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MONDAY 7TH. SEPTEMBER
Proverbs 1.20-33
Whoever listens to me will live in safety

It’s very important for all of us to listen to God. He speaks to us through the pages of the Bible. There His will is made plain. For those who choose to disregard God’s word and go against His will, there are stern warnings. God always gives us a chance. When people choose to ignore what the Bible says and ignore God’s warnings, it makes God very sad because He loves them very much and He doesn’t want them to end up in disaster. So He says to them, “If only you had responded to my rebuke, I would have poured out my heart to you”. God is a God of mercy.

His mercy triumphs over judgement. What God loves the most is to pour out His love to us. He is so generous; He lavishes us with love when we choose to repent and make a decision to live the way He wants us to. God promises us that whoever listens to Him will live in safety.

They can live a life free of anxiety and fear, knowing that God will keep them from all that would harm them. Let’s all examine our lives, and take time out to have a really good look at them. If we see we are doing anything that is against God’s will, let’s make a decision to repent of this disobedience and go back to do only what God wants us to do. Are we lying about anything? Are we cheating on tax returns?

Are we wasting God’s precious time on idleness, etc. Remember, God promises to protect all those who obey Him. Fear God and He will take out of your life all the things you have been afraid of!

PRAYER: Father, thank you for loving us so much that you warn us when we go wrong, and you pour out your heart to those who decide to turn back to you. Please give us the faith to obey you always and to trust that you will always keep us safe, through Christ our Lord. Amen.

TUESDAY 8TH. SEPTEMBER
Psalm 116.1-9
I love the Lord for He heard my voice

“I keep falling in love with Him over and over and over and over again.
He gets sweeter and sweeter as the days go by. O what a love between my Lord and I.”

I love singing this song because it reminds me of how wonderful God is and how fantastic Jesus is. When I knew I was a sinner who did not deserve God’s mercy, He heard my cry and He saved me from all my sin and completely forgave me. For years I had been trying to save myself by endeavouring to obey God in my own strength. The more I tried, the more I failed. Then I read Ephesians 2.8, which said that I had been saved from all my sins by God’s grace alone when Jesus died on the cross. I could not be saved by my own efforts lest I should boast and be proud. I cried out to God. I opened my heart to Jesus. I trusted in Him and He came right in and gloriously saved me. From that time on my soul has been at rest. He has led me through many rough patches. I could have stumbled and fallen, but He has picked me up every time. I have experienced how good He is to me. He has so much compassion and love. The thing I love the best about being a friend of God, saved and forgiven by Jesus’ death on the cross, is that He makes me 100% certain that I will go to Heaven when I die, as long as I live every day close to Him and linked up to Him, for the Bible says, “All who know Him have eternal life” (John 17.3).

PRAYER: Oh Lord God, I thank you so much that you have delivered my soul from death. Keep me close to you, trusting always in your forgiving love and certain that I will be with you for ever. Amen.

WEDNESDAY 9TH. SEPTEMBER
James 2.18-26
Faith without deeds is useless

Yesterday I showed how we are saved purely by trusting in what Jesus has done for us, not by the good works we do. When God really saves us He does a good job. In a very miraculous way He changes us. When we are saved, He gives us His Holy Spirit and He pours love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit He has given us (Romans 5.5). He makes us loving people, always ready to do all the good deeds He has prepared for us to do (Ephesians 2.10). People can tell we are Christians by our love.

Some people are Christians with only head knowledge. They say that they are saved by God. They may know the Bible backwards, but when you examine their lives, there is no real evidence that they have any faith at all. They are so selfish. They often become Bible bashers and can be very judgemental. They turn people away from Jesus.

James warns us today that it is no good saying we have faith if there are no deeds in our life to prove it. When we know we are saved and Jesus has forgiven us, we are overwhelmed by His love and compassion and we want to do all we can to please God.

We want to obey Him. There are two firm rails on the way to Heaven: trusting God and obeying God.

“Trust and obey,
for there’s no other way,
to be happy in Jesus,
but to trust and obey.”

PRAYER: Dear Lord Jesus, as we trust in you to forgive us our sins, so we trust in you to change our personalities and make us very loving people, always ready to obey you and give ourselves to others. Amen.

THURSDAY 10TH. SEPTEMBER
Isaiah 50.4-9
He wakens me morning by morning

To stay in a right relationship with God, always trusting Him to forgive us our sins and transform our personalities, it is essential that we stay close to God. The way we stay close to Him is through prayer and Bible reading. He says to us today, “He wakens me morning by morning, wakens my ear to listen like one being taught”. The very best way for all of us to be ready to listen to God is when we first wake up. If we have not been in the habit of doing this, we will be greatly helped if we set our alarms to go off earlier to give us enough time to listen to God’s word and pray before we get dressed and get into the business of the day. This will make the day go better. The Psalmist did this on a day that people were to be very abusive to him. Because he had listened to the Lord and the Lord gave him power to love, he was able to offer himself to be willing to accept the abuse without fighting back. He just loved and forgave those who were being nasty to him. He could do this because his sovereign Lord helped him. He was just like Jesus on the cross.

This is one way we can all improve our relationships with the people we come into contact with every day. We can get so close to the Lord that He gives us power to love them when they hurt us or say cruel things to us. Jesus gives us an incredible ability to love. All the animosity between us and those who hurt us disappears like a garment demolished by moths (v9).

PRAYER: Dear Lord, awaken us morning by morning to listen to you and receive power from you to be loving and forgiving to all who may hurt us. Help us to retaliate hurts with love, through Christ Jesus our suffering Saviour. Amen.

FRIDAY 11TH. SEPTEMBER
Mark 8.27-30
You are the Christ

Today we read about a great climax in the relationship of the disciples and Jesus. It was when they recognised who He really was. He was the Messiah, the special Saviour King whom the whole Jewish Nation was looking forward to coming. Knowing that Jesus was the Messiah made them extremely happy. They would have been over the moon with joy. At last God had sent His Messiah to set His people free. Mark’s account is very brief. Matthew gives us a fuller account of what happened when Peter made this confession after recognising Jesus as the Messiah. Jesus said to him, “You could not have come to that realisation yourself. God must have revealed it to you.” When Simon had received this revelation, Jesus changed his name to Peter, a name which means ‘rock’ and He said that He would build His church with rocks like Peter.

The same thing happens today. When people recognise Jesus as Saviour, their whole lives change. They become new people; they are born again.

There is a way in which we can help people who do not know Jesus to recognise Him as the person who can transform their whole lives. Firstly, we pray for them and pray that God will show them who Jesus is and what He can do. After praying, we can share with them the good news of the Bible and share with them what Jesus has done for us.

PRAYER: Father, we pray for all those who do not know you. Reveal Jesus to them and show them what He can do. When they hear the good News from the Bible and hear what Jesus has done for them, may they believe and be transformed, through Christ Jesus our special Saviour. Amen.

SATURDAY 12TH SEPTEMBER
Mark 8.31-38
The Bombshell

The disciples were on cloud nine when Jesus had been recognised as the Messiah. No-one could have ever been happier. Then He dropped the bombshell. He told them that He would suffer a lot and be rejected. He would be killed, but would rise again. Poor Peter couldn’t take it.

He took Jesus aside and told Him that He mustn’t let this happen. Jesus rebuked Peter for saying this. He said, “Get behind me Satan, you’re not thinking how God thinks but as man thinks”. Peter didn’t understand God’s strategy in saving the world. He was not to raise an army and defeat the Romans as the Jews had expected the Messiah to do. Instead, Jesus was to fight the battle to set everyone free on the cross. By accepting all the suffering that the world threw at Him, He would save the world from the consequences of their sin. He made the way clear for all who put their faith in Him to have their lives transformed. He made it possible for all of us to get to Heaven. This is why we are so happy when we recognise that Jesus is our Saviour and the costly price that He paid to win us to be with Him for ever. Jesus went on to say that for us to follow Him, we have to walk in His footsteps. As He denied Himself for us, so we have to deny ourselves for others. If we are willing to lose our life, we will truly find it. By His cross, Jesus gives us the desire and the power to deny ourselves. He gives us the power to love.

PRAYER: Jesus, thank you that you value us so much that you died for us and paid the price for us. Give us the power to love as you love and deny ourselves for you and for everyone else. Amen.

SUNDAY 13th.SEPTEMBER
THIS WEEK’S MESSAGE
Gaining a new life by dying to self

At first some of the demands of Jesus seem too impossible to contemplate.   He asks us to deny ourselves and be willing to be crucified with Him.   He tells us that if we want to save our lives we will lose them but if we are willing to lose our lives they will be given back to us.

These sorts of demands would make most people run away from Jesus as fast as they can!

Jesus makes these demands because He knows what is best for us.   He knows that for each of us our worst enemy is ourself. Putting self first or selfishness is the cause of all sin and all breakdowns in relationships. It is the cause of all the troubles in the world. The happiness we try to grab for ourselves, when we act selfishly, soon turns to heartache.

When Simon recognised that Jesus was the Messiah, the Saviour of the world, his name was changed to Peter, the Rock.   This symbolises the huge change that takes place in our lives when we recognise Jesus is our Saviour and surrender to Him as Lord. John calls this change being born again (See John 3).    Jesus makes us into new people.

As we surrender to Jesus and put all our faith and trust in Him and all He did for us by dying on the cross a tremendous miracle takes place.

He gets rid of our worst enemy.   He takes the selfishness out of us like a surgeon removing cancer.    Then He fills us with Himself and His Holy Spirit. As He does this He pours love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit He has given us.(Romans 5:5)    He turns us into the most loving wonderful people. Knowing what Jesus does to our lives when we surrender them to him makes us want to obey all His demands however hard they may seem. Let’s all deny ourselves, take up our crosses and follow Jesus fully.   Let’s be willing to lose our lives so Jesus can give them back to us transformed into His likeness