December 2000 Daily Devotionals

Monday - 11 December 2000

"Reality is nothing more than truth, but truth is hated by the majority. Rather than loving truth, most people try to make true what they love. Most people live in a totally unreal world. They inhabit a world of delusions. Man rarely understands what he is doing and why he is doing it. His actions and beliefs indicate he lives in a state of waking dreams." But in Christ, believers have become new creatures, pursuing truth with renewed powers because of the indwelling Spirit of God. Of the prodigal son, in heaven’s book it is written that "he came to himself" as a result of the Father’s yearning love.

Prayer: Thank you, Lord, for calling us out of darkness into marvellous light. Help us to walk today as children of light. Amen.

Tuesday - 12 December 2000

"My Lord wore my crown of thorns for me, why should I wear it too? He took our griefs and carried our sorrows that we might be a happy people and be able to obey the commandment ‘take no thought for tomorrow.’ Ours is the crown of loving kindness and tender mercies, and we wear it when we cast all our care on him who careth for us". C. H. Spurgeon.

Prayer: Forgive us, dear Lord, our frets and fears. May we really believe today with all our hearts that our Saviour took our place that we might have his place, that he took our sins that we might have his righteousness, that he took our griefs that we might know his joy. Amen.

Wednesday - 13 December 2000

"No evil can happen to me and seeming ill is but another form of benediction. If all events aid me, what matters in what dress they come, whether in scarlet or fine linen or sackcloth and ashes? The bitter is sweet and medicine is food. Courage, you shall meet naught but friends between this and the pearly gates. Or if you meet an enemy, it shall be a conquered one. The winds which toss the waves of the Atlantic of your life are all sure to waft your ship safely into the desired haven. Every wind that rises, whether soft or fierce, is a divine monsoon hurrying in the same direction as your soul’s desires. God walks in the tempest and rules the storm." C. H. Spurgeon

Prayer: Grant, Lord, that this day I may walk in the light of the promise: "all things work together for good to them that love God." Be pleased to turn all my sorrows and afflictions into pearls. Thank you for the assurance that you are able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think. Amen.

Thursday - 14 December 2000

If matter and time and chance made you and me, is anything worth anything? Are right and wrong just feelings like itching? Should we never use "ought"? Scepticism, which places a zero at the end of all, thereby makes everything along the way also a zero. Instead of children of God, we become meaningless clots of coincidental molecules. But the miracle of mind, the magic of fertility, the endless series of wonders in the natural world around us, the experience of love and grace, and, above, all the revelation in the Christ of the cross rebut such nihilism.

Prayer: Thank you, Lord, for faith, hope, and love. Thank you for these invisible jewels which, under the influence of thy Spirit, can interpret life aright. If I am tempted today by bewilderment or pain, may I look up to thee and say "Lord, I believe, help thou my unbelief". Amen

Friday - 15 December 2000

"Our faults are like a grain of sand besides the great mountain of the mercy of God. Our sins are like a spark of fire that falls into the ocean of God’s mercy. There is not more water in the sea then there is mercy in God. It is just as impossible to take love from the heart of God as to take the blaze out of the sun and the salt out of the sea. God will pardon the penitent sinner more quickly then a mother would snatch her child out of the fire."

Prayer: May we reflect your mercy today. Help us to love like you today and to love the unlovely as you do.

Saturday - 16 December 2000

"Life is not a playground but a school. Indeed, it is the university of hard knocks where, as Ralph Parlette once said, the colours are black and blue, and the school cry is ‘ouch’. But it is written: "The Lord disciplines him whom he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives . . . . for the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant; later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it."

Prayer: Lord, help us to remember amid the shadows of today that the cross you have given us is a cross of wood and not of iron, and that the cup we are to drink is not an ocean. Thank you too for the promise: "no temptation (trial) has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, he will not let you be tempted beyond your strength, but, with the temptation, will also provide a way of escape, so that you may be able to endure it." Help us to fight the good fight of faith this day. Amen.

Sunday - 17 December 2000

One Sunday evening in 1884 a group sat around the fire in a country house in England. Henry Drummond drew a small New Testament from his pocket and began to speak. "Since earliest time people have asked the great question: What is the supreme good? You have life before you. You can only live it  once. What is the noblest object of desire, the supreme gift to covet?... In the 13th chapter of 1 Corinthians, Paul takes us to Christianity at its source, and there we see, "The greatest of these is love."... Paul in three very short verses gives us an analysis of what this supreme gift is. ....Patience, kindness, generosity, humility, courtesy, unselfishness, good temper, guilelessness, sincerity - these make up the supreme gift, the stature of the perfect man. ...

We brace our wills to secure it. We try to copy those who have it. We lay down rules about it. We watch. We pray. But these things alone will not bring love into our nature. Love is an effect. And only as we fulfill the right condition can we have the effect produced. Shall I tell you what the cause is? If you turn to the Revised Version of the First Epistle of John you find these words: "We love because He first loved us." ... the effect follows that we love, we love Him, we love all men. We cannot help it. Because he loved us, we love, we love everybody. Our heart is slowly changed. Contemplate the love of Christ, and you will love. Stand before that mirror, reflect Christıs character, and you will be changed into the same image from tenderness to tenderness. There is no other way. You cannot love to order. You can only look at the lovely object, and fall in love with it, and grow into likeness to it. And so look at this Perfect Character, this Perfect Life. Look at the great sacrifice as He laid Himself down, all through life, and upon the Cross of Calvary, and you must love Him. And loving Him, you must become like Him." 1

Prayer: May this great gift of love you have given us so lovingly through your Spirit and your Son be manifest in us this day in our thoughts, words and deeds.

1. Henry Drummond, The Greatest Thing in the World. New Kensington PA: Whitaker House, 1981.

Monday - 18 December 2000

Lord, I believe, help thou mine unbelief (Mark 9:24) John Calvin said in respect of this verse ³...a perfect faith is nowhere to be found, so if follows that all of us are partly unbelievers. Yet in his kindness, God pardons us and reckons us to be believers on account of our small portion of faith. For our part, we ought to try to get rid of the unbelief that remains within us and fight against it and ask the Lord to correct it. And as often as we struggle, we must flee to him for comfort.²

Prayer: Father God please help us to see the reality that exists beyond what we perceive.

Tuesday - 19 December 2000

Therefore gird up your minds, be sober, set your hope fully upon the grace that is coming to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. (1 Peter 1:13) Alister McGrath in his book ³Spirituality in an Age of Chance² said: Faith , like unbelief, is an act of the will. Faith is a deliberate decision to live as if Christianity is true, in the firm and confident expectation that it will one day be shown beyond all doubt that Christianity is true.

Prayer: Dear Father there are some days when our confidence in you seems *against the oddsı but we know that at such times you are still there - just as you were at Calvary although indiscernible by those present.

Wednesday - 20 December 2000

"*When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples,

"Who do people say the son of man is?"   "What about you?ı, he asked. *Who do you say I am?" (Matthew 16:13-15)

In the mind of Jesus, the critical issue for his contemporaries, was not various opinions concerning philosophical and theological questions that he had raised. Rather, it was, what did people think of him personally?

Jesus is widely accepted as the greatest religious leader the world has ever seen. It seems remarkable that he should make his entire campaign depend on the answer to this one question: *Who do you think I am?ı

Other thought leaders have asked us to judge them on the merit of their ideas, not their characters. Charles Darwin is known, long after his death, mainly in connection with his theory of the origin of species. The same might be said of John Newton. If it wasnıt for his theory of gravitation, most people would know nothing of him. Not so with Jesus. He directs us to find the data for his movement, in his very self.

This, he did, no once but consistently. Some one asks, *What must I do to have eternal life.ı He replies, *Follow me.ı Another asks to be shown the Father. Jesus replies, Havenıt you known me?ı He taught truth by saying, *I am the truth.ı For strength, rest of spirit, pardon, peace and life eternal, he invited people to come to him. No one else ever spoke quite like this. Not Moses, not Mohammed, nor Buddha or Plato. Others saw themselves as messengers of truth. Jesus believed he was the message.

Regrettably, we Christians have not always followed Jesusı lead in this matter. We are split in many directions. Some have organized on the basis of the doctrine of baptism. Others are founded on belief about the correct day of worship. Still more are constituted on a particular style of worship or church government. And others find a reason for existence in their understanding of certain prophetic portions of Scripture.

None of this would matter too much were it not for our bad habit of claiming that our particular representation of Christ, is the true one. The un-churched, looking on can be forgiven when they are confused by the conflicting messages they receive.

But Jesus cuts through all religious argument by insisting that He is the churchıs benchmark and its living law.

As we came to the end of yet another year and the sounds of Christmas are heard, we can be thankful that the widespread celebration of this festival, is strong evidence that Jesus did come. As millions of men and women take his name upon their lips, we can rejoice that the world has not been able to dismiss, nor forget such a magnificent individual.

Christmas reminds us that Christianity took its rise, not in a theory, not in a speculative philosophy, nor a political proposal, but in a remarkable ? indeed, a superlative person. The attractions and power of his character are still such, that each yule tide he beckons humanity to him afresh. We are reminded that such an aristocratic spirit, such a divine manhood, demands a response.

It is our hopeful prayer, that Christ will appear to those who are tired and anxious; to those who have been hurt and embittered; to any who ask: *Whence comes this enormous muddle and what does it all mean?ı Perhaps he will collect all griefs and longings and heap them together in his special question: *Who do you say that I am?ı So that in the answer to it, all longings might be satisfied."

Ron J. Allen
Good News Unlimited

Thursday - 21 December 2000

So, just as the body is dead without its spirit, so faith without deeds is also dead. (James 2:26 Christian Community Bible Catholic Pastoral Edition)

Faith is believing and trusting that Christ was born for us personally and that he has accomplished for us the work of salvation. Faith is more than merely believing it to be true, it is being prepared to act and rely upon that belief. McGrath (³Spirituality in an Age of Chance²) uses Lutherıs analogy to say ³faith is not simply believing that a ship exists - it is stepping into it and entrusting ourselves to is². Later he defines doubt as ³an inability to discern the hidden presence of God in his world, or an unwillingness to allow that the hand of God is at work in situations from which he appears to be absent.² He says ³[I]nstead of trusting in our own perception of a situation or relying on our feelings and emotions, we should learn to trust in the faithfulness and constancy of God.²

Prayer: Dear Father you said that even faith as small as a mustard seed can do powerful things in your name - please dispel our doubts and make our faltering faith real enough for us to act upon it by trusting in you no matter what.

Friday - 22 December 2000

So Jesus said, ... I am the gate. Whoever enters through me will be saved; he will go in and out freely and find food. (John 10:7, 9 Christian Community Bible Catholic Pastoral Edition)

It was customary in the East for shepherds to bring their flocks at night into a stone enclosure, the entrance to which was under the care of a guardian or door-keeper, who kept watch, fully armed, to repel beasts of prey, and to keep out thieves. The fold represents the church and the kingdom of God. Those who try to enter through in some other way really seek to rob God of the honour of redemption. They seek to break down the wall of the fold in whole or in part, to make the church, in other words, on a level with the world, with no restrictions of which the world would disapprove. Others fail to see the need of door or porter, or any need of salvation by entering into the fold by Christ. The mercy of God they think opens many doors, or indeed dispenses with doors altogether. They forget that the experience of the ages confirms the word of the prophet as to the futility of all merely human effort to draw near to God (Micah 6:6,7). Human effort, wisdom, philosophy, have all vainly endeavoured to find a door of access to the knowledge, love and favour of God. Christ alone is fitted in his nature and by his work to be the way of entrance for men into Godıs fold, for he alone can take away the cause and result of the alienation between God and man. He is the heavenly mediator, and it is through faith in him as the divine Son and in his atonement that we enter. (The Preachers Homiletic Commentary by W.F. Scott)

Prayer: Father God so often we experience famine spiritually because we have been trying to reach you through our own efforts - remind us daily that we have access to you only through what Jesus did on our behalf. Amen

Saturday - 23 December 2000

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. (John 10:10 New International Version)

Prayer: Dear Father, we are tempted to think that your will for our lives is inferior to what we could achieve apart from you. Help us to truly believe that a superabundance of life is only available when we live in accordance with your will. Amen

Sunday - 24 December 2000

The Father loves me because I lay down my life that I may have it back again. (John 10:17 The Living Bible)

The whole life of Jesus was an act of obedience to God. He did not do what he liked but what God liked. All life is based on the fact that anything worth getting is hard to get. There is always a price to be paid.

Prayer: Father God your way is the best way despite our perceptions of it. Grant us the strength to obey your commands and remind us to seek your will in all things. Amen.

Monday - 25 December 2000

Because of these words, the Jews were divided again. Many of them said, He has a demon and is out of his mind. Why listen to him? But others said, One possessed doesnt speak in this way. Can a demon open the eyes of the blind? (John 10:19-21 Christian Community Bible Catholic Pastoral Edition)

Jesus was either a megalomaniac madman or he was the son of God - he was either completely deluded or profoundly right. But the words of Jesus have been proven to be supreme sanity - he speaks Gods sense in the midst of mens delusions. The deeds of Jesus were not those of a madman (which are usually selfish) for he healed the sick, fed the hungry and comforted the sorrowing. The effect of Jesus was not that of a madman as he changed lives - the bad became good. (William Barclay Commentary on the Gospel of John)

Prayer: Dear Father, remind us of your authority - we would not take your word to us lightly. Amen

Tuesday - 26 December 2000

My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand. (John 10:27,28 New International Version)

While we can expect to suffer on earth, our souls cannot be harmed - eternal life cannot be taken away. No matter what happens we will be conscious of the everlasting arms underneath and around us. We will know the serenity of God in a world of crashing disaster.

Prayer: Dear Father God thank you for always holding onto me; often I am too weak to hold onto you.

Wednesday - 27 December 2000

Then Jesus went back across the Jordan to the place where John had been baptizing in the early days. Here he stayed. (John 10:40 New International Version)

Jesus always armed himself to meet life by first meeting God. It would often do our souls the world of good to make a pilgrimage to the place where we first found God. (William Barclay, Commentary on the Gospel of John) Prayer: Dear Father, build in us the discipline of putting you first in everything and spending time with you each day. Amen

Thursday - 28 December 2000

On hearing this Jesus said, This illness will not end in death; rather it is for Godıs glory and the Son of God will be glorified through it. (John 11:4 Christian Community Bible Catholic Pastoral Edition)

Our problems are opportunities to honour God - he can bring good out of bad. While we cannot always control our emotions we can control our choices. When we need help Jesus offers extraordinary resources.

Prayer: Dear God, you have said that all things work together for good to those who love you - help us to trust you in this despite outward appearances. Amen

Friday - 29 December 2000

Yet, after he heard of the illness of Lazarus, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was. (John 11:6 Christian Community Bible Catholic Pastoral Edition)

God will meet all our needs according to his perfect schedule and purpose. But not always in ways that we expect.

Prayer: Dear Jesus, we know you loved Lazarus dearly; you wept when you heard of his death. Yet you let him die when you had the power to heal him. Help us to know how much you love us and teach us to patiently await your timing. Amen.

Saturday - 30 December 2000

So then he told them plainly, Lazarus is dead, and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. (John 11:14,15 New International Version)

Sometimes we must experience hurt to reveal Godıs power over hurt. The design of God is that everyone of us should be a living proof of Godıs power. Crises give rise to opportunities. (William Barclay: Commentary on the Gospel of John)

Prayer: Dear Father, we know we are advertisements for you. Help us to send the right message. Amen.

Sunday - 31 December 2000

Jesus told her, I am the one who raises the dead and gives them life again. Anyone who believes in me, even though he dies like anyone else, shall live again. He is given eternal life for believing in me and shall never perish. Do you believe this...? (John 11:25,26 The Living Bible)

When we believe in Jesus we accept what he says about God and about life and we stake everything on it. We are freed from fear, frustration and futility of life. We enter into two new relationships. One with God in which we can be absolutely sure of his love. And we enter a new relationship with life - it has a new loveliness because Jesus will help us to live it as he commanded.

Prayer: Dear Father, we believe; please help our unbelief.