verse for today

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Just Stay Calm, Watch And See

13th October

“But Moses told the people, “Don’t be afraid. Just stand still and watch the Lord rescue you today. The Egyptians you see today will never be seen again. The Lord Himself will fight for you. Just stay calm.”

Exodus 14:13-14

God lovingly and graciously saved the Israelites from the hand of the Egyptians in one of the most amazing and faith building miracles in the whole of the Bible. God miraculously parted the Red Sea and allowed more than 1,000,000 Israelites to walk through safely and un-harmed. Doesn’t that just blow your mind? A few moments before they were moaning, complaining and full of despair. But God, yet again, showed how much He loved His chosen people and spared their lives. This wonderful miracle is remembered both in the writings in the Bible, but also across the whole world more than 2000 years later.

Yet something that stands out above all is Moses’ encouraging words to the Israelites; Be calm, stand still and watch the Lord rescue you. What powerful words of faith and complete and utter trust in God Almighty. Did God deliver? Was Moses’ trust in the right place? Absolutely, 100%. Moses’ words where confirmed when the people of Israel just stood and watched God part the seas to make a safe path for them.

Today, whatever you are faced with, just stand still, be calm and watch God part your Red Sea. Put your trust wholly in God and watch Him pull through. He is gracious, kind and powerful and He is fighting for YOU!!!!

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The Lord Has Got Your Back

12th October

“Then the angel of God, who had been leading the people of Israel, moved to the rear of the camp. The pillar of cloud also moved from the front and stood behind them.”

Exodus 14:19

The Israelites were trapped. Before them stood the great Red Sea and behind them and almost overtaking them was the Egyptian army led by Pharaoh himself. There was no way out. Panic set in and so did the ‘why’ questions. “Why did you bring us out here to die in the wilderness? Weren’t there enough graves for us in Egypt? What have you done to us? Why did you make us leave Egypt?” (v11).

Let’s just stop there for a moment. The Israelites had witnessed a marvellous miracle when they were allowed to walk out, un-challenged, from Egyptian slavery. They had witnessed God demonstrate His power through the Ten Plagues. And now, when faced with another hurdle (or better still, another opportunity to trust God), they crumbled in fear, complaint and desperation. Yet before we harshly judge the Israelites, aren’t we like that too? When faced with impossible situations, we too can crumble and forget all the times that God has been there for us in the past. So what happened?

Well, yet again God showed His power and might and stood behind the camp of Israel to protect them from an Egyptian onslaught. Today’s key verse tells us, that both the angel of the Lord and the pillar of cloud, moved from the front of the camp to the back of the camp to protect the Israelites. What does this tell us about God? Well, firstly, that He is incredibly merciful and powerful, and secondly, He has always got our back. Just as with the Israelites, in their time of need, He never left them, and neither does He leave us. God had their back covered, just as He has ours covered. God demonstrated to the Israelites that even in their most desperate time of need, He was behind them, protecting them and sheltering them from danger. Today, be encouraged, that whatever you face, God has got your back!!

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The Lord Is Always With Me

11th October

“I know the Lord is always with me. I will not be shaken, for He is right beside me. No wonder my heart is glad, and I rejoice. My body rests in safety.”

Psalm 16:8-9

David knew that wherever he was, God was always with him. God never left him. This truth also led David to write the wonderful passage of Psalm 23, ‘Even though I walk through the valleys and in the shadows of death, You never leave me.’ David knew that whatever he faced, God was walking beside him. If you too knew that God was always with you in your life, would that change the outlook of how you see the problems you are faced with? Would it change the way you see yourself? David’s statement of faith was something that God Himself promised. God spoke through Moses to encourage Joshua with these words, ‘He will never leave you or forsake you’, and with the same words God also made a promise to the people of Israel and to us too. When God promises something, it is for eternity and never changes.

Today as you go about your day, know that God is with you, He is ‘right beside’ you. Let your heart be glad and rejoice in the Lord. God is with you. He is walking with you. He is your safety, your peace, and He is your God. Do not fear, He is with you.

 

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Something Out Of Nothing:

The ImPossible Miracle

8th-9th October

Weekend Edition

“Ever since the world began, no one has been able to open the eyes of someone born blind. If this Man were not from God, He couldn’t have done it.”

John 9:32-33

Only our God can defy the laws of physics and make something from nothing. Think about the story of creation. There was nothing but an empty void and God created this world. There were no animals and God created them. No plants or trees yet God created them. He is our creator. In today’s story we read of a man Jesus healed that was blind from birth. Some commentators go as far to say that this man was actually born without eye balls (although not specifically stated in the text). Yet whatever the situation was, this man could not see, he was blind from birth. Yet as we have mentioned before, nothing is too big for God. Nothing is impossible for God. Sure enough Jesus healed the man born blind and restored his sight. What is interesting is that in Jesus, we see the fullness of God and the very characteristics of a Creator God. Jesus didn’t just heal the man, He gave new eyes. He gave him the ability to see.

Today God also continues to create new things. We were once spiritually blind but have had our sight healed by the power of God’s salvation giving grace. We too have had new eyes created to see things with God’s perspective and how God see things. Let us rejoice that we serve a God who doesn’t just heal broken things but creates new things too….! We are living witness’ as new creations.

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Raising The Dead:

 

The ImPossible Miracle

7th October

“When the Lord saw her, His heart overflowed with compassion. “Don’t cry!” He said. Then He walked over to the coffin and touched it, and the bearers stopped. “Young man,” He said, “I tell you, get up.” Then the dead boy sat up and began to talk! And Jesus gave him back to his mother.”

Luke 7:13-15

There is nothing that is too big for our God. As well as healing Lazarus from the dead, as we discussed a few weeks ago, Jesus also healed this widow’s only son by raising him from the dead. What is impossible with man is possible with God. Of course the healing of the widow’s son is an absolutely incredible story, yet Jesus’ reasoning for healing him is also worth noting. Luke tells us in verse 13, that it was because of Jesus’ compassion for the widow that He healed her son. Maybe Jesus could relate to being an ‘Only Son’, or maybe it was because this woman had already lost a husband and now her only son? Yet whatever it was, it moved Jesus to heal the boy and raise him from the dead.

Jesus shows us that miracles are not just reserved for special ‘miracle’ meetings or ‘prayer nights’ although these can be effective, they were part of Jesus’ everyday life and so should be in our lives too. We too can have overwhelming compassion for people and ask Jesus for healing in their lives; whether that be physical, spiritual or mental, we can have the same compassion for people as Jesus did. In fact, maybe that is something we should pray for in our own lives; to have the same compassion Jesus had for people and act on it in the same way Jesus did, knowing that nothing is impossible for our God!

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The Parting Of The Red Sea:

6th October

The ImPossible Miracle

“Then Moses raised his hand over the sea, and the Lord opened up a path through the water with a strong east wind. The wind blew all that night, turning the seabed into dry land. So the people of Israel walked through the middle of the sea on dry ground, with walls of water on each side!”

Exodus 14:21-22

Be honest with yourself, when you read the above verse, did it fill you with wonder and praise or did you just read it as a familiar Biblical story? The truth is, we can have that tendency, to take for granted the wondrous miracles of the Bible that changed history forever. This is why the ‘Passover’ festival is celebrated every year by the Jewish people. It is to remind them of how God freed them from slavery from the Egyptians and liberated them as a free nation, when they walked through the Red Sea and into the promised land God had given them.

Throughout the Bible we read of hundreds of miracles, both in the Old and New Testament. Yet we should not let the familiarity of those stories, take away the significance of them, as both evidence of who our God is and what they meant in their original context. If we constantly remind ourselves that God parted the Red Sea for the Israelites, then when we are faced with a ‘Red Sea’ of our own, we will be assured that God too, can part our seas and cause us to walk through unscathed. Our God is the God of miracles, both then, now and forever more. Do you trust Him?

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Salvation:

The ImPossible Miracle

5th October

“Jesus looked at them intently and said, “Humanly speaking, it is impossible. But with God everything is possible.””

Matthew 19:26

If you were asked, ‘what is the greatest miracle of all’, what would you say? Jesus’ calming of the storm, being raised from the dead, the Red Sea parting or perhaps a breakthrough in your own life? Yet the biggest miracle of all, one which the angels of Heaven rejoice in1, is the miracle of salvation; when a person is saved from their sins, confessing that Jesus Christ is Lord of all. Why? Because this is God’s work alone.

Jesus, in Matthew 19, is approached by a very rich man who asks what is needed to gain eternal life. Jesus begins to list some of the 10 commandments to the rich man to which his reply was, ‘I’ve obeyed all these commandments…. what else must I do?’ Jesus then said to to the rich man, ‘go and sell all your possessions and then follow Me’. The man left very despondent as he had many possessions and this teaching was hard to accept. See what Jesus was really saying, is not you have to obey this law and this law to get to Heaven. He was implying that salvation is a heart issue not a ‘works’ issue. The man clearly had his priorities in the wrong place. His assurance, his security and his ‘guarantee’ was not in God’s grace but in his wealth and in his ‘good works’.

Jesus clearly says that, actually, salvation is not something we can achieve by buying or earning our way into Heaven. It is a gift of God. Jesus adds that ‘it is impossible’ to even try to get into Heaven by doing good. The only way, is to surrender our hearts to Him; to make Him number One priority in our life and to accept His free gift of grace and mercy. With man gaining salvation is impossible but with God, everything is possible!!

1In the same way, there is joy in the presence of God’s angels when even one sinner repents. Luke 15:10

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Jesus, The Miracle Worker

4th October

“Then the leading priests and the Pharisees called the high council together. “What are we going to do?” they asked each other. “This Man certainly performs many miraculous signs. If we allow Him to go on like this this, soon everyone will believe in Him….””

John 11:47-48a

Did you know that the Pharisees knew that Jesus was a miracle worker? Just read today’s verse as one of the pieces of evidence that prove that statement. Jesus was no ordinary man, and they knew that. A few verses earlier we learn that Jesus miraculously raised Lazarus from the dead, showing His power over death and sin. Yet instead of rejoicing in such a wonderful miracle, the Pharisees plotted to have Jesus killed because they feared that if everyone started to believe in who Jesus said He was, the Roman army would feel threatened and would need to take action by overthrowing the nation of Israel. Yet what is particularly interesting is the Pharisees own confession that Jesus did perform miracles and that His miracles led people to a belief in Him as the Son of God.

Jesus’ miracles today have the same power. Firstly, they prove who Jesus said He was and is and secondly, they lead people to Him. The question or challenge we need to ask ourselves is the same question the Pharisees asked each other, “What are we going to do?” Do we join the bandwagon of doubters and proclaim that miracles are just coincidences or do we confess that indeed “This Man”, this Jesus we serve, does perform miracles and is who He says He is?!!

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Intercession For Our Leaders

1st & 2nd October

Weekend Edition

“Pray this way for kings and all who are in authority so that we can live peaceful and quiet lives marked by Godliness and dignity. This is good and pleases God our Saviour, who wants everyone to be saved and to understand the truth.”

1 Timothy 2:2-4

What a great privilege we have to be able to influence the future of our younger generations by interceding for our leaders. Imagine if our current world leaders had a revelation of who Jesus is, because the Christian’s worldwide were interceding for them. Imagine what change would come into our world. Imagine what the future would be like. Furthermore, praying for our leaders, ushers in a spiritual dome of peace over the world we live in. Imagine a world that is peaceful; where there is no war, no starvation, no suffering, and no fighting. Yes this probably is a picture of Heaven, but didn’t Jesus Himself say that we should pray ‘for His Kingdom to come and will be done, on Earth as it is in Heaven’?

Paul specifically encourages Timothy by saying that God ‘wants everyone to be saved and to understand the truth.’ We can participate in this too by interceding for those who have authority and influence over us. We can pray that Jesus would reveal Himself to our leaders. That He would save them. That He would give them Godliness to rule with dignity and peace. Is it too much to pray that North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un would come to know Jesus? Is it too much that Putin, Obama, Merkel, Abe and other political leaders would find salvation? No it is not. God wants all men to be saved. Let’s start today, interceding and praying on their behalf. If we don’t pray for them, who will?

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Intercession

30th September

“I urge you, first of all, to pray for all people. Ask God to help them; intercede on their behalf, and give thanks for them.”

1 Timothy 2:1

Intercession is at the core of God’s heart. Jesus did it for us when He was physically alive on the earth and continues to interceded for us at the right hand of the Father as our Great Intercessor, making petition’s on our behalf, because of His sacrifice. Paul did it for the churches he planted. And we as believers are also challenged here in today’s verse to do the same. So what is intercession?

The historical and political meaning of intercession, according to the Cambridge dictionary, is to make a plead, on someone else’s behalf, to someone of higher authority, so that the person you are interceding for, may be forgiven or saved from punishment. Sound familiar? That is exactly what intercession is. It is pleading to God on behalf of someone, for their healing, spiritually or physically. It is coming to God with whatever burden you feel that the Holy Spirit is revealing to you, to pray for that person. It is standing in the gap for someone when you know they have no strength to pray. It standing alongside someone for their dreams and aspirations, standing in agreement with them. It is asking God for people’s salvation, so that His Kingdom may come on this earth. It is inviting God’s grace and mercy into people’s hearts and situations. It is thanking God for people’s lives.

Prayer is a powerful tool in the armoury of a believer. Intercession is part of that and is strategic in implementing God’s will and His Kingdom here on this earth.