Walk With Me - Devotionals

The Good News

Reader: Jon Watson

Date: 19th September 2022

Passage: Acts 13:32

-------------------

When I was a boy I would sometimes be asked to deliver telegrams that had come into the local post office and there was nobody else available to deliver them. Telegrams were often used in past times to get news to someone in a hurry and very often it was bad news. Telegrams often told in a few words that a loved one had died or had been in a bad accident or something like that. But telegrams also often told good news, and Paul and Barnabas told the people in the city of Antioch in Pisidia (not the Antioch from which they were sent out) that they were bringing good news — what we call the Gospel.

If you look up an English thesaurus (a kind of dictionary) you will find a multitude of suggested meanings for this word and all of them are positive in the sense that what the Gospel says is true. It can be trusted and relied upon. Often people say 'it is Gospel', meaning it is true. Why has it come to have that meaning?

Simply because people recognised that this good news this Gospel actually is the truth. The truth of the Gospel is centred on Jesus all the way through. Jesus changes lives and makes bad people good and shows us the way to honour God and live for him. Paul just loved to preach the good news because it had done so much for him.

Dear Lord, help me to love the Gospel and to share its good news with those who don't know it. Amen.

The Comfort Of God's Guiding Presence

Reader: Jon Watson

Date: 18th September 2022

Passage: Exodus 13:22

-------------------

The theme of the Book of Exodus is the freeing of the people of Israel from slavery in Egypt and their journey towards the land God had promised to give them — the land of Israel. However the journey was to take them a long time - 40 years in all! This was not because the distance between Egypt and Israel was very great, but because God had many lessons to teach the people along the way. The people were not always easy to teach and were often disobedient to God.

In spite of this, there was one constant reminder of God's care and love for his people even in their times of disobedience — his presence was among the people guiding and protecting them - "the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night did not depart from before the people." God was always there.

This must have been a great comfort to the people, especially as they had no experience of the conditions of the territories they were passing through or the peoples they encountered. But God knew and protected them. In the same way our Lord Jesus has promised: "Behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age" (Matthew 28:20). God is still watching over his people just as he did in the days of the Exodus. What a comfort his presence is to lead and to guide us!

Dear Lord, please help me to know the comfort of your presence and to be willing to be guided by you. Amen.

Satisfaction

Reader: Jon Watson

Date: 17th September 2022

Passage: John 6:35

-------------------

We live in a very restless world; for many it is a very hard, and very sad world. Signs of this are everywhere, from the terrible suicides of young people to the increase in mental illnesses about which there is much talk in medical and political circles. So many people, young and old, are dissatisfied maybe about their job, their body image, their way of life... Satisfaction seems to be in short supply.

If we take the words of Jesus seriously then this lack of satisfaction can be put right. Actually Jesus says there is only one way in which it can be put right and he tells us that he is that way. "I am the bread of life" said Jesus, "Whoever comes to me shall not hunger and whoever believes in me shall not thirst."

Now that is a tremendous claim and we know enough about Jesus to know that all his promises are true. This promise which he makes starts off with the claim that he is God — the great "I am" (Exodus 3:14). There is divine power in what Jesus is offering to us. What Jesus is offering is nothing fancy or glitzy - it is rather the 'basics' of a new life of full satisfaction. It will fill the heart and mind and keep on doing that. How do we get this bread and water of life? "Come to me", said Jesus, "Believe in me". It is all in Christ.

Dear Lord, I do pray that you will help me to come to you in faith for the new life only you can give me. Amen.

A History Lesson

Reader: Jon Watson

Date: 16th September 2022

Passage: Daniel 11:45

-------------------

You can find many ways to explain what history is and if it has a great lesson to teach us. Winston Churchill wrote: "To test the present you must appeal to history." One of the Christian historians wrote: "What history does is to uncover man's universal sin." (H. Butterfield). You can certainly see that plainly when you read the book of Daniel in the Old Testament.

In its later chapters the Book of Daniel tells of kings and queens, generals and war-lords, each of them appearing for a time seeming to be all-powerful until an even more powerful leader appeared and toppled them. One of the most ruthless and ungodly of these leaders appears in the second part of Daniel 11. It seemed he could do anything he liked. But look at the words at the top of this page. That happened in 164 BC. Today he is forgotten.

In the middle of all that is described in Daniel God was working out his purposes. In the overthrow of all these ancient rulers and especially the king of whom we read in Daniel chapter 11, we have a picture of what is yet to happen when Satan the great anti-Christ and all who follow him will be overthrown under the terrible judgement of God - "Yet he shall come to his end with none to help him." Only God is the all-powerful one whose kingdom has no end. Then all will see that history is truly his story and the end will be glorious.

Back Where I Belong

Reader: Jon Watson

Date: 15th September 2022

Passage: Acts 13:4

-------------------

When I was a student I went back to the village where I had been brought up in my early years and paid a visit to my old school. To my embarrassment my former English teacher had looked out an essay I had written and read it out to the class. I wonder if Barnabas had any embarrassing moments when he went back to Cyprus, the island from which he came. He had gone from Cyprus to Jerusalem and there he had become a Christian. He then went to help the new congregation in Antioch, and now with Paul (also called Saul) he was back home in Cyprus. I wonder how he was feeling? There were many Greek people in Cyprus, and there were many Jews. How would they feel about this man coming back to tell them about this new message about Jesus Christ ?

Very often it can be particularly difficul for a person to tell about Jesus to those among whom they have been brought up. Sometimes it seems easier to tell the Gospel to strangers rather than back where you belong. However sometimes what God wants us to do is to witness to people whom we know and whose circumstances we can understand so that we can explain the Gospel to them in ways they can follow. One of the loveliest stories in the Bible is in John 1:40-42. There it tells us how Andrew followed Jesus told his brother Simon Peter and brought him to Jesus. That's a great challenge.

Dear Lord, make me a witness for you to all those I know best. Amen.

A Case Of Rotting Bones

Reader: Jon Watson

Date: 14th September 2022

Passage: Proverbs 14:30

-------------------

Jealousy! Envy! Aren't we all guilty of these? There is a saying that if envy were a fever, all the world would be ill! If we are honest with ourselves we will have to admit that we can so easily fall into the trap of being envious or jealous of people. Maybe even our best friends because they seem to be successful when we are not, they may be cleverer than we are, or their mobile phone is better than ours.

One of the rotten things about envy and jealousy is that it hurts our friendship with other people. It makes an invisible wall between us and our friend if we are envious of them. Another of the rotten things about envy and jealousy is that it makes us dissatisfied with God and what he has given to us in his goodness and mercy. "Peace of mind means a healthy body."

God is good and he knows what is good for us. Yet another of the rotten things about envy is the way it takes our minds off the things which God wants us to think about most of all. In Galatians 5:22 we read about the fruit of the Holy Spirit which should be seen in the Christian's life: "Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control." When these things are the really important things in our lives we will not be proud, or make trouble with each other, or be jealous of each other. We will have a healthy Christian mind and body — not rotten bones!

Dear Lord, help me to fight the temptation to be jealous of my friends. Amen.

How God And People Can Live Happily Together

Reader: Jon Watson

Date: 13th September 2022

Passage: Mark 14:24

-------------------

We all like to have friends. Close friends usually have a lot of things in common which they can do together or talk about together. As children we may have promised that someone was our 'special' friend forever. Sometimes friends even pricked their fingers and mixed their blood to be "blood brothers/sisters."

The Bible tells us that God becomes the special friend of all the people who trust him and who follow the Lord Jesus Christ. The Bible uses a special word to describe this friendship: it is called a covenant. It is not the ordinary word that people use for a covenant (like the agreement of two people when they get married — though this is also a covenant). The word used in the Biblefor the friendship of God and his people is special, because it is God himself who makes the covenant and gives his promise that he will always keep to what the covenant says.

God promises in the covenant with his people that when they become his friends he will never never let them down or go back on what he has pledged himself to do. So when Jesus said "This is my blood of the covenant", it means that those who follow him and his ways are saved and saved forever. God never breaks his promises. That is a great comfort and encouragement for us to continue as 'special friends' with God — living happily with him.

Dear Lord, I do thank you for your covenant of special friendship with me through the Lord Jesus. Amen.

The Great Angel With A Little Scroll

Reader: Jon Watson

Date: 12th September 2022

Passage: Revelation 10:1-2

-------------------

This is another vision which God gave to the apostle John as he was confined on the little island of Patmos. We remember that John had been sent away from his beloved congregation in Ephesus on to this small island because the Roman authorities were hostile to the Christian message at that time. But this vision has at least three great truths which we want to see.

Number one - John saw a mighty angel, obviously one of authority and power. He stood with one foot on the land and one on the sea — in other words he came from heaven with an important message that spanned the world in its importance.

Number two - the little scroll (book) which the angel carried was clearly meant for John to take and to understand fully what God was saying in this book. The message in the book is the message of the Bible itself, the word of God. This wonderful book has the amazing message of salvation — sweet indeed. But it also has a solemn even bitter message too — God's judgement on all who defy him.

Number three - John had to tell God's message to a largely hostile world - the whole message of 'sin and salvation, wrath, and grace'. The same is still true today. People must hear God's word even when it is a bitter experience for the preacher when people reject what he is telling them from God.

Getting First Things First

Reader: Jon Watson

Date: 11th September 2022

Passage: Luke 11:2

-------------------

The church congregation we attend has two weeks of special prayer times every year — one week in the spring time and one in the autumn. In these weeks the plan for the days of prayer is based on the different phrases of the Lord's Prayer. So on the opening day of our special week of prayer we start with prayers of adoration and thanksgiving: "Father, hallowed be your name."

Every day of these 'prayer weeks' we bring before God the different and pressing needs of our congregation, our city, our country and our world, as well as special prayer for friends we know who are not yet Christians. All of this is very important.

But when Jesus responded to his disciples' request to teach them how to pray he showed them, and us, the first great principle of prayer — to honour the very name of God. Jesus got 'the first thing first'. Why is this so important? After all we usually think of prayer as a way of coming to God to ask him for things. We do also praise him and thank him (sometimes!) but it seems strange (to us) to start off prayer with something that we may take for granted — that God is God; he is great and he is good.

Jesus however does not want us to take God for granted. He wants us to realise that coming into God's presence in prayer is an awesome, holy privilege — we are on holy ground! Think of that!

Father, hallowed by your name. Amen.

The Fountain Of Life

Reader: Jon Watson

Date: 9th September 2022

Passage: Psalm 36:9

-------------------

Many years ago now I visited the lovely little city of Wells in Somerset. The name of the city comes from three ancient wells which watered the city. One of the things I especially remember is that from a fountain in the Market Place fed by one of the wells water gushed out and ran down a gully through the centre of the city.

Among the many beautiful pictures the Psalm writer David gives us in Psalm 36 are the pictures of a river and the picture of a fountain. The river is the 'river of God's delights' and the fountain is 'the fountain of life.' These illustrations are part of what the Psalm is telling us of the really wonderful blessing which God gives to those who trust him.

The New Testament also uses such pictures to tell us of the wonders of God's blessings which come to us in Jesus. Jesus himself said: "Whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life." (John 4:14).

Jesus is indeed the fountain of life and what a difference he makes to life! It is abundant life. In Isaiah 12:3 the bible speaks of people joyously "drawing water from the wells of salvation" - it is a picture of glorious abundance. Life with Jesus is the best!

Dear Lord, help me to enjoy more and more of the delights of our salvation. Amen.