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MONDAY 23rd. NOVEMBER
Jeremiah 33.14-16
The Lord our Righteousness

Next Sunday is Advent Sunday. In the season of Advent (which means ‘coming’) we concentrate our teaching on preparing for the coming of Jesus. We make sure we are all ready for His Second Coming, when He will come to judge the world. At the same time we prepare to celebrate the anniversary of His First Coming at Christmas.

In our reading today the prophet Jeremiah foretells the coming of Jesus into the world. He first says that all the promises God had made to His people would be fulfilled when Jesus comes. God’s gracious promises include a promise to provide for His people, a promise of protection from their enemies and also a promise of general prosperity for His people.

Jesus, the promised Messiah (Christ) would come from David’s line, like a new branch from his line. Jesus is described as the “righteous Branch” (v15) and “The Lord our Righteousness” (v16). God’s people would be saved by Him and brought into safety. The name, “Lord our Righteousness” gives us a sure clue about the way Jesus would save His people. It was not to be through conquering enemies, but something He would do in their hearts or spirits.

Righteousness means having a right relationship. Jesus’ great task as the Christ was to bring us all into a right relationship with God and each other. This was done on the cross when He paid the price for our sins and received the punishment our sins deserved.

Once any person is in a right relationship with God, He is free. He is truly saved from destruction by the enemy and he receives all the fullness of the life of the Kingdom of God.

PRAYER: Jesus, help us to prepare for your coming. Make us ready for your Second Coming by giving us all the faith to believe that in your First Coming you sacrificed yourself to bring us into a right relationship with our Father God. Amen.

TUESDAY 24TH NOVEMBER
Psalm 25.1-10
Narrow is the way

Jesus said, “Enter through the narrow gate, for wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life and only a few find it” (Matthew 7.13-14). When Jesus comes again, or when our life on earth ends, it’s of extreme importance that we are on the right road!

The gate onto the right road is the gate of faith. Jesus came to make the road for us. By dying on the cross He paved the way for us. We get onto this road through the gate of faith. As we start to put all our faith and trust in Jesus, we enter onto the narrow road.

Today’s psalm is a prayer to the Lord to show us the way and keep us on the way. Because the road is narrow and it’s hard to stay on it, it’s very important that we stay with Jesus on the way. If we lose touch with Him we will soon wander off the path.

Jesus shows us the way and shows us how to live. The road is narrow because it’s a road of humility. It is a way of dependency. We have to depend on Him all the time to stay on it. The proud and the rich fall off because they don’t think they need God’s help. The way is a way of faithfulness and love. It is a way of obedience. Only those with Jesus in their hearts can obey His command to love everyone as He loves them (John 13.34).

PRAYER: Jesus, you are the way. As we put all our faith and trust in you, bring us into your way and keep us on the way all the time. Stay in our hearts so we can depend on you in all humility and be able to obey your command to love everyone as you love us. Amen.

WEDNESDAY 25TH NOVEMBER
1 Thessalonians 3.9-13
May your love increase

One of the most joyful things of the Christian way of life is the joy of helping others get on the way. Jesus said that there is so much joy in heaven over one sinner who gets back on the way (Luke 15). In this letter of St Paul he is rejoicing over the way the Thessalonian Christians have come to have a faith in Jesus and how much they have grown. He can’t thank God enough for the wonderful progress that they have made.

The reason why we are so joyful when we lead sinners onto the Christian way is because it’s a way of love. Christians are called to love all people. That means they are to really care about them. Because they care so much, they are over the moon with joy when one of them gets saved.

Paul prays for the Thessalonians that they will go on growing in faith and God will supply everything that is still lacking in their lives. The way they will grow is that God will make their love increase. The closer we get to Jesus, the more our love for each other overflows. That’s what is so absolutely fantastic about the Christian way of life. As well as love increasing, God strengthens our hearts and makes us blameless and holy. All this makes us sure we will be ready for Jesus when He comes again.

PRAYER: Father, pour out your Holy Spirit on all of us when we come onto your way. Fill us with joy, the joy of knowing you and having been saved by Jesus. Help us to grow in love, so our love for each other overflows and makes us holy and blameless, always ready for Jesus to come. Amen.

THURSDAY 26TH NOVEMBER
Jeremiah 33.23-26
I will restore their fortunes

When people see the way the church is going, when it’s going through a bad patch as it is in many places today, they are tempted to say that God has rejected His people. Speaking through Jeremiah, God reassures us that there is no way He would ever reject His people. He loves them all too much.

Just as God has planned everything in the world to work so well in the earth and in the sky, so He has planned for His people to be saved. To do this He chose a special Saviour who would be a descendent of King David. Through Him God would show a lot of mercy and compassion to His people.

None of us really deserves what God promises to give us. We receive forgiveness and a most wonderful life in relationship with God only for one reason. That is because He loves us all so very, very much. He did not make one person to be discarded. He made us all to be His for ever in Heaven. As well as a secure place in Heaven, God also promises prosperity while we live out our remaining years on Earth.

As Jesus saves us He gives us the power to love, and the desire and willingness to give and the more we give the more God gives back to us. In this way God enables us to be prosperous. Give and it will be given unto you, a good measure, pressed down, shaken together.

PRAYER: Thank you, O Father, that you will never reject your children. Although we don’t deserve your love and forgiveness, you have so much love for us that you pour out your grace on us. Make us prosperous and rich enough to be generous all the time. Amen.

FRIDAY 27th.NOVEMBER
Luke 20.45-21.6, 20-24
Heed Jesus’ warning

Jesus warned the religious leaders of the Jews of the terrible mistake they were making. He warned them that as a result of their way of life, the Temple would be destroyed and their whole religious ways shattered.

Just forty years later Jesus’ predictions came true. The Romans flattened the Temple and the whole of Jerusalem was laid to ruins.

Let us take heed of these warnings and make sure we are not falling into the same traps the Jewish religious people fell into. God calls us to be humble servants of each other. As Christians we are not to be proud of our position. We are not to look down on or despise non-Christians. We are not to take honour upon ourselves, but must be always willing to take the lowest places and be ever so humble all the time. We must be ever ready to make ourselves less important and Jesus and others more important.

We are not to take advantage of those who are weaker than we are. We are not to make people feel inadequate because we can pray longer prayers or quote endless texts from the Bible. We must be generous to God and give to Him. This must be done secretly so that we don’t get any glory from our giving. We must give all to God and learn every day to depend on Him and Him alone. All this is very challenging but every follower of Jesus needs to take note.

PRAYER: Lord Jesus, we know you love us so much that you don’t want to see us destroyed. Keep us humble, always willing to serve, always willing to die to self and live for others, always being ready to give our all, always dependent on you for everything. Help us to make you and others more important and ourselves less important. Amen.

SATURDAY 2 8TH. NOVEMBER
Luke 21.25-38
Watch and pray

In the Gospel for this Sunday we see Jesus warning us about His coming again. When He comes the whole creation as we know it will be destroyed. If we are ready for Jesus we have nothing to fear. We will all be saved while everyone and everything else will be destroyed. We can lift our heads up high and be confident because we know Jesus will keep His promise and we will be rescued.

Jesus gives us more warnings so that we can be sure we are ready for His coming at all times. He does not want us to be caught unprepared like a trap. He warns us to be ready. He wants to take us all into Heaven.

How we spend our time is important - not too much feasting and drinking, not too much self-indulgence, T.V. etc. Jesus does not want us to spend all our time worrying about the cares of this world. We can get stressed out so easily when all we care about are the things of this life on earth.

To be ready, Jesus wants us to be people of prayer, to be on guard by praying and reading His Word every day, spending time with Him here on earth so we can be ready to spend eternity with Him.

PRAYER: Jesus, help us to want to spend time with you, watching and praying. Please keep us from the temptation to indulge ourselves with the pleasures of this world too much and save us from the anxiety from the worries of this life. Make us ever ready for you when you come again. Amen.

SUNDAY 29TH.NOVEMBER

THIS WEEK’S MESSAGE

Today is the first Sunday in Advent. Advent is a season of the Church’s Year when we prepare for the Coming of Jesus. The word “Advent” means “Coming” WE prepare to celebrate His First coming when we enjoy the festivities of Christmas and we also prepare for His Second Coming when He will come back to judge the world.

The whole of our life on Earth is a preparation for the Second Coming of Jesus when we will all be raised up and brought into God’s eternal kingdom.

Advent is a special time of the year when we all make sure we will be ready for Jesus when He comes again. Advent is a time of preparation. As we prepare to celebrate Jesus’ birthday on Christmas Day, so we prepare ourselves for heaven.

Jeremiah tells us that Jesus first coming as our messiah enabled us to be prepared for His Second coming. He came to save us from our sins and bring us into a right relationship with God. In the psalm we see that the way to heaven is a narrow way and that we have to be on it if we expect Jesus to let us into Heaven. Paul, in his first letter to the Thessalonians, prays that God will supply all that is lacking in our faith. He asks the Lord to make our love increase and overflow for each other. He also prays that we will be blameless and holy.

The finished work of Jesus on the cross is what has really prepared us for His second coming. All we have to do is to make our decision to follow Jesus onto the narrow way to heaven. Once we are on the way we pray that He will go on filling us with His Holy Spirit, pouring in lots of love, and creating a clean heart in each of us, so we are blameless and holy.

Give yourself 100% to Jesus, not just 10%, stay close to Him all the way and you will most certainly be ready at His second coming. Use this Advent Season as a time of prayerful preparation.

PRAYER:

Eternal God, You have taught us that the night is far spent and the day is at hand: keep us awake and alert, watching for Your Kingdom, and make us strong in faith, so that When Christ comes in glory to judge the earth, we may go joyfully to greet Him; and, with all your saints, may worship you forever; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Sprit to be worshipped and adored for ever and ever Amen