MONDAY 31st.MAY
1 Kings 17:8-24
Life Given Back To The Dead

When Elijah, the man of God, had nowhere to live, he was given hospitality by a widow from Zarephath.  This lady had experienced a miracle of provision when her small food supply multiplied before her eyes to enable her to feed the prophet.  God had spoken to Elijah and told him that a widow in Zarepath would supply him with food. He soon found a widow gathering sticks and asked her to feed him. She said that was impossible because she only had ingredients for one meal. After eating that she was expecting to starve to death. Elijah told her not to be afraid but to go ahead and make a meal for him, herself, her son. God had promised him that the ingredient would not run out until after the drought had broken. God kept His promise and she was able to go on feeding her family and Elijah  Soon  after, tragedy struck her house her young son died.  She was stricken with deep grief. 

Her immediate reaction was to think that God had punished her for her sins by letting her little boy die. Elijah knew that this attitude, an attitude which people often have today, was not right.  He knew God loved her very much and didn’t want her to suffer.  He also had tremendous faith in the power of God to raise the dead. 

Elijah took the tiny child to his room. He prayed and asked God to cause the boy’s soul to return to him.  After he had finished praying he stretched himself out on top of the boy and life came back to him.  He was alive again.  This answered prayer and powerful miracle reinforced the widow’s assurance that Elijah really was a man of God.  She knew that what he said really did come from God. In my life I have only met 3 persons who have been raised from the dead!  These miracles are not common but another one is.  In Ephesians 2:1 the Bible says, “You were dead in your transgressions and sins”… “But God made us alive, He raised us with Christ”.  Conversion is this common miracle. It is indeed a rising from the dead.

PRAYER: Thank you that you have the power to raise the dead. Thank you that when we were dead in our sins you raised us to life through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

TUESDAY 1s. JUNE
Psalm 30
I will praise you Lord, for you have rescued me

Yesterday, we saw that though the miracle of being raised from the dead physically is not common, there is another type of raising from the dead that is very common.  It is a miracle that every person needs to experience; it is the miracle of conversion or salvation.  “The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:23)..  “I tell you the truth, whoever hears my words and believes Him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned, he has crossed from death to life” (John 5:24).  It is when we believe in Jesus and put our faith in Him as Saviour that we are born again and this miracle happens.  Because of sin we were destined for hell, eternal death, but now God has rescued us and we know we have been delivered from hell.  In other words, being converted is like being raised from the dead. 

This psalm is a song of praise to God for this fantastic miracle. He has rescued us from eternal damnation and set us free.  We were once miserable and full of tears but now there is only joy; the joy of knowing that we are His forever.  We were once unhappy at the thought of death but now we dance and sing because we know that death will not destroy us and we will be His forever.

PRAYER: Father, thank you so much for rescuing us from eternal death.  We rejoice and dance and sing for we know that we will share eternity with you, through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

WEDNESDAY 2nd. JUNE
Galatians 1:11-19
Nothing that man made up

The Gospel is the Good News.  It tells of the possibility of every person being saved by Jesus from death to eternal life.  Many people may think that this is ‘an old wives tale’ – something that has been made up.  In this reading Paul reminds us that this is not the case. He knows that the Gospel is the truth because he was not taught it by any man but received it in a direct revelation from Jesus Christ Himself.  Paul did not know Jesus before His death, resurrection and ascension.  Paul met Jesus in many, many visions (2Cor 12:1).  He received from Jesus the same Good News that Peter and the Apostles were preaching.  In this reading he is very emphatic to point out that he couldn’t have received it from the Apostles because he had no direct contact with them. 

The fact that he did not receive the message from others is proof that it really does come from God. Today when the miracle of conversion happens to us and we really do get to know Jesus, whether this takes place gradually or instantaneously, we sense, in a really wonderful way, that He is communicating  directly to our hearts.  I am sure of this myself.

PRAYER: Father, thank you that the Gospel is not something man made up but the truth you reveal to us.  Please go on speaking to each one of us in our hearts.  Amen.

THURSDAY 3rd. JUNE
Galatians 1:20-24
The Word of God changes lives

Saul of Tarsus was a very conscientious Jew.  No one observed their religion better than he did and so when Jesus’ followers had the audacity to claim that He was the Messiah, Saul was very intent on persecuting them.  He was zealous to put an end to this strange teaching.  Saul was stopped in his tracks.  God had specially chosen him when he was born, but  he didn’t know that.  He didn’t know it but God’s plan was for him to be the very first foreign missionary.  On the way to Damascus to get rid of more Christians, Jesus stopped Saul and made Himself known to him.  Within a few days he was converted and filled with the Holy Spirit.  He had become a ‘new creation’ – a brand new man.  He had passed from death to life.  As he took on his new Christian name, Paul, all his enthusiasm and zealousness was redirected to telling everyone the wonderful good news of Jesus. 

Everyone was amazed at the change.  At first the Apostles were frightened of him until they themselves saw the change and discerned that the Lord Jesus was truly living in His heart!  Today more than 2,000 years later the power of the Gospel is still being demonstrated by many, many changed lives.

PRAYER:  Thank you Father that we can be so sure of your Gospel as we see it working so well and changing so many lives.  Please go on changing me to be more like Jesus.  Amen.

FRIDAY 4TH JUNE
Luke 7:11-13
Jesus’ Heart goes out to the Bereaved

Jesus loves us all so much that He really does hate to see us suffering. When He saw how sad this widow was at the funeral of her only son He had so much compassion for her, His heart went out to her and He said, “Don’t cry”.  He said this because He knew that very shortly there would be no need for her to cry.  Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever and He is just as keen to help us as He was to help this poor lady.  Jesus’ heart goes out particularly to all those who are as good as dead (in their sins) because they haven’t come to Him to be given the miracle of new life!  He has so much compassion for all these people!  We must remember that we are his body now.  For these people to get new life they need to hear the Good News and be led to Him.  This is our responsibility.  Jesus says to us exactly what He said to the Apostles – go and make everyone you can my disciples.

PRAYER: Father, thank you so much for the tremendous compassion Jesus has for all those who are suffering.  We pray especially for those who are dead in sins because they don’t know Him.  May we be used by you to bring them to Him.  Amen.

SATURDAY 5TH JUNE
Luke 7:14-17
The Dead Man sat up

When Edmund Wilbourne, who was once the head of the Church Army in England, was a young man he died of the disease of pleurisy.  Does that sound strange to you?  After he died he can remember going to Heaven and meeting Jesus. He found out that only those who had known Jesus on earth knew Jesus in Heaven.  Jesus told him someone was praying for him and wanted him back on earth and that he was sending him back.  Several hours after he was proclaimed dead by the doctors in a hospital Edmund sat up … very much alive … on the slab in the morgue where he had been laid out.  He then spent several minutes reviving a mortuary attendant who had fainted!   No wonder!

I have met Edmund myself and know this to be a true story.  Laura, a member of  St Faith’s Strathpine Church has given us a wonderful testimony of how she, too, has had an after-death experience and has been raised.  When Jesus raised the widow’s son and he sat up in his coffin, all the people were filled with awe and praised God. 

They were full of joy because they had experienced God coming to help His people.  They had no doubts.  Let us pray that when people hear about Edmund and Laura and many others who have been raised by God today, that all their doubts will fly away and they too will be just as sure that God has indeed come to help his people right now in the 21st century.

PRAYER: Father, when trouble of all sorts come our way help us to rely not on ourselves but on you who raises the dead, through Jesus our Saviour.  Amen.

SUNDAY 6TH. JUNE
THIS WEEK’S MESSAGE

Jesus has so much power and He is full of compassion.  When he was confronted with a funeral procession His heart went out to the widow whose son had died. All he wanted to do was to take away her grief and dry up her tears.  He used His great power to raise the young ma from the dead. He touched the coffin and asked the man to get up. To everyone’s utter amazement he did just that, he sat up and began to talk!!!

Jesus is the same yesterday, today and for ever.   I have heard of several cases where people have been raise from the dead after people have prayed to Jesus for them. I mentioned Edmund Wilbourne and Laura in the notes last week. Here is another miracle I have seen before my very eyes.  In 1977 I was at a conference run by Selwyn Hughes in England. During a communion service a lady

called Mrs Brown collapsed in front of me. A doctor sitting close to us saw that she had stopped breathing and was turning blue.  He sent for some instruments so he could try to revive her. Meanwhile, a friend and I asked if we could pray for her. As soon as we started praying she sat up and was perfectly well.  The Doctor was astounded. He told everyone about the miracle he had seen during the testimony time at the end of the conference.

These sorts of miracles are not very common. We don’t see many people being raised from the dead. There is another miracle which is much more common. It is like Being raised from the dead. It is when people who are dead in their transgressions and sins (Ephesians 2:1) come to life after they have surrendered their lives to Jesus, repented of their sins and asked Jesus to take over their lives as their Lord and Saviour.  When they do this, ‘God, who is rich in mercy makes them alive with Christ even when they were dead in their transgressions!’ (Ephesians 2:4-5)  When we hear the Word of truth and respond to it (Ephesians 1:13) we are born again and made into new people.  The same power that God exerted when He raises Jesus from the dead is applied to us.(Ephesians 1.19)

When we are born again we are truly raised from the dead. We are given the free gift of Eternal life. Jesus gave us this free gift when he payed the price for us on the cross and accepted the death penalty that our sins deserve. Jesus said, “The Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in Him may have eternal life!” John 3:14-15)

Let us pray that all people who hear this wonderful good news will respond to Jesus and experience the miracle of being raised from death, caused by their sins, into eternal life. God is so loving and compassionate. He always gives eternal life to those who come to Him, through Jesus, in a fairdincum way.

PRAYER

Father we thank you so much for your enormous love for us all: For allowing Your Son Jesus to die and rise again so that all who choose to trust and obey  Him have the assurance that we have died to self and been raised to new life. We look forward to living with You for ever. Amen

MONDAY 31st.MAY
1 Kings 17:8-24
Life Given Back To The Dead

When Elijah, the man of God, had nowhere to live, he was given hospitality by a widow from Zarephath.  This lady had experienced a miracle of provision when her small food supply multiplied before her eyes to enable her to feed the prophet.  God had spoken to Elijah and told him that a widow in Zarepath would supply him with food. He soon found a widow gathering sticks and asked her to feed him. She said that was impossible because she only had ingredients for one meal. After eating that she was expecting to starve to death. Elijah told her not to be afraid but to go ahead and make a meal for him, herself, her son. God had promised him that the ingredient would not run out until after the drought had broken. God kept His promise and she was able to go on feeding her family and Elijah  Soon  after, tragedy struck her house her young son died.  She was stricken with deep grief. 

Her immediate reaction was to think that God had punished her for her sins by letting her little boy die. Elijah knew that this attitude, an attitude which people often have today, was not right.  He knew God loved her very much and didn’t want her to suffer.  He also had tremendous faith in the power of God to raise the dead. 

Elijah took the tiny child to his room. He prayed and asked God to cause the boy’s soul to return to him.  After he had finished praying he stretched himself out on top of the boy and life came back to him.  He was alive again.  This answered prayer and powerful miracle reinforced the widow’s assurance that Elijah really was a man of God.  She knew that what he said really did come from God. In my life I have only met 3 persons who have been raised from the dead!  These miracles are not common but another one is.  In Ephesians 2:1 the Bible says, “You were dead in your transgressions and sins”… “But God made us alive, He raised us with Christ”.  Conversion is this common miracle. It is indeed a rising from the dead.

PRAYER: Thank you that you have the power to raise the dead. Thank you that when we were dead in our sins you raised us to life through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

TUESDAY 1s. JUNE
Psalm 30
I will praise you Lord, for you have rescued me

Yesterday, we saw that though the miracle of being raised from the dead physically is not common, there is another type of raising from the dead that is very common.  It is a miracle that every person needs to experience; it is the miracle of conversion or salvation.  “The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:23)..  “I tell you the truth, whoever hears my words and believes Him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned, he has crossed from death to life” (John 5:24).  It is when we believe in Jesus and put our faith in Him as Saviour that we are born again and this miracle happens.  Because of sin we were destined for hell, eternal death, but now God has rescued us and we know we have been delivered from hell.  In other words, being converted is like being raised from the dead. 

This psalm is a song of praise to God for this fantastic miracle. He has rescued us from eternal damnation and set us free.  We were once miserable and full of tears but now there is only joy; the joy of knowing that we are His forever.  We were once unhappy at the thought of death but now we dance and sing because we know that death will not destroy us and we will be His forever.

PRAYER: Father, thank you so much for rescuing us from eternal death.  We rejoice and dance and sing for we know that we will share eternity with you, through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

WEDNESDAY 2nd. JUNE
Galatians 1:11-19
Nothing that man made up

The Gospel is the Good News.  It tells of the possibility of every person being saved by Jesus from death to eternal life.  Many people may think that this is ‘an old wives tale’ – something that has been made up.  In this reading Paul reminds us that this is not the case. He knows that the Gospel is the truth because he was not taught it by any man but received it in a direct revelation from Jesus Christ Himself.  Paul did not know Jesus before His death, resurrection and ascension.  Paul met Jesus in many, many visions (2Cor 12:1).  He received from Jesus the same Good News that Peter and the Apostles were preaching.  In this reading he is very emphatic to point out that he couldn’t have received it from the Apostles because he had no direct contact with them. 

The fact that he did not receive the message from others is proof that it really does come from God. Today when the miracle of conversion happens to us and we really do get to know Jesus, whether this takes place gradually or instantaneously, we sense, in a really wonderful way, that He is communicating  directly to our hearts.  I am sure of this myself.

PRAYER: Father, thank you that the Gospel is not something man made up but the truth you reveal to us.  Please go on speaking to each one of us in our hearts.  Amen.

THURSDAY 3rd. JUNE
Galatians 1:20-24
The Word of God changes lives

Saul of Tarsus was a very conscientious Jew.  No one observed their religion better than he did and so when Jesus’ followers had the audacity to claim that He was the Messiah, Saul was very intent on persecuting them.  He was zealous to put an end to this strange teaching.  Saul was stopped in his tracks.  God had specially chosen him when he was born, but  he didn’t know that.  He didn’t know it but God’s plan was for him to be the very first foreign missionary.  On the way to Damascus to get rid of more Christians, Jesus stopped Saul and made Himself known to him.  Within a few days he was converted and filled with the Holy Spirit.  He had become a ‘new creation’ – a brand new man.  He had passed from death to life.  As he took on his new Christian name, Paul, all his enthusiasm and zealousness was redirected to telling everyone the wonderful good news of Jesus. 

Everyone was amazed at the change.  At first the Apostles were frightened of him until they themselves saw the change and discerned that the Lord Jesus was truly living in His heart!  Today more than 2,000 years later the power of the Gospel is still being demonstrated by many, many changed lives.

PRAYER:  Thank you Father that we can be so sure of your Gospel as we see it working so well and changing so many lives.  Please go on changing me to be more like Jesus.  Amen.

FRIDAY 4TH JUNE
Luke 7:11-13
Jesus’ Heart goes out to the Bereaved

Jesus loves us all so much that He really does hate to see us suffering. When He saw how sad this widow was at the funeral of her only son He had so much compassion for her, His heart went out to her and He said, “Don’t cry”.  He said this because He knew that very shortly there would be no need for her to cry.  Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever and He is just as keen to help us as He was to help this poor lady.  Jesus’ heart goes out particularly to all those who are as good as dead (in their sins) because they haven’t come to Him to be given the miracle of new life!  He has so much compassion for all these people!  We must remember that we are his body now.  For these people to get new life they need to hear the Good News and be led to Him.  This is our responsibility.  Jesus says to us exactly what He said to the Apostles – go and make everyone you can my disciples.

PRAYER: Father, thank you so much for the tremendous compassion Jesus has for all those who are suffering.  We pray especially for those who are dead in sins because they don’t know Him.  May we be used by you to bring them to Him.  Amen.

SATURDAY 5TH JUNE
Luke 7:14-17
The Dead Man sat up

When Edmund Wilbourne, who was once the head of the Church Army in England, was a young man he died of the disease of pleurisy.  Does that sound strange to you?  After he died he can remember going to Heaven and meeting Jesus. He found out that only those who had known Jesus on earth knew Jesus in Heaven.  Jesus told him someone was praying for him and wanted him back on earth and that he was sending him back.  Several hours after he was proclaimed dead by the doctors in a hospital Edmund sat up … very much alive … on the slab in the morgue where he had been laid out.  He then spent several minutes reviving a mortuary attendant who had fainted!   No wonder!

I have met Edmund myself and know this to be a true story.  Laura, a member of  St Faith’s Strathpine Church has given us a wonderful testimony of how she, too, has had an after-death experience and has been raised.  When Jesus raised the widow’s son and he sat up in his coffin, all the people were filled with awe and praised God. 

They were full of joy because they had experienced God coming to help His people.  They had no doubts.  Let us pray that when people hear about Edmund and Laura and many others who have been raised by God today, that all their doubts will fly away and they too will be just as sure that God has indeed come to help his people right now in the 21st century.

PRAYER: Father, when trouble of all sorts come our way help us to rely not on ourselves but on you who raises the dead, through Jesus our Saviour.  Amen.

SUNDAY 6TH. JUNE
THIS WEEK’S MESSAGE

Jesus has so much power and He is full of compassion.  When he was confronted with a funeral procession His heart went out to the widow whose son had died. All he wanted to do was to take away her grief and dry up her tears.  He used His great power to raise the young ma from the dead. He touched the coffin and asked the man to get up. To everyone’s utter amazement he did just that, he sat up and began to talk!!!

Jesus is the same yesterday, today and for ever.   I have heard of several cases where people have been raise from the dead after people have prayed to Jesus for them. I mentioned Edmund Wilbourne and Laura in the notes last week. Here is another miracle I have seen before my very eyes.  In 1977 I was at a conference run by Selwyn Hughes in England. During a communion service a lady

called Mrs Brown collapsed in front of me. A doctor sitting close to us saw that she had stopped breathing and was turning blue.  He sent for some instruments so he could try to revive her. Meanwhile, a friend and I asked if we could pray for her. As soon as we started praying she sat up and was perfectly well.  The Doctor was astounded. He told everyone about the miracle he had seen during the testimony time at the end of the conference.

These sorts of miracles are not very common. We don’t see many people being raised from the dead. There is another miracle which is much more common. It is like Being raised from the dead. It is when people who are dead in their transgressions and sins (Ephesians 2:1) come to life after they have surrendered their lives to Jesus, repented of their sins and asked Jesus to take over their lives as their Lord and Saviour.  When they do this, ‘God, who is rich in mercy makes them alive with Christ even when they were dead in their transgressions!’ (Ephesians 2:4-5)  When we hear the Word of truth and respond to it (Ephesians 1:13) we are born again and made into new people.  The same power that God exerted when He raises Jesus from the dead is applied to us.(Ephesians 1.19)

When we are born again we are truly raised from the dead. We are given the free gift of Eternal life. Jesus gave us this free gift when he payed the price for us on the cross and accepted the death penalty that our sins deserve. Jesus said, “The Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in Him may have eternal life!” John 3:14-15)

Let us pray that all people who hear this wonderful good news will respond to Jesus and experience the miracle of being raised from death, caused by their sins, into eternal life. God is so loving and compassionate. He always gives eternal life to those who come to Him, through Jesus, in a fairdincum way.

PRAYER

Father we thank you so much for your enormous love for us all: For allowing Your Son Jesus to die and rise again so that all who choose to trust and obey  Him have the assurance that we have died to self and been raised to new life. We look forward to living with You for ever. Amen