MONDAY 17th. AUGUST
1 Kings 8.1, 6, 10-11
The glory of the Lord filled the temple

The first great temple of the Lord God of Israel had at last been built in Jerusalem.  Solomon was overjoyed at the completion of the magnificent house of God.  The climax of the opening celebration was the placing of the Ark which contained the stone tablets with the Ten Commandments into the Holy of Holies, a special place in the centre of the temple, which symbolised the living presence of Yahweh - the Lord God.

As soon as the Ark was brought in they all had a fantastic experience of the very living presence of God.  His glory filled the whole temple. 

This living presence of God was experienced so powerfully that all the activities of the priests came to a standstill.  God was touching everyone there. God is present with us all the time, but there are times when there is a greater concentration of His power.  I have read about several revivals in recent times when the presence of God has been so powerful that the preachers have been unable to utter a word and yet people come forward to repent of their sins, be saved and be healed in very miraculous ways.  This is exactly what happened in Solomon’s day.

Jim Little was converted from atheism when he walked into our church in Brighton in England.  He said he met Jesus at the door.  So powerful was Jesus’ presence in our church that this atheist was instantly converted as he came into Jesus’ presence.

PRAYER: Jesus, we thank you that you promise to be with us always.  Come and make your presence felt in a powerful way as we meet each Sunday, that many who come may be saved and healed and drawn into a closer friendship with God.  Amen.

TUESDAY 18th. AUGUST
Psalm 84
Ever praising you

There is nothing more wonderful in all the earth than being able to come into the house of God and worship Him.  This was the experience of the psalmist whose whole being longed to go to church to worship God.  When he couldn’t get there he was envious of the little birds that made their nests in the temple and so dwelt in God’s presence day and night. The psalmist goes on to say how blessed are the people who worship God in church.  When they come into God’s presence and worship Him and love Him, they can’t get God out of their minds.  They love Him so much that they are continually praising Him.  The more they praise Him, the more faith and strength God gives them. They get a new direction and purpose in their life.  They see their life as a pilgrimage - a journey to heaven.  God gives them all the strength they need on their journey.  When life takes them through the valleys of Baca (the really sad times), their sadness is turned into springs of joy.

The secret of remaining in God’s presence and drawing strength from Him is to be people who are praising and thanking God all the time.  If we praise God in all circumstances, especially when the circumstances are very bad, we will experience His help.  He will take the pain out of every situation and will turn all our sadness into joy.

PRAYER: Father, wonderful God, loving Lord, inspire us to worship and adore you more and more.  As we do, give us the experience of your presence so strongly that we can never get you out of our minds so that we can praise you continually, especially when things go wrong, so you can turn all our sadness into joy, through Jesus.  Amen.

WEDNESDAY 19th. AUGUST
Ephesians 6.10-20
The armour of God

We are at war!  The trouble is that most people don’t realise there is a war on and don’t get prepared for it.  If we are not prepared, the enemy can defeat us.  As soon as a war is declared these days, everyone prepares for it; special air raid shelters are built, and many enlist to be trained to fight.  Jesus has declared war on Satan and has enlisted all of us to be His fighting men and women.  Before we engage the enemy, we must recognise who he is.  He is not a human person, but a spirit person.  God gives us all the power and all the spiritual weapons we need to defeat him.  These are symbolised in the whole armour of God.  In it we find protection from the enemy and the means of defeating him - praise the Lord!  Let’s have a brief look at each piece of this mighty armour and what its significance is.

• a) The Belt of Truth.  The Bible reveals the truth about God and the truth about ourselves.  Believing this truth makes us very strong.  The truth is that we have won the battle before we begin to fight.  We are more than conquerors and we can’t lose.
• b) The Breastplate of Righteousness reminds us that we have been put right by Jesus and we are one with Him, so the devil can’t accuse us and destroy us.
• c) Our Boots of Readiness to share the Gospel of peace.  When we share what God has done for us we help to take people out of the enemy’s clutches.
• d) The Helmet of Salvation.  We have been saved by Jesus and we are sure that we will be with Him.  It protects us from the devil’s favourite weapon - doubt.
• e) The Shield of Faith keeps us safe from the attacks of the devil and his many and varied attempts to destroy us.
• f) Finally we have our main powerful weapon, The Sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.  As we pray in the spirit, this sword comes out of its scabbard and is put to use – God’s Word and His Spirit working through us completely defeats Satan and releases all his captives to be God’s people for ever.

PRAYER: Jesus, we willingly enlist in your army and put on the whole armour of God.  We promise to make time available for prayer, so that you may use us to defeat Satan and win many souls for you.  Amen.

THURSDAY 20TH AUGUST
Joshua 24.1-2, 14-18
As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.

The Bible reading today reminds us that we all have to make a choice in life.  The choice is between following the Lord or following the other influences in the world.  Joshua, as he established the Israelites in their new land, reminded the people of this choice.  He said to choose the Lord or other gods, but “as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”  With one voice they all made the right decision as they cried out, “We too will serve the Lord for He is our God.”

This same choice is before all of us.  Satan dangles many carrots - T.V., sport, money, fame, riches, etc. etc.  Many of these seem so harmless.  Sometimes serving the Lord may seem so boring, but we will be caught in the trap of self-destruction unless we say with  the loyal Israelites, “We too will serve the Lord.”

PRAYER: Lord Jesus, we hear you calling each of us by name.  The world is very tempting.  Make your love for us so powerful so that we can say with  Joshua, ’we too will serve the Lord’.   Amen.

FRIDAY 21st. AUGUST
Ephesians 6.18-24
Love the Lord Jesus with an undying love

Jesus had a tremendous love for people, more than we would ever imagine.  The energy and power He had which enabled Him to love so many was derived from His love of the Father.  When He was in His human body on earth, this love was fuelled by all the time He spent with His Father in prayer.  As Jesus taught His disciples, He set for them the same pattern.  They were to do exactly the same as He did.  For them to be able to love many people and minister to them, they needed to spend a lot of time in prayer.  As we see in verse 18 of our reading today, they were “to pray in the spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests.”  They were to “be alert and always keep on praying.”
There was a fire burning in their hearts.  No-one could put out this fire. The more they were tortured and put in prison the more they prayed. All their praying kept them so close to Jesus.  They loved Him with an undying love.

I was reading about a modern day church which followed exactly this way of prayer.  It started with about 10 people.  They had three 2-hour sessions of prayer every day.  Soon they were given the power and energy and love to minister to hundreds and hundreds who joined them.

PRAYER: Jesus, may we, too, love you with an undying love.  Call us to more time with you in prayer so that we keep on praying between our prayer times the prayer between the prayer and so set us on fire with love for all people.  Amen.

SATURDAY 22nd.AUGUST
John 6.56-69
It’s a hard teaching
100% commitment

Jesus had just said, “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him,” and He told the people that if they remained in Him like this they would live for ever.  It was at this point that many of His followers slunk back and stopped following Him.  It was too hard for them.  Why?  Because they realised what Jesus was getting at.  To follow Him required 100% commitment.

Jesus can only be one with us when we dwell in Him.  We must give our all to Him.  Each part we give to Him, He takes and transforms.  As we make the decision to keep on following Him, He slowly changes us so that in the end we will be like Him in every way.  If we choose to stop following Him we are in grave danger of being lost for ever.  That is tragic - very tragic!  We are lost if we cut Jesus off because our purely human life counts for nothing.  It is temporary and will end completely when we die.  We can only have eternal life if we let the Spirit of God give us this life.  When God sees the sincerity of our hearts and our desire to give our all to Jesus, He comes to our aid and
enables us to be united with His Son for ever.  The words of Jesus are very powerful - they give us this life!

When Jesus saw many falling away, He said to His disciples, “Do you want to leave too?”  “No way”, they replied, “You have the words of eternal life”. Jesus challenges us to follow in the footsteps of His disciples and follow Him all the way to heaven.

PRAYER: O Lord Jesus, we love you so much; we never want to leave you. We now give ourselves 100% to you.  Take every bit of us, speak your words to us, and make us one with you for ever. Amen.

SUNDAY 23rd.AUGUST
THIS WEEK’S MESSAGE

Tomorrow we gave thanks to God for one of Jesus’ Apostles, Saint Bartholomew.   His other name was Nathaniel.  He was a very sincere man and there was nothing false about him. When he was introduced to Jesus by Philip, he recognised Jesus as the Son Of God and King of Israel.  Jesus promised him that he would have a wonderful vision of Heaven being opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.(Jesus) After He was filled with the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost He travelled East and spread the Gospel to India.  He later returned to Armenia where he also spread the Good News .It was there that he suffered a very cruel martyr’s death being crucified upside down and flayed alive with a knife.

When Jesus was teaching the Disciples that they had to eat his flesh and drink his blood. Many of them could not understand what He was getting at. To really understand Jesus teaching we need much more than human understanding, we need divine insight. This comes from the help of the Holy Spirit,  The Spirit gives life.  The human understanding (Described as the flesh) counts for nothing. When people are open to God and ready to surrender to him He enables them to come to Jesus and receive Him into their hearts as Lord and Saviour.  The Apostles had been drawn to Jesus by God and they knew that He had the words that give eternal life. They valued their spiritual lives more than their earthly lives.  After Jesus had gone back to heaven they spent a lot of time in prayer.  

It’s said of St. Bartholomew that he prayed a hundred times a day and a hundred times at night.  Bartholomew’s closeness to Jesus gave him the power to face a martyr’s death. He realised that earthly life is worth nothing so he was willing to give it up. Now he enjoys eternal life with Jesus in heaven.

As we all sense the Farther drawing us to Jesus, lets all stay very close to Him.   He will fill us with His Holy Spirit and give us lots of spiritual insight and all the power we need. We will find that the things of this world will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace.  We will value our spiritual lives more than all the things that make us enjoy life on earth. We will be filled with love and joy and peace.

We will become like Jesus and be able to draw many others to Him who will value Him and their relationship with Him more than awe gave thanks to God for We will become like Jesus and be able to draw many others to Him who will value Him and their relationship with Him more than anything else in this world.
 

MONDAY 17th. AUGUST
1 Kings 8.1, 6, 10-11
The glory of the Lord filled the temple

The first great temple of the Lord God of Israel had at last been built in Jerusalem.  Solomon was overjoyed at the completion of the magnificent house of God.  The climax of the opening celebration was the placing of the Ark which contained the stone tablets with the Ten Commandments into the Holy of Holies, a special place in the centre of the temple, which symbolised the living presence of Yahweh - the Lord God.

As soon as the Ark was brought in they all had a fantastic experience of the very living presence of God.  His glory filled the whole temple. 

This living presence of God was experienced so powerfully that all the activities of the priests came to a standstill.  God was touching everyone there. God is present with us all the time, but there are times when there is a greater concentration of His power.  I have read about several revivals in recent times when the presence of God has been so powerful that the preachers have been unable to utter a word and yet people come forward to repent of their sins, be saved and be healed in very miraculous ways.  This is exactly what happened in Solomon’s day.

Jim Little was converted from atheism when he walked into our church in Brighton in England.  He said he met Jesus at the door.  So powerful was Jesus’ presence in our church that this atheist was instantly converted as he came into Jesus’ presence.

PRAYER: Jesus, we thank you that you promise to be with us always.  Come and make your presence felt in a powerful way as we meet each Sunday, that many who come may be saved and healed and drawn into a closer friendship with God.  Amen.

TUESDAY 18th. AUGUST
Psalm 84
Ever praising you

There is nothing more wonderful in all the earth than being able to come into the house of God and worship Him.  This was the experience of the psalmist whose whole being longed to go to church to worship God.  When he couldn’t get there he was envious of the little birds that made their nests in the temple and so dwelt in God’s presence day and night. The psalmist goes on to say how blessed are the people who worship God in church.  When they come into God’s presence and worship Him and love Him, they can’t get God out of their minds.  They love Him so much that they are continually praising Him.  The more they praise Him, the more faith and strength God gives them. They get a new direction and purpose in their life.  They see their life as a pilgrimage - a journey to heaven.  God gives them all the strength they need on their journey.  When life takes them through the valleys of Baca (the really sad times), their sadness is turned into springs of joy.

The secret of remaining in God’s presence and drawing strength from Him is to be people who are praising and thanking God all the time.  If we praise God in all circumstances, especially when the circumstances are very bad, we will experience His help.  He will take the pain out of every situation and will turn all our sadness into joy.

PRAYER: Father, wonderful God, loving Lord, inspire us to worship and adore you more and more.  As we do, give us the experience of your presence so strongly that we can never get you out of our minds so that we can praise you continually, especially when things go wrong, so you can turn all our sadness into joy, through Jesus.  Amen.

WEDNESDAY 19th. AUGUST
Ephesians 6.10-20
The armour of God

We are at war!  The trouble is that most people don’t realise there is a war on and don’t get prepared for it.  If we are not prepared, the enemy can defeat us.  As soon as a war is declared these days, everyone prepares for it; special air raid shelters are built, and many enlist to be trained to fight.  Jesus has declared war on Satan and has enlisted all of us to be His fighting men and women.  Before we engage the enemy, we must recognise who he is.  He is not a human person, but a spirit person.  God gives us all the power and all the spiritual weapons we need to defeat him.  These are symbolised in the whole armour of God.  In it we find protection from the enemy and the means of defeating him - praise the Lord!  Let’s have a brief look at each piece of this mighty armour and what its significance is.

• a) The Belt of Truth.  The Bible reveals the truth about God and the truth about ourselves.  Believing this truth makes us very strong.  The truth is that we have won the battle before we begin to fight.  We are more than conquerors and we can’t lose.
• b) The Breastplate of Righteousness reminds us that we have been put right by Jesus and we are one with Him, so the devil can’t accuse us and destroy us.
• c) Our Boots of Readiness to share the Gospel of peace.  When we share what God has done for us we help to take people out of the enemy’s clutches.
• d) The Helmet of Salvation.  We have been saved by Jesus and we are sure that we will be with Him.  It protects us from the devil’s favourite weapon - doubt.
• e) The Shield of Faith keeps us safe from the attacks of the devil and his many and varied attempts to destroy us.
• f) Finally we have our main powerful weapon, The Sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.  As we pray in the spirit, this sword comes out of its scabbard and is put to use – God’s Word and His Spirit working through us completely defeats Satan and releases all his captives to be God’s people for ever.

PRAYER: Jesus, we willingly enlist in your army and put on the whole armour of God.  We promise to make time available for prayer, so that you may use us to defeat Satan and win many souls for you.  Amen.

THURSDAY 20TH AUGUST
Joshua 24.1-2, 14-18
As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.

The Bible reading today reminds us that we all have to make a choice in life.  The choice is between following the Lord or following the other influences in the world.  Joshua, as he established the Israelites in their new land, reminded the people of this choice.  He said to choose the Lord or other gods, but “as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”  With one voice they all made the right decision as they cried out, “We too will serve the Lord for He is our God.”

This same choice is before all of us.  Satan dangles many carrots - T.V., sport, money, fame, riches, etc. etc.  Many of these seem so harmless.  Sometimes serving the Lord may seem so boring, but we will be caught in the trap of self-destruction unless we say with  the loyal Israelites, “We too will serve the Lord.”

PRAYER: Lord Jesus, we hear you calling each of us by name.  The world is very tempting.  Make your love for us so powerful so that we can say with  Joshua, ’we too will serve the Lord’.   Amen.

FRIDAY 21st. AUGUST
Ephesians 6.18-24
Love the Lord Jesus with an undying love

Jesus had a tremendous love for people, more than we would ever imagine.  The energy and power He had which enabled Him to love so many was derived from His love of the Father.  When He was in His human body on earth, this love was fuelled by all the time He spent with His Father in prayer.  As Jesus taught His disciples, He set for them the same pattern.  They were to do exactly the same as He did.  For them to be able to love many people and minister to them, they needed to spend a lot of time in prayer.  As we see in verse 18 of our reading today, they were “to pray in the spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests.”  They were to “be alert and always keep on praying.”
There was a fire burning in their hearts.  No-one could put out this fire. The more they were tortured and put in prison the more they prayed. All their praying kept them so close to Jesus.  They loved Him with an undying love.

I was reading about a modern day church which followed exactly this way of prayer.  It started with about 10 people.  They had three 2-hour sessions of prayer every day.  Soon they were given the power and energy and love to minister to hundreds and hundreds who joined them.

PRAYER: Jesus, may we, too, love you with an undying love.  Call us to more time with you in prayer so that we keep on praying between our prayer times the prayer between the prayer and so set us on fire with love for all people.  Amen.

SATURDAY 22nd.AUGUST
John 6.56-69
It’s a hard teaching
100% commitment

Jesus had just said, “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him,” and He told the people that if they remained in Him like this they would live for ever.  It was at this point that many of His followers slunk back and stopped following Him.  It was too hard for them.  Why?  Because they realised what Jesus was getting at.  To follow Him required 100% commitment.

Jesus can only be one with us when we dwell in Him.  We must give our all to Him.  Each part we give to Him, He takes and transforms.  As we make the decision to keep on following Him, He slowly changes us so that in the end we will be like Him in every way.  If we choose to stop following Him we are in grave danger of being lost for ever.  That is tragic - very tragic!  We are lost if we cut Jesus off because our purely human life counts for nothing.  It is temporary and will end completely when we die.  We can only have eternal life if we let the Spirit of God give us this life.  When God sees the sincerity of our hearts and our desire to give our all to Jesus, He comes to our aid and
enables us to be united with His Son for ever.  The words of Jesus are very powerful - they give us this life!

When Jesus saw many falling away, He said to His disciples, “Do you want to leave too?”  “No way”, they replied, “You have the words of eternal life”. Jesus challenges us to follow in the footsteps of His disciples and follow Him all the way to heaven.

PRAYER: O Lord Jesus, we love you so much; we never want to leave you. We now give ourselves 100% to you.  Take every bit of us, speak your words to us, and make us one with you for ever. Amen.

SUNDAY 23rd.AUGUST
THIS WEEK’S MESSAGE

Tomorrow we gave thanks to God for one of Jesus’ Apostles, Saint Bartholomew.   His other name was Nathaniel.  He was a very sincere man and there was nothing false about him. When he was introduced to Jesus by Philip, he recognised Jesus as the Son Of God and King of Israel.  Jesus promised him that he would have a wonderful vision of Heaven being opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.(Jesus) After He was filled with the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost He travelled East and spread the Gospel to India.  He later returned to Armenia where he also spread the Good News .It was there that he suffered a very cruel martyr’s death being crucified upside down and flayed alive with a knife.

When Jesus was teaching the Disciples that they had to eat his flesh and drink his blood. Many of them could not understand what He was getting at. To really understand Jesus teaching we need much more than human understanding, we need divine insight. This comes from the help of the Holy Spirit,  The Spirit gives life.  The human understanding (Described as the flesh) counts for nothing. When people are open to God and ready to surrender to him He enables them to come to Jesus and receive Him into their hearts as Lord and Saviour.  The Apostles had been drawn to Jesus by God and they knew that He had the words that give eternal life. They valued their spiritual lives more than their earthly lives.  After Jesus had gone back to heaven they spent a lot of time in prayer.  

It’s said of St. Bartholomew that he prayed a hundred times a day and a hundred times at night.  Bartholomew’s closeness to Jesus gave him the power to face a martyr’s death. He realised that earthly life is worth nothing so he was willing to give it up. Now he enjoys eternal life with Jesus in heaven.

As we all sense the Farther drawing us to Jesus, lets all stay very close to Him.   He will fill us with His Holy Spirit and give us lots of spiritual insight and all the power we need. We will find that the things of this world will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace.  We will value our spiritual lives more than all the things that make us enjoy life on earth. We will be filled with love and joy and peace.

We will become like Jesus and be able to draw many others to Him who will value Him and their relationship with Him more than awe gave thanks to God for We will become like Jesus and be able to draw many others to Him who will value Him and their relationship with Him more than anything else in this world.