Tag: Emmanuel Pentecostal Church

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Daily Devotion August 4th

TUESDAY 4th

John 8:12-30

NIV (v12) – ‘When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life.’

ESV (v12) – ‘Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness but will have the light of life.’

We come today to the second ‘I am’ statement of Jesus. (see devotion July 31st) where Jesus says that ‘I am the light of the world.’

Back at the beginning of the gospel, as we are introduced to Jesus as the Word, we are told ‘In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it.’(1:4-5) It continues in verse 9 to say ‘The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world . . .’ In our text today, Jesus identifies himself as being the light that was coming, now, it had come and he as that light was declaring ‘I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.’

This is an astounding declaration to make, for in making it, Jesus was stating that he was the ‘light of the world’, he was born in Bethlehem, born as a Jew, lived his entire life in Israel, less the period of time as a refugee in Egypt after his birth, and yet he was declaring himself as the ‘light of the world’, and as the light if we follow him, we will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. This corresponds with John’s statement in 1:4, ‘In him was life, and the life was the light of men.’ This means that Jesus is life and light and that in our believing him, we are receiving Jesus himself, his life and his light. In John 14 we learn that he is ‘the life’ and thank God he came into this world not just to Israel to impart his life into all who would believe, eternal and abundant life.

Life and light – we know that for anything to grow, to have life, light is essential, we know all about photosynthesis, where the light of the sun brings the process for life to happen, in the same way for us to have life we need the light of the Son, and as his light comes into our lives we have the abundant eternal life he grants.

I think in a general sense today we take light for granted, we live in the era of electricity and we can have all forms of light and we can actually overdo it – I don’t even want to remember how many times with our children growing up we have had to remind them to switch the light off, or comment that the house is  more like Blackpool illuminations with all the lights left on (my parents had the same problem too) but when it comes to the one who himself is the light, we can never over do it, we need him to shine in and though our lives, we need him to come and to dispel the darkness which is so widespread in our generation, we need him as the light to lead us and to guide us as we navigate through this world, as strangers and pilgrims bound for an heavenly kingdom.

Over the last month or so, there has been a comet called Neowise visible in the Northern Hemisphere, one of the complaints that has been sounded is that owing to the light pollution, it has been difficult to see the comet, and the best opportunity is to go out into the countryside away from the light pollution to get a better view. The reverse is the state of the world today, too much dark pollution and we as believers and collectively as the Church need to shine in the  midst of this darkness as representatives of the one who is the true light.

Back in the 1980’s Elaine and I were staying with one of her cousins in Mansfield, he was a pit manager and it was during the time of the long strikes. As a manager he had to go down into the pit and through the coal face every day to inspect it, to ensure its safety for when the miners returned to work. He invited me to go with him, this of course was a new experience for a farmer’s son, and I have to be honest I really didn’t know what to expect, but the deeper we went and then the further we crawled through the cutting face I began to understand what true darkness was really like and  how important the little light we had was. Christian friends, brothers and sisters in Christ, Church, those of us who have come out of the darkness and into the light, let us never forget how truly dark the kingdom of darkness really is, it is under the control of the prince of darkness, and my how this world needs the light. We really are living in dark days where the principalities and powers would love to snuff out the light of the Christian gospel, we need to be courageous and willing to let our light, as Christ who is the light shines through us, shine before men so that they will glorify God. (Matthew 5:14-16)

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Daily Devotion August 3rd

MONDAY 3rd

John 7

NIV (vv37-38) – ‘On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.’

ESV (vv37-38) – ‘On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, if anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’

One of the features of the British summer is the plethora of music festivals that take place around the country, venues which become mass gatherings for music lovers, obviously Covid-19 has prevented them from taking place this year, and for the record, no, I have no personal interest in ever attending one! But, can you imagine one of these festivals taking place, and toward the end, someone stands up and cries out with a loud voice ‘If anyone thirsts let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’ I am sure there would be a fair few open-mouthed folk gawping and thinking ‘what on earth is he on about’, there would be those who would perhaps mock or laugh. Now I know that the situation in John’s gospel, was different, it was a religious festival, not a music festival, but the crowd in that time had the same need as the crowds who fill the festivals in the UK, many of them would have gawped open-mouthed, some would have mocked and laughed, but the festival goers then and also today, like us have the same need of the Lord Jesus Christ, they like us need to know what it is to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ so that from out of our inner most being, rivers of living water will flow.

After Jesus had stood up and cried out, it caused division, see this in verses 40-52 and the same response happens today as we declare Jesus, who he is and what he has said about himself and all that he offers to those who believe, but we must never allow the risk of opposition to shut us up and prevent us from declaring the good news concerning Jesus. Just as Jesus stood up in the festival, we need man and women who are willing to stand up in this crowded world, a world crowded with opinion, crowded with prejudice, crowded with useless gods, crowded with secularism and plurality to declare the good news of the message of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The fact that (Covid-19 aside) the festivals are crowded, that the shopping malls are crowded, that the pleasure and sporting facilities of this world are crowded (more often on a Sunday, when Churches are struggling to be filled) etc. indicates that people are hungering and thirsting, they are seeking ways and means of getting satisfaction, but looking in the wrong place. There is nothing wrong with a (decent) festival, shopping mall, pleasure, or sporting facility, but when they become the means through which people try to get lasting satisfaction and to meet the inner longings of the heart then they become a problem, for they will keep men and women from coming to the only one who can satisfy the inner eternal longing of the heart.

May God help us who know Jesus and who are the representatives for Jesus today to become bold and courageous to stand up in the crowd and to declare the good news of the gospel.

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Daily Devotion August 2nd

SUNDAY 2nd

John 6:22-35

NIV (v35) – ‘Then Jesus declared, I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.’

ESV (v35) – ‘Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.’ John 7:37-39

We continue again today with the subject of bread and take todays thought from the prayer our Lord taught his disciples to pray. Todays devotion is a deviation away from John’s gospel and the purpose for it will be at the end.

Luke 11:1-4 ‘Now Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he finished, one of his disciples said to him, Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples. And he said to them, When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread,  and forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation.’

‘Give us each day our daily bread.’

Last Friday in our devotion we saw that Jesus described himself as ‘the bread of life’, here in this prayer which he taught his disciples to pray, he encourages them to ask the heavenly Father for daily bread. As the bread of life, Jesus satisfies our spiritual need, but our heavenly Father is also the one who satisfies our physical need or our daily requirement for nourishment for the physical.

In what we call his ‘sermon on the mount’ in Matthews gospel, Jesus made it very clear that not only are our spiritual need met through the good news of the gospel, but our God also provides for us in the natural. He has placed the seasons into place, springtime and harvest, the rains that soak into the ground and the sunshine to enable the planted seed to grow, for the earth to produce our daily bread. In the sermon, Jesus tell the listeners and it applies to us as well today ‘Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?’ (Matthew 6:25-26)

There is so such going on in the world today that could cause us to be anxious, as we see the ongoing threat of the Covid-19 virus and the complication arising from it in regard to the worlds economy affecting jobs and in turn peoples financial security. We need to remind ourselves that our security is found in the Lord Jesus Christ and he knows what we need, and as we remain constant in our walk with him, he will provide our daily bread. (As I am typing this devotion I am listening to a pre-recorded service and the song being played is ‘You’re a good, good Father’) and he is our Father, ‘Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread . . .’ He is faithful. Faithful forever you will be, all your promises are yes and amen.

The purpose of this devotion is twofold, to firstly remind us of the faithfulness of our heavenly father in his provision toward us the children of men and secondly, as we see the combine harvesters beginning to roll out into the fields to harvest the grain, let us give thanks from grateful hearts for the daily provision we have.

Perhaps in the western world we too often take so much for granted, we need to continually come back to the Creator and the Sustainer with thankful hearts. Remember the story in Luke 17:11-19 where Jesus healed ten lepers, yet only one returned to give thanks. As we continually give thanks for our great salvation, so we also need to continually give thanks for his daily provision, give thanks for the ‘bread of life’ and for the ‘daily bread’.

‘Great is thy faithfulness,

great is thy faithfulness;

morning by morning new mercies I see;

all I have needed thy hand hath provided –

great is thy faithfulness, Lord unto me!

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Daily Devotion August 1st

SATURDAY 1st

John 6:22-35

NIV (v35) – ‘Then Jesus declared, I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.’

ESV (v35) – ‘Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.’

As we continue from yesterday’s devotion, where Jesus had said that he was the bread of life, I will continue today and tomorrow with the subject of bread as seen in the Scripture, looking at two separate verses, for today:

Luke 4:1-1-4 ‘And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness for forty days, being tempted by the devil. And he ate nothing during those days. And when they were ended, he was hungry.  The devil said to him, If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread. And Jesus answered him, “It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone.’

In the first Scripture we are taken to the account where Jesus is in the wilderness and being tempted by the devil. There are three temptations,

  1. To turn a stone to bread
  2. To worship the devil
  3. To throw himself down from the pinnacle of the temple

The first was to do with hunger as we are told that Jesus was in the wilderness for forty days, and during that time he had ate nothing. Understandably, he was hungry, and the devil said to him, ‘If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.’ Jesus answered, ‘It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone.’  This was a quote from the OT in Deuteronomy 8:3 ‘And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.’

A couple of thoughts here, the devil says ‘If you are . . .’ it always makes me smile, for the devil knew without any shadow of doubt who Jesus was and that he really was the Son of God, what he was trying to do was to weasel into what he thought would be a weak point on Jesus behalf (his hunger) and as a result get Jesus to take the devils advice and put it into action, making the stone into bread. If Jesus had done this, it would have been a landmark victory for the devil and would have led to the failure of the plan of salvation. (As would have been the yielding to the other two temptations)

The devil is as we are reminded in Scripture going about like a roaring lion, seeking who he can devour. (1Peter 5:8 ‘Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.’) We could put it this way, he is prowling around or sniffing around to see if he can find our weak points, our vulnerabilities and he would love to try to trick us into conceding to any temptation he would bring our way to try to snare us, trap us and to trip us up.

Jesus responded to the devil with a Scripture, and for us as well, we need to realise that among many other things Scripture is a tool or a weapon we need to take up and use as a defence and protection against the wiles of the devil. In Ephesians 6, the Word of God is pictured as the sword, ‘. . . and the sword of the Spirit which is the word of God.’ I do not know about you, but I think the devil could do with a few plunges of this amazing sword! May God help each of us, however long we may have been a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ, to never give into the wiles of the devil, but to be determined in our hearts to wholeheartedly devote ourselves to the Lord Jesus Christ.

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Daily Devotion July 31st

FRIDAY 31st

John 6:22-35

NIV (v35) – ‘Then Jesus declared, I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.’

ESV (v35) – ‘Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.’

We come today to the first narrative in John’s gospel to contain one of what we call the ‘I Am’ statements of the Lord Jesus Christ.

There are seven of them altogether:

John 6:35 ‘I am the bread of life.’

John 8:12 ‘ I am the light of the world.’

John 10:7-9  ‘I am the door.’

John 10:10 ‘I am the good Shepherd.’

John 11:25 ‘I am the resurrection and the life.’

John 14:6 ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life.’

John 15:1 ‘I am the true vine.’

In our Scripture for today, Jesus calls himself or refers to himself as the bread of life or living bread seven times. Verses 32, 33, 35, 41, 48, 51 and 58.

The crowds that had enjoyed the meal of loaves and fishes had decided to look for Jesus again the next day, and who could blame them if there was the possibility of another free meal! I would have been there for sure if it had been something else instead of fish! But Jesus discerned that their motives for coming to him again were not genuine, it was only for the free meal and not because of who he really was. V27 ‘Jesus answered them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves . . .’  

It is out of the continuing dialogue that Jesus had with the crowd that we learn that he is the bread of life. They challenged Jesus about the time when Moses had fed the children of Israel in the wilderness with the manna which they described as bread from heaven, because it appeared on the ground every morning. (Exodus 16) Jesus replies by saying that it wasn’t Moses that had provided the bread, but rather his (that is Jesus’) Father and he then incorporates the statement to take on a present reality for them by saying ‘ . . .my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is HE who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.’ In the wilderness the bread, manna was a substance they could collect and eat, but here the bread was not a substance that they could collect and eat, but was in fact a person (he), who was the ‘Word who had become flesh’ whom if we believe in will grant eternal life.

The manna or bread in the wilderness only sustained life for a period, they had to collect a fresh supply every day and eat to survive, but the true bread, the living bread gives eternal life! We come by faith and partake of him, and as we eat and drink, we receive the life he offers. It is in the same chapter that Jesus speaks of eating of his flesh and drinking of his blood to have eternal life (John 6:53-58) Jesus isn’t saying that we have to literally eat of his flesh and literally drink of his blood, we know that this is not possible, he is using language that speaks or signifies of us partaking of him by faith, it is our accepting him, or believing that he the bread of life, as being the one who God has sent to grant eternal life, it is a figure of speech to describe that as by faith we believe, we are partaking of the bread of life and are being saved.

I do not eat a lot of bread, I have mentioned in a previous devotion that I like going to ‘Subway’ which uses a bread roll for the sandwich, I could go days without eating bread. I went to Denmark a few years ago for a conference, and in the morning as you woke up there would be this beautiful smell filling the air, and as I made my way the first time for breakfast, the smell was incredible, it was Danish bread and I couldn’t eat enough of it, it is most definitely the best bread I have ever eaten, well, almost! For I am glad that I have come to receive of the ‘bread of life’ he is the best bread ever!

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Devotions

Daily Devotion July 30th

THURSDAY 30th

John 6:16-21

NIV (v20) – ‘But he said to them, It is I; don’t be afraid.’

ESV (v20) – ‘But he said to them, It is I; do not be afraid.’

This is a short story, but it is another evidence of the power of the Lord Jesus Christ, this time demonstrated with his power over a storm.

There is another account of Jesus stilling a storm when he was in the boat with the disciples found in Luke 8:22-25 . On this occasion in John 6 the disciples are alone, Jesus had remained behind. The storm brewed up and as they were battling to sail through it, they look up and see Jesus walking on the sea, coming toward the boat and they were frightened.

Who wouldn’t be frightened in the midst of a storm out in a boat in the middle of the sea, we are told that because of the placement of the sea of Galilee, storms can come in an instant and can be pretty ferocious. 

I was once caught in the middle of a ferocious storm, but it was not out at sea, it was in the centre of the city of Manchester, it was one of the most frightening experiences I have ever had, it was near impossible to walk unless you were holding onto something, roofs were blowing off buildings, shop fronts were being destroyed, the glass from the bus shelters were being blown out and the scariest of all was watching the tall cranes the builders use rocking like crazy. But at least I could get into a building to shelter from it. Out in the middle of the sea, there was nowhere to go, battling to row, battling to keep the water out while at the same time trying to conquer their fear and remain hopeful the storm would subside and that you would eventually land safely at the other side.

But Jesus comes, and he speaks out to them ‘It is I do not be afraid’ and they were glad to take him on the boat and immediately the boat arrived to where they were going.

We will have all heard sermons built around this story, we all face storms, we all go through trying times, we all go through periods where our circumstances cause us to be afraid, cause fear to arise in our hearts. But unlike this story Jesus is never somewhere else, he never remains behind when he asks us or sends us somewhere, he comes with us. One song writer has put it this way, ‘Standing somewhere in the shadows you’ll find Jesus’ We know what the song writer is intending to say, but in reality Jesus isn’t in the shadow, unless we have chosen to put him there! He is with us, he is alongside us, even more wonderful the Scripture says he is in us! (‘Christ in you the hope of glory’ Colossians 1:27) This should give us reassurance that whatever storms we face, whatever battles we have to fight through, whatever circumstances we encounter that cause us to fear, he is with us, he is alongside us and he is able to pick us up and to carry us through.

If you are going through a storm at this moment, if you feel that you are being tossed about on the tempestuous waves or battered by the hurricane force winds, look out for Jesus, allow him to step into you ‘boat’ and allow him to dispel the fear and to bring calm and peace.

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Daily Devotion July 29th

WEDNESDAY 29th

John 6:1-15

NIV (v12) – ‘When they had all had enough to eat, he said to his disciples, Gather the pieces that are left over. Let nothing be wasted.’

ESV (v12) – ‘And when they had eaten their fill, he told his disciples, Gather up the leftover fragments, that nothing may be lost.’

Our portion of Scripture today covers the account of what we call the feeding of the 5000, now we know that the number only covered the men so the complete number of all who had been fed including the women and children would have been much more.

In John 2 we saw how Jesus had been able to change water into the best wine, here in John 6 he was able to take a couple of fish and five small barley loaves (what we would call bread rolls today) and after giving thanks, break it into pieces and feed this large crowd, the end result was that they ended up with the fragments at the end amounting to more than what they started with! Twelve baskets full! It makes me think that they must have been messy eaters!

It reminds us that ‘little is much’ when placed in God’s hands, I touched on this earlier in July. Back in 2000, when we moved to Sudbury in Suffolk to pastor a Church there, it had been pioneered about 40 years previously by David and Anita Perry alongside another couple, Jim, and Martha Hayes. The church had known times of great growth over several years, but prior to our arriving there, it had dwindled down to a few families and was just about ticking over. We were asked to go there and to see if it could become a viable Church again. It was not long before we realised that we had a deficiency in help, and in particular worship was difficult with the means of music coming from a small midi file player.

The first sermon I preached at this Church was from John 6 and the headline ‘Little is much if God is in it.’ To be honest I did not realise at the time how little we had to work with, but we soon began to see that God was in it and he proved himself faithful to us. One particular area was in worship, a lady returned to the Church who had not been attending for many years and she eventually told me she had a son who could play the piano, he had made a commitment to the Lord but needed a Church to attend and some fellowship, he arrived one Sunday and eventually he played the piano for us, I say played, without being  disrespectful, it was a good effort but needed a lot of practise. But God was in it and before long we had a Filipino man start attending and together he and the lad on the piano began to do the worship together and before long, the piano was being played like a professional, well, nearly! God had provided and out of the little we had we soon had sufficient to be able to put aside the small midi file player.

We may feel that we have little to offer, we may feel that we are not confident or competent enough, but when God is involved in something he can take what we see as little, lacking or incompetent and he can bless it and use it to bring glory to his name. 

Imagine the young lad, leaving home with his lunch box, yet returning home later that day having seen the glory of God revealed because he was willing to give what little he had. Imagine Andrew, taking the lad to Jesus and thinking to himself, ‘What am I doing, common sense tells me this is peanuts in comparison to what is needed to feed this lot’ but he took the lad, and together they would have stood back with their eyes wide open like golf balls, jaws dropped to the floor,  as they saw what Jesus did with the little they handed over.

Incidentally, the lad who came to play the piano, a timid shy lad at the time in his late teens or early twenties, is now the leader of the Church. As he stepped out in obedience offering what little he thought he had, God has blessed him beyond measure.

Begin to learn to step out in faith, one day you may be picking up the baskets full of fragments (which I will call God’s abundance) as you see God blessing the effort that you are willing to put into serving our wonderful Saviour.

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Daily Devotion July 28th

TUESDAY 28th

NIV (42) – ‘They said to the woman, We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Saviour of the world.’

ESV (42) – ‘They said to the woman, It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Saviour of the world.’

We continue with the same verses today as yesterday.

After the woman from Samaria had returned to the town and told the folk about meeting the Christ, it says in verse 30, ‘They went out of the town and were coming to him.’ The account breaks there as Jesus and the disciples have a conversation, (vv31-38) then verse 39 says that many of the Samaritans believed on him because of the woman’s testimony. All of us who are born again, saved, whatever phrase we want to use have a testimony, perhaps some of us who have been brought up in a Christian environment too often think about other individuals who have been saved from an awful life of crime, or addiction etc. and then compare what we were to them and think wow, what a testimony they have. But we too have a testimony, we all have a testimony that is worth sharing. For regardless of our upbringing, whether in a Christian environment or a non-Christian environment we were all sinners, all utterly depraved and heading to a lost eternity, But Jesus met with us, for me it wasn’t at the side of a well, it was on a wooden pew with sticky varnish in a tin Church building, but at that moment I knew I was a sinner, condemned, who needed saving, and I gave my life to Jesus. But that is only a part of my testimony, that happened 51 years ago, and my testimony has continued in that as I was saved by grace I have also been kept by his grace. And what God in Christ has done for each one of us is worth sharing, worth talking about.

There is an older hymn, which we used to sing a lot when I was growing up,

‘I love to tell the story,

of unseen things above,

of Jesus and his glory,

of Jesus and his love;

I love to tell the story,

because I now it’s true,

it satisfies my longings,

as nothing else would do.’

Do we love to tell the story, yes, perhaps to each other who are already born again and already know the story, but what about those who need to hear, just like the people of the town from where the woman in John 4 came from, so the people of the towns where we live, they also need to hear. May God help us to be more willing to share the good news, to gossip the gospel.

By the way, recall yesterday I mentioned the free coffee, I have had my free coffee, but guess what? It was not long afterwards that I wanted another coffee or tea, the ‘Costa’ only satisfied for a short while, but, thank God, the ‘Living Water’ I received 51 years ago is still satisfying and will do for the next however many years I’m spared and throughout eternity.

Finally, the verse for today says, that the towns folk also believed, not just because of the woman’s testimony, but because they had discovered for themselves. We pray that many will yet believe because we will have shared our story, but also many more will yet believe because they will have discovered Jesus for themselves.

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Daily Devotion July 27th

MONDAY 27th

John 4

NIV (42) – ‘They said to the woman, We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Saviour of the world.’

ESV (42) – ‘They said to the woman, It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Saviour of the world.’

This is a very well-known portion of Scripture, and I could so easily have spent a few days looking at it, but I have chosen to take this one verse.

The story of what we call the ‘woman from Samaria’ is a typical example of someone who had met with Jesus and as a result believed on him and therefore would have received eternal life. But it doesn’t just end at that, for she has become so excited and intrigued about what she has just experienced that she hurries of home to her town to tell the people ‘Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?’

I don’t know about you but I can hear the excitement in her voice, she was a woman of shame, the man she had met had exposed that shame, and yet she wanted to tell everybody else about him. Why, well one reason is that not only did  Jesus expose her shame, but he offered her an alternative. Either continue in your sinful lifestyle and be spiritually dry or take what I am offering, which is living water which will satisfy you not only for your present life but also for eternity. ‘. . . Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.’ (John 4:13-14) On going to the well for her daily water supply, she got far more than she bargained for, she got an eternal spiritual supply as well. Is not that something worth talking about, something worth sharing.

There have been some offers available after lockdown, which are not life transforming but, offers that are worth claiming. For example if you have the ‘Costa’ app on your phone, (other coffee brands are available!) or carry a ‘Costa’ loyalty card in your purse or wallet, then ‘Costa’ announced that they were going to add 300 points on to encourage a return to their outlets, enabling everyone with the card or app to get a free coffee! Now, this is not mega news, it is not life transforming news, but I can assure you I soon told others about it, and there have been other offers as well which have been shared.

We like the woman of Samaria have even better and more important news to share, we have found the source of eternal life, we have as she said ‘found the Christ’ how freely are we willing to tell others of the incredible offer he brings of forgiveness of sin and of eternal hope.

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Devotions

Daily Devotion July 26th

SUNDAY 26th

Acts 4:4:5-12

NIV (v12) – ‘Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.’

ESV (v12) – ‘And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.’

We continue from yesterday and our brief look at John 3:16 ‘For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.’

c) The Uniqueness of the message of the gospel – whoever believes in HIM

John 3:16 is crystal clear that God loved and therefore he sent, and it is also crystal clear as to who he sent, his only Son, and God has only one Son and his name is Jesus. And it was Jesus who he sent into the world to be the Saviour of the world, and it is only by believing on his Son that we can have life that is abundant and eternal, therefore the message of the gospel is a unique message, it is the only message that brings hope to this dying world.

For God did not send **** (insert every other prophet or religious leader, or god of this world here) to save the world, he sent Jesus. So, when we claim that Jesus is the only way to God as Jesus himself declared in John 14:6, ‘No one comes to the Father except through me’ we are not bigots or blinkered individuals, we are declaring the whole truth and nothing but the truth! And we know it to be so because God himself has said it. We need to be vocal in this multi-faith world in which we live by declaring the words of Peter in our text above, ‘And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.’

d) The Ultimate aim of the gospel – to have eternal life – this takes us back to the whole reason why John said he had written the gospel ‘so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.’ Our problem is that we are dead in our trespasses and sin, spiritually dead, cut off from God and we need to be made alive again. And Jesus was the one who God sent into the world to make it possible. Galatians 2:20-21 ‘I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.’ Ephesians 2:4-5 ‘But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved . . .’

e) The Unequivocal consequences of not believing the gospel – perish – When the Bible speaks of perish as here in John 3:16, it is speaking about being eternally cut off from God’s presence, in a place which is described as a lake of fire, when we think of something perishing, we perhaps think of something like a piece of fruit which as it perishes, goes into a state of decay until eventually it is no longer existing, nothing left in any shape or form, but when the Bible speaks of perish here it is not to eventually no longer exist in any shape or form but to remain in an eternal state of being spiritually dead, but the extremely sad thing is that although spiritually dead, not without consciousness and feeling.* It will be eternity spent with regret for not believing, eternity spent without any reprieve, eternity spent without any comfort or any further hope of redemption, eternity spent in the very presence of the devil himself, for that is also where he will be, eternally alienated from God.

Heaven is real – but so is Hell. If you are reading this devotion today and you have never come to accept the offer of salvation which God has made available to the whosover, then as Scripture says, ‘Today if you hear his voice, do not harden your heart . . .’ Hebrews 3:7, ‘Behold, now is the favourable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.’ 2 Corinthians 6:2, ‘How shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? It was declared at first by the Lord, and it was attested to us by those who heard . . .’ Hebrews 2:3.

*  Jesus himself spoke of the reality of what Hell will be like in Luke 16:19-31 and the reality of future judgement is in Revelation 20:11-15