2 Peter 1:4
4 Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.
In our lives as Christians, there is often a tension that we wrestle with. It’s the tension between what God does for us (Gospel) and what he asks us to do in response (law). We can easily at times swing one way or the other. We focus on what God has done, paying little attention to what he is asking us to do. Or perhaps we focus on everything he asks of us and forget what God has already done for us. Today’s reading reminds us that we need both. God has given us great and precious promises. These we hold onto. These we focus on. These we read and hear and think about. We remind ourselves that the Lord always keeps his promises. But it is through his promises that lead us to participate with him in what he is doing. To participate means that we are involved. There is an expectation that we have a part to play in what God is doing in our lives and in the world. As we participate, we bring the Lord’s light and life into a world that is corrupt and full of darkness. His promises to us bring life, and this life we bring to others as we participate with him in this life he gives.
Father, thank you that you have given to me your word of promise in everything that Christ Jesus has done for me. Thank you for giving me new life. Help me in response to intentionally participate in all that you have asked me to do so that your light and life can work through me into this world of darkness. Amen
Pastor Nich Kitchen
Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.
TO PONDER
There is a fairly consistent message in the Bible about the church isn't there? We have seen it all week, we are built together, we are parts of one body under Christ who is the head.
It's the headship of Christ I want to draw us to today. Sometimes it is easy to get caught up in the busyness of church and outreach programs and the political machinations of national church institutions and to think that the church is all about us, that it only operates if we keep the wheels turning and driving things forward. There is certainly something to be said for getting involved in the work and mission of God's church (we look at that next week), but a big part of the task is growing to become like the head of the church, Jesus Christ.
How often do you worry about how much your life looks like the life of Jesus? I don't mean in a Monty Python's, 'Life of Brian' kind of way, but how often would people recognise the grace, love and forgiveness of Jesus being expressed in the way you live, the choices you make, the way you behave and the things you say?
These days we talk a lot about 'deep fakes', those AI generated images that look like celebrities and can be used to endorse a product but are nothing more than an AI generated image. If you look closely and know what to look for, you can usually spot a fake. The world is pretty good at noticing 'fake' Christians. Don't let your life be a 'deep fake'. Spend some time today asking Jesus to help you be more like him.
PRAYER: Lord Jesus, please help me to look more like you today. Help me to show your love, your compassion and your heart for those you bring my way today. Amen
Today's devotion written by Mathew von Stanke, LifeWay Newcastle
But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.
TO PONDER
I can't imagine how many times I have read this verse over the years. However, in reading it for today's devotion, something struck me for the first time. Yes, it is true that we are God's chosen people, that we are set apart as his holy nation and a priesthood of all believers acting as intermediaries between God and those who do not yet know Him. But God has called us and chose us and is forming us and equipping us for a purpose... That we may declare the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His wonderful light.
Being part of a holy nation, a royal priesthood, being God's chosen people is not about simply sitting in a favoured and priveledged position. It is about being free and able to proclaim Gods goodness and declare his praise. This is the purpose of the church (the people, not the building or institution). It's not to build awe inspiriting buildings and cathedrals in which we can gather privately. It's not about employing a large staff of various ministry professionals to run fancy outreach and evangelism programs. It's not about the style of worship music or the liturgical forms you use on a Sunday morning. It is simply about declaring the praises of the God who created and redeemed you out of darkness to live in his wonderful light to anyone who will listen.
PRAYER: Lord Jesus, I pray that you will help me today to see all the ways you are at work in me, through me, and around me so that I may point it out to others and proclaim your goodness and mercy to all who have ears to hear. Amen
Today's devotion written by Mathew von Stanke, LifeWay Newcastle
They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common.
TO PONDER
I wonder if any of us have ever come close to experiencing something like the community of the early Christian Church under the leadership of the first apostles. It sounds kind of wonderful don't you think?
No one having to go without, everything being shared among the community, the people devoted to learning whatever they could from the apostles - as the apostles dedicated themselves to the task Jesus had left for them - to make disciples of all nations, baptising and teaching them.
The crazy thing is that the task of the church today is no different than it was back then, but the church today looks very different. We have institutional churches with heirarchies, and policies and various doctrines - some which look like the things that Jesus and the apostles taught, many which have nothing to do with any of that stuff. We don't have everything in common, and instead are often quick to point out when our beliefs or practices are different from others and separate ourselves rather than find ways to work together.
The world today looks different than it did for the early Christians, but the task we have as God's church is no different. Maybe if we looked a bit more like the early church, we might find more people drawn into the community, as the early Christians did.
PRAYER: Jesus, please help me to remember that being part of a church is not about simply attending church services, but about being dedicated to learning from your word, to meeting with and supporting others in our church community and to gathering to worship you. Amen
Today's devotion written by Mathew von Stanke, LifeWay Newcastle
For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.
TO PONDER
If the building or 'temple' metaphor is one of the apostle Paul's favourite ways to talk about the church, then the 'body of Christ' metaphor would have to be the other.
It makes sense doesn't it. We all know how one injury or illness in one part of our body makes us feel unwell generally. A broken leg doesn't just affect the leg in isolation, but the whole rest of the body suffers the pain along with the leg and other parts have to compensate while the leg heals. Just like a bad headache doesn't just effect your head, it influences your concentration, emotional state and the capacity of the rest of your body to attend to regular everyday tasks.
Paul goes on in this passage from Romans to explain that if the whole body were just an eye, there would be no sense of smell. Likewise, is the whole body was a nose then how would we hear? Just as each part of the body has a specific function, so to does every member of the church. Let's put it another way, Paul is essentially saying there is no such thing as an appendix or tonsils in the Body of Christ. There is no part that you can simply take away without having a negative effect on the rest of the body, we all need each other.
Sure, sometimes it's hard to look past the 'glamorous' parts of the body, those who stand up the front and are always seen 'doing' the work, but so much of what happens in a body is unseen and yet often more important to the health and functioning of the body that what is seen on the outside. So today we acknowledge the 'behind closed doors' prayers, the 'while no one is looking' encouragers, the 'I can do that' helpers and servants who don't always get recognised or valued. If you are one of those people doing this devotion today, we love you and we need you in the church. If you are not one of those people and often find yourself out front being the face or voice of the operation, thank God for those who quietly get busy doing the work God has prepared for them to do, which allows you to get out and do what you have been gifted and called to do. We all have a part to play and we are all in this together to the glory of God the Father. Amen
PRAYER: Lord of the Church, I thank you for the gift that you have made us to one another. Please help me to always recognise the gifts that you have given my brothers and sisters in our church community and help us all to celebrate and encourage one another as members of your body, the church. Amen
Today's devotion written by Mathew von Stanke, LifeWay Newcastle
Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ.
TO PONDER
I have been retired now for almost 7 years and my wife, Diane, and I have been living off our superannuation, money that we and our employers put into our superannuation fund while we were working. We cannot grow this fund, only use it up to cover our living expenses. Will we have sufficient money to live on until God calls us home? We have no guarantees. It depends on our health and unknown medical expenses, and how safe our money is in the superannuation fund.
The answer to this question about financial security also depends on what we have faith in. On the one hand, we can have faith in the world political and financial systems that our money won’t be dissipated by events beyond our control. Or we can have faith in God’s promise to always look after us, no matter what He allows to happen in our lives. This is not faith that God will protect our superannuation nest egg, but faith that even if it should be badly eroded or even vanish, that God will still be there beside us, guiding us in dealing with whatever happens.
Our faith in our eternal future is not that different. We can have faith in our goodness and how we try to keep God’s commands, and hope we have done enough to be accepted into heaven. Or we can have faith in all that God’s Son, Jesus, has done on our behalf to guarantee that our eternal home with our Heavenly Father is already now. However, this faith in what Jesus has done for us is not like a once-off measles injection, good for the rest of our life, it is more like the regular meals we eat, usually three times, every day. We need that regular quality time with our Heavenly Family to keep our faith healthy, and an important part of that quality time is immersing ourselves in the book containing God’s love story to us. (And, of course, spending quality time too with our brothers and sisters in Christ.)
Prayer: Heavenly Father, thank you that You have given us all we need to know about you, all we need to know about what Jesus has achieved for us and all we need to know about living as your children. Please guide us in using that knowledge to trust where you are leading us in living out your purpose for us. Amen
Today's devotion written by Charles Bertelsmeier, LifeWay Epping
Let the prophet who has a dream recount the dream, but let the one who has my word speak it faithfully. For what has straw to do with grain?” declares the Lord. “Is not my word like fire,” declares the Lord, “and like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces?"
TO PONDER
Around 722 BC, the ten northern tribes of Israel were deported by the Assyrians and dispersed into other countries that the Assyrians defeated. The Bible describes this as punishment on these people because they had rejected Him as their God and worshiped the gods of the surrounding countries. At the time, God miraculously protected the southern two tribes of Israel, Judah and Benjamin, from the Assyrians. In the following years, these two tribes eventually followed the northern tribes in adopting the horrible practices of the surrounding countries, such as child sacrifice and religious prostitution.
Jeremiah was sent by God to bring warnings to the people that if they didn’t return back to living as He had instructed them, they would suffer the same fate as their northern cousins, but this time at the hands of the Babylonians. But while Jeremiah was speaking the messages that he had specifically received from God himself, there were other people claiming to be prophets and bringing different messages from God, sometimes received via dreams. Generally, the messages provided by these false prophets was that everything was OK and the people could keep living their disgusting lives without any fear of retribution.
The outcome of all this was that in 586 BC, Jerusalem, and the temple, were destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar, the King of Babylon, and the surviving people deported to Babylon.
This raises the challenge for us, where do we get our spiritual truth from. Social media is full of advice on how to lead a full and fulfilling life, whereas the Bible is treated as suspect, especially when science is used as a weapon against its reliability. As Christians, we are followers of Jesus Christ who demonstrated by His life that He was God’s son and truly God. He put His stamp of approval on the Old Testament as fully God’s word while the New Testament contains a record of Jesus’s words to us.
We can therefore trust God’s word to us in the Bible. And to protect ourselves from being led away from God’s truths, we really do need to immerse ourselves in it, not only to gain truth, but to meet the author of this truth, our Loving Heavenly Family.
Prayer: Heavenly Father, thank you for revealing yourself through the life of your Son. Please help us to make the time to spend with You and your Word so that we get to know you personally and receive Your guidance in living our lives. Amen
Today's devotion written by Charles Bertelsmeier, LifeWay Epping
All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
TO PONDER
I spent 5 years at university to gain two degrees (Science and Engineering). When I got my first job, the first task given to me was to design a small sub-system of a communications system to be used for interconnecting telephone exchanges. A wonderful opportunity for applying my 5 years of study to a real problem. After a couple of days of effort and not really getting anywhere, one of the more senior engineers came to see how I was going. After reviewing my pathetic efforts, he shared with me the standard design they had been using successfully for many years. Yes, it had to be customised for each specific application, but it gave me a big boost in developing a design. As I progressed in my career, I realised that developing successful solutions always came from using a combination of theoretical knowledge, practical experience and ideas contributed by others.
When looking at my life as a child of our Heavenly Father, I see that there are parallels with my experience as an engineer. The theoretical knowledge I had acquired at university is like learning theology. The Bible is full of theology, or knowledge about God, and I did acquire quite a bit of this while growing up. But I must confess, that the biggest impact on me was a sense of guilt and failure in not living up to what I thought a Christian had to be. In an effort to become a better Christian, I joined a group of Christians street-witnessing in King Cross, the red-light district of Sydney at the time. This came to an abrupt end one night when I was having a discussion with a bikie and I realised I had absolutely nothing to offer him as a Christian.
What I was missing, was the practical experience of living as a Christian. This is the day by day living in a relationship with the Heavenly Family, having the security of knowing my life was safely in God’s hands, and having Holy Spirit guiding me in living out God’s purpose for me.
As with my engineering experience, this is an ongoing process of learning to hear God’s voice and responding to it. Again, the Bible is full of advice on how to hear God speaking to us and how to respond, and we have so many examples in the Bible of how other people went through this learning experiences.
Which brings us to ideas contributed by others. As we read in the Bible of how God worked in the lives of people, it opens our minds to possibilities of how God may want to work in our lives. (It doesn’t mean that God will work in our lives in the same way He has worked in the lives of others, since God treats us all individually according to our specific situations.)
What a treasure we have in our Bibles, with all the resources in it to help us live in the relationship our loving God wants to have with us.
Prayer: Heavenly Father, thank you for revealing yourself to us through Your word, and for also revealing how you want us to live in our relationship with you. We want to grow in the security of our relationship with you so that we joyfully follow where you want to take us. Amen
Today's devotion written by Charles Bertelsmeier, LifeWay Epping.
So is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.
TO PONDER
In the creation account in Genesis 1, God speaks all of creation into existence. The power associated with God’s voice and the words that come out of His mouth have the power to bring about a universe so large our human minds struggle to grasp its extent and majesty. And at the other extreme, the word of God created life in all its intricate complexity. In the book of Daniel, we meet a God who can protect three men thrown into a blazing inferno and then come out without any sign or smell of where they have been. We are not talking about a weak, impotent god here.
For most of human history, humans have acknowledged the existence of higher powers who we usually refer to as their gods. So, for the true God to distinguish Himself from the gods made in human likeness, the true God would demonstrate His unique power by impressive displays of that power – think of the plagues in Egypt for example.
Today, in the western world, human beings, and the knowledge they have acquired, have taken the place of God in many people’s lives. Humans can solve all the problems in this world and we don’t need the crutch of a God to solve our problems for us. You may have various views on how well we are doing with that.
So, the way God demonstrates His superiority over today’s man-made gods, especially in our western society, is to use broken, humble people to achieve His purposes. He takes people like us with our insecurities, hurts, fears and failures and changes and heals us by the power of that same very powerful word of His, and then takes our hand to lead us in doing some generally very ordinary things with Him, but achieving powerful results in the lives of others.
Prayer: Heavenly Father, please take away my fear of allowing you free range in my life, to let you release your awesome power in me to change me so you can use me to share the joy of knowing you with those who don’t yet know you. Amen
Today's devotion written by Charles Bertelsmeier, LifeWay Epping