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MONDAY 13TH JULY
2 Samuel 7.1-14a
I have been with you wherever you have been

Just before Jesus ascended into heaven, He made a fantastic promise to His disciples. He said, “Surely I am with you always” (Matthew 28.20). The most wonderful thing about our God is that He is with us all the time. We can worship Him, pray to Him, or just love Him with all our hearts. We know He is in contact with us to receive all our prayers. He also picks up all the feelings in our hearts towards Him.

King David was really concerned. He was living in a palace while the only place of worship for Almighty God was a tent. He felt awful about this. It was his great desire to build a temple for the Lord. The King spoke to Nathan, the prophet, about this. At first Nathan was happy for David to go ahead and build the temple, but that night he was given a message from the Lord for David. The Lord reminded him that He didn’t have to have a house built for Him. Wherever His people were, He was there! Then He reminded David how He, God, had been with him wherever he went. He had called David from the land as a shepherd to be the greatest king that Israel had ever known. God also promised to protect David from his enemies.

Sometimes Christians seem to think the only place they can pray or be in contact with God is in the church. God reminds us that we don’t have to wait until next Sunday to pray. He is constantly by our side and He is on our side to ward off all attacks of the enemy (Satan) and to keep us safe.

PRAYER: Father God, we thank You that You love each of us so much that You will never leave us or forsake us. By the power of Your Holy Spirit, help us to be conscious of Your wonderful presence with us all the time, through Jesus our Lord. Amen.

TUESDAY 14TH JULY
Psalm 23
The Lord really looks after us

Yesterday we saw how the Word of God assures us that God is with us all the time. Today we see in the popular 23rd Psalm just how well God looks after us. It couldn’t be any better! He looks after us so well that we lack nothing. All we have to do is to acknowledge that the Lord Jesus is our Shepherd and He comes to our aid to make sure we are not in want. He makes sure that we have a balanced life with enough rest and enough food to sustain our bodies. He is the bread of life and when we feed on Him our spirits are so satisfied and our bodies are cured.
He guides us when we listen to His Word. His Word is a light to our path (Psalm 119.105). When we follow it the way our life should go becomes clear to us. He is the best guide. Life is full of dangers. The Lord is always with us to protect us. His rod and His staff are symbols of the authority He has against the enemy. Even if our life is threatened we need not fear. With Jesus with us all we have to do is to resist the devil and he will flee from us because He in us (Jesus) is so much more powerful than he who is in the world (Satan) (1 John 4.4, James 4.7).

Jesus gives us the power to face our enemies and love them. We don’t need to reject or run away from those who hurt us. Jesus helps us to sit down and eat with them. With Jesus as our Shepherd there is no need for family break-ups and divorce. We are always able to rejoice because God’s goodness and His enormous loving kindness surround us all the time. Paul and Silas were in prison but because the experience of Jesus’ enormous love was stronger than the coldness of the cell and the discomfort of the chains and the pain of their wounds, they were able to rejoice and be so happy (Acts 16.24). Finally, He assures us that we will be with Him for ever and ever in the heaven of eternal life!

PRAYER: Lord Jesus, the Good Shepherd, thank You for caring for us, guiding us, protecting us, helping us to love our enemies and surrounding us with enormous love. Thank You for making us sure we will be with You for ever. Amen.

WEDNESDAY 15TH JULY
Ephesians 2.11-22
Brought together by the blood of Jesus

One of the best definitions of sin is separation. Sin breaks relationships and separates us from God and from each other. Jesus shed His blood on the cross to take away all sin. He became sin to cleanse us from all sin! This means that if sin is taken away then we are no longer separated. We are one with God and one with each other. We have been brought into union with each other by the blood of Christ. We are one. Jesus is our peace because He has brought us all together as one. He has broken down all barriers of class, education, religion and race. He has done away with the old religious laws which separated people. His purpose was to make one body out of all the different factions. He knit us all together as the Body of Christ. All hostility that used to separate has been dealt with by what Jesus did when He died on the cross. He received all the hostility; all the punishment for sin and completely threw it away for ever. So Jesus indeed makes a fantastic peace – all who used to be estranged or cut off are now in this one body, all have the same access to the Father, all are fellow citizens. We have been built into a temple – a living organism – built with the stones of man in which God dwells by the power of His Holy Spirit.

PRAYER: Jesus, help us all to accept and believe that when You died on the cross You indeed made us one. Thank You for breaking down all barriers and doing away with hostility. Thank You for the unity and peace we have, through Jesus our Lord. Amen.

THURSDAY 16TH JULY
Ephesians 2.1-10
Saved by grace through faith

When we become Christians we are saved. What are we saved from? We are saved from death. The Word of God makes it very clear. Before Christ came into our lives we were dead. Satan’s influence which tempted us to sin caused us to die. Our sin caused us to be objects of the wrath of God. This was not God’s will for us. He loved us too much to see us die. God, out of the enormous richness of His mercy, made us alive when we were dead! God’s grace is what made us alive. It was released in great abundance when Jesus died on the cross and rose again from the dead! As Jesus died and rose again, the power of His grace takes us out of a life doomed to die and causes us to be lifted right up to heaven to be with Jesus! God has done this for us because of the extraordinary love He has for us and because He is a God who is so kind and merciful and wonderful and fantastic.

God saved us through Jesus’ death and resurrection but each of us has to personally receive this salvation to enable us to pass from death to life. We receive this gift of salvation as we trust God and as we put all our faith in the power of His grace to cancel our sin and lift us up to be with Jesus. The only way is to stop trusting in our own power to keep God’s law or to do good works. Salvation is not something we can boast about that we achieve by being good. It is 100% a free gift, not earned or deserved. When we are saved, God has a plan for us. He uses us to pour out His love to others by enabling us to do the many good works He has prepared for us to do.

PRAYER: Wonderful Father, we thank You so much for saving us when we were dead in our sin. Thank You for pouring out Your grace through Jesus’ death and resurrection. As we put all our faith and trust in You, forgive us and save us to be with You for ever, through Jesus our Saviour. Amen.

FRIDAY 17th. JULY
Jeremiah 6.1-6
Mark 6.30-34
Jesus’ enormous compassion

Jesus had been so busy. Together with His disciples, He had been completely run off His feet. There were so many people coming for ministry that they didn’t even have enough time to eat. Jesus wanted to save His disciples from burn-out, so He invited them to join Him in going to a lonely place so that they could all have a deserved rest. They all got into a boat and headed for an isolated spot on the other side of the lake. Very soon they realised that their attempts to have a break had completely failed. No sooner had they arrived at their holiday destination than a huge crowd appeared, all lining up for ministry. Did Jesus tell them to get lost? No, no, no, He certainly did not! As He looked down on the crowds He could see they were like sheep without a shepherd. He became their Shepherd and gathered them all around Himself and began teaching them many things.

Jeremiah prophesied that God was fed up with the Jewish religious leaders because they were neglecting His sheep. He said God, Himself, would be their Shepherd. This prophecy was fulfilled as Jesus gathered His sheep around Him.

PRAYER: Jesus, thank You that You are such a good Shepherd because You have so much compassion. You love us all so much. We eagerly gather around You so that we can learn more from You. Amen.

SATURDAY 18th. JULY
Mark 6:53-56
All who touched Him were healed

We continue to meditate on Jesus’ enormous compassion and love for His people. Yesterday, we saw how Jesus gathered them together and taught them many things. Jesus’ teaching is very important. It helps us to have faith in Him. It feeds us and enriches our lives.

Today we see how Jesus goes on to meet all our needs. Hundreds of people were brought to Jesus. As they got close to Him they were filled with en enormous faith in His healing power. They all wanted to touch Jesus. He loved them so much that He let everyone who was seeking Him, touch Him. As they grabbed hold of the edge of His clothes, they were all immediately healed.

Today, we want to touch Jesus in the same way, but although we can’t see Him, we can still touch Him. He can touch us. Many of us have come to experience that to get a touch from the Lord is so real. It’s really fantastic. To enable us to touch Jesus, or experience the presence of Jesus in our lives, He has sent us the Holy Spirit, whose main task on earth is to make it possible for us to touch Jesus.

In 1973 the Holy Spirit came very powerfully into my life and my family’s life. Since then we have experienced many, many touches from the Lord and seen many people healed by His touch.

PRAYER: Jesus, we thank You that You are the same yesterday, today and for ever. Send us Your Holy Spirit every day so we can touch You and receive Your healing power. Amen.

SUNDAY 19th. July
This Week’s Message

Over the years many people have shared with me how they have experienced the living presence of Jesus and have had their lives completely transformed by Him when they have come to worship in our Church. I believe Jesus is always present with us when we come together to worship Him. He did promise us that when two or three are gathered in His name He would be with them and would grant their requests when they agree with each other. (Matthew 18:19-20)

Jesus is our Good Shepherd. We are His flock and He has so much compassion for us. When we are sick He pours His healing grace into us. When were are all worried and upset He gently speaks to us and takes away our anxieties and fears. When we are grieving He comforts us and turns our sorrows into joy. When we feel guilty and unclean He forgives us and removes all our sins. He cleanses our hearts and makes us holy.

Some may say, “I came to church but I did not see Jesus!” How blind they are! Every Sunday we proclaim at the Peace, “We are the Body of Christ: His Spirit is with us!” Jesus is present in us all! He is in those who greet us at the door and give us our service booklets. He is in the musicians and choirs as they lead us in praise and worship. He is in the servers, LAs and clergy who make the liturgy come alive.

He speaks to us through the readers of His Word and through the sermons we hear preached. He speaks to the children in the Sunday School. He shows His great love for us when we greet each other in the Peace and hug and kiss each other. His presence is strongest when we break bread together and share the cup of wine; It is then that we remember His death on the cross which made it possible for Him to dwell with us. During the Notices He challenges us to participate more in the life of the church. After the service is over, as we sit around the little tables, sipping our tea and coffee, He takes away our loneliness and helps us to feel loved and accepted.

As we leave the Church, He stays with us to bring His Love, Joy and Peace to all the people we meet in our homes, schools, clubs and workplaces.