Daily Devotions

Paul writing to the Philippians  reveals how boldness is contagious. “When we are bold for Christ, enduring hardships for our faith, others are provoked to do the same.” (Philippians 1:14).

A missionary legend is told that Boniface of Crediton, an 8th century Christian missionary, who once traveled to a German shrine hidden in the sacred forest of Thor, the god of thunder. When he realised that the native folk were not going to willingly relinquish their native spirits, Boniface took his axe to a huge oak that served as the holy altar of their worship. With one blow of Boniface’s powerful axe, God felled the mammoth oak with the breath of a mighty wind. The pagan barbarians were awestruck and converted to this new God who was mightier than their old gods. Boniface, not weak in conscience when it came to pagan things, then took the wood and built a church.

In one of Aesop’s Fables we come across a Fox who had never yet seen a Lion. Whilst walking through the forest the fox fell in with the lion for the first time. The fox was so frightened that he that he  nearly died of fear. Meeting the lion for the second time, the fox was still much alarmed, but not to the same extent as at first. On seeing him the third time, he so increased in boldness that he went up to him, and commenced a familiar conversation with him.

Aesop’s conclusion being,  “Acquaintance softens prejudices.”

Once more we take a lead from Fred Beuchner when speaking of the Lord’s Prayer says, “You need to be bold in another way to speak the second half (of the Lord’s Prayer). Give us. Forgive us. Don't test us. Deliver us. If it takes guts to face the omnipotence that is God's, it takes perhaps no less to face the impotence that is ours. We can do nothing without God. We can have nothing without God. Without God we are nothing.

Heavenly Father, thank You for the wonderful witness of Paul and for the many instances where You took simple people, absurd equipment, and seemingly inappropriate circumstances, to forward Your plans and purposes. Fulfil Your will in my life, I pray. May I be a willing witness in whatever circumstances I may find myself. In Jesus' name, AMEN.

Daily Devotions

What do you do when you feel out of sorts, out of alignment with yourself and the world around you? Alignment  can mean an arrangement in a straight line, a position of agreement or alliance.

If our vehicle wheels are out of alignment, they do not drive straight, they use more fuel and they become unsafe if left out of alignment.

The same is true for our bodies, if they are out of alignment, our bodies do not function properly, and we often have pain and discomfort. Alignment is also important in our spiritual lives.

We read in 1 John 5:14 we read.”When our hearts are aligned with God in faith, he tells us to pray with boldness, expecting that our prayers will be answered.” I think that we all recognise the power of alignment whenever a group of people is willing to divest themselves of self-determined outcomes and invest their talents, will, and energy in a common direction in order to accomplish a common goal.

With this verse in mind C. H. Dodd writes: "Prayer rightly considered is not a device for employing the resources of omnipotence to fulfil our own desires, but a means by which our desires may be redirected according to the mind of God, and made into channels for the forces of his will." 

Another way of looking at this alignment is that Prayer is bending our will to the will of God through cooperating with God’s purpose. If I throw out a boat hook from a boat and catch hold of the shore and pull, do I pull the shore to me, or do I pull myself to the shore? Prayer is not pulling God to my will, but the aligning of my will to the will of God.  

I thank you Lord for the gift of prayer. It is a privilege to be able to come to you with our requests, hopes and burdens and lay them down before you. Thank you that you hear our prayers and answer them according to your will and not our desires, because you know what is best for us and have the perfect plan for our lives. In Jesus name I pray, Amen.

Daily Devotions

Moving on, we now begin to think of how God enables us to become the people he created us to be. Firstly God fills us with the Holy Spirit, who is bold and courageous. We do not have to muster courage and strength on our own. We simply submit to the Spirit of God that is within us.

In Ephesians 3:12-13 we read, “It is in this same Jesus, because we have faith in him, that we dare, even with confidence, to approach God. In view of these tremendous issues, I beg you not to lose heart because I am now suffering for my part in bringing you the Gospel. Indeed, you should be honoured.”

These words don’t come out of nowhere. Paul is drawing together and applying all the things that he has been saying in his letter up to this point. For the last two and a half chapters, Paul has described the joy, the privilege, and the confidence that comes from our relationship with God through faith in Christ. Christ is the one who died on the cross and rose from the dead. 

- Through him, our sins are forgiven, we’re adopted as God’s dearly loved children,

- Through Christ, we’re reconciled and given peace with God and peace with one another.

- Through Christ and the preaching of the gospel, God’s multidimensional plans for his universe are being fulfilled. 

This is all entirely by God’s grace, not by our own works. 

It means we can come to God knowing he loves us deeply. We can approach him, and pray to him, and be secure in the knowledge that he hears us and loves us and will give us that great inheritance. This is our confidence, our hope, and our joy. It’s the bedrock of our existence, and nothing in heaven or earth can take it away.

The American painter, John Sargent, once painted a panel of roses that was highly praised by critics. It was a small picture, but it approached perfection. Although offered a high price for it on many occasions, Sargent refused to sell it. He considered it his best work and was very proud of it. Whenever he was deeply discouraged and doubtful of his abilities as an artist, he would look at it and remind himself, "I painted that." Then his confidence and ability would come back to him. 

It is not a painting, an image or a replica that we need to look to; our confidence is found in Jesus alone.

Lord, I pray for bold faith—faith that overcomes fear and rises to meet every challenge. Stir up holy boldness within me. Empower me to step out in ways that can only be explained by your hand upon me. Give me courage to take risks for the sake of the gospel. Embolden me to accomplish things far greater than my natural strengths allow. Grow my vision to see opportunities from your perspective, not only my own. Release childlike trust in you so that bold faith flows freely. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Daily Devotions

We conclude this series on War and Peace with the writing of James 3:17 “But the wisdom from above is pure first of all; it is also peaceful, gentle, and friendly; it is full of compassion and produces a harvest of good deeds; it is free from prejudice and hypocrisy.”

Finding his newly appointed minister standing at his study window in the church weeping as he looked over the inner city’s tragic conditions, a layman sought to console him: “Don’t worry. After you’ve been here a while, you’ll get used to it.” The minister responded, “Yes, I know. That’s why I am crying.”

On reading this I am reminded of the. Poet Albert Orsborn’s words.

Except I am moved with compassion,
How dwelleth Thy Spirit in me?
In word and in deed burning love is my need;
I know I can find this in Thee. 

It is our old friend Fred Buechner who says that, “Compassion is the sometimes fatal capacity for feeling what it's like to live inside somebody else's skin. It is the knowledge that there can never really be any peace and joy for me until there is peace and joy finally for you too.”

Compassion, is what Jesus feels for those who came to him in need. I recently read that our word compassion means literally “to suffer with.” When we see someone languishing in some way, we feel their pain, we suffer with them.

In fact Greek word for compassion is not a fluffy inner feeling it’s it almost feels like a punch in the stomach when you see someone else suffer or struggle.

That’s what Jesus feels when he sees so much suffering all around him. He feels their pain. There’s a sense of urgency. They need help now. It’s this urgency that launches the ministry of Jesus’ disciples. More hands are needed! So he sends them out to bring in this harvest, this harvest of compassion.

Loving Father, I pray that my life is one that demonstrates Your compassionate wisdom from above. May I reflect the pure, gentle, and merciful nature of Jesus as I show forth His life in me. In Jesus' name, AMEN.

Daily Devotions

What should a follower of Jesus do when they find themselves right in the middle of troubling conflict? When Paul found himself  in the  contentious situation of imprisonment, he wrote, “I urge you, then — I who am a prisoner because I serve the Lord: live a life that measures up to the standard God set when he called you.” (Ephesians 4:1)

Whilst it should be well understood, it is often ignored that when someone enters into a society f faith, they take upon themselves the obligation to live a certain kind of life. If they fail in that obligation, they hinder the aims of their society and brings discredit on its name. Here, Paul paints the picture of the kind of life that a disciple must live when he enters the fellowship of the Christian Church. But this call  isn't only whilst we are in the church is it?  

I recently read, "Why has our society  become so mean?" An investigational journalist recently discovered that  a restaurant owner had said that he has to eject a customer from his restaurant for rude or cruel behaviour once a week—something that never used to happen. A head nurse at a hospital told shared that many of her staff are leaving the profession because patients have become so abusive. The writer concluded that the words that define our age reek of menace: conspiracy, polarisation, mass shootings, trauma, and the need for safe spaces.

It could be said that standards have slipped, but for the disciple what are those standards? Paul continues in his writing to say, “ I urge you to behave with all humility, and gentleness, and patience. I urge you to bear with one another in love. I urge you eagerly to preserve that unity which the Holy Spirit can bring by binding things together in peace.”

This oneness, this peace, these right relationships can be preserved only in one way. Every one of the four great Christian virtues depends on the there being less self in our behaviour. So long as self is at the centre of things, this oneness can never fully exist. In a society where self predominates, humankind cannot be other than a disintegrated collection of individualistic and warring units. But when self dies and Christ springs to life within our hearts. then comes the peace, the oneness, which is the great hall-mark of the true Church.

Jesus Christ, our Lord and our brother, 

you have called us to be your one Church. 

Make us one in our faith and hope, 

and one in our loving service. 

Make us one in worship and in daily living.

Lord Jesus, 

send your Spirit to make us one 

as you want us to be.

We ask this, Jesus, 

for you are our Lord and our Saviour for ever. Amen.

Daily Devotions

Martin Luther King Jr once said, “Hate multiplies hate, violence multiplies violence, and toughness multiplies toughness in a descending spiral of destruction….The chain reaction of evil — hate begetting hate, wars producing more wars — must be broken, or we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation.”

No wonder the writer the Ephesians urged that church to  “Get rid of all bitterness, passion, and anger. No more shouting or insults, no more hateful feelings of any sort.” Ephesians 4:6

It is said that the disciples of Pythagoras the ancient Ionian Greek philosopher had a rule of their society, that if, during the day, anger had made them speak insultingly to each other, before the sun set they shook hands and kissed each other and were reconciled. There was also a Jewish Rabbi whose prayer it was that he might never go to sleep with any bitter thought against another.

Years ago, a large statue of Christ was erected high in the Andes on the border between Argentina and Chile. Called "Christ of the Andes," the statue symbolises a pledge between the two countries that as long as the statue stands, there will be peace between Chile and Argentina. Shortly after the statue was erected, the Chileans began to protest that they had been slighted -- the statue had its back turned to Chile. Just when tempers were at their highest in Chile, a Chilean newspaperman saved the day. In an editorial that not only satisfied the people but made them laugh, he simply said, "The people of Argentina need more watching over than the Chileans.

Paul's advice is sound, because the longer we postpone mending a quarrel, the less likely we are ever to mend it. If there is trouble between us and anyone else, if there is trouble in a Church or a fellowship or any society where people meet, the only way to deal with it is at once. The longer it is left to flourish, the more bitter it will grow. If we have been in the wrong, we must pray to God to give us grace to admit that it was so; and even if we have been right, we must pray to God to give us the graciousness which will enable us to take the first step to put matters right.

Heavenly Father, forgive me for any bitterness that I have harboured in my heart against You or others. Thank You that I have been forgiven by grace through faith in Christ. Help me to live my life as through you. Help me to be slow to anger, quick to forgive, and abounding in steadfast love, kindness, compassion, forgiveness, and grace. To the glory of Christ, in Whose name I pray, AMEN.

Daily Devotions

We live in a world full of exhausted people, and Jesus knew this, particularly when he looked around at his disciples: “Come to me, all of you who are tired from carrying heavy loads, and I will give you rest.” Matthew 11:28

It is important not to rush the reading of this precious text just because it is familiar. We need to ask, can we stop and hear Jesus speak these words to us and mull each phrase over slowly? We need to hear these words as if spoken individually to each of us.

Jesus, you offer me rest and comfort in an invitation that is maternal in its tenderness. You speak these words to me as if for the first time. In that promise of rest there is a hint of the Sabbath, and I remember St. Augustine’s prayer: Lord give us the peace of quiet, the peace of the Sabbath, a Sabbath with no evening.

We have all ready quoted this hymn in this series, but in the context of this verse it is worth further contemplation.

O Sabbath rest by Galilee,

O calm of hills above,

where Jesus knelt to share with thee

the silence of eternity,

interpreted by love!

A number of research projects have discovered that taking time to rest has obvious benefits for your body. The conclusion reported that “Rest is vital for better mental health, increased concentration and memory, a healthier immune system, reduced stress, improved mood, and even a better metabolism.”

Another researcher found that, despite all the proven benefits of rest, intentionally setting aside regular time for rest is a practice that has become undervalued and under-appreciated in today’s culture. We have become overworked, overstressed, and exhausted. Yet, Sabbath (setting aside one day each week for rest) remains a dying practice. However when practiced one of the greatest societal benefits is that relationships are strengthen and deepened. 

In times of weakness and hour of need,

yours is the strength by which we carry on,

the shoulder we rest our head upon.

When our load is heavy and too much to bear,

yours are the arms stretched out to help us

the grace that we depend on.

In times of weakness and hour of need,

your voice is heard,

‘Come… find rest.’

This is grace divine,

the path we tread to wholeness

of body and spirit,

the path that leads to you,

and for which we offer our offering of praise. Amen