God's Word For Every Day

If I were to go around the congregation and ask you, "Why have you come to this church service?", I'm sure I would get quite a variety of different answers. Some of you, if you were being perfectly honest, might have to say, "I came because I've got into a routine of coming to church on a Sunday." If this is what you're thinking, that's very sad. How can you expect to get anything out of the service, if you have only come to church because it's part of your weekly routine? Others may say, "I feel that I must come because it's my duty." There's a sense in which this is true, yet, if that's all that brings you to church, you're missing a great deal. Such an attitude is surely a far cry from the attitude of the Psalmist: "I was glad when they said to me, 'Let us go to the house of the Lord'" ( Psalm 122:1 ), Others may say, "I've come to church to hear the minister speak." Yes. You will ...

God is calling us to walk in the light with Him. * He’s calling us to walk with Him in the light of His love . Go back to Genesis 1:3 – “Let there be light, and there was light.” Go back beyond the created light. Go back to the eternal God – “In the beginning, God” (Genesis 1:1). What do we find when we go back to the eternal God. We find love, eternal love:  “He has loved us with an everlasting love” (Jeremiah 31:3). This is light of God’s love. * He’s calling us to walk with Him in the light of His Word . What is it that brings us out of darkness and into light? It’s the light of God’s Word – “Your Word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path” (Psalm 119:105). * He’s calling us to walk with Him in the light of His Son . What a great Saviour we have! Jesus is His Name. He is “the Light of the world” (John 8:12). Let us walk with Jesus – in the light of God’s love, in the light of God’s Word. * He’s calling us to walk with God in the light of His Kin...

We have to speak to today's world - but we must make sure that it's God's Word that we speak. What are we to say to the world?  We must begin with another question: What is God saying to us? If we are to hear what God is saying to us, we must make time for studying His Word. We can only speak the Word of God to others if we have heard Him speaking to ourselves. If our words are to bring something real and relevant to today's word, they must be an echo of "the living and enduring word of God" (1 Peter 1:23). In themselves, our words have no power to change the lives of those who hear them. There is, however, a greater Power at work when the Lord's servants proclaim His Word. In Ephesians 6:17, Paul describes "the Word of God" as "the sword of the Spirit." Whenever we are bringing the Word of God to men and women, we must pray for the presence and power of the Spirit . We must remember this: "The weapons we fight with ...

‘When the Holy Spirit comes on you... you will be My witnesses... to the ends of the earth’ (Acts 1:8). This great advance of the Gospel - Salvation reaches ‘the Gentiles’ (Acts 10:45; 11:1,18) - is a movement of ‘the Spirit’ (Acts 11:12). The Spirit speaks through the Word (Acts 10:44; 11:15). In God’s Word, we read of (a) God’s love for the whole world (John 3:16); (b) God’s Son who died for ‘the sins of the whole world’ (John 1:29; 1 John 2:2); (c) God’s command that ‘the Good News’ should be preached to ‘everyone’ (Mark 16:15); (d) God’s purpose that there should be disciples of Christ in every nation (Matthew 28:19). ‘Every person in every nation, in each succeeding generation, has the right to hear the News that Christ can save... Here am I, send me’ (Youth Praise,128). ‘Go forth and tell!’ (Mission Praise, 178).

How are we to speak to today’s world? Before we can speak to today’s world, we must listen to God’s Word. Speaking for God begins with listening to him. A word that is spoken by us for the Lord must, first, be a word that is spoken to us by the Lord.

Centred on the Saviour, Empowered by the Spirit, Grounded in the Scriptures – These are the lessons that we must keep on learning if we are to bring glory to God and receive blessing from Him. * Centred on the Saviour Being a Christian isn’t something that we do for ourselves. It’s not something that we achieve in our own strength. When we learn about Jesus, we are drawn to Him. It’s the love of God that draws us to Jesus. God shows us how much He loves us. He shows us how much He wants to change us. He leads us to Jesus – “the Way, the Truth and the Life” (John 14:6). Jesus is “the Way without which there is no going.” Without Jesus, we’re lost. Jesus finds us. Jesus is “the Truth without which there is no knowing.” Without Jesus, we can’t make sense of our life. He shows us what our life is all about. Jesus is “the Life without which there is no living.” Without Jesus, life seems empty. He gives us true and lasting joy. How can Jesus bring these blessings to ...

We thank You, Lord, for Your Word and Your Spirit (Acts 6:3-4). Help us, Lord, to "be filled with the Spirit" as we "let the Word of Christ dwell in us richly" (Ephesians 5:18; Colossians 3:16). Filled wiyth Your Spirit and obedient to Your Word, may we look to You for Your blessing (Acts 6:7).

When Jesus was praying to His Father for His first disciples, He spoke these words, "Sanctify them by the truth; Your Word is truth" (John 17:17). If, in our generation, we are to be the people of God - filled with His power, His love and holiness, we, no less than Jesus' first disciples, need to be grounded in the truth of God's Word. Without the Word of the Lord, we will never become what God wants us to become. This is what will change us - the living Word of the living God.

We may study Scripture personally but we must not study it individualistically. Our study of Scripture must be related to God, the Church and the world. We need a revival of the apostolic devotion - “we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the Word” (Acts 6:4). We are not to study Scripture for our own benefit only. We are to “hold fast the Word of life” by “holding forth the Word of life” (Philippians 2:16). The Word is God’s Word. The work is God’s work. The Word is to be read in God’s way. The work is to be done in God’s way. We are to read the Word of God prayerfully. The work of God - evangelism and edification - is to be done prayerfully. We are to approach God’s Word in a spirit of prayer - “Give me understanding, that I may keep Thy law and observe it with my whole heart” (Psalm 119:34). We should pray for those who preach the Word (Ephesians 6:18-20). Pray for them in their preparation. Receive the preaching prayerfully, even when the preacher is not...

"When you read God's Word, you must constantly be saying to yourself, 'It is talking to me, and about me.'" (Soren Kierkegaard).