MONDAY 3rd. AUGUST
2 Samuel 18.1-33
David’s incredible power to love

The closer you are to God the greater will be your ability to love.  You will be able to love those who hurt you.  You would even be able to love those who would want to kill you.  This was David’s experience.  We know that He was a man who was very close to the Lord.  He had spent hours and hours alone with God in prayer.  He had a very strong faith and power to love that was hard to believe possible.  One of King David’s sons, Absalom, had formed a conspiracy against his father.  He had organised a coup to overthrow him so that he could become king.  

When David knew his life was threatened by Absalom he had to flee from him until he was able to get enough support to overcome Absalom’s coup. In today’s reading we have picked up the final battle in which Absalom was killed.  Even though Absalom was doing all he could to murder his father, David loved him so much that he gave strict instructions that he be dealt with gently. Joab, one of David’s officers, took no notice of David’s order. When he faced the traitor, son of the king, strung up in a tree, he killed him.  When the news of Absalom’s death reached David, he was heartbroken.

Jesus’ love for us is even greater.  When we put Him on the cross, He loved us so much He forgave us and set us free from all our sins and gave us the power to love those who hurt us too.

PRAYER: Lord God, help us to follow in David’s footsteps.  Help us to love those who hurt us.  Give us this incredible power to love through Jesus, your Son, who died to set us free.  Amen.

TUESDAY 4TH AUGUST
Psalm 34.1-8
Taste and see that the Lord is good

One of the things that our family loves about stalls is that we get a chance to taste and see how scrumptious are the home-made sweets Mum makes.  That Russian Caramel beats them all - its taste is out of this world!

Today the psalmist invites us to taste and see just how fantastic the Lord is!  God wanted us to enjoy our food - that’s why He put taste buds into our mouths.  He also put invisible taste buds in our spirits.  They are only satisfied when we let the Lord into our lives.  When we taste and see just how good the Lord is, we discover that we are totally satisfied, more than any food or pleasure has ever satisfied us!  The Lord satisfies us by being so very, very good to us.  We read today many ways in which the Lord shows us how fantastic He is and how great it is to have Him in our hearts.

Let’s list some of the blessings the Lord showers us with when we repent and truly love Him!  He answers our prayers; He delivers us from fear; He saves us from troubles; He delivers us from our enemies; He causes us to lack no good thing.  He protects us, and comforts us when we are grieved and heartbroken.  Above all, He sets us free from all that has been wrong and harmful in our lives. He redeems us from sin and sets us free. He fills us with so much joy and happiness that He makes us radiant.

PRAYER: Wonderful, fantastic Lord God, help us all to truly taste and see how really good you are.  Thank you for the total satisfaction you bring.  Thank you for making us so radiant, through Jesus our Redeemer.  Amen.

WEDNESDAY 5TH AUGUST
Ephesians 4.25-5.2
Building the Body of Christ

A picture painted in Italy showed the scene of the Gates of Heaven.  Outside the gates stood an angel with a portrait of Jesus in his hands.  

As each person arrived at the Gate, he looked at him and then at the portrait.  Only those who were like Jesus were let in!  It’s important for every Christian to make this the goal of their life - to be like Jesus in who we are, in everything we say and everything we do.  How do we achieve this goal?  However hard we try we will find it difficult.  The truth is that we cannot achieve this goal by ourselves.  It’s impossible.  The only way is to totally surrender our lives to Jesus by faith.  If we let Him take over He will do a wonderful miracle in our lives.  He will cause the old self which was so unlike Him to die and a new person to emerge which bears His image in every way.

As we read from Paul’s letter to the Ephesians today, we see many of the things we should avoid and the qualities of Christ’s life that we need to imitate.  It’s important to be obedient so that we don’t grieve the Holy Spirit.  When we grieve Him He leaves us alone.  His job is to do the miracles which make us like Jesus.  Therefore, we must make sure He’s never upset by what we say or do or what’s in our minds. You can tell when we are like Jesus because we become kind and compassionate and forgiving and live a life of love, always being concerned for others, always giving etc.  Ghandi once said that if Christians in India were like Jesus, the whole country would become Christian.  If we want all Australians to become Christians and get to Heaven, we need to surrender to Jesus and let Him make us into His likeness.

PRAYER: Jesus, take us as we are.  We can go no other way.  Make us like a precious stone, always reflecting your image so the world can see you in us.  Amen.

THURSDAY 6TH AUGUST
THE TRANSFIGURATION
Ephesians 5.3-14
Live as children of light

Jesus said, “I am the light of the world, whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life” (John 8.12 NIV).  

Paul reminds us that we were once in darkness but now we are the light of the world and he urges us to live as children of the light. One of my favourite pictures hanging on the wall of my study is Holeman Hunt’s “The Light of the World.”  It’s a picture of Jesus standing at a door and knocking.  In His hand is a lantern.  As you look at the door you see it does not have a handle on the outside.  Jesus won’t go in unless the door is opened from the inside.  The door stands for the door of our hearts or the door of our inner selves.  Jesus longs to come in because He loves us so much and sees how much we need the light.  However, He will never enter unless He is invited.  He never forces Himself on anyone.

When He does come in, what a tremendous difference He makes.  His light transforms us.  Firstly, it gives us a conscience.  We suddenly realise all the sins that are still in our lives and all the wrong attitudes, especially everything that is false and deceitful.  As His light shows up what was formed in us when we were in darkness, we want to get rid of it as soon as we can.  When His light shines on His cross, it illuminates for us the truth that the power to cancel these symptoms of darkness was released when Jesus died.  The light of Jesus cleans us out.  Soon our whole personalities light up with His light and through us it shines in the world.As we celebrate the feast of the Transfiguration today may the dazzling light of Jesus shine through each one of us.

PRAYER: Jesus, we open the door to you, come in and let your light shine in us and show up our sin.  We hate it and we now trust the power of the cross to completely wipe it out so that your light can shine through us.  Amen.

FRIDAY 7TH AUGUST
1 Kings 19.4-8
‘End of tether’ avenue

You may think this is a strange title for today’s notes!  What’s it all about?  This is God’s address.  As we look over life’s experiences, we discover that we find God most when we are at the end of our tether.

In our story today we find Elijah at this address.  He has had a very hectic time of ministry and is utterly drained.  Even though his ministry was 100% successful and he had seen God victorious and Baal defeated, he could not take the opposition he was receiving from the Royal Family.  When Jezebel, the Queen, strongly came against him, he felt like giving up.  He turned to God in his prayers and said, “I’ve had enough Lord, take my life.” Praise the Lord, he was at God’s address.  Soon God came to his aid.  In another miracle of God’s provision, food was set before him and he was able to eat.  God made sure he had plenty and gave him a second helping.  God gave him all the strength he needed for his journey through the desert and a long time of fasting and prayer.  God gave him the will to live and the determination to keep going. Maybe some of our readers can identify with Elijah.  Maybe you have been through a really hectic time.  Now everything seems to be coming against you.  You can feel yourself burning out and come to the point where you want to say, “I’ve had enough Lord.”  Rejoice in these terrible circumstances because you are now at God’s address.  He has heard your prayer and soon He will be there to feed you and strengthen you and give you the courage to go on into victory.

PRAYER: Thank you Lord that you are always there to pick up the pieces when we fall to bits!  We’ve found your address and we eagerly receive the food you offer.  Make us strong Lord.  Keep us going into victory.  Amen.

SATURDAY 8TH AUGUST
John 6.35, 41-51
Jesus the Bread of Life

When Jesus said that He was the bread of life, He promised that those who ate this bread would never be hungry again. All their longings for something better, something tastier, would be gone.  They would find total satisfaction in Jesus.  Is this really our experience?  Most of us have come to Jesus and we believe in Him.  We frequently come to church and receive the living body and blood of Jesus in Holy Communion.  

Does this experience totally satisfy us?  When we believe in Him and give our lives to Him and accept Him as Saviour and Lord of our lives, is this a totally satisfying experience?  If we are honest with ourselves we will have to say that this does not always give us that experience of complete satisfaction.  Why is this, because Jesus promised that it would?

I believe the answer is very simple.  If we are still seeking satisfaction in other things, we will not find that true satisfaction in Jesus.  

Do we sometimes think like this; let’s hope the service will be over quickly so we can have more time at the beach, the Sunday markets or the football, or maybe our mind wanders off the sermon to the lovely roast dinner we smelt cooking when we left home this morning?  Maybe you can’t get your mind on the Eucharist prayers because you are longing to be with your friends or family.  The satisfaction will come when we seek Jesus first.  When we make this decision, God will draw us into a complete union with Jesus.  It will be so wonderful to be in His presence that we will want to stay with Him for ever.  We will be so satisfied.  The extraordinary thing is that when we find satisfaction in Jesus, we will enjoy all those other things we were longing for even more because we will not be looking for satisfaction in things that can never fully satisfy as Jesus only can.

PRAYER: Jesus, we seek you first.  We give our all to you and we thank you for the total satisfaction you give and thank you for enabling us to enjoy the whole of life.  Amen.

SUNDAY 9th. AUGUST
THIS WEEK’S MESSAGE
Eternal Life- A Free Gift From God

When you die are you sure that you will go to heaven? For many years of my Christian journey I was not sure.    I used to think that I was not good enough.   I thought I would have to wait for the Day of Judgement to be sure and that God would weigh up all the good things and all the bad things I had done before He would consider letting me into heaven.

Praise be to God He has shown me that this is not true.   Through His Word in the Bible He has shown me that Heaven is a free gift.    It is not earned or deserved. In the Gospel reading today Jesus says that we will be taught by God. We are taught by Him when we read His word in the Bible   He says to us “While we were  still sinners Christ died for us” Romans 5:8)  and   “It is by grace you have been saved through Faith-and this is not from yourselves,  it is the gift of God -  not by works,  so that no one can boast.” (Ephesians 2:8)

In John 17:3 prays “Now this is eternal life: that they may know You, the only true God,  and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.”   The word ‘Know” means ‘to have a personal relationship with.’    Jesus’ death on the cross cleanses us from sin and qualifies us to have a personal relationship with the Father and the Son.   If we accept Jesus into our hearts as our Lord and Saviour and put all our faith and trust in Him we can be absolutely sure that we have eternal life and we will be accepted into heaven by God when we die.

Today’s Gospel reading underlines this truth.   Jesus said, “He who believes has everlasting life” and He also said, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live for ever.  This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.”

The night before Jesus died to purify us for heaven he took bread and said, “This is my Body given for you.” And He took a cup of wine and said, This is my Blood poured out for you”   When we receive Communion we receive the Body and Blood of Jesus into our hearts.    We also remember the Sacrifice he payed on the cross to give us eternal life Celebrating the Eucharist together and participating in Holy Communion is one way we can be absolutely and utterly sure that we have eternal life and are on our Way to Heaven
 

MONDAY 3rd. AUGUST
2 Samuel 18.1-33
David’s incredible power to love

The closer you are to God the greater will be your ability to love.  You will be able to love those who hurt you.  You would even be able to love those who would want to kill you.  This was David’s experience.  We know that He was a man who was very close to the Lord.  He had spent hours and hours alone with God in prayer.  He had a very strong faith and power to love that was hard to believe possible.  One of King David’s sons, Absalom, had formed a conspiracy against his father.  He had organised a coup to overthrow him so that he could become king.  

When David knew his life was threatened by Absalom he had to flee from him until he was able to get enough support to overcome Absalom’s coup. In today’s reading we have picked up the final battle in which Absalom was killed.  Even though Absalom was doing all he could to murder his father, David loved him so much that he gave strict instructions that he be dealt with gently. Joab, one of David’s officers, took no notice of David’s order. When he faced the traitor, son of the king, strung up in a tree, he killed him.  When the news of Absalom’s death reached David, he was heartbroken.

Jesus’ love for us is even greater.  When we put Him on the cross, He loved us so much He forgave us and set us free from all our sins and gave us the power to love those who hurt us too.

PRAYER: Lord God, help us to follow in David’s footsteps.  Help us to love those who hurt us.  Give us this incredible power to love through Jesus, your Son, who died to set us free.  Amen.

TUESDAY 4TH AUGUST
Psalm 34.1-8
Taste and see that the Lord is good

One of the things that our family loves about stalls is that we get a chance to taste and see how scrumptious are the home-made sweets Mum makes.  That Russian Caramel beats them all - its taste is out of this world!

Today the psalmist invites us to taste and see just how fantastic the Lord is!  God wanted us to enjoy our food - that’s why He put taste buds into our mouths.  He also put invisible taste buds in our spirits.  They are only satisfied when we let the Lord into our lives.  When we taste and see just how good the Lord is, we discover that we are totally satisfied, more than any food or pleasure has ever satisfied us!  The Lord satisfies us by being so very, very good to us.  We read today many ways in which the Lord shows us how fantastic He is and how great it is to have Him in our hearts.

Let’s list some of the blessings the Lord showers us with when we repent and truly love Him!  He answers our prayers; He delivers us from fear; He saves us from troubles; He delivers us from our enemies; He causes us to lack no good thing.  He protects us, and comforts us when we are grieved and heartbroken.  Above all, He sets us free from all that has been wrong and harmful in our lives. He redeems us from sin and sets us free. He fills us with so much joy and happiness that He makes us radiant.

PRAYER: Wonderful, fantastic Lord God, help us all to truly taste and see how really good you are.  Thank you for the total satisfaction you bring.  Thank you for making us so radiant, through Jesus our Redeemer.  Amen.

WEDNESDAY 5TH AUGUST
Ephesians 4.25-5.2
Building the Body of Christ

A picture painted in Italy showed the scene of the Gates of Heaven.  Outside the gates stood an angel with a portrait of Jesus in his hands.  

As each person arrived at the Gate, he looked at him and then at the portrait.  Only those who were like Jesus were let in!  It’s important for every Christian to make this the goal of their life - to be like Jesus in who we are, in everything we say and everything we do.  How do we achieve this goal?  However hard we try we will find it difficult.  The truth is that we cannot achieve this goal by ourselves.  It’s impossible.  The only way is to totally surrender our lives to Jesus by faith.  If we let Him take over He will do a wonderful miracle in our lives.  He will cause the old self which was so unlike Him to die and a new person to emerge which bears His image in every way.

As we read from Paul’s letter to the Ephesians today, we see many of the things we should avoid and the qualities of Christ’s life that we need to imitate.  It’s important to be obedient so that we don’t grieve the Holy Spirit.  When we grieve Him He leaves us alone.  His job is to do the miracles which make us like Jesus.  Therefore, we must make sure He’s never upset by what we say or do or what’s in our minds. You can tell when we are like Jesus because we become kind and compassionate and forgiving and live a life of love, always being concerned for others, always giving etc.  Ghandi once said that if Christians in India were like Jesus, the whole country would become Christian.  If we want all Australians to become Christians and get to Heaven, we need to surrender to Jesus and let Him make us into His likeness.

PRAYER: Jesus, take us as we are.  We can go no other way.  Make us like a precious stone, always reflecting your image so the world can see you in us.  Amen.

THURSDAY 6TH AUGUST
THE TRANSFIGURATION
Ephesians 5.3-14
Live as children of light

Jesus said, “I am the light of the world, whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life” (John 8.12 NIV).  

Paul reminds us that we were once in darkness but now we are the light of the world and he urges us to live as children of the light. One of my favourite pictures hanging on the wall of my study is Holeman Hunt’s “The Light of the World.”  It’s a picture of Jesus standing at a door and knocking.  In His hand is a lantern.  As you look at the door you see it does not have a handle on the outside.  Jesus won’t go in unless the door is opened from the inside.  The door stands for the door of our hearts or the door of our inner selves.  Jesus longs to come in because He loves us so much and sees how much we need the light.  However, He will never enter unless He is invited.  He never forces Himself on anyone.

When He does come in, what a tremendous difference He makes.  His light transforms us.  Firstly, it gives us a conscience.  We suddenly realise all the sins that are still in our lives and all the wrong attitudes, especially everything that is false and deceitful.  As His light shows up what was formed in us when we were in darkness, we want to get rid of it as soon as we can.  When His light shines on His cross, it illuminates for us the truth that the power to cancel these symptoms of darkness was released when Jesus died.  The light of Jesus cleans us out.  Soon our whole personalities light up with His light and through us it shines in the world.As we celebrate the feast of the Transfiguration today may the dazzling light of Jesus shine through each one of us.

PRAYER: Jesus, we open the door to you, come in and let your light shine in us and show up our sin.  We hate it and we now trust the power of the cross to completely wipe it out so that your light can shine through us.  Amen.

FRIDAY 7TH AUGUST
1 Kings 19.4-8
‘End of tether’ avenue

You may think this is a strange title for today’s notes!  What’s it all about?  This is God’s address.  As we look over life’s experiences, we discover that we find God most when we are at the end of our tether.

In our story today we find Elijah at this address.  He has had a very hectic time of ministry and is utterly drained.  Even though his ministry was 100% successful and he had seen God victorious and Baal defeated, he could not take the opposition he was receiving from the Royal Family.  When Jezebel, the Queen, strongly came against him, he felt like giving up.  He turned to God in his prayers and said, “I’ve had enough Lord, take my life.” Praise the Lord, he was at God’s address.  Soon God came to his aid.  In another miracle of God’s provision, food was set before him and he was able to eat.  God made sure he had plenty and gave him a second helping.  God gave him all the strength he needed for his journey through the desert and a long time of fasting and prayer.  God gave him the will to live and the determination to keep going. Maybe some of our readers can identify with Elijah.  Maybe you have been through a really hectic time.  Now everything seems to be coming against you.  You can feel yourself burning out and come to the point where you want to say, “I’ve had enough Lord.”  Rejoice in these terrible circumstances because you are now at God’s address.  He has heard your prayer and soon He will be there to feed you and strengthen you and give you the courage to go on into victory.

PRAYER: Thank you Lord that you are always there to pick up the pieces when we fall to bits!  We’ve found your address and we eagerly receive the food you offer.  Make us strong Lord.  Keep us going into victory.  Amen.

SATURDAY 8TH AUGUST
John 6.35, 41-51
Jesus the Bread of Life

When Jesus said that He was the bread of life, He promised that those who ate this bread would never be hungry again. All their longings for something better, something tastier, would be gone.  They would find total satisfaction in Jesus.  Is this really our experience?  Most of us have come to Jesus and we believe in Him.  We frequently come to church and receive the living body and blood of Jesus in Holy Communion.  

Does this experience totally satisfy us?  When we believe in Him and give our lives to Him and accept Him as Saviour and Lord of our lives, is this a totally satisfying experience?  If we are honest with ourselves we will have to say that this does not always give us that experience of complete satisfaction.  Why is this, because Jesus promised that it would?

I believe the answer is very simple.  If we are still seeking satisfaction in other things, we will not find that true satisfaction in Jesus.  

Do we sometimes think like this; let’s hope the service will be over quickly so we can have more time at the beach, the Sunday markets or the football, or maybe our mind wanders off the sermon to the lovely roast dinner we smelt cooking when we left home this morning?  Maybe you can’t get your mind on the Eucharist prayers because you are longing to be with your friends or family.  The satisfaction will come when we seek Jesus first.  When we make this decision, God will draw us into a complete union with Jesus.  It will be so wonderful to be in His presence that we will want to stay with Him for ever.  We will be so satisfied.  The extraordinary thing is that when we find satisfaction in Jesus, we will enjoy all those other things we were longing for even more because we will not be looking for satisfaction in things that can never fully satisfy as Jesus only can.

PRAYER: Jesus, we seek you first.  We give our all to you and we thank you for the total satisfaction you give and thank you for enabling us to enjoy the whole of life.  Amen.

SUNDAY 9th. AUGUST
THIS WEEK’S MESSAGE
Eternal Life- A Free Gift From God

When you die are you sure that you will go to heaven? For many years of my Christian journey I was not sure.    I used to think that I was not good enough.   I thought I would have to wait for the Day of Judgement to be sure and that God would weigh up all the good things and all the bad things I had done before He would consider letting me into heaven.

Praise be to God He has shown me that this is not true.   Through His Word in the Bible He has shown me that Heaven is a free gift.    It is not earned or deserved. In the Gospel reading today Jesus says that we will be taught by God. We are taught by Him when we read His word in the Bible   He says to us “While we were  still sinners Christ died for us” Romans 5:8)  and   “It is by grace you have been saved through Faith-and this is not from yourselves,  it is the gift of God -  not by works,  so that no one can boast.” (Ephesians 2:8)

In John 17:3 prays “Now this is eternal life: that they may know You, the only true God,  and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.”   The word ‘Know” means ‘to have a personal relationship with.’    Jesus’ death on the cross cleanses us from sin and qualifies us to have a personal relationship with the Father and the Son.   If we accept Jesus into our hearts as our Lord and Saviour and put all our faith and trust in Him we can be absolutely sure that we have eternal life and we will be accepted into heaven by God when we die.

Today’s Gospel reading underlines this truth.   Jesus said, “He who believes has everlasting life” and He also said, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live for ever.  This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.”

The night before Jesus died to purify us for heaven he took bread and said, “This is my Body given for you.” And He took a cup of wine and said, This is my Blood poured out for you”   When we receive Communion we receive the Body and Blood of Jesus into our hearts.    We also remember the Sacrifice he payed on the cross to give us eternal life Celebrating the Eucharist together and participating in Holy Communion is one way we can be absolutely and utterly sure that we have eternal life and are on our Way to Heaven