Spare A Thought For Joseph

Reader: Jon Watson

Date: 21st April 2022

Passage: Acts 1:23-26

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We all know how Judas Iscariot betrayed Jesus, and afterwards he went and committed suicide. A terrible and sad story. Now the eleven remaining apostles of Jesus came to appoint a man to take the place of Judas Iscariot. They outlined the qualifications this new apostle must have — the same qualifications they had, of being with Jesus since the time of John the Baptist's ministry and having seen the resurrected Jesus. There were several men who maybe could have met these requirements, but two men were obviously standing out from the others — Joseph and Matthias. Eventually Matthias was chosen (after much prayer) and we don't hear of Joseph again. I wonder what he felt like having been so nearly made an apostle? We should spare a thought for him.

Sometimes it may be that we are passed over for a promotion or not chosen for a team or not appointed to some office in the church. We can feel hurt when that happens; maybe we feel angry or jealous of the person who was chosen instead of us. I have no reason to think Joseph felt like that. After all the other apostles liked him well enough to think he would have been a good apostle. But in some ways I do feel sorry fo him.

Dear Lord, help me to cope with hurts and disappointments, and to see that you have another plan for me. Amen

What A Great Example Of Humility!

Reader: Angus Macdonald

Date: 20th April 2022

Passage: Matthew 3:11

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It is very easy to feel proud. If we get a prize at school, or if we get a promotion at work — we get a boost by such things and we can become a bit conceited. But one of the great challenges for us as Christian people is to have a consistent humble life before God and other people. John the Baptist is a great example for us. He was said by Jesus to have been the greatest of the prophets, yet John said "He must increase but I must decrease" (John 3:30). John was willing to be like a lowly servant carrying Jesus' shoes as long as he could be a faithful preacher and prophet of God's word.

There is a very good reason for every Christian to be a humble Christian. Everything we have comes to us from God — not because we deserve it or have earned it, but because of God's grace. It is all the gift of God. We have nothing to boast about. In Bible times humility was despised. Slaves had to be humble before their masters but free people had to have a different spirit — even a haughty spirit. That is not the Christian way. God's word says, "Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble" (1 Peter 5:4). That was the spirit of John the Baptist, the greatest of all the prophets.

Lord, humble me under your mighty hand as I serve you. Amen.

Fasting

Reader: Calum Macdonald

Date: 19th April 2022

Passage: Acts 13:3

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We are all so keen on food and everything to do with it that the thought of fasting doesn't sound very appealing. Mind you, there is one popular diet routine that has two days of fasting in the week. I'm told it works!

The Bible's teaching about fasting has a much deeper, spiritual meaning to it. Sadly, like all good ideas we find in the Bible, fasting has suffered at the hands of people who used it either as a means to try to get something from God or to make them look good in the eyes of others — "see how seriously I take my Christian life!" Others adopted fasting as an extreme way of living, thinking it would make them more acceptable to God. These were wrong ideas.

True Christian fasting is nearly always associated with some really significant event in a person's life when much prayer and heart searching are required. Fasting involves not merely giving up food for a short time, but laying aside as much as we can of other things in order to pray and study God's word so that we can get to know God's will for a particular course of action.

When Paul and Barnabas were set aside to go on their missionary journey this was one of the most important events in the early church's history. No wonder the elders fasted and prayed about it. Fasting sharpens the mind and helps us to concentrate on finding what God wants us to do.

Boasting

Reader: Jon Watson

Date: 18th April 2022

Passage: 1 Corinthians 1:31

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There are few things in life which come as naturally to us as boasting. In every age there have been people who made great claim for products they had concocted and they boasted that those mixtures could cure everything. We call them "quacks."

Sometimes we, too, make great claim for ourselves — boasting that we are much better people than we honestly are, much cleverer, can do greater things than we have ever really done. We become "_full of our grandiose selves" (_James 4:6, The Message).

The Bible gives us plenty to boast about — a far greater reason to boast than anything about ourselves. Paul is a great guide in this respect. He loved to boast in the Lord Jesus Christ who had done such good, life-changing things for everyone who trusts and follows him. "Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord" (1 Corinthians 1:31); "But be it far from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ" (Galatians 6:14); "For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not of your own doing; it is the gift of God not as a result of works so that no one may boast" (Ephesians 2:9). So let's be "clothed with humility" about ourselves and do all our boasting about our great Saviour.

Dear Lord Jesus, let my boasting always be about you. Amen

Very Much Better Than Junk Food!

Reader: Angus Macdonald

Date: 17th April 2022

Passage: Isaiah 55:1

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Day after day we are told that so-called junk food is bad for us. It makes us fat, and too much can cause all sorts of other health problems too. And we all like it!

Food was very important to the people in Bible times. God knew this and he built-in several feast days to the different important dates in his people's calendar. But sometimes food was short — perhaps the rains did not come, or locusts stripped all the trees and grass. People went hungry.

But in the text we have at the top of the page God is telling us of a great feast of good things for our souls — for our spiritual lives. There is no scarcity of food and drink, and it really satisfies, because it all comes from God. When Jesus came into our world he invited people to come to him, for he said, "I am the bread of life" (John 6:48) and "I am the water of life" (John 4:7 - 15). It is only in God's Son the Lord Jesus Christ that we find that which honestly satisfies our life and gives us lasting pleasure. This is because God knows our deepest needs and feels sad for us when he sees us wasting our lives on things that really cannot meet our soul's needs, but in reality can only end up in deceiving us and failing us. Life in all its fullness comes only from God in Jesus Christ. All the rest is junk food!

Dear Lord, help me to come to you for the good things you have for me. Amen

Tracing The Family Tree

Reader: Calum Macdonald

Date: 16th April 2022

Passage: Matthew 1:1

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Many people spend many hours trying to trace their family tree and they feel really excited when they discover an "important" or famous person connected to them in some way.

The family tree of our Lord Jesus Christ is important for several reasons. First of all, we see that the life of Jesus has long roots in the history of God's people — he is called the son of David and the son of Abraham, and Matthew shows just how Jesus is connected to these two great heroes in the Old Testament story. Matthew's family tree of Jesus shows us something else of great importance. Beginning with the family tree and then as he goes through the Gospel story, Matthew shows us how the Lord Jesus is the fulfilment of all the prophecies and promises which are highlighted in the Old Testament. Right down to the details of what happened to Jesus even on the cross, Matthew shows how the Old Testament becomes completed in the Lord Jesus.

In the same way it is only in Jesus that our lives are completed. Without Jesus Christ in our lives we are lost and without hope in the world — there is a terrible emptiness that is only filled by Jesus himself. We become complete in Christ How really great it is to be connected with the One whose family tree truly began in heaven! When we become "connected" to him, we too will inherit a place in his heavenly home.

Dear Lord Jesus, thank you for taking me into your family. Amen

Lord, Teach Me

Reader: Kathryn Martin

Date: 15th April 2022

Passage: Psalm 25:4-5

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The Book of Psalms is full of requests to God for him to teach his ways to the writers of the Psalms. David, who wrote Psalm 25, often asked God to teach him, and that is certainly something that we can do as well.

Psalm 25 is an acrostic psalm; that means each verse begins with a letter of the Hebrew alphabet (going, as it were, from A to Z). It is full of requests for God to teach David the way that he should live in order to be the kind of person who walks in covenant friendship with God. Much later Jesus said to his followers, "If you love me, you will keep my commandments" (John 14:15). Here in this psalm David is saying how he does love the Lord and he wants him to show him how to keep God's commandments.

God really loves to hear prayers such as David prayed, and later in Psalm 32 God said to the psalm-writer, "I will instruct and teach you in the way you should go." The whole Bible has been given to us to teach us the way God wants us to go. That is why it is so important to read and to memorise as much of the Bible as we can so we will walk in God's ways — following in the footsteps of Jesus.

Dear Lord, lead me in your truth and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation. Amen

It's Not All Good News

Reader: Angus Macdonald

Date: 14th April 2022

Passage: Isaiah 1:4

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If you listen to the news on the radio or television or read the newspapers you might think that the only news that gets reported is bad news — murders, abuse of one kind or another, political failures and so on and on. Bad news!

But just imagine if you went to church and the minister started his sermon in this way: "Shame! Misguided God-dropouts! Gang of miscreants, band of vandals... people who have turned their backs on me, their God... walked off and never looked back" (Isaiah 1:4, The Message). I'm sure you would be shocked. We don't like hearing things like that. Bad news.

That is just the message that God gave to his servant Isaiah to preach to the people in his day. God had become so disappointed with the way the people his people were living. They were just as bad as the people of Sodom and Gomorrah had been; immoral, selfish and just full of sin. This was shocking, and to be told that that was the way God saw the people must have shocked them.

How do you think God sees us? You? Does he see us as pure and clean and loving and eagerly walking in his ways? Let's take an honest look at ourselves through the searching gaze of God's Word the Bible. Isaiah said to the people "Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes" (1:16). The Apostle John wrote, "If we confess our sins, he (God) is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9).

The Best Hiding Place

Reader: Calum Macdonald

Date: 13th April 2022

Passage: Psalm 119:114

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I'm sure we have all played "hide and seek." It was a great thing to get the best hiding place before you heard the words "Coming, ready or not!"

The best hiding place! We all wanted that. The man who wrote the text at the top of the page wanted that too. But he wasn't playing a game. He was very serious about living his life in a way that would please God. He was also very sure that God would hide him in safety from the attacks of the evil one (Satan) and those people who tried to mock him because he trusted in God's word.

In Psalm 91 the writer says, "Those who live in the shelter of the Most High will find rest in the shadow of the Almighty." That is a perfect hiding place. Again in Psalm 32 King David sang, You (God) are my hiding place;you protect me from trouble. You surround me with songs of victory" (NLT).

A. M. Toplady, who wrote a famous hymn about the salvation we find in the Lord Jesus Christ, wrote about the same theme. He said "Rock of ages, cleft for me, hide me now, my refuge be". He wrote these words after he had sheltered from a storm in a crevice that had been formed in a huge rock. At the end of the hymn when he was writing about going to heaven he wrote, "Rock of ages, cleft for me, hide me then, my refuge be." We are safe for time and eternity in Jesus.

Dear Jesus, keep me in the shelter of your salvation now and always. Amen

Follow The Leader

Reader: Jon Watson

Date: 12th April 2022

Passage: Matthew 4:18

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We used to enjoy playing the game "Follow my leader." In and out of different objects we would go, often holding on to one another as we went.

The word "follow" is a very common word in the New Testament, often on the lips of Jesus. Jesus called certain men to follow him as his disciples. Others Jesus asked to follow him and leave the kind of lives they were living, for Jesus wanted them to change and live in his way. Indeed, the Christian life can be summed up in these few words; it means following Jesus.

If we are to become a follower of Jesus Christ it will involve us in certain actions. First of all we follow Jesus and Jesus only. We cannot be a follower of Jesus and still walk in ungodly ways. Then if we are to follow Jesus we must do so willingly. We read in the Bible of one young man to whom Jesus said, "Follow me," but he turned and went away sorrowfully, because he was rich and wanted to keep his riches instead of following Jesus.

As followers of Jesus we must be willing to learn —to be taught by Jesus all the things of God he wants us to know. Jesus' early disciples followed him closely during the time he was here on earth to learn all they could. There is always a cost in following Jesus — people you know may not want to be friends with you any more. But following Jesus always has a great reward — we will follow Jesus into heaven itself to be with him there. Ask the Lord to help you follow him all your days.