Emmanuel Pentecostal Church Gateshead Resources

WEDNESDAY February 19^th

Triumphant

Since I prepared these devotions, I have been to Durham Cathedral to listen to Handel’s Messiah, and I think that there is something unique about this great musical work as it takes us through the prophecies concerning the One who was to come, then to his birth and passion and finally to the climax with these words taken from Revelation chapter 5:

‘Worthy is the Lamb that was slain, and hath redeemed us to God by his blood, to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing. Blessing, and honour, glory, and pow’r be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb, for ever and ever.’

It then finishes with the magnificent ‘Amen’ chorus.

And this is a good place for me to be concluding (two more devotions to go) this theme that I have taken us through of ‘Jesus the very thought of thee with sweetness fills my breast’.

HE IS TRIUMPHANT! Yes, we remind ourselves that his name will be called Jesus, for he will save his people from their sin, and in fulfilment to the prophet Isaiah, and in accord to the will of God the Father we read,

‘He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.’

 

He suffered and died on our behalf, but thank God the story continues, after dying and being buried he rose again triumphant! As we read in Colossians 2:15,

‘He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.’

 

He is exalted; he has been given the name which is above every other name. He is Lord to the glory of God, and we look forward to the day that because of his triumph we too will be raised to life that is imperishable, and immortal, the time when the saying that is written will come to pass, ‘“Death is swallowed up in victory”, “O death, where is your victory? O death where is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ’ 1 Corinthians 15:56-57

TUESDAY February 18^th

Continuing from the previous devotion, I am not going to go through each of the five words that I recalled the conference speaker using all that time ago but want to consider two of them. Jesus is great as our Advocate and Jesus is great because he is Triumphant. Now, if I manage to find the original recording and find out that I have not remembered the correct words that he used, it doesn’t matter for what I am sharing is equally true, so first is that we have a great Advocate.

Now, quite often we use the word advocate to refer to the activity of the Holy Spirit as Jesus said he would send another one as an Advocate to come alongside us, John 14:26 (NIV), the ESV uses the word ‘Helper’, which was my theme last Sunday morning, but the same disciple who wrote that gospel also wrote three short epistles and he writes in the first ‘My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.’ 1 John 2:1.

We have a great Advocate and his name is Jesus, he represents us before the Father, and he is called Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the greatest advocate that this world will ever know and needs to know. The Hebrew writer grasped the wonder of this as we see in the following verses, another way to understand it is that he not only comes along side us to help us, but he also stands alongside his Father who has also become our heavenly Father, to plead on our behalf, to interceded for us:

Hebrews 2:17-18

‘Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.’

Hebrews 7:25

‘Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.’

Hebrews 4:16-17

‘Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.’

Today if you have a difficulty, a problem, maybe even feeling alone, helpless, then call out to your great Advocate, he is more than able and more than willing to come alongside you to help you and to carry you through, he is ready to dispense his grace and mercy to help you in your time of need.

MONDAY February 17^th

As we start another week, I am continuing the theme of Jesus the very thought of thee with sweetness fills my breast, and as I was pondering which direction to go, I thought back to a convention that I attended way back in the early part of the 1990’s and the theme for the week was Jesus is. Now I do not remember anything about the week except for one sermon that was given by a man who if I remember correctly was called Leonard Albertson or something very similar who had come across form the USA. He took for the theme of his message ‘Jesus is GREAT’ and then used each of the letters from the word great to define something about Jesus.

I do have a copy of the recording somewhere, I will have to try and dig it out, but I do recall him saying that which the subject of the conference being ‘Jesus is . . .’ then the conference could have gone on and on and on as we could never ever uncover all there is to know about him. And as I have sought to bring these devotions based on something of who Jesus is and the thought concerning Jesus bringing sweetness to our lives, it seems that I could also go on and on . . . because he is so incredible and amazing.

Now that time back in the 1990’s the speaker used (if I remember correctly) the following words to describe something about Jesus:

Jesus is GREAT because he is:

G – God

R – Redeemer

E – Energiser

A – Advocate

T – Triumphant

Well, I am going to take us right back to the time when the angel announced to Mary concerning the birth of Jesus and to Luke 1:31-33,

‘And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”’

There in this announcement are the words ‘He will be great . . . and of his kingdom there will be no end’.

I guess if we were to draw up a list of those who we would consider to be great, we would all come up with different answers according perhaps to what our interests are.

Those interested in politics would choose who they think has been the greatest politician, for those interested in sport, the greatest sportsperson, and we could say the same with the greatest actor, the greatest inventor, the greatest in the field of medicine etc. But whatever the list there is none so great as Jesus! ‘He will be great’, the angel said, and today, some two-thousand years later we say, ‘He is great’ and ‘he will be eternally great’ therefore we should be eternally grateful for all that he has done for us. I never will cease to praise him.

Hail to the Lord’s Anointed,

great David’s greater Son!

Hail in the time appointed,

his reign on earth begun!

He comes to break oppression,

to set the captive free;

to take away transgression,

and rule in equity.

FRIDAY February 14^th

Psalm 16:5

‘The LORD is my chosen portion and my cup; you hold my lot.’

 

In the previous devotion we were looking at the thought that as believers our lives are in the safest hands and as a result from Psalm 40:2 our feet have been placed upon the rock, a firm foundation and that our steps are secure.

The second of the Psalms I will take us to is Psalm 37:23-24,

‘The steps of a man are established by the LORD, when he delights in his way; though he fall, he shall not be cast headlong for the LORD upholds his hand.’

As we have come to allow the Lord to hold our lot, that is to have a strong hold of our lives, and as we come to delight in him, we can rest in knowing that he will establish our steps. He will lead us in paths of righteousness, he will direct us in the way we should go.

The third of the Psalms is from Psalm 119:133,

‘Keep steady my steps according to your promise, and let no iniquity get dominion over me.’

We have our part to play!  God has given to mankind freewill, he didn’t create man to become like a pre-programmed robot, and in Christ we have not been re-created as pre-programmed robots, we have to make it both our desire and determination to seek out the will of God and to continually ask him to keep steady our steps, to seek out the way that he wants us to go.

Psalm 119 is a wonderful psalm that speaks of the wonder of the law of God and of the need for mankind to live and walk according to the law, or as we see in verse 3 as walking in God’s ways. ‘. . . but walk in his ways!’

As we have been considering the words of the song, Jesus the very thought of thee with sweetness fills my breast, it should cause our hearts to be filled with great joy to know that in coming to know him as the Lord who is my ‘. . .’ and we fill in the blanks with so many words, we should be able to say he has become to us what it says in the words of another song:

He is my Everything

He is my ALL

He is my Everything

Both great and small

He gave his life for me

Made everything new

He is my everything

Now how about you

 

Like honey in the Rock

Sweet honey in the Rock

For he tastes like honey in the rock

Oh taste and see that the Lord is good

For he tastes like honey in the rock

THURSDAY February 13^th

Psalm 16:5

‘The LORD is my chosen portion and my cup; you hold my lot.’

 

Now as we come to this verse today, I am going to concentrate on the last four words, ‘you hold my lot’, but first remind us that it is only once we come to know the Lord Jesus Christ as our chosen portion, and our cup, that is as the one who delights and satisfies us, that we can have the confidence as we trust him to know that he has a plan for each one of us, and as we seek it and live it out, we are safe in his hands, as we seek out his good and acceptable will, he will perfect that which is in accord with his will for our lives.

‘You hold my lot’ reminds me of the words of a song,

My life is in You, Lord

My strength is in You, Lord

My hope is in You, Lord

In You, it’s in You.

My life is in You, Lord

My strength is in You, Lord

My hope is in You, Lord

In You, it’s in You.

Our lives as Christians are in the safest hands, and they are the hands of the one who was willing for nails to be hammered through them, so that we may come to know him in a personal way.

Going back to the words of the Psalms, we read in a few places some verses regarding our steps, and I want us to consider the steps that we take which should be in accordance with the will of God.

First, and we will turn to the others in the next devotion, we have from Psalm 40:2 a verse that reminds us that once we have been brought up out of the horrible pit, our steps have been made secure:

‘He drew me up from the pit of destruction, out of the miry bog, and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure.’

Imagine walking in a miry bog, with the feeling of being sucked in and with no hope of deliverance—that is how it was outside of Christ, but he came and through his suffering at Calvary and his being raised from the dead, he reached out to us, and as we have come to believe on him, he has lifted us, pulled us up out of the miry bog, and he has set our feet on a solid rock, on a firm and secure foundation and made our feet secure.

Today, if you are one of those who keeps going back to dip your feet into the miry bog, stop and consider how insulting it is towards the One who suffered so much to deliver you.

Love lifted me!

Love lifted me!

When nothing (When no one) else could help,

Love lifted me.

Love lifted me!

Love lifted me!

When nothing (When no one) else could help,

Love lifted me.

WEDNESDAY February 12^th

Psalm 18:2

‘The LORD is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.’

 

Some of these words in this verse seem to be very similar, in that they are all to do with our safety in the Lord, and in our application of them in the Lord Jesus Christ. We considered deliverer yesterday and linked it to be placed upon the rock, I like the picture that is given here of the Lord being our fortress and as a result we can take refuge in him.

He is also our shield, I don’t know what kind of picture you can visualise here, but I see God like an enormous shield that is all around me protecting me from all the enemy would seek to fire at me, we read of a shield in Ephesians 6:16 where it is called the shield of faith, ‘In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one . . .’ Notice it is THE shield not A shield, there is only one effective and true shield and it is the shield that is established upon the faith that comes in the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. There is no shield in any other faith. We can link this to 1 John 5:4 ‘For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.’ The shield of faith enables us to become overcomers in this world.

But then, as I shared recently in our family service, the Lord is also our stronghold who also has a strong hold of us, holding us tight, holding us close.

Is it not an encouragement to know using a modern phrase that God has got our back!

He has paid the ultimate price to redeem us and once he has gotten a hold on us he does not want to let us go, he wants to hold us close, he wants to protect us at all cost, he wants us to come to the place where we are daily willing to run into him, to hide in him and to be held closely by him.

Wherever you are at today, whatever the trial or the circumstances that you are going through, you are not alone, and you are not left without a defence or refuge, for God has made himself available to each one of us through the Lord Jesus Christ, not just as our Salvation, but as all that this wonderful verse reminds us, ‘The LORD is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.’

 

Let me quote the words of the song I used a week or so ago in the family service:

 

I will sing praise, I will lift my voice.

I will sing praise, I’ve made my choice.

I will sing praise, in all I do.

I will sing praise to you.

 

No matter the storms that come my way.

No matter the trials I may face.

You promise that you would see me through

So I will trust in you

TUESDAY February 11^th

 

Psalm 18:2

‘The LORD is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.’

 

In John 14:1, Jesus said to the disciples. ‘Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me’, (or ‘You believe in God, believe also in me’).

 

 Jesus is ensuring that the disciples understood clearly that he was equal with God, as John 1:1 has already reminded us ‘In the beginning was the Word . . . and the Word was God.’ Therefore he wants them and of course all who come to faith in him, such as you and I to understand that we can trust Jesus, and linking this thought to the verses we looked at previously from the Psalms, indicating who the Lord is and what he has become to each one of us, it means that in Jesus and through Jesus we find all we need to sustain us through this life, and not only in life but also in death, for as we see from Psalm 23 as we walk through the valley of the shadow of death the Lord will be with us.

 

We have such a wonderful Saviour!

 

Now, some of the thoughts that I will share from these verses will have already been touched upon in this series of devotions, but it does us good to be constantly reminded, for each day, our circumstances can change in the blink of an eye, but we have this wonderful assurance that Jesus doesn’t change. What he was yesterday, he still is today, and will be tomorrow and he always will be, and therefore we can trust him explicitly.

 

The Lord is my . . .’, I wonder which one springs to the forefront of your mind, because it means something extra special to you.  You have perhaps been through an experience, and it was at that time that you felt the nearness of Jesus towards you in one of those ways, such as maybe your rock in a time of trouble.

 

We all know him in every one of these ways but I think first of ‘my deliverer’.

 

We were in a horrible pit, we were helpless and hopeless, but Jesus came to deliver us, to rescue us, to lift us up from out of the horrible pit and to place our feet upon a solid rock, a firm foundation. The word pit can be used to describe where we were as sinners such as we see it in Psalm 103:4 ‘who redeems your life from the pit’,  but can also be a reference to where all sinners will go, for example in Psalm 28:1, David in crying out to the Lord says this, ‘To you, O LORD, I call; my rock, be not deaf to me, lest, if you be silent to me, I become like those who go down to the pit.’

 

The Lord is my . . ., well, the Lord is our deliverer, he has lifted us from the pit, and he will keep us from going to the pit of Hell and as a result because we know him as our Lord, we have this assurance as we read from Psalm 23 that we will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.’

MONDAY February 10^th

 

As we start this new week, we will read the references in the Psalms that use the phrase ‘The LORD is my’, so if you can,  spend some time today meditating on them, and then during this week we will consider some of them with our focus upon who Jesus is and what he has become to each of us.

 

Psalm 16:5

‘The LORD is my chosen portion and my cup; you hold my lot.’

 

Psalm 18:2

‘The LORD is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.’

 

Psalm 23:1

‘The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.’

 

Psalm 27:1

‘The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?’

 

Psalm 28:7

‘The LORD is my strength and my shield; in him my heart trusts, and I am helped; my heart exults, and with my song I give thanks to him.’

 

Psalm 118:14

‘The LORD is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation.’

 

Psalm 119:57

‘The LORD is my portion; I promise to keep your words.’

 

The LORD is, Jesus is . . . my chosen portion, my cup, my rock, my fortress, my deliverer, my God, my shield, the horn of my salvation, my stronghold, my shepherd, my light, my strength, my song. And he is all of these and so much more!

 

To quote the songs I mentioned while I was speaking from Psalm 27 a few weeks ago, from the song, ‘Shout for joy and sing’, we say

 

You are my deliverer,

You are my redeemer, you are Lord,

And you are my healer,

You are my provider,

You are now my shepherd and my guide,

Jesus, Lord and King, I worship you.

 

And from the song ‘How sweet the name of Jesus sounds’

 

Jesus! My shepherd, brother, friend,

My Prophet, Priest and King,

My Lord, my life, my way, my end,

Accept the praise I bring.

FRIDAY February 7^th

 

A few weeks back on a Sunday evening I spoke from the first part of Psalm 27:1 and here I include it as our text for today:

 

Psalm 27:1

‘The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?’

 

My apologies to those who were there that evening, it hadn’t been my intention to go down this route, but I am going to use some of what I shared on that occasion in this devotion—and a few devotions that follow as it fits in with my devotional theme, so bear with me!

 

In our previous devotion I mentioned that Jesus was the subject of the Old Testament, and especially we see it in the prophetic declarations of the prophet Isiah, and one is from Isaiah 7:14 ‘Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.’

 

When I was speaking on that Sunday evening, I suggested that because Jesus is God with us, that is he is Emmanuel, (Immanuel) then when we read verses such as our text from Psalm 27:1, as we read the words ‘The Lord is my’, we can also read it as ‘Jesus is my’.

 

And so over the next few devotions I will take us through some of these statements that are found in the Psalms, and we should get an even bigger picture concerning who Jesus is and what he as the eternal Son of God has become to each one of us.

 

I mentioned on that Sunday evening, that the words ‘The LORD is’ are good for they tell us something about who God is, but by having the word ‘MY’ added the statement become more personal. ‘The LORD is’ could speak of God as being afar off, distant, but when we say, ‘The LORD is MY’, or ‘Jesus is MY’, it speaks of the closeness of God, the nearness of God has he has come to us through his Son.

 

I also suggested that evening that if you can make the time to begin to write a list down of all that Jesus has become to you since you have come to know him as your Saviour. And I guarantee that however long the list you may write down may be, he will still be far more than we can ever imagine. He is such a wonderful Saviour.

 

We will consider some of these things as we continue next week.

 

THURSDAY February 6^th

 

Now, I have been using a lot of words beginning with S as we have been going through these devotions concerning the Lord Jesus Christ, and considering the 53^rd chapter of Isaiah which we have used over the last two devotions, and many other Old Testament Scriptures, we have another word beginning with S and it is that Jesus had been the SUBJECT of so much that had been written. Yes, as we read through the various Old Testament books with the various genres, such as that of history, praise, prophecy etc. they are all written to point us to the One who would come in the fulness of time.

 

And when you consider the matter there is no better or greater subject than this one concerning Jesus. Someone has said that the whole of Scripture has a red thread running through it, the thread of redemption. As I write today the words of a modern song have come to the forefront of my mind, ‘We speak Jesus’ and there is no greater person that we can speak about. Just as he was the subject of so much of the Old Testament and was the subject of the proclamation of the angels (Luke 2) and the apostles throughout the New Testament, so he should be from the lips of those of us who have been touched by his amazing grace.

 

I needed Jesus and I am so glad that I have come to know him, and there is absolutely no doubt that our friends, our neighbours, our communities, our nation and the whole world needs Jesus, they might not realise it, they may not even be willing to accept that they need him, but they do.

 

I haven’t given a text yet, but here it is, from Acts 4 and verses 17-20

 

‘” But in order that it may spread no further among the people, let us warn them to speak no more to anyone in this name.” So they called them and charged them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John answered them, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge, for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard.”’

 

The two apostles, Peter and John were being forbidden to talk about Jesus, but they knew that no one could silence them because they could not but speak about what they had seen and heard, and who or what had they seen and heard, to them the most important subject was to speak about Jesus.

 

We in the UK need to take hold of the opportunities that we have to be able to speak Jesus and here we will conclude with some of the words of the song:

 

I just wanna speak the name of Jesus

Over every heart and every mind

‘Cause I know there is peace within Your presence

I speak Jesus

I just wanna speak the name of Jesus

‘Til every dark addiction starts to break

Declaring there is hope and there is freedom

I speak Jesus

 

Shout Jesus from the mountains

Jesus in the streets

Jesus in the darkness, over every enemy

Jesus for my family

I speak the holy name

 

‘Cause Your name is power

Your name is healing

Your name is life

Break every stronghold

Shine through the shadows

Burn like a fire

 

^{Songwriters: Jesse Reeves / Dustin Smith / Abby Benton / Kristen Dutton / Carlene Prince / Raina Pratt}

^{I Speak Jesus lyrics © Integrity’s Praise! Music, All Essential Music, For Me And My House Songs}