[Friday's Devotional] - Jesus

So what can I tell you about Jesus?  That he was the first son of Mary who came from Nazareth, but her future husband Joseph, a carpenter, wasn’t his father.  We believe he had younger brothers and sisters.  He became a travelling preacher or rabbi in a small occupied country, and he upset the High Priests and Pharisees because he told ordinary people the truth about God and himself and how they could be accepted into Heaven when they died.  This angered the Pharisees so much they persuaded the Roman Governor to have Jesus crucified.  However this was all part of God’s plan, for on the third day – just as he had said – Jesus rose from the dead and took his place as God’s true Son in heaven.

 

Now Jesus is our saviour, our way to Heaven.  Only through him can we reach God the Father.  All we have to do is ask him to come into our lives and take over.  Sounds easy, doesn’t it?  Of course there is a catch, we have to try to live our lives as Jesus would want us to from here on – and that is not so simple, but so worthwhile, believe me. Perhaps you think, as I did, that you don’t qualify, you’re not good enough.  Wrong!  God wants each of us just as we are, to accept Jesus his son, as our saviour, and in due course join Him in heaven.

 

When Jesus lived on earth he didn’t just look for the good and holy.  He reached out to the ordinary people, the downtrodden, the good, the lawbreakers, the rich, the poor, the wicked, and the sick.  He healed, taught, encouraged, and performed miracles.  Not for self-centred glory and approval, but to demonstrate the wonderful love and care, and power of his father.  God.  So there you are.  Hopefully most of you have already invited Jesus to take over your lives, but if not it’s never too late.  But really “the sooner the better” since it can only be to your benefit.  Don’t leave it to pension age like me.

 

Jesus loves you, he loves every one of us.  Become a Diamond Geezer or Girlie.

 

 

Jim Finch

 

With thanks and acknowledgements to Diamond Geezers by Anthony Delaney

[Thursday's Devotional] - Father

The father is the main role-model for the son, but isn’t always appreciated.  Are you one who remembers your father as a strict disciplinarian, a clip round the ear or at least a good telling off the most likely response to anything you did?  Did you ever get it right? You should have been born a girl, they usually saw the more loving side – but not always!

 

Personally, my father died before I was 4 years old so I never knew him.  Maybe your father was absent for some reason, or abusive – verbally or otherwise, or just impossible to please.  Maybe he was too busy with his own life to take any notice of you, or it seemed best just to avoid each other as much as possible. In the book, Diamond Geezers, some were asked their reaction to the word ‘father’. “Strength, warmth, smile, fun, gentleman” – but that was just the women.  The men said, “Liar, cheat, fear, absent, just wanted him to say he was proud of me..” There were some positive answers too, but not many.  So if we invite men to get to know God the father it’s not surprising if we get a wary or bad reaction.  No doubt that’s a big part of why there are many more women than men in church regularly these days.

 

So what did God think about you when you woke up this morning?  Perhaps he didn’t notice you at all.  After all he’s got many billions of planets and stars to look after, not to mention the billions of people on this planet alone!  Why should you matter to him? You’re just another brick in the wall as it were.  No wonder people reject a God like that.  I do too, because He isn’t like that at all.  He watches over each of us night and day, waking and sleeping. The real God couldn’t wait for each of us to wake up so He could enjoy the good things we do and try to help us avoid the bad things. On top of which He calls us his children and loves us without setting any conditions. What a father! Blows me away!

 

Jim Finch

[Wednesday's Devotional] - Friends

Who is your best friend?  Do you have one?  Most of us have a number of friends, and often they are workmates or people we have known for some years or neighbours we have got to know.  Sometimes they are people we went to school with and still have contact with or someone we go to the same club or church with at present.  But which of them would you call your best friend?  Or is it none of them?  For many of us our best friend as we grow up is our mum.  We may not think so at the time.  She makes us go to bed when we are wide awake and gets us up when we want a bit more time in bed!  But she is the one who takes care of us through thick and thin.  My mum was a Diamond Girlie.  I can still hear her saying “Oh, our Jimmy, you didn’t did you?”  Yes mum I did! Forgiven again, but with words of reproach.

 

Unfortunately friends can be unreliable at times, untrustworthy, or lead us astray without us realising it until too late.  When you need that favour from a good friend, really need it, can you rely on them or will they make excuses?  Similarly, can we be a real friend to someone, whoever they are, when they need help of any kind.  Do we greet friends with a usual “Alright then?” or “How are you getting on?” without really wanting an answer, and is the response “Fine, and you?” before you both move on.  I hope your friends have more time for you than that, and I hope I do too.

 

In the book he Diamond Geezers, Anthony Delaney tells of the time he saw Eric Delve preaching:

 

Eric held up a nail saying, “This is the sort of nail the Romans would have driven into Jesus’ hand and feet. If someone had to have a nail driven into them, who do you love enough to say ‘Don’t do it to them, do it to me instead?”

 

Of course, we all have one friend who is there for us at all times, whatever the situation, and whatever mess we have got ourselves into.  In times of trouble you can always turn to God. He may not approve of what you or I have done, but He is always there, and even if you don’t notice he is ready to put an arm round you, offer comfort, and help you start again.

 

 

Jim Finch

[Tuesday's Devotional] - Coal or Diamond?

So what are we? Coal or Diamond? Both are made of carbon and in time under pressure the carbon can become coal, that’s not too difficult. But under a lot more pressure and high temperature that same carbon can become diamond. It’s harder to find and takes a lot of careful grinding and polishing to get it to the brilliant stone that we know it can be.

 

We are born in the coal state, formed and fashioned as a standard human being.  A coal man or woman.  However, God wants us to be a brilliant diamond. Unfortunately some of us never quite become that. As we grow there are lots of influences around.  Some are good and some are definitely not.  We all know of a man who has ‘made it’ to the top or become famous in some way, and maybe we would like to be the same.  But have they become a diamond or just got lost in their own little world.  For most people life probably provides more problems than they would like, and most of us are not going to become rich and/or famous.  I certainly don’t stand out in a crowd.  But, as I’ve already said, God wants us to become a diamond.  It’s not impossible.

 

So through life we are fashioned and shaped, tested and tried.  As it was said in the film (I think) ’Carry on Sergeant’ “The easy way isn’t easy, and the hard way’s ruddy hard”.

It’s just as well that it is God who is testing us because we know that he will also guide and help us to overcome all our trials and tribulations, so that we can become diamonds.

 

Lord, some of us may only be coal at the moment, but we are ready to be put under pressure to become the diamonds you would like us to be.

 

 

Jim Finch

[Monday's Devotional] - Failure

Sometime in the past few years – oops!  I’ve failed already, since I can’t remember exactly when or why – we had the opportunity to take freely a book entitled “Diamond Geezers” by Anthony Delaney.  Only recently have I got round to reading it right through. Of course, Geezers refers to chaps, but there are Diamond Girlies too!  So don’t think for one minute that this is all about men. 

It’s not nice to be told that we are all failures, but in a sense, we are.  It’s part of being human.  We are disappointed when our favourite team (football, cricket, hockey, netball, etc) fails, gets beaten, doesn’t win the Cup, gain promotion, or fail to beat the drop.  In fact we look down on any form of failure, because our society culture almost idolises success.  Yet we hear all too often of the failures of our sports heroes, celebrities, politicians, movie stars.  We feel hurt, just like we do when we don’t get the job we applied for, or someone else gets the promotion we feel we’ve earned and should have been given.  We are not in the team, failed an exam, or simply ignored when something good is being given out.  Failed again!

Perhaps we are not looking at it quite right.  Actually we are not failures, we have just failed - and we can try again.  Who says so?  God does, he forgives us and invites us to be as his child, cherished, loved and always encouraged.

Proverbs 24 verse 16 says :

…though a righteous man falls seven times, he rises again [ISV]

Why?  How can this be?  Because Jesus paid for all our mistakes, wrongdoing, failings, when he gave his life on the cross. And if He could do that for me, surely the least I could do is try again to get things right, for Him.... Isn’t it?

Jim Finch