MONDAY 9 MARCH
Numbers 21:4-9
No More Whingeing
In a sense God must have been terribly disappointed with the Israelite people. He had done so much for them and all they could do was to whinge and complain. They had been set free from slavery. God had prevented the Egyptian army from destroying them and when food and water ran out God fed them and quenched their thirst in miraculous ways. Because of their whingeing and ungratefulness and because they turned their backs on God, they had to suffer for it. They lost the protection God had given them and were attacked by a plague of snakes. This made them see that they had gone wrong. When they repented they came under God’s protection once again. When they looked upon the bronze snake Moses had made they were miraculously cured of snake bite.
We can learn an important lesson. God has been so good to us in all that He has done for us. As the Hymn writer says we should,“count our blessings name them one by one and see what the Lord has done.” The Bible tells us to rejoice always, pray continually and give thanks in all circumstances (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18). This is what God wants us to do. We can be joyful all the time, keep on praying and always be thankful because we know that God is in control and all things will work out for the good of those who love his Name. Let’s all stop grumbling and complaining and continually show our gratitude towards our wonderful God!
PRAYER: Father, thank you that when we are joyful always, continually praying and always being thankful, you protect us and look after us. We are sorry for all the whingeing and complaining we have done. We repent and look to you to save us and keep us safe, through Jesus our Saviour and Friend. Amen.
TUESDAY 10 MARCH
Psalm 107:1-3, 17-22
He Sent Forth His Word and Healed Them
Jesus has tremendous power over all that destroys life. He has power over sickness and power over sin. He sets us free from them both.
In verse two of this Psalm the Bible says, “Let the redeemed of the Lord say so”. The word “redeem” really means to “set free”. Redemption is the ransom price paid to set people free. Jesus said He had come to give His life as a ransom for many (Mark 10:43). The apostle Peter proclaims, “He bore our sins in His body on the tree so we might die to sins and live for righteousness. By His wounds you have been healed” (1 Peter 3:24). When Jesus died He set us free from sin and sickness. Tremendous power was released from the cross; power to forgive and power to heal!
Faith to be saved from sin and sickness come when we believe what the Bible says and what God says. When God speaks and declares that we will be healed we can be sure we will be healed. When a centurion came up to Jesus he said, “Speak the word only and my servant shall be healed”. Jesus replied, “As you have believed so it has been done for you”. The servant was healed at the exact moment Jesus spoke!
Way back in Old Testament times King Hezekiah was suffering from a terminal illness. Hezekiah prayed and repented of his sins. God spoke a word through the prophet Isaiah. He said, “I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears, behold I will heal you and I will add 15 years to your life” (2 Kings 20:5-6). When the king heard the word of the Lord his faith became so strong and he was healed. Several years ago at the time Bishop Bevan Meredith was to go to hospital for his cancer operation, this was the reading at Morning Prayer. It gave us all faith to believe Bishop Bevan would be healed – look how healthy he is now.
God’s words give us so much faith when He speaks through the Bible and when He speaks to our hearts. God wants all of us who have been set free from sickness and sin to ‘say so’ and tell as many people as we can what Jesus has done for us!
PRAYER: Lord Jesus, thank you for the faith you give us when you speak to us. Give us all the faith to believe your word in the Bible, to believe we have been set free from sin and sickness by your death on the cross. Speak Lord and your servant will be healed and saved. Amen.
WEDNESDAY 11 MARCH
Ephesians 2.1-10
A Taste of New Life
There is one thing I would like to do more than anything else in the world and that is to show people how really fantastic it is to be a born-again Christian. The new life Jesus gives is absolutely fantastic. Words can’t describe how tremendous it is.
Although we don’t realise it, life without Jesus is controlled by the enemy Satan. Paul describes him here as the ruler of the kingdom of the air. His aim is to cause everything to go wrong. One thing is for sure; if you live without Jesus, Satan will make sure your life will end up in a mess.
It doesn’t’ matter how much of a mess we have allowed ourselves to get into, God never stops loving us. In His heart He longs to get us out of the mess. God gets us out of a messed-up life by sending someone to give us the Good News. The Good News is that God was so very, very rich in His mercy and gave us new life while we were dead because of the sins we had committed. New life was poured out for us when Jesus died on the cross and rose again. We can receive the new life only by faith. If we try in our own strength to keep all God’s laws we will never succeed in making ourselves good enough for God. We have to trust in what Jesus has done for us and what He promises to do for us now. As we trust Jesus the power released when Jesus died works in us. It is the power God used when He raised Jesus from the dead. It makes us to be like Jesus. It makes us love people and hate sin. We become loving people, doing all sorts of good works that God has prepared for us to do.
This makes us truly the happiest people on earth; new life people bringing new life to others.
PRAYER: Jesus, thank you so much that while we were still your enemies you made us into your friends by dying on the cross and rising again. Help us all to experience this new life as we put all our faith and trust in you. Help us all to be like Jesus; the happiest people on earth. Amen.
THURSDAY 12 MARCH
Galatians 3:1-9
Put right by faith in Jesus Christ
The Jews taught that people could be put right with God by keeping the law. We saw yesterday that this is impossible. We can never make ourselves to be good enough for God. As we put our faith and trust in Jesus we come alive. His power working in us makes us into new people. This is what being born again means. If we put all our faith and trust in Jesus and believe that He’s given us new life, yet find ourselves still sinning, does this mean that Jesus permits us to sin? Paul’s answer to this question is ‘definitely not’! All we can say is “Jesus hasn’t finished with me yet”. The way through to getting completely rid of the sin in us is to believe by trusting in Jesus that it is gone already. This is living by faith. Faith is believing before we see. Faith is trusting that the power of Jesus is working in us!
Paul maintained this faith by believing he had been crucified with Jesus. He believed that it was no longer he who was living but Jesus was living in him. This is the way to believe. Let’s all believe that with Jesus we hung upon the cross, that all that causes us to sin is completely dead and that Jesus is living in us. If we really and truly believe that Jesus is in us, how can we possibly keep sinning? The life we live in this body we live by faith in God who loved us and gave His Son for us!
PRAYER: Jesus, thank you for dying to take all our sins away. Help us to believe that we have been crucified with you and you have killed that part of our nature which causes us to sin. Come and live in my heart. Keep me free from sin, Jesus my loving Saviour. Amen.
FRIDAY 13 MARCH
Mark 15:1-20
Jesus Willingly Gave Up His Life
Isaiah predicted Jesus’ saving death hundreds of years before Jesus was born! In Isaiah 53:7 we read, “He was oppressed and afflicted and yet He did not open his mouth. He was led like a lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep before his shearers is silent so He did not open His mouth”. God revealed His plan to Isaiah. Jesus knew it perfectly as He stood before Pilate. He knew that the way of the cross was the only way that He could win all of us into His kingdom. Our sins had to be dealt with. He had been given the job of getting rid of them. Jesus remained silent after He had acknowledged that He was a king and telling Pilate that His kingdom was not of this world (John 18:36). Pilate knew Jesus was innocent and it was hard for him to find enough reason to have Him crucified. He tried to have Him released but in the end gave in to the desires of the High Priests as he was frightened of the people getting stirred up.
The truth is that Jesus was fully in charge during His trials. He was offering Himself to be crucified for us. He must have felt so sorry for Pilate and the soldiers who were mocking Him. If only they knew He was God’s Son dying to take their sins away. One of them did later recognize who He was as he saw Jesus dying and said, “Surely this man was the Son of God” (Mark 15:39).
We, too, must follow in Jesus’ footsteps. We must allow ourselves to be crucified. This means that when people come against us for any reason, whether they are right or not, we must not come against them. Peter says, “If you suffer for doing good this is commendable. To this you were called” (1Peter 2:19-20).
PRAYER: Lord Jesus, help us to follow in your footsteps. You willingly went to the cross to die for my sins. Help me to love all those who come against me so that they may see the difference you make and want to follow you, Jesus our wonderful Saviour and Lord. Amen.
SATURDAY 14 MARCH
John 3:14-21
Walk In The Light
Light came into the world when Jesus went to the cross and rose again. The bright light of Heaven began to shine on all peoples.
God loved the world so very, very much that He gave His only Son, Jesus, who died to take all our sins away. All who believe in Him have the absolute assurance that they will never die because Jesus has given them eternal life. This is the fantastic Good News of the Gospel. Jesus did not come to condemn people but to set them free. All who believe Jesus are not condemned. Those who choose to reject Jesus and His offer of eternal life will definitely be condemned.
Why do some reject Jesus? They reject Him because they can’t stand the light. It shows up how awful they are and they don’t want to change. They run from the light like the centipedes and earwigs do when we lift up a stone. Whoever is willing to live by the truth comes into the light. Although the light shows up their sinfulness they are not afraid to admit they are sinners. The light makes them want to get rid of their sins and when Jesus sees their faith and their desire to follow Him, the light cleanses them. Children of light have recognized that they cannot save themselves. They know God has planned for them to be His children and is at work in all who believe to forgive them and cleanse them and make them acceptable. Let’s all boldly walk into the light.
PRAYER: Father, we thank you that you gave your Son so that all who believe in Him will not perish but have eternal life. Help us to boldly walk into the light and not be afraid to have our sins exposed so your light can cleanse them. We trust in you to make us acceptable and be yours for ever, Jesus our Saviour. Amen.
SUNDAY 15 MARCH
MOTHERING SUNDAY
THIS WEEK’S MESSAGE
NEW LIFE IN JESUS –ETERNAL LIFE
Today is Mothering Sunday which is the church’s Mothers Day. We give thanks to God for our mothers because they bore us and gave us life. We are grateful to them for the wonderful way they nurtured us and surrounded us with their love.
WE also give thanks for our Mother, The Church. Through the Church we found new life in Jesus and the Church nurtures us and continuously surrounds us with love.
(The church is the Body of Christ on Earth and is made up of all Christians.)
It’s so wonderful to be alive. We all love life so much. There is only one trouble about life. It is so temporary. All life comes to an end. This is only true for those who do not know Jesus. The Bible makes it very clear that if we receive Jesus into our hearts we are given NEW LIFE. We become children of God and are born again into a new form of life that is not temporary. The life that Jesus gives us will never end.
“God so loved the world that He gave us His one and only Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3: 16). That means all we have to do to receive this new eternal life is to believe and trust in Jesus. Believe that when He was lifted up on the cross he took all our sins away and qualified us to become God’s children.
When we have this new life in Jesus it really transforms our whole existence.
It makes life really worth living. When we have an eternal purpose life becomes so much richer.
With Jesus in our hearts there is so much more love, more peace and more joy.
New life in Jesus is so absolutely fantastic. Lets all make sure we have received it and do all we can to encourage others to come to Jesus the source of this new life. When Jesus is in our hearts we receive the tremendous power Jesus released when He died on the cross. This gives us power to love more and power to be released from our sins and addictions. It also gives us power to spread the good news to non believers.
PRAYER: Dear Lord Jesus we ask you to bless all mothers on this Mothering Sunday. We are alive because they brought us in to this world. Thank you for the new life You gave us when you died to take all our sins away. As we accept this new life by accepting you into our hearts as our Lord and Saviour fill us with the power to love and the power take away all our sins and wrong attitudes. Amen.