Devotionals

Psalm 20:7 & 8, NIV
Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God. They are brought to their knees and fall, but we rise up and stand firm.

The world financial markets are in meltdown. Banks are being propped up with massive amounts of government funds. There is even talk of governments going bankrupt. People’s lifetime savings are at risk. Insecurity and fear have become the ruling spirits of politics and business. What we see happening around us is unprecedented in our lifetime. Every day seems to be worse than the next. We cannot watch the television news without wondering what greater disaster might be lying round the next corner.

In the United States we are just weeks away from a new President. Whoever wins will bring change at the top and no-one knows how the new incumbent of the White House will react to the developing situation and what further changes they will bring. The institutions and governments on which the world has depended are now distinctly unstable.

It is in times like that this that we need to know that our eternal security is not in the uncertain treasures of the world’s currencies, but in the name of the one who is above all temporal powers and whose treasure is of eternal value. When the “horses” of the world’s systems are brought to their knees we can still be at peace, confident that whatever happens in this world is not a surprise to God and not a reason to lose faith or let fear control our hearts.

Yes, these are tough and challenging times and the enemy of souls will seek to use his weapon of fear to shake the confidence of believers. Whatever happens, don’t let him rob you of your peace in God and be encouraged by our Scripture today to rise up, stand firm knowing that God is still on the throne of the universe and we can trust Him.

Prayer: We pray today that in the midst of the world’s confusion and even despair, God’s people will continue to put their trust in the living God. Also, that those who do not know Him will turn from their fear and insecurity and run to the only One who can be trusted and depended on for both time and eternity. In Jesus, Amen.

A Godly Response to Stress, Failure – Teaching CD

Life is for Living – Teaching CD

Psalm 1:6, NIV
For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.

We all need encouragement! Today’s Scripture is such a strong word of encouragement for God’s people. The Scripture says that if you choose to w…

Jonah 1:17, NIV
But the Lord provided a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was inside the fish three days and three nights.”

I was once fishing in the Indian Ocean. I had fished all day in difficult waters. The swell on the sea made it difficult…

Isaiah 60:19, NIV
The sun will no more be your light by day, nor will the brightness of the moon shine on you, for the Lord will be your everlasting light, and your God will be your glory

One day, all those who know and love the Lord will experience the glories of heaven. They will see all that God has prepared for His saints and will rejoice at the amazing salvation that Jesus won for us on the cross – salvation from everything with which the enemy would want to condemn us and salvation to everything that the Lord almighty has in store for the saints of God.

While this is wonderful news for all believers, the cry so often goes up from the hearts of men and women here on earth, “O God, where are You? I need your help now!” The psalmists were pretty good at expressing their pain and need to God. When you are going through a tough and dark season it is sometimes hard to see where the light is.

Just before the work at Ellel Grange began in 1986, the team did a teaching and ministry weekend at a church in Yorkshire. God did some wonderful things in the people as they began to apply the truths of the Word of God to their real-life situations. At the end of the weekend we gathered together to pray – our hearts were full of praise and gratitude to God as we looked back at the amazing experience we had all been through. But we then had to go home! I for one was very apprehensive for at that time we did not yet have the money to buy Ellel Grange, but we were committed to the purchase! Stretching before us was an unknown pathway.

Then, as we prayed, God brought our Scripture for today into sharp focus. I could hardly speak as I tried to read the words. There were tears in my eyes as I realised the enormity of what I was reading. All we needed to do, as we pushed forward into the unknown, was to trust in this wonderful promise – however dark and dangerous the pathway seemed to be, God Himself was promising to be our light by both day and by night. We suddenly realised that if God had led us thus far, then we had nothing to fear. He had promised!

That was 22 years ago. God has been amazingly faithful ever since – year in and year out. What God had done on that weekend in Yorkshire, became a wonderful encouragement as we trusted Him with everything we had. So, let Him be your light in the darkness – His light is an everlasting light. It will NEVER go out.

Prayer: Thank you Lord for your faithfulness to your promises. However dark the pathway may get, I want to trust you with everything I am for the rest of my days. In Jesus, Amen

The Parables of Harris – Book by Peter & Fiona Horrobin

Kingdom Choices – 1 – Teaching CD

Ephesians 1:13-14, NIV
Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession – to the praise of his glory.

I once bought a w…

Luke 18:16, NIV
But Jesus called the children to him and said, ‘Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the Kingdom of God belongs to such as these.’

My Father, Fred Horrobin, was ten years of age when he went to hear a children’s evangelist speaking at a local church for five nights.

There was no transport and as Fred walked the two miles home, along country lanes, a battle was being fought for his soul. He knew what he wanted to do, but he was battling with another voice telling him what he would miss if he gave his life to Jesus. The battle was still being fought as he climbed into bed.

But when morning came he was sick. He was too ill to go to the final meeting. So he wrote a little letter to Hudson Pope telling him he wanted to know Jesus, but didn’t know how. The message was delivered by hand. The evangelist could easily have sent a message back saying he would pray for him. But Hudson Pope was a harvester – the time had come for gathering the crop! He knew this was a critical moment in young Fred’s life.

So Mr Pope set out on that cold winter’s day to walk the two miles to go and visit Fred. He was determined not to cause any spiritual hindrance in Fred’s life. He didn’t want anything to stand in the way of one small boy finding Jesus for himself. And so, sitting by the sick boy’s bed, he gently led Fred to the Saviour, and at the age of ten my Father’s salvation was secured.

Hudson Pope didn’t consider his own tiredness or personal interests as important. Gathering the harvest was what mattered to him. Helping children come to Jesus was his life’s calling.

I still have that letter my father wrote – with Hudson Pope’s handwriting at the bottom confirming the day on which my dad was born again. He was only a child, but his salvation was totally real. For the rest of his days he served his Saviour and, as a result, I, too, came to faith in Jesus at the age of nine. I remember kneeling by my bedside with my dad and inviting Jesus into my heart. How I thank God for Hudson Pope’s diligence in sharing the Gospel with a young boy and introducing him to Jesus.

Action Line: Make a list of all the young children you know personally, especially members of your family, and start praying for them to find a real faith in Jesus while they are young.

Healing Through Deliverance – Book by Peter Horrobin

Evangelism & Healing Teaching CD

Ministering to Children Teaching CD

Psalm 126:5-6, NIV
Those who sow in tears will reap with songs of joy. He who goes out weeping, carrying seed to sow, will return with songs of joy, carrying sheaves with him.

Life is not always easy. For some it’s incredibly hard. Believers are not exempt from the realities of living in a fallen and hostile world.

I have often had to pray with people suffering from the consequences of traumas which had happened to them or their family – traumas such as those caused by accidents, redundancy, sickness, poverty, violence, premature death and even war.

I recently looked at a gravestone in a country churchyard. I was impacted by the two names on the stone. They were brothers, both of them killed in action during the First World War. Their father was the minister of the Church. I wonder how he coped with the double tragedy of having to bury both his sons, while at the same time declaring the glorious truths of the Gospel to his people? There’s no doubt that many times in the rest of his ministry he would have been sowing in tears.

Our Scripture today encourages us to keep on sowing, even through tears of pain or personal distress. For those who keep on sowing, with forgiving, thankful hearts, will one day see the harvest that comes from their sowing.

It is not only the witness of our words that matters, it is also the witness of our lives. It’s easy to be dynamic for God when everything’s fine. It is quite another thing to maintain godliness in the face of crisis and pain. But it’s the witness of our lives at times such as these which can have the greatest impact on the lives of others.

When a Christian policeman was shot dead in Manchester, people were shocked by the news. But it was the forgiveness offered by his family, and their Christian witness, that made headlines next day in the papers! And on the following Sunday, the cameras followed them to Church. They continued sowing – even through the tears.

Action Line: How do you react when things go badly wrong? Is it time to say sorry to God for allowing difficult circumstances to blunt the effectiveness of your Christian life and witness?

Prayer: Help me Lord to keep on sowing the good seed of the Kingdom, even when times are hard. Thank you Jesus that you did not give up when people turned against you. Amen

Healing for Victims of Accident and Trauma – Teaching Course
Frida – Chosen to Die, Destined to Live – Book
The Most Powerful Prayer on Earth – Book by Peter Horrobin

Matthew 13:22, NIV
But the one who received the seed that fell on good soil is the man who hears the word and understands it. He produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.

Ground varies in quality. Seed sown in good ground will produce a larger harvest than similar seed sown in poor quality soil. Jesus illustrated His parable of the sower by talking about ground that was hard, ground that was stony, ground that was full of thorns and thistles and finally good ground, which would, of course, produce the best harvest.

When you look at ground, the difference between good and bad ground is obvious and we can choose where to sow. But not so with human beings! Some of the most unlikely people may eventually turn out to be very good ground.

None of us would have thought that John Newton, the notorious, blaspheming slave trader could possibly be good ground. But when the power and presence of God changed his life he was totally transformed and became one of England’s greatest hymn writers. He understood the message. His life was good ground. He learnt from personal experience just ‘how sweet the name of Jesus sounds, in a believer’s ear.’ It meant, for him, the difference between a lost eternity and the second part of his life which produced enormous fruit for the Kingdom of God.

John Robinson, now a member of an Ellel team, was once a gang member in the shadow lands of teenage rebellion and rejection. When he heard the message, he understood it and now has a remarkable story to tell of how God changed his life. His life was good ground.

The point is often missed that in this remarkable parable, Jesus defines good ground not by what it looks like from the outside, but by whether or not the hearer understands the word. It’s not our job to judge the quality of the ground – it’s our job to sow the seed!

The sower scattered his seed on all types of ground. So must we. Who knows what God has been doing in the heart of a person, making them ready to receive the seed and understand the message at a critical moment in their life? If we fail to sow the seed, that moment may be lost.

Action Line: Start praying for the young people of your community. Among them will be some John Robinsons who will truly understand the message. But how will they hear unless someone tells them?

Prayer: Help me Lord to be always ready to sow the good seed of your Kingdom into the lives of those you show me. Forgive me for judging the potential of a person by the outside appearance. Amen

Evangelism & Healing – Teaching CD
Healing through Deliverance – Book by Peter Horrobin

Sacrifice of Love – Worship CD

2 Corinthians 9:10 NIV
Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness.

Yesterday, as part of our testing, a sample devotional was accidentally sent to all our subscribers in advance of today’s launch date.

This is the first daily devotional from Ellel Ministries International. After many years of talking about it, at last we’re doing it! We pray it will be a blessing to our many friends around the world as various leaders Leaders and Associates of the ministry bring words of inspiration, encouragement, challenge and topical comment, centred on the Word of God.

The name we’ve given to this daily devotional is Seeds of the Kingdom. A seed contains within it both the gift of life and the power of multiplication. The Kingdom is, of course, the Kingdom of God.

Our objective is that each devotional will contain within it life-giving truth, which will bring Kingdom reality, and which God will multiply in the lives of His people as they apply this truth.

The potential in even one seed is huge. In Jesus’ parable, He talked of a hundred-fold increase. Christian history is littered with stories of how faithful sowers of seed even transformed nations, through the influence of those won to Christ as a result of their seed sowing.

The Beijing Olympic Games of 2008 were opened in a spectacular display, before an estimated television audience of four billion people. The world’s eyes were on China and her remarkable achievements as a nation. But God’s eyes were surely more closely focussed on many millions of believers in China who found the Lord Jesus as Saviour through times of great opposition and persecution and have been building the Kingdom of God.

Who could have known what God was doing two centuries ago when three young men sowed the seed of the Kingdom into the life of Hudson Taylor’s grandfather? Two generations later the young Hudson Taylor was called to go to China as a missionary. He became the founding father of a huge Missionary Society and a Chinese church, numbered today in tens of millions. What an amazing God we serve. Be encouraged and keep on sowing the seed.

It may not be until you’re in eternity that you discover what God does with the seeds you sow. It’s your job to keep sowing – it’s His to give the increase. As God gives you the seed to sow, may He enlarge your harvest of righteousness.

Action Line: Spend a few moments thanking God for all those who have sown good seed into your life.

Prayer: Lord, thank you for those who have sown good seed into my life. Help me to be constantly aware of opportunities to sow into the lives of others. Amen

Steps to Life – Teaching Series on CD

The Parables of Harris – Book by Peter & Fiona Horrobin

Healing Through Deliverance – Book by Peter Horrobin

John 12:24-25, NIV
“I tell you the truth, except a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies it produces many seeds. The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life,”

I can understand why some people have a love-hate relationship with Jesus. They love it when He said things they like and which give them comfort. They love it when Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and burdened” (Matthew 11:28). They love it when, talking about Heaven, Jesus said, “I am going to prepare a place for you”. (John 14:2). They love it when they realise that because of Jesus, their sins can be forgiven.

But then they hear Jesus telling people to forgive their enemies, to give away what they have to others and then to take up a cross in order to follow Him! Suddenly, it seems, Jesus is no longer such a welcome friend. His teaching cuts right across the desires of the flesh.

After all, there is only one purpose for a cross – and that’s to cause death! Not an attractive proposition at the best of times. And yet, the cross is at the heart of the Gospel – for without death, there could be no resurrection and without the resurrection there could be no eternal life.

Our Scripture for today illustrates this vital principle. Just as a grain of wheat has to give up its own life before there can be multiplication, it is only as we choose to live for God, instead of ourselves, that we can enjoy amazing Kingdom multiplication. Our life, our time, our money and all our possessions are ultimately a gift from God. How we use them is up to us. But if we desire our lives to bear much fruit for the Kingdom of God, then first we must choose to die. We must learn to love the things we want to hate!

Action Line: Think about the things Jesus said which, if you are really honest, you don’t like. Ask God for His grace and understanding so you can learn to love all that Jesus said.

Prayer: Thank you Jesus that you were willing to take up your cross that I might live. Forgive me Lord for the times I forget that everything I have belongs to you. I pray now that my whole life may, as good seed, be sown into this world, producing a large harvest for your Kingdom. Amen

The Most Powerful Prayer on Earth – Book by Peter Horrobin

No Other Way – Teaching CD by Peter Horrobin

The Shepherd & the King – Teaching CD by Peter Horrobin