1312020

Isaiah 45-55

The storm wind of the LORD that blows away all our doubts. The bigness of the Lord that dismisses all our fears. The big-ness of the Lord that grounds us in reality. 

If Isaiah 53 is true how can we really worry about anything? He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. What a God! Piereced and crushed for our sins. The apex of His glory is His grace, the greatest display of His power is in His rescuing of sinners. What a God, what a Gospel! No wonder Isaiah 54 starts with 'sing!'

1302020

Job 35-42

Job died well, an old man ful of days. Job died with as much physical evidence of God's favour on him as he had had to endure physical evidence of God's dis-favour on him. Job's complaint against God was right. God was far off, and JOb couldn't reach Him. Until God bowed the Heavens and came down, Job was cut off from God. But God shows Himself gracious in the whirl-wind. He comes and speaks and saves. Job's friends, who view Him as a vending machine, spoke wrongly but were saved by Job's intersecion. Thank God for the Gospel, i am hopeless as Job's friends.

This was a Pentecostal meeting for Job. The wind of God blew away all his false ideas. Seeing God face to face was worth losing everything for. May it be true in my life and ministry.

1292020

Psalm 30-35

I love David's confidence in the Lord. His trouble doesn't drive Him away from God but rather towards Him. What an example! David knows the Lord is big enough, lovely enough, glorious enough to sustain him. To enable him to wait and trust and know that good will come. We need this faith.

So no wonder these are the songs that the Lord Jesus sung. No wonder David sings about the Lord Jesus and provides a model for His prayer life. Here we can find meaning, identity and hope, forever.

1282020

Judges 7-16

My prayer this morning is, 'Lord, do it again!'The Lord saved His people when He grew tired of their oppression, tired of their sin and it's consequnces, tired of their rebellion. Lord, do it again! In times of great sin and apostasy the Lord used unlikely heroes to save His people. Lord, do it again! Do in my heart, in my marriage, in my ministry. 

There is then great reason to hope. The light has shone in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it. Will not overcome it.

1272020

Genesis 24-31

What a mess. But aren't God's people a mess anyway? In the Bible we meet real people whose lives are a real mess but are met in that mess, in that sin, in that fialure, in that deceit even, by a real God. And God keeps His pormise to a messy people. He mets with Isaac and Jacb both, reminding them and re-promising them what He had said to Abraham. He was their God now.

And is my heart any less of a mess than theirs? Not a chance! But clothed with the righteousness of another today i have all i need. The Lord Jesus is filled with all the fullness of God, so i am filled with hope and a future.

1262020

Romans 13-16

Crush the devil this Lord's day, and let your kingdom come! Fill our hearts with joy and peace in believing so that by the power of the Holy Spirit we may abound in hope! See the great things the Lord calls us to. Love, joy, hope, peace and victory. Victory even in defeat. Despite Paul's prayers he was not delievered from the unbeleivers in Jerusalem but made it to Rome anyway. This is a Christian victory.

And what does the Lord call us to do? Love, and seek to do others good. Lay down your rights for the sake of the Gospel as the Lord Jesus lay down His rights for you.

1252020

Matthew 17-22

'In the beginning God...' so the Bible begins. This is God's world, and into this world steps God's King. He comes healing, revealing, casting down idols, teaching and confounding opponents. He heads not to the imperial courts but to the Temple. The Lord comes with a much bigger agenda than power on Earth. That's why He commends children, and builds with fishermen and women. He is the King, and He rules by His Word. He is the king, and He invites us into this loving, forgiving, child-like, pure Kingdom. If the earth belongs to God, and Jesus is the King, then your will be done, your Kingdom come!

1242020

Isaiah 34-44

Sometimes getting through this plan twice in 2020 is going to feel like drinking from a fire-hose. BUt where better to drink? What better to be overwhelmed by? How do we sum up these 11 chapters in a lifetime, never mind a paragraph?! 

Hezekiah is not the son of David we're looking for. He fails God's people, despite God's goodness to him in the siege of Sennacherib. It's so interesting tht Sennacherib offers the people of Jerusalm what only the LORD can give them. Sin will always offer us what only the Lord can give us. The devil is a rip-off artist, an impersonater. He has no joy in his sotre for us. Only the Lord Jesus can give us that. How often we forget.

But the Lord will stop at nothing to show His people His love for them. I love the Old Testament because i love to see God's grace poured out on undeserving rebels, like me. What does it mean that God loves you? It means that He will remove every barrier and every wall that stops you seeing Him as the source of all security and satisfaction and help you to enjoy and glorify Him accordingly. God loves His glory, and this is good news. This is why He makes it rain in the wilderness, this is why He brings His people home, crowned with joy.

1232020

Job 27-34

Job justifies himself, not God. Job's friends tell him he's wrong but can't explain why. Elihu, whose role i don't understand still, is useful for that survey! Only one can say the things that Job said and really mean them. Only one. Only the Lord Jesus. Only He had a blameless, God glorifying life. Only the Lord had unquestionable integrity and just suffered as the worst of sinners. He has walked this path, and calls us to follow Him. Live right, and accept what comes from the hand of a good Father. Just like Job's friends, i let the Lord down. I look at Him and don't have a clue what's going on. But the Lord's righteous acceptance with God prevails for me. In His acceptance i am accepted. What a Gospel!

1222020

Psalm 24-29

So good to have these words on my lips, even as my heart lags far behind. David sings about grace, about glory, about his desire for God. He needs help against the enemy, how often the situation for God's king seems hopeless, and is hopeless without God. He needs strength to live for the Lord. 

His highest request, his deepest desire is simply to be with the Lord. To see God. There is no better prayer request that simply, 'show me your glory,' i love your glory, i love the beauty of God, of the holy habitation, let me be there, David prays. How my heart lags behind. There is nothing more to desire than simply to be with God. 

And in the Psalms we remember that though these are David's songs, these are the songs of and about the Lord Jesus. The voice of God, the voice that strips the cedars bare is the Word made flesh that dwelt among us. What glory! The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, so live in God's world according to God's Word. All else is chaos. All else is guilt. All else is misery. All else is hell.

1212020

Joshua 21-25, Judges 1-6

 

See the God who rules by His Word, and the beauty of the story when God's people follow God's Word. See the danger when people don't. We should desire nothing more than communion ith the God revealed in the Word by following the Word. See how the 10 tribes rides to the Jordan and offer to give up their land if it will save their brothers. How different from the tweet-storms of our day! There is only chaos outside the Word, but joy inside it.

1202020

Genesis 16-23

I'm glad this was my reading this morning. He is so good. Romans 4:20-21 are my theme verses this year. If Abraham can look at himself and Sarah and not waver in faith but grow as he gave glory to God, how can i look at our church and do anything else?

Here we see those verses in action. Abraham is always looking at God and not his circumstances rather than his problems. Look at your God not your problems! He 'saves,' Lot, he trusts God for his son, both in birth, and, if you like, re-birth. In the end Sarah is buried in the land, the first dawning of light in the eastern sky of God's promises. Same God. Same promises. How will the Lord Jesus keep His promises? That's really His business!

1192020

Romans 9-12

How can you sum up these chapters in a few chapters? No way! How can you sum up the Lord in a life time? no way, you need eternity to swim in the depths of the riches of His wisdom, grace and love. And then still be dumbstruck by Him. All were consigned to disobedience that He might have mercy on all. What wisdom! What grace! No wonder chapter 12 calls us to give and live our whole lives for Him. How can we do anything else?

1182020

Matthew 11-16

I love the Gospel accounts. I love to get that Galilean dirt under my fingernails. Matthews account is so real, so vivid. I love that the Kingdom is so unlikely. Impossible, in fact, apart from the King. Every what, or how, or where question brings us back to Him. The Lord Jesus rules by His Word. He creates, He calms, He heals, He forgives. How can He not be the King? Jesus confounds the pharisees, which is good, because the pharisee in my heart needs some dealing with.

The Kingdom is small, spreading. The smallest grain of mustard now becomes the biggest tree. The Kingdom is losing all to gain one. The Kingdom is holding all things cheap you you might get the one valuable thing. And joy. Joy! Joy! Joy! Oh that my life, my ministry, my preching, wouldn't suck the joy out of the Scriptures. 

Everything is impossible apart from the kingdom. We're up against it but we can't lose. What comfort. What encouragement!

1172020

Isaiah 23-33

The banner over Isaiah should be simply, 'behold your God!' 

Last week's reading in Isaiah challenged me about where i put my security, where i looked fr satisfaction. Given the week passed, that was a good challenge! The world of man's sin, hoping to conquer God is like the clouds thinking they've destroyed the sun.This God is good. His fame should be the desire of our hearts, we should be totally 'in earnest,' about seeking Him, and more of Him. To know some of Him is to desire to know more of Him. And He desires to be known. He waits to be gracious to us. He will fill our hearts with perfect peace as they are stayed on Him. Lord, stay my heart on you in this season! The prophet's great hope is the intervention, the coming of His God, our God, the Lord Jesus. Lord - come soon!

1162020

Job 19-26

Spurgeon's morning and evening was so helpful today. The Lord will help. He has helped and will carry on helping. The Lord will give me 1000 times more help than i could ever need. I am the ant outside the granary. This is what Job needed to know, or remember, or learn. That the Lord is near. This is our good God, who is always doing us good, whether we receive it in this life as good or bad.

1152020

Psalm 12-23

 

Aren't you glad the Psalms live in the real world? That the BIble lives in the world as we meet it? We can say 'Jesus is my Lord, i have everything i need.' We can say 'goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life.' But we can feel forsaken, and surrounded. Lost and scared. In every situaion, in every emotion there is a Psalm for us. God is true to His Word. As long as our eyes are on Him we may falter, but we will never fail. One day all the world will look at the Lord and know that He has done it. The suffering King prevails through suffering, and as we follow Him, so will we.

1142020

Joshua 11-20

The earth is the Lord's. That's one of the themes of my reading this year. This is God's world. And God cares for His people. The world is Hs to divide up and give to His people as He sees fit. He comes and hands out Canaan, His special land to Israel, His special people. He has every right to do that.

And since we live in God's world we have nothing to fear right? Well, nothing except ourselves, our sin, our failure. There is a city of refuge. The law is serious and it's breakers must hide from the wrath they deserve. Christ is our refuge. Our sin is serious, and we must take shelter from the wrath to come. What a Gospel! Where the offended party provides a place to be safe! We can be safe to day in Christ, from God's wrath. Safe from temptation. safe from trials Safe from doubt. Safe from despair. Hallelujah!

1132020

Genesis 8-15

The Lord is God over all the earth, but He has a special care for Canaan. The Lord is God over all the people's of the Earth, but He has a special care for Abraham and his family. The story starts to zoom in here, and thank God for a Lord who zooms in! His loves this land, and this people. He loves His church and all who are connected to Him by faith. The power to fight sin and experience that 'joy unspeakable and full of glory,' is found in believing these things deep in my bones. 

1122020

Romans 5-8

My main job each day is to get my heart happy in the Gospel. That's probably particularly true on Sunday, when i know at some point the gloom iwll come and a heaviness will descend on my heart. But what a place to get my heart happy! Today i get to preach this life-giving, joy-producing, sin-killing good news. Lord come and fill my heart and our church with your Spirit today. There is nothing higher or greater or deeper than to be yours. You are dead to sin and alive to Christ, so live!

1112020

Matthew 5-10

The crowds marvelled at the Lord Jesus because He spoke with authority. Authority. That's what the Word of the Lord caries wherever it goes. The Lord doesn't say 'thus says the Lord,' but He says, I say to you.' Authority. He is the King. 

He has authority over the weather, over sicknesses, over demons. and over my heart, i pray. Your kingdom come, your will be done. Yours or mine, we can't have both. I can either build the house of my life on the sand, or i can build the house of my life on the sand. The Word of the Lord is life, hope, light and freedom. And it's radical. The Lord doesn't come to coddle or to comfort but to make alive. Birth is painful. There are hands to cut off, eyes to gouge out. Being a Christian is violent. There are crosses to pick up. Being a Christian will kill. But it will only kill to make alive. We must follow the Lord wherever He calls, this is the only path to life.

1102020

Isaiah 12-22

What happens here? God defeats, or promises the defeat of His enemies. Yes! No matter how stong, how secure the enemies of God seem, their kingdoms are built on sinking sand. And the Lord is in control, not just of Judah's fate, but of Edom and Moab, Egypt and Assyria. He will defeat them, smashing some and saving others. One King, form the line of David will rule over them.

But what happens when God's people rely on the enemies of God? God will take them away. he will strip away all that we put our secutity and satisfaction in. he will wipe out all our alternate sources of power. All our 'Egypts' will fail us, all our seen foundations will falter. Because God wants His people, God wants our hearts, our trust, our joy, our security, our satisfaction, He wants us! Trusting in the things you can see is a fools' errand.

192020

Job 9-18

Read Job quickly. See the themes and hear the arguments. Do i feel like i have a good grasph on what this book is about? Maybe not, but i;m getting there. Job seems to have a breakthrough, 'tho He slay me yet i will trust in Him.' Yes! Who else can we trust, where ele can we turn bu the Lord, even when He slays us. Give me this tire iron faith! But Job's lack of access to God makes him despair. Thank God for access, thank God that i live on this side of the cross!

Job's friends just live in the world they can see. Their joy is based on their circumstances, and so must Job's be. Job has suffered so must have done wrong. Thank God for better friends than Job!

182020

Psalm 6-11

I left my devotions this morning with a desire that, as the Lord's name is majestic on the Earth, os it would be majestic in my heart. So that enjoying sin would be like taking a trip to see a mound of dirt when Mount Fuji looms in the background. 

How does David pray? For hep! For life! For God to come and right every wrong. How can i pray any other way. Maybe i don't pray like this because i don't desire God like this. Or because i think i can handle my own problems, when i most decidedly cannot. But i can and should pray for help with the rock solid certainty that these prayers will be answered. God loves His glory, the giver gets the glory. The Lord's name will be majestic in the Earth, His enemies will bed defeated. It's Christ or chaos, those are our only two choices, but in Christ i find all the blessings i'll ever need. Him!

172020

Joshua 1-10

 Is everything in these chapters a recapitulation of Israel? The waters separate. There is circumcision. Joshua takes his shoes off. The story continues. But the story doesn't begin in Exodus with Moses, but in Genesis with Adam...with God! God is not just the Lord of His people, He is Lord of all. This is His world. So hailstones fall from the sky, the sun stands still, flood waters stop, victory is assured. In the unknown and discouragement of ministry and life do i remember that?

162020

Genesis 1-7

Whose world do we live in? In the beginning God! Not random process, not pitiless dark, not modern science. In the beginning God! So cast your cares on Him, per the Morning and Evening reading today. And what sort of God is at the beginning? A saving God. A speaking God. An ark-building God. A Noah-rescuing God. All but Noah died. Christ dies for all. Only those in the ark were safe from God's judgement. Only those in Christ are safe from the coming flood. But they are safe. Praise God!

152020

Romans 1-4

How did worn out Abraham deal with Sarah's barren body? He did not waver but increased in faith giving glory to God. Was it his increased faith that gave glory to God, or was it his act of giving glory to God that increased his faith? Is it that he increased in faith 'by' giving glory to God? If so, and i think that's the likely way around, feed your heart on the promises, give glory to God, and see your faith grow. But the other is still true, Abraham's increased faith gave glory to God. If Abraham can trust in God like that there is no reason i can't. So don't waver, but give glory to God. Don't waver, but increase your faith. Faith in the One who shed His blood for your salvation, faith in the One who is just and the justifier.

142020

Matthew 1-4

This is my beloved Son with whom i am well pleased. Why did the Lord Jesus please the Father? Because He was His exact image, His exact representation on Earth. He was the image, the reflection, the light of the glory of God. So in 2020 understand that all your problems will come because you do not enjoy the Lord Jesus. Aim at pleasure in Him above all competing pleasures. Seek only pleasure only in Him, and see where your life leads you. 

132020

Isaiah 1-11

Sometimes the end of the world feels like our only hope.The swfit, deceisive action of the Lord to rescue His people from themselves is certainly the hope for Isaiah here. When i turn away from the Lord, where i am turning to? To the testimony and to the teaching, there hope is to be found. Help me to want you more than i want anything else. New year, same me, same sins, same let downs, same disappointments. Same grace of God. 

122020

Job 1-8

What do we do with Job? Remember that his friends are wrong. remember that Job never seeks to justify God, only himself. So when the worst happens this year, as it might, remember that God is in Heaven and can do as He pleases. Remember that He is good even as He sends what we would call 'disaster.' But there are no disasters for the one who receives all things from the and of a loving Father. And when others struggle, remember that the truth is more complicated than our systems can conceive of, remember that Job's friends did ok until they spoke. 

112020

Psalm 1-5

I want Jesus in 2020! I want to want Him with all my heart. No more fooling around with sin, no more feeding my sin. Time to feed my faith instead. Jesus is my refuge, my surety, my joy and my reward. As 2020 begins the world is split, as ever, into those who take refuge in Him, and those who refuse. 

Lift up my face and shine upon it Lord, give me more joy in You than in anything else. Here is peace, here is joy, here is refuge.