There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens
TO PONDER
What season or 'time' do you feel you are in at the moment? This verse seem like common sense. We know there are seasons for things; periods of time when we do some tasks and avoid others. My dad always seemed to know when it was the right time to go fishing. He was very picky about when he would take my brother and I out fishing in his boat. One day would bee too rough, the next too calm. Then the tides would be no good and the moon would be too full. However, having said that, we rarely went fishing with dad and came back completely empty handed.
Knowing the right time or the right season is important. Sometimes we can get frustrated with our lives or ourselves because nothing seems to be happening. But like a dormant tree in the winter, it's not dead, it's just preparing for the spring when it bursts to life and colour again. Sometimes our life of faith can feel like that. Sometimes we feel like growth or progress is hard to come by. But God uses even those seasons to prepare us for what he wants to do with us next.
So whatever season you are in, whether you are bursting full of new life or feeling overwhelmed and stuck, remember there are times and seasons for these things. Make the most of them, even the winter or difficult seasons because you never know what God might be preparing for the next season.
PRAYER
Lord of the Harvest, you know when the season is right to grow, to prune, to harvest. Help me to trust that whatever 'season' I might find myself in, I might know that you are with me nurturing and protecting me and preparing me for whatever comes next. Amen
Today's devotion written by Mathew von Stanke, LifeWay Newcastle
See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?
I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.
TO PONDER
Does life sometimes feel like a wasteland or a wilderness to you? Sometimes I feel like celebrating another new year is just another opportunity to reflect on the things that I didn't accomplish last year. Some surveys suggest that only about 10% of New Years resolutions get kept or are successfully completed across any given year and that people make the same resolutions year after year and make no progress whatsoever. Talk about wandering in the wilderness!!!
But God invites us to join him in doing something new this year. Not just a repeat of the past, doing the same things over and over which can feel like a wilderness. But to journey with him into new territory. To do something new. Have a look around you, can you perceive it? God is at work in you and through you to do something he has never done before to grow his kingdom and reach people and bring them into his kingdom.
Now is the time.
PRAYER
Heavenly Father, please help me to be aware of you as you work in me and through me to do a new thing both in my life and the lives of those around me. Make me always ready to join you on a new adventure. Amen
Today's devotion written by Mathew von Stanke, LifeWay Newcastle
O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens.
TO PONDER:
It was one of those incredible ‘wow’ moments of life. Under sail in the middle of the night, surrounded by the vast waters of the ocean, a little 40-foot blip under the twinkling canopy of stars. So awesome. So humbling. I have never felt more insignificant in the bigger scheme of God’s great design.
Yet the real ‘wow’ moment was not how insignificant I felt, but how the all-powerful and all-creating God of the universe should still love me, care for me, watch over me, hold me, guide me, have a purpose for me, want a relationship with me. That is what was truly awesome. As you reflect on the past year, what ‘God moments’ left you breathless and in awe of God’s leading, guiding, protecting? What moments of beauty, love and grace had God’s fingerprints all over them. What left you marvelling at his goodness, overwhelmed by his mercy. For from the start of 2022 to its end, the Lord, your Lord, was with you. Every breath. Every step. Every moment. Every joy. Every hardship. Every struggle. Always.
Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! If God is for us and with us, bring on 2023! Spend some time reflecting on the ‘God moments’ that stand out for you in 2022? Thank him.
PRAYER:
Lord of the seasons and years, you are constant in your love and mercy. Thank you for your presence and help in 2022. Guide and lead me in the year ahead. Prepare my heart for what you have for me next and give me a heart of faith to go where you call me to go. Amen.
And he said to them, “Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?”
TO PONDER:
It’s a parent’s worst nightmare. Friends were holidaying in France when they went to get on the underground subway. Their four-year old ran ahead and jumped through the open doors onto the train, only for the doors to close behind her, leaving the rest of the family on the station platform. A four-year old. On the train alone. In a foreign country. Can you imagine the thoughts running through their mind? (Thankfully, everything turned out fine.)
The same thing happened to Mary and Joseph. They didn’t even notice Jesus’ absence for 24 hours and then it took another 48 hours to locate him. Can you imagine the panic? The questions? ‘Where could he be?’ The desperation, ‘Jesus, where are you?’ It’s the same question God asked centuries earlier of Adam and Eve. Given a perfect relationship with the Father, sin caused them to hide. God asks, ‘Where are you?’ Not where they were supposed to be.
Jesus shows us where we belong. That’s why he came. If you’re lost or needing direction, if you’ve spent years searching and still can’t find what you are looking for, head to the Father’s house. There you will find Jesus and life in all its fullness. So how would you answer If God asked you today, ‘Where are you?’
PRAYER
Heavenly Father, help me daily to live in your presence, for that is where I belong. Amen.
Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
TO PONDER:
‘That’s the problem with Christianity today,’ the young man said with conviction, ‘It’s too black and white. No-one is going to buy in if they have to choose between one or the other. Life just doesn’t work that way anymore.’
It’s a sentiment that many share. Our world doesn’t like either/or statements. A belief in Christ as the way, the truth and the only way to salvation is branded as exclusivism, intolerance or narrow-minded bigotry. But John insists that we need to make a choice. Who will we love most of all? Who will be our first priority and our final authority? We may want to love God, but when the credit card statements come in after Christmas and payments need to be made, what do we desire more? Life in Jesus or the cash to pay off the debt?
In love, God claims all of our lives. In grace, he satisfies our greatest needs. It’s an either/or decision. Will you live to know God and his eternal love or will you live for this world and the temporary pleasures that will pass away? So today reflect on where in your life does love for God compete with love for the world?
PRAYER:
Gracious Father, help me love you with all my heart, all my soul, all my mind and all my strength. Amen.
Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him,
TO PONDER
Buffets. Some people love them. You get to pick and choose what you want to eat. You take a little bit of this, a little bit of that, and a whole lot of that other thing. And you leave out what you don’t like. You end up with a variety of all the things you want!
In the community John was writing to, there were some who were encouraging people to treat the Word of God like a spiritual buffet, picking and choosing the parts of the Christian life they wanted to follow, and leaving off their plates what didn’t look palatable. It’s tempting to do the same thing ourselves. To pile up our plates on the parts of God’s Word that are tasty and agree with our palate, while leaving off the selections that we are unsure of or haven’t developed a taste for yet.
John reminds us that obedience to God’s Word is our grateful response to the love and grace Christ has shown us. It’s a willingness and eager desire to eat the set menu before us, knowing that Christ will choose the finest foods that will bring great delight and have us asking for seconds. What parts of God’s Word have you not sampled yet? Don't forget to order your daily devotion book TIME OUT from www.shopacr.com.au to help you grow in living in the truth of Jesus
PRAYER
Lord God, thank you for inviting me to your table. Help me feast on your Word that I may grow strong in faith toward you and deep in my love for others. Amen.
That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life— the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us—
TO PONDER:
A few years ago, I interviewed a foundation member of this congregation on camera to preserve the early story of the congregation. During the interview I asked her, ‘If you could give any message to the parents and young people , what would you say?’
With a tear in her eye, she responded, ‘I would tell them that there is nothing better in the world than Jesus. That they will not find a greater satisfaction, happiness, joyfulness in anything else but in Jesus, worshipping God, reading his Word – that’s the message that I would give them.’
How similar to Grandpa John’s message in today’s reading. Nearing the end of his life, he wants to pass on to his spiritual children what’s important to him and it is this: ‘Your life is about Jesus, the Christ. His grace is here. His love has come, forgiveness has been granted.’
That’s a gift that cannot be surpassed. A gift that brings joy in every moment. So what final message would you leave to those who follow you? Maybe share it with them while you are still here!
PRAYER:
Lord Jesus Christ, our life begins and ends in you. Our joy is complete in you. Let the good news of Christmas remain with us every day of our lives. Amen.
The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shined.
TO PONDER:
As part of PDHPE at College, a group of students were taken into the filtration chambers at the local pool, dubbed the Black Hole. Led under water into a central chamber, the goal was to find our way out. Except that when we were all in, the light was turned off. Plunged into darkness, it was terrifying, overwhelming, disorienting.
Eventually, the instructor held a small light under water near the entrance. That light gave hope. We were not abandoned.
The light made all the difference to Israel as well. Plunged into darkness for over 700 years, their hopelessness and despair was real. But now light has dawned. Hope has come. God’s people are not alone.
The Saviour climbs into our darkest places to illuminate them with his presence. If we are confused and need direction, he is the Wonderful Counsellor guiding us. If we are weak, the strength and wisdom of the Mighty God will fight and overcome for us. If we are scared, he is the Everlasting Father from eternity, caring for us. If we are disturbed, he is the Prince of Peace, comforting us.
The light has come… born for us… as a gift from God to us. Receive him again. Ask Christ to shine his light on the dark places of your life this day, illuminating them for what they are and revealing who Christ is n your life this day?
PRAYER
Precious Christ-child, be born in me this day, that the glory of your presence may be revealed. Amen.
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
TO PONDER:
Thinking outside the box is a metaphor that means to think differently, unconventionally, or from a new perspective in order to find creative solutions to seemingly unsolvable problems.
In order to deal with the problem of sin and address the broken relationship between himself and creation, God had to get creative. He had to think outside the box. Nothing else had worked. No amount of effort. No amount of sacrifice. Nothing could bridge the distance that existed between God and his people.
Christmas is God's outside the box solution. It's a solution that is so 'out there', so mind-blowingly unconventional, so simple in its approach, yet unbelievable in its execution.
God becomes one of us. The Holy God took on flesh as a baby, entered our mess and made his home among us. Does that blow your mind?
In the midst of your struggles, God is there. In the depth of your brokenness, God lives. At the height of your fears, God is next to you. In the breadth of your pain, your grief, your loneliness, God is ever present. Jesus is Immanuel – God with us. What does that mean to you today?
Christmas reveals one simple and radical truth: God loves you, is with you and for you…always. Merry Christmas!
PRAYER
Come to us, Lord Jesus. Be born in us this day; in our hearts, our minds, and in our lives that we may know the truth of God with us, for us and in us. Amen.