Friday 22 November 2013

Read Titus 2:1-8

Schools and other institutions around the world are realizing the value of older people. Schools regularly have grandparents’ days where grandmothers and fathers can visit their grandchildren and participate in the lessons. Other schools have ‘adopt a grand parent’ schemes where the children spend time in nursing homes building relationships with older people. Everyone benefits.

The church has been built on this very foundation since its inception. God has called long term believers to teach younger believers. Older men are to teach younger men. Older women are to teach younger women. The man or the woman who has lived to please God throughout their youth has decades of Christian wisdom to share with the younger generation. It is not just the wisdom of age but the wisdom of God acquired over the years. These older believers have a legacy to share and can impart immense wisdom, knowledge and learning to a younger, more needy and often relationally broken generation.

If you are a younger believer why not adopt an older Christian and spend time learning from them. If you are an older Christian adopt a younger Christian or a young Christian couple and get to know them. Teach them from your vast wealth and experience of godliness.

Prayer:

ª Ask the Lord to put it onto the hearts of everyone in your congregation to be in some form of mentoring with a more mature Christian. Pray that this would accelerate the growth in holiness of each person in your congregation.

Thursday 21 November 2013

Read Ecclesiastes 12:1-8

The difference between life and death for a soldier in live combat is training. The difference between victory and loss for a karate champion in a finals tournament is training. Winners have trained hard and have become instinctive in their responses. The soldier who has to think long and hard about what to do in combat will probably be fatally wounded. The karate champion who has to think about his next move will probably be beaten to the mat or pushed outside the ring.

In Ecclesiastes 12:1-2 Solomon has encouraged us to remember the Lord and serve Him in our youth. Then in vs 3-8 he tells us why we should serve the Lord. The time will come when we find no pleasure in our days, when each day is a struggle in and of itself. There will be a day when we are afraid of heights and when we can’t protect ourselves in the streets. The day will come when we are only inches away from our Maker. It’s here, in the toil and struggle of life that our training kicks in. If we have spent our youth serving God and passionately seeking His kingdom in prayer this will be a somewhat automatic reflex action when we are in the depths of our struggle. Seeking and serving God will be our second nature and we will approach our heavenly appointment with joy, with expectation and without fear.

Prayer:

Write down your prayer points in the space provided. Use today’s reading to help you get ideas.

Adoration:

Confession:

Thanks:

Supplication:

ª Spend time praying for the various missionaries and mission agencies that your church supports.

Wednesday 20 November 2013

Read Ecclesiastes 12:1-8

If life were to be described as a school then Solomon encourages us to learn as much as possible about God as quickly as possible. We are encouraged to remember our Creator in the days of our youth before days of trouble (translate as getting old and weary and falling apart at the seams) come our way.

A young believer has the energy, the drive, the ability to serve God in so many numerous ways that older believers may not have. Solomon encourages these younger believers to remember God in their youth. The word “remember” doesn’t mean call to mind once or twice and day but for the rest of it, get on with your own life. God is not into such sentiment. As Revelation 16:19 shows, the word ‘remember’ means to call to mind and to take appropriate action. So what Solomon is saying is that while you are young, keep God in your heart/mind and take appropriate action. Solomon is calling young believers to an appropriate way of life.

What might that appropriate way of life look like? That really depends on you and God. He may be calling you to full time mission work. He may be calling you to children’s work, to youth work or even to preach and teach the gospel. Ask God to show you what it means for you personally to remember God and to act appropriately.

Prayer:

Write down your prayer points in the space provided. Use today’s reading to help you get ideas.

Adoration:

Confession:

Thanks:

Supplication:

ª Pray that the Lord would show you personally what His role for you is in His church. Pray that everyone in the congregation would know their role and fulfill it. 

 Discussion Questions For Families and Groups

1. If a non believer said to you, ‘I don’t see God at work in your life,’ how would you respond?

2. If God is not visibly at work in your church what can your church do?

Tuesday 19 November 2013

Coming Up Sonday November 24:

Ecclesiastes 11:1-12:8

Call to Decision Before You Get Senile.

 Read Ecclesiastes 11:7-10. Philippians 4:4

It’s unfortunate that life is turned around for many only after they have a near death experience or after they lose someone dear to them. Jack (not his real name) worked long hours and neglected his family and kids to give them the best of everything. He suffered a near fatal heart attack before he reached 40. It took this near death experience for him to quit the high stress, high income job, to move to the country and to spend more time on the things that mattered most- his family and friends.

Life is a gift from God. He doesn’t want you to waste it by chasing money or by trying to build an empire or by living foolishly. God wants you to enjoy life. He wants you to follow your heart and to be blessed with joy and happiness.

Solomon is not saying give yourself over to wanton indulgence. He is not saying that you can do as you please. He is not saying that you don’t have to worry if you hurt others or tread on their toes. He is not saying that you can adopt a ‘life’s a party’ mentality and drown reality in alcohol and drugs.  Life is a gift from God to be enjoyed but that doesn’t mean it can be lived in sinful ways chasing sinful pleasures. At the end of vs 9 Solomon reminds us that God will bring us to judgment. Thus we can see the positive from the negative.

When Adoniram Judson (the great missionary to Myanmar) was first converted, people used the phrase ‘He’s become serious’ to describe the conversion. Judson lamented that they should be saying, ‘He’s become joyous’ because believers should be so filled with joy that it emanates in their life in everything they do and in everything they go through.

Being joyous or being filled with the joy of the Lord is a decision we are called to make. It’s not a decision based on life’s circumstance for the Lord calls us to rejoice in all situations. Joy is a certain knowledge and contentment that we are loved by God and approved by Him no matter what comes our way in this life. It’s a certain hope for a future to be spent in God’s perfect paradise after a short meander through the rocky road of this world.

Jesus endured the cross because of the joy set before Him (Phil 2:6-11). Paul rejoiced and praised God while chained in a prison cell. Will you choose to be filled with the joy of the Lord regardless of your life situation?

Prayer:

Write down your prayer points in the space provided. Use today’s reading to help you get ideas.

Adoration:

Confession:

Thanks:

Supplication:

ª Pray that the joy of the Lord would fill your church and shine out brightly to those around your church. Pray that many would be drawn to Christ through this joy.

Monday 18 November 2013

Read Ecclesiastes 11:1-6

Would you and could you honestly say that your life is an adventurous life of faith? For most of us that means, ‘Yes I believe in Jesus and I’ll just get on with my daily business.’ Our faith is largely reduced to a mere mental acknowledgement of Jesus’ Lordship and deity because we don’t need God to work in any real tangible way.

This was not true for Hudson Taylor. In the years while preparing for his mission work in China he resolved to ask no one for funds but rather resolved to ask God to provide at every turn. This reliance on God continued throughout his decades of mission work. He saw God work in many powerful ways. The Inland China Mission Society that he formed with colleagues continued this thought and would guarantee none of its future missionaries a regular income. They had to be willing to trust in God for every single cent. 

This week’s passage calls us to make a firm decision to live life by faith. That faith, which boils down to a life of adventure, is pictured in vs 1-6. The man of faith casts his bread liberally upon the waters and gives generously even though he doesn’t know what disaster may hit the land (vs 1-2). He sows diligently even though he doesn’t know if rain will come or not (vs 3-4). He continues to sow and to reap and to work diligently even though he doesn’t know what God is doing or what He might do in the near future (vs 5). And despite the lack of certainty he keeps toiling and working hard.

This is the kind faith that Hudson Taylor displayed. He never knew from one moment to the next where the next meal would come from or how the rent would be paid. Yet he trusted God and kept serving. He was able to be generous on every occasion, giving to all who asked of him and to all he met who were in need. He kept sowing Kingdom seeds for years not knowing when the first convert would be had.

I ask myself and I ask you the hard questions, ‘Is my life an adventurous life of faith?’ ‘Do I really need God to provide?’ We have stable jobs in a stable country where persecution amounts to being laughed at for our faith. We have high incomes and supermarkets that cater to our every need and desire. We have  hospitals and doctors to cure our sicknesses and insurance for life’s unforeseen events. In all honesty, we really don’t need God. Most of us could continue with our present life totally unchanged for the next 2, 3 or 4 decades even if God completely left us.

If you want to see God powerfully at work in and through your life, here are some suggestions that will challenge you and possibly even rock your world.

· Make a conscious decision to increase your weekly giving so that each week you are relying on God to provide and not just expecting to have that regular income. This may mean giving up some of your precious luxuries and likes.

· Seek to evangelize and convert one person per week. You’ll quickly realize that unless God works this is doomed to fail. You’ll realize that you desperately need God.

· Plan to go on a two week mission with your local church, covering all expenses yourself. Again you’ll be desperate for God to provide.

· Seek to serve through your local church in an area that puts you out of your comfort zone. Again you'll turn to God in desperation.

The point is simple. Life is an adventure of faith. That faith pushes us beyond our comfort zones and draws us into impossible situations. As we willingly walk the mile with Jesus we will see Him powerfully at work. If we refuse and wish to continue to reside in our comfy lounge chairs in our comfy homes then we probably won’t see God powerfully at work and life won’t be an adventure.

Prayer:

Write down your prayer points in the space provided. Use today’s reading to help you get ideas.

Adoration:

Confession:

Thanks:

Supplication:

ª Ask the Lord to show you which of the challenges in today's notes He’d have you take up. Ask for the courage and the resilience to take up these challenges and that through them you would see God powerfully at work.

ª Pray that God would work powerfully through you and your church to bring many people to faith in Christ.

 Discussion Questions For Families and Groups

1. A fellow believer starts bagging the current government. What do you do?

2. A fellow believer starts telling you about his tax evasion scheme because he doesn't agree with government spending. What do you do?

Saturday 16 November 2013

Read Ecclesiastes 10:16-20

The old English series ‘Yes Minister’ and ‘Yes Prime Minister’ opens up the world of government and parodies the running of the English government by the civil service. The Minister or Prime Minister is simply a puppet in the hands of the civil service.

Solomon returns to the issue of wisdom for the entire nation but rather than looking at the role of the leader, he zooms in and looks at how foolish officers can bring down a nation. In modern day language, he zooms in on the civil service.

The picture is painted of a nation who has a foolish king, one who began as a servant - which equated with being foolish. The king appointed foolish officers throughout the kingdom and these officers wasted their time feasting and drinking even in the mornings. They feasted simply to get drunk. Feasting and drinking is the be all and end all of life as an officer (vs 19a). They are content to indulge their passions. And they think that money is the answer to everything (vs 19b). When a problem arises, throw money at it. Who needs wisdom when you have money? As the old adage goes, they had more money than sense.

These officers are lazy not diligent (vs 18) and will bring about the destruction of the kingdom much like a foolish man allows his house to be destroyed. It is not an active, willful destruction but one bought about by an unwillingness to do hard work.

The advice Solomon gives is to obey the King (8:2) and to avoid thinking evil of the rulers or reviling them lest you be found out or caught out. It would not be good to fall foul of such unwise rulers (10:20). They will not be sympathetic to your cause.

Today’s believers can learn a lot from this advise. Often we make so called biblical judgments against our rulers and condemn them unnecessarily, especially around election time. Perhaps it would be more biblical not to harbor such ungodly thoughts and to keep our mouths closed. Perhaps, as we saw earlier, it would be better to obey the governing authorities and to see that their rule (Romans 13:1-2) is given to them by God and that His purpose is in full swing.

No government can stop us from worshipping our Lord and our Saviour. While we need to be actively involved in the politics of the land that is a far different cry from bagging politicians and poo-pooing everyone who does things different to me. Let us strive to be godly and to worship God with every breath we take and every word we speak.

Prayer: Write down your prayer points in the space provided. Use today’s reading to help you get ideas.

Adoration:

Confession:

Thanks:

Supplication:

ª Ask the Lord to bring His blessing to tomorrows gathering of believers. Pray that it will be a day filled with joy, with holiness and with deep reverence and awe for our God. Pray that the Word would be boldly preached in each service that your church has tomorrow.

ª Pray that those who are slack in attending church would heed the call of God and not give up meeting together. Ask the Lord to give each person a higher priority to the gathering of believers so that the world can see that we worship God above all else.

 Discussion Questions For Families and Groups

1. Have you ever suffered from foot in mouth disease? What happened and how did you get out of the situation?

2. What should you do if a believers speaks foolish words that hurt or upset you?