Where Our Strength Comes From!

David, in the Old Testament, has been anointed as King, but Saul is still reigning.

Saul, in fact, has been hunting him down out of jealousy and so David and his men are staying in Philistine territory.

The sovereign God is looking after David. On this one occasion David and his men are stopped from going to war against Saul and the Israelites. While this is happening the Amalekites attacked David's fortress at Ziglag, plundered it, and carried away the woman and children. When David and his men returned and found this they "wept aloud until they had no strength left".

But then, "David found strength in the Lord his God" (1 Samuel 30:6).

They then chased down the Amalekites and took back their wives, children and goods.

TFTD: It is a good thing to recognise where our strength comes from and to avail ourselves of it.

Have a good day,

Peter Clark.

The Work Of The Holy Spirit.

John 16:12-15 (New International Version)

¹²"I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear.¹³But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. ¹⁴He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you.¹⁵All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will take from what is mine and make it known to you.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer.

I have just started reading the biography of Dietrich Bonhoeffer by Eric Mataxas. I was greatly enlightened and blessed by the forward by Timothy J Keller and thought I would like to share some of it.

"It is impossible to understand Bonhoeffer's Nachfolge without becoming acquainted with the shocking capitulation of the German church to Hitler in the 1930s. How could the "church of Luther", that great teacher of the gospel, have ever come to such a place? The answer is that the true gospel, summed up by Bonhoeffer as costly grace, had been lost. On the one hand, the church had become marked by formalism. That meant going to church and hearing that God just loves and forgives everyone, so it doesn't really matter much how you live. Bonhoeffer called this cheap grace. On the other hand, there was legalism, or salvation by law and good works. Legalism meant that God loves you because you have pulled yourself together and are trying to live a good, disciplined life.

Both of these impulses made it possible for Hitler to come to power. The formalists in Germany may have seen things that bothered them, but saw no need to sacrifice their safety to stand up to them. Legalists responded by having pharisaical attitudes toward other nations and races that approved of Hitler's policies. But as one, Germany lost hold of the brilliant balance of the gospel that Luther so persistently expounded - "We are saved by faith alone but not by faith which is alone". That is, we are saved not by anything we do, but by grace. Yet if we have truly understood and believed the gospel, it will change what we do and how we live.

By the time of Hitler's ascension, much of the German church understood grace only as abstract acceptance - "God forgives; that's his job." But we know that true grace comes to us by costly sacrifice. And if God was willing to go the the cross and endure such pain and absorb such a cost in order to save us, then we must live sacrificially as we serve others. Anyone who truly understands how God's grace comes to us will have a changed life.....costly grace changes you from the inside out. Neither law nor cheap grace can do that.

This lapse couldn't happen to us, today, surely, could it? Certainly it could. We still have a lot of legalism and moralism in our churches. In reaction to that, many Christians want to talk only about God's love and acceptance. They don't like talking about Jesus' death on the cross to satisfy divine wrath and justice....Yet if they are not careful, they run the risk of falling into the belief in "cheap grace" - a non costly love from a non-holy God who just loves and accepts us as we are. That will never change anyone's life."

Well done Timothy Keller.

Have a great day,

Peter Clark.

What Jesus Prays For Us.....

Imagine that you are in a prayer group with Jesus....

...what would He pray for you?

What would you like Him to pray for?

In John 17 and verse 15 we have a glimpse.

⁵My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one.

We must stay in the midst of our difficulties and challenges....we are not to be taken out of the world....but to be protected from the evil one while we serve and glorify our great God.

Have a great day,

Peter Clark

God Looks At Our Hearts.

Why does God do what He does?

In the end it is a mystery, but what we do know is that God is sovereign and he looks at, and knows our hearts.

Before David was anointed as King by Samuel, Samuel had the job of seeking him out.

God directs Samuel to Jesse of Bethlehem - the new King will be one of his sons.

Seven of his sons are trotted out...they are all tall, good looking....and if it was us choosing we would certainly choose one of them....But no...it is none of these, God indicates to Samuel.

"Are these all the sons you have?" Samuel asks.

"There is still the youngest," Jesse answered, "but he is tending the sheep."

As we know, God choice was David. Why?

1 Samuel 16:7 (New International Version)

⁷ But the LORD said to Samuel, "Do not consider his appearance or his height....the LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart."

TFTD: We need to pray for a good heart for ourselves and others.

Have a good day ,

Peter Clark.

More Meditations From Heather.

Psalm 119:33-40 (The Message)

^33-40 God, teach me lessons for living
so I can stay the course.
Give me insight so I can do what you tell me—
my whole life one long, obedient response.
Guide me down the road of your commandments;
I love traveling this freeway!
Give me a bent for your words of wisdom,
and not for piling up loot.
Divert my eyes from toys and trinkets,
invigorate me on the pilgrim way.
Affirm your promises to me—
promises made to all who fear you.
Deflect the harsh words of my critics—
but what you say is always so good.
See how hungry I am for your counsel;
preserve my life through your righteous ways!

Encouragement From Heather

Heather encouraged me with these words the other day.

Psalm 119:41-48 (The Message)

^41-48 Let your love, God, shape my life
with salvation, exactly as you promised;
Then I'll be able to stand up to mockery
because I trusted your Word.
Don't ever deprive me of truth, not ever—
your commandments are what I depend on.
Oh, I'll guard with my life what you've revealed to me,
guard it now, guard it ever;
And I'll stride freely through wide open spaces
as I look for your truth and your wisdom;
Then I'll tell the world what I find,
speak out boldly in public, unembarrassed.
I cherish your commandments—oh, how I love them!—
relishing every fragment of your counsel.

Many in these days are told what to think and when to think it, but Heather feels a freedom in God's Holy Spirit as He leads her into all truth.

What Heather found particularly helpful was the freedom she has in being led (by God) into those wide spaces of thought.

Have a great day,

Peter Clark.

The Secret For Dealing With Difficult People.

Do you want to know the secret for dealing with difficult people?

I stumbled across it in my daily reading for 22nd May. It comes from 1 Samuel 10:9...

"God changed Saul's heart..."

If you are in difficult situation or relationship, why not pray that God do some heart changing.

Be prepared though....He might change yours too.

Have a great day,

Peter Clark.

What A Promise!

Acts 2:38-39 (New International Version)

³⁸Peter replied, "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. ³⁹The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call."

As I prepared my message for today, I reflected again, on this great promise of God and feel a very unworthy recipient, but very thankful for God's grace.

Peter Clark.

Who Cares About Death Anyway!

I am always amazed at the account of the raising of Lazarus and the way Jesus describes Himself.

John 11:25-26 (New International Version)

²⁵Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; ²⁶and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?"

The challenge for us, is if WE really believe this.

Have a great day,

Peter Clark.

Jealousy Is A Curse.

Jealousy is a curse because it is like a cancer that eats away at our flesh. Jealousy eats away at our confidence and pride.

It is hard for any of us to escape it.

The religious leaders in Jesus' day were being eaten up by jealousy towards Jesus. They had worked so hard for "God's Kingdom" for many years, and now here is Jesus turning up and gaining so much popularity.

John 12:9-11 (New International Version)

⁹Meanwhile a large crowd of Jews found out that Jesus was there and came, not only because of him but also to see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. ¹⁰So the chief priests made plans to kill Lazarus as well, ¹¹for on account of him many of the Jews were going over to Jesus and putting their faith in him.

What were they to do?

Sometimes we have to fight against our natural tendencies and question how we are reacting to someone or some event. Think how things could have different if the religious leaders had done that?

Have a great day,

Peter Clark.

Some Wisdom From Ben.

My son-in-law shared a favourite verse of his with me today.

1 Corinthians 16:13 (New International Version)

¹³Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be men of courage; be strong.

I praise God that my two daughters are in the hands of good, Godly men, who love love them and care for them and their children.

Have a great day

Peter Clark

Real Security.

Where do we find our security?

In Psalm 63 we see that David found his security in his Heavenly Father God.

Psalm 63

A psalm of David. When he was in the Desert of Judah.

¹ O God, you are my God,
earnestly I seek you;
my soul thirsts for you,
my body longs for you,
in a dry and weary land
where there is no water.

² I have seen you in the sanctuary
and beheld your power and your glory.

³ Because your love is better than life,
my lips will glorify you.

⁴ I will praise you as long as I live,
and in your name I will lift up my hands.

⁵ My soul will be satisfied as with the richest of foods;
with singing lips my mouth will praise you.

⁶ On my bed I remember you;
I think of you through the watches of the night.

⁷ Because you are my help,
I sing in the shadow of your wings.

⁸ My soul clings to you;
your right hand upholds me.

⁹ They who seek my life will be destroyed;
they will go down to the depths of the earth.

¹⁰ They will be given over to the sword
and become food for jackals.

¹¹ But the king will rejoice in God;
all who swear by God's name will praise him,
while the mouths of liars will be silenced.

Have a great day,

Peter Clark

Our Future With Wealth.

I heard the other day that the average Australian is richer than he/she was 10 years ago.

That surely is a good thing....or is it?

What is the down side of that? the Scriptures warn us that the richer we get, the more likely we are to leave our love for God behind.

Psalm 62:10 (New International Version)

........though your riches increase,
do not set your heart on them.

Have a great day,

Peter Clark.

God's Desire For You.

Preaching on John 17 yesterday, I was struck by verse 13:

John 17:13 (New International Version)

¹³"I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them.

This verse tells me that it is God's purpose to multiply joy in our lives, not to take it away.

The "world" would tell us something different from this.

It would tell us that God wants to remove all joy and fun from our lives.

But God is clear....He wants us to have the full measure to joy in our lives.

This joy comes from abiding in Christ - living closely to Him and with Him.

Have a great day,

Peter Clark.

The Greatest Gift

Preaching tonight I mentioned a few of the topics raised by Jesus in his "High Priestly Prayer" in John 17.

This one, I consider to be the greasiest gift that he can bestow on us:

²For you granted him (Jesus) authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. ³Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.

We have here in these two verses a succinct description of the source and nature of eternal life.

Very simply stated, it comes to us as a gift from Jesus through a personal relationship with God and His Son.

Have a great day,

Peter Clark.

Hear My Cry, O God.

Psalm 61 (The Message)

A David Psalm

^1-2God, listen to me shout, bend an ear to my prayer.
When I'm far from anywhere,
down to my last gasp,
I call out, "Guide me
up High Rock Mountain!"

^3-5 You've always given me breathing room,
a place to get away from it all,
A lifetime pass to your safe-house,
an open invitation as your guest.
You've always taken me seriously, God,
made me welcome among those who know and love you.

^6-8 Let the days of the king add up
to years and years of good rule.
Set his throne in the full light of God;
post Steady Love and Good Faith as lookouts,
And I'll be the poet who sings your glory—
and live what I sing every day.

Count The Cost Daily!

"A whole new generation of Christians has come up believing that it is possible to "accept" Christ without forsaking the world"

A.W. Tozer

Having Jesus' Joy.

John 17:13 (New International Version)

¹³"I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them.

This passage is a part of Jesus' High Priestly Prayer in John 17.

Jesus is praying to God for believers, that they may have the full measure of my (Jesus) joy within them" and kept "away from the evil one".

We are not only to be "kept", but to kept in joy. God's purpose is to multiply joy in our lives, not to subtract it.

The world, the flesh and the devil would give us a different message, but God wants us to have joy - a joy that comes from abiding in Christ.

Why isn't there a lot of joy shown in Christian lives?

TFTD: What about your life, is there joy there? What can you do (or not do) to give joy a chance in your life?

Have a great day,

Peter Clark.

Bringing Up Our Children.

How do we bring up our children?

What should we do and not do?

Where do we get wisdom on all this?

Before the birth of Samson a "man of God" who "looked like an angel of God" came to his mother and announced his birth.

Her husband (Manoah) prayed to God:

"O LORD, I beg you, let the man of God you sent to us come again to teach us how to bring up the boy who is to be born." (Judges 13:8)

It seems to me that a very good principle is to include the LORD in our child rearing, to be praying for our children and to be seeking God's mind on what we do and how and when we do it.

Have a great day,

Peter Clark.

A Day To Be Thankful.

Today, Heather and I celebrate our 36th year of marriage.

I am thankful to God for giving to me such a great woman and a terrific, loyal and devoted friend.

The Bible, and the Psalms in particular are full of expressions of thankfulness to God for all He has done.

I join them in thanks and praise for the way God has blessed me, through Heather for these last 36 years.

Have a great day,

Peter Clark.

What Is God Looking For?

In the Scriptures, what do we see God looking for?

He is seeking the lost (Luke 19:10)

He is looking for worshipers (John 4:23)

He likes to see fruit in our lives (Luke 13:7)

He is seeking faithful servants (Ezekiel 22:30)

TFTD: Has He found you in all those things?

Have a great day,

Peter Clark.

Our Constant Reminder.

John 14:26 (New International Version)

²⁶But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.

I preached on this passage in our evening service this Sunday night.

Jesus promised the disciples that the Holy Spirit would help them to remember what He had been teaching them.

This promise validates the New Testament and ensures that we can be confident in what we read.

God's Holy Spirit helps us too. As we read and study the Bible we can be confident that His Spirit will lead us to the truthfulness of what we read, convince us of God's will and remind us when we stray from it.

Have a great day,

Peter Clark.

Our Biggest Problem.

What IS our biggest problem?

Mark 7:21-23 (The Message)

^20-23He went on: "It's what comes out of a person that pollutes: obscenities, lusts, thefts, murders, adulteries, greed, depravity, deceptive dealings, carousing, mean looks, slander, arrogance, foolishness—all these are vomit from the heart. There is the source of your pollution."

In a word....our BIGGEST problem is sin.

An evil action begins with a single thought and if we allow our minds to dwell on lust, envy, hatred, revenge etc then the thought will lead to sin.

TFTD: It is helpful not to focus on the evil, but rather take Paul the Apostle's advice in Philippians 4:8 and to think about what is true, noble, right, pure, lovely and admirable.

Easy to say and write about and hard to do....but that must be our goal.

Have a great day,

Peter Clark.

Living For Jesus - What Does It Look Like?

Galatians 2:20 (New International Version)

²⁰I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

When we became a follower of Jesus, we became "one with Him" - His experiences are now ours.

Our Christian life began when (with Him) we died to our old life.

In our real time life now - we must regularly crucify (as it were) our sinful desires that keep us from following Him. This too is a kind of dying with Him.

Having said all that....our focus as Christians is not dying, but living.

Because we have been crucified with Christ...we have also been raised with Him.

We have been reconciled with God and are now growing in Christ's likeness with His resurrection power (Ephesians 1:19).

TFTD: We are not alone in the struggle against sin....He is our power for living and our hope for the future.

Have a great day,

Peter Clark.

Living Life Like The Judges!

I was reminded this morning of the cycle of living that people in the time of the "Judges" lived.

They lived for the Lord....and then they forgot Him....they lived for the Lord....and they forgot Him and so on.

In Chapter 4 (of Judges) Ehud died and off go the Israelites ....again.... doing evil in the eyes of God...forgetting Him and leaving Him out of their lives.

They become cruelly oppressed by the Canaanites and end up (after twenty years mind you) crying to the Lord for help.

God raises up Deborah, she becomes the next "Judge" or leader of the nation and they have a time of faithfulness.

TFTD: Do you live your life in the same sort of cycles....being hot and cold for God?

Have a great day,

Peter Clark.

A Test, Here And There!

Judges 3:4 (New International Version)

⁴ They were left to test the Israelites to see whether they would obey the LORD's commands, which he had given their forefathers through Moses.

When the Israelites had escaped from Egypt and entered into the new land, there remained "enemies", in order to "test" the Israelites; that is, give them the opportunity to exercise faith and obedience.

Many obstacles would arise for them. How they handled these obstacles would be a test of their faith.

TFTD: Perhaps God has left obstacles in your life - difficult situations etc, to allow you to develop your faith and obedience. How are you going?

Have a good day,

Peter Clark.

The Angel Of The Lord.

In my reading programme I started with Judges today.

In Chapter 2 an angel appears. What do you think about angels?

A significant number of Old Testament commentators think that "The Angel of the Lord" is the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, who came to deliver special messages to achieve specific tasks.

We see this "Angel of the Lord" came to Hagar (Gen 16), Abraham (Gen 22), Jacob (Gen 31), Moses (Exod 3) and Joshua in Joshua 5.

Has God finished with angels?

Perhaps not. Hebrews 1:4 speaks of them still ministering to us.

One thing we do know for sure is that the Lord Jesus is with us daily (Matt 28:20)

Have a great day,

Peter Clark

Some Advice & A Promise!

In my reading today this verse came up:

Psalm 55:22 (New International Version)

²² Cast your cares on the LORD
and he will sustain you;
he will never let the righteous fall.

A reminder that God is faithful.

Have a great day,

Peter Clark.

Do You Believe This?

At our Healing Service this evening I preached on the rising of Lazarus from John 11.

Verses 25 & 26 never fail to amaze me, surprise me, encourage me, challenge me, warm me etc.

John 11:25-26 (New International Version)

²⁵Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; ²⁶and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?"

TFTD: Do you really believe this?

Have a great day,

Peter Clark.

A Prayer For Each New Day.

There is a prayer in the Prayer Book that I have been meaning to share with you for some time.

I think it is great. I hope that you appreciate it too.

"As we rejoice in the gift of this new day,

so may the light of your presence, O God,

set our hearts on fire with love for you;

now and for ever. Amen."

TFTD: What is it that sets YOUR heart on fire these days....is it the presence of God in our lives, or some other thing.

And what are they "on fire" doing? Is it for the love of God?

Have a great day,

Peter Clark.