“precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little”

Isaiah 28:13

80 km per hour.

“Ye must be born again.”

“precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line;

here a little, and there a little”

80 km per hour.

“Ye must be born again.”

“precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line;

here a little, and there a little”

“Turn us, O God”

This Psalm is about when the Jews returned from captivity in Babylon.  It starts out by telling us what God had done for them:

LORD, thou hast been favourable unto thy land: thou hast brought back the captivity of Jacob.

Thou hast forgiven the iniquity of thy people, thou hast covered all their sin. Selah.

Thou hast taken away all thy wrath: thou hast turned thyself from the fierceness of thine anger.” (v 1-3)

“My sheep hear my voice...”

John 10.27

“It is possible to get to a place where we need no argument to prove to us that the Bible is God's Word.

Christ says, "My sheep hear my voice”.  God's children know His voice, and I know that the voice which speaks to me from the pages of that Book is the voice of my Father... Everyone can have that testimony.

John 7:17 tells us how to get it: "If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God."  (R. A. Torrey)

“offend in one… guilty of all…”

James 2.10

The whole verse says this, “For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.”  So, I may think that I’m doing everything right, but if I make one mistake, then I’ve broken all of God’s law?  Yes, in fact it should be simple for us to see that we have all sinned against God:

SELF!  I worship myself!  “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.”

SELFISH!  I bow down to my things!  “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image”.

“...and even...”

Psalm 121.8

Whoa...!

Here we go again!!!  What’s coming next?

Something has been said... and now something is being added to it... “...and even...”!

Is it like the neighbourhood fights when I was a kid?  Insults would fly, then mud, then stones, “...and even...”

Someone would throw a knife (long story – not my fault) then the Police would arrive, “...and even...”

Is it like going from BAD... “...and even...” to WORSE?

“…he had opened the door of faith...”

Acts 14.27

“Are we ‘monks’ or ‘missionaries’?”

This was the topic of the email I sent out on Monday morning the 27th of June 2022.  (About this time last year.)

Later that day I received an email from “Sara” asking me to remove her name from my mailout list.  She thought comparing monks to missionaries was unchristian.  I do not know “Sara”.  A mutual friend asked if she could be added to thins mailout.  My reply to “Sara” is below.

Good morning “Sara”.

“…because they trust in him.”

Psalms 37:40

(For context, please note this was the devotion in our church bulletin from one year ago, as are most of these.)

We don’t always know that we are trusting in the Lord, but sooner or later OUR TRUST IN THE LORD WILL BE TESTED!

The past several weeks, leading up to our Missions Conference, which is a very important time for us as a church, we were tested as a church!

Our Missions Conference is IMPORTANT BECAUSE:

“…peace …quietness and assurance for ever.”

Isaiah 32.17

That sounds good, “peace … quiet”... in fact - that sounds great!

We often think, “Peace and quiet… ahh!”

Hang on, there’s more, there is the other word, “assurance” – that’s great too.  We can have the assurance that everything will be peace and quiet!  We can have the assurance that everything will work out for the best!

That’s just a fairy tale!

Nobody can have all of that… can they?

“Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel”

Mark 16:15

Our Missions Conference is next week, and I believe the story below is a great illustration of both our desire to share the gospel with others, and how our effort is all part of our service too!

In a remote village in Central America the word got out among the peoples of the region that one of the missionaries that had served this country for many years was about to return to the US to live out the remaining years of her life.

“How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?”

Romans 10.14

“How..?”  “and how?”  “and how…?” 

The answer is in the next few verses:

“…how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!

But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Esaias saith, Lord, who hath believed our report? So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

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