MONDAY 7th.JUNE
2 Samuel 11:26 - 12:14
The Amazing Forgiving Love of God

Of all the great men of the Old Testament, David stands out as one of the most revered by God’s people as well as being the greatest political ruler Israel had ever known. He was very close to the Lord and a very spiritual person.  Many of the Psalms were composed by David.

In spite of this David fell into grave sin.  As we read from the beginning of 2 Samuel Chapter 11, we see he was guilty of adultery and murder.  These were very serious offences, both accompanied by the death penalty in those days.  We see in our reading today how David came to be forgiven by our God who is always willing to pour out His amazing grace on the worst of sinners when they turn their hearts to Him and repent.

Nathan, the prophet, was given the task by God to show David his sin and how terribly serious it was in God’s sight.  To tell David straight out would have made Him very angry.  Instead, Nathan was inspired to tell the story of the sacrifice of the pet ewe lamb.  This stirred David’s emotions in another way.  He was furious at the rich man who killed his servant’s pet.  Then Nathan showed him it was only a story and David was the man who had been so cruel.  David became angry at himself and what he had done.  He repented and our amazing God pardoned him and spared him an untimely death.  The child, the result of his adultery, died, but when he married Bathsheba, his next son was to be one of Jesus’ ancestors.  So great is the forgiving power of God!

PRAYER:  Lord, when I sin and my sin is pointed out to me, help me not to be angry at those who tell me I’m wrong but help me to be angry at myself for hurting people by my sin.  Help me to accept fully the forgiveness you always offer to repenting sinners, through Jesus who died to take all our sins away. Amen.

 

TUESDAY 8TH JUNE
Psalm 32
The Lord’s unfailing love surrounds all who trust Him

When Jesus died on the cross, He died to take all our sins away.  He offers free pardon and complete forgiveness to everyone, however badly they have sinned.  However, not everyone is forgiven.  Forgiveness has to be received by us before our sins are wiped out by God!

Unforgiven sin makes us miserable. It makes us feel very, very guilty and fills us with remorse.  Most mental problems which lead to mental illness are caused by deep feelings of guilt and worthlessness.  Remorse makes people bitter and sour and very, very unhappy.  

God does not want anyone to be unhappy or depressed.   That’s why He offers us so much forgiveness.  When He forgives our sins and He no longer counts them against us, we become so blessed.  We become the happiest people on earth.  It’s so fantastic!

To get rid of our sins, through God’s forgiveness, is very easy. We have to start by burying our pride and acknowledging our sins!  Then we confess our sins.  We speak them out to God.  The Bible says “if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness” (1John 1:9).

Once we start trusting in God we find He does much more than forgive our sins.  He protects us from them.  He leads us away from temptation and protects us from the enemy’s attempts to make us sin.  As we hide in God, Satan can’t touch us.

PRAYER: Dear Father, thank you for your unfailing love which never ceases to forgive us.  Help us always to admit our sin and confess it to you. As we trust in you, give us the assurance that our sins are wiped out, pronounced ‘not guilty’ and protect us from the temptations of Satan through our wonderful Saviour.  Amen.

 

WEDNESDAY 9TH JUNE
Galatians 2.15-21
Justified by Faith in Jesus Christ

The word “justify” means “to be put right” or to “be pronounced not guilty”. Sin separates us from God and from each other.  When we are justified we are made one with God and each other.  Our broken relationships are restored.

The Jews believed that they could make themselves right.  They thought they could justify themselves.  All they had to do was to learn God’s law and keep it.  They failed because they were trying to do the impossible.

The Bible shows us that it’s too difficult for us to obey the law in our own strength - so does our own personal experience.  We need a power outside ourselves to help us.  This power was provided for us when Jesus died on the cross and rose again from the dead!  This power is available to each of us right now.  As we trust in Jesus and harness the power, He proves our sins are wiped out and we are justified - justified by our faith in Him.

There is an inner part of us that is very selfish and always wants to fall back into sin.  Paul calls it the “flesh” or our sinful human nature.  This part of us has to die.  When we put all our faith and trust in Jesus and believe we have been crucified with Him (verse 20), we know that the sinful human nature in us dies.  The flesh disappears and with it our desire to sin.

In an ongoing way we have to live the rest of our lives by faith,  believing that this sinful part of us is gone and it’s no longer we who live but Jesus who is living in all of us.  The living presence of Jesus keeps us justified and always right with God.

PRAYER: Father, when you saw we could not justify ourselves and put ourselves right with you by trying in our own strength, you sent Jesus to die on the cross and provide all the power we need to be justified.  We now believe that through Jesus all our sinful lives are dead and it’s no longer we who live but Jesus who lives in us.  Amen.

 

THURSDAY 10TH JUNE
1 Kings 21:1-21
Beware of Jezebels - resist temptation

King Ahab felt he needed more land so he could grow vegetables.  Not far from the palace there was just the land he needed.  It belonged to Naboth who was growing grapes on it.  He tried to buy it from Naboth but he refused to sell.  This made him very unhappy.  His wife Jezebel noticed how down he looked.  When she was told it was because Naboth wouldn’t sell his vineyard she devised an evil plan.  She had Neboth so badly slandered that  people believed her, and she had him put to death.  In this way King Ahab was able to get the land he wanted.  God sent Elijah to tell the royal couple the terrible consequences of their sins.  Sin always destroys.  Jezebel came to a terrible end.  Ahab was spared because he repented but his family suffered terribly because of his sins! We must be terribly careful of the Jezebels of this world.  They try to lead us into sin.  They are terrible gossips and will show us all the faults in others.  They will turn us against others and cause us to sin against them. They are agents of the devil and we must do all we can to keep them away from us.

Gossip, which is using the tongue to destroy others, is a very serious sin. Luke 6:38 says the measure we use for others is the one God uses for us. It means if we are harsh in our criticisms of others and continually putting them down and ruining their reputations, God will be hard on us. As long as we are condemning others God won’t forgive us.

PRAYER:  Father God, help us to be very content with what we have and not jealous of others in any way.  Help us to be merciful with them, ignore their faults and praise their good qualities.  Stop us in our tracks when we are tempted to condemn others with a gossipy tongue.  Help us love as you love and forgive us.  You forgave that we may all be forgiven, through Jesus our Saviour.  Amen.

 

FRIDAY 11TH JUNE
Luke 8: 22-25
Jesus calms the storms

Jesus and His disciples were all in a boat together.  Jesus was so exhausted from extended times of ministry that He fell asleep on a cushion.  Then a terrible storm was whipped up.  Jesus was still asleep. He trusted in His Father so much that nothing could frighten Him into waking up!

The disciples, however, were terrified. They thought the boat was going to sink and they would all be drowned.  They shook Jesus until He awoke and warned Him that they were all going to drown!  Jesus calmly rebuked the wind and the waves and soon all was calm again. He said to His friends, “Where is your faith?”  Jesus was with them.  They should have known He would always protect them.

Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever.  Jesus is with us right now.  When the storms of life arise He is always with us to protect us.

One of the areas in which storms arise is in our emotions; many of us have bad tempers.  If we are not careful we can lose them and everything gets out of control.  Those who are normally kind and gentle can be very hurtful towards those around them, especially those who trigger off their anger.  We need two things to control our bad tempers - we need Jesus and we need faith in Him and His power to bring our tempers into His control.  Next time you feel a bad temper coming on, remember that He is with you.  Trust in Him and soon you will be very calm again.

PRAYER: Jesus, who calmed the wind and the waves, remind me that you are always with me when the storms come into my life.  As I trust in you, you always keep me calm and on an even level.  Amen.

 

SATURDAY 12TH JUNE
Luke 7:36-8:3
Jesus Friend of Sinners

We have seen in some of our meditations this week that we can’t save ourselves and however hard we try we cannot keep God’s law enough to be justified by Him.

Something awful happens to people who try in their own strength to be religious and get themselves right with God.  They avoid the obvious sins and think they are just perfect.  Very soon they find themselves turning down their noses at others and being very condemnatory.  They, too, refuse to have anything to do with those who they condemn and consider them not as good as themselves.  What they don’t realise is they inadvertently become guilty of committing the worst of the seven deadly sins - the sin of pride.

This was the trouble with the Pharisee who invited Jesus to lunch. He was horrified when the notorious sinful woman wept over Jesus’ feet, kissed them and anointed them with very expensive perfume.  When he saw Jesus forgive this woman, what a pity he didn’t repent of his pride and get right with God.  If only he had recognised that we are all sinners who can only be saved and forgiven by God’s grace.  

If only he could see the Jesus he had invited was the divine Son of God who did have power to forgive sins.

The sinful woman Jesus had forgiven stayed with Him.  With other women she supported Him and looked after Him.  They were so happy to be freed from sin by the amazing grace that kept coming from Jesus.

PRAYER: Jesus, keep us from being proud and condemning others to be below us because of their sinful lives.  Help us to be friends of sinners and love them as you love us, that they may leave their lives of sin and become your staunchest supporters.  Amen.

 

SUNDAY 13TH.JUNE
THIS WEEKS’S MESSAGE
THE AMAZING FORGIVING LOVE OF GOD

In today’s readings we have two accounts from the Bible that remind us of the absolutely amazing forgiving love of our most compassionate God!

First we see how God forgave King David.  David had been guilty of two of the worst sins, adultery and murder.  After committing adultery with Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah the Hittite, David organised Uriah’s death by having him placed in the front lines of battle.

This made God very angry so he sent the Prophet Nathan to show him how   much David’s sins displeased the Lord.   Nathan aroused David’s emotions by telling him a story about a cruel rich man who slaughtered the pet ewe lamb of a poor man. Then he pointed out to David that he had acted like the rich man and had been extremely cruel and caused a lot of suffering.  David was convicted of his sins and repented from the bottom of his heart. And he prayed this prayer; Have mercy on me, O God, according to Your unfailing love;  According to your great compassion blot out my transgressions.

Wash away all my iniquity and cleans me from my sin.    (Psalm 51:1-2)

Our gracious God heard his prayer and completely forgave David so much so that David and Bathsheba’s Son, Solomon became one of Jesus ancestors.

Secondly we see how Jesus forgave a woman who had led a very sinful life. She was probably the Woman who Jesus saved from being stoned to death for committing adultery.  I think she was Mary Magdalene.   Simon the Pharisee was so horrified when Jesus let her wash His feet with her tears and anoint Him with expensive ointment.   By telling him the story of the two debtors, Jesus showed the proud Pharisee that those who are forgiven most love the most.   He assured the woman that God had completely forgiven her. She loved Jesus so much, for forgiving her, that she joined a group of women who went everywhere with Jesus, looking after and supporting Him and his band of disciples.

Let’s make sure that none of us carries around any guilt form our past sins.  As we confess them to Jesus and are truly repentant let’s draw on the power Jesus released from the cross to wipe all our sins away. He promises: “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” (1John 1:9) He also says to us, “I will remember yours sins no more” (Hebrews 8:12)

To keep us free from sinning any more let’s truly believe these words of Scripture:

“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.  The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” (Galatians 2; 20) 

PRAYER :

Most wonderful Father God. We thank you so much for your amazing forgiving love. Thank you for forgiving King David  and for the love expressed by the sinful woman who was forgiven by Jesus as she  poured out perfume on Jesus help us to pour out forgiving love on all those who have hurt us.

Thank you so much for forgiving all our sins though the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. Amen

 

MONDAY 7th.JUNE
2 Samuel 11:26 - 12:14
The Amazing Forgiving Love of God

Of all the great men of the Old Testament, David stands out as one of the most revered by God’s people as well as being the greatest political ruler Israel had ever known. He was very close to the Lord and a very spiritual person.  Many of the Psalms were composed by David.

In spite of this David fell into grave sin.  As we read from the beginning of 2 Samuel Chapter 11, we see he was guilty of adultery and murder.  These were very serious offences, both accompanied by the death penalty in those days.  We see in our reading today how David came to be forgiven by our God who is always willing to pour out His amazing grace on the worst of sinners when they turn their hearts to Him and repent.

Nathan, the prophet, was given the task by God to show David his sin and how terribly serious it was in God’s sight.  To tell David straight out would have made Him very angry.  Instead, Nathan was inspired to tell the story of the sacrifice of the pet ewe lamb.  This stirred David’s emotions in another way.  He was furious at the rich man who killed his servant’s pet.  Then Nathan showed him it was only a story and David was the man who had been so cruel.  David became angry at himself and what he had done.  He repented and our amazing God pardoned him and spared him an untimely death.  The child, the result of his adultery, died, but when he married Bathsheba, his next son was to be one of Jesus’ ancestors.  So great is the forgiving power of God!

PRAYER:  Lord, when I sin and my sin is pointed out to me, help me not to be angry at those who tell me I’m wrong but help me to be angry at myself for hurting people by my sin.  Help me to accept fully the forgiveness you always offer to repenting sinners, through Jesus who died to take all our sins away. Amen.

 

TUESDAY 8TH JUNE
Psalm 32
The Lord’s unfailing love surrounds all who trust Him

When Jesus died on the cross, He died to take all our sins away.  He offers free pardon and complete forgiveness to everyone, however badly they have sinned.  However, not everyone is forgiven.  Forgiveness has to be received by us before our sins are wiped out by God!

Unforgiven sin makes us miserable. It makes us feel very, very guilty and fills us with remorse.  Most mental problems which lead to mental illness are caused by deep feelings of guilt and worthlessness.  Remorse makes people bitter and sour and very, very unhappy.  

God does not want anyone to be unhappy or depressed.   That’s why He offers us so much forgiveness.  When He forgives our sins and He no longer counts them against us, we become so blessed.  We become the happiest people on earth.  It’s so fantastic!

To get rid of our sins, through God’s forgiveness, is very easy. We have to start by burying our pride and acknowledging our sins!  Then we confess our sins.  We speak them out to God.  The Bible says “if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness” (1John 1:9).

Once we start trusting in God we find He does much more than forgive our sins.  He protects us from them.  He leads us away from temptation and protects us from the enemy’s attempts to make us sin.  As we hide in God, Satan can’t touch us.

PRAYER: Dear Father, thank you for your unfailing love which never ceases to forgive us.  Help us always to admit our sin and confess it to you. As we trust in you, give us the assurance that our sins are wiped out, pronounced ‘not guilty’ and protect us from the temptations of Satan through our wonderful Saviour.  Amen.

 

WEDNESDAY 9TH JUNE
Galatians 2.15-21
Justified by Faith in Jesus Christ

The word “justify” means “to be put right” or to “be pronounced not guilty”. Sin separates us from God and from each other.  When we are justified we are made one with God and each other.  Our broken relationships are restored.

The Jews believed that they could make themselves right.  They thought they could justify themselves.  All they had to do was to learn God’s law and keep it.  They failed because they were trying to do the impossible.

The Bible shows us that it’s too difficult for us to obey the law in our own strength - so does our own personal experience.  We need a power outside ourselves to help us.  This power was provided for us when Jesus died on the cross and rose again from the dead!  This power is available to each of us right now.  As we trust in Jesus and harness the power, He proves our sins are wiped out and we are justified - justified by our faith in Him.

There is an inner part of us that is very selfish and always wants to fall back into sin.  Paul calls it the “flesh” or our sinful human nature.  This part of us has to die.  When we put all our faith and trust in Jesus and believe we have been crucified with Him (verse 20), we know that the sinful human nature in us dies.  The flesh disappears and with it our desire to sin.

In an ongoing way we have to live the rest of our lives by faith,  believing that this sinful part of us is gone and it’s no longer we who live but Jesus who is living in all of us.  The living presence of Jesus keeps us justified and always right with God.

PRAYER: Father, when you saw we could not justify ourselves and put ourselves right with you by trying in our own strength, you sent Jesus to die on the cross and provide all the power we need to be justified.  We now believe that through Jesus all our sinful lives are dead and it’s no longer we who live but Jesus who lives in us.  Amen.

 

THURSDAY 10TH JUNE
1 Kings 21:1-21
Beware of Jezebels - resist temptation

King Ahab felt he needed more land so he could grow vegetables.  Not far from the palace there was just the land he needed.  It belonged to Naboth who was growing grapes on it.  He tried to buy it from Naboth but he refused to sell.  This made him very unhappy.  His wife Jezebel noticed how down he looked.  When she was told it was because Naboth wouldn’t sell his vineyard she devised an evil plan.  She had Neboth so badly slandered that  people believed her, and she had him put to death.  In this way King Ahab was able to get the land he wanted.  God sent Elijah to tell the royal couple the terrible consequences of their sins.  Sin always destroys.  Jezebel came to a terrible end.  Ahab was spared because he repented but his family suffered terribly because of his sins! We must be terribly careful of the Jezebels of this world.  They try to lead us into sin.  They are terrible gossips and will show us all the faults in others.  They will turn us against others and cause us to sin against them. They are agents of the devil and we must do all we can to keep them away from us.

Gossip, which is using the tongue to destroy others, is a very serious sin. Luke 6:38 says the measure we use for others is the one God uses for us. It means if we are harsh in our criticisms of others and continually putting them down and ruining their reputations, God will be hard on us. As long as we are condemning others God won’t forgive us.

PRAYER:  Father God, help us to be very content with what we have and not jealous of others in any way.  Help us to be merciful with them, ignore their faults and praise their good qualities.  Stop us in our tracks when we are tempted to condemn others with a gossipy tongue.  Help us love as you love and forgive us.  You forgave that we may all be forgiven, through Jesus our Saviour.  Amen.

 

FRIDAY 11TH JUNE
Luke 8: 22-25
Jesus calms the storms

Jesus and His disciples were all in a boat together.  Jesus was so exhausted from extended times of ministry that He fell asleep on a cushion.  Then a terrible storm was whipped up.  Jesus was still asleep. He trusted in His Father so much that nothing could frighten Him into waking up!

The disciples, however, were terrified. They thought the boat was going to sink and they would all be drowned.  They shook Jesus until He awoke and warned Him that they were all going to drown!  Jesus calmly rebuked the wind and the waves and soon all was calm again. He said to His friends, “Where is your faith?”  Jesus was with them.  They should have known He would always protect them.

Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever.  Jesus is with us right now.  When the storms of life arise He is always with us to protect us.

One of the areas in which storms arise is in our emotions; many of us have bad tempers.  If we are not careful we can lose them and everything gets out of control.  Those who are normally kind and gentle can be very hurtful towards those around them, especially those who trigger off their anger.  We need two things to control our bad tempers - we need Jesus and we need faith in Him and His power to bring our tempers into His control.  Next time you feel a bad temper coming on, remember that He is with you.  Trust in Him and soon you will be very calm again.

PRAYER: Jesus, who calmed the wind and the waves, remind me that you are always with me when the storms come into my life.  As I trust in you, you always keep me calm and on an even level.  Amen.

 

SATURDAY 12TH JUNE
Luke 7:36-8:3
Jesus Friend of Sinners

We have seen in some of our meditations this week that we can’t save ourselves and however hard we try we cannot keep God’s law enough to be justified by Him.

Something awful happens to people who try in their own strength to be religious and get themselves right with God.  They avoid the obvious sins and think they are just perfect.  Very soon they find themselves turning down their noses at others and being very condemnatory.  They, too, refuse to have anything to do with those who they condemn and consider them not as good as themselves.  What they don’t realise is they inadvertently become guilty of committing the worst of the seven deadly sins - the sin of pride.

This was the trouble with the Pharisee who invited Jesus to lunch. He was horrified when the notorious sinful woman wept over Jesus’ feet, kissed them and anointed them with very expensive perfume.  When he saw Jesus forgive this woman, what a pity he didn’t repent of his pride and get right with God.  If only he had recognised that we are all sinners who can only be saved and forgiven by God’s grace.  

If only he could see the Jesus he had invited was the divine Son of God who did have power to forgive sins.

The sinful woman Jesus had forgiven stayed with Him.  With other women she supported Him and looked after Him.  They were so happy to be freed from sin by the amazing grace that kept coming from Jesus.

PRAYER: Jesus, keep us from being proud and condemning others to be below us because of their sinful lives.  Help us to be friends of sinners and love them as you love us, that they may leave their lives of sin and become your staunchest supporters.  Amen.

 

SUNDAY 13TH.JUNE
THIS WEEKS’S MESSAGE
THE AMAZING FORGIVING LOVE OF GOD

In today’s readings we have two accounts from the Bible that remind us of the absolutely amazing forgiving love of our most compassionate God!

First we see how God forgave King David.  David had been guilty of two of the worst sins, adultery and murder.  After committing adultery with Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah the Hittite, David organised Uriah’s death by having him placed in the front lines of battle.

This made God very angry so he sent the Prophet Nathan to show him how   much David’s sins displeased the Lord.   Nathan aroused David’s emotions by telling him a story about a cruel rich man who slaughtered the pet ewe lamb of a poor man. Then he pointed out to David that he had acted like the rich man and had been extremely cruel and caused a lot of suffering.  David was convicted of his sins and repented from the bottom of his heart. And he prayed this prayer; Have mercy on me, O God, according to Your unfailing love;  According to your great compassion blot out my transgressions.

Wash away all my iniquity and cleans me from my sin.    (Psalm 51:1-2)

Our gracious God heard his prayer and completely forgave David so much so that David and Bathsheba’s Son, Solomon became one of Jesus ancestors.

Secondly we see how Jesus forgave a woman who had led a very sinful life. She was probably the Woman who Jesus saved from being stoned to death for committing adultery.  I think she was Mary Magdalene.   Simon the Pharisee was so horrified when Jesus let her wash His feet with her tears and anoint Him with expensive ointment.   By telling him the story of the two debtors, Jesus showed the proud Pharisee that those who are forgiven most love the most.   He assured the woman that God had completely forgiven her. She loved Jesus so much, for forgiving her, that she joined a group of women who went everywhere with Jesus, looking after and supporting Him and his band of disciples.

Let’s make sure that none of us carries around any guilt form our past sins.  As we confess them to Jesus and are truly repentant let’s draw on the power Jesus released from the cross to wipe all our sins away. He promises: “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” (1John 1:9) He also says to us, “I will remember yours sins no more” (Hebrews 8:12)

To keep us free from sinning any more let’s truly believe these words of Scripture:

“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.  The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” (Galatians 2; 20) 

PRAYER :

Most wonderful Father God. We thank you so much for your amazing forgiving love. Thank you for forgiving King David  and for the love expressed by the sinful woman who was forgiven by Jesus as she  poured out perfume on Jesus help us to pour out forgiving love on all those who have hurt us.

Thank you so much for forgiving all our sins though the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. Amen