MONDAY 28th.June
Isaiah 66:10-14
God the Great Comforter

There is nothing in the world more comforting than a mother comforting her baby. When he snuggles into her breasts he is filled with much more than the milk she gives him.  He experiences a wonderful sense of bliss as her love for him flows into his heart.  Peace flows like a river dispelling all his fears and anxiety. God’s love for us is just like a mother’s love for her baby.  As we snuggle into God in prayer and meditation we begin to experience the peace and comfort only God can bring. The comfort He gives us makes us feel so secure.  We feel so nourished as He feeds us with His living presence and pours love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit He gives us.  We experience His peace flowing like a river, flowing into our hearts giving us a tremendous sense of freedom.  We find ourselves free from worry and anxiety and free from the tempting power of the enemy.  It’s so wonderful.  He makes us so very, very happy and joyful.

PRAYER: Lord, help us to really snuggle into you in prayer and be nourished with your living presence.  Comfort us and strengthen us.  Fill us with your Holy Spirit and the love He always gives us.  May your peace flow into our hearts like a river setting us completely free, through Jesus our Lord.  Amen.

 

TUESDAY 29th.JUNE
Psalm 66
Cry out with joy to God

The more we experience God’s comfort and love the more we want to shout out to Him in songs of joyful praise.  He makes us so happy.  He’s so  wonderful.  God’s deeds are so awesome, so tremendous.  His power is so great.  How His enemies cringe before Him.  Eventually everyone in the world will realise that God is in charge and He has the ultimate victory.

We pity all those who go against God or disobey God and also those who just ignore God; also those who treat Him as if He does not exist.  They will all be so sorry on the day of judgement when it will be too late for them.  It’s up to us to tell everyone how great our God is.  Let’s all think of one or two things God has done for us and find people we can tell and help them to see how fantastic our God is.  In very simple ways we can all share with others and help to bring them to God.  We will be doing them such a great favour if we do.

As we come together and praise Him with all our hearts so that many may hear the sound of His praise He will fill us with His Spirit and give us all the power we need to be witnesses.  As we pray and ask Him for help He will most certainly give it to us.

PRAYER: O Lord, you are such a great God.  You are so awesomely powerful and have done such great things.  Thank you for all that you have done in my life.  Fill me with your great power that I may have the courage to tell others how great you are, through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

 

WEDNESDAY 30TH JUNE
Galatians 6:1-18
I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus

As we go through life’s journey the most troublesome enemy we encounter on the way is ourselves, our selfish sinful human nature.  We are all basically selfish and tend to want to put number “1" first.

It’s easy to see faults in others and when we do we must be ever so gentle in trying to put them right.  So often we think we are more spiritual and that we are better than we really are.  We should look at ourselves more closely before we go judging and condemning others.  So often we find that our number “1" enemy has been our own selfish attitudes overlooking our own faults and magnifying those of others.

We are told by the Bible in these verses to carry each others burdens, to do good to all people, especially those who belong to the family of believers.  We are told also to sow to please the Spirit and not our number “1" enemy - our sinful nature.  The more we try to do the right things, so often, the worse we get.

What is the recipe for getting it right? How can we be sure our number “1" enemy is defeated?   The answer is in verse 14.  “May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ through which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world”.

What this means is that we draw on the power released when Jesus died on the cross to put to death our own sinful human nature.  Number “1" must hang on the cross with Jesus every day.

It’s a good idea (I have done it often) to pray this verse of scripture every morning, just after we wake up. In this way we put to death our sinful natures and the number “1" enemy is completely defeated.  As we are crucified with Jesus we bear in our bodies his marks - his love, joy, peace, gentleness, self control etc etc.

PRAYER: Lord Jesus, we are conscious that our worst enemy is ourselves, our human nature.  Help us to believe every morning that we are crucified with Jesus and our number “1" enemy killed so we can bear on our bodies all the marks of Jesus and live each day in victory, through Jesus our crucified Saviour.  Amen.

 

THURSDAY 1st. JULY
2Kings 5:1-14
Naaman Healed of Leprosy

Many people in Israel had seen how powerfully God was at work through His prophet and servant Elisha.  It was the talk of the whole country.  An Israelite girl had been captured by the Syrian soldiers and became a slave in the house of the Army Officer, Naaman.  When Naaman was stricken with leprosy this little slave girl remembered hearing the wonderful things of how God healed others through Elisha so she recommended her Master Naaman to go to visit him.  When he eventually caught up with Elisha in Israel he was rather disappointed.  He expected a spectacular healing service.  Instead he was commanded to wash 7 times in the muddy, blue, green algae ridden River Jordan!  This made him furious.  He thought the rivers back at home were so much cleaner!  Then when one of his servants pointed out what a simple thing the man of God had told him to do, He was humble enough to obey and after he washed 7 times and came up out of the water the last trace of the terrible disease had gone.

He was over the moon with joy.  He changed his beliefs and gave his full allegiance to the God of Israel.  In those days it was as though there was a God for every country.  He didn’t realise that Israel’s God was the God of the whole world and He was its creator!  He took a barrow load of Israel’s soil to enable him to have Israel’s God.

PRAYER: Lord, help us to be like the Israelite slave and tell as many non-believers as we can find what God does in our lives so that they may experience His healing power and want to put their faith and trust in Him.    Amen.

 

FRIDAY 2nd. JULY
Luke 9: 12-24
Deny yourself to Help Jesus

We are all called to be Jesus’ helpers, every one of us.  As we examine what Jesus taught we see that there is one qualification we have to have to be effective helpers.  That is, we have to be willing to deny ourselves and give ourselves even if we only have a little to give.

Before Jesus fed the 5,000 He said to the disciples, “You give them something  to eat”.  They shared the little that they had and Jesus blessed it and made it adequate to feed so many.

After Peter had recognised that Jesus was the Christ, the Saviour of the world, Jesus shared with them that He would have to deny himself completely to save the world and told them how He would be crucified and rise again.

Jesus went on to tell the disciples that they too, had to deny themselves. If we want to save our lives we will lose them.  But if we are willing to lose our lives we will find them.

Every day we have to take up our own crosses.  This means denying ourselves.  If people demand of us, we must give all that we have.  If people are awful to us we must take it in love and a spirit of thankfulness and joy.  We must let people crucify us by the way they hurt us.  Then Jesus will save us and fill us with His Holy Spirit.

PRAYER: Fill us with power and enable us to help and love especially those who crucify us, so we will have power to bring them to Jesus.  Jesus, make us tough, tough enough to deny ourselves and let ourselves be crucified when people are awful to us.  Help us to give and give and give and always be happy and joyful to be put down so you can raise us up and use us as your helpers.  Amen.

 

SATURDAY 3rd. JULY
Luke 10:1-24
Jesus sends out His Helpers

Jesus appointed 72 of His disciples in a great ministry expedition to share the good news, heal the sick and cast out demons.  They were to be totally dependant on God to supply all their needs.  He didn’t promise it would be easy.  They would be like lambs among wolves, but God would protect them!

They were not to force themselves onto people and were told to wipe the dust off their feet when people rejected them.

They were to go with the power Jesus had given them and go in His Name.  He told them that those who listen to them listen to Him and those who reject them, reject Him and reject God who sent Jesus!

When Jesus sends out people in His name it’s as if He Himself is doing the ministry.

When they saw that their ministry was so successful and people were being healed and demons cast out, they began to really rejoice.  Jesus warned them not to get too proud about this.  It wasn’t their ministry but Jesus in them.  They were to rejoice only that they were called by Jesus and had their names written in Heaven.

PRAYER:  Lord Jesus, you call us to be your helpers.  Some you chose to be Priests and Bishops.  Fill us all with your Spirit.  Empower us all to do much in your name and as we see results help us to rejoice only that we have been called to be yours forever.  We give all the glory to you.   Amen.

 

SUNDAY 4TH.JULY
THIS WEEK’S MESSAGE

Jesus came to earth to establish His Kingdom by winning everyone to become part of His Body the Church.  It’s his will and His desire that everyone be saved and come under His rule!  God’s will is for all of us to end up in Heaven with His Father.  Jesus said, “I am the way the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6) And the Bible says, “God has given us eternal life, and this life is in the Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.” (1John 5:11-12)   God has revealed this truth to us who are Christians.  He has given us the responsibility of letting the whole world know this truth. It’s up to us to tell everyone that God loves them very much and wants them in Heaven and we have to warn them that the ONLY way to receive eternal life is through JESUS! We have to encourage everyone to open up their hearts to Jesus and accept Him as their Lord and Saviour.

Before we tell people about Jesus, we have to show Jesus to them.   We have to demonstrate to them all that Jesus has done for us. This means that we have to live like Jesus. The only way to do this is to draw on the power Jesus released for us when He died on the cross. We have to trust Jesus to crucify our sinful human natures till it’s no longer we who live but Christ who lives us. When this happens and the world has been crucified to us and we to the world we can echo the words of Saint Paul and say “WE bear in our bodies the marks of the Lord Jesus.”

Jesus enables us to become powerful witnesses by sending us the Holy Spirit, When  He fills  us in the Holy Spirit we receive tremendous power. This is the same power that God exerted when He raised Jesus form the dead.(Acts 1:8 & Ephesians 1:19)

This power enables us to tell people about Jesus and draw them close to Him

Jesus also pours lots of love into our hearts when He gives us the Holy Spirit. This gives us an incredible power to love other people.  Isaiah likens the love and compassion God has for us to the love a nursing mother has towards her baby.

Jesus fills us with this same compassion and empowers us to love the people all around us. The power of His love working in us draws  these people to Jesus

As Jesus sent out 72 disciples to spread the good news of the Kingdom so may He send us out to help Him win the world for God and share this Good News with as many people as we can. 

PRAYER

Holy Father, pour out Your Holy Spirit upon us all and make us powerful witnesses.  Help us to glory in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ by which theworld is crucified to us and we to the world. Kill our selfish selves and come and live in us. Amen

 

MONDAY 28th.June
Isaiah 66:10-14
God the Great Comforter

There is nothing in the world more comforting than a mother comforting her baby. When he snuggles into her breasts he is filled with much more than the milk she gives him.  He experiences a wonderful sense of bliss as her love for him flows into his heart.  Peace flows like a river dispelling all his fears and anxiety. God’s love for us is just like a mother’s love for her baby.  As we snuggle into God in prayer and meditation we begin to experience the peace and comfort only God can bring. The comfort He gives us makes us feel so secure.  We feel so nourished as He feeds us with His living presence and pours love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit He gives us.  We experience His peace flowing like a river, flowing into our hearts giving us a tremendous sense of freedom.  We find ourselves free from worry and anxiety and free from the tempting power of the enemy.  It’s so wonderful.  He makes us so very, very happy and joyful.

PRAYER: Lord, help us to really snuggle into you in prayer and be nourished with your living presence.  Comfort us and strengthen us.  Fill us with your Holy Spirit and the love He always gives us.  May your peace flow into our hearts like a river setting us completely free, through Jesus our Lord.  Amen.

 

TUESDAY 29th.JUNE
Psalm 66
Cry out with joy to God

The more we experience God’s comfort and love the more we want to shout out to Him in songs of joyful praise.  He makes us so happy.  He’s so  wonderful.  God’s deeds are so awesome, so tremendous.  His power is so great.  How His enemies cringe before Him.  Eventually everyone in the world will realise that God is in charge and He has the ultimate victory.

We pity all those who go against God or disobey God and also those who just ignore God; also those who treat Him as if He does not exist.  They will all be so sorry on the day of judgement when it will be too late for them.  It’s up to us to tell everyone how great our God is.  Let’s all think of one or two things God has done for us and find people we can tell and help them to see how fantastic our God is.  In very simple ways we can all share with others and help to bring them to God.  We will be doing them such a great favour if we do.

As we come together and praise Him with all our hearts so that many may hear the sound of His praise He will fill us with His Spirit and give us all the power we need to be witnesses.  As we pray and ask Him for help He will most certainly give it to us.

PRAYER: O Lord, you are such a great God.  You are so awesomely powerful and have done such great things.  Thank you for all that you have done in my life.  Fill me with your great power that I may have the courage to tell others how great you are, through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

 

WEDNESDAY 30TH JUNE
Galatians 6:1-18
I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus

As we go through life’s journey the most troublesome enemy we encounter on the way is ourselves, our selfish sinful human nature.  We are all basically selfish and tend to want to put number “1" first.

It’s easy to see faults in others and when we do we must be ever so gentle in trying to put them right.  So often we think we are more spiritual and that we are better than we really are.  We should look at ourselves more closely before we go judging and condemning others.  So often we find that our number “1" enemy has been our own selfish attitudes overlooking our own faults and magnifying those of others.

We are told by the Bible in these verses to carry each others burdens, to do good to all people, especially those who belong to the family of believers.  We are told also to sow to please the Spirit and not our number “1" enemy - our sinful nature.  The more we try to do the right things, so often, the worse we get.

What is the recipe for getting it right? How can we be sure our number “1" enemy is defeated?   The answer is in verse 14.  “May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ through which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world”.

What this means is that we draw on the power released when Jesus died on the cross to put to death our own sinful human nature.  Number “1" must hang on the cross with Jesus every day.

It’s a good idea (I have done it often) to pray this verse of scripture every morning, just after we wake up. In this way we put to death our sinful natures and the number “1" enemy is completely defeated.  As we are crucified with Jesus we bear in our bodies his marks - his love, joy, peace, gentleness, self control etc etc.

PRAYER: Lord Jesus, we are conscious that our worst enemy is ourselves, our human nature.  Help us to believe every morning that we are crucified with Jesus and our number “1" enemy killed so we can bear on our bodies all the marks of Jesus and live each day in victory, through Jesus our crucified Saviour.  Amen.

 

THURSDAY 1st. JULY
2Kings 5:1-14
Naaman Healed of Leprosy

Many people in Israel had seen how powerfully God was at work through His prophet and servant Elisha.  It was the talk of the whole country.  An Israelite girl had been captured by the Syrian soldiers and became a slave in the house of the Army Officer, Naaman.  When Naaman was stricken with leprosy this little slave girl remembered hearing the wonderful things of how God healed others through Elisha so she recommended her Master Naaman to go to visit him.  When he eventually caught up with Elisha in Israel he was rather disappointed.  He expected a spectacular healing service.  Instead he was commanded to wash 7 times in the muddy, blue, green algae ridden River Jordan!  This made him furious.  He thought the rivers back at home were so much cleaner!  Then when one of his servants pointed out what a simple thing the man of God had told him to do, He was humble enough to obey and after he washed 7 times and came up out of the water the last trace of the terrible disease had gone.

He was over the moon with joy.  He changed his beliefs and gave his full allegiance to the God of Israel.  In those days it was as though there was a God for every country.  He didn’t realise that Israel’s God was the God of the whole world and He was its creator!  He took a barrow load of Israel’s soil to enable him to have Israel’s God.

PRAYER: Lord, help us to be like the Israelite slave and tell as many non-believers as we can find what God does in our lives so that they may experience His healing power and want to put their faith and trust in Him.    Amen.

 

FRIDAY 2nd. JULY
Luke 9: 12-24
Deny yourself to Help Jesus

We are all called to be Jesus’ helpers, every one of us.  As we examine what Jesus taught we see that there is one qualification we have to have to be effective helpers.  That is, we have to be willing to deny ourselves and give ourselves even if we only have a little to give.

Before Jesus fed the 5,000 He said to the disciples, “You give them something  to eat”.  They shared the little that they had and Jesus blessed it and made it adequate to feed so many.

After Peter had recognised that Jesus was the Christ, the Saviour of the world, Jesus shared with them that He would have to deny himself completely to save the world and told them how He would be crucified and rise again.

Jesus went on to tell the disciples that they too, had to deny themselves. If we want to save our lives we will lose them.  But if we are willing to lose our lives we will find them.

Every day we have to take up our own crosses.  This means denying ourselves.  If people demand of us, we must give all that we have.  If people are awful to us we must take it in love and a spirit of thankfulness and joy.  We must let people crucify us by the way they hurt us.  Then Jesus will save us and fill us with His Holy Spirit.

PRAYER: Fill us with power and enable us to help and love especially those who crucify us, so we will have power to bring them to Jesus.  Jesus, make us tough, tough enough to deny ourselves and let ourselves be crucified when people are awful to us.  Help us to give and give and give and always be happy and joyful to be put down so you can raise us up and use us as your helpers.  Amen.

 

SATURDAY 3rd. JULY
Luke 10:1-24
Jesus sends out His Helpers

Jesus appointed 72 of His disciples in a great ministry expedition to share the good news, heal the sick and cast out demons.  They were to be totally dependant on God to supply all their needs.  He didn’t promise it would be easy.  They would be like lambs among wolves, but God would protect them!

They were not to force themselves onto people and were told to wipe the dust off their feet when people rejected them.

They were to go with the power Jesus had given them and go in His Name.  He told them that those who listen to them listen to Him and those who reject them, reject Him and reject God who sent Jesus!

When Jesus sends out people in His name it’s as if He Himself is doing the ministry.

When they saw that their ministry was so successful and people were being healed and demons cast out, they began to really rejoice.  Jesus warned them not to get too proud about this.  It wasn’t their ministry but Jesus in them.  They were to rejoice only that they were called by Jesus and had their names written in Heaven.

PRAYER:  Lord Jesus, you call us to be your helpers.  Some you chose to be Priests and Bishops.  Fill us all with your Spirit.  Empower us all to do much in your name and as we see results help us to rejoice only that we have been called to be yours forever.  We give all the glory to you.   Amen.

 

SUNDAY 4TH.JULY
THIS WEEK’S MESSAGE

Jesus came to earth to establish His Kingdom by winning everyone to become part of His Body the Church.  It’s his will and His desire that everyone be saved and come under His rule!  God’s will is for all of us to end up in Heaven with His Father.  Jesus said, “I am the way the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6) And the Bible says, “God has given us eternal life, and this life is in the Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.” (1John 5:11-12)   God has revealed this truth to us who are Christians.  He has given us the responsibility of letting the whole world know this truth. It’s up to us to tell everyone that God loves them very much and wants them in Heaven and we have to warn them that the ONLY way to receive eternal life is through JESUS! We have to encourage everyone to open up their hearts to Jesus and accept Him as their Lord and Saviour.

Before we tell people about Jesus, we have to show Jesus to them.   We have to demonstrate to them all that Jesus has done for us. This means that we have to live like Jesus. The only way to do this is to draw on the power Jesus released for us when He died on the cross. We have to trust Jesus to crucify our sinful human natures till it’s no longer we who live but Christ who lives us. When this happens and the world has been crucified to us and we to the world we can echo the words of Saint Paul and say “WE bear in our bodies the marks of the Lord Jesus.”

Jesus enables us to become powerful witnesses by sending us the Holy Spirit, When  He fills  us in the Holy Spirit we receive tremendous power. This is the same power that God exerted when He raised Jesus form the dead.(Acts 1:8 & Ephesians 1:19)

This power enables us to tell people about Jesus and draw them close to Him

Jesus also pours lots of love into our hearts when He gives us the Holy Spirit. This gives us an incredible power to love other people.  Isaiah likens the love and compassion God has for us to the love a nursing mother has towards her baby.

Jesus fills us with this same compassion and empowers us to love the people all around us. The power of His love working in us draws  these people to Jesus

As Jesus sent out 72 disciples to spread the good news of the Kingdom so may He send us out to help Him win the world for God and share this Good News with as many people as we can. 

PRAYER

Holy Father, pour out Your Holy Spirit upon us all and make us powerful witnesses.  Help us to glory in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ by which theworld is crucified to us and we to the world. Kill our selfish selves and come and live in us. Amen