MONDAY 26TH JULY
Ecclesiastes 1:2, 12-14, 2:18-23
Everything is Meaningless

The book of Ecclesiastes is a very depressing book that we often wonder how it could ever be included in the Bible.  However, when we read it through fully we see that it has a very important message.

The main theme of the book is “Everything is Meaningless”!  What it is saying to us is how meaningless is the pursuit of money and material possessions.  “We brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of the world” (1Timothy 6:7).  When we die we will have to leave all that we worked so hard for to someone else.

Jesus said, “Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will not be exhausted” (Luke 12:33).  He said that you fill up your purses in Heaven when you give to people on earth.  What you give away is yours forever.

George Muller, the nineteenth century saint of God, is a fine example of someone with a huge bank account in Heaven.  When he was alive God provided for him 1,500,000 pounds which he spent on looking after orphans and other ministry.  As well, he was given 93,000 pounds for his personal expenses over his life time.  Of this he gave away 81,000.  At his death all he left behind on earth was 106 pounds!  He almost tithed his income, kept one tenth for himself and gave away nine tenths!

The more Muller gave away and spent on others, the more the Lord gave him to spend.  God was true to His word when He said, “you will be made rich in every way so you can be generous on every occasion” (2 Corinthians 9:11).

Let’s all listen to what God says and pray for the grace of giving, the faith to give generously and build up our bank account in heaven.

PRAYER: Jesus, help us to realise how meaningless it is to build up wealth and possessions on earth.  Give each of us the grace of giving and the faith to give more than we can afford and trust in you to make us rich enough to be generous on every occasion, through Jesus who through His poverty made all men rich.  Amen.

TUESDAY 27th. JULY
Psalm 49
Riches without understanding

Most of us long to be rich.  When we see Gold Lotto advertisements on TV, we think, “wouldn’t it be lovely to win a few million dollars”.  In my lifetime I have come across a few people who have been lucky enough to win the casket.  With these it has had a disastrous effect on their lives. 

Also look what’s happened to Bond and Skase, two of our Australian millionaires.

All these people had riches without understanding.  To have riches without understanding is to have money or possessions and not understand how God wants us to use it.  God is a God of love who is always spending Himself on others.  His will for each of us is that we love each other in exactly the same way as He loves us.  His will for us is to give and give and give.  This reminds me of the poem I often quote in wedding sermons:

Love ever gives,
forgives - out lives
and ever stands
with open hands
and while it lives
it gives.

For this is loves prerogative

TO GIVE AND GIVE AND GIVE

In this materialistic world, the majority of Australians rely so much on their ability to make money to make themselves safe and secure - they forget about God and refuse to put their faith and trust in Him.  How utterly foolish they are.  As the Bible says to us in this Psalm, “They will be like the beasts that perish - there will be no place in heaven for them.”

PRAYER: Dear Lord, most generous God, we thank you that you are always spending yourself on us.  Help us to use every cent we receive with understanding: understanding that you want us to be generous with it and give and give and give, through Jesus who gave himself on the cross for us. Amen.

 

WEDNESDAY 28th. July
Colossians 3:1-11
Set your hearts on things above

“Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in His wonderful face, and the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace”.

This beautiful song sums up very well the whole meaning of today’s reading. There is only one way to be a successful Christian and that is to get the desires of our hearts in the right place.

When we become Christians the Bible reminds us that our old selves die and we are raised up to be with Jesus.  We are with Jesus and that’s where our desires should be all the time.  Being with Him we see He is so wonderful we can’t help loving Him with all our hearts.  This impels us to set our minds on thinking thoughts and doing all the things that would only please Jesus!  It is the power of Jesus’ love which is in us.  Because Jesus is in us that enables us to get our eyes off the things of this earth and concentrate on showing God how much we love Him.  All the things that spoil our relationship with God will disappear out of our lives and we will be made to be pure and holy by the power of His love and His grace working in us.

Living the Christian life is to experience one miracle after another. Every day the miracles of Jesus transform us into His likeness bit by bit.  

The joy of the Christian life is to be certain we will be with Him in glory when He comes again.

PRAYER:   Dear Jesus you are so wonderful.  Please help us to keep our eyes on you and look full in your wonderful face that we may be like you in our lives and to live the way you want us to live so that we can be sure to be with you in glory.  Amen.

 

THURSDAY 29th.JULY
Hosea 11:1-11
Cords of Human kindness - Ties of love

“I led them with cords of human kindness, with ties of love”.

God loves us all so much.  He has so much compassion for us!  Many times we do not receive His love, many times we disobey Him so much that He should pour out His wrath upon us, but He loves us too much for that. As He looks down upon us His great compassion is aroused.  When God’s compassion was aroused He sent us Jesus.  Jesus lovingly took upon Himself all the punishment our sins deserve!  He let God’s wrath be spent on Him! 

The cross was like a spinner’s wheel. As Jesus took all our sin, cords of human kindness and love were spun. When each sinner responds to Jesus, He comes along and binds him to Himself with these cords of love.  As Jesus rises from the dead He lifts each forgiven sinner up to heaven with Him.

A famous Indian Christian, Sadhu Sindar Singh, was walking with a companion through the mountains high up in the Himalayas.  They came upon a man almost frozen to death.  Sinda Singh wanted to stop and help the unfortunate man but his companion refused saying, “we shall lose our lives if we burden ourselves with him”. 

The companion went on ahead as Singh slung the almost dead man around his shoulders and carried him along the path.  Then his body warmed up on his and he revived and was able to get down and walk.  Soon they came upon Singh’s former companion.  They found him dead, frozen by the cold. Singh was willing to loose his life himself for a suffering man with cords of human kindness.  He found his life while his callous companion lost his. 

PRAYER: Jesus, thank you that your love and compassion for us was so great that you wove cords of human kindness and love for us on the cross. Help us to bring others to you with cords of kindness and love, that all bound together with love may be drawn up to heaven above with you for ever. Amen.

 

FRIDAY 30th. JULY
Luke 12:22-31
Do not worry! 

Once we have given our lives to Jesus and are bound to Him with those cords of human kindness, we have no need to be anxious about anything.  God promises to provide us with all the clothes we need and all the food we need to keep us healthy and strong! 

Some may ask the question, “if God promises to clothe and feed everyone how come there are so many naked, starving people in the world?” 

The answer is simple.  There is always something we have to do before God comes to our aid to look after us. We have to seek first His kingdom then all these things will be added unto us! 

This means surrendering your life completely to Jesus as King.  Let Him take out all your sin, all your fears all your doubts and let Him rule your life by being willing to obey His word,  living as the Bible tells you to live!

Many of us have experienced God’s supernatural provision.  In August 1974 God spoke to Wendy (my wife) and me separately and told us to give up our salary.  We were obedient to His word and went for seven months without pay.

Every day we prayed for our food.  Many times we had no money but every meal was provided  and  we were more than satisfied.  God was so good to us. Often people who didn’t know our predicament were the ones who supplied us with food. 

PRAYER: Lord Jesus, we seek first your kingdom, we submit to you as King.  Take away all our sins, all our doubts and all our fears and anxieties. Help us to trust in you to supply all our needs as we give away more than we can afford.  Amen.

 

SATURDAY 31st.JULY
Luke 12:13-21
Be rich towards God 

What is our biggest enemy in Australia?  What will cause us the greatest destruction?  God gives us the answer in the Gospel today.  He tells us to be on our guard against all kinds of greed!  Our biggest enemy is our lust for more money and more possessions.  When we put them first in our lives they become our gods and will certainly lead to our destruction. 

Success in our jobs and building up around us all the things that seem to satisfy us dulls our spiritual awareness and before we realise it we step further and further away from God.

We all need to wage war on this enemy of materialism before it destroys us like it did in the parable told to us by Jesus in today’s reading. The way to win this battle is to surrender everything we own to God. When all we have is God’s it’s so easy to share it with others and give it awaywhen God calls us to.

Instead of being owners we become God’s stewards or servants, ever ready to use all that was once ours the way He wants us to.  We never get upset when He tells us to give all or part of it away.

When we surrender everything to Him we find that we are never lacking, but above all we are drawn into a wonderful deep personal relationship with God.  We truly become the happiest people on earth.  It’s so wonderful. 

PRAYER: Father, I recognise the danger of hanging onto my material possessions and working always to get more.  I repent of this and surrender all I own to you.  Make me your servant, ever ready to share all that was mine which ever way you want me to.  Thank you for allowing me to be your friend.  Amen.

 

SUNDAY 1ST.AUGUST
THIS WEEK’S MESSAGE

The message comes to us very clearly through Today’s readings that what we should value most in our lives is our relationship with God.     

When we think about what makes us the happiest in life, we could ask ourselves some questions.    Is it the amount of money we have?   Lots of people think it is so they spend all their life making more.   The trouble is that the more we make, the more we want.  We soon discover that money and wealth can never really make us happy.     If it’s not money is it our possessions that make us happy? Again we discover that our possessions do not really make us happy.   Is it the job we have that makes us happy?  Even though we get a lot of job satisfaction in the end the job itself cannever really make us happy.   What then can really make us happy?

I believe the answer to this question is, OUR RELATIONSHIPS!   True happiness come when we are loved by lots of people and when we give out lots of love to all those around us.    We build up our relationships by being generous with our money and by sharing all our possessions and when our work is doing things for other people.

The most important relationship in our lives is our relationship with God.   All our earthly relationships will one day come to an end with separation or death.   If we build up a strong relationship with God it will never end.   His word tells us, “This is eternal life: that we may know the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom He has sent”   The word ‘know’, means to have a good relationship with.   (John 17:3)   Having a relationship with God through His Son Jesus make us the happiest people on earth! We experience a Joy that will never end. (Incidentally when we find ourselves in Heaven I believe all our earthly relationships will be restored)

In the Gospel today Jesus warns us of the danger of storing up riches for ourselves without being generous towards God.   How can we be generous towards God?  Our second reading from Colossians gives us the answer.   We are to set our hearts on things above where Christ is seated and to get our minds off earthly things.  We are to stop gratifying our earthly human natures and seek to gratify God. 

We can gratify God by spending our lives for Him and for others.   Give God our time talents and money and give to others, especially those in need. Jesus told us when we give to the needy; we give to God (Matthew 25: 31-46)

When we value God more than anything else being generous towards Him becomes very easy.  To what we treasure most we give the most!  The more we give to God and to each other the more generous we become. God fulfils His promise to us when He says, “You will be made rich in every way so thatyou can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.” (2 Corinthians 9: 11) 

PRAYER

Jesus we thank you so much that you valued us so much that you gave your whole life for us on the cross. Help us to value you more than  anything by giving to you and giving to others, especially those in need. Please make us rich enough to be generous on every occasion. AMEN

 

 

MONDAY 26TH JULY
Ecclesiastes 1:2, 12-14, 2:18-23
Everything is Meaningless

The book of Ecclesiastes is a very depressing book that we often wonder how it could ever be included in the Bible.  However, when we read it through fully we see that it has a very important message.

The main theme of the book is “Everything is Meaningless”!  What it is saying to us is how meaningless is the pursuit of money and material possessions.  “We brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of the world” (1Timothy 6:7).  When we die we will have to leave all that we worked so hard for to someone else.

Jesus said, “Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will not be exhausted” (Luke 12:33).  He said that you fill up your purses in Heaven when you give to people on earth.  What you give away is yours forever.

George Muller, the nineteenth century saint of God, is a fine example of someone with a huge bank account in Heaven.  When he was alive God provided for him 1,500,000 pounds which he spent on looking after orphans and other ministry.  As well, he was given 93,000 pounds for his personal expenses over his life time.  Of this he gave away 81,000.  At his death all he left behind on earth was 106 pounds!  He almost tithed his income, kept one tenth for himself and gave away nine tenths!

The more Muller gave away and spent on others, the more the Lord gave him to spend.  God was true to His word when He said, “you will be made rich in every way so you can be generous on every occasion” (2 Corinthians 9:11).

Let’s all listen to what God says and pray for the grace of giving, the faith to give generously and build up our bank account in heaven.

PRAYER: Jesus, help us to realise how meaningless it is to build up wealth and possessions on earth.  Give each of us the grace of giving and the faith to give more than we can afford and trust in you to make us rich enough to be generous on every occasion, through Jesus who through His poverty made all men rich.  Amen.

TUESDAY 27th. JULY
Psalm 49
Riches without understanding

Most of us long to be rich.  When we see Gold Lotto advertisements on TV, we think, “wouldn’t it be lovely to win a few million dollars”.  In my lifetime I have come across a few people who have been lucky enough to win the casket.  With these it has had a disastrous effect on their lives. 

Also look what’s happened to Bond and Skase, two of our Australian millionaires.

All these people had riches without understanding.  To have riches without understanding is to have money or possessions and not understand how God wants us to use it.  God is a God of love who is always spending Himself on others.  His will for each of us is that we love each other in exactly the same way as He loves us.  His will for us is to give and give and give.  This reminds me of the poem I often quote in wedding sermons:

Love ever gives,
forgives - out lives
and ever stands
with open hands
and while it lives
it gives.

For this is loves prerogative

TO GIVE AND GIVE AND GIVE

In this materialistic world, the majority of Australians rely so much on their ability to make money to make themselves safe and secure - they forget about God and refuse to put their faith and trust in Him.  How utterly foolish they are.  As the Bible says to us in this Psalm, “They will be like the beasts that perish - there will be no place in heaven for them.”

PRAYER: Dear Lord, most generous God, we thank you that you are always spending yourself on us.  Help us to use every cent we receive with understanding: understanding that you want us to be generous with it and give and give and give, through Jesus who gave himself on the cross for us. Amen.

 

WEDNESDAY 28th. July
Colossians 3:1-11
Set your hearts on things above

“Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in His wonderful face, and the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace”.

This beautiful song sums up very well the whole meaning of today’s reading. There is only one way to be a successful Christian and that is to get the desires of our hearts in the right place.

When we become Christians the Bible reminds us that our old selves die and we are raised up to be with Jesus.  We are with Jesus and that’s where our desires should be all the time.  Being with Him we see He is so wonderful we can’t help loving Him with all our hearts.  This impels us to set our minds on thinking thoughts and doing all the things that would only please Jesus!  It is the power of Jesus’ love which is in us.  Because Jesus is in us that enables us to get our eyes off the things of this earth and concentrate on showing God how much we love Him.  All the things that spoil our relationship with God will disappear out of our lives and we will be made to be pure and holy by the power of His love and His grace working in us.

Living the Christian life is to experience one miracle after another. Every day the miracles of Jesus transform us into His likeness bit by bit.  

The joy of the Christian life is to be certain we will be with Him in glory when He comes again.

PRAYER:   Dear Jesus you are so wonderful.  Please help us to keep our eyes on you and look full in your wonderful face that we may be like you in our lives and to live the way you want us to live so that we can be sure to be with you in glory.  Amen.

 

THURSDAY 29th.JULY
Hosea 11:1-11
Cords of Human kindness - Ties of love

“I led them with cords of human kindness, with ties of love”.

God loves us all so much.  He has so much compassion for us!  Many times we do not receive His love, many times we disobey Him so much that He should pour out His wrath upon us, but He loves us too much for that. As He looks down upon us His great compassion is aroused.  When God’s compassion was aroused He sent us Jesus.  Jesus lovingly took upon Himself all the punishment our sins deserve!  He let God’s wrath be spent on Him! 

The cross was like a spinner’s wheel. As Jesus took all our sin, cords of human kindness and love were spun. When each sinner responds to Jesus, He comes along and binds him to Himself with these cords of love.  As Jesus rises from the dead He lifts each forgiven sinner up to heaven with Him.

A famous Indian Christian, Sadhu Sindar Singh, was walking with a companion through the mountains high up in the Himalayas.  They came upon a man almost frozen to death.  Sinda Singh wanted to stop and help the unfortunate man but his companion refused saying, “we shall lose our lives if we burden ourselves with him”. 

The companion went on ahead as Singh slung the almost dead man around his shoulders and carried him along the path.  Then his body warmed up on his and he revived and was able to get down and walk.  Soon they came upon Singh’s former companion.  They found him dead, frozen by the cold. Singh was willing to loose his life himself for a suffering man with cords of human kindness.  He found his life while his callous companion lost his. 

PRAYER: Jesus, thank you that your love and compassion for us was so great that you wove cords of human kindness and love for us on the cross. Help us to bring others to you with cords of kindness and love, that all bound together with love may be drawn up to heaven above with you for ever. Amen.

 

FRIDAY 30th. JULY
Luke 12:22-31
Do not worry! 

Once we have given our lives to Jesus and are bound to Him with those cords of human kindness, we have no need to be anxious about anything.  God promises to provide us with all the clothes we need and all the food we need to keep us healthy and strong! 

Some may ask the question, “if God promises to clothe and feed everyone how come there are so many naked, starving people in the world?” 

The answer is simple.  There is always something we have to do before God comes to our aid to look after us. We have to seek first His kingdom then all these things will be added unto us! 

This means surrendering your life completely to Jesus as King.  Let Him take out all your sin, all your fears all your doubts and let Him rule your life by being willing to obey His word,  living as the Bible tells you to live!

Many of us have experienced God’s supernatural provision.  In August 1974 God spoke to Wendy (my wife) and me separately and told us to give up our salary.  We were obedient to His word and went for seven months without pay.

Every day we prayed for our food.  Many times we had no money but every meal was provided  and  we were more than satisfied.  God was so good to us. Often people who didn’t know our predicament were the ones who supplied us with food. 

PRAYER: Lord Jesus, we seek first your kingdom, we submit to you as King.  Take away all our sins, all our doubts and all our fears and anxieties. Help us to trust in you to supply all our needs as we give away more than we can afford.  Amen.

 

SATURDAY 31st.JULY
Luke 12:13-21
Be rich towards God 

What is our biggest enemy in Australia?  What will cause us the greatest destruction?  God gives us the answer in the Gospel today.  He tells us to be on our guard against all kinds of greed!  Our biggest enemy is our lust for more money and more possessions.  When we put them first in our lives they become our gods and will certainly lead to our destruction. 

Success in our jobs and building up around us all the things that seem to satisfy us dulls our spiritual awareness and before we realise it we step further and further away from God.

We all need to wage war on this enemy of materialism before it destroys us like it did in the parable told to us by Jesus in today’s reading. The way to win this battle is to surrender everything we own to God. When all we have is God’s it’s so easy to share it with others and give it awaywhen God calls us to.

Instead of being owners we become God’s stewards or servants, ever ready to use all that was once ours the way He wants us to.  We never get upset when He tells us to give all or part of it away.

When we surrender everything to Him we find that we are never lacking, but above all we are drawn into a wonderful deep personal relationship with God.  We truly become the happiest people on earth.  It’s so wonderful. 

PRAYER: Father, I recognise the danger of hanging onto my material possessions and working always to get more.  I repent of this and surrender all I own to you.  Make me your servant, ever ready to share all that was mine which ever way you want me to.  Thank you for allowing me to be your friend.  Amen.

 

SUNDAY 1ST.AUGUST
THIS WEEK’S MESSAGE

The message comes to us very clearly through Today’s readings that what we should value most in our lives is our relationship with God.     

When we think about what makes us the happiest in life, we could ask ourselves some questions.    Is it the amount of money we have?   Lots of people think it is so they spend all their life making more.   The trouble is that the more we make, the more we want.  We soon discover that money and wealth can never really make us happy.     If it’s not money is it our possessions that make us happy? Again we discover that our possessions do not really make us happy.   Is it the job we have that makes us happy?  Even though we get a lot of job satisfaction in the end the job itself cannever really make us happy.   What then can really make us happy?

I believe the answer to this question is, OUR RELATIONSHIPS!   True happiness come when we are loved by lots of people and when we give out lots of love to all those around us.    We build up our relationships by being generous with our money and by sharing all our possessions and when our work is doing things for other people.

The most important relationship in our lives is our relationship with God.   All our earthly relationships will one day come to an end with separation or death.   If we build up a strong relationship with God it will never end.   His word tells us, “This is eternal life: that we may know the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom He has sent”   The word ‘know’, means to have a good relationship with.   (John 17:3)   Having a relationship with God through His Son Jesus make us the happiest people on earth! We experience a Joy that will never end. (Incidentally when we find ourselves in Heaven I believe all our earthly relationships will be restored)

In the Gospel today Jesus warns us of the danger of storing up riches for ourselves without being generous towards God.   How can we be generous towards God?  Our second reading from Colossians gives us the answer.   We are to set our hearts on things above where Christ is seated and to get our minds off earthly things.  We are to stop gratifying our earthly human natures and seek to gratify God. 

We can gratify God by spending our lives for Him and for others.   Give God our time talents and money and give to others, especially those in need. Jesus told us when we give to the needy; we give to God (Matthew 25: 31-46)

When we value God more than anything else being generous towards Him becomes very easy.  To what we treasure most we give the most!  The more we give to God and to each other the more generous we become. God fulfils His promise to us when He says, “You will be made rich in every way so thatyou can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.” (2 Corinthians 9: 11) 

PRAYER

Jesus we thank you so much that you valued us so much that you gave your whole life for us on the cross. Help us to value you more than  anything by giving to you and giving to others, especially those in need. Please make us rich enough to be generous on every occasion. AMEN