Month: July 2024

Judges 16:1-31; Isaiah 35:1-10; 1 Corinthians 13:1-13

But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us. Titus 3:4-5 NKJV

The kindness and the love of God our Saviour appeared. What a beautiful interruption in our lives! Once depraved and enslaved by our sins (v. 3), according to His mercy, He saved us. The defining moment of every genuine Christian’s life is this memorable occasion when He saves us. Gratitude overflows from a heart that has experienced this kindness and love of God. Without such a conscious moment, no one is received into God’s family (Jn. 1:12).
Have you come to Him? —Peter Ramsay

Thank you, Lord, for saving my soul, thank you, Lord, for making me whole;
Thank you, Lord, for giving to me, Thy great salvation so rich and free.  —S. Sykes

Judges 14:1-15:20; Isaiah 34:1-17; 1 Corinthians 12:1-31

And all the people that heard him, and the publicans, justified God, being baptized with the baptism of John. But the Pharisees and lawyers rejected the counsel of God against themselves, being not baptized of him. Luke 7:29-30

Often the unconverted will say they are too sinful for God to save. They want to clean up their life before they come to Jesus. Here publicans, who were considered vile and degraded, received the message of repentance. Both the Pharisees who were respectable and outwardly religious and the lawyers—ones who knew the law of Moses, refused the message. Nobody is too sinful that Christ cannot save them. Repent and come to Him today. —K.J.W.

Only trust Him! Only trust Him! Only trust Him now!
He will save you! He will save you! He will save you now! —John Hart Stockton

Judges 13:1-25; Isaiah 33:1-24; 1 Corinthians 11:2-34

And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it. Jeremiah 18:4

God wants to mold our lives into beautiful vessels which glorify Him. If we rebel and harden our hearts to His loving guidance, He may need to “re-work us”, as a potter applies pressure to the clay in order to remold it. He may use such things as job loss, sickness, pain, the death of a loved one, so that He can make us over again. Always remember He loves us and wants the very best for us. —David Croudace

Have Thine own way, Lord! Have Thine own way!
Thou art the Potter, I am the clay.
Mold me and make me after Thy will,
While I am waiting, yielded and still. —A.A. Pollard

Judges 11:29-12:15; Isaiah 32:1-20; 1 Corinthians 10:14-11:1

And the angel said unto him, Gird thyself, and bind on thy sandals. And so he did. And he saith unto him, Cast thy garment about thee, and follow me. Acts 12:8

Where human endeavour cannot succeed, God often intervenes and performs the impossible. However Scripture shows us that the Lord expects us to help ourselves and help others where we can. God could have seen to it that the miracle included “suiting and booting” Peter, but Peter was able to do that himself. When Lazarus (John 11) came out of the sepulchre, the Lord asked his loved ones to “Loose him, and let him go”. The Lord loves to include His own when He forms a divine work and we cannot afford to be lazy. —Brian Russell

He sustains you by His hand, He enables you to stand;
Those whom Jesus once hath loved, from His grace are never moved.  —Rowland Hills Psalms and Hymns

Judges 10:6-11:28; Isaiah 31″1-9; 1 Corinthians 9:24-10:13

For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. 2 Corinthians 4:16

This fallen world’s sufferings are temporary; believers’ blessings will be eternal in the Father’s house. God sovereignly uses trials, which the much-tested apostle called “light afflictions”, as part of our sanctification, conforming us to the Lord’s image. Like a master surgeon skillfully wielding a scalpel, he employs all of life’s good and bad experiences to conform us to Christ’s image. This raised Paul’s perspective to turn from the temporal to the eternal. Likewise, we take the long view looking to the glorified Lord, as we await His return. —Keith R. Keyser

Every year we thought was wasted, every night we cried ‘How long?’
All will be a passing moment, in our Saviour’s vict’ry song.  —Wendell Kimbrough

Judges 9-10:5; Isaiah 30:1-33; 1 Corinthians 9:1-23

Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another? Matthew 11:3

John the Baptist was a rugged individual, well used to the wide desert places. With Spirit filled power, he had proclaimed a powerful message of repentance and crowds flocked to hear him. Now confined to a prison cell, he began to doubt. He must have wondered whether he had achieved anything, as he could only look forward to more imprisonment and probable execution. He started to doubt the reality of Jesus as the Messiah. Doubt is  understandable but doubt is swept away by overwhelming evidence and that was what Jesus gave as He described the miracles He performed and the powerful message He delivered. —Paul Young

When doubts and fears arise, teach me Thy way!
When storms o’erspread the skies, teach me Thy way! —B.M. Ramsey

Judges 8:1-35; Isaiah 29:1-24; 1 Corinthians 8:1-13

Thus says David the son of Jesse; Thus says the man raised up on high, The anointed of the God of Jacob, And the sweet psalmist of Israel. The Spirit of the Lord spoke by me. 2 Samuel 23:1–2 NKJV

David experienced great failure. Yet despite his sin with Bathsheba and her husband (which haunted him to his grave), David’s name is uniquely important in Scripture. It appears more frequently than anyone else apart from the Lord Jesus and he is the Spiritled lyricist of some of the most poignant poems of Scripture. This repentant man was used mightily of God and called, “a man after My own heart” (Acts 13:22). No matter how cold our hearts or how
far we may wander from God, His arms are always open to forgive, and to restore to useful service once again. —Jim Comte

Who is a pardoning God like Thee?
Or who has grace so rich and free? —Samuel Davies

Judges 7:1-25; Isaiah 28:1-29; 1 Corinthians 7:1-40

Open my eyes, that I may see wondrous things from Your law. Psalm 119:18 NKJV

Francis Bacon wrote, “The job of the artist is to deepen the mystery”. Our Creator is an artist. “All nature sings and round me rings the music of the spheres”, says the hymnwriter. Our Lord is an artist with words too. The Spirit paints vivid pictures of mysteries, which the more we dig into and meditate upon, the deeper their mystery grows. But at the same time our quest becomes even more compelling. Think of the bread and wine. The more we examine these symbols the richer and sweeter they become. In the words of C. S. Lewis, they are “larger on the inside than they are on the outside”. Let us be like the blessed man who meditates on God’s things day and night. —Marilyn MacMullen

How good is the God we adore! Our faithful, unchangeable friend:
His love is as great as His pow’r, and knows neither measure nor end. —J. Hart

Judges 6:1-40; Isaiah 27:1-13; 1 Corinthians 6:1-20

Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone while he talked with Him. Exodus 34:29 NKJV
But he (Samson) did not know that the Lord had departed from him. Judges 16:20 NKJV

Moses and Samson both shared a spiritual unconsciousness. Moses did not know the Lord was working through him and Samson did not know the Lord had departed from him. Like Moses, it’s good if we are unaware that the Lord is working through us so we don’t get in His way. But we never want to have self-confidence like Samson. That’s when our own doing, becomes our undoing! —Rex Trogdon

His love has no limit, His grace has no measure,
His pow’r has no boundary known unto men;
For out of His infinite riches in Jesus,
He giveth, and giveth, and giveth again! —Annie Johnson Flint

Judges 5:1-31; Isaiah 26:1-21; 1 Corinthians 5:1-13

I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go into the house of the Lord.” Psalm 122:1

When someone said “Let us go into the house of the Lord”, it gladdened David’s heart. He wanted to be where the Lord was honoured and worshipped; where he could learn about Him, sing His praises; where he could find fellowship and encouragement. There are many situations and circumstances of life that keep us from gathering together with the Lord’s people—some are valid, some are not! How do we react when someone says, “Let’s go to the
breaking of bread, a teaching meeting or some other gathering of the saints?” Is there a genuine desire in our hearts to remember the Lord, worship Him or meet with other believers? —Ray Jones

Gathered in Thy name, Lord Jesus, losing sight of all but Thee,
O what joy Thy presence gives us, calling up our hearts to Thee! —C.A.W.