Category: Devotions

TUESDAY 19^th

2 Thessalonians 3:6-15

NIV (v13) – ‘And as for you, brothers and sisters, never tire of doing what is good.’

ESV (v13) – ‘As for you, brothers, do not grow weary in doing good.’

If I were to sum up the verses before us in this chapter, (vv6-15) it would simply be ‘work is proper and right’, or ‘work is good’. God designed man to be active, a worker not a shirker. Immediately God had created Adam, he placed him in the garden to care for it, to work!

Paul is also warning in these verses against idleness, he even goes as far to talk against the behaviour of some who were not only idle but that they had become disruptive, not busy but busybodies!

Of course, we understand that owing to personal circumstances some are unable to work, but aside from this it is the responsibility of every person, especially the believer to work, to find employment and not to depend upon others to keep them.

Beside the physical or for want of a better way of expressing it, natural work, the believer must also be busy doing good in the spiritual sense, that is the thrust of verse 13, good works will never save us, but they should be a demonstration that we are saved! (James 2:18, 20, 26) Just as we should ensure that we are not idle regarding physical work, so we should ensure that we are not idle spiritually, there are works of service we can all be doing, we do not have to think of just in the context of the Church, ministry etc when we gather as Church, but outside as well, what could I be doing to help someone, to bless someone, to minister to someone? It may be something as simple as a visit, or a call to ask if there is anything they need help doing, some shopping, gardening, help with a difficult task, maybe even just offering to prayer with them.

Obviously when we talk of work, we should also talk of rest! We are reminded that after the six days of creating the world, God rested on the seventh day, ‘Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.’  (Genesis 2:1-2) God incorporated rest into the routine of life, and we should all ensure that we take up not only the responsibility of work, but also the responsibility of looking after ourselves by taking that which is proper rest, time to recuperate, time to reflect, time to rest awhile to be strengthened anew both physically and spiritually to continue in our labour. ‘It is a sign forever between me and the people of Israel that in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed.’ (Exodus 31:17)

MONDAY 18^th

2 Thessalonians 3:3-5

NIV (v3) – ‘But the Lord is faithful, and he will strengthen you and protect you from the evil one.’

ESV (v3) – ‘But the Lord is faithful. He will establish you and guard you against the evil one.’

This verse alone would have been a great verse of comfort to the Thessalonian believer, it is also a verse that gives hope and consolation to the believer today.

Whatever our circumstances it reminds us that God is in control and that he will always remain faithful to all who have put their trust in him. It echoes back to the well-known verses in Lamentation, ‘The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.’ The same writer continues to say that because of God’s faithfulness it gave him confidence to say ‘”The LORD is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him.”’ His hope and therefore also our hope is a confident hope because God is a faithful God, he will never backtrack on anything he has said he will do.

‘He will establish you and guard you against the evil one’ is an amazing promise, for we are living in difficult times, the enemy is going about like a roaring lion seeking who he can devour, but God is ready and willing to establish us and to guard us against the devil and all who work alongside him, we have so much that God has provided to enable us to stand firm, let us take hold of it. You may remember that I spoke a few weeks ago of all that is available to us, for example,  the armour of God, the weapon of prayer, the Word of God, the Holy Spirit, the Name of Jesus, the blood of Jesus, the power of the Cross, God truly has given us so much to enable us to be established and rooted against any attack of the enemy.

Remind yourself today of the faithfulness of God, and if you need his help then ask him today to fulfil his word in your life that you may be established and guarded against the evil one.

FRIDAY 15^th

2 Thessalonians 3:1-2

NIV (v1) – ‘As for other matters, brothers and sisters, pray for us that the message of the Lord may spread rapidly and be honoured, just as it was with you.’

ESV (v1) – ‘Finally, brothers, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may speed ahead and be honoured, as happened among you . . .’

A while back I mentioned that I liked what the NIV says in 1 Thessalonians 1:8 ‘The Lord’s message rang out from you not only in Macedonia and Achaia—your faith in God has become known everywhere.’ It was the phrase ‘The Lord’s message RANG out from you . . .’ Here in today’s text, Paul is asking the Thessalonian believers to pray for him and his companions ‘that the word of the Lord may speed ahead’ (ESV) or ‘spread rapidly’. (NIV) When I look back over the book of Acts, and then through the epistles and see how fast and far the gospel had spread I would come to the conclusion they had already done a pretty good job, yet Paul knew the urgency of the message, the message that brought good news and hope for the individual and he wanted that it would spread even further and more rapidly than it already had, so that others may come to the personal knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ as Saviour. Whether the phrase ‘rang out’ is used or ‘spread rapidly’ or ‘speed ahead’ we the Church in the 21^st Century need also to see the urgency of the hour, while we are heading towards eternity in God’s presence, many around us are hurtling towards an eternity in hell, separated forever from the love of God. There is an urgency for the proclamation of the gospel, the sharing of the good news so that family, friends, neighbours, local community and further afield will hear the good news and have opportunity to respond.

Back in Acts chapter 1, Jesus had told the disciples that they needed to wait in Jerusalem until they had received the promise of the Father, this was the baptism in the Holy Spirit which would endue them with power, once received they would become witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, and in all Samaria and to the end of the earth. (Acts 1:4,8) They did wait, and we know what happened! May we also be found in the place where we will wait, receive, and go, for we would fail in our own strength, we too need the enabling power of the Holy Spirit in our lives to help us to ring out the message that it may speed ahead and have the joy of seeing souls saved.

THURSDAY 14^th

2 Thessalonians 2:16-17

NIV (vv16-17) – ‘May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope, encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word.’

ESV (vv16-17) – ‘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.’

In the closing verses in chapter two, Paul is making a request that Jesus himself along with God the Father would comfort the hearts of the believers and establish them in every good work and word. He first makes the statement ‘God our Father, who loved us’, it is a reminder of the deep love that God had shown towards mankind, a love that caused him to send his one and only Son, the Lord Jesus Christ to die for the sin of mankind, it is further evidence of the relationship of the Father and the Son in working together for our eternal redemption. It mentions also ‘his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope’, (NIV) reminding us not only of his love but also his grace, which is not only active in redeeming us, but also in keeping us and strengthening us, it gives us eternal encouragement and hope, what a wonderful and grand salvation!

Paul then continues that he wants the believers to be established toward every good work and word. Work and word – this conjures up to me the idea that as men and women who have been saved because of God’s love and grace we should be active in living out our faith, we should be active in our work for the Lord and in our sharing of the good news. It is something we should be established in, that is that it should be a regular feature of our Christian experience. What has the Lord called us to do? The challenge is, are we being obedient in the doing. What has the Lord called us to say? Are we being active in our telling, for we are all called to do and to speak for the Lord Jesus Christ, we are all charged with the responsibility of sharing the good news whether through word or deed so that others may come to the same living and eternal hope that we have with the living God.

WEDNESDAY 13^th

2 Thessalonians 2:13-15

NIV (v15) – ‘So then, brothers and sisters, stand firm and hold fast to the teachings we passed on to you, whether by word of mouth or by letter.’

ESV (v15) – ‘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.’

Standing firm is an instruction that comes in Scripture many times, and it is an instruction we need to heed more than ever in the age in which we are living, we need to stand firm with Christ as our sure foundation, we need to stand firm with the armour of God on, but in the context of the verses before us today we need to stand firm on what we now call the Word of God. To the Thessalonians it was to stand firm on what Paul and those with him had taught, passed on as traditions either by word of mouth or by letter. Today we thank God for the letters that had been received by the various Churches in that first century, which have been preserved in the canon of Scripture for us to use today and we need to stand firm in that which men moved by the Holy Spirit have been inspired to write for our encouragement and comfort.

In verse 14 Paul says that they were saved through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in truth. Truth matters and the truthfulness of the gospel matters, therefore it is essential that we not only stand on the truth but that we preserve the truth as well. We must speak out against anything else that is presented as truth which in actuality is not the truth but a perversion of the truth, we must speak out against anything that stands against the truth, yet presents itself as the truth, that is other religions and ideologies that would seek to present themselves as equal to the pure gospel, for there is no other gospel and there is no other way to God but through the Lord Jesus Christ.

Today we are expected to be tolerant to others,^* and tolerance does matter but only to a point, for we must not be tolerant towards anything that stands in direct opposition to the truth of the Word of God, for to be tolerant in this way is a means of embracing and saying that anything goes, we must stand up against error and stand firmly on the truthfulness and the faithfulness of the Word of God. It means that those who demand tolerance in society will almost certainly without any doubt not be willing to be tolerant towards us, but truth matters, faithfulness to truth matters, and we must at all costs maintain the honour of his name and of his Word. May God help us to be faithful to his Word and honourable both toward God and to our fellow mankind in our testimony of his saving grace.

^* After writing this devotion I searched for articles on tolerance and came across this statement ‘The original definition of tolerance and the way in which the word is used now are quite different. Originally, tolerance meant to acknowledge that others have differing beliefs and accept that it is their right to do so. In this way, Christians are to absolutely be tolerant. Recently, tolerance has come to mean accepting that those other beliefs are true—something Christians absolutely cannot do . . . Unfortunately, the world no longer defines “tolerance” as acknowledgement that others have a differing belief. It has come to mean full acceptance of those beliefs. Of course this definition makes no logical sense because to embrace this type of tolerance precludes any personal opinion or belief. Christians are not to endorse religious beliefs that run counter to what the Bible teaches.’

You can read more from this article at

www. compellingtruth.org/tolerance-Christian.html

TUESDAY 12^th

2 Thessalonians 2:1-12

NIV (vv9-12) – ‘The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with how Satan works. He will use all sorts of displays of power through signs and wonders that serve the lie, and all the ways that wickedness deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness.’

ESV (vv9-12) – ‘The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders, and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. Therefore God sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false, in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.’

As we continue in these verses, we see that there will be certain things that will happen around the time of the return of the Lord, which my own view is that of a pre-tribulation rapture of the saints (those who are in Christ) and which will also include the resurrection of those who have died in Christ, following this there will be a period of around seven years which will be the time of the great tribulation in which the anti-Christ will be revealed and it will be a time of great suffering on the earth as the wrath of God is poured out. This will be followed by what is called the battle of Armageddon, the time when Christ will return to the earth with his saints and establish his millennial reign.

Deception will be a major player in the days prior to the coming of the Lord, we see this in the words of Jesus himself who says to those who claim to have done many things in his name, ‘Depart from me. I never knew you’ (Matthew 7:21-23) there will also be a falling away, as again Jesus says, ‘When the Son of man comes will he find faith on the earth’, (Luke 18:8) and that the love of many will grow cold, (Matthew 24:12)  this to me goes so much against what many are teaching today that the Church will Christianize the world and will be the means of ushering in the reign of Christ. Sadly, this is far from what Scripture teaches, for before Christ comes to reign there is going to be the revelation of the lawless one, in our text Paul calls it the rebellion, where one will come who will oppose and exalt himself against every so-called god and will demand that he becomes the object and centre of worship. But thankfully, we who are in Christ will be taken away, as Paul says the rebellious one will be restrained until the one who holds him back is taken away. This I believe will be the moment of the rapture of the saints, where the Church, who are those who are filled with the one who is the restraining force, the Holy Spirit will be taken away.

Paul says that following this the deceiver will deceive, not believers, for they will be gone, they will be safe in the presence of Jesus, but those who are perishing, and why are they perishing? Because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. I personally believe that these verses (vv9-12) clearly show that believers will not be on earth during the great tribulation.

Finally, today, I know there may be those who will read what I have written today who hold a different view on the timing and events of the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, that is okay, what is of vital importance is that we agree that he is coming again and the importance of our being ready, being right with God through a personal and living relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. If you have read this and do not know Jesus as your Saviour, you will not be ready, so take some time to consider the wonder of all that God has done through the Lord Jesus Christ for you so that you can also become a part of his incredible family, the Church a community of believers who have placed their faith and trust in Jesus. These are the ones who he is coming for a second time.

MONDAY 11^th

2 Thessalonians 2:1-12

NIV (v1a) – ‘Concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to him . . .’

ESV (v1a) – ‘Now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to him . . .’

In his first letter to this Church Paul mentioned the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ several times, so they as a Church would have been waiting (as we do) with anticipation for that day. It would seem by the tone of what Paul is saying here in this second letter that there were those who were proclaiming that it had already happened, somehow, they had missed it. Paul was writing to reassure them that this was not so, they needed to ignore that which was being spoken or written as supposedly being from Paul himself. It was a false statement.

We live in a time when there has been so much speculation concerning the coming of the Lord, there have been those who have dared to predict the day or even proclaim that it has already happened, but Scripture is very clear that the moment of the return of Christ is only known by God himself. (Matthew 24:36 ‘But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only.’) We are not here to predict dates but rather instead to be sure we are ready, for it could come at any moment, it will be just like a thief that comes in the night, and sadly when he comes many will be caught out unaware. (Matthew 24:42-44 ‘Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.’)

May we be sure that we are ready, waiting with great anticipation for the arrival of our Saviour who is going to fetch us to be in his eternal presence.

FRIDAY 8^th

2 Thessalonians 1:11-12

NIV (vv11-12) – ‘With this in mind, we constantly pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling, and that by his power he may bring to fruition your every desire for goodness and your every deed prompted by faith. We pray this so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.’

ESV (vv11-12) – ‘To this end we always pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling and may fulfil every resolve for good and every work of faith by his power, so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.’

We have already discovered what kind of example Paul and those co working with him were in their care for the believers, they prayed for them constantly, may any of us who have oversight of the family of God be faithful in our covering of them in prayer, but then also those who are under the oversight to pray for those in leadership – I know how much I value the fact that there are those who are praying for me.

In the prayer that Paul has referred to here, he has asked that God would make the believers ‘worthy of his calling’, and that ‘by his power he may bring to fruition your every desire for goodness and your every deed prompted by faith’.

What a prayer of concern and love for the Church, a good and godly prayer that we could use for each other in Emmanuel Pentecostal Church, that God will make each one of us worthy of his calling and that his power will be made available to us to bring to fulfilment every desire we have for good things in his service and every deed we do that is prompted by the faith that we have in and through the Lord Jesus Christ. It is a prayer that is asking for God to bring success, and I am sure that we want that in God, that we as a church will be successful in all that we do for him in and through his name.

Already in this chapter Paul has used the word ‘worthy’ twice. In verse 5 ‘that you may be considered worthy of the Kingdom of God’ and here in verse 11 ‘that our God may make you worthy of his calling’. We of ourselves would never be worthy, but because of what Christ has done on our behalf, in coming to believe by faith we are made worthy, but we need to ensure that by the way we live and obey his commandments that we remain worthy. May God by his grace who made us worthy, keep us worthy!

Unworthy am I of the grace that he gave,

Unworthy to hold to his hand;

Amazed that a King would reach down to a slave,

This love I cannot understand.

Unworthy, unworthy, a beggar;

In bondage and alone;

But he made me worthy and now by his grace,

His mercy has made me his own.

THURSDAY 7^th

2 Thessalonians 1:5-10

NIV (v8) – ‘He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.’

ESV (v8) – ‘. . . in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.’

In the verses we have today Paul brings up the subject of the second coming again, last week I mentioned that the late David Wilkerson used say that the day of the Lord will be a glad sad day, in the verses before us we see very clearly why for some it will be a sad day, for although Christ is coming to take to himself those who have responded to the good news of the gospel, he is also going to return to bring punishment to those who have rejected the good news, punishment that will be eternal. The verses clearly show two things that will happen, the glad news is that he is coming ‘to be glorified in his saints, and to be marvelled at among all who have believed.’ (v10) The sad news is that ‘those who have not obeyed (or believed) the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, they will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction’ this is bad enough but it continues ‘away from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his presence, and from the glory of his might’ That clearly indicates that it will be permanent eternal punishment with not ever, never ever getting another chance to believe! This is sad news, and for us who do believe it should be a challenge to us to be willing to do all that we can to make the good news of the gospel known, to let those who at this moment are heading to a lost eternity know that there is a way out, there is hope, there is mercy and forgiveness available and it is to be found in all that Jesus has done for mankind at Calvary.

If you have come across this devotion today and at present you do not know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Saviour, then you are at this moment without hope, but you can know hope, by coming to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. I should remind you that God doesn’t want anyone to perish, that is why he has provided salvation through the Lord Jesus, so in rejecting what has been made available you are sending yourself to an eternity separated from God. Don’t allow the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ to be a sad day for you, make sure you have done all you need to do because of what Christ has done for you, so that when he comes it will be a glad day.

WEDNESDAY 6^th

2 Thessalonians 1:3-4

NIV (vv3-4) – ‘We ought always to thank God for you, brothers and sisters, and rightly so, because your faith is growing more and more, and the love all of you have for one another is increasing. Therefore, among God’s churches we boast about your perseverance and faith in all the persecutions and trials you are enduring.’

ESV (vv3-4) – ‘We ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers, as is right, because your faith is growing abundantly, and the love of every one of you for one another is increasing. Therefore we ourselves boast about you in the churches of God for your steadfastness and faith in all your persecutions and in the afflictions that you are enduring.’

Back in 1 Thessalonians 3, Paul had asked that ‘our God and Father and our Lord Jesus . . . make you abound and increase in love for one another . . .’ as we get to the second epistle after his introduction and greeting, he acknowledges that what he had asked for in the first letter has happened, ‘we ought to give thanks . . . the love of every one of you for one another is increasing’. He also says that ‘your faith is growing abundantly’. The Church they had planted in Thessalonica was growing spiritually, and that was good news for Paul. They had remained in the faith, steadfast, despite all their persecutions and the afflictions which they had endured.

This Church is a model Church in the sense that they obviously lived out their faith in the hum-drum routine of life, and this was what enabled them to stand firm in the more difficult and perplexing moments.

Quite simply from this Church we can learn the need for us to be a people who grow in our love for one another, for as we show that love and care for one another, it will strengthen us as a body of believers and will enable us to be steadfast in the faith when the difficult moments arrive.

May we increase in love and our faith grow abundantly, that we the Church that meet in EPC Gateshead may be an example to others of our strong and resolute faith in the Lord Jesus Christ that is evidenced in our love and care for one another.