[Wednesday's Devotional] - Learning the Word of God

It saddens me that so many Christians have a slight anxiety about Jehovah Witnesses appearing on their doorstep. Very often the reason I am given for this fear is the belief that the JW understands and knows the bible better than the Christian does. It is rarely the case that a Jehovah Witness really does know their bible well – they only learn certain key passages and use a dubious translation – but sadly it is probably true they know it better than many Christians!

That surely should be enough motivation for us to learn, know and understand the word of God!

During our 40 Days in the Word campaign next year we will be discovering a number of new ways to read and study the bible and learn how to meditate on the Word of God. My prayer is that we will learn, know, and understand the bible like we have never done before – that our knowledge would be transformed – no longer feeling inferior but confident in God's Word.

If you have kept up with the Bible in a Year, this month you are reading through the book of Revelation, we are also studying it in my Small Group where we are using the Omega course. Too often this is a book that Christians have avoided as too difficult to understand, yet that hardly seems a responsible approach to the word of God!

God has given us his whole Word and we need to persevere not only in the habits of reading it, but in studying it and seeking to understand it and learn from it. And one day we will join together in worship as John saw it in the Revelation:

Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them, singing: "To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honour and glory and power, for ever and ever!" Revelation 5:13 [NIV]

As we learn God's word today, may he prepare us for that day when Jesus will come again and the whole earth will worship Him.

Martin Saxby

Read the Bible in a Year: Proverbs 30:11-23; Esther 9:1-10:3; Revelation 5:6-14

[Tuesday's Devotional] - Loving the Word of God

In my experience I do the things that I really want to do and the more I love something the more I want of it. That can be really bad for you – chocolate for example! But it is not true in every case. Falling in love with someone produces a physical yearning for that person within you, like an ache.

It seems to me that the greater our desire for God and his word the greater will be our intensity in seeking to spend time with him and reading his word. Part of what I hope we will all experience through the 40 Days in the Word campaign next year is for us to fall more in love with God's Word. That we might yearn for it and long to spend time with it in God's presence, that we might love the Word of God like we have never done before.

David writes of his yearning for God in today's psalm 142 when he says in verse 1 "I cry out to the LORD with all my voice" – right now David is in trouble, hiding from his enemies in a cave, so he has a vested interest in God coming to rescue him! But don't we always have a vested interest in crying out to God, in seeking his help, to protect and defend us, and most importantly to rescue and redeem us!

Father grant to me a longing within me for you and your Word, that with the psalmist I might cry out "Oh how I love your law! I meditate on it all day long" Psalm 119:97

Martin Saxby

Read the Bible in a Year: Psalm 142:1-7; Esther 6:1-8:17; Revelation 4:1-5:5

[Monday's Devotional] - Keep your eyes on God

At the start of 2011 we encouraged everyone to spend more time in bible reading as part of the celebrations of the 400^th anniversary of the King James Bible. We particularly encouraged people to try to read the bible in a year. Many of our devotionals through the year have followed the readings that we have included at the bottom of each day.

I wonder how well you have done. I have to admit that I have struggled at times and have not always completed the readings set for the day. I comfort myself by thinking I am probably not alone, but I would be delighted to hear from those of you who have been able to keep to it throughout the year!

The truth is that it is not easy to stick to a routine of bible reading but God's Word is worth persevering with – especially as we recognise that within scripture are words of life and eternal significance!

In 2012 during Lent we shall be following a programme right across m2o in all our services, Small Groups, youth and children's work and other activities, called 40 Days in the Word. My prayer is that this will be life changing for each of us as individuals, as a church, and as we serve our local communities in direct response to the Word of God, being not only hearers but doers of the Word.

Today's Psalm 141 reminds us in verse 8 that we need to keep our eyes on God – faithfully coming to Him each day, and reading God's word is one of the ways we keep our eyes on Him – and as our eyes are focussed on Him, so everything else comes into perspective and we are equipped to live for Him in all we are doing.

Esther was faithful against enormous odds and with her life under threat – let us keep our eyes on the Lord as we encounter Him in His Word day by day.

Martin Saxby

Read the Bible in a Year: Psalm 141:1-10; Esther 2:19-5:14; Revelation 3:7-22

[Friday's Devotional] - God will honour your faith

Blessed (happy, to be envied) is the man who reads aloud [in the assemblies] the word of this prophecy; and blessed (happy, to be envied) are those who hear [it read] and who keep themselves true to the things which are written in it [heeding them and laying them to heart], for the time [for them to be fulfilled] is near. Revelation 1:3 [Amplified Bible]

One of the reasons why God often uses the word "blessed" without specifying the blessing is because when we take this word as a rhema word, personally for ourselves, God wants us to know He is the Great "I AM" (WHATSOEVER YOU WANT ME TO BE – my interpretation) Exodus 3 vs 14.

As Moses the man of God would learn God became whatever Moses and the children of Israel needed at the time. When He introduced Himself by that Name He literally signed a "blank cheque" and gave it to Moses. So, when they called upon His Name in the desert, water gushed out of a rock when they needed it. When I visited Sudan for the first time and they took me to the desert, all I could see were waves and waves of sand dunes and one needed to have a compass or to be an experienced desert tracker to know their bearings. So when Moses and the Israelites needed guidance in the desert and there were no compasses that time, God led them by a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. When bitten by snakes because of their disobedience Moses was instructed to make a bronze snake which they simply looked at and got healed. You get the idea.

Today approach the Lord your God in full confidence and assurance that when you call upon His Name and ask for anything you need according to His will, He will answer you.

These verses sum it all up:

I write this to you who believe in (adhere to, trust in, and rely on) the name of the Son of God [in the peculiar services and blessings conferred by Him on men], so that you may know [with settled and absolute knowledge] that you [already] have life, yes, eternal life.

And this is the confidence (the assurance, the privilege of boldness) which we have in Him: [we are sure] that if we ask anything (make any request) according to His will (in agreement with His own plan), He listens to and hears us.

And if (since) we [positively] know that He listens to us in whatever we ask, we also know [with settled and absolute knowledge] that we have [granted us as our present possessions] the requests made of Him. 1 John 5:13-15 [Amplified Bible]

If you need salvation, healing, provision, wisdom, or anything then dare to ask and believe. You may have your own doubts. Thomas who doubted what others had seen declared he would not believe until he saw the risen Christ with his own eyes. A week later his request was granted. Jesus later reassured every believer that blessed is he who believes what God says without seeing any evidence that what has been said will actually happen.

We have all come a long way. We have journeyed for very long with our problems and unmet desires and prayers. We are reading the last book of the bible as we finish our bible reading plan in one year. And God still says we are "blessed" even though we are not seeing what we want. So what do we do?

I would rather be like the four lepers (in 2 Kings 7 vs 4 – 7) who saw their miracle when they said to each other if we stay in this same place (outside the city where they had been condemned to live) we die and if we go back to the city we die of famine and if we go to the camp of the Aramean enemy (who besieged the city) - if they spare us, we live and if they kill us, we die for whichever way we look at the situation it seems we are going to die. So they went to the Arameans and God seeing their persevering faith, amplified their footsteps and the enemy thought chariots were coming and they fled. The lepers got their eleventh hour breakthrough.

Farai Mutsambiwa

Read the Bible in a year: Psalm 140:1-5; Zechariah 9:1-11:17; Revelation 1:1-20

[Thursday's Devotional] - Like Job, don't give up!

I have been trying to avoid writing about Psalm 139. My flesh has been telling me "don't bother, everybody knows Psalm 139". But the King of the Universe has made me wise enough to recognise when He brings up a word for reading repeatedly, as in our bible reading plan this week, it must be important.

So yes, this is for you if you are hurting or in need of His Splendor and Majestic Presence. God is omnipresent and omnipotent. As the Psalmist learned in verse 12 "darkness is as light" to Him.

These are dark and gloomy days literally and spiritually here in England. Watching the news on television does not give hope for the economy, social life and many other aspects of life. However, all these things are not a surprise or a strange thing to God.

If you are worried about the dark and frigid weather conditions, put your trust and hope in God. If you have been following the devotionals this week you will know that He knows your specific location and has a right plan for you. He is the One who created the world and also the seasons:

"For as long as Earth lasts, planting and harvest, cold and heat,
Summer and winter, day and night will never stop." Genesis 8:22 [The Message]

Pray and make your situation known to God and to people He leads you to for help. Both darkness and daylight were created by Him.

Whenever I am in need or unsure of circumstances, I always look around for something that reassures me of the Presence of God. For example seeing the Moon always tells me He is very faithful. Psalm 89 vs 37 refers to the moon as "the faithful witness in the heavens". And whenever I see the sun or when its daylight, I am reminded:

the Lord God is a Sun and Shield; the Lord bestows [present] grace and favor and [future] glory (honor, splendor, and heavenly bliss)! No good thing will He withhold from those who walk uprightly. Psalm 84:11 [Amplified Bible]

And if you are worried He may be withholding His goodness from you because you don't feel righteous, here is some uplifting good news recorded for you:

Yet now he has reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ in his physical body. As a result, he has brought you into his own presence, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault. But you must continue to believe this truth and stand firmly in it.
Colossians 1:22–23: [NLT]

Take this word by faith and keep on believing for your breakthrough!

Farai Mutsambiwa

Read the Bible in a year: Psalm 139:17-24; Zechariah 5:1-8:23; Jude 1-25