DIG for Monday the 12th of February…..we have His authority, don’t be afraid to use it…..Matthew 10 v 7 and 8

During worship yesterday I was reminded about being a distillery manager, and about the authority given to me in that job. The Senior Site Manager gave me authority to run the site, backing me in front of the operators even if I made a mistake.

If this happened we spoke about it in his office, but my authority at the site was never removed.

This made me think about the authority we have been given here on earth by God the Father.

We are His representatives here, His ambassadors, and we have been given His authority to deal with sickness and disease for example.

With authority comes the responsibility to act, and with that comes the possibility of making mistakes.

We all make mistakes, in many areas of our lives, including our walk with the Lord. Yet, even when we make mistakes the Lord does not take away His authority.

Through the Holy Spirit and through His Word He will guide us, council us, and enable us to yield His authority in a more appropriate manner.

Jesus gave His disciples His authority, and He has done the same for us.

Jesus went back to His Father so that the Holy Spirit could come and enable His disciples with power, and He has done the same for us.

 

You have been given the same power and authority that the disciples received; do not be afraid to use it.

The disciples made mistakes, and we make mistakes, but that does not mean we should be worried about using the authority given to us freely by the Lord.

We are His ambassadors here on earth, and He will not take away His authority. So use it, and make a difference; use the power and authority you have to change lives!

Speak this out today…..”Thank you Lord that you have given me Your power and Your authority to set people free”.

Matthew 10 v 7 and 8…..And as ye go, preach, saying, The Kingdom of heaven is at hand. Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give

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DIG for Tuesday the 16th of January…..it is the Word that causes the change…..2 Peter 1 v 3

I happened to watch a documentary today about Martin Luther.

It was a fascinating program, but one quote in particular has stuck with me.

He said, “But I, I did nothing, the Word did everything”.

This is an amazing comment, given how the man changed the face of the church and indeed changed the world with his ideas and actions.

He was however stating a truth that is still important today.

The Word is the final authority in truth and the Word is the agent of change in our lives.

It is through understanding of the Word that we can use to implement permanent change in our lives.

Through and understanding of the Word we can gain all we need for life and godliness (2 Peter 1 v 3).

It is the Word that we use to renew our minds and see real transformation (Romans 12 v 2).

Luther recognised the importance of the Word and was influential in getting it translated into German.

He knew the importance of letting everyone read the Word for himself or herself, and this is of course very true today.

We are required to take responsibility for our own bible study in order to get eh best from it.

We should be thankful for the pioneers who enabled the Bible to be translated into our mother tongue.

Speak this out today…..”Thank you Lord for your Word, and thank you that it is the agent for change in my life”.

2 Peter 1 v 3…..According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue

DIG for Tuesday the 9th of January…..relationships, that’s the real treasure in life…..Hebrews 10 v 24

I completed a rather interesting task this evening while waiting for Lydia to come out from her swimming training.

While reading a ‘self help’ book I meditated on a question from the author; what would I like people to say at my funeral and how would I like to be remembered?

I thought about this for a while and then wrote some comments.

Interestingly none of my comments were about being a success in business or career, nothing about the size of my house or possessions, or the amount of money I made.

They were all about people; how I related to them, how they saw me, and which of my characteristics and values were important to them.

This should not have been a surprise as we were created to be in relationships, with our God and with other people.

We are relational beings.

We are not meant to live in isolation.

The really important things in life are all to do with other people; with people we love and people who love us.

At the end of the day material possessions (as nice and comfortable as they make life) are not important, what we think about others and what others think about us are the vital things in life.

Relationships are the real treasures in life.

I thought about my relationship with the Lord, with my family and with my friends and felt a glow inside.

My relationships make me happy and make life worth living.

So I challenge you tonight to ask yourself the same question, what do you want people to say at your funeral and how do you want to be remembered?

Speak this out today…..”Thank you Lord that you created me as a relational being, and thank you for all the wonderful relationships in my life”.

Hebrews 10 v 24…..And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works

DIG for Tuesday the 17th of October…..our righteousness does exceed that of the Pharisees…..Matthew 5 v 20

The Bible contains what some class as ‘difficult’ passages and verses; many of these are in what is known as the Sermon on the Mount.

Take Matthew 5 v 20 for example.

If this verse is taken out of context and not rightly divided with the rest of the Word (as many people seem to do) it can seem impossible to be good enough for God.

The trouble is that many think righteousness is about what you do, where we know that it is about who you are.

Righteousness is not about actions but position, your position in Christ.

The Pharisees and scribes were very zealous, they tried and tried to achieve righteousness through works of the law and they failed.

So how can we expect to be more righteous than them?

Well, we cannot, if we try in our own strength.

But the good news of the Gospel is that we are MADE righteous the second we become a new creature, the second we are born again (2 Corinthians 5 v 17 to 21).

So as a gift of grace through faith in Jesus our righteousness does exceed that of the Pharisees and scribes, as our righteousness is the righteousness of God (2 Corinthians 5 v 21).

And we have this as a gift of grace through faith, we were made as righteous as God not through our works but through the work of Jesus.

If you read this verse in context along with others it is of great encouragement and not difficult.

Because of Jesus you are righteous enough to enter into the Kingdom!

Speak this out today…..”Thank you Lord that I have been made righteous as a gift of grace through faith in Jesus and His finished work”.

Matthew 5 v 20…..For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven

DIG for Wednesday the 4th of October…..truth is liberating and empowering…..Ephesians 6 v 14

Paul likens our spiritual armour to that of a soldier.

Like a well-equipped soldier, we too have all that we need at our disposal to face our enemy.

He begins by telling us to have our loins ‘girt up’ (Ephesians 6 v 14).

The expression to ‘gird one’s loins’ was used in the Roman era meaning to pull up and tie ones lower garments between the legs to increase mobility in battle.

Garments hanging loose would be a cumbrance and a constraint.

To be ‘girded up’ is to be liberated, unrestricted and set free for maximum effectiveness in battle.

Truth makes us free and truth is liberating and unrestricting.

But only the truth that we know will set us free (John 8 v 32).

Truth is always truth whether we know it or not, but we will only benefit from it when we know it.

What is truth?

Well, Jesus said ‘’I am the truth” (John 14 v 6).

He is truth and the knowledge of Him and of everything He has done (His finished work) will set us free.

Where we are bound up, constrained and restricted, the truth of Jesus and all that we are in Him will set us free!

Speak this out today…..”Thank you Lord that I am set free from all constraints by the knowledge of Your truth, by the knowledge of You”.

Ephesians 6 v 14….Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness

DIG for Monday the 11th of September…..if you want tomatoes plant a tomato seed…..Matthew 13 v 31

I’ve written quite a bit in the recent past about seeds and how we can plant and then nourish them, in order to produce good fruit in our lives.

What we need to realise, as believers, is that this holds true for bad as well as good seeds, with the ability to produce bad or good fruit.

We know in the natural that if we want cress we plant cress seeds and if we want tomatoes we plant tomato seeds.

Yet sometimes as believers we expect to produce fruit in our lives without planting appropriate seeds.

Everything we read, watch and listen to are seeds that we are planting in our hearts.

If we require healing to be made manifest in our lives we need to plant seeds from the Word of God about healing.

If we plant seeds of doubt and negativity (and there are lots of sources of these available to us) we will reap something other than healing.

We know this principle of planting the correct seed works in the physical natural world and we need to realise the same principle works in the spiritual realm and in the Kingdom.

You would be a fool planting tomato seeds and then expect to harvest potatoes.

So we are also foolish if we are not planting the correct seeds for a good harvest in our Christian walk.

Take time in the Word tonight and plant some more good seeds in your heart, reading this DIG is a good start but not enough.

Speak this out today…..”Thank you Lord for your Word, thank you for these incorruptible seeds that I can now plant in my heart”.

Matthew 13 v 31…..Another parable out he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and sowed in his field

DIG for Saturday the 12th of August…..what He promised to Joshua He promises to you…..Joshua 1 v 9

Nunsy said tonight that the next time she is preaching she will be coming from Joshua, and that made me head straight to that book for the DIG tonight.

What the Lord says to Joshua as he embarked on his ministry, into leadership, He is saying to us today.

And I find that truth extremely encouraging.

He promises to be with us on the mission He has tasked us with (Joshua 1 v 5).

He promises that He will not fail us (Joshua 1 v 5).

He promises us that if we follow His guidance we will prosper in whatever we do (Joshua 1 v 7).

He promises that if we focus on His Word and speak out His Word we will have good success (Joshua 1 v 8).

He promises that with His presence we can live without fear (Joshua 1 v 9).

Now there’s a great model for anything that we do in life, be it ministry, school, work, indeed any part of life.

Follow the Lord’s guidance through His Word and through your personal relationship with Jesus and you cannot go wrong.

You cannot fail to succeed and prosper if you go with His guidance rather than with your on understanding.

This is a truth confirmed in Proverbs (Proverbs 3 v 5 and 6).

Speak this out today…..”Thank you Lord for the promises that you gave to Joshua, and thank you that you have also given them to me”.

Joshua 1 v 9…..Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of good courage; be not afraid, neither be dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest

DIG for Friday the 21st of July…..we are blessed without seeing…..John 20 v 29

The nobleman from Capernaum was a man of great faith (John 4 v 46 and 47).

He had obviously heard about Jesus and what He was doing, so he asked Jesus to come and heal his son.

Well, actually he didn’t need that; he just required the word of Jesus and he believed.

Jesus spoke out healing and the man believed; he did not need Jesus to physically come and lay hands on his son.

Jesus spoke and he believed.

This is a picture for us today that the Word should be enough for us.

We should not need “feathers and gold dust” or experiential knowledge in order to believe, the Word of God should be good enough!

Thomas needed to see the wounds on Jesus in order to believe.

Jesus said those that believed without physical evidence were blessed (John 20 v 29).

We are blessed through having the Word of God.

The Word of God tells us that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God and that believing on Him would give us life (John 20 v 31).

We are indeed truly blessed, having the Word of God (the more sure word of prophecy), and living under grace, under the New Covenant.

Can you see how the Word of God is so much better than “feathers and gold dust”?

Speak this out today…..”Thank you Lord that we have your Word, the more sure word of prophecy”.

John 20 v 29…..Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed

DIG for Sunday the 11th of June…..discipleship is really just the search for truth…..John 8 v 31 and 32

In Matthew 28 v 18 to 20 we read that Jesus wants us to make disciples of believers (we are to teach them in other words).

Many people still do not understand what involves making disciples of believers.

Discipleship, in my opinion, can simply be stated as the search for truth.

In John 8 we see Jesus talking to some Jews who had become His followers.

He said that they would be disciples if they did one thing, and this was to continue (or abide, dwell and remain) in His Word (John 8 v 31).

He said that if the believers continued in His Word and became disciples they would know the truth and the truth would set them free (John 8 v 32).

Jesus gives us here the key to discipleship; it is the search for truth.

And we are told where to find the truth, in His Word.

For us that means the Bible, we find truth in the Word and this truth, if we know it, will set us free.

That is what discipleship is about; it is all about the search for truth and knowing truth.

So do you want to be a disciple of Jesus?

Do you want to be set free by knowing the truth?

Well, there is only one way to do this and that is to immerse (or continue) yourself into the Word of God.

Speak this out today…..”Thank you Lord that I can be your disciple through knowledge and understanding of your Word”.

John 8 v 31 and 32…..Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; And ye shall know the truth, and thee truth shall make you free

DIG for Wednesday the 18th of January….. so what do you have against Jesus…..John 3 v 16

In a Bible teaching today I heard the preacher talking about people having an issue with religion but not an issue with Jesus, and this made me ponder on that statement.

Many people have a problem with the church and Christians; they speak of hypocrisy, they speak of evil deeds done in the name of the church.

And I have a degree of sympathy with this view, having seen much hypocrisy in my time in the church.

However when you look at the life and teachings of Jesus there is not a lot to get annoyed about.

He was a man of compassion, mercy and love; He was a man who was for the “little” person saving His biting comments for the religious establishment.

Jesus did not have an ounce of hypocrisy or evil in His body.

There is nothing in His teachings to merit the evil deeds that we see throughout the history of the church.

Men, down through the ages and even today, have taken the words and deeds of Jesus and used them for their own ends; this is unfortunately the effect of religion.

I am not surprised many men have serious issues with “false” Christianity and the church.

But there is nothing to hold against Jesus.

Jesus is what we need to tell proclaim, what He did and who He was.

Speak this out today…..”Thank you Lord for the finished work of Jesus Christ and thank you for all that I receive as a gift of grace through faith in Him”.

John 3 v 16…..For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life