FTN_100510_160510

MONDAY 10TH MAY
ACTS 16:16-34
Paul and Silas Demonstrate Power From on High

Jesus promised the disciples they would receive the promise of the Father, the Holy Spirit, and they would be clothed with tremendous power. In the whole of the Acts of the Apostles this power is demonstrated time and time again. Here in today’s reading we see a wonderful example of it.

When Paul utilised this power to drive out evil spirits from a fortune telling, slave girl she could no longer tell fortunes. Her master could not make any more money from her. This made him furious and resulted in him having the two apostles sentenced in court to a severe punishment of flogging and imprisonment.

As they sat on the cold stone floor of the prison with a great deal of discomfort, with their feet chained in stocks and their backs raw from the cuts and bruises, they could have been so unhappy, but they were not. They were filled with joy because the Holy Spirit had anointed them with power. All night long they sang songs of praise to God. This activated more of God’s power and soon God sent an earthquake and set free all the prisoners. As they stopped the jailer from committing suicide he called out, “What must I do to be saved?” As the disciples shared the Good News of the words of Jesus with them, the jailer and his whole house believed and before the dawn of the next day they were all baptised. Their lives were transformed by power from on high.

PRAYER: Jesus, you are the same yesterday today and forever. We want to see everyone in Australia saved like the Philippian jailer. Please send us more of your Holy Spirit that we may be clothed with power from on high to be powerful witnesses for you. Amen.

TUESDAY 11TH May
Acts 1:1-11 Psalm 47
Jesus ascends back into Heaven

This Thursday is Ascension Day so we begin our meditations thinking about this great event. During the great forty days after Easter, Jesus appeared to His Disciples and those who were close to Him several times. The very last time He appeared was on the day of His ascension. After He had finished speaking He was taken up into heaven. No more could they see Him and talk to Him and eat with Him as they had done during the six weeks after Easter. From now on they could still feel close to Him and experience His presence but in a different way. Although they couldn’t see Him and touch Him they could have a very real experience of His presence when they prayed, especially when they prayed together.

Jesus told them not to do anything else except wait and pray. He promised them that if they did He would send them another helper, the Holy Spirit. The Spirit would do wonders with them. Jesus was going to baptise them in the Holy Spirit and fill them with His power. This would give them power to be His witnesses. In this way Jesus planned to make the new church He had founded, grow and grow until it had spread throughout the whole world!

We, too, can have (and many of us have had) this same powerful experience of God. The key to Christian experience is prayer. All who are willing to “be still and know that I am God”, and surrender their lives to Him, will experience the very wonderful living presence of Jesus and be filled with the power of His Holy Spirit.

PRAYER: Jesus, we thank you for your promise to be with us always. It’s so wonderful to know you are so close to us and that we can experience your presence when we pray. Come to us now Lord Jesus, and pour down your Holy Spirit into our hearts. Amen.

WEDNESDAY 12TH MAY
Ephesians 1:15-23
Jesus our Exalted Head

When Jesus went back into Heaven, He was enthroned as our King, exalted above every ruler the world has known. From that time on Jesus has ruled the world through His church. He is the head of this great body. It is always filled with His presence. Through the Church Jesus has transformed the world by enabling God’s will to be known and done here as it is in heaven.

The main task of the church is to gather people together and prepare them for heaven. God wants everyone in heaven and He wants them to have a much better life on earth. Beginning with the disciples and apostles, Jesus has filled men and women with His Holy Spirit. Slowly they have transformed the world. They still have a long way to go. Two thirds of the world still doesn’t know about Jesus. Even in Christian countries like Australia, many don’t realise so much of what is good in our culture is what it is because of the influence of Jesus through Christian believers in Hischurch.

Two things are needed to make us all active members of the church to be used by God to renew peoples’ lives and transform the world. They have to have the eyes of Christ, hearts (minds) opened to see how fantastic Jesus is and all He can do for us (v18), and also they must realise that the same power God exerted when He raised Jesus from the dead and exalted Him in Heaven is available to all of us who believe.

With the vision of Jesus and the power of Jesus we all, together, can be used by Him to conquer the world for Him.

PRAYER: King Jesus, Lord of the universe, Head of the Church, we give ourselves to you. Open our eyes to catch the vision of all you want us to do for you and fill us with the power to enable us to do it. Amen.

THURSDAY 13TH MAY
ASCENSION DAY
Luke 24: 44-53

Jesus’ Farewell Just before Jesus was taken up into heaven He led the disciples in a really fantastic Bible Study. He took them through the Old Testament and enabled them to understand how everything that had happened to Him had been predicted in the scriptures: that Christ would suffer and rise again on the third day.

He went on to tell them that repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in His name to all nations beginning at Jerusalem. Because of the power He had released when He died and rose again, all sins can be washed away and all people given a new start in life.

It was the task of those He left behind to begin this enormous task of spreading this fantastic news to every person in the world. They would be His witnesses. Finally, just before His departure, Jesus promised them He was going to send what the Father had promised them; the Holy Spirit. All they had to do was to stay in the city and pray. When God was ready they would be clothed with power from on high to enable them to spread the Good News and make disciples for Jesus all over the world.

While they were receiving a final blessing from Jesus He was taken up into heaven. The disciples were not a bit sad. Jesus was in their hearts, even if His body had gone up to heaven. They were filled with so much joy. They worshipped Jesus as He ascended and then went back to Jerusalem for ten whole days. They spent most of the time praising God in the temple.

PRAYER: Jesus, open our minds to understand the scriptures and see the wonderful good news of salvation for all peoples. Give us the patience to wait and pray, with joy in our hearts, until we, too, receive what your Father has promised, and are clothed with power to be effective witnesses so the whole world may receive the Good News. Amen.

FRIDAY 14TH May
Revelation 22:12-22
Come Lord Jesus

When the Apostles witnessed Jesus ascending into heaven they saw angels who told them that one day Jesus would return in the same way as He had gone up. All Christians have looked forward to that day very much. We, in the church, have been given the responsibility of preparing the whole world for Jesus’ second coming. In His revelations to St John, Jesus has given us instructions to enable us to prepare the world for Him.

Everyone has to be cleansed and His cleansing takes place as people put their faith and trust in the blood of Jesus, which is the power He released when He shed His blood on the cross for us all. As we are cleansed we eat from the tree of life. Jesus is the tree of life. He is the bread of heaven. As we eat of Him, His life transforms our lives and we are born again.

People who remain living immorally, murderers, people who worship other gods and all who practice what is false will be left out. All who are cleansed and born again become part of His bride. Jesus invites all to this great, fantastic privilege. When Jesus comes again He is going to marry us. Yes we are to be His Bride!

All who are thirsty for Jesus are invited. The water of life which cleanses us and transforms us into those worthy to be married to Jesus is absolutely free.

PRAYER: Jesus, our hearts are overwhelmed with joy when we read this fantastic Good News. Come Lord Jesus, come soon. We are longing to be your bride! First cleanse us in your precious blood. Make us spotless. Fill us with the bread of life from Jesus, the tree of life, so we can be yours forever. Amen.

SATURDAY 15TH May
John 17: 20-26
A Prayer for all who will believe in Jesus through the message of the Church

John 17 is the Prayer that Jesus prayed for all His followers on the eve of His crucifixion. He began by praying for the disciples He had chosen and then He prayed for all who would come to believe in Him as a result of hearing the message they would preach. Jesus is praying for all of us.

Through reading the Bible we have heard their message and we believe. God is love. Love is unity. You cannot love someone without being united to them. Just as the Trinity is one, with the Father in Jesus and Jesus in the Father, bound together by the Holy Spirit of love, we show our unity by being one with Jesus, with Jesus being in us. We live in Him. All who are one with Jesus must be one with each other. If we are not one with each other we cannot be one with Jesus!

He said that when we are one with each other it will greatly help the world to believe His message. Our love and our unity help the world to see how God sent Jesus to be its Saviour. Jesus longs so much for us all. We can bring Him so much joy by responding to His love, letting His love work in us, by binding ourselves to each other. In this way all who Jesus longs for will come to Him.

PRAYER: Jesus, we feel confident that your prayer will be answered. We want to prove the genuineness of our love by being one with each other. We know how much you long for everyone to come to you. Fill us with the power of the Holy Spirit, so that we can draw all to you to be with you forever. Amen.

SUNDAY 16TH.MAY
THIS WEEK’S MESSAGE

Last Thursday was Ascension Day when we remembered Jesus’ glorious Ascension into Heaven where he was crowned as King of Kings and Lord of Lords and where he ever lives to pray for us and is continually sending us the Promise of the Father, the Holy Spirit.. Jesus had finished His work on earth and was from then on giving power to His church to continue the work that He had begun.

Before He went back to heaven Jesus left his disciples specific instructions. Before they were to receive the Holy Spirit and be clothed with power from on high they had to do two things: They had to wait and they had to pray. “He charged them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father”(Acts 1:4). They obeyed Jesus’ command. “They returned to the city with great joy and were continually in the temple praising God” (Luke 24:52-53)

In our Gospel reading today we take a look at the wonderful prayer that Jesus prayed for His disciples and for all of us who would come to be his followers as a result of their witness. He knew that something was essential before our prayers could be answered. We had to be in unity with each other. He prayed: “The glory which You have given to me I have given to them, that they may be one even as We are one, I in them and You in Me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that You have sent Me and loved them even as You have loved Me.” (John 17:22-23)

This prayer was certainly answered for the Disciples for we read, “All thee with one accord devoted themselves to prayer’ (Acts 1:14) and “They were all with one accord in one place.”(Acts 2:1) Earlier Jesus had said to them “I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in Heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am in the midst of them.(Matthew 18:19-20).

In this Ascension tide lets all make a resolution to follow the example of the Disciples so that we too may receive the promise of the Father and be clothed with power from on high. Let’s get together with like minded people and pray! Let’s start in our homes with our families. Then let’s get together with other christians Jesus longs to give us more power from the Holy Spirit so He calls us to come together, to wait and to pray.