MONDAY 12TH APRIL
Acts 9.1-20
Turning enemies into friends
During the great 40 days, the time between Easter and Ascension, we are thinking about the power of the Risen Lord. It is power to change lives. In an instant, God can change people dramatically. This is what He did to Saul of Tarsus.
Saul was an arch enemy of the infant church of Jesus Christ. He was the leader of the persecutors. He set out to destroy all the followers of the Lord. He first saw the power of the crucified, risen Jesus working in Stephen. As the first martyr was being stoned to death, he actually prayed for his murderers. He prayed that God would not hold what they were doing against them. Saul had never seen such a thing before. He saw the first Christians were different. They had been given the incredible power to forgive. I believe that this gradually turned Saul’s mind. Although he was on the way to Damascus with orders from the chief priest to get rid of more of Jesus’ followers, he began to wonder whether he was doing the right thing. His heart was beginning to open to Jesus.
Then, all of a sudden, he had the experience we read about in today’s Bible passage. In the experience of Saul’s conversion, the power of the crucified, risen Jesus worked wonders. In an instant Saul was changed by God into a completely new person. Saul the persecutor became Paul the Apostle and evangelist. God converted him for a special task: to take the Gospel of Jesus Christ into Europe and convert the gentiles.
God has a special task for you. Are you changed enough to do what God wants you to do. If not, open your heart to Jesus right now. Trust Him and let the power of the crucified, risen Jesus change you. It might happen in an instant or it might take time. Don’t give up. Keep seeking this power until it transforms you.
PRAYER: Lord God, thank you for the power you released when your Son, Jesus, died and rose again. We’ve seen what a difference it made to Saul. I trust in you now to give me that power so that I can do the things you want me to do, through Jesus Christ our mighty Saviour. Amen.
TUESDAY 13TH APRIL
Psalm 30
We exalt and thank God for His power
Back in 1973, I had a fantastic experience of the power of the crucified, risen Lord changing my life. In June, He warmed my heart when He gave me the assurance of my salvation and in September He filled me and my wife with the Holy Spirit. Since that time we have seen the Lord’s power working mightily in our lives. This has made us appreciate the Lord very much and has given us a very strong desire to exalt Him, praise Him and thank Him. We love Him heaps and we are so grateful. Allelujah, praise the Lord!
We have seen the Lord healing many people. Lucy was dying of cancer. The Lord healed her and saved her from an early grave. We’ve seen people who had been leading sinful lives, deserving of God’s anger, being saved by Jesus and experiencing His favour throughout their lives. We have seen very sad people whose eyes were full of tears let go of their misery and be filled with joy. This has happened when broken marriages have been mended and when God has helped people overcome the grief of losing a loved one.
Many hurt people have exchanged their hurts for joy. O, it’s so wonderful to observe the power of God at work transforming people’s lives. It makes us want to go on and on exalting Him and praising Him.
PRAYER: Lord, when we see all the wonderful things you have done, and are doing, it makes us want to praise you and exalt you and thank you more and more. We love you so much and we appreciate you. Let me see another miracle soon, through Jesus Christ our Wonder. Worker. Amen.
WEDNESDAY 14TH APRIL
Revelation 5.6-14
Worthy is the Lamb
In this book of Revelation we have new insights into the power of the crucified, risen Lord Jesus. He is the Lamb of God sacrificing Himself on the cross to take away all the sins of the world. He bought us freedom from the consequences of sin and He bought us victory. He accomplished this by His great power. The seven horns on the lamb are symbols of great power. The seven eyes are symbols of the all-seeing power of Jesus. His gaze reaches to every living person, nothing passes His notice! His power is made available for everyone.
The pouring out of His power evokes a great response in heaven and on earth. It is a two-fold response of prayer and songs of praise. Just catching a glimpse of the Lamb of God moves us onto our knees to pray and causes our hands to be raised and our lips to sing out exuberant praise.
The scroll is the Word of God and in it we see the truth of why the Lamb was slain. His sacrifice was the price paid to purchase men for God. So now we are not our own, we are bought with a price. People from every human race were bought by Jesus and He made us into a kingdom of priests. As we accept and receive Him we become sons of God (John 1.12) - members of the royal family of heaven and we become priests. A priest is a person who has direct access to God. All born-again sons of God have this access. Because of this we can serve Him very effectively.
Because His power transforms us humans and makes us completely new, it invokes in us a heart full of praise to God which causes us to burst out into song. We praise Him for He was worthy to be given so much from God - power, wealth, wisdom and strength, honour and glory and praise. We praise Him, honour Him and glorify Him because He is so fantastic, more fantastic then we can imagine.
PRAYER: “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive power and wealth, wisdom and strength and honour and glory and praise. To Him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honour, glory and power for ever.” Amen.
THURSDAY 15TH APRIL
Revelation 2.1-11
Power to the churches
The lamp-stands stand for the churches. They apply to the seven churches in Asia Minor: some of the first churches ever established on earth. When the risen Jesus went among them to see how well His power was being utilised by them He was able to point out their strengths and their weaknesses; where they were filled with His power and where some of the power had leaked away. What was said of these churches Jesus says about us today. As we examine them we can see how we can stop the leaks and cause His power to work in us to keep us victorious churches all the time.
The church in Ephesus had been a very industrious church and had worked very hard and persevered as they drew on Jesus’ power. They were able to resist wicked men and false apostles who tried to weaken their church and cause it to lose power. Jesus commended them for all this but He found one flaw in them.
They had lost their first love. Their praise and worship was getting weak and dull and boring. Their hearts had grown cold. They had to repent of this. If we find our love for Jesus isn’t as strong as it was, we should make a decision to repent, for God calls us to love Him with all our heart, all our minds, and all strength! Then His power will flood back and we will praise Him more and resist all evil influences.
The church in Smyrna was a church under great persecution. The enemy had tried to destroy it but he couldn’t because they were drawing on the power of Jesus. It was like the church in China today, still under great persecution but growing and growing as the risen Lord keeps pouring His power into it.
PRAYER: Jesus, visit our church. Pour in your power. Help us to resist evil, and evil men. Restore our first love and keep us strong when we are attacked by the enemy. Amen.
FRIDAY 16TH APRIL
Acts 9.19-31
Paul grew more and more powerful
It shocked everyone in Damascus when the man they were afraid of was now very openly preaching the Good News of Jesus. He had orders to capture all the Christians and take them back to Jerusalem, but Jesus had given him new orders to preach the Gospel. This he did with great power. The power of the crucified, risen Lord, the power that had changed him dramatically was now enabling him to convince Jews that Jesus was the Messiah. This is the power of evangelism. How we need that power in Australia today!
The Jews soon grew so angry. The one who had been sent to exterminate Christianity was now causing it to grow very rapidly. They did all they could to get rid of him so he escaped over the city wall in a basket and returned to Jerusalem. The Christians in Jerusalem found it so hard to accept Paul. They couldn’t trust him at all. They had seen what he did to Stephen. They were so afraid of him.
God had filled Barnabas with the Holy Spirit and power. He discerned that Paul’s conversion had been really genuine. He trusted Paul and was able to convince the apostles that Paul was trustworthy. Soon he was again utilising the power of the crucified, risen Lord to convince the Greek Jews that Jesus was the One to follow.
As new people come into the church it’s important that we trust them, especially when they have had a bad reputation in their former life. Many saved newcomers have been lost because of the mistrust of Christians.
When the power of the crucified, risen Jesus gets really strong, Satan gets stirred up and opposition arises. Saul was soon driven out of Jerusalem and he had a break of several years to get ready for his main task to convert the world. Millions have been saved by his drawing on the power of the crucified, risen Christ in his preaching and in his writing.
PRAYER: Jesus, thank you for filling the renewed Paul with your power to enable him to be such an effective evangelist. Fill our church with the same power you released when you died and rose again that many powerful evangelists may be let loose to convert many people. Amen.
SATURDAY 17th. APRIL
John 21.1-19
Power to be Fishers of Men
Again we see the mighty power of the crucified, risen Lord Jesus at work. After an unsuccessful fishing expedition the disciples put down their empty nets at Jesus’ command. Soon the nets were absolutely full.
This teaches us a lesson in how to win people for Jesus. If we try to convince them to believe in our own strength we will never be successful. But if we learn how to rely wholly on His power, then we will see many new people coming to have faith in Jesus. John Wesley was a totally ineffective missionary in Georgia, USA, even though he worked very hard. He met the risen Lord in a meeting in Aldersgate St.in London and received power from Him and went out to convert thousands and thousands of people in England.
Peter really loved Jesus and it was only in a moment of weakness that he denied knowing him three times. It hurt when Jesus questioned whether he loved him three times, but soon he was restored to a right relationship with Him.
When we go wrong we have to have the humility to be told we have sinned. When Jesus’ Holy Spirit convicts us of sin, i.e. showing us how bad we are, it hurts very much, but we have to go through this as a lead in to our repentance and faith in the power of the crucified, risen Lord to forgive us and reinstate us as His friends and workers.
PRAYER: Jesus, empower us as your church to be powerful fishers of men. Help us to look after and feed all the new converts and to bring back Christians who have gone wrong into full fellowship with you. Amen.
SUNDAY 18TH.APRIL
THIS WEEK’S MESSAGE
The Bible says: “ You are not your own; you have been bought with a price” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). We belong to God because Jesus has purchased us! This is the fantastic message which comes to us in our second reading today. Saint John reminds us that when Jesus shed his blood for us on the cross He payed the price for us. He payed for all the peoples of the world. He wants everyone to be in His Kingdom.
Once we have accepted that Jesus has payed for us and have accepted Him into our hearts as Lord and Saviour, He has a very special task for us. He makes us a kingdom of priests. What does that mean? A kingdom is made up of all those who accept the rule of the King (In this case King Jesus). Priests are those who represent God to the people and the people to God. They bring God and the people together. They become channels of God’s love. Our task then, is to dispense God’s love to as many people as we can and to do all we can to bring them under God’s rule.
In our Gospel story, the miraculous catch of fish is a sign of all the people who will be drawn into God’ Kingdom through the ministry of His kingdom of priests. What He said to Peter when He asked him three times if he loved Him (Because of the three times Peter had denied Jesus), applies to us. He wants us to take care of His Sheep and feed His lambs and Sheep Our first reading reminds us that it is absolutely everyone Jesus wants to come into His Kingdom. He chose Saul of Tarsus, one of His worst enemies, to come in with Him.
Saul was born again and became Paul the Apostle who was sent out to lead the Church in winning the Non Jewish people in the world into the Kingdom.
The price has been payed for everyone. Let us take up the challenge to win many people for Jesus, to care for them and to feed them with His Word, which is the truth
MONDAY 12TH APRIL
Acts 9.1-20
Turning enemies into friends
During the great 40 days, the time between Easter and Ascension, we are thinking about the power of the Risen Lord. It is power to change lives. In an instant, God can change people dramatically. This is what He did to Saul of Tarsus.
Saul was an arch enemy of the infant church of Jesus Christ. He was the leader of the persecutors. He set out to destroy all the followers of the Lord. He first saw the power of the crucified, risen Jesus working in Stephen. As the first martyr was being stoned to death, he actually prayed for his murderers. He prayed that God would not hold what they were doing against them. Saul had never seen such a thing before. He saw the first Christians were different. They had been given the incredible power to forgive. I believe that this gradually turned Saul’s mind. Although he was on the way to Damascus with orders from the chief priest to get rid of more of Jesus’ followers, he began to wonder whether he was doing the right thing. His heart was beginning to open to Jesus.
Then, all of a sudden, he had the experience we read about in today’s Bible passage. In the experience of Saul’s conversion, the power of the crucified, risen Jesus worked wonders. In an instant Saul was changed by God into a completely new person. Saul the persecutor became Paul the Apostle and evangelist. God converted him for a special task: to take the Gospel of Jesus Christ into Europe and convert the gentiles.
God has a special task for you. Are you changed enough to do what God wants you to do. If not, open your heart to Jesus right now. Trust Him and let the power of the crucified, risen Jesus change you. It might happen in an instant or it might take time. Don’t give up. Keep seeking this power until it transforms you.
PRAYER: Lord God, thank you for the power you released when your Son, Jesus, died and rose again. We’ve seen what a difference it made to Saul. I trust in you now to give me that power so that I can do the things you want me to do, through Jesus Christ our mighty Saviour. Amen.
TUESDAY 13TH APRIL
Psalm 30
We exalt and thank God for His power
Back in 1973, I had a fantastic experience of the power of the crucified, risen Lord changing my life. In June, He warmed my heart when He gave me the assurance of my salvation and in September He filled me and my wife with the Holy Spirit. Since that time we have seen the Lord’s power working mightily in our lives. This has made us appreciate the Lord very much and has given us a very strong desire to exalt Him, praise Him and thank Him. We love Him heaps and we are so grateful. Allelujah, praise the Lord!
We have seen the Lord healing many people. Lucy was dying of cancer. The Lord healed her and saved her from an early grave. We’ve seen people who had been leading sinful lives, deserving of God’s anger, being saved by Jesus and experiencing His favour throughout their lives. We have seen very sad people whose eyes were full of tears let go of their misery and be filled with joy. This has happened when broken marriages have been mended and when God has helped people overcome the grief of losing a loved one.
Many hurt people have exchanged their hurts for joy. O, it’s so wonderful to observe the power of God at work transforming people’s lives. It makes us want to go on and on exalting Him and praising Him.
PRAYER: Lord, when we see all the wonderful things you have done, and are doing, it makes us want to praise you and exalt you and thank you more and more. We love you so much and we appreciate you. Let me see another miracle soon, through Jesus Christ our Wonder. Worker. Amen.
WEDNESDAY 14TH APRIL
Revelation 5.6-14
Worthy is the Lamb
In this book of Revelation we have new insights into the power of the crucified, risen Lord Jesus. He is the Lamb of God sacrificing Himself on the cross to take away all the sins of the world. He bought us freedom from the consequences of sin and He bought us victory. He accomplished this by His great power. The seven horns on the lamb are symbols of great power. The seven eyes are symbols of the all-seeing power of Jesus. His gaze reaches to every living person, nothing passes His notice! His power is made available for everyone.
The pouring out of His power evokes a great response in heaven and on earth. It is a two-fold response of prayer and songs of praise. Just catching a glimpse of the Lamb of God moves us onto our knees to pray and causes our hands to be raised and our lips to sing out exuberant praise.
The scroll is the Word of God and in it we see the truth of why the Lamb was slain. His sacrifice was the price paid to purchase men for God. So now we are not our own, we are bought with a price. People from every human race were bought by Jesus and He made us into a kingdom of priests. As we accept and receive Him we become sons of God (John 1.12) - members of the royal family of heaven and we become priests. A priest is a person who has direct access to God. All born-again sons of God have this access. Because of this we can serve Him very effectively.
Because His power transforms us humans and makes us completely new, it invokes in us a heart full of praise to God which causes us to burst out into song. We praise Him for He was worthy to be given so much from God - power, wealth, wisdom and strength, honour and glory and praise. We praise Him, honour Him and glorify Him because He is so fantastic, more fantastic then we can imagine.
PRAYER: “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive power and wealth, wisdom and strength and honour and glory and praise. To Him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honour, glory and power for ever.” Amen.
THURSDAY 15TH APRIL
Revelation 2.1-11
Power to the churches
The lamp-stands stand for the churches. They apply to the seven churches in Asia Minor: some of the first churches ever established on earth. When the risen Jesus went among them to see how well His power was being utilised by them He was able to point out their strengths and their weaknesses; where they were filled with His power and where some of the power had leaked away. What was said of these churches Jesus says about us today. As we examine them we can see how we can stop the leaks and cause His power to work in us to keep us victorious churches all the time.
The church in Ephesus had been a very industrious church and had worked very hard and persevered as they drew on Jesus’ power. They were able to resist wicked men and false apostles who tried to weaken their church and cause it to lose power. Jesus commended them for all this but He found one flaw in them.
They had lost their first love. Their praise and worship was getting weak and dull and boring. Their hearts had grown cold. They had to repent of this. If we find our love for Jesus isn’t as strong as it was, we should make a decision to repent, for God calls us to love Him with all our heart, all our minds, and all strength! Then His power will flood back and we will praise Him more and resist all evil influences.
The church in Smyrna was a church under great persecution. The enemy had tried to destroy it but he couldn’t because they were drawing on the power of Jesus. It was like the church in China today, still under great persecution but growing and growing as the risen Lord keeps pouring His power into it.
PRAYER: Jesus, visit our church. Pour in your power. Help us to resist evil, and evil men. Restore our first love and keep us strong when we are attacked by the enemy. Amen.
FRIDAY 16TH APRIL
Acts 9.19-31
Paul grew more and more powerful
It shocked everyone in Damascus when the man they were afraid of was now very openly preaching the Good News of Jesus. He had orders to capture all the Christians and take them back to Jerusalem, but Jesus had given him new orders to preach the Gospel. This he did with great power. The power of the crucified, risen Lord, the power that had changed him dramatically was now enabling him to convince Jews that Jesus was the Messiah. This is the power of evangelism. How we need that power in Australia today!
The Jews soon grew so angry. The one who had been sent to exterminate Christianity was now causing it to grow very rapidly. They did all they could to get rid of him so he escaped over the city wall in a basket and returned to Jerusalem. The Christians in Jerusalem found it so hard to accept Paul. They couldn’t trust him at all. They had seen what he did to Stephen. They were so afraid of him.
God had filled Barnabas with the Holy Spirit and power. He discerned that Paul’s conversion had been really genuine. He trusted Paul and was able to convince the apostles that Paul was trustworthy. Soon he was again utilising the power of the crucified, risen Lord to convince the Greek Jews that Jesus was the One to follow.
As new people come into the church it’s important that we trust them, especially when they have had a bad reputation in their former life. Many saved newcomers have been lost because of the mistrust of Christians.
When the power of the crucified, risen Jesus gets really strong, Satan gets stirred up and opposition arises. Saul was soon driven out of Jerusalem and he had a break of several years to get ready for his main task to convert the world. Millions have been saved by his drawing on the power of the crucified, risen Christ in his preaching and in his writing.
PRAYER: Jesus, thank you for filling the renewed Paul with your power to enable him to be such an effective evangelist. Fill our church with the same power you released when you died and rose again that many powerful evangelists may be let loose to convert many people. Amen.
SATURDAY 17th. APRIL
John 21.1-19
Power to be Fishers of Men
Again we see the mighty power of the crucified, risen Lord Jesus at work. After an unsuccessful fishing expedition the disciples put down their empty nets at Jesus’ command. Soon the nets were absolutely full.
This teaches us a lesson in how to win people for Jesus. If we try to convince them to believe in our own strength we will never be successful. But if we learn how to rely wholly on His power, then we will see many new people coming to have faith in Jesus. John Wesley was a totally ineffective missionary in Georgia, USA, even though he worked very hard. He met the risen Lord in a meeting in Aldersgate St.in London and received power from Him and went out to convert thousands and thousands of people in England.
Peter really loved Jesus and it was only in a moment of weakness that he denied knowing him three times. It hurt when Jesus questioned whether he loved him three times, but soon he was restored to a right relationship with Him.
When we go wrong we have to have the humility to be told we have sinned. When Jesus’ Holy Spirit convicts us of sin, i.e. showing us how bad we are, it hurts very much, but we have to go through this as a lead in to our repentance and faith in the power of the crucified, risen Lord to forgive us and reinstate us as His friends and workers.
PRAYER: Jesus, empower us as your church to be powerful fishers of men. Help us to look after and feed all the new converts and to bring back Christians who have gone wrong into full fellowship with you. Amen.
SUNDAY 18TH.APRIL
THIS WEEK’S MESSAGE
The Bible says: “ You are not your own; you have been bought with a price” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). We belong to God because Jesus has purchased us! This is the fantastic message which comes to us in our second reading today. Saint John reminds us that when Jesus shed his blood for us on the cross He payed the price for us. He payed for all the peoples of the world. He wants everyone to be in His Kingdom.
Once we have accepted that Jesus has payed for us and have accepted Him into our hearts as Lord and Saviour, He has a very special task for us. He makes us a kingdom of priests. What does that mean? A kingdom is made up of all those who accept the rule of the King (In this case King Jesus). Priests are those who represent God to the people and the people to God. They bring God and the people together. They become channels of God’s love. Our task then, is to dispense God’s love to as many people as we can and to do all we can to bring them under God’s rule.
In our Gospel story, the miraculous catch of fish is a sign of all the people who will be drawn into God’ Kingdom through the ministry of His kingdom of priests. What He said to Peter when He asked him three times if he loved Him (Because of the three times Peter had denied Jesus), applies to us. He wants us to take care of His Sheep and feed His lambs and Sheep Our first reading reminds us that it is absolutely everyone Jesus wants to come into His Kingdom. He chose Saul of Tarsus, one of His worst enemies, to come in with Him.
Saul was born again and became Paul the Apostle who was sent out to lead the Church in winning the Non Jewish people in the world into the Kingdom.
The price has been payed for everyone. Let us take up the challenge to win many people for Jesus, to care for them and to feed them with His Word, which is the truth