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 1 Timothy 1:12-17: My story (Click for todays Bible passage)

Paul wanted to encourage Timothy in his difficult assignment in Ephesus, and he let him know how highly he regarded his own calling to serve. It was an inestimable blessing and privilege (12).

Paul was quick to give his testimony and glorify the ‘’only God’’ who saved him (17). He recognised that he was undeserving and he overflowed with thankfulness. He had no reason to boast. The passage opens with these words, ‘’I’m so grateful to Christ Jesus…’’ The Message. This is where we need to live our lives, in a place of humble, adoring gratitude, low at the feet of Jesus, prostrate before the throne of God. Paul recognised that the very ‘’faith and love’’ he possessed (faith to trust Christ, and love for Him and His church) were sheer gifts (14). He was not a ‘self-made’ Christian. No one is or ever could be. ‘’Grace mixed with faith and love poured over me and into me. And all because of Jesus.’’ The Message.

The central verse in this section, the pivot on which everything turns, is surely (15).’’Here’s a word you can take to heart and depend on: Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners. I’m proof – Public Sinner Number One – of someone who could never have made it apart from sheer mercy.’’ The Message. ’ Paul had come to ‘fully accept’ this ‘’trustworthy’’ truth, as the ‘New International Version’ of the Bible puts it, and it had changed his life. It was the heart of ‘’the glorious gospel of the blessed God’’ (11) which had been entrusted to Paul. This was his message (1 Corinthians 2:2). (By the way, the word ‘’glorious’’ in that verse can refer to the content of the gospel, or to the One who gave it, i.e. God Himself. In the context the second possibility seems to fit better.)

Paul recognised that his rescue by God, through His Son Jesus, was because of ‘’mercy’’ (13, 16) and ‘’grace’’ (14). He was struck by the abundance of God’s provision. It’s been pointed out that God in His grace gives us what we don’t deserve (salvation); and in His mercy He does not give us what we do deserve (punishment and eternal judgment). Twice Paul says, ‘’I was shown mercy…’’ He knew that but for this generosity of God everything would be up for him. But God’s mercy took into account that Paul (then Saul) didn’t fully know what he was doing in his violent and murderous former life (13). ‘’…I was treated mercifully because I didn’t know what I was doing – didn’t know Who I was doing it against!’’ The Message.

And so Paul became, you might say, ‘Exhibit A’ of the gracious and merciful saving work of God (16). ‘’And now he shows me off – evidence of his endless patience – to those who are right on the edge of trusting him forever.’’ The Message. If God could save Saul of Tarsus, whose life could He not turn around.

In a sense, Paul’s story is also every Christian’s. The details of our lives may differ, but none of us could be saved apart from the mercy and grace of God. And He does not hold the details of our past lives against us when we are in Christ. Our place is with Paul, on the ground before the shining throne of God. The cross spells the death of all pride. It is not fitting before Calvary love. Paul never forgot the wonder of God’s choice of him. It will do us all good to lie and soak in this ‘bath’ of Paul’s testimony.

Prayer: Lord, may I never lose the wonder of your precious love for me.

 Luke 1:1-25: John, a child prayed for.(please click here for today’s Bible passage)
Luke was a gentile doctor, ‘a man with a scientific turn of mind’ as someone put it, and he wrote a two volume history of the beginnings of Christianity that we know as ‘Luke’ and ‘Acts’. It is interesting that these two books, so full of miraculous occurrences, should be written by a ‘scientist’. This opening chapter of the fourth gospel shows continuity with the Jewish Old Testament; we recognise that we are in an unfolding story. But it also emphasises factuality and reliability. I am stirred to think of the effort Luke put in to communicate the truth of Christianity to, it seems, just one man, ‘’Theophilus’’, who, it is thought, was probably a high ranking Roman official, and a ‘seeker’. Bill Hybels has repeatedly said, ‘’Lost people matter to God.’’ They should also matter to us, and they are worth every effort to reach them. (N.B. At one time, it was fashionable amongst scholars to dismiss the historicity of Luke. Then an archaeologist called William Ramsay came along, and he discovered that on point after point Luke was right!)
This opening story is a very human one, full of pathos. Zechariah and Elizabeth were good and godly people, but there was sadness in their lives. (Somebody said that we should be gentle with everyone we meet because all people have some area of pain somewhere.) Being a believer, and faithful to God, is not an inoculation against trouble. Zechariah and Elizabeth were childless, and barrenness, for a woman, was regarded as a great disgrace in that culture (25). But, as someone pointed out to me, you are never too old to be blessed by God. The Lord doesn’t just use young people.
Zechariah and Elizabeth had prayed about their situation. That much is clear (13). How long had they prayed? How desperately and persistently has they prayed? I don’t know. But this much I can see, through their prayers God did far more than they could ask or imagine. In God’s time, not only did they get a baby boy, but they discovered that he was to be the long promised ‘forerunner’ of the Messiah. Wow! ‘’He will be one of God’s great men.’’ (15) J.B. Phillips. Prayer is one of the major themes in Luke/Acts, and as we work our way through the gospel we are going to encounter the teaching of Jesus about persistence in prayer. Zechariah and Elizabeth show that such prayer is powerful.
But, when Zechariah was told that his prayer was answered, he was an unbelieving believer (18-20). However, I find I cannot point the finger for all too often I am just like this. ‘Peter’ is at the door. I have been praying fervently for ‘Peter’, along with others; praying that somehow he will get out of ‘prison’; praying for a miracle. Then when I find him at the door I can’t believe it (Acts 12:12-16).
When Zechariah heard what great blessing was to come to his door, he didn’t get above himself. He wasn’t puffed up with pride. He just humbly carried on his service (23-25), and went home and played his part in the miracle. It was no less a supernatural work of God, but the Lord looks for men and women who will fully cooperate with Him. And so there was great joy and gladness in this prayer-filled home.
Here is one final thought for today: ‘’The crowded congregation outside was praying at the actual time of the incense-burning.’’ (10). J.B. Phillips. It is important that we pray for ‘ministers’ and services, and it’s great if that praying can happen at the time the ministry is being given. Our God answers prayer. Never doubt it. Be encouraged today. And don’t stop praying for your children, even though they may now be fully grown. Let them always be children prayed for.

Jeremiah 13:23: New colours (please click here for todays passage)

‘’Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard its spots?’’

For a number of years our church held a house party at Bawtry Hall near Doncaster. The speaker at the first one had a repeated theme, and I think it got into everyone’s psyche: ‘’Things can change’’. We took that home with us, and he helped us to really believe it. He kept hitting this nail of truth with his preacher’s hammer until it sunk in!

It is also true to say that people can change. In the Hands of God people can be different. He can make them what they are not. We have a part to play in co-operating with the Lord in our metamorphosis, but we can’t boast of self-improvement. God is in the people-transformation business, and to Him be all the glory!

Tom Hale makes this comment on verse 23:

‘’Here Jeremiah cites a proverb to indicate that Jerusalem’s people were no longer able to change their evil ways. They had become hardened in their sins; they had become slaves of sin (John 8:34). When people persist in sin beyond a certain point – a point known only to God – they cut themselves off from God’s grace; they can no longer turn back; they can no longer ‘’change their spots.’’ This is all true – from God’s perspective. But from man’s perspective, there is always hope; it is never too late to repent…Up until the day he dies, even the hardened sinner can repent; and if he does, God will ‘’change his spots’’ (see Luke 23:32, 39-43).’’ ‘The Applied Old Testament Commentary’, p.1096.

What is the answer of the New Testament to the question posed in verse 23? It surely is that what ‘’the Ethiopian’’ or ‘’the leopard’’ cannot do, Christ can (Romans 5:6; 1 Corinthians 5:17). By His death on the cross Jesus makes it possible for people to be made right with God; through His presence within them by the Holy Spirit He can enable them to live right, more and more, day after day, until they are finally perfected in His likeness. Change is possible.

I understand that a man who had been a drunkard said: ‘’I have no problem believing that Jesus turned water into wine, for he turned beer into furniture in my house!’’ This man got a different skin; changed spots; new colours. In Christ He was a new creation. What He could not do for himself, Jesus did for him.

Prayer: Knowing your power I should never despair of anyone Lord. You change people. And I am aware that as long as I live I will need to pray, ‘Lord change me!’

Jeremiah 9:10-12: Are you ready?
Fulfilled prophecy is one of the reasons why I believe the Bible to be God’s Book (the technical term is ‘inspired’) and no ordinary book. A large percentage of the Bible is prophecy, in which future events are forecast in detail. The bulk of these prophecies have already come true to the letter. This should give us total confidence that the remainder of these, pertaining to the end of history as we know it: the second coming of Christ, will come to pass.
Take, for example, this prophecy of Jeremiah. Many people in his day thought he was talking through his hat! They could not envisage such a disaster. But what he predicted happened. Disaster befell the people of Judah because of their rebellion against God. It broke Jeremiah’s heart. He saw it all in vivid detail before it happened, and wept over it. But very few people got onto the same page as him.
So we may think that the contents of the book of ‘Revelation,’ for example, are far-fetched. We can dismiss these visions as eccentric and whacky and odd. But if you realistically assess what has already happened in terms of accurate Biblical prophecy, would you bet against the last book in the Bible coming true?
Many are asking, ‘What is the world coming to?’ The real question is, ‘Who is coming to this world?’ The answer is Jesus. Are you ready to meet Him? Or are you with all the mockers who dismissed Jeremiah? What happened to them?
Prayer: ‘’Into my heart, into my heart, come into my heart Lord Jesus. Come in today; come in to stay; come into my heart Lord Jesus.

Colossians 3:18 -4:1: Heaven in the home.(click here for passage)
It’s been said that ‘’Christianity is as practical as a pair of shoes; not just for putting on and showing, but for getting up and going!’’ It is so practical that it will affect your home and work life for good if you will allow it to.
Someone said that the secret of a happy marriage lies not in finding the right person, but in being the right person. There is profound truth in these words. Today’s passage says, in effect, that if we bring increasing Christ-likeness into our relationships at home and in the work place we will please God and follow His pattern. Verse 17 established an important principle and here are some concrete examples of how it works out. Doing everything ‘’in the name of the Lord Jesus’’ entails doing it all for Him, and through Him, in obedience to Him and like Him.
Notice especially these words:
‘’…as is fitting in the Lord.’’ (18);
‘’…for this pleases the Lord.’’ (20);
‘’…with sincerity of heart and reverence for the Lord.’’ (22);
‘’…as working for the Lord, not for men…’’ (23);
‘’It is the Lord Christ you are serving.’’ (24);
‘’…you also have a Master in heaven.’’ (4:1).
We need to realise that marriage, home life and work life are essentially about Jesus. They are meant to be Christ-centred. He is to be Lord of who we are and what we do in these settings. They are arenas in which we are called to glorify Him. The more like Him we become, the more we will ‘oil the wheels’ in these relationships.
Throughout the passage Paul emphasises the responsibilities of each party: wives, husbands, children, Fathers, slaves and Masters. Now I have to fulfil my responsibility regardless of what you do (or don’t do) about yours. But obviously, everything works best when people reciprocate and pull their weight. Let’s do worship at home and at work. Worship is not to be confined, in thinking and practice, to church services. In real worship we offer everything we do to God, and if we can’t present it to Him we don’t do it. At least, that’s how it should be!
So when someone trusts Jesus to be their Saviour and Lord, He comes into their life and transforms everything, if allowed to. The cross comes into their relationships. (See the ‘sister’ passage in Ephesians 5:22 – 6:9; especially 5:25ff. It was written around the same time.) They seek to serve and to give rather than to be served and receive. ‘’For best results, follow the Maker’s Instructions!’’ When we do follow them we realise how wise they are.
Prayer: In every relationship of my life, make me the person you want me to be. I want to be more like you Lord Jesus.

Colossians 3:15-17: A portrait of the church.(click here for passage)
The church is meant to be:
A peaceful community (15a). If day by day we choose to wear the clothes Jesus has freely put in our wardrobe (12-14) the Christian community will be at peace. We’ll be unitedly fighting a spiritual war with the powers of darkness, but we won’t be training our guns on each other. However, a peaceful group will be made up of individuals who are allowing the ‘’peace of Christ’’ to ‘’rule’’ in their hearts. Whatever our outward circumstances, this is to be our dominant emotion. Other feelings/attitudes will fight to control our ‘’hearts’’, so we have a part to play in ‘letting’ Christ’s peace rule. The ‘’peace of Christ’’ may refer to the peace Jesus gives or the peace He possesses. Probably it’s about both (John 14:27.) Somebody observed that as Christ lived in the world, outwardly He ran into many a violent storm, but inwardly He was a ‘’sea of glass’’. He was always at rest In His heart. This is a peace that goes beyond human comprehension (Philippians 4:7). This is the peace which the Lord wants us to carry into the world each day. It is also to be the ethos, the culture, the atmosphere of the church as we gather together. People should be able to ‘feel it in the air’ as they join us. Let’s not allow anything of sin to ruin this peace between the ‘’members of one body’’. Those who belong to Jesus can live at peace if they choose to.
A thankful community (15b). One way that will help you to live at peace with everyone is to be thankful for each person in your world. Take that individual you like the least; the one who can just wind you up at the drop of a hat. You can feel yourself becoming agitated at the mere thought of them. I guarantee you that if you look for things to be thankful for, even in them, you will find them! And if you make it a habit to look for reasons to thank God for them, you will see those reasons, and gradually your heart will soften and change More generally, if you cultivate a thankful mind-set, where you regularly ‘count your blessings’, you will find that this leads to a more peaceful and contented outlook. (Look at how the thread of thanksgiving runs through this short section: verses 15b, 16b, 17b.) Recently I heard someone say that each morning he thinks of five things to be thankful for from the previous day, and he starts the new day by thanking God for them, before he starts to ask for anything else. That helped me and I’m endeavouring to bed in this habit. You will never run dry of reasons for thanksgiving. There are always many more than five reasons!
A Bible-centred community (16). By the way, here’s the primary way you can ‘’Let the peace of Christ rule in your heart’’. It’s by ‘letting’ ‘’the word of Christ dwell in you richly’’. A life soaked in Scripture is likely to be peaceful. If you are saturated in the Bible, like a sponge, when you are ‘squeezed’ in the pressures of life, what is likely to come out? Notice how God’s Word is to be at the heart of our teaching, (whether this is from a pulpit or in groups or one to one), our counselling, and our singing. We should no more sing heresy than preach it! It’s not okay to sing the words anyway just because we like the tune.
A worshipping community (17). David Pawson reputedly said: ‘’For the Christian the whole of life is sacred and the only thing that is secular is sin.’’ If we can’t do what we’re doing ‘’in the name of the Lord Jesus’’ we probably shouldn’t be doing it.

Colossians 2: 13 – 15: The price is paid.

These things are true of every Christian:

• There’s been a great change (13): You are no longer what ‘’you were’’. (See John 5: 24: ‘’I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life.’’ You were dead, but you aren’t any longer! (See 3:1; Ephesians 2:1-11). Conversion (or ‘regeneration’) was God’s work; God’s initiative. It is not something anyone can boast about. We didn’t make ourselves alive. ‘’When you were stuck in your old sin-dead life, you were incapable of responding to God. God brought you alive – right along with Christ.’’ The Message.
• There’s been a glorious removal (13b, 14: This is a vivid way of saying that because Jesus was nailed to the cross our sin debt has been cancelled.)What a precious truth is found in just six words: ‘’He forgave us all our sins…’’ A verse in the famous hymn, ‘It is well with my soul’, says: ‘’My sin, oh the bliss of this glorious thought; my sin, not in part but the whole, is nailed to His cross, and I bear it no more, Praise the Lord, Praise the Lord, O my soul.’’ There are things that we have done which could continue to haunt us. But Jesus has decisively dealt with every sin at the cross. Someone said, ‘’God buries our sins in the deepest sea, and puts up a big sign: ‘No Fishing!’ ‘’. In using the words ‘’our’’ and ‘’us’’ Paul identified himself with the people he was writing to. He didn’t stand aloof from them. He recognized that he too was a sinner in need of God’s grace. When a criminal was crucified, a placard was nailed to the cross above where he hung, itemising his ‘sins’; his misdemeanours. (You may remember how this worked out in the case of Jesus: Matthew 27:37. Jesus had committed no crimes, but they had to charge Him with something. So He was crucified on concocted charges.) Paul writes here that the charges ‘’against us’’ were ‘nailed’ to Christ’s cross. What an incomprehensibly merciful thing Jesus did for us by His dying! ‘’Think of it! All sins forgiven, the slate wiped clean, that old arrest warrant cancelled and nailed to Christ’s Cross.’’ The Message.
• There’s been a gigantic win (15): ‘’ He stripped all the spiritual tyrants in the universe of their sham authority at the Cross and marched them naked through the streets.’’ The Message. The Bible teaches that when Jesus died on the cross He overcame Satan and all the evil powers in the universe (see also Hebrews 2:14, 15. As David cut off Goliath’s head with the giant’s own sword, so Jesus used Satan’s weapon, death, to defeat him.) Jesus exposed to the universe the utter helplessness of the principalities and powers. Paul uses the picture of a conqueror’s triumphal procession in which prisoners of war were displayed to magnify the Victor’s prowess. As we saw yesterday, Jesus’ victory has massive implications for our own daily struggle with personal evil. We share in His win as we lean on Him. Praise God, we our out from under the domination of sin and the devil. We don’t have to be bullied or dictated to any longer.

Prayer: Lord help me to realise that these things are true of me, because of you.

Jeremiah 7:16-29

‘’Are they not rather harming themselves…’’ (19b).

‘’Walk in all the ways I command you, that it may go well with you.’’ (23b).

These are the alternatives before us: to go God’s way or our own. Both routes have consequences; they lead to destinations. One is good the other is bad.

Ever since the Garden of Eden, Satan has done a great marketing job with sin. He is so persuasive that it continues to fly off the shelves. Demand is sky high for what he is ‘selling’. He’s a sensational ‘salesman’. He is able to package ‘poison’ so effectively that we want it desperately and swallow it down with barely a thought. Initially it may taste good, but we eventually realise that we’re in dire trouble. The truth is that when we sin; when we break God’s laws, we go against the grain of the universe and we destroy ourselves. (In today’s passage, you see how the people of Judah had rejected God’s Word again and again. They had arrived at a point of no return, and their downfall and destruction were inevitable.)

But when we live as God wants us to live, by the power of His Spirit, we find that our health and well-being are wrapped up in travelling this road.

‘’The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace…’’ (Romans 8:6).

Obsession with self in these matters is a dead end; attention to God leads us out into the open, into a spacious, free life.’’ The Message.

‘’We would surely pursue holiness with greater eagerness if we were convinced that it is the way of life and peace.’’ John R.W. Stott: ‘The Message of Romans’, p.224 (‘The Bible speaks today’)

These are the alternatives that are still set before us in life. ‘’Enter through the narrow gate.For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.’’ (Matthew 7:13, 14).

At least superficially, the ‘’broad ‘’ way may look more appealing. But the ‘’narrow’’ road is the one that leads home.

‘’ ‘’But is it me they’re hurting?’’ GOD’s Decree! ‘’Aren’t they just hurting themselves?’’

‘’Live the way I tell you. Do what I command so that your lives will go well.’’ The Message.

Prayer: Lord God, you know what is best for me. I trust your wisdom, and my intention is to take your route through life. But I know I can’t do this without your help. Please be my companion and guide. Help me to lean on your arm.