DIG for Friday the 19th of January…..it is the Word that will change you…..2 Peter 1 v 3

It was a delight tonight to have our final teaching session for the first set of students at Moray Bible School.

We ate together before our final discussion of the Word as a group at the School.

It has been wonderful (as a teacher and pastor) to see the growth in knowledge of the students.

This has coincided with a growth in terms of Christian maturity and assurance in their faith.

This of course should be expected, as it is an understanding of the Word and therefore Jesus that leads to permanent change and growth.

We are told that it is through knowledge of Jesus that we can manifest all we need for life and godliness (2 Peter 1 v 3).

We are told that it is the Word that can move us towards perfection (2 Timothy 3 v 16 and 17).

There is a process to go through in order to see this positive change; we have to conceive it in our mind, believe it and speak it out.

It all starts however with the Word; it is the truths in the Word we should be thinking about and speaking out over our lives, it is the truth that we should believe.

I have seen the Word change my life, and I have now seen the Word change the lives of the Bible School students.

Yes, it takes hard work and effort, but it is worth the effort; just ask the students!

I would encourage you to get into the way of studying the Word, of rightly dividing the Word.

I assure you this will change your life and be worth the time, energy, work and effort.

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

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

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DIG for Monday the 15th of January…..why the constant negativity…..Proverbs 18 v 21

Yesterday I wrote about the importance of what we think, and this also counts for what we say.

It is also very important what we listen to, as we are influenced greatly by what we take in to our hearts and minds.

I have stopped listening to a number of radio programs and stations due to the constant negativity being spoken out.

I was listening to one of the “better” programs today and even they were becoming too negative for me!

They were reporting about a tennis tournament where a British player had done really well winning 6-3 6-1.

This in anyone’s definition is a good result and a result to be celebrated.

However the first thing the newsreader asked the reporter was this, “So is there any evidence of the hip injury we think she has?”

No mention of the score, or how well the player had done or any sense of celebration about the success of the British player.

No, straight in to a negative comment about a potential problem!

Everyone is affected by the words they speak out and the words spoken out over them.

We know that death and life are in the power of the tongue (Proverbs 18 v 21); important for our own lives and important for those we speak about.

I would encourage you to be more positive and less negative; I can assure that this will improve your life and improve the lives of those around you.

Take the challenge and think about the words you are speaking out!

Speak this out today…..”Thank you Lord that I know death and life are in the power of my tongue, and thank you that I am capable of making more positive remarks”.

Proverbs 18 v 21…..Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof

DIG for Tuesday the 5th of September…..carbon dioxide is bad, warmth is good…..Mark 4 v 14

When you make malt you are in a sense ‘planting’ the barley seeds and trying to fool it to grow.

There are things you need to do to protect the barley seed and also things to encourage its growth.

Carbon dioxide is produced in the process and is poisonous to the seed so it must be removed.

The seeds like to be warm so if you provide heat into the seed bed they will grow quicker.

In the same way you can encourage or discourage the seed of the Word in your heart and either hamper or speed up the ‘harvest’ you are looking for.

If you worship and praise God for example this is like heating the barley seed.

If you cease negative thoughts and stop watching nonsense on television this is like removing the carbon dioxide.

You will know what encourages you in your walk with the Lord, and you will also know what stops you from having a fuller walk with Him.

These are the very things that will speed up or slow down the germination and growth of the seed of the Word of God in your heart, and will therefore slow down or speed up your harvest.

The seed of the Word is perfect and cannot fail to produce good fruit, if you plant it and ‘look after’ it.

It is your responsibility to provide warmth and remove carbon dioxide!

Of course you have to plant the Word in your heart first, but afterwards you can encourage it and protect it.

How you do this will determine the harvest you reap.

Speak this out today…..”Thank you Lord for the Word of God, and thank you that I can plant it in the ground of my heart”.

Mark 4 v 14…..The sower soweth the word

DIG for Wednesday the 23rd of August…..you are what you say…..Proverbs 18 v 21

One of the verses that I try to live by and try to teach the church fellowship to live by is Proverbs 18 v 21.

”Death and life are in the power of the tongue”, is one of the most important lessons we all must learn in life.

The words we speak out have a direct impact on our lives and on the lives of those around us.

I wrote about the comments of a football commentator yesterday and I am going to use something else he said tonight.

The Scottish team in question was winning well, but then lost 3 quick goals.

“Well”, the commentator said, “it’s always the same for Scottish football teams, we always do that”.

Even I have a ‘favourite’ phrase about the Scottish national football team; it is, “We are great at snatching defeat from the jaws of victory”. This is a phrase I need to stop using!

As a ‘race’ the Scottish people (in general) are great at talking themselves down; as a nation we seem to be gifted at this!

You may think but these are only words; well the words we speak, according to the Bible, are either death or life.

What are you speaking out over your own life and the lives of your family?

Indeed what are the words that you are speaking out over your nation?

Are they words of life or are they words of death?

They have to be one or the other as they are never neutral.

Speak this out today…..”Thank you Lord that I can have a positive impact on my life, on the lives of others and on my nation through speaking out positive and encouraging words of life”.

Proverbs 18 v 21…..Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof

DIG for Tuesday the 17th of January…..I am so glad to be a whosoever…..John 3 v 16

Yesterday we looked at John 3 v 16 together and there is one word that has always jumped out at me from this verse.

I love the word “whosoever”.

This is a word that speaks to me of the inclusivity of the Kingdom.

Jesus is for everyone and anyone; Jesus is for whosoever will choose to accept Him and His finished work.

Men have been created with free will, with the will to choose what they believe and trust upon.

God the Father sent His Son to be the propitiation for the sin of all men.

Through His finished work all men have been reconciled and forgiven.

However men need to choose to trust in Jesus and His finished work.

When they choose they become a “whosoever”.

Once we trust in Jesus we are saved for an eternity with God the Father; we become a “whosoever” with regards to John 3 v 16.

Every man can be saved as the provision has been made through Jesus but every man needs to decide for himself to become a “whosoever”.

I hope you are glad to be a whosoever.

Speak this out today…..”Thank you Lord for the finished work of Jesus Christ and thank you that have been saved as a gift of grace through faith in this work”

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

 

 

DIG for Sunday the 15th of January…..we have complete and unconditional acceptance from God…..Ephesians 1 v 6

We all know that in order to be accepted by others we have to conform and perform, this is the way of the world.

We conform to be accepted by our circle of friends.

We perform in order to be accepted by our schoolteachers or managers at work.

In this world we have to do things to be accepted by others.

This is not the case in the Kingdom of God.

We have to be made accepted in order to have acceptance from God.

There is nothing we can do to be accepted and there is then nothing we can do to be rejected once living in this acceptance.

This is exactly what we read at the start of the epistle to the Ephesians.

Paul writes and says that, ”he hath made us accepted in the beloved” (Ephesians 1 v 6)

God accepts us after being made something.

Once we are saved, as a gift of grace through faith in Jesus we are made righteous and holy (2 Corinthians 5 v 21 and Ephesians 4 v 24), and this is why we are then acceptable to God.

We are not accepted because of our goodness or our religious performance; we are accepted because of our trust in the performance of Jesus.

In the sae way we cannot “sin away” this acceptance.

We are now always acceptable to God, unconditionally and completely.

Speak this out today…..”Thank you Lord that as a gift of grace through faith in Jesus I have complete and unconditional acceptance from you”.

Ephesians 1 v 6…..To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved

DIG for Saturday the 14th of January…..the key is being content, not rich or poor but content…..1 Timothy 6 v 8

You’ll not be surprised to know that I am still meditating over the many experiences I had in India recently.

One of the main things that have impacted on me is the contentment of the believers that we met.

Paul writes to Timothy (and us) telling him to be content with what he has (1 Timothy 6 v 8).

This is not saying that Timothy (or us) has to live in poverty and need.

What Paul is saying is that whatever state you find your self in be content.

If you are rich be content and if you are poor you are also to be content.

If you live in plenty or live in need be content.

The Word never says we should live in poverty or need, contrary to what religion may teach you.

Jesus came so that we could live in abundance John (10 v 10).

Above all things God wants us to live in health and prosperity (3 John 2).

Jesus came and was made poor so that we might be rich (2 Corinthians 8 v9).

We are not meant to live in poverty or need however if we are ever in that state, and as we endeavour to come out from that, we are even then to be content.

In India I saw many people wanting to receive a better education, get a better job and make a better life for themselves and their families however at the same time they were content.

They were living out 1 Timothy 6 v 8 as they moved into living out John 10 v10, 2 Corinthians 8 v 9 and 3 John 2.

There is a lot we in the West can learn from these contented brothers and sisters.

Speak this out today…..”Thank you Lord that you do indeed want us all to live in abundance and prosperity, and thank you for tat provision you made through the finished work of Jesus”.

1 Timothy 6 v 8…..And having food and raiment let us be therewith content

DIG for Thursday the 12th of January…..it is His will to adopt you…..Ephesians 1 v 5

I had started looking at the spiritual blessings listed in Ephesians that God has already given us through Jesus, and I am returning to that today.

One of the most wonderful benefits of coming to Christ is that we come into God’s family.

Once we are believers God calls us His children.

He says we are adopted into His family.

Once adopted children have the same rights and privileges of ‘natural’ children, they are no different in the eyes of the law.

Adopted children have the same inheritance rights for example, just as if they had been natural born children.

This is a wonderful truth for the born again believer.

It is God’s pleasure; it is His will, for us to come into the family of God upon salvation.

What a truth!

If you have put your trust in Jesus and become born again you are now a son of the Living God, with the same rights and privileges of any son.

God now looks upon you as a son, in the same way that he looks upon Jesus.

That is what Paul is telling the Ephesian church in verse 5 and that is what we are being told today.

Paul wrote to the saints in the church and we are saints in the church, so this verse is for us!

Speak this out today…..”Thank you lord that I am now your son, your adopted child and I am now in your family”.

Ephesians 1 v 5…..Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will

DIG for Wednesday the 11th of January…..relationship not religion, that is Christianity…..John 2 v 11

I have been reminded this morning about the account of Jesus turning water into wine, the first of His miracles recorded in the Gospels.

This is a wonderful picture, an amazing piece of typology that shows us about the mission of Jesus.

Many people think that Christianity is just another religion, one among many.

But Christianity, or I should say true Christianity, is not a religion, but is a relationship.

When Jesus turned water into wine He desecrated the holy pots that the Jews required for their ritual purification.

They needed the pots for their religious ceremonies and religious observance.

With this action Jesus was telling the world that religion (the actions of man that men think are required to reach God) was no longer required.

He was telling the world that He was here and that God had reached out to man and now relationship was the key.

True Christianity is nothing to do with religious observance and religious ceremony, although you would not think that looking into our churches today.

True Christianity is about a relationship with Jesus, about love from Jesus and love for Jesus, and subsequently about actions flowing from that love.

Actions and deeds and religious observance in order to be loved by God are just a waste of time and effort.

They are no longer required; what is required is a relationship with Jesus.

Christianity is that simple, all that is required is a true relationship with Jesus.

Don’t let any man complicate this!

Speak this out today…..”Thank you Lord that I am in relationship with Jesus and thank you for everything that I receive because of this”.

John 2 v 11…..This beginning of miracles did Jesus in Cana of Galilee, and manifested forth his glory; and his disciples believed on him

DIG for Tuesday the 10th of January…..all there, but we need to choose it for ourselves…..Ephesians 1 v 4

Yesterday my DIG was based upon Ephesians 1 v 3; well, I carried on reading the rest of this awesome passage described what we have through the finished work of Jesus.

Verse 3 says we have all spiritual blessings, and the verses following described these blessings.

Before the world began we were chosen to be in Him and with Him.

Now, this may sound like a Calvinistic doctrine, saying certain people are chosen for heaven and others for hell; it sounds like what is known as ‘predestination’.

This is not what this verse is talking about however.

God has chosen all mankind to be with Him; all sins for all men were forgiven at the cross and Jesus came to bring reconciliation to all men (Hebrews 10 v 12 and 14).

It is God’s will that all men are saved (2 Peter 3 v 9).

Men however need to choose to benefit from this forgiveness and reconciliation through faith in Jesus and His finished work.

God wants all men to be made ‘holy and without blame’, but not all men will receive this.

That is why verse 4 uses the word “should”.

We should be saved if we choose to be saved.

We should benefit from reconciliation and forgiveness if we choose to benefit.

We should be holy and without blame however we need to choose Jesus for this to happen.

Speak this out today…..”Thank you Lord that you want all men to be saved and you have provided this for every man to choose for himself”.

Ephesians 1 v 4…..”According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love