Tag: Word of God

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Daily Devotion August 28th

FRIDAY 28th

Hebrews 4:12

NIV Hebrews 4:12 – ‘For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.’

ESV Hebrews 4:12 – ‘For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.’

In Wednesdays devotion I mentioned that the garage was another story, it is also full of various things, furniture, boxes yet to be opened and also my various tool boxes, which I will also enjoy being able to sort out and rummage through when space becomes available. Tools are handy, fortunately I had sufficient tools already at hand to be able to do some of the work that’s needed to be done in the house as we have been settling in, but the reason I mention them is because there is a link between my tools and my books! The tools have helped me build things, hangs things, repair things, etc. And there is the sense in which when it comes to my ministry the books I have are also tools, they are a means to help me to do things, more importantly to help me in my ministry preparation, in my ability to build sermons, hang thoughts from and to help repair lives spiritually, but of course the most important tool is the Word of God. And it is with the help of some of the other tools, commentaries, studies etc. that I will develop these devotions around the main tool, the Word of God. As we go through these devotions, I will mention any other books I use, which will be from a variety of sources.

One of the books I have is a two part set ‘The Open Your Bible’ OT & NT Page by Page*, I have just turned to this today to see what it says for Hebrews 4:12, it falls in the section covering verses 1-13 of that chapter so only has a brief mention, but this is it: the previous verses ‘lead to the reflection that God’s Word is not to be taken lightly. It is conceived dynamically. It is not static waiting for us to handle it as we will. It is ‘living and active’ and stands in judgment on us. It is sharper than a sword, for it penetrates to the innermost recesses of our human personality. Nothing is hidden from God. It is impossible to bluff our way through. The Word is always adequate, always revealing. We stand before God as we are, stripped of all pretensions and shams. This is a solemn warning.’

May we always allow the Word of God to do the work in our lives that God desires for it to do, whether to correct or reprove, to build or to tear down, to instruct and to reform, that when we do stand before him on that day, we will not be ashamed. May his Word be our daily and constant companion, a light that directs our path.

* Published by Creative 4 International ISBN 978 1 909680 03 6

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Devotions

Daily Devotion July 9th

THURSDAY 9th

John 1:1-5

NIV – ‘In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.’

ESV – ‘In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. 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.’

We come now to the beginning of John’s gospel, and to the opening verses which are contained within John’s prologue which is from verse 1 through to verse 18 in which John introduces us to Jesus.

Matthew commences his gospel by introducing Jesus through his earthly genealogy, going back to Abraham. Mark by introducing Jesus at his baptism in the Jordan, Luke takes us to the birth of both John the Baptist and Jesus being foretold by the angel Gabriel to Zechariah (for John) and Mary (for Jesus).

John in his introduction goes right back to the beginning, ‘In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.’ In fact, although the word beginning is used here, the idea is to take us into eternity past, before time began.

Immediately, although he does not use the name Jesus till verse 17, he lets the reader know that Jesus is God, importantly, not a god but God. ‘. . . and the Word was God.’ (v1). Of equal importance is Johns introduction of the Word as already being with God, (‘ . . . and the Word was with God’) he was with God as God at the beginning. Before time began, the eternal God existed, and thus also existed the Word, who we see later in the gospel to be the Son of God, therefore he the Word, the Lord Jesus Christ is the ‘eternal Son of God’. There has not been a specific moment in which Jesus became the Son, he always has been.

John then announces that it was through the Word that all things were made, and without him was not anything made; thus we see the co-operation of the Godhead in the creation of the world.  We know from Genesis 1, that it says, ‘In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth’ (v1) V3 tells us that ‘the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the earth’. And now John tells us that the Word was there as well, thus creation is the work of the Godhead, the triune1 God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. In his epistles, Paul also ascribes creation through the Lord Jesus Christ in 1 Corinthians 8:6 ‘ . . . yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.’ Also, in Colossians 1:16 ‘For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him.’ And the Hebrew writer as well, Hebrews 1:2 ‘ . . . but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.’

John then makes another important statement about the Word in verse 4 ‘In him was life, . . .’ He himself is life, he is the source of created life and he came into the world to give us life, new life, abundant life, eternal life, resurrection life, as we discovered from the earlier devotions. This is the Word, this is the eternal Son, this is Jesus, the Christ, the one who is our Saviour.

Now, we could suggest at this time, that we are stating our belief upon Jesus and his deity  on the words of a fellow man, the apostle John, but we will see that what John has declared is also verified by Jesus himself. We discover that as time had unfolded through the record of the Old Testament, as we see one generation pass to another, Jesus already existed. Later in the same gospel, Jesus would make an incredible statement about himself at a time when the Jews were disputing with him, they said to him, ‘are you greater than our father Abraham who died?’ To this Jesus replied, ‘Very truly I tell you, before Abraham was born, I am!’  (John 8:53,58) By using the words ‘I am’ to describe himself, Jesus was declaring  himself to be equal with God, for he was giving himself the very title or name that God had used in telling Moses who he was way back in Exodus 3:13-14 (‘Then Moses said to God, If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them? God said to Moses, ‘I AM WHO I AM.’ And he said, Say this to the people of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’’)

This Jesus is our God!

1 Triune God / Trinity – The word trinity is not found in Scripture, this does not mean that it is a false concept, it is simply a word that has been used to help us understand the tri-unity of God, that God exists as one God in three persons, The Father, The Son and The Holy Spirit, also known as the Godhead. Some Scriptures where we see the three persons of the Godhead together are: Mark 1:9-11 at the baptism of Jesus, he as the Son is in the water, the Holy Spirit descends like a dove, and the Father speaks from heaven. Also in 1 Corinthians 12:4-6 concerning the gifts, variety of gifts but the same Spirit, (the Holy Spirit) varieties of service, but the same Lord, (the Son) varieties of activities, but the same God (the Father) See also: John 14:16-17, 2 Corinthians 1:21-22, 2 Corinthians 13:14, 1 Peter 1:2.

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Devotions

Daily Devotion May 6th

Wednesday 6th – Isaiah 40:1-8

Today we will start to look at some thoughts from Isaiah 40, we will return to this chapter again tomorrow and on Saturday.

I want to highlight for today verses 6-8. These few verses start off with a call for the prophet Isaiah to cry out, he asks ‘What shall I cry out’ and the response is: ‘All flesh is grass, and all it’s beauty is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades when the breath of the Lord blows on it; surely the people are grass. The grass withers, the flower fades . . .’ He then ends the cry with the words ‘but the word of our God will stand forever.’

The whole sentence is making a statement which is a comparison between the life span of mankind and the longevity of the Word of God. Man is compared to the grass of the field or to a flower – here today and gone tomorrow, but the Word of God is eternal, it will last forever. (Peter quotes this in 1 Peter 1:24-25)

It reminds us that life is fragile. If we take the comparison of the grass or the flower, we know how quickly the grass can come and grow and yet soon be affected by weather conditions which causes it to dry up and to die. The same with a flower, I love gardening, back in Rhyl I had planted hundreds of bulbs in the garden and I always looked forward to seeing the bulbs begin to show through the soil, and I would wait patiently for them to grow and for the flowers to begin to show, especially the tulips. We always had our first snowdrops, crocuses and daffodils in January and as they would be coming to an end the tulips would appear, but suddenly, after all the waiting, it seemed like the flowers had come and gone with a blink of an eye.

None of us knows how long our life span is, back in the time of the patriarchs they had a really good innings, Methuselah 969 years, but following the flood, God shortened the life span until we get to Psalm 90:10 and we read ‘The years of our life are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty; yet their span is but toil and trouble; they are soon gone, and we fly away.’

In the book of Ecclesiastes chapter 12:1 we read ‘Remember your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days draw near and the years draw near of which you will say, I have no pleasure in them.’ When we link what we read here in Ecclesiastes to what Isaiah cried out in our text, it is a call for each one of us to make time for God before it is too late!

Now, I know that I am preparing this devotion for our Church family, therefore I can assume that it is being read by those of us who have already made time for God in our lives, but what I feel led to impress in our hearts today is that we make sure that we live everyday with the realisation that eternity may only just be around the corner. We should live in the light of the revealed truth of God’s Word, his Word which is eternal, we should be living in the present with eternity in view.

The Scripture I am reminded of as I prepare this is found in Luke 12:16-21 ‘And he told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man produced plentifully, and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ And he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.”’ But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.”’

The rich man was living only for the present, no thought for eternity, perhaps he thought he was invincible, he had overlooked the fragility of life. I remember working for a guy who was very anti-God, he was determined to build up his own little empire, one day I challenged him concerning his soul and told him the day would come when he would have to stand before God, I will never forget the look of anger on his face that I should even dare to warn him. To my knowledge he has never responded, (that was nearly 40 years ago) there are many today who live this short fragile time we have on this earth with no time whatsoever for God.

Let’s make the time we do have count, let’s make it matter, yes we have to prepare for the present, for we are living in the present, but may we never make what we do in the present have a negative impact on that which is eternal. Following on from the parable in Luke 12 we have the words of Jesus (vv22-34) that are also found in Matthew 6:25-34, I quote from Matthew,  ‘But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.’ If we want to make our lives count here on earth, if we want to live life in the light of eternity, then our priority must be to seek first the kingdom of God.

Finally, the last sentence of Isaiah in these verses ‘But the Word of the Lord will stand forever.’ Can I suggest that we need to live our lives in the light of his Word, it is his Word that matters, it is his Word that counts, and it is his Word that will stand forever. In the words of an older hymn, ‘Standing on the promises of God.’

All I once held dear, built my life upon

All this world reveres, and wars to own

All I once thought gain I have counted loss

Spent and worthless now, compared to this

Knowing you, Jesus

Knowing you, there is no greater thing

You’re my all, you’re the best

You’re my joy, my righteousness

And I love you, Lord

Now my heart’s desire is to know you more

To be found in you and known as yours

To possess by faith what I could not earn

All-surpassing gift of righteousness

Oh, to know the power of your risen life

And to know You in Your sufferings

To become like you in your death, my Lord

So with you to live and never die

Graham Kendrick  Copyright © 1993 Make Way Music CCLI 788682