MONDAY 3rd. MAY
Acts 16:9-15
The Lord opened her heart

Paul had been ministering in Asia Minor but he felt God was blocking him there.  Then he had a vision in which he heard a man from Macedonia calling him to come over and help them.  God was guiding him across the water into Greece.

Paul’s first ministry was to Lydia and her family.  As Paul was preaching, the Lord opened Lydia’s heart to respond to his message.  As a result, she put her faith and trust in the Lord Jesus and received from Him the free gift of salvation.  As she and her family were baptised they were born again as children of God, members of Christ’s body and inheritors of eternal life.

Before we witness to people, or share the Good News of Jesus, it is vitally important that we pray for them first.  We have to pray that the Lord will open their hearts to receive the message as Lydia did.  If they do not open their hearts, the message preached to them, however powerfully it is given, can never penetrate their hearts and lead to their salvation.

As we pray for people we have to be ever so patient.  Sometimes it takes years before the Lord opens their hearts.  He opens their heart when He knows they are ready to receive Him. God wants all people saved so He wants us to go on and on praying.

PRAYER:  Father, we lift up to you all the people around us who have resisted your Good News.  Give us lots of faith and the gift of perseverance so that we may go on praying for all those who do not yet know the Lord, until the day you open their hearts.  Amen.

 

TUESDAY 4TH MAY
Psalm 67
May all the Peoples Praise You!

This Psalm is a prayer for the revival of the whole world.  By revival we mean that people come alive in a new way with the life of God transforming their lives.  The Bible says that without God “we were dead in our transgressions and sins” but God “made us alive with Christ” (Ephesians 2:1 and 2:5). 

Jesus died and rose again to bring this new life to all the people of the world. God has given us a very special task. He wants us to be his instruments in spreading this revival. How do we start?  Revival always starts with me. We pray this Psalm “May God be gracious to us and bless us and make His face shine upon us”.  Then we make the decision to accept Jesus as the Lord and Saviour of our lives and as we put all our faith in what Jesus did for us in His death on the cross and resurrection, then God’s grace pours into our hearts.  We are given new life.  We catch on fire. 

We become aglow.  The old self fades away and Jesus comes alive in our hearts.

Soon everyone around us can see the difference.  They say, “We want what you’ve got”.  Soon we start sharing with them the reason for the new hope we have received (1 Peter 3:15).  Then they open their hearts to God.  They come alive with the new life of Jesus and so revival spreads and spreads. 

Soon all the people who have been set on fire with the love of Jesus burst into praise.  The more they praise and worship the Lord the more of His grace pours into their hearts.  Their whole world becomes filled with tremendous joy.  God takes over their lives and makes life on earth more wonderful than they could ever imagine.

PRAYER:   Father God, Gracious Lord, please send revival.  Start with me.  Set me on fire with love for you then draw others around me to catch the fire until all the people alive with your Spirit praise you with so much joy, through Jesus our Lord and Saviour.  Amen.

 

WEDNESDAY 5TH MAY
Revelation 21:10-23
A glimpse of Heaven

When revival comes and Jesus comes alive in our hearts and we are aglow with the light of God throughout all of our lives, it is as if we are experiencing heaven on earth.  It is a fantastic experience but it is only a taste of a more fantastic life that awaits us in heaven.  John gave us a glimpse of this in our reading today.  There will be no churches to go to in heaven.  It will be like being in church all the time (no more one hour services).  We will be so happy because we are in the living presence of Jesus all the time.  There will be no sun or moon to give light.  The glorious presence of God and Jesus, the Lamb of God, will radiate such a powerful light.  Heaven is so pure so beautiful, so absolutely lovely that nothing can improve on being in it.

Before people enter heaven they must have been washed in the blood of the Lamb - the Lord Jesus.

Through repentance and faith in the power of the cross all their sins, doubts fears etc are completely washed away.  They are clothed with the perfect robes of righteous living.  Their names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.  They are given the gift of eternal life.  In heaven they are kept alive by the river of life that flows from God’s throne.  They continually eat from the fruit of the tree of life.  It’s so wonderful; we just can’t wait to get there!

PRAYER:  Jesus, thank you for revealing this vision of heaven to us through your servant John.  We repent of all our sins and put all our faith and trust in the power that you gave us when you died on the cross so that we will be made pure and have our names written in the Lamb’s book of life and enjoy your fantastic presence for ever more.  Amen.

 

THURSDAY 6TH MAY
Acts 12:20-13:5
The Power of God at Work in the Early Church

It’s always exciting to read the Acts of the Apostles - we see the wonderful way God poured out his Holy Spirit and how quickly the church grew. It’s very dangerous for political leaders to take the glory that should only be given to God uponthemselves.  King Herod became so popular - people started worshipping him as a God.  This did not please God.  Soon Herod had been struck down by God.

We need to realise that God’s wrath is not a thing of the past.  There is a need for people who come against God to realise God is to be feared!  Unless they respect God they will perish.  God’s power becomes known to people as His word spreads.  This is because God’s word induces faith in people’s hearts. The bible says, “Faith comes from hearing the message and the message is heard through the word of Christ” (Romans 10:17).

God needs more people to be empowered to spread His word.  As the believers in Antioch came together to worship God and as they fasted, soon they could hear God talking to them.  (The more we worship God and fast, the more we will hear God speaking to us).  As God spoke, He told them to set apart and ordain Paul and Barnabas to be preachers of His word.

Today God needs more people.  He wants to anoint them with His Spirit to be empowered to spread the word in Pine Rivers and Brisbane and all over Australia. Let’s keep our spiritual ears open as we come together to worship Him and as we fast, so that we can discern who it is God is calling into His sacred ministry.

PRAYER:  God, the harvest is plentiful but the labourers are few. As you call us to fast and pray, reveal to us who you wish to set apart as speakers of your word, that it may spread powerfully, so everyone has the opportunity to hear your message and be saved, through Jesus our Saviour.  Amen.

FRIDAY 7TH MAY
Revelation 3:14-22
Whole hearted service - Hotted up Christians

For God to be able to spread His word with power He needs people who are absolutely and utterly on fire with love for Him.  God can’t stand luke-warm people.  He certainly can’t use them as His ministers.  When He saw how luke-warm some of the Christians in Laodicea were, He wanted to spit them out of His mouth.

If we are honest, most of us need to admit that we often suffer from being lukewarm.  We all need to be ‘hotted up’.  As our teenagers like to hot up their cars to get more power out of them, so God wants to hot us up to get more power working in us. We have to let Jesus hot us up.  This means we have to let Him rebuke and discipline us.  When He does, we have to be fair-dinkum and repent.

What really makes us hotted up (like a twin carburettor) is to let Jesus come and live in our hearts.  When we are luke-warm Jesus stands at the doors of our hearts and knocks, longing to be let in!  If we open the door and let Him come in, the spiritual food He feed us hots us up fantastically.

Hotted up servants of the Lord soon become over-comers,  overcoming all obstacles to spreading God’s word and overcoming the devil’s attempts to put out the fire and make them luke-warm again.

PRAYER:  Jesus we admit that so often we have let ourselves become so lukewarm.  Please rebuke us and discipline us until we repent.  As we hear you knocking at the doors of our hearts, we invite you to come in so that your spiritual food may hot us up, ready to spread your word with great power!  Amen.

 

SATURDAY 8TH MAY
John 14:23-29
Jesus makes His home with us

If you feel at home with someone you feel completely relaxed in their presence and you get very close to them.  Sometimes we go to someone’s home and we don’t feel at home.  We are so shy and fearful that we feel uncomfortable in their presence.  Sometimes we just can’t wait to get away so we can relax again.

A true Christian is someone who lets Jesus and His Father feel absolutely at home with them and who feels perfectly relaxed, without shyness and fear in the presence of God.  Jesus said that He and His Father would make their home with us when we love Jesus and obey His teaching. We do need help in order to be able to let Jesus and Father God feel at home with us.  That’s why Jesus sends us the Holy Spirit.  He is our special helper and counsellor.  God the Father sends the Spirit to us in Jesus’ name.  He has a special task to do.  He is our great teacher.  He teaches us all we need toknow and reminds us of all that Jesus has said to us in His word.  He makes the Bible come alive for us.  He shows us what God wants us to do and how we are to obey Him.  Above all He shows us how wonderful God is and how much the Father and Jesus love us. He makes us love Jesus very much. Under His influence we really love Jesus’ teaching. 

When God is at home with us we experience a fantastic PEACE.  The world can never give us this peace. When it comes, we are never afraid and our hearts are never troubled!

PRAYER:   Jesus we love you so much we want to obey you.  Come Father and make your home with us. Come Holy Spirit, teach us all we need to know.  Make the Bible come alive and remind us of all Jesus’ teachings. Make us love Jesus and obey Him so we can always feel at home in your presence and experience that peace that only you can give. Amen.

SUNDAY 9TH.MAY
MOTHERS’ DAY
THIS WEEK’S MESSAGE 

Jesus and His Father make Their Home with US!

True friends are those who always feel at home when they come into our homes.  They never feel shy, awkward or out of place.  Their presence never makes us feel uncomfortable.  They become part of our families.

In today’s gospel Jesus tells us that He wants to come, with His Father, into our lives and They want to make Their home with us.  For this to happen two conditions apply.   We have to love Jesus and obey His teaching.   To love Him means to totally surrender our live to him and trust Him for everything.  His teaching is summed up in the new commandment He gave us:  To love one another as Jesus loved us.(We looked at this commandment last week)

When Jesus sees that we are fairdincum and really do love Him and want to obey Him Then He comes to us and opens our hearts to respond to His love.  In our first reading today we see how this happened to a lady called Lydia.  As the Lord opened her heart she accepted Him in as her Lord and Saviour and opened her home to Paul and his companions.   She could do this because God had made His home with her.

Jesus knew that for us to be able to love Him enough and obey Him we would need lots of help. That’s why He sent us the holy Spirit.   God pours love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit He has given us (Romans 5:5).   The Holy Spirit is our great teacher.  He teaches us all things.   He reminds us of all that Jesus taught us.   

The Holy Spirit inspired and taught the authors of the New Testament and reminded them of all Jesus teachings. As we read the New Testament we discover all that Jesus taught. The Holy Spirit enables us to understand all that is written in the Bible. He makes the Bible come alive for us. He inspires us to believe all that is written in it.

The more we read the Bible and pray for the Holy Spirit to help us the more we will be able to love Jesus and obey His teachings.   Then we will experience the fullness of the joy of having God the Father and His Son Jesus having their home with us. Being at Home with Jesus we experience also an incredible peace. Today is Mothers’ Day when we thank God for our wonderful Wives Mothers and for all that they do for us.  The chief task of a mother is to be a home maker. She it is who turns our houses into homes!  

When she gives a first place to Jesus she makes the best home. This reminds me of a song we used to sing

“With Jesus in the Family Happy, happy Home”

 

MONDAY 3rd. MAY
Acts 16:9-15
The Lord opened her heart

Paul had been ministering in Asia Minor but he felt God was blocking him there.  Then he had a vision in which he heard a man from Macedonia calling him to come over and help them.  God was guiding him across the water into Greece.

Paul’s first ministry was to Lydia and her family.  As Paul was preaching, the Lord opened Lydia’s heart to respond to his message.  As a result, she put her faith and trust in the Lord Jesus and received from Him the free gift of salvation.  As she and her family were baptised they were born again as children of God, members of Christ’s body and inheritors of eternal life.

Before we witness to people, or share the Good News of Jesus, it is vitally important that we pray for them first.  We have to pray that the Lord will open their hearts to receive the message as Lydia did.  If they do not open their hearts, the message preached to them, however powerfully it is given, can never penetrate their hearts and lead to their salvation.

As we pray for people we have to be ever so patient.  Sometimes it takes years before the Lord opens their hearts.  He opens their heart when He knows they are ready to receive Him. God wants all people saved so He wants us to go on and on praying.

PRAYER:  Father, we lift up to you all the people around us who have resisted your Good News.  Give us lots of faith and the gift of perseverance so that we may go on praying for all those who do not yet know the Lord, until the day you open their hearts.  Amen.

 

TUESDAY 4TH MAY
Psalm 67
May all the Peoples Praise You!

This Psalm is a prayer for the revival of the whole world.  By revival we mean that people come alive in a new way with the life of God transforming their lives.  The Bible says that without God “we were dead in our transgressions and sins” but God “made us alive with Christ” (Ephesians 2:1 and 2:5). 

Jesus died and rose again to bring this new life to all the people of the world. God has given us a very special task. He wants us to be his instruments in spreading this revival. How do we start?  Revival always starts with me. We pray this Psalm “May God be gracious to us and bless us and make His face shine upon us”.  Then we make the decision to accept Jesus as the Lord and Saviour of our lives and as we put all our faith in what Jesus did for us in His death on the cross and resurrection, then God’s grace pours into our hearts.  We are given new life.  We catch on fire. 

We become aglow.  The old self fades away and Jesus comes alive in our hearts.

Soon everyone around us can see the difference.  They say, “We want what you’ve got”.  Soon we start sharing with them the reason for the new hope we have received (1 Peter 3:15).  Then they open their hearts to God.  They come alive with the new life of Jesus and so revival spreads and spreads. 

Soon all the people who have been set on fire with the love of Jesus burst into praise.  The more they praise and worship the Lord the more of His grace pours into their hearts.  Their whole world becomes filled with tremendous joy.  God takes over their lives and makes life on earth more wonderful than they could ever imagine.

PRAYER:   Father God, Gracious Lord, please send revival.  Start with me.  Set me on fire with love for you then draw others around me to catch the fire until all the people alive with your Spirit praise you with so much joy, through Jesus our Lord and Saviour.  Amen.

 

WEDNESDAY 5TH MAY
Revelation 21:10-23
A glimpse of Heaven

When revival comes and Jesus comes alive in our hearts and we are aglow with the light of God throughout all of our lives, it is as if we are experiencing heaven on earth.  It is a fantastic experience but it is only a taste of a more fantastic life that awaits us in heaven.  John gave us a glimpse of this in our reading today.  There will be no churches to go to in heaven.  It will be like being in church all the time (no more one hour services).  We will be so happy because we are in the living presence of Jesus all the time.  There will be no sun or moon to give light.  The glorious presence of God and Jesus, the Lamb of God, will radiate such a powerful light.  Heaven is so pure so beautiful, so absolutely lovely that nothing can improve on being in it.

Before people enter heaven they must have been washed in the blood of the Lamb - the Lord Jesus.

Through repentance and faith in the power of the cross all their sins, doubts fears etc are completely washed away.  They are clothed with the perfect robes of righteous living.  Their names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.  They are given the gift of eternal life.  In heaven they are kept alive by the river of life that flows from God’s throne.  They continually eat from the fruit of the tree of life.  It’s so wonderful; we just can’t wait to get there!

PRAYER:  Jesus, thank you for revealing this vision of heaven to us through your servant John.  We repent of all our sins and put all our faith and trust in the power that you gave us when you died on the cross so that we will be made pure and have our names written in the Lamb’s book of life and enjoy your fantastic presence for ever more.  Amen.

 

THURSDAY 6TH MAY
Acts 12:20-13:5
The Power of God at Work in the Early Church

It’s always exciting to read the Acts of the Apostles - we see the wonderful way God poured out his Holy Spirit and how quickly the church grew. It’s very dangerous for political leaders to take the glory that should only be given to God uponthemselves.  King Herod became so popular - people started worshipping him as a God.  This did not please God.  Soon Herod had been struck down by God.

We need to realise that God’s wrath is not a thing of the past.  There is a need for people who come against God to realise God is to be feared!  Unless they respect God they will perish.  God’s power becomes known to people as His word spreads.  This is because God’s word induces faith in people’s hearts. The bible says, “Faith comes from hearing the message and the message is heard through the word of Christ” (Romans 10:17).

God needs more people to be empowered to spread His word.  As the believers in Antioch came together to worship God and as they fasted, soon they could hear God talking to them.  (The more we worship God and fast, the more we will hear God speaking to us).  As God spoke, He told them to set apart and ordain Paul and Barnabas to be preachers of His word.

Today God needs more people.  He wants to anoint them with His Spirit to be empowered to spread the word in Pine Rivers and Brisbane and all over Australia. Let’s keep our spiritual ears open as we come together to worship Him and as we fast, so that we can discern who it is God is calling into His sacred ministry.

PRAYER:  God, the harvest is plentiful but the labourers are few. As you call us to fast and pray, reveal to us who you wish to set apart as speakers of your word, that it may spread powerfully, so everyone has the opportunity to hear your message and be saved, through Jesus our Saviour.  Amen.

FRIDAY 7TH MAY
Revelation 3:14-22
Whole hearted service - Hotted up Christians

For God to be able to spread His word with power He needs people who are absolutely and utterly on fire with love for Him.  God can’t stand luke-warm people.  He certainly can’t use them as His ministers.  When He saw how luke-warm some of the Christians in Laodicea were, He wanted to spit them out of His mouth.

If we are honest, most of us need to admit that we often suffer from being lukewarm.  We all need to be ‘hotted up’.  As our teenagers like to hot up their cars to get more power out of them, so God wants to hot us up to get more power working in us. We have to let Jesus hot us up.  This means we have to let Him rebuke and discipline us.  When He does, we have to be fair-dinkum and repent.

What really makes us hotted up (like a twin carburettor) is to let Jesus come and live in our hearts.  When we are luke-warm Jesus stands at the doors of our hearts and knocks, longing to be let in!  If we open the door and let Him come in, the spiritual food He feed us hots us up fantastically.

Hotted up servants of the Lord soon become over-comers,  overcoming all obstacles to spreading God’s word and overcoming the devil’s attempts to put out the fire and make them luke-warm again.

PRAYER:  Jesus we admit that so often we have let ourselves become so lukewarm.  Please rebuke us and discipline us until we repent.  As we hear you knocking at the doors of our hearts, we invite you to come in so that your spiritual food may hot us up, ready to spread your word with great power!  Amen.

 

SATURDAY 8TH MAY
John 14:23-29
Jesus makes His home with us

If you feel at home with someone you feel completely relaxed in their presence and you get very close to them.  Sometimes we go to someone’s home and we don’t feel at home.  We are so shy and fearful that we feel uncomfortable in their presence.  Sometimes we just can’t wait to get away so we can relax again.

A true Christian is someone who lets Jesus and His Father feel absolutely at home with them and who feels perfectly relaxed, without shyness and fear in the presence of God.  Jesus said that He and His Father would make their home with us when we love Jesus and obey His teaching. We do need help in order to be able to let Jesus and Father God feel at home with us.  That’s why Jesus sends us the Holy Spirit.  He is our special helper and counsellor.  God the Father sends the Spirit to us in Jesus’ name.  He has a special task to do.  He is our great teacher.  He teaches us all we need toknow and reminds us of all that Jesus has said to us in His word.  He makes the Bible come alive for us.  He shows us what God wants us to do and how we are to obey Him.  Above all He shows us how wonderful God is and how much the Father and Jesus love us. He makes us love Jesus very much. Under His influence we really love Jesus’ teaching. 

When God is at home with us we experience a fantastic PEACE.  The world can never give us this peace. When it comes, we are never afraid and our hearts are never troubled!

PRAYER:   Jesus we love you so much we want to obey you.  Come Father and make your home with us. Come Holy Spirit, teach us all we need to know.  Make the Bible come alive and remind us of all Jesus’ teachings. Make us love Jesus and obey Him so we can always feel at home in your presence and experience that peace that only you can give. Amen.

SUNDAY 9TH.MAY
MOTHERS’ DAY
THIS WEEK’S MESSAGE 

Jesus and His Father make Their Home with US!

True friends are those who always feel at home when they come into our homes.  They never feel shy, awkward or out of place.  Their presence never makes us feel uncomfortable.  They become part of our families.

In today’s gospel Jesus tells us that He wants to come, with His Father, into our lives and They want to make Their home with us.  For this to happen two conditions apply.   We have to love Jesus and obey His teaching.   To love Him means to totally surrender our live to him and trust Him for everything.  His teaching is summed up in the new commandment He gave us:  To love one another as Jesus loved us.(We looked at this commandment last week)

When Jesus sees that we are fairdincum and really do love Him and want to obey Him Then He comes to us and opens our hearts to respond to His love.  In our first reading today we see how this happened to a lady called Lydia.  As the Lord opened her heart she accepted Him in as her Lord and Saviour and opened her home to Paul and his companions.   She could do this because God had made His home with her.

Jesus knew that for us to be able to love Him enough and obey Him we would need lots of help. That’s why He sent us the holy Spirit.   God pours love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit He has given us (Romans 5:5).   The Holy Spirit is our great teacher.  He teaches us all things.   He reminds us of all that Jesus taught us.   

The Holy Spirit inspired and taught the authors of the New Testament and reminded them of all Jesus teachings. As we read the New Testament we discover all that Jesus taught. The Holy Spirit enables us to understand all that is written in the Bible. He makes the Bible come alive for us. He inspires us to believe all that is written in it.

The more we read the Bible and pray for the Holy Spirit to help us the more we will be able to love Jesus and obey His teachings.   Then we will experience the fullness of the joy of having God the Father and His Son Jesus having their home with us. Being at Home with Jesus we experience also an incredible peace. Today is Mothers’ Day when we thank God for our wonderful Wives Mothers and for all that they do for us.  The chief task of a mother is to be a home maker. She it is who turns our houses into homes!  

When she gives a first place to Jesus she makes the best home. This reminds me of a song we used to sing

“With Jesus in the Family Happy, happy Home”