MONDAY 31st.AUGUST
Proverbs 22.1-2, 8-9, 22-23
Psalm 125
A generous man will himself be blessed

Generosity is another word for love.  You can give without loving, but it’s absolutely impossible to love without giving.  Giving is like love breathing.  If you stop breathing you die.  If you stop giving, love in you dies. Generous people will always be blessed; wicked people who are always taking from others and exploiting people will end up in destruction, if not in this world, most certainly in the next.

In 2 Corinthians, Chapter 9, the Bible says, “You will be made rich in every way so you can be generous on every occasion”.  We will experience this when we trust God enough to give away far more than we can afford to give! In 2 Corinthians, Chapter 8 we see how the Macedonian Christians had this very experience.  God made them rich enough to give and give and give, even though they were very poor, for as Paul says, “For I testify that they gave as much as they were able and even beyond their ability”.  “Their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity” (2Corinthians 8.3 & 2).

Most people are frightened to give more than they can afford because they fear the natural consequences.  They think they will be shaken to bits by poverty.  This is not so as the Scripture says to us in Psalm 125. Those who trust in the Lord can never be shaken...as the mountains surround Jerusalem so the Lord surrounds His people.  As the Lord surrounds us He keeps His promise when He says, “Give and it will be given unto you” (Luke 6.38).

PRAYER: Father God, give me enough faith to trust your word and enable me to give more than I can afford, believing that you will keep your promise to give to me when I give and that you will make me rich enough to give on every occasion.  Fill me with faith to be generous, through Jesus our generous Saviour.  Amen.

TUESDAY 1st. SEPTEMBER
Psalm 146
Give praise to our wonderful God

“Praise the Lord O my soul,
I will praise the Lord all my life,
I will sing praises to God as long as I live.”

Praise is a very spontaneous reaction to all those who really love God, especially those who have experienced God’s wonderful generosity and kindness to them. God does so much for us as this psalm today reminds us.  He is always faithful to us; He is just to the oppressed; He gives food to the hungry; He sets prisoners free; He gives sight to the blind; He raises up those who are bowed down.  He loves the just and protects the stranger.  He looks after the widow and orphan and He does many more wonderful things.  The more we praise Him the more we experience His
presence, for the Lord dwells in the praises of His people (Psalm 22.3 KJV).  The more we experience His presence, more and more of our prayers get answered and the more our prayers are answered the more we love Him and are grateful to Him and the more we want to thank and praise Him.

PRAYER: Lord God, you do so much for us.  Help us to put praising and worshipping you number one on our priority list.  May we praise you every day as long as we live.  Make us conscious of your presence continuously that we may praise you all day long, through Jesus our wonderful Lord.  Amen.

WEDNESDAY 2nd. SEPTEMBER
NEW GUINEA MARTYRS
James 2.1-17
Faith accompanied by actions

Christianity is a very practical religion; the most practical, and really the only religion that works.  The devil often tempts us to make our religion purely theoretical.  He wants us to have wonderful feelings in our hearts that we have faith and that we love God and each other, but he does not want us to put this into practice.  He wants us to be hypocrites.  James warns us in his letter to be very wary of being a purely theoretical Christians.  If we say we have faith, we must be seen by others to have faith.  As Jesus, Himself, says, “You will know them by their fruits” (Matthew 7.20).  One of the fruits of being a person of genuine faith in the saving power of Jesus is that we are saved from the sin of favouritism, class distinction and racism.  All those linked to Jesus treat every person, rich or poor, black or white, low class or high class, as equals!

I was greatly moved by reading a book by an officer in the New Zealand Army who was sent to Kosovo to help the Albanian refugees.  As a Christian, he found it hard to understand the horrible racism and very cruel ethnic cleansing.  His heart was warmed (so was mine) when he saw an Israeli doctor give a Star of David to a German doctor, as they worked side by side to heal the wounded.  As the German went back home wearing this Jewish symbol, he showed the racism of his country towards the Jews had been forgiven.  Let’s pray for a new sort of ethnic cleansing: that all forms of prejudice and racial hatred will be cleansed out of all human hearts.  The power of the blood of Jesus is the only power that can do this.

Another fruit of faith is mercy.  Jesus is very merciful.  In Him mercy triumphs over judgement.  So we who are linked to Him by faith will be slow to judge and condemn others and always be loving, forgiving and merciful.  Human kindness and love in action are the most beautiful of the fruits of faith.  May they be seen in us all the time. The New Guinea Martyrs were wonderful examples of those who put their faith into practice. When they knew the Japanese enemy was coming they stayed with the people they loved and served and  they faced the Martyr’s death. Their wonderful example brought new life to the Church in New Guinea!!!

PRAYER: Father, cleanse us from all purely theoretical faith.  Pour love into our hearts by your Holy Spirit so that we may be seen to have faith by the fruits of faith, loving everyone as brothers and sisters, being merciful and always doing acts of human kindness, through Jesus.  Amen.

THURSDAY 3rd. SEPTEMBER
Isaiah 35.4-10
Courage - do not be afraid

To have a lot of fear is a terrible experience.  Fear makes our minds close up.  It makes us panic.  Fear drives us into anxiety and worry. It makes us very unhappy.  In the end fear destroys us.  Today’s reading gives tremendous encouragement.  God shows us that when He comes into our lives, He drives out all our fears, all our anxieties and all our worries.  Our God is a very powerful protector.  His power is so much stronger than all the people and all the forces which cause us to fear. It is by the power of God’s love that fear is driven away from us and we are set free from its destroying power. The Bible, God’s Word, tells us this: “There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear!” (1 John 4.18).  The worst fear is fear of Hell.  This fear has to do with punishment.  Jesus has taken all the punishment we deserve.  He has saved us from all the causes of fear.  He loves us so much that He went to the cross and there He dealt with all fear. God’s word tells us, “Surely He took our infirmities and carried our sorrows.  He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities.  The punishment that brought us peace was upon Him” (Isaiah 53.4f).  Isn’t Jesus wonderful!  Isn’t He fantastic!  He loves us so much that when we trust in Him, fear disappears from our life.

PRAYER: Father, it gives joy to our hearts when we hear you say to us, “Courage, do not be afraid”, and even more joy when you tell us that through Jesus you have protected us from all that causes fear because your love for us drives away all fear.  Amen.

FRIDAY 4th. SEPTEMBER
Mark 7.24-30
Jesus is for everyone

The Jews were a very exclusive people.  They believed they were God’s chosen people and that God was only interested in helping them.  God never intended His people to be like this.  He chose them to be a light to the rest of the world (Isaiah 42.6).  Unfortunately they kept the light to themselves in a very elitist way.  When this Greek woman, a non-Jew, came to ask Jesus for help, He was surprised.  But she had great faith in Him.  She could pick up the vibes that He really loved her and wanted to help her.  He played a sort of game with her to test her faith.  He went along with the traditional Jewish elitist attitude when He said, “It’s not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs”.  I believe He said this with a smile on His face and didn’t really mean it.  She could have been offended when He implied she was a dog.  Jesus was most impressed with the answer she came up with.  ‘Even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs”.  He loved her humility.  He responded to her faith.  Immediately her daughter was set free from the demon.

Jesus wants us to avoid elitism and resist the temptation for the church to become an exclusive club.  He wants us to show His love to all people from every background.

PRAYER: Jesus, help us to be a strong light to the unbelieving world.  Lead us to people who need your help.  Enable us to inspire in them faith in you and your power to save and heal.  Amen.

SATURDAY 5th. SEPTEMBER
Mark 7.31-37
He has done everything well

Jesus helped so many people.  In an amazing way we read about Him making a man who couldn’t hear and couldn’t speak to be able to be totally cured of deafness and therefore able to speak fluently.  When all the people heard about Jesus they were overwhelmed with amazement.  “He has done all things well”, they proclaimed.  They followed Him with much enthusiasm.

When I was a boy learning R.E. and being read Bible stories, I often used to wonder “Why doesn’t Jesus do these same things today?”  Then in 1973 Jesus filled my wife and I and lots and lots of other people with the Holy Spirit.  As well as giving us many spiritual gifts like tongues and lots of love, He also filled us with so much faith.  In the last 36 years we have seen the Lord Jesus do many, many miracles and help so many people.  Once in Whitehawk in Brighton, England, a lady was healed in our church.  She wrote to the local paper about it.  When others read in the “Evening Argus”, about what Jesus had done to her, they came flocking to our church and many of them were healed too.  

Isn’t Jesus wonderful!  He does all things well.  We are sometimes puzzled because not everyone we pray for is healed, but when we look back and see so many who were healed and helped by the Lord, we do so with wonder and amazement.  Who could ever doubt Him when so many people testify about all He is doing for them.

PRAYER: Jesus, thank you that you are the same yesterday, today and for ever and that you continue to heal, help and save those who put their faith in you.  Thank you that you do all things well.  Amen.

SUNDAY 6th.SEPTEMBER
THIS WEEK’S MESSAGE

Isn’t it so fantastic to be a Christian! When we look back over our lives and see all that Jesus has done for us we are truly amazed!  He makes us the happiest people on earth!  In our readings today we are reminded of a lot of the things Jesus has done for us.

He takes away all fear.  When we know Jesus and have Him as our personal friend and Saviour we no longer fear death for his Word tell us that to Know Jesus and His Father is to have eternal life (Read John 17:3)  He takes away all guilt by forgiving all our sins (Read Isaiah 53:4-5), so he takes away the fear of the consequence of our sins.  His mercy triumphs over judgement.(James 2:13) When things go wrong in our lives and how ever disastrous the world around us becomes we don’t have to be afraid.    He promises us: “I will never leave you or forsake you” and we can say with confidence, “The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me.”   (Hebrews 13: 5-6)

Psalm 103:3 says “ He heals all our diseases”    As we look back over the past few years at St.Faith’s  we rejoice at all the people who have been healed and the many prayers that have been answered.   We have seen Hope’s kidneys healed, Andrea’s leukaemia gone, little Jack’s heart tumour disappear Bishop Bevan’s cancer gone and so many others have been healed and helped by the Lord.

Another wonderful thing that Jesus does is to mend broken relationships.  It’s been our joy to see the Lord heal marriages and bring couples who have been estranged from each other back together again.

All these miracles bring us much joy but what makes God happiest is when people respond to the good news that He sent Jesus to take away their sins and when they repent and invite Jesus into their hearts as Lord and Saviour!   We too rejoice for all who have come into a relationship with the Lord in our Church here at Strathpine.

As we see how amazing Jesus, lets go tell everyone all He has done for us!!!!!!
 

MONDAY 31st.AUGUST
Proverbs 22.1-2, 8-9, 22-23
Psalm 125
A generous man will himself be blessed

Generosity is another word for love.  You can give without loving, but it’s absolutely impossible to love without giving.  Giving is like love breathing.  If you stop breathing you die.  If you stop giving, love in you dies. Generous people will always be blessed; wicked people who are always taking from others and exploiting people will end up in destruction, if not in this world, most certainly in the next.

In 2 Corinthians, Chapter 9, the Bible says, “You will be made rich in every way so you can be generous on every occasion”.  We will experience this when we trust God enough to give away far more than we can afford to give! In 2 Corinthians, Chapter 8 we see how the Macedonian Christians had this very experience.  God made them rich enough to give and give and give, even though they were very poor, for as Paul says, “For I testify that they gave as much as they were able and even beyond their ability”.  “Their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity” (2Corinthians 8.3 & 2).

Most people are frightened to give more than they can afford because they fear the natural consequences.  They think they will be shaken to bits by poverty.  This is not so as the Scripture says to us in Psalm 125. Those who trust in the Lord can never be shaken...as the mountains surround Jerusalem so the Lord surrounds His people.  As the Lord surrounds us He keeps His promise when He says, “Give and it will be given unto you” (Luke 6.38).

PRAYER: Father God, give me enough faith to trust your word and enable me to give more than I can afford, believing that you will keep your promise to give to me when I give and that you will make me rich enough to give on every occasion.  Fill me with faith to be generous, through Jesus our generous Saviour.  Amen.

TUESDAY 1st. SEPTEMBER
Psalm 146
Give praise to our wonderful God

“Praise the Lord O my soul,
I will praise the Lord all my life,
I will sing praises to God as long as I live.”

Praise is a very spontaneous reaction to all those who really love God, especially those who have experienced God’s wonderful generosity and kindness to them. God does so much for us as this psalm today reminds us.  He is always faithful to us; He is just to the oppressed; He gives food to the hungry; He sets prisoners free; He gives sight to the blind; He raises up those who are bowed down.  He loves the just and protects the stranger.  He looks after the widow and orphan and He does many more wonderful things.  The more we praise Him the more we experience His
presence, for the Lord dwells in the praises of His people (Psalm 22.3 KJV).  The more we experience His presence, more and more of our prayers get answered and the more our prayers are answered the more we love Him and are grateful to Him and the more we want to thank and praise Him.

PRAYER: Lord God, you do so much for us.  Help us to put praising and worshipping you number one on our priority list.  May we praise you every day as long as we live.  Make us conscious of your presence continuously that we may praise you all day long, through Jesus our wonderful Lord.  Amen.

WEDNESDAY 2nd. SEPTEMBER
NEW GUINEA MARTYRS
James 2.1-17
Faith accompanied by actions

Christianity is a very practical religion; the most practical, and really the only religion that works.  The devil often tempts us to make our religion purely theoretical.  He wants us to have wonderful feelings in our hearts that we have faith and that we love God and each other, but he does not want us to put this into practice.  He wants us to be hypocrites.  James warns us in his letter to be very wary of being a purely theoretical Christians.  If we say we have faith, we must be seen by others to have faith.  As Jesus, Himself, says, “You will know them by their fruits” (Matthew 7.20).  One of the fruits of being a person of genuine faith in the saving power of Jesus is that we are saved from the sin of favouritism, class distinction and racism.  All those linked to Jesus treat every person, rich or poor, black or white, low class or high class, as equals!

I was greatly moved by reading a book by an officer in the New Zealand Army who was sent to Kosovo to help the Albanian refugees.  As a Christian, he found it hard to understand the horrible racism and very cruel ethnic cleansing.  His heart was warmed (so was mine) when he saw an Israeli doctor give a Star of David to a German doctor, as they worked side by side to heal the wounded.  As the German went back home wearing this Jewish symbol, he showed the racism of his country towards the Jews had been forgiven.  Let’s pray for a new sort of ethnic cleansing: that all forms of prejudice and racial hatred will be cleansed out of all human hearts.  The power of the blood of Jesus is the only power that can do this.

Another fruit of faith is mercy.  Jesus is very merciful.  In Him mercy triumphs over judgement.  So we who are linked to Him by faith will be slow to judge and condemn others and always be loving, forgiving and merciful.  Human kindness and love in action are the most beautiful of the fruits of faith.  May they be seen in us all the time. The New Guinea Martyrs were wonderful examples of those who put their faith into practice. When they knew the Japanese enemy was coming they stayed with the people they loved and served and  they faced the Martyr’s death. Their wonderful example brought new life to the Church in New Guinea!!!

PRAYER: Father, cleanse us from all purely theoretical faith.  Pour love into our hearts by your Holy Spirit so that we may be seen to have faith by the fruits of faith, loving everyone as brothers and sisters, being merciful and always doing acts of human kindness, through Jesus.  Amen.

THURSDAY 3rd. SEPTEMBER
Isaiah 35.4-10
Courage - do not be afraid

To have a lot of fear is a terrible experience.  Fear makes our minds close up.  It makes us panic.  Fear drives us into anxiety and worry. It makes us very unhappy.  In the end fear destroys us.  Today’s reading gives tremendous encouragement.  God shows us that when He comes into our lives, He drives out all our fears, all our anxieties and all our worries.  Our God is a very powerful protector.  His power is so much stronger than all the people and all the forces which cause us to fear. It is by the power of God’s love that fear is driven away from us and we are set free from its destroying power. The Bible, God’s Word, tells us this: “There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear!” (1 John 4.18).  The worst fear is fear of Hell.  This fear has to do with punishment.  Jesus has taken all the punishment we deserve.  He has saved us from all the causes of fear.  He loves us so much that He went to the cross and there He dealt with all fear. God’s word tells us, “Surely He took our infirmities and carried our sorrows.  He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities.  The punishment that brought us peace was upon Him” (Isaiah 53.4f).  Isn’t Jesus wonderful!  Isn’t He fantastic!  He loves us so much that when we trust in Him, fear disappears from our life.

PRAYER: Father, it gives joy to our hearts when we hear you say to us, “Courage, do not be afraid”, and even more joy when you tell us that through Jesus you have protected us from all that causes fear because your love for us drives away all fear.  Amen.

FRIDAY 4th. SEPTEMBER
Mark 7.24-30
Jesus is for everyone

The Jews were a very exclusive people.  They believed they were God’s chosen people and that God was only interested in helping them.  God never intended His people to be like this.  He chose them to be a light to the rest of the world (Isaiah 42.6).  Unfortunately they kept the light to themselves in a very elitist way.  When this Greek woman, a non-Jew, came to ask Jesus for help, He was surprised.  But she had great faith in Him.  She could pick up the vibes that He really loved her and wanted to help her.  He played a sort of game with her to test her faith.  He went along with the traditional Jewish elitist attitude when He said, “It’s not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs”.  I believe He said this with a smile on His face and didn’t really mean it.  She could have been offended when He implied she was a dog.  Jesus was most impressed with the answer she came up with.  ‘Even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs”.  He loved her humility.  He responded to her faith.  Immediately her daughter was set free from the demon.

Jesus wants us to avoid elitism and resist the temptation for the church to become an exclusive club.  He wants us to show His love to all people from every background.

PRAYER: Jesus, help us to be a strong light to the unbelieving world.  Lead us to people who need your help.  Enable us to inspire in them faith in you and your power to save and heal.  Amen.

SATURDAY 5th. SEPTEMBER
Mark 7.31-37
He has done everything well

Jesus helped so many people.  In an amazing way we read about Him making a man who couldn’t hear and couldn’t speak to be able to be totally cured of deafness and therefore able to speak fluently.  When all the people heard about Jesus they were overwhelmed with amazement.  “He has done all things well”, they proclaimed.  They followed Him with much enthusiasm.

When I was a boy learning R.E. and being read Bible stories, I often used to wonder “Why doesn’t Jesus do these same things today?”  Then in 1973 Jesus filled my wife and I and lots and lots of other people with the Holy Spirit.  As well as giving us many spiritual gifts like tongues and lots of love, He also filled us with so much faith.  In the last 36 years we have seen the Lord Jesus do many, many miracles and help so many people.  Once in Whitehawk in Brighton, England, a lady was healed in our church.  She wrote to the local paper about it.  When others read in the “Evening Argus”, about what Jesus had done to her, they came flocking to our church and many of them were healed too.  

Isn’t Jesus wonderful!  He does all things well.  We are sometimes puzzled because not everyone we pray for is healed, but when we look back and see so many who were healed and helped by the Lord, we do so with wonder and amazement.  Who could ever doubt Him when so many people testify about all He is doing for them.

PRAYER: Jesus, thank you that you are the same yesterday, today and for ever and that you continue to heal, help and save those who put their faith in you.  Thank you that you do all things well.  Amen.

SUNDAY 6th.SEPTEMBER
THIS WEEK’S MESSAGE

Isn’t it so fantastic to be a Christian! When we look back over our lives and see all that Jesus has done for us we are truly amazed!  He makes us the happiest people on earth!  In our readings today we are reminded of a lot of the things Jesus has done for us.

He takes away all fear.  When we know Jesus and have Him as our personal friend and Saviour we no longer fear death for his Word tell us that to Know Jesus and His Father is to have eternal life (Read John 17:3)  He takes away all guilt by forgiving all our sins (Read Isaiah 53:4-5), so he takes away the fear of the consequence of our sins.  His mercy triumphs over judgement.(James 2:13) When things go wrong in our lives and how ever disastrous the world around us becomes we don’t have to be afraid.    He promises us: “I will never leave you or forsake you” and we can say with confidence, “The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me.”   (Hebrews 13: 5-6)

Psalm 103:3 says “ He heals all our diseases”    As we look back over the past few years at St.Faith’s  we rejoice at all the people who have been healed and the many prayers that have been answered.   We have seen Hope’s kidneys healed, Andrea’s leukaemia gone, little Jack’s heart tumour disappear Bishop Bevan’s cancer gone and so many others have been healed and helped by the Lord.

Another wonderful thing that Jesus does is to mend broken relationships.  It’s been our joy to see the Lord heal marriages and bring couples who have been estranged from each other back together again.

All these miracles bring us much joy but what makes God happiest is when people respond to the good news that He sent Jesus to take away their sins and when they repent and invite Jesus into their hearts as Lord and Saviour!   We too rejoice for all who have come into a relationship with the Lord in our Church here at Strathpine.

As we see how amazing Jesus, lets go tell everyone all He has done for us!!!!!!