MONDAY 1 JUNE 2015
1 Samuel 8:4-20
God is King
At the time of Samuel the people of Israel were governed by a theocracy. That means they were governed directly by God. God gave all his orders through his Prophet Samuel as he had done through Moses, Joshua and the Judges before Him. It was a very effective form of government because God was in control, and recognised to be in control.
When Samuel was getting on in years he delegated his authority to his sons. Soon after, things began to go wrong. This was because his sons did not walk in God’s ways. They were not listening to God.
The people came to Samuel and said they wanted a King like all the other Nations, instead of asking for another prophet. They did this because Samuel’s sons had gone astray. This made Samuel feel very unhappy and he spoke to God about it. God said that they were not rejecting Samuel but were rejecting Him.
God said he would let them have a King, but first warned them what a King would do and how much they would personally suffer under a King, because a King would demand so much from them. God said a King would look after Himself first before caring for the needs of the country. God also warned them if they looked to a King, He, God would not listen to them.
As we look around us in the world today we find Political systems always fail because they rely on man’s government, when only God can rule effectively. The only hope for Australia and every country is if we get leaders who will let God have control. Each of us must also let God be the King of our lives.
PRAYER: Jesus we acknowledge you as the King of our lives. Take control, lead us and direct us in the way you want us to live. Amen.
TUESDAY 2 JUNE 2015
Psalm 130
A God of Mercy and Loving Kindness
Mercy triumphs over judgement. Praise be to God that although He’s a God of Judgement, He is a God of Mercy. He is always more ready to acquit than He is to condemn.
When we examine ourselves we so often find that we are guilty of many sins. It is out of the depths of our sinfulness that we cry out to God for mercy. God loves us so much He is always attentive to the sounds of our voices, whenever we cry out to Him He hears us.
We know that if God kept a record of all our sins we wouldn’t have a hope! But Praise his wonderful name He is a God of forgiveness who wipes out all record of what we have done in the past. “Our sins and lawless acts, He will remember no more” Hebrews 10:17. Because He is so forgiving and so merciful we revere Him and love Him very, very much.
One of the problems many of us have is our impatience. Often God doesn’t seem to act straight away. There is so often a delay between our prayers and their answers. God has a good reason for the delay, probably because he wants to keep us humble. He knows that Pride will destroy us. His delaying tactics make us keep crying out to Him and waiting for Him like the watchman waits patiently for the dawn. During the time of waiting we do not lose heart but put all our faith and trust in God’s Word.
The Word assures us that the Lord has unfailing love and tons of mercy. He offers us plenteous redemption.
PRAYER: Father we revere you and love you so much for your overflowing mercy and plenteous redemption. Trusting in you we know we will be set free, all our sins will be wiped out and remembered no more. Through Jesus our loving Saviour. Amen.
WEDNESDAY 3 JUNE 2015
2 Corinthians 4:13 - 5:5
We do not lose heart
There is so much happening that could make us lose heart. If we read the papers and watch the television news we could get very despondent, But as Christians, fair dinkum Christians, we do not lose heart. We are extremely happy and are full of confidence. We are so confident because God has given us so much faith through Jesus. Jesus puts the Spirit of faith in us. It makes us believe His word in our hearts and speak it with our lips.
The world destroyed Jesus by putting him on the cross, but God raised him up. The same Lord will raise us up with Jesus and present us to God. We will be with him for ever. Gods Grace works in us to make us worthy and fit for Heaven.
Every time we look in the mirror to shave or put on our makeup we see we are getting a lot older. Aches and pains develop in our bodies, we might even contact a life threatening disease. Everyone gets worried when this happens, but faith filled Christians do not get at all perturbed.
Though outwardly our bodies wear out like everyone else, inwardly we are being renewed. So often things going wrong on the outside cause our inner renewal to be speeded up. This is because when things in our lives go wrong we are forced to depend on God more. This makes our relationship with Him grow stronger and our inner natures get to be more like Jesus and ready for our eternal inheritance.
One of the big differences we Christians have is that we can see where we will be ending up. We know that when this temporary earthly body is eventually destroyed we will move right into our eternal home in Heaven.
PRAYER: Lord God thank you for giving us so much faith through Jesus. He paid the price for us on the Cross and gave us your Spirit. Keep us from losing heart by making us 100% sure that we will be raised by you to be in Heaven for ever when our bodies are destroyed. Amen.
THURSDAY 4 JUNE 2015
Genesis 3:8-15
The Defeated Enemy
Satan is alive and active on earth, but he knows that he is a defeated enemy. God still permits him to test us as he did to Eve in the garden of Eden. He is trying his hardest to put the whole world against God but he can never succeed.
He was successful in having us cut off from God as the Genesis story tells us. When the time was right God sent his own Son Jesus into the world to completely defeat Satan and put him in his place.
God predicted that Satan would be put down, as we see in our Bible passage today. One of Eves offspring would crush Satan’s head and the serpent would strike his heel. This prophecy was fulfilled in Jesus.
He put many people against Jesus and they crucified Him! Satan thought he had Jesus crushed but Jesus was more powerful than him. He rose from the dead. While Jesus was on the cross he released enormous power. This power has crushed Satan. All of us who have fully accepted Jesus as Saviour and Lord of our lives and have Jesus ruling in our hearts as King have the same power to crush Satan completely. We do not need to be frightened of Satan any more. In fact he is very frightened of us.
PRAYER: Father we thank you for sending your Son Jesus to crush Satan. Give us all the faith to believe that the power released when Jesus died on the cross is in us so that we can crush Satan and stop him tempting us into sin. Through Jesus our powerful Saviour. Amen.
FRIDAY 5 JUNE 2015
Mark 4:1-20
Why many Don’t Believe
Jesus told the Parable of the Sower to show us why many people do not believe.
We believe because we hear the word of God. The word of God is found in the Bible. The Bible is the word of God. We get the greatest faith when we hear words Jesus has spoken to us as Romans 10:7 “Faith comes from hearing the message and the message is heard through the word of Christ.”
Verse 12 tells us how hard people find it to understand the word and have faith. To quote the C.E.V. which says:
“These people look and look and never see. They will listen and listen but never understand. If they did they would turn to God and he would forgive them.”
Why cant they see and hear and understand. It is because the old enemy Satan is at work. He stops them believing in three ways. Sometimes he just takes the word away like the birds taking seed from the path.
Then there are some people who believe and receive the word with Joy. Satan stops their roots growing by putting rocks in the way. When life gets hard and the message gets them into trouble they give up believing.
Then there are others who accept the word and believe but let the weeds and thorns choke it out. Satan sows these weed seeds. They are more concerned for the needs of this life and the desire to make more money and get all materialistic.
Those who let the seed grow and produce a good crop are those who let Jesus push Satan out of their lives. They draw on the power of Jesus in them to resist Satan and they bear fruit in plenty with victorious love filled Christian lives.
PRAYER: Jesus when Satan comes to rob us of the word, attack our roots or choke out the word, and stop us believing, we resist him with your power you have put in our hearts, we rejoice that he flees from us. Amen.
SATURDAY 6 JUNE 2015
Mark 3:20-35
Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit
If we believe Jesus is the Divine Son of God who came into the earth to save sinners and if we accept him, by faith, into our hearts as Lord and Saviour of our lives we have eternal life and all our sins are forgiven and crushed away for ever. We become very close to Jesus. Jesus tells us that those who are close to him are his mother or his brother or sister. We become His close relatives when we are saved by Jesus!!!!
Although Jesus died to take all our sins away there is one sin, Jesus told us, that will never be forgiven. Those guilty of it will be denied eternal life. What is this most terrible sin? It is called the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. It is saying that the Spirit, that is in Jesus is not the Holy Spirit but an evil spirit.
Jesus was having so much success, crowds and crowds of people were coming to his house. He was dealing with so many that He never had a chance to eat. Because of this his family thought he was out of his mind, but his enemies the teachers of the law went further. They accused him of driving out demons by the power of Satan! They were saying that the Holy Spirit of God in Jesus was Satan. Jesus told them how ridiculous this was. Satan would not fight against himself and he went on to tell them the terrible thing they were doing. They were blaspheming against the Holy Spirit. Jesus then told them how he had defeated Satan, that’s why his ministry was so successful. He had bound the strong man (Satan) and that’s how he could drive sin, sickness and evil out of people.
PRAYER: Lord Jesus Christ fill us all with your Holy Spirit that we may see Satan defeated and many people saved, healed and delivered from evil. Prevent people blaspheming against the Holy Spirit by saying that the Spirit in us is from the enemy. Amen.
SUNDAY 7 JUNE 2015
PENTECOST 2
THIS WEEK’S MESSAGE
When we believe that Jesus’ death on the cross was the punishment that has taken all o ur sins away because He died in our place. And when we receive Him into our hearts as our Lord and saviour a wonderful miracle takes place. We are born again as Jesus’ Sons and daughters. The Bible says in John 1:12 “All who received Him, to those who believed in His Name, He gave the right to become children of God” and in today’s Gospel Jesus tells us that those who are close to Jesus are His Mother and brothers and sisters.
When God made our first ancestors, Adam and Eve they were both very close to God BUT when they disobeyed God by listening to Satan they were cut off from God. They lost their close fellowship with Him. Satan won the battle for mankind. This was only a temporary victory. As God predicted, in Genesis 3:15, Satan would one day be crushed. God always keeps His promises and this promise was fully kept when Jesus completely defeated Satan by dying on the cross. The tremendous power released when Jesus died on the cross restored our relationship with God. Satan no longer had any power over us.
Because Satan has been defeated we who know Jesus will always be victorious. We will never lose heart because Jesus turns all our defeats into victories. He makes our stumbling blocks into stepping stones! How ever hard and difficult life gets, Jesus is always with us to help us. He has given us the Holy Spirit. With the Holy Spirit’s help victory is guaranteed.
PRAYER: Dear Lord Jesus, thank you so much for the victory you won for us when You defeated Satan on the cross. Thank you that he has no power over us because we are your sons and daughters whom you love very much. When life gets tough for us and we feel like giving up send your Holy Spirit to help us. Turn our stumbling blocks into stepping stones which lead us up into victory. Amen, Amen, Amen!