Join us as we read the scriptures and a daily devotion written by Don Crisp. We pray these messages will bless us all at this time.
Starting on Monday 6th April, we will be sharing daily devotional readings, prepared for us by Don Crisp. Don will be leading us through the Gospel of John, starting this Easter time with John 13. He then moves into Paul’s Letter to the Philippians.
Thursday 8 October: Acts 7 : 45b-50:
Thursday 8 October: Acts 7 : 45b-50: V45b-46: Now the account jumps forward to the time of David, and his desire to build a ” permanent house” for God in the midst of Israel, the Temple. Again, the appointed place of meeting with God in worship and to offer sacrifices, and in a sense a visible…
Wednesday 7 October: Acts 7: 39-45a :
Wednesday 7 October: Acts 7: 39-45a : V39-40: Israel rebelled in the wilderness, not only against Moses but against God, of course. rejecting God’s messenger they demanded a “visible god” like they had known in Egypt. Again, this mirrors how they have rejected Jesus and turned from God’s way again in the current generation. V41-43: …
Tuesday 6 October Acts 7: 33-38
Tuesday 6 October Acts 7: 33-38 V33: Moses must learn, and be humbled before, God’s Holiness. Do we always remember that we come to a Holy God, or can we at times be too casual in our approach to Him – though He is the God of all grace? V34: God declares He is now about…
Monday 5 October: Acts 7:23-32:
Monday 5 October: Acts 7:23-32: V23: Stephen speaks of how Moses, now aged 40, was moved to visit his fellow Israelites in their slavery. Both these verses and Hebrews 11:24-26, add detail to the basic account in Exodus 2, telling us that Moses already knew that his true kinship was with the Israelite slaves. Surely,…
Saturday 3 October: Acts 7: 17-22:
Saturday 3 October: Acts 7: 17-22: V17-18: As God’s time of fulfillment drew near, there was a new Pharaoh who “did not know Joseph” – had no regard for how Joseph had been under God Egypt’s deliverer, and how the Israelites were in Egypt at all. V19: So, he made the people slaves and treated…
Friday 2 October: Acts 7: 8-16:
Friday 2 October: Acts 7: 8-16: V8: God established His OT covenant with Abraham, with circumcision as its sign. Isaac was born, then Jacob, and Jacob’s sons, who became the Patriarchs of Israel, and from whom the 12 tribes were descended. ( In all this long tracing of God’s OT purposes and His sovereign power,…
Thursday 1 October: Acts 7:1-7
Thursday 1 October: Acts 7:1-7: V1: The high priest asks if these charges are true? ( He knows they are not, but hopes to get him to condemn himself – again, just as with Jesus.) V2: Stephen addresses them courteously and wisely, reverencing the older men ( “fathers”) and asserting his own kinship as a…
Wednesday 30 September : Acts 6: 9-15:
Wednesday 30 September : Acts 6: 9-15: V9: Stephen’s powerful witness rouses bitter opposition, coming we’re told from Jews of the scattered dispersion, though clearly in Jerusalem at this time. ( Scholars tell us the “synagogue of the freedmen” was one of a number of such among the scattered Jews, set up when Jews were…
Monday 28 September: Acts 6:5-8:
Monday 28 September: Acts 6:5-8: V5: 7 men are duly chosen. Of Stephen, we learn more immediately, of Philip in ch 8, of the rest we know nothing more. But significantly, they are all Greek rather than Hebrew names, surely a wise and gracious response by the church, at the prompting of the Holy Spirit, to…
Monday 28 September: Acts 6: 1-4
Monday 28 September: Acts 6: 1-4 V1: The first potential division in the church – Satan loves to disrupt if he can – the believers were now both Hebrew speaking Jews and Greek speaking Jews ( Hellenists) – not actual Gentiles as yet. The Hellenists complain that their widows are being neglected in favour of the…