MONDAY 11 JANUARY
Isaiah 62.1-5
God takes great delight in you

You are a very, very important person! God is in love with you. He really wants you. He wants you to be part of His bride. All who respond to God’s love and want to marry Him become part of His bride, whether male or female. How do we marry God?! It’s so easy – all who have accepted Jesus into their hearts as Lord and Saviour are married to Him. His saving power (which was released when He died upon the cross and rose again) transforms us into new people – we are born again and made into new people – made neighbors – made fit enough to be part of Jesus’ bride.

When we respond and become part of His bride, He values us so very much. We become extremely valuable to Him. He rejoices over us. He delights in us. He lavishes us with His love.

If you are not sure whether you’re good enough to respond to God’s love, but you really want to, there are a few simple steps to take – as simple as A B C D.
A. Admit you are a sinner who needs God’s saving grace.
B. Believe Jesus died on the cross to make you good enough for Him.
C. Consider that you want to obey your bridegroom fully.
D. Do something about it. Pray and ask Jesus to come into your heart.

PRAYER: Father God, my heart is overwhelmed with joy at the thought of your being in love with me. I respond to your love. I receive your saving grace. I rejoice to be part of your bride. I delight in you more than anything in the world. Amen.

TUESDAY 12 JANUARY
Psalm 96.1-9
Declare how wonderful God is

In response to God’s love for us, we meditate today on how really great God is. As we do so, our hearts are filled with love songs for Him. We want to sing and tell Him how fantastic He really is. We want to tell everyone all that God has done for us. When we have received Jesus as Saviour and Lord, there is such a miraculous difference in our lives. It makes us want to shout from the rooftops how wonderful it is to be loved by God and transformed by Him!

The Psalmist encourages us to ascribe glory to God. To give someone glory is to say they are the very best of the very best. They are more than fantastic. We not only glorify God, but we put all our faith and trust in his power to work miracles and transform our world and our lives.

We are encouraged to show our enormous appreciation of God by coming together to worship Him and to bring offerings to Him. Remember that you can give without loving, but it’s impossible to love God without giving to Him. Have you yet decided to give Him a tenth of your income. This is the Biblical minimum! Many are called to give more. We are all called to offer our whole selves to Him in self-sacrifice.

PRAYER: Father, we fall down before you in the beauty of holiness and worship you. We glorify your fantastic name. We rejoice in your saving power. You are the greatest of the great. Amen.

WEDNESDAY 13 JANUARY
1 Corinthians 12.4-7
Gifts

Because God loves us very much, He loves to lavish us with gifts. They are special gifts but different from the gifts we normally give. Remember, God loves everyone. The gifts He gives us enable us to share His love and His care with others.

The gifts are called gifts of the Spirit because they are given by the Holy Spirit. He is in each of us who is born again and are part of Jesus’ bride.

There are many different kinds of gifts. There are so many different ways we can help other people and bring God’s love into their lives. These gifts are supernatural gifts; different from the natural abilities and talents each of us has. God works miracles in us to enable us to give His supernatural love to others. The gifts are manifest in different ways but all come from God through the Holy Spirit working in us. He works in us so that all are helped for the good of all.

God is longing for us all to be willing to receive these gifts so we can become really active members of His body.

PRAYER: Father, thank you so much for the many gifts you lavish upon us. Give us so much love when you give them that we become eager to use them. We want to share your love with everyone, through Christ our Bridegroom. Amen.

THURSDAY 14 JANUARY
1 Corinthians 12.8-11
The Supernatural Gifts

We saw yesterday that, by His Holy Spirit, God is working in us to give us these special supernatural gifts so that His love can flow through us to others. Today we take a look at what these gifts are.

The message of wisdom
All of us have to make decisions and choices. This can be very frustrating to some when they really don’t know what decision to make. This causes a lot of anxiety. The Holy Spirit gives us a message of wisdom. He shows us what decision He wants us to make either for ourselves or for others.

The message of Knowledge
God gives this gift to people who are helping others. He tells us in a supernatural way things about other people which enables us to help them, e.g. in 1974 at the Christian Life Centre in Brisbane God told a minister, Derek Prince, that someone in the congregation had had a spinal fusion operation and was suffering. When my wife Wendy went forward she was totally healed.

The gift of Faith
Faith is believing before we see. It comes from trusting God’s work and His promises very explicitly. Sometimes it’s hard to find faith in hard situations. Then God gives us the gift of faith so we can pray effectively and see people being helped and healed as a result of these prayers. He sometimes gives us the faith to believe that he will provide for us. God gave me this gift when He told me to live without a salary!

The gift of Healing
This is similar to the previous gift. People like Canon Jim Glennon have been given this gift. They have lots of faith to believe, often for particular illnesses.

The gift of Miraculous Powers
God often helps us by working miracles, e.g. He promises that if we give generously He will give back to us. Often I have experienced God’s miraculous provision. A Catholic Priest in the U.S.A. was given this gift when he prayed for a Downs Syndrome child – all the child’s chromosomes were miraculously changed.

The gift of Prophecy
This means being given messages from God and is often used in preaching.

The gift of Distinguishing between Spirits
The devil can work supernaturally too. This gift enables us to tell whether a miracle or message comes from him or the Holy Spirit.

The gift of Speaking Different Languages
This is commonly known as the gift of tongues. God enables us to speak in a language we don’t know. We speak in prayer and God understands what we are saying, even if we don’t.

The gift of Interpreting Tongues
Sometimes God gives a message in tongues at a church meeting. Then He gives the gift of interpretation so all can know what He is saying.

PRAYER: Father, give us these gifts that we may help others more effectively. Amen.

FRIDAY 15 JANUARY
John 2.1-11
Water into Wine

The theme of next Sunday’s readings, as we have seen, is considering the importance of our being the bride of Christ. Now we look at the great miracle Jesus did when He turned water into wine.

Jewish wedding feasts lasted about a week. Everyone was invited. Jews were known for their great hospitality and generosity. It would have been so embarrassing for them when they ran out of wine. It could have hurt them so much that they appeared so ungenerous and unloving to their guests. The whole celebration would have been marred. How wonderful that they had invited Jesus and His mum to the wedding. He was able to do the miracle for them and turn water into wine.

For us the wine stands for love. It’s so common these days to see love and the ability to love running out in people’s lives. When people grow up in unloving surroundings they often find it impossible to love. Their only hope is to invite Jesus into their lives. He turns the water of selfishness and self-pity into pure rich self-giving love. As we stay united to Jesus, the love keeps flowing. As the Bible says in 2 Corinthians 9.11, “He makes us rich enough to be generous on every occasion.” The Holy Communion Service is our extension of the wedding feast between us and Jesus. It’s an opportunity each week for this miracle to take place and God’s love to be kept flowing through us.

PRAYER: Jesus, turn the water of self-pity and selfishness into pure generous love. Amen.

SATURDAY 16 JANUARY
John 2.1-11
Do whatever He tells you

When the wine had run out the hosts at the wedding turned to Jesus’ mother (just as many Catholics today ask Jesus for her prayers). She approached Jesus for them and alerted Him to their need. Then she told them to do whatever Jesus told them.

When Jesus asked them to bring six jars holding over 650 litres of water, they did exactly what He asked and did not say, “don’t be stupid – the people will be upset if you serve them water.” To their amazement, the water was turned into the best of wine, better than what they started with.

If we continue to obey Jesus and do whatever He tells us to, then we will find a continuous flow of love. We do this by using the love He gives us. Remember, the love in your heart wasn’t put there to stay: Love isn’t love until we give it away. Jesus’ two commands to us are to love God and to love each other.

Jesus has litres and litres of love for us. Use it and it will keep on flowing. It will never run out. Keep close to Him and every bit of water will be turned to wine.

PRAYER: Jesus, you are our Lord. We promise to obey you. Thank you so much for keeping your love flowing when we do. Amen.

SUNDAY 17 JANUARY
THIS WEEK’S MESSAGE

As we come to church week by week we keep on being reminded of how much God delights in us and how much He loves us. As we read through the Old Testament reading set for today our hearts leap with joy to hear of God’s enormous love for us.

He likens His relationship with us to the relationship a Bridegroom has with his bride! He wants all of us to become part of the bride of Christ God showed this fantastic love He had for us when He sent His Son Jesus into the World. When God became a human being in Jesus He showed us the extent of His love for us. Jesus came to make it possible for each of us to have a very close relationship with God. He did this by going to the cross and paying the penalty our sins deserve. As the Bible says “By one sacrifice He has made perfect forever those who are being made holy (Hebrews 10:14)". God is Holy and for us to be one with Him we have to be made holy too. Every time we receive Jesus in Holy Communion we believe that He has made us Holy. We draw on the power He released when He died on the cross. We believe our sins are forgiven. As we remember His body being broken for us and His Blood being poured out to take all our sins away, we are filled with faith to believe we are so much one with Jesus that we dwell in Him and He dwells in us.

For us to be made holy a huge miracle has to take place. Wherever Jesus is miracles happen. The first miracle He performed was to turn water into wine at the marriage feast in Cana in Galilee. He performs a similar miracle in the Eucharist. He turns the water of our selfish human natures into the rich wine of His Love. He gives us the incredible power to love in the way God loves us. He enables us to die to self and put God first in our lives. He changes our attitude towards other people. He makes us very generous, very forgiving and very compassionate. He helps us to go on loving the people who hurt us and increases our love for those show love to us.

This miracle does not take place automatically through the ceremony or ritual. It takes place when we totally surrender outlives to God and put all our faith and trust in Him and all that He has done for us in Jesus. Let’s do that right now and watch Jesus turn the watery love in our hearts to the rich red wine of God’s agape love.

PRAYER: Father thank you so much for delighting in us and loving us so much that you want us to be part of the bride of Christ. As we surrender our lives to you turn the water of our sinful selfish life into the rich wine of Jesus Love to qualify us to be part of Jesus bride!!! Amen.