Walk With Me - Devotionals

Only The Best Will Do

Reader: Una Davis

Date: 11th May 2022

Passage: Leviticus 1:3

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Once I read of two American business men who were visiting Korea. There they saw a young farmer pulling a plough, guided by his father. The Americans mentioned this to the missionary of that area and he told them that the father and son were Christians, and that they had sold their only ox and given the money to help build a new church. "What a sacrifice", said one of the Americans. "That's not the way they look on it", said the missionary. "They count it a great joy that they had an ox to give to the Lord's work."

The book of Leviticus in the Bible is full of references to sacrifice and to the animals to be brought for sacrifice. It is always said that the animals had to be "without blemish" or defects. Only the best would do.

The New Testament tells us in different places how God sent his only Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, "as a sacrifice to clear away our sins and the damage they've done to our relationship with God." (1 John 4:10, The Message). He is the perfect Lamb of God. God's own precious Son — only the best will do!

If we are willing to give the best we have to the one we love the most, think of how God must have loved us — we who did not even love God until in his mercy he loved us first and gave his very best for us. What does God want us to give to him? Only the best will do!

Dear Lord, I thank you for Jesus my perfect, precious Saviour. Amen.

First The Bad News, Then The Good News

Reader: Mairi MacPherson

Date: 10th May 2022

Passage: Romans 3:23-24

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Fake news! It would be nice to believe that we are not sinners and that God is pleased with us and would never turn us away from his heaven. Now that would be fake news! The truth is that we are sinners — every one of us an while we are still sinners God is not pleased with us and not one of us will find a place in God's heaven. We have all sinned and fallen short of God's glorious standard. That is not false news, it is bad news.

But it is not the end of the story — there is good news, indeed amazingly good news. Jesus Christ came into our world to save sinners by taking on himself all our sin with its guilt and shame and he died in our place on the cross. Why? He paid the penalty for our sins. Why did he do this? It is God's pure gift of love. "He got us out of the mess we're in and restored us to where he always wanted us to be. And he did it by means of Jesus Christ" Romans 3:23-24 (The Message).

That is the Good News; it is the Gospel, "The way that God sets things right and makes it possible for us to live in his rightness. Romans 3:26 (The Message)

Because it is God's gift — we call this' grace' - we don't have to earn it. We have to accept it thank him and live in the light of it day by day.

Dear Lord, I thank you for the good news of salvation for a sinner like me. Amen.

A Noble Theme

Reader: Rowan Corrigan

Date: 9th May 2022

Passage: Psalm 45:1

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It does your heart good to hear a great song sung well by a big choir. All the voices are balanced so that the harmony comes through and you just feel you were there among them singing your heart out!

Psalm 45 is a great song. It is a love song, a praise song and it was meant to be sung by a good choir. No doubt there would have been all kinds of musical instruments adding to the joy of the occasion for the psalm was first written for a wedding. The psalm is praising a king on his marriage to a beautiful princess. But the psalm has an even greater subject than the marriage of a local king — the noble theme is about the Ideal King who would come at the right time to be the great Saviour of the people of God. That Ideal King is the Lord Jesus Christ.

As Christians we love to sing the praises of our Lord Jesus and so we should remembering that he is the eternal Son of God and King of the universe. Yet he humbled himself even to go to the Cross as the Lamb of God who died in our place.

Let us praise and join the chorus

Lord Jesus, help me to praise you as I ought to do for all that you have done for me, and help me to crown you as the King of my life and give you all the glory, Amen.

Imagine Being Known As A Hypocrite!

Reader: Una Davis

Date: 8th May 2022

Passage: Acts 5:3

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"You're a hypocrite!" If someone said that to you, I'm sure you would be hurt especially if they were referring to something you said or did about your faith in Jesus Christ. A hypocrite is someone who tries to deceive people into thinking they are better than they really are.

Ananias and his wife Sapphira were like that trying to make other members of their congregation think they were more generous than they really were. They were hypocrites.

Peter obviously discovered their hypocrisy and he took it very seriously indeed. He saw it as the work of Satan in the hearts of Ananias and his wife and saw their hypocrisy as lying against the Holy Spirit. God is the God of truth he hates lies and Peter knew that if such hypocrisy were to be tolerated then the church would be shown to be unfaithful to God and to Christ; to the truth itself.

Both Ananias and Sapphira paid an awful price for their hypocrisy. It was a dire warning that deliberate sin must not be tolerated among the people who claim to be followers of the Lord Jesus Christ. Sadly these two people are forever known as hypocrites. If they had confessed their sin and sought forgiveness it would have been so different for them. Unfortunately that did not happen.

Dear Lord, take away any hypocrisy from my heart and life, for Jesus' sake. Amen.

The Unforgivable Sin

Reader: Mairi MacPherson

Date: 7th May 2022

Passage: Matthew 12:31

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Many people become worried i case they have committed the unforgivable sin. It is important therefore that we think about this and really understand what Jesus means when he speaks about sinning against the Holy Spirit. Remember that the great work of the Holy Spirit is to give people a clear view of who Jesus is, and to call people to the salvation that is found only in Jesus Christ.

When someone comes to know all about Jesus but who persistently and deliberately refuses to believe in him for salvation then that person will not be forgiven. If someone is worried that they have committed this sin then that is a sure sign that they have not committed it. It is unbelievers "who deliberately and unchangeable reject the ministry of the Holy Spirit in calling them to salvation who commit such a sin. Christians do not commit an unforgivable sin.

It is a terrible thing when someone sets out deliberately to set his heart and mind against God and against Jesus Christ and the work of the Holy Spirit. Such a person will have to stand face to face with God one day when he will find out the awful truth that he will have to spend eternity suffering God's rejection of him as he had rejected God.

Dear Lord, help me to pray for my friends who as yet reject the Gospel. Amen.

It's Great To Sing God's Praise

Reader: Rowan Corrigan

Date: 6th May 2022

Passage: Psalm 57:5

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Many of us know the first question and answer of our Shorter Catechism: "What is the chief end of man? Man's chief end (the purpose for which we are made) is to glorify God and to enjoy him for ever."

Too often we spend much time thinking about ourselves our talents our abilities and we put God in the background of our lives. We forget who God is and we forget who we are as well! God is the eternal Creator of the universe and the great One who will one day judge each person who has ever lived. We are to live remembering that God has created us and the chief purpose for which he has created us is for us to bring glory to him and to tell others of the great God he is.

When God asks us to give glory and praise to him he is not being proud or selfish. Rather he knows that when we sing his praise it is then that we forget ourselves; we leave behind our selfishness and self-centeredness and we become truly happy. The way we do this is to remember the Lord Jesus Christ who gave himself to die on the cross for us. He has been exalted to the highest place in heaven and we are privileged to join everyone in heaven and on earth to declare that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. You will never be so happy as when you are singing the praises of our Saviour God.

To him be all the glory! Amen.

When God Hides Himself

Reader: Una Davis

Date: 5th May 2022

Passage: Psalm 10:1

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These words form a cry from the heart that has been echoed by many distressed Christian people over the years. "O Lord, where are you when I need you most?" (NLB)

Does God really hide himself from us and leave us to face the toughest times of our lives by ourselves? The answer to that question is an emphatic' NO'! God has promised never to leave us or forsake us. But there are times when we may feel the force of persecution or times when things just seem to go wrong for us and we become depressed. These are times when we need to persist in our prayers that God will help us — and make us know that he is helping us.

One famous hymn has helpful verses which go like this:

Dear Lord, help me to trust you even when I cannot 'see' you. Amen.

A Good Renewal

Reader: Mairi MacPherson

Date: 4th May 2022

Passage: Joel 2:25

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Do you live with regrets over some things you have done in the past or words that you have spoken which may have caused hurt and even broken friendships? Such things can haunt us and really blight the life we are now living.

God knows how to deal with that kind of problem. He had to deal with it many years ago when the prophet Joel was writing his book. God does not want us to be weighed down by the sins of our past. He does not want us to live with a heavy cloud of judgement hanging over our heads and to waste our lives by going over and over our sins.

God wants us to truly repent of our sins and to turn from them. We confess our sins we turn away from them and we are truly sorry for the way our sins have made us guilty before God and maybe before others as well. The glory of the Gospel is that when that repentance turns us to trust in the Lord Jesus Christ God in his mercy forgives our sins takes away our guilt and makes us clean. He gives us a new life a life that is better by far than all that went before and he can make us really useful to him in the days ahead. It is a life restored from the "years that the swarming locust has eaten."

What a wonderful blessing that is and what a wonderful God who makes it real through Jesus Christ!

Dear Lord, help me to truly repent of my sin and trust in the Lord Jesus. Then help me to accept your forgiveness. Amen.

Mr Facing Both-Ways

Reader: Rowan Corrigan

Date: 3rd May 2022

Passage: Romans 6:2

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Mr Facing Both-Ways was a character in John Bunyan's book' The Pilgrim's Progress'. He lived in a city called Fair-Speech. Many people like to be like Mr Facing Both-Ways and perhaps we are often like them too. We want to be known as a Christian and yet we want to keep one foot in the world as well. By' the world' I mean things that don't really fit in to a full-hearted commitment to the Lord Jesus Christ. Mr Facing Both-Ways and people like him 'talk the talk' but they don't 'walk the walk'. The Apostle Paul who wrote the book of Romans was anxious that those of us who say we are Christians really live a life that truly does what Jesus wants us to do to be the people that Jesus wants us to be.

Notice how the Apostle Paul shows us just how absurd it must look when a person who has been saved by the grace of God and has had his / her sins forgiven and washed away goes back to doing the same old sinful things again. The excuse they give is that it shows how gracious God is!

How can we who died to sin (through Jesus' death) still live in sin? That was Paul's question and Paul's answer is that we cannot honestly do that. We have to walk in the new life that Jesus has given us. If we are like Mr Facing Both-Ways it may well be that we have never truly given our heart to Jesus in the first place. Think about that.

Dear Lord, Take my life, and let it be consecrated, Lord, to Thee. Amen.

The Temptation Of Jesus

Reader: Una Davis

Date: 2nd May 2022

Passage: Matthew 4:1

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It is difficult to think of Jesus being tempted. We read that he was "holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens." Hebrews 7:26 Yet he was tempted.

Just think how a very little piece of grit can cause you a lot of pain in your eye — it is because your eye is so tender and so sensitive. In the same way our Lord Jesus reacts to any thought of sinfulness. He is pure, holy, altogether separated from sin. But the devil tried so hard to make Jesus sin.

We read that Jesus had fasted for forty days and nights. We are told that forty days is about the longest period a person can fast without permanent damage to the body. Jesus was at his weakest, he was hungry and he needed help. It was then Satan attacked him by suggesting ways in which Jesus could live his life and fulfil his lifework without the necessity of obedience to his heavenly Father or going on to the way of the cross. Jesus, however, never wavered. He fought the devil's temptations with the Word of God and he told the devil to' beat it'! Satan left him and angels came to help him.

Another reason for Jesus' temptations was to show us that he knows how it feels when we are tempted so he can encourage us to face up to Satan and the evil he tempts us to do and he shows us how to tell Satan to go away and we can remain strong in our faith.

When you are tempted call to Jesus for help.