Category: Devotions

Bewdley

I’m still thinking about last Friday.

The outdoor Passion Play in the small town only 2 miles from where I live is performed every 2 years.
The following is a mixture of all my thoughts in note form during that event.

Parking the car away from the event and having to walk because of road closures created the excitement that this was going to be special.
This was a standing performance only, in the rain, pity.
Some people didn’t stay till the end, in fact, they began to leave before the main bit. Some didn’t look like they had actually turned up for it at all, they were passing through, popping into the shops.
Others were laughing and talking loudly, totally disengaged with this momentous event.
The majority however, were focused on the man in white, Jesus. Would he actually hang on a cross? Yes he would.
I struggled to see, the umbrellas didn’t help in front of me! I looked up to the flats and saw how many had great views hanging out of their windows, I wished for a good view. Small children were placed on top of fathers’ shoulders.
The crowd just simply watched as the man in white hung in front of them on the cross.
It was the final act that stunned the crowd. They took him down from the cross and carried him through the crowd to a designated place. As they weaved a path, the people silently gazed and looked on a man who had given it all. It was a great performance.
And I pondered how this event in Bewdley mirrored so much of what really took place in a small city many miles away 2,000 years ago. The man in white was carried right past me and I whispered the words thank-you.
Thank you for your surrender.
Sacrifice.
Death.
Everything.
All.

The Church likes to celebrate His resurrection and victory, rightly so. But one week on I am stirred more with His death. His willingness to die for the cause of love leads me on.
Thank you.
1 Corinthians‬ ‭2‬:‭1-2‬

The cost of Easter

The average British person will have spent £52 on chocolate at the Easter weekend. The total spend will have been approximately £176 million and £163 million respectively on food and drink for the Easter festivities with £117m going on gifts, £65m on flowers and £39m on cards.

Luke 12:13-21

In regard to material things Jesus said more about money than he did about prayer.
And whenever he discussed money, he did so with the assumption that all material things belong to God.
The biblical thought is that we are stewards of all our possessions and responsible to God for what we do with them. The NT actually affirms the legitimacy of private property – Peter confronted Ananias and Sapphira because they falsely claimed to have dedicated their property to God when they had not done so. Their sin was their false claim, not their possession of property.
We as Christians are called to be stewards. Of our possessions and actually of the whole earth.
This parable of the rich fool is one of the Lord’s primary teachings on this subject. The story is about a man who failed to recognise that he was accountable to God for all he owned.
You see this is not about looking at the wealthy and saying you should give more away. This is a teaching for everyone of us. Rich and poor. Whether we have much or little. Do we live with the recognition that everything we have is God’s? We are responsible and accountable to God for all we have.

I wonder who bought the most expensive Easter egg being sold at Harrods for £700?!
And I wonder if people knew the festivities were celebrating Christ who paid the ultimate price by giving everything away, His very life.
Easter shows us all that we are and have belongs to God, our life is not our own, we were bought with a price, a high one.

Disciple

The best 2 words you will ever understand are these in verse 19 of John 21.
‘Follow me’.

Here is the grace of God. 3 years previously Jesus had used the exact words.
But a lot has happened in 3 years. Highs and lows. Successes and failures.

At the time of Christ gifted students of the day would approach a rabbi and ask “May I follow you?” The rabbi either accepted the student or sent him away to pursue a trade. If he was accepted, it meant the rabbi believed the student had the ability and commitment to become like him.
But Jesus, He chose his followers. He approached them. People who had adopted a trade either because they had been turned down by a rabbi or that they hadn’t even bothered asking because they knew they weren’t good enough. The decision to follow a rabbi meant total commitment.
Three years later and after Peters denial, he is now reinstated and once again it is Jesus who initiates with the statement ‘follow me’.

Jesus is saying “I believe in you. I believe you can become like me. I believe you can be committed to me.”

When you decided to become a Christian it was on the basis of His love and His approach to you. He chose you.

So today in work, in play, at home, in education, at leisure, wherever you are and whatever you are doing you can do it all as a disciple.
A disciple who is not one because of the choice you have made, the commitment you hold to. But rather a disciple because of His choice!
That’s a complete different understanding to some demonstrations of discipleship. But one that is amazingly and outrageously gracious!

AGAIN

On the evening of the Resurrection day Jesus had supernaturally appeared at a Disciples meeting in a certain house.
His words were “Peace be with you”. He showed them his nail prints in his hands and side and AGAIN said “Peace be with you” before commissioning them.
A week later, the disciples met AGAIN. They were AGAIN in the same house. They AGAIN locked the doors. AGAIN Jesus supernaturally stood among them and yes AGAIN He said the same words, “Peace be with you” before encountering doubting Thomas.
(John 20:19-29)

Don’t reject repeated actions.
Work.
Disciplines.
Lifestyle choices.
Often our days are AGAIN moments.
And often we struggle because we want different, spontaneous, exciting moments.
Don’t reject repeated actions.

AGAIN
Turning up in the same place each week to do the same things will often cause God to show up also AGAIN and AGAIN. We move He moves.

If we welcome and pay attention to the familiarity of God’s voice then each time He speaks, though it may appear the same, there will be something new we are hearing. Preconceptions to the Word of God is the biggest barrier.

Not everyone journeys at the same rate as each other and by having AGAIN moments it allows for the stragglers to catch up, for the Thomas’s who didn’t quite have the best of starts, to receive. Your activity of life isn’t just about you.

Embrace your AGAIN today.

“Sitting Shiva”

So the stone was very large (Mark 16:4), it would take many to have moved it, but an angel of the Lord came and did just that.

The angel then did something that perhaps can be easily missed in the excitement of the events … He sat down on top of the stone!

The importance is this: the ‘sitting shiva’.

You may never have come across that term unless you are a Jew.
During the mourning period known as ‘shiva’ mourners would sit on low stools as near to the ground as they could. Remember how Jobs friends could not recognise Job because of his suffering and for 7 days and nights they sat on the ground and in the dirt with him (Job 2:13)? Similarly the shiva would last one week following the loss of a loved one and the people would demonstrate their heartaches by bringing themselves as low as possible.

But the angel was sat high on top of the stone which was used to stop people coming to steal the body of Christ.
The angel was demonstrating to the women that this was not a funeral site, there was no mourning here, no need to sit shiva today!

No. For us today we are not sitting low to the ground. We are as Apostle Paul said, “And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus” Ephesians‬ ‭2‬:‭6‬.

Your circumstance may be trying to bring you low, you may even have those feelings.
But the Bible says that’s not where you are sitting. You are raised high, seated high.
And that stone of circumstance which the enemy tried to use to silence you has now become your very own pulpit declaring that Christ is alive in you and you are alive in Him!

It just isn’t over!

Rev Nadim Nassar, a Syrian Anglican priest recently was quoted as saying “Christianity is vanishing in the Middle East.”
The evil of ISIS and their partners has been traumatically painful and we are all praying for their fall to be as quick as their rising. Will we witness in our lifetime the eradication of Christianity in the Biblical region of the world as Rev Nassar suggests?

In the UK it could appear that Christianity is also vanishing. Dr John Sentanu in his Easter Sunday sermon a few years ago told of how nearly a third of British children thought that Easter marked the birth of the Easter bunny and that over half didn’t know the Easter story.

Today is Easter Sunday and I know Jesus was dead but that He came back to life and is alive today. He was gone but then He came back.

With this in mind I also know that no matter what dies it can live again. If Christianity vanishes it can re-appear. If knowledge of the truth dissipates it can be regained.
I also know whatever you have:
Lost can be found
Has been stolen can be given back
Whatever has:
Gone wrong can be put right.
Been defeated can become successful.

You see, it is just not over till it’s over and we never get to say it is over!
There is still time in your life, there is still today.
Jesus is Alive!

Yesterday I ended a journey of 3 years and 3 months of writing a devotion from a chapter of the Bible every day.
I am not sure how many read these on a regular basis, but if you have, thank you.
I am considering making this devotional book available as an e-book. It will take some work to sort it and repackage the devotion, there will be some cost attached to that. So in order to think this through I am trying to gauge a response to see if there be any interest. For those reading this from Facebook I would appreciate you simply liking this blog if you would be interested in receiving the whole Bible devotional book electronically. Those reading it from Twitter or WordPress can you email me on paul.hudson@elimhq.net

I will continue to write a daily blog. It will contain a variety of devotions, interesting people I meet and missions stories, so please continue to read daily.

I will commence on Easter Sunday.

He is coming soon!
Revelation 22
No matter your interpretations, your opinions and beliefs, it is still all about Jesus.
The whole Bible is about Jesus coming, His death, resurrection and ascension, the power of the Church and the return of Jesus before the final end of the world as we know it.
Jesus has come to finish transgression, when he hung on the cross, his final cry was ‘It is finished’. His work on the cross finished the work of sin once and for all.
Jesus has come to put an end to sin. He came to die for our sins that through Him we might die to sin and be raised to a new life of righteousness.
Jesus came to atone for wickedness with His blood. So that as God looks down on you and me He only sees the atoning blood and not our sin.
Jesus came to bring everlasting righteousness. He came to establish us as righteous in the sight of God.
Jesus came to seal up vision and prophecy. His coming was the seal of approval on the vision and the prophets speaking of Him. Jesus is God’s last word. In Him all the promises of God receive their ‘yes’ of ‘Amen’. In Him alone is found the vision of God and His purpose.
Jesus came to anoint the most holy. He came to fulfil all that the holy of holies represented. He is the most Holy presence of God.
It is all about Jesus. It is quite simple.
He has come and He is coming again.
Behold I am coming soon. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end. I am the Root and the Offspring of David and the bright Morning Star. Yes! I am coming soon!
And what do we do? What can we do?
We do what John did. On knowing this we fall down and worship Him.
That’s the Bible my friend.
And may His grace be with you. Amen.

He is going to make all things new! v5
Revelation 21
This has got to be the promise of all promises!
What is He going to make new?

1. Creation will be made new.
This world as we know it is dying. Last year the WWF produced a report entitled ‘Life on Earth is dying’.
It reported that the number of vertebrates – mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and fish – on earth has fallen by more than half since 1970. We know the world as we know it is changing and not for the benefit. Seasons are confused, pollution and disease has increased, this is certainly not paradise.
But there is a new earth coming. God will make what we know new.
2. Our spiritual brokenness will be made new.
And as John saw the prostitute, Babylon, as the world system, he now sees Jerusalem, a picture of the Church, prepared, perfected for Christ.
He makes all things new. Including the shame, the guilt and the sin of our lives, all of it will have gone forever.
3. Our bodies will be made new
No more death, or mourning or crying or pain …
This body that we know now will be changed. It dies and it grieves and it cries. If all of that is gone then what is left is perfect. Our minds perfect, our bodies perfect.
Some today have struggled all their life with disability, some have faced accidents and are never the same again and some spend the last few years of their life crippled by disease. The problem is temporary for God will make our bodies new.
4. Our relationship with Him will be new.
“The dwelling of God is with men …”
There are times when we feel so far from God, we get frustrated because we cannot see Him. But there comes a day when that is no more.
This earth new!
This life new,
This body new!
This God-relationship new!

John retells the Revelation as a pre-millennialist.
Which simply means Christ comes back before a thousand year reign of peace.
Revelation 20
This chapter shows the millennium.
However, this revelation sits in a canon of the rest of the New Testament which also speaks of Christ’s return and with us not taking what John sees as a time-line then it is impossible to say what order it will all happen. Is it a literal 1000 years? Was it literally 30 minutes (8:1)? 3 and a half days? 5 months? 1260 days? 42 months? John says so, but that doesn’t mean it is literal.
So what happens in the millennium?
The martyrs reign.
That’s you and me.
The martyrs are not an elite group. Yes John sees those who had been beheaded which is poignant for us today as for his generation.
But in his vision all faithful Christians have been killed, that’s what happened. It still does in parts of the world.
So we reign with Christ. We do so without the presence of evil.
What we don’t know is if there were unbelievers on earth in John’s vision. If so, do they become saved? If not, the purpose of the 1,000 years is a mystery.
Then Satan is released and again he attacks and again is defeated!

No matter how many times he attacks, he is always defeated!

Those whose name is not in the book of life will not live.
So did the unsaved dead come back to life to die again?

The lake of fire is not there for human beings though people do go there, it is rather there for Satan, death and hades, they are destroyed.

In Christ we are called to reign, it is what Adam and Eve lost for us. Though we struggle at times to hold on to that rulership of our life and often we are ruled by outside forces, yet, we know, that in the end all of this will pale into insignificance as we reign with Christ in the millennium!!