Devotional messages written by Peter for Seeds of the Kingdom from Ellel Ministries
“Behold I am coming soon! My reward s with me, and I will give to everyone according to what he has done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.”Revelation 22:12-13, NIVToday is the first day of January – the b…
Revelation 22:12-13, NIV
“Behold I am coming soon! My reward s with me, and I will give to everyone according to what he has done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.”
Today is the first day of January – the beginning of a New Year – a whole year of expectation lies before us. But just as each and every year has a beginning and an end, the universe that God created also has a beginning and an end. John 1 tells us that the Living Word (Jesus) was involved in the creation of everything that was made. And Revelation tells us that the One who made the world and everything in it will one day come again in all His glory – not as the babe of Bethlehem, but as the Kings of Kings and the Judge of all the Earth.
For those who have believed in Jesus, His second coming is an event to be looked forward to and anticipated with joy. But for those who do not know Him, Scripture warns us that “it is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (Hebrews 10:31). As world events escalate and uncertainty on the international front becomes more and more concerning, it’s hard not to wonder how long it will be before the Lord returns. Our only eternal security lies in Him – He, literally, has the whole world in His hands, and if we are secure in Him then we have absolutely nothing to fear.
John Wesley always urged his followers to spend serious time with the Lord on the last day of the old year as a preparation for renewing one’s covenant with God on the first day of every year. You don’t have to be a Methodist to make this valuable spiritual discipline a time of reflection and opportunity – reflection on all that has gone before, and an opportunity to seek the face of God afresh and renew one’s commitment to Him for the year ahead.
None of us knows when the Lord will return, but as was made clear by Jesus in the parable of the wise and the foolish virgins (Matthew 25:1-13), if you wait until He comes to then try and put oil in your lamp, it will be too late – it is only those who are ready when He comes that will be able to enter into the glory of His eternal presence. Be sure of one thing – the Scriptural promises about the first coming of Jesus were all fulfilled – they are evidence to those with ears to hear that the promises about His second Coming will also be fulfilled. May I encourage you, indeed urge you, to be ready at all times. He IS COMING AGAIN!
Prayer: Thank You, Lord, that the promises of Scripture were so precisely fulfilled when you came to Earth to be our Saviour. Help me always to be ready at all times for Your return, and to live as if You are returning today, with the lamp of my life always filled with the oil of your presence. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
“After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the East came to Jerusalem and asked, “Where is the one who has been born King of the Jews? We saw his star in the East and have come to worship him.”Matthew 2:1-2, N…
Matthew 2:1-2, NIV
“After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the East came to Jerusalem and asked, “Where is the one who has been born King of the Jews? We saw his star in the East and have come to worship him.”
In this Christmas Season the familiar Christmas stories are read and acted out in countless Nativity Plays. The story of the three visitors from the East (wise men, Kings or Magi) is always a key element in the drama. But as I was thinking about the story, while preparing for the Ellel Carol Service, I was prompted to think once again about which star was ‘His star’. Then I remembered what John had said about Jesus at the beginning of his Gospel:
“Through him all things were made, without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it” (John 1:3-5).
So, in reality, all the stars are His! He made them all. I showed a video at our Carol Service which attempts to illustrate just how big the created universe is. For example, our Sun is only one of several hundred billion stars in our own galaxy, the Milky Way. But then, further afield, there are estimated to be a 100 billion galaxies of stars! And the biggest known star is so big that a jet airliner would take eleven hundred years to just go round it once! And its diameter is about eighteen times the distance between the Earth and the Sun!!
It doesn’t actually matter which star it was that directed the wise men to the stable in Bethlehem – what matters is that we recognise that the Babe of Bethlehem is indeed “the Bright and Morning Star” (Revelation 22:16), bringing eternal light into the darkness of a world that has rejected its Creator and welcomed spiritual darkness.
As, this Christmas, I look up into the Heavens, and wonder at the stars in the Universe, my heart will be turned to the Babe of Bethlehem, and with the wise men and the shepherds I will be kneeling in worship of the Shepherd and the King – the Creator of all things who loved us so much that He came to be the Light, shining a torch of love into the darkness of this world and showing us the way to the Father.
Prayer: Thank You, Jesus, for Your eternal love and extraordinary obedience in coming into this dark world. I marvel at the wonders of Your creation and rejoice this Christmas to worship You, the Babe of Bethlehem, as the Lord and King of my life. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
“Do not be deceived. God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. Let us not become …
Galatians 6:7-9, NIV
“Do not be deceived. God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest, if we do not give up.”
We are not surprised when we sow seeds from a packet of bean seeds, that beans begin to sprout from the seeds and in due course we are able to pick the harvest. Equally, we are not surprised when we plant seeds of forget-me-nots, that before long we can enjoy the delicate blue spring flowers in our garden. This is the natural law of God’s order. It is divinely written into the whole of God’s creation. What you reap is always a consequence of what is sown.
In exactly the same way Paul is telling us, through our Scripture for today, that the nature of the seed that we sow in our lives will also be evident from the subsequent consequences. If we sow to satisfy the base desires of our carnal nature we will, in due time, inherit death. But if we sow to please the Holy Spirit, then the ultimate fruit is eternal life. What an extraordinary contrast between the two crops.
Throughout Scripture we read the same fundamental message. Paul put it this way in his letter to the Romans, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23). It is a message that the world does not want to hear – self-indulgence and the enjoyment of sin are considered to be the meat and drink of a godless generation. But as our Scripture says, God is not mocked and will not allow good fruit to come from bad seed.
So how should we respond when we suddenly realise that we have wasted time and character on a lifestyle which has left behind the scars of sin and there is bad fruit in our lives? The past cannot be undone, but, thanks be to God, true repentance is always followed by true forgiveness. We may still bear the scars of the past, which need healing, but the slate is wiped clean and God fulfils his promise which says “Come now, let us settle the matter,” says the LORD. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool” (Isaiah 1:18).
Many is the time I have wept with those who are weeping over their wasted years – but I have also been thrilled to rejoice with those who rejoice when forgiveness comes and a fresh start is made, this time sowing good seed – seed which please the Holy Spirit.
Prayer: Help me, Lord, to always remember that what I sow in my life will always have consequences. Forgive me, Lord for those times when I have consciously sown bad seed – but thank You so much, for your forgiveness. I choose to walk in step with the Spirit of God and do those things that please Him. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
“Turn to the Lord and pray to him, now that he is near. Let the wicked leave their way of life and change their way of thinking. Let them turn to the Lord, our God; he is merciful and quick to forgive.” Isaiah 55:6-7,GNBWhen I was learning the elements…
Isaiah 55:6-7 (GNB)
“Turn to the Lord and pray to him, now that he is near. Let the wicked leave their way of life and change their way of thinking. Let them turn to the Lord, our God; he is merciful and quick to forgive.”
When I was learning the elements of English grammar, I was taught how to quickly analyse what a writer was trying to say, by looking for the key action words which underpinned everything else that was being said. Isaiah was writing at a time of great political uncertainty among the nations. As you read the headlines in today’s newspapers you could be justified in thinking that we need a twenty-first century Isaiah to come and prophesy to the world – not just to the people of Israel who were captive in Babylon!
But if Isaiah did return and prophesy to the nations I don’t think the key action words at the core of his message would be any different from the ones he originally included in our Scripture for today. Turn . . . Leave . . . Change. For these are the words that are not just at the heart of the Christian Gospel message, but are the words that have been at the heart of every message that God has ever spoken to mankind since sin entered the world.
God is merciful and his loving mercy was supremely manifest in the action of His Son. If we truly turn to Him, demonstrate our commitment to Him by leaving those things that have hallmarked the sinfulness of our walk, and change our way of thinking, then He is quick to forgive. Forgiveness is the first stage on the journey of restoration. Forgiveness removes from our lives the eternal consequences of our sin and it opens the door for the healing and restoration of our lives – and, indeed, for the healing and the restoration of nations.
Some of the most profound healings that I have ever experienced have begun by someone taking the action words from today’s Scripture and systematically applying them to their own lives. When we run towards the Lord, the Father comes running to meet us – as was most graphically expressed by Jesus in His story of the prodigal son. This is a day when people and nations need to turn to the Lord and re-discover the mercy and forgiveness of God.
Prayer: Forgive me, Lord, for the times when I have turned away from you and gone my own way. I choose now to turn, leave and change my way of thinking. Thank You, Jesus, for dying that I might live and that I might know your healing and restoration. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
“How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity! It is like precious oil poured on the head, running down on the beard, running down on Aaron’s beard, down on the collar of his robe. It is as if the dew of Hermon were falling on M…
Psalm 133, NIV
“How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity! It is like precious oil poured on the head, running down on the beard, running down on Aaron’s beard, down on the collar of his robe. It is as if the dew of Hermon were falling on Mount Zion. For there the LORD bestows his blessing, even life forevermore.”
God always honours his promises. Through the promise in Psalm 133 He is teaching us a profound and life-changing principle. Not just a principle of unity and blessing through relationship one with another, but at an even deeper level! If we can truly understand this, it will transform the heart and open the door for the deepest possible inner healing.
What am I talking about? I’m referring to our own personal inner unity. We are made in the image and likeness of God. He is three-in-one – Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Each human being is a reflection of our Creator, in that we are also three-in-one, spirit, soul and body (1 Thessalonians 5:23).
Now Jesus said of His relationship with His Father that “I and my Father are one” (John 10:30). It was inconceivable that there could be any dis-unity in the God-head. But because of sin in the heart of man, inner disunity is an outworking of the fall. People may, in their spirit, be intent on worshipping the Lord and doing His will but, at the same time, they can be beset with temptation in the soul which leads them into the sins of the flesh. Such disunity causes inner stresses and strains and can, even, result in the body being vulnerable to physical conditions.
But when people choose to bring their soulish choices under the headship of their spirit, and there is an inner unity of heart and purpose, then the peace of God transforms us from within and God is able to bestow upon us His blessing and His healing.
So, yes, our verse for today encourages us to know the blessing that comes from being in a right relationship with our brothers and sisters, but if we are also experiencing the inner unity of spirit and soul we will know the riches of God’s inner blessings reaching to our innermost being.
Prayer: Lord, help me to know the blessings which come from living in personal inner unity. I choose to pray the prayer of David, when he said, “Bless the Lord, O my soul – all that is within me praise His Holy name.” In Jesus’ Name, Amen.