I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand.
TO PONDER
Picture a dog. It has been given a toy or a bone, something that is has wanted desperately. Now, having received its prize, what does the dog do with it? It guards it, perhaps it puts it somewhere, hidden from anyone who might try and steal it. Anyone who dares to try and take the toy or bone back is sure to be growled at, at best. The bone or toy is precious to the dog, and it will do whatever it needs to do to keep it safe. If a dog goes to so much trouble for its toy or bone, how much more does the Father do to protect us? The truth is more than we will ever know or imagine. Jesus words are truth for us, our eternal life is a gift, we will never perish and God will never let anyone snatch us from His hand.
PRAYER: Jesus, thank you for the price you paid for me, so I can enjoy the gift of eternal life with my heavenly Father. Make me aware in a new way how much you love me, and all that you do to protect me and keep me safe within your care. Amen.
Today's devotion written by Elise von Stanke, LifeWay Newcastle
And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast.
TO PONDER
‘Everything worth doing will be difficult to do’. Have you ever heard a quote similar to this? As a teacher, I often need to remind my students that their hard work will be worth it in the end. It’s hard to see the end though, when you are in the midst of the hard work! Also, being reminded of this can be little comfort to those who are enduring the pain. Peter reminds us in this verse though, that our suffering is only for a little while, and the wonderful reward at the end is strength and steadfastness. Our suffering, in whatever form that takes, will be worth it, and only for a fleeting moment, compared to the eternal glory of being with Christ and being restored fully by Him. So, endure and look forward with anticipation to your eternal reward.
PRAYER: Jesus, I thank you that you understand my suffering, because you suffered also. Help me to endure through my suffering, reminding me that it is only for a short while, until you restore me fully again. In your glorious name I pray, Amen.
Today's devotion written by Elise von Stanke, LifeWay Newcastle
If anyone speaks, they should do so as one who speaks the very words of God. If anyone serves, they should do so with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen.
TO PONDER
Have you ever taken a personality or gifts quiz? If you haven’t, you answer a series of questions about your preferences and natural tendencies and these answers place you in a particular category. The main take away from these quizzes however is that we are all different, and no category is better than another. We are all unique and wonderful, and it takes everyone to make the world work. Peter reminds us in verse 11 that the key to living an authentic life is to do what God is calling us to, and to do it all for His glory. This is not for ourselves, but so that God may be seen by others, living through us, and that this will result in God being praised. So, whatever it is you are being called to this week, do it in His strength and for his glory.
PRAYER: Lord, thank you that you have made me unique and wonderful. Help me to better understand the gifts you have given me and the ways you are calling me to use them. I want you name to be praised through the work I do each day. Amen.
Today's devotion written by Elise von Stanke, LifeWay Newcastle
Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.
TO PONDER
We all will see tough times and go through periods of struggle in life, times where we even question how we will make it through. So how do we live in that ‘sure hope’ when our circumstances are working against our faith?
One thing we forget about in our individualistic age driven by consumerism and the idea of personal autonomy is that the Books of the Bible was written to an ‘us’ rather than a ‘me’. Most times when we read the word ‘you’ in the Bible we really should remember to tap into our Western Sydney bogan (I can say that because we live in and love ‘Penrif’/Penrith) and put an ‘S’ on the word ‘you’ to make it plural.
Walking with Jesus is not a solo sport, it’s not about you its more about us!
Today’s verse gives a hint that while we may read it alone it actually was written for a community, not so much as a follower of Jesus but as a community of ‘followers’ of Jesus by the use of words like ‘us’ and ‘we’. The statement ‘let us hold unswervingly to the hope’ could just be showing us that even our hope is a team sport. In fact the next verse tells us how we can hold onto that promised sure hope when it says to stop worrying about your issues, your hard times and think about others (my paraphrase).
Here it is; ‘And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds’. So to hold unswervingly to hope we ‘become church’, we become community, stop thinking about ourself and spur others on.
PRAYER: Faithful Father, I thank you for church, not the building, not a place to go to but your family of everyday people who I get to walk with daily, for the chance to spur others on to demonstrate the sure hope they have to others. This is your church, your family and I get to be a part of it. Amen.
Today's devotion written by Danny Brock, LifeWay Westside
Or does he [God] not speak entirely for our sake? It was indeed written for our sake, for whoever plows should plow in hope and whoever threshes should thresh in hope of a share of the crop.
TO PONDER
Have you ever asked yourself where your John 10:10 life is, you know the overflowing life?
Just to save time here is John 10:10 from the Amplified Bible; “The thief comes only in order to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance [to the full, till it overflows].”(AMP). So, again does this sound like your life, are you enjoying your Christian life?
Today’s verse addresses this same question from a different perspective, to paraphrase if you’re putting the work into ‘living fully’ you should be sharing in the reward (Disclaimer: we don’t have to work for God’s acceptance, we already have that by grace!). We often read a passage like this and associate the ‘hope’ with a future hope, a hope in eternity, a hope for a reward in heaven when we die but the hope of the harvest is for a reward today, a hope for now, a John 10:10 present life.
The Apostle Paul was the author of this letter written to the Corinthians and Paul of all people new the hardships of being a follower of Jesus, he was shipwrecked at least 4 times, beaten, thrown in prison, despised and forsaken but he continues to talk about hope and joy within his letters.
I imagine Paul crawling out of the crashing waves on a beach after being shipwrecked with a smile on his face. Dusting the sand and seaweed off his tunic full of joy giving God thanks as he turns to his friend beside him and says ‘Isn’t this fun!?’.
PRAYER: Heavenly Father, I give you thanks that my hope is a sure hope, a hope for today, a hope for now. Amen.
Today's devotion written by Danny Brock, LifeWay Westside.
based on the hope and divine guarantee of eternal life, [the life] which God, who is ever truthful and without deceit, promised before the ages of time began, (AMP)
TO PONDER
I have a confession to make, I am a geek! For many that would come as no surprise but I’m hoping you all would fain surprise at that statement.
A few years back the creators of Star Trek, feeling trapped, created an escape from the universe they had created over 50 years ago with the creation of the ‘Kelvin Timeline’ enabling them to create an alternate universe and change the outdated pre-existing storyline.
Now, I’m not sure who came up with this idea of creating alternate universes to correct outdated ideas and storylines first, for that I would need to check with a more educated geek than myself (Pastor Mat can maybe answer that) but since the introduction of the Kelvin Timeline other franchises have changed their storyline with the introduction of their own multiverses.
Today’s verse brings out the giddy excitement of my hidden geekness with the idea of our sure-hope having its genesis in the multiverse. Without geeking out too much I will try to explain this idea. Today’s verse talks about God fulfilling the promise he made to us in eternity, about eternity through Jesus before there was a before or even an after.
See eternity doesn’t have a beginning or an end, so God promised us eternal life from the multiverse but even that is wrong because in eternity there is no past, so it wasn’t ‘promised’ and it wasn’t a ‘promise’ for the future. It was God inviting us into eternity from eternity. He invited us into the eternal now with Him.
Since I am sure I lost most of you a few sentences back let me try to end with this, we have a sure-hope, not a hopeful hope, but a guaranteed-hope of eternal life starting before there was a before right now!
PRAYER: Almighty God, I thank you for the sure-hope I received by your grace through the cross, the sure hope of eternal life I can live in now through Jesus. Amen.
Today's devotion written by Danny Brock, LifeWay Westside
For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through the endurance taught in the Scriptures and the encouragement they provide we might have hope.
TO PONDER
What was the worst thing you ever experienced, the hardest time you had to live through?
While you faced this trial, did well-meaning people ever come up to you and give you the trite response of, “well God must be trying to teach you something!”, or something similar? Did the response bring you hope, or did it just make you want to headbutt them (of course I am the only one who would have those thoughts)?
I remember while going through one of these difficult times my developed response was “well I wish I could have learnt ‘the’ lesson in a sermon!” Today’s verse is not Paul giving you ‘that’ trite response, in fact it’s the opposite.
Paul was, in a way, telling us where the sermon is that we can learn to have hope through those hard times. The place we can learn from is the experience of others. In their stories we learn that God is always faithful, that he is not trying to teach us a lesson but showing us his love and faithfulness as he walks with us through those hard times.
In the midst of one of the darkest periods in my life, people kept suggesting that I should read the book of Job, so I read it and was humbled when I got to the final chapter when Job repented. In essence Job is a book about a man who was righteous, and went through the worst of the worst, being told he obviously had something to learn, that he had hidden sin but he was actually righteous.
He repented when he realised he was looking for the 'why' instead of looking towards the 'who' that carries our hope.
PRAYER: Faithful God, I praise you that when my hope is aimed towards you that it is a sure hope, a definite hope, a hope that will never end in disappointment. Amen.
Today's devotion written by Danny Brock, LifeWay Westside
those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.
TO PONDER
What was the best gift you every received, did you feel on top of the world every time you looked at it, even when you thought about it?
I wrote yesterday that in 16 years I only have given my understanding wife one gift she has really loved, one gift that she would brag about, one gift that brought joy every time she looked at it, one gift where she didn’t have to prepare herself for the trip back to the store to exchange it for what she really wanted.
Now, to be clear said wife is not ungrateful, she is not demanding, her expectations are not unrealistic, the truth is I am that bad at giving gifts.
She hasn’t had to return every gift I have ever bought for her because she has on occasion pointed out what I should buy for her and to demonstrate how bad I am at gift giving, even when she has told me what to get I even then got the wrong thing.
God is the master gift giver, he doesn’t have to be told what to give, he knows the dreams of our heart, he gives us gifts that we didn’t even know to ask for. God’s gifts are life giving, they renew our strength, they help us soar.
God is not the hapless, hopeless husband impaired by cluelessness in fact Ephesians 3:20 tells us that his gifts are ‘infinitely beyond our greatest prayers, hopes, or dreams’ (AMP).
When our hope is in Him our strength will be renewed, his gifts are beyond what we can imagine and what’s more we will never have to return them for what we really wanted.
PRAYER: Gracious God, I praise you for your many gifts, for you daily blessings towards me. I thank you that every day I learn to put my hope in you, I learn to trust you with my everything. Amen.
Today's devotion written by Danny Brock, LifeWay Westside
Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.
TO PONDER
Its my amazing wife’s birthday today and I am sure she was hoping I would get her the exact gift she wants but I can foresee that ‘hope’ being met with some level of disappointment because I am really bad in getting the perfect gift as its only happened once in 16 years of wedded bliss.
Today’s verse is not talking about the hope my wife, perhaps, carries into her birthday every year, the hope that carries the expectation of disappointment, the hope requiring the crossing of fingers in a futile attempt to somehow will it to happen.
But rather the hope talked about in today’s verse is a sure hope, a certainty of contentment, the hope for that that is beyond our greatest expectations.
PRAYER: Almighty God, I thank you that hope placed in you is an assurance, a hope that will never be met with disappointment, help me to place my hope in you. Amen.
Today's devotion written by Danny Brock, LifeWay Westside