to come and to keep me walking in the way he has planned. The Children of Israel ended up wandering for forty years and the most of them never even made it to the promised land, lets make sure we do not lose out, that we heed the voice of the Lord and walk in his way, so that we will enter in to all that he has prepared for us to bless us with, and to allow his glory to be displayed among us and upon us.

This chapter ends the fourth book of the Psalms, and it ends on a positive note ‘Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting! And let all the people say, “Amen!” Praise the LORD!’

We will continue from Psalm 107 later.

WEDNESDAY 15^th

Psalm 105

NIV (vv4-6) ‘Look to the LORD and his strength; seek his face always. Remember the wonders he has done, his miracles, and the judgments he pronounced, you his servants, the descendants of Abraham, his chosen ones, the children of Jacob.’

ESV (vv4-6) ‘Seek the LORD and his strength; seek his presence continually!

Remember the wondrous works that he has done, his miracles, and the judgments he uttered, O offspring of Abraham, his servant, children of Jacob, his chosen ones!’

This is quite a long psalm, but as you read through it you will discover that it testifies to the fact that God is in control, he knows what is going on and he always has his man or woman ready to step into a situation for his will to be carried out. The examples used here are firstly of Joseph in verses 16-22, which show to us that before the famine arrived in the land, God had already prepared for Joseph to be at the right place at the right time, he had to go through the mill so to speak, but in it and through it God was going to be glorified and Josephs testimony was ‘But Joseph said to them, “Do not fear, for am I in the place of God? As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.”’

The second example is that of Moses, verses 26-36 who we know had an incredible encounter at the early stages of his life when he was placed among the bulrushes, saved from being killed and as a result propelled into the palace of the Pharaoh, and yet it was going to be at the age of eighty after spending time in a wilderness watching sheep that God was going to commission him to the task of bringing Israel out of captivity—all hope seemed to be lost for them, but God was at work, and we know the outcome.

The third example is Israel, they were the offspring of Jacob, (v23-24) as a result of the famine found in Egypt, they became slaves, as I said previously it looked like they were finished, all hope lost, doomed to be trodden upon as a people, but God was at work, he had a plan for them and no one nor anything was going to thwart that plan, and they came out of Egypt, they wandered in the desert but eventually arrived into the promised land with the final verse of this chapter saying ‘praise the Lord’.

We praise him because of his faithfulness.

May this psalm be a reminder to us that we serve the same God who intervened in the affairs of those found in this chapter, God had a plan, he was going to bring that plan to fulfilment, when it looked like the end of the road had been reached, God stepped into the situation and brought the helper and the help that was needed. Look today to the Lord who is the Maker of the heavens and the earth, it is him we look to, to be our Helper, to deliver us, to step into our situations, to send help at exactly the right time. Remembering as Job said, ‘I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.’ (Job 42:2) We rest in the confidence that God is in control, and as we trust him, he will perfect that which concerns us and bring it to completion. (Philippians 1:6) Exactly the same time as I am writing today’s devotion a song is being sung in the background, and I caught the words as being so relevant, ‘The same God who made a way is the same God who is here today, even in my darkest moments it will be the truth I’m holding, the same God who made a way, he’s the same God who is here today.’

TUESDAY 14^th

Psalm 104

NIV (v33) ‘I will sing to the LORD all my life; I will sing praise to my God as long as I live.’

ESV (v33) ‘I will sing to the LORD as long as I live; I will sing praise to my God while I have being.’

This psalm before us today is yet another that extols the greatness of God, in the first verse the psalmist says, ‘Bless the LORD, O my soul! (There it is again!) and continues, ‘O LORD my God, you are very great! Not just great but VERY great! He is the greatest! As you look through the psalm it paints a picture for us of firstly God in his majesty, (vv1-4) then God in his creativity (vv5-6) and then continues to show God in his provision toward all that he has created. (vv6-23) When we get to verse 24 the psalmist declares ‘O LORD, how manifold are your works! In wisdom you have made them all; the earth is full of your creatures.’

God is great, very great as we are reminded here, he is the God above all gods, he is the true and living God, and as we are reminded in Acts 17:28 it is ‘in him we live and move and have our being’. It is in him alone that we have come to know and to enjoy the benefits of salvation as we saw in the previous psalm, he alone is God, he alone is the Saviour of the world. The psalmist continues to talk of God’s provision in verses 27-30 and then ends with the words that we know so well as they have been set to music and song, ‘I will sing to the LORD as long as I live; I will sing praise to my God while I have my being.’ As we learned from Psalm 103, may we also learn from this psalm to meditate and to contemplate the wonder of who God is and of all that he has done so that we too will sing to the LORD as long as we live. As verse 24 says, ‘May my meditation be pleasing to him, for I rejoice in the LORD.’ That means may our meditation or our thoughts about God as we think about him be pleasing to God, that throws up another challenge—how much of our thinking in each day is spent thinking about God and the things of God? I am sure that the more we meditate upon him, the more we will find ourselves blessing the LORD with our souls!

MONDAY 13^th

Psalm 103

NIV (v20-22) ‘Praise the LORD, you his angels, you mighty ones who do his bidding, who obey his word. Praise the LORD, all his heavenly hosts, you his servants who do his will. Praise the LORD, all his works everywhere in his dominion. Praise the LORD, my soul.’

ESV (v20-22) ‘Bless the LORD, O you his angels, you mighty ones who do his word, obeying the voice of his word! Bless the LORD, all his hosts, his ministers, who do his will! Bless the LORD, all his works, in all places of his dominion. Bless the LORD, O my soul!’

We return to Psalm 103 again today, for as we saw in the previous devotion it is a psalm that is so full of encouragement concerning the realm of salvation. Verses 8-13 are filled with incredible hope for fallen mankind reminding us that God is a loving God who is merciful and gracious, and he has proved it by sending his Son into the world to bring us redemption and eternal hope as we put our trust in him. The verses remind us that although we have fallen into a state of utter depravity, the grace of God is such that in salvation he removes our sin, our transgression from us and puts it away as far as the east is from the west, it continues to remind us that he is a God of compassion, he understands that we are human, frail humanity made from dust, but when we fail, he never fails, he is always there to lift us up, to show his mercy and grace toward us. What an amazing God, what an incredible Saviour and what a wonderful salvation. It is no wonder going back to the first few verses that the psalmist wanted to keep telling himself to ‘Bless the LORD, O my soul, and all that is within me bless his holy name!’

In the last verses in this psalm the psalmist compares the fleetingness of our lives to the eternality of God and his faithfulness (vv15-19) and ends with the words that I have included for our devotion today, words that are a call for all to bless the LORD, ending by talking to himself again, ‘Bless the LORD, O my soul!’

There is a blessing that comes from our blessing the LORD, there is something that is powerful and precious in real and genuine worship from the heart, it brings us into close proximity of his presence, it brings us to a place of drawing close to him, do you feel distant from God at this moment, do you feel the burden of life’s struggles, speak to yourself again to ‘Bless the LORD, O my soul’ and draw near to God again in worship, and as he promises in his word, as you draw near to him, he will draw near to you. (James 4:8) Allow him to embrace you in his arms of love as you give your worship to him from a grateful heart.

FRIDAY 10^th

Psalm 103

NIV (v1-5) ‘Praise the LORD, my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name. Praise the LORD, my soul, and forget not all his benefits—who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.’

ESV (v1-5) ‘Bless the LORD, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name! Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.’

They say that the first sign of madness is talking to yourself, but there is nothing about madness here in these verses as the psalmist talks to himself and tells himself to ‘Bless the LORD, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name!’ Perhaps it is a good thing to talk to ourselves, especially when it come to the realm of praise and worship, for perhaps too often we are far to slow to praise the Lord and to give him thanks for all he has done. These few verses before us today are probably the verses of Scripture that I repeat more than any other, as I remind myself of the benefits of salvation and the need to bless the Lord and to give thanks. The psalmist says, ‘forget not all his benefits’, it is as if it is all to easy to get caught up with so many other things that we lose sight of the goodness of God and of all that he has done for us, and yet when we stop and consider what he has done, we ask the question how could we ever forget? It is amazing, it is mind blowing when we think of what God has done for us in the realm of salvation and of all the benefits that are attached to knowing him as our Saviour.

Think again today of the goodness of God, think of all that he has done for you, think of all the blessings and benefits of your salvation and bless the Lord, let everything that is within you bless his holy name.

In the book of Ephesians 1:3 Paul writes, ‘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’ he continues to list so many things, again in 1 Peter 1:3 Peter writes, ‘Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead’, and he also continues to list many things, so talk to yourself today, forget about it being the first sign of madness, on this occasion it is a conversation that you will have with yourself that will lead to blessing as you heed what you are instructing yourself to do, ‘Bless the LORD, O my soul, and all that is within me bless his holy name.’