Year 2 Day 180

Pray (ACts)

Read - Luke 6v12-16

Message - Scott Woodburn
Individuals who complete their training for the Israel Defense Forces are taken to the top of a mountain plateau called Masada where they promise “Masada shall not fall again”. It is a cry of defiance and a promise that Israel will never again come under foreign occupation. Why does such an act take place? Because it was at Masada in the year 73AD that the Romans finally stamped out the Jewish rebellion that had raged for almost 8 years. Those who had been defending Masada all committed suicide rather than give themselves to the Romans. It isn’t hard to imagine why such memories stir patriotic zeal in modern Israel.

Interestingly the Jewish political group called “the Zealots” were destroyed at Masada. It is thought that the Zealots could trace their origins to around the year 6AD. They were similar to the Pharisees except they utterly despised the Romans and were prepared to do whatever it took to remove Rome from Israel.

As we almost reach the end of Luke’s list of Apostles we realise that one of Christ’s followers was part of the political movement called “the Zealots”. Simon the Zealot would take his place in the 12 alongside Matthew who had previously worked for the Romans. The Lord breaks down barriers and sets free those who would previously been enemies.

Despite his name, we know very little else about Simon. There exist all sorts of accounts outside the Bible about his activities. Some argue that Simon came to Britain with the Gospel. Others say he joined the rebellion against the Romans. Still more state that he spent his time in Africa. None of this can be verified Biblically and so we shouldn’t build a house on dodgy foundations.

We can be fairly certain that Simon was killed in Syria because of his faith and this event took place in 74AD. If true then Simon would have heard about Masada and the destruction of the temple in 72AD. For such a man both events would have caused great heartache and yet Simon would not have been undone for he had discovered that true freedom could not be found in a man made temple or a mountain fortress.

True freedom can only be found in Jesus Christ. He alone breaks our chains of sin. He alone sets us free from Satan, death and the wrath to come. He alone is the commander of the Lord’s army and He alone can stand against any foe. To be a Christian is to be someone with a new identity. We are no longer chained to the ways of the past but instead we are set free to become zealous for the Lord. We are welcomed into the kingdom of God which cannot fall and will endure forever. This is true freedom.

In our own troubled land we would do well to remember such truth. Another kind of zealot called Patrick Pearse once declared at the graveside of a fenian leader called O’Donovan Rossa that “Ireland unfree shall never be at peace.” Pearse was correct but not in the way he thought. This island’s greatest need is Christ. We have plenty of zealots of all different kinds and they cannot win true freedom for a single soul - only Christ can do that. Masada may fall again and other borders may rise and fall - regardless, Christ remains. Seek Him while He may be found and call upon Him while He is near. “For freedom Christ has set us free” (Galatians 5v1)  
   
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Q64 What is required in the fifth commandment? The fifth commandment requireth the preserving the honor, and performing the duties, belonging to every one in their several places and relations, as superiors, inferiors, or equals.
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Year 2 Day 179

Pray (ACts)

Read - 1 Samuel 2:1-10

Message - Alan Burke

The imagery that Hannah uses here in her prayer, coveys the wonder of who God is. Imagery of creation in verse 8 of how the foundations of the earth are the Lord’s, is followed by the knowledge of how the Lord God can take care of his people, as he will guard the feet of his saints (9a). Whereas the wicked, for them they will be silenced in darkness (9b). For the Lord is judge of all people, and Hannah knows that like all people, she is reliant on is the Lord himself. 

It is not the might and strength of individuals or the nation and that surround that are important, but God and his presence that gives success (9c). Here in this imagery of judgement, we are reminded that ultimately what matters to us as individuals, as nations, as the world is the Lord God, he is the one whom all people will have to give an account to, he will judge the ends of the earth (10). 

Hannah foresaw how the Lord would bring forth his king, how he would exalt the horn of his anointed (10d). As the people heard this prayer of Hannah, they would have known that God was speaking though her of the promise to Adam in the Garden of the serpent crusher. These words of Hannah look forward to the Lord’s king, and the Lord was using this family to bring forth a godly leader for his people. For God was sending a prophet to the very place of spiritual wreckage of His people. 

The son of Hannah, Samuel would anoint the first king of Israel Saul. Yet this king, Saul would fail. A new king would come after him David, he was a man after God’s own heart, he oversaw the greatest periods in Israel’s history but all the kings that came would only ever foreshadow what he would do in his great king the Lord Jesus Christ. 

God was at work in redemptive history, working out his purposes, bringing forth a king, of whom he would give strength and exalt so that we might become the children of God though him. Hannah although she did not know it was one small part of redemptive history. Her lament that turned to praise set the stage for what God would then do, she may have give up her son Samuel, leaving him behind but she knew God was going to bring forth a king for his people, the promised messiah of Genesis 3:15. Even though Hannah had suffered much, God was using her, even though she suffered it did not mean that the Lord had stopped loving her, nor was the proof of God’s love just that her prayer was answered in the way she desired. 

For us in life, as we face living in a fallen world, as we are liable to all the pains and miseries of this life, know that what we face does not mean that we are not loved, our suffering does not mean that the Lord has stopped loving us rather it is an opportunity for us to reveal ourselves as “more than conquerors through him who loved us.” For God has promised us that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither present nor the future, nor any power, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord (Rom 8:37-39). 

God is surely with us, even if what we face is painful, hard, even if it leads to death, in the midst of what we face though Christ Jesus God is there and having been raised with Christ, we will love forever (Rom 6:5). We may face many things, awful things, but for you the believer, nothing can overpower the love of the living God. 

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Q63 Which is the fifth commandment?
The fifth commandment is, Honour thy father and thy mother; that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee. (Exod. 20:12)
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Year 2 Day 178

Pray (ACts)

Read - John 14v15-31

Message - Scott Woodburn
As we work our way through the list of Apostles we finally arrive at Thaddaeus and if we don’t know much about James the son of Alphaeus then we really don’t know much about Thaddaeus. We can be confident that his father was called James (Luke 6v16) and we know that Thaddaeus was often referred to by different names. He is called Thaddaeus, Judas and also Lebbaeus (Matthew 10v3). Additionally some have argued that Thaddaeus could be the author of the book of Jude.

In the midst of uncertainty we do know that Thaddaeus once asked an important question. Jesus was preparing His disciples for His departure and had promised them the Holy Spirit saying “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live.” (v18-19)

To Thaddaeus (called Judas in this passage) this seemed somewhat strange. Jesus was promising that the Apostles would see Him but the rest of the world wouldn’t. How would this be so? So the man with three names asked one question “Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us, and not to the world?” (v22)

Thaddaeus could only imagine a physical Jesus standing in the midst of a sinful world. Instead Christ was teaching about a spiritual manifestation. Jesus was preparing to send forth the Holy Spirit who would dwell within the hearts of God’s people (v17). Those who have rejected Christ cannot receive the Holy Spirit, nor see Him nor know Him, but He is promised to all who believe (v17).

So how is Christ made manifest in this sinful world? In the lives of His Spirit filled followers. A Christian is someone who has been saved by grace alone, through faith alone in Christ alone. Our works are not the basis for our salvation nor do they somehow keep us in God’s good books. Instead the evidence of a transformed life is clearly seen in the works and lives of a follower of Christ.

Christ is clear - if we love Him then we will love and keep His commandments (v21). If we love Jesus then we will love His Word (v23). Our works give us no reason to boast, they do not save us nor do they entice Jesus to love us. Indeed even when we do our works really well, they are still tainted by sin. Instead even when we were dead in sin, Christ died for us. The Gospel is preached and the Spirit breathes new life into us. He causes us to be born again and we repent and believe the Gospel. The works that we do are the fruit of our salvation and God has prepared them beforehand for us to do them (Ephesians 2v10). 

So where is Jesus in this harlot world? Surely He can’t be in midst of this wicked generation? It is true to say that Jesus does not walk physically among us. He is physically in heaven and from there He will come to judge the living and the dead. So where is Jesus in this harlot world? Whenever you encounter a fellowship or a Christian that loves Christ and seeks to keep His Word and produces fruit in keeping with repentance, there you will see Christ made manifest in this world. Your local church might not look like much but it is in that place that the light of Christ shines in the darkness. 

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Q62 What are the reasons annexed to the fourth commandment? The reasons annexed to the fourth commandment are, God’s allowing us six days of the week for our own employments, his challenging a special propriety in the seventh, his own example, and his blessing the Sabbath day.
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Year 2 Day 177

Pray (ACts)

Read - 1 Samuel 2:1-2

Message - Alan Burke

This prayer of Hannah shows the transformational grace of God in her life. She had prayed after years of bitterness, being constantly provoked but now as he prays things have come full circle for her. At the same time you could say that nothing as changed, for as Hannah was there in Shiloh praying it was to leave the son that she had so longed for behind, as she gave him to the Lord. But the reason how she is able to rejoice is because of what the Lord has done, how he acted on her behalf, how he had remembered her even though she would leave Samuel behind. 

Look at the language she uses here, sayinghow her horn is lifted high, her mouth boast over her enemies because of the Lord’s deliverance (2:1). The imagery before us here is that of an animal that raises its horns after the fight, it’s mouth opened to devour its pray. We may think this is a strange image to use but it portrays the removal of her disgrace, she is no longer on the other side, defeated and cowering, instead she can hold her head high at what the Lord has done. That the Lord has moved her from one extreme to the other, from brokenness to victory. 

There is a sense in which we have all experienced this to a greater or lesser degree. We have faced times of brokenness and other times of joy, times of lament to times of praise. Where trouble has turned to triumph, struggle has turned to joy as time goes on and the Lord intervenes. The times of suffering, times of hardship that we all have faced, whether we have seen it this way or not God was at work and have been used by God. For God is sovereignly at work in this world, it should give us comfort in what we face. 

For Hannah here as she rejoices in the reality of how here is no-one like the Lord God, no-one holy like him, no-one beside him, no rock like our God. Notice the change between verse one and two. In verse one she had spoke of what the Lord had done for her, she spoke of ‘I’ now she speaks of ‘our’ God. For she comes before the Lord God, not some unknown God but one who has revealed himself to his people. And he is holy, in his purity, majesty, and glory. Not only does she pray that he is holy but that there is no one beside him, he is so incomparable that no one else is even in his class. There is none like him she confesses, there is none like the Lord our God, there are many false imitations but none like the Lord, all others gods are but the imagination of man. 

This God, our God, is the Rock. We all know the metaphor that this coveys, God's strength and sovereignty, and the security of those who trust in Him, the one that we can rely on, the one that will not let his people down, he is our only and ultimate source of security. That is what Hannah experienced, in her lowest point she was able and went before the Lord God lamenting knowing that still he was her rock, and in the joys of that moment she knew it all the more. This is the God Hannah came before, this is the God we come before through the Lord Jesus Christ, we can call him our God though our adoption as fellow heirs with our elder brother Jesus Christ. 

That means we who are sinners can come before this our Holy God, who there is no one beside for all other Gods are false gods knowing that he is our ultimate source of security in this life, he will not let us down and bring us into glory. For us we can face much but when we know that the Lord is holy, incomparable, that he is our rock then we can face many things knowing that our Lord and God is there, in and through the Lord Jesus Christ.

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Q61 What is forbidden in the fourth commandment?
The fourth commandment forbiddeth the omission or careless performance of the duties required, (Amos 8:5, Mal. 1:13) and the profaning the day by idleness, (Acts 20:7,9) or doing that which is in itself sinful, (Ezek. 23:38) or by unnecessary thoughts, words, or works, about our worldly employments or recreations. (Jer. 17:24–26, Isa. 58:13)

Year 2 Day 176

Pray (ACts)

Read - Luke 6v12-16

Message - Scott Woodburn
Today’s Apostle is called James. Not the James we’ve already heard about but the other James. James the son of Alphaeus, also called “James the Little” because it is supposed that he was small of stature. Here’s how he is described by one author “evidently he did nothing that needed any record.” I don’t know about you but I find that description a little bit sad.

Do you remember when you were a child and someone asked “what do you want to do when you grow up?” How did you respond? Many children make grand claims about being the Prime Minister or going to live on Mars. But James the Little? He didn’t do anything that warranted a mention in Scripture. Brothers and sisters, don’t weep over James today. I can assure you that he rejoices in glory and does not care one jot about the lack of Scriptural testimony to James the son of Alphaeus.

By faith we will join James in glory, but what will life be like until then? The vast majority of us will have lives of absolutely no significance. Future generations will not study our words or lives. The newspapers will not report on our deeds. Most of us will live, love, work and then die without the world’s attention and do you know what? That’s great and perfectly normal.

Think on it this way. The Christian experience is often radically different in July than it is in November. What do I mean? I’ve been on various summer mission trips over the years to locations all across the world. I’ve preached the Gospel in foreign lands. I’ve worked with children in Thailand. I’ve literally worn multiple team t-shirts and hoodies. These were wonderful experiences and I trust they were used by the Lord but they’re not the reality of the Christian life.

I suspect it is quite easy to be a Christian on a mission team. For a week or two we are surrounded by like minded individuals in a far off land. We pray together and serve together. We see new places and new churches. We laugh and sometimes fall in love. But soon it all comes crashing down when we arrive back home. There aren’t any hoodies to wear in November and to swap the excitement of July’s team for November’s prayer meeting is often a step too far.

Yet the Christian life is everyday. It is walking the dog. It is meeting your children’s teachers. It is leaving the house on cold winter nights. It is struggling with ill health. It is visiting your parents. It is attending your local church where the music isn’t great. It is going to work. The vast majority of Christians live such lives and all of it is perfectly acceptable in the sight of God. For every famous, superstar Christian, there are thousands of ordinary souls, living for Christ in ordinary places.

We know James the son of Alphaeus only in passing but he still challenges our hunger for significance and success. How do we live until Christ returns? Live for Christ by living quietly, minding your own business and working hard. This isn’t my advice gleaned from my own experience. Instead God’s Word speaks “Aspire to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, as we instructed you” (1 Thessalonians 4v11) You’re not required to make a name for yourself, instead be content that through faith in Christ your name is already in the Lamb’s Book of Life. 

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Q60 How is the Sabbath to be sanctified? The Sabbath is to be sanctified by a holy resting all that day, even from such worldly employments and recreations as are lawful on other days; and spending the whole time in the public and private exercises of God’s worship, except so much as is to be taken up in the works of necessity and mercy.

Year 2 Day 175

Pray (ACts)

Read - 1 Samuel 2:1-10

Message - Alan Burke

As we focus on Hannah here once more, notice the change that there has been in her from when we were first introduced to her in chapter 1. There Hannah had been provoked and tormented to the point where she was could no longer eat and she wept bitterly. With no where else to turn, she turned to the Lord, praying, her lips moved but her voice was not heard for she was praying in silence (1:13). There she had come weighted down in her great anguish and grief (1:16). This time as she prays, it is different, her prayer is one of praise where her heart is overflowing in song, thanking God and rejoicing in him. 

But I want you to notice something, look at Hannah’s prayer here in chapter 2, for all of it is God centred. In its entirety, her prayer to God is not focused on herself but on the Lord God. Hannah focuses not on the blessing that she has received in the gift of a son, rather this prayer is focused is on the praise of the Lord God, on the Creator not on the created. Yes Hannah’s prayer had been answered, she had many reasons to rejoice but she understood that the Lord is her chief glory, not what she has, or has been given. Throughout as her heart overflowed in praise, it is because of who the Lord God will ever be, powerful and holy, marvelling in the character of God. Hannah was able to praise the Lord God powerful and holy as her heart overflowed. 

This prayer sets an example to us. Maybe in the past, right now, or in the future, it’s not praise that has left or will leave your lips, but nothing. You lament to God in the silence, broken from the disappointment that you have experienced. You like Hannah have longed for the Lord to work, but nothing happened, things got worse, and then you here how Hannah’s payer was answered and its like rubbing salt in the wound, its like a slap in the face. 

There are times that we can pray, like Hannah, we weep and pour our heart out to the Lord, and the Lord seems silent, that prayer we have been praying for years for a loved one to come to salvation seems to have fallen on deaf ears, the prayer for that child who is ill and it seems to go unanswered, it could be for what ever reason and it seems that God doesn’t care, that you are left disappointed by God, but God does hear and answer, he does not promise to answer the way we want it, the way we think he should do it, but only only according to his purposes. Yet the Lord is at work, he is the Lord God, powerful and Holy, and we like Hannah have reason to praise, not in what we have or have been given by God but in Jesus, for the salvation that we have received though faith, the hope that we have in the midst of the brokenness of this life. 

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Q59 Which day of the seven hath God appointed to be the weekly Sabbath? 
From the beginning of the world to the resurrection of Christ, God appointed the seventh day of the week to be the weekly Sabbath; and the first day of the week ever since, to continue to the end of the world, which is the Christian Sabbath. (Gen. 2:2–3, 1 Cor. 16:1–2, Acts 20:7)

Year 2 Day 173

Pray (ACts)

Read - Luke 5v27-32

Message - Scott Woodburn
I have never met anyone who enjoys paying taxes. Taxes are seen as a necessary evil and we constantly complain about paying them and how they’re being used. With that said, I’m sure if I ever met a “taxman” he’d be a perfectly lovely chap. I doubt I’d immediately hate him just because of his profession.

The Gospel of Matthew was written by one such taxman. Matthew is also called Levi in the Gospels and one day he was sitting in his tax booth. It was there that his fellow Israelites would come to pay their taxes to the rotten foreign power of Rome. Imagine being a Jew and taking part in such humiliation? Imagine being a Jew and working for Rome? Imagine being a Jew and helping yourself to a slice of your countrymen’s income? Needless to say, Matthew and his fellow tax collectors were despised.

Yet as Matthew sat at his hated tax booth, Jesus called him to follow and immediately Matthew left everything behind to follow Christ (v27-28). You would think that such a transformation would be the cause of much celebration, but sadly sinful people do sinful things. Matthew’s response to Christ was to hold a great feast in his home and invite many of his fellow tax collectors to meet with Jesus (v29).

This gathering raised the anger of the Pharisees. This Jesus, this supposed teacher was now reclining with the scum of the earth. Tax collectors and sinners had been invited to a dinner party! Utterly outrageous! Yet Christ’s response couldn’t be clearer. He didn’t come to make good people better. Instead he came to seek and to save the sick. He said “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.” (v31-32)

Everyone in those ancient days would have agreed that a tax collector needed to be saved. Tax collectors and prostitutes and the really horrible people. All of them needed a Saviour. Everyone else was pretty good and probably in the clear with Almighty God. The Pharisees had got it wrong and we often follow their mistake.

Until we realise that every single human on this planet is a sinful wretch in need of Christ, then we will never see the glory of the Gospel. Jesus came to save sinners. They may be sinners addicted to alcohol or they may be sinners who go to work everyday in a suit and tie. Christ died for the ungodly. No one is good, not one and all must repent of their sin and trust in Christ to be saved.

It is said that all Matthew took from his previous life was his pen and ink. We can be thankful for Matthew Levi and the Gospel he was inspired to write. It has been called the Gospel of the Kingdom and Matthew uses the word “kingdom” over 50 times. Jesus is the King and while His kingdom is already here, it has not yet been fully realised. It is a kingdom full of the great and the poor, the weak and the strong, the European and the African, the tax collector and the prostitute. A kingdom of men and women saved from their wretchedness by the blood of Christ. So my friends heed the call of the kingdom today, as Jesus once preached “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” (Matthew 4v17)

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Q58 What is required in the fourth commandment? The fourth commandment requireth the keeping holy to God such set times as he hath appointed in his Word; expressly one whole day in seven, to be a holy Sabbath to himself.
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Year 2 Day 172

Pray (ACts)

Read - 1 Samuel 1:24-28

Message - Alan Burke 

I imagine as Hannah brought the young Samuel to Shiloh and gave him into the care of Eli he would have been perplexed to say the least. Think about it, four years ago you had a brief conversion with someone, somewhere, maybe it was in your line of work, or you were in the shop somewhere. Something about the conversation maybe struck you at the time but after all it’s been four years and the next thing is they arrive on your door and say “remember that conversation we had?". You would be thinking that they are chancing their arm, they are a fraudster, you’d maybe slam the door in the face. Here Hannah returns after four years and she brings with her an offering that was to say the least exceedingly generous and added to that her son which was more costly than anything else she could have brought. 

The likely hood is that Eli wouldn’t even have remembered her, the drunk woman he saw who was actually praying. But in what Hannah says it is clear that Samuel is the answer to the prayer she prayed. She had asked, and the Lord answered. It’s lost in translation in English but a more literal reading of verse twenty seven and twenty eight would be “For this child I prayed, and the Lord gave me my asking, which I asked from him, and I also have given back what was asked to the Lord, all the days he lives he is one that is asked for the Lord”. Hannah makes it clear, that this is the child she asked the Lord for, and at three years old, Samuel was given to the Lord, and as young as he was we are told he worshiped the Lord there, spending his youth and his life in the service of the Lord at Shiloh. 

Hannah had kept her vow, she had been given a son, and God had brought forth a new leader for his people in redemptive history. This initial chapter of the book introduces us to Samuel, we learn of who he is, we are reminded that God is at work in the midst of the spiritual barrenness of Shiloh among his people, he was at work even though it seemed to all that things were going from bad to worse for every man did what was right in his own eyes. This leader Samuel would help institute the monarchy that would ultimately as redemptive history continued give us Jesus, the true Saviour and Preserver of Israel (Acts 13:23). Hannah gave her son to the Lord but the Lord gave us his only begotten son Jesus Christ for us, to die in our place so that we might know the salvation from our sins in Christ alone. This is where we need to look in all that we face, in the highs and lows of our lives, and as this world of darkness seems to move further from the Lord, knowing that he is at work as he was in the days of the Judges. 

I want to leave you with this. This family here in 1 Samuel, while the world around them seemed to be moving further and further away from God, came to worship the Lord God as he had prescribed, regardless of the difficulties, the distance they had to travel, the expense it may have been, they took worship seriously. And in this the Lord used them for he uses those who fear and honour him. Though the world we live in becomes darker and darker the Lord God is still at working in and through his people, those who fear and honour him in Christ Jesus. 

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Q 56 What is the reason annexed to the third commandment?
The reason annexed to the third commandment is, That however the breakers of this commandment may escape punishment from men, yet the Lord our God will not suffer them to escape his righteous judgment. (1 Sam. 2:12,17,22,29, 1 Sam. 3:13, Deut. 28:58–59)

Year 2 Day 171

Pray (ACts)

Read - John 11v1-16

Message - Scott Woodburn
There are only a few Apostles more famous than Thomas despite the fact that he is barely mentioned anywhere except John’s Gospel. Why is he famous? Because, to this day, we remember that he doubted the resurrection of the Lord and therefore became “Doubting Thomas”. It isn’t his only nickname. We’re not sure what Thomas’ real name was, but he is called Thomas (or Didymus in Greek) which means “the twin”.

So Thomas had a twin brother or sister and is famous for his doubting. Is that it? Not quite. John shows us a little bit of the Apostles’ bravery too. Before Jesus goes to raise Lazarus from the dead he tells his disciples “Let us go to Judea again.” (v7). In the midst of quite a famous story we often miss this casual remark, yet it startled the Lord’s Disciples.

To return to Judea was a dangerous move on behalf of Christ, with the Disciples warning “Rabbi, the Jews were just now seeking to stone you, and are you going there again?“ (v8) The Apostles love the Lord and they know that there are many seeking to take His life. It would seem ludicrous to walk back into the lion’s den.

However events quickly move forward with the death of Lazarus and so the protests of the Disciples fall short. Jesus will go to the tomb of His friend and the raising of the dead man will result in the glory of God (v4) and the strengthening of the Apostles’ faith (v15). It is at this moment that the bravery of Thomas shines through. He will not allow his Master to go alone and declares to the other Apostles “Let us also go, that we may die with him.” (v16)

Such awesome bravery! Thomas was prepared to die with Christ! Perhaps we should change his nickname to “Thomas the Brave” or “Thomas the Hero”? Before we rush ahead, it is worth remembering that Thomas doesn’t die alongside Christ. Jesus stands alone before Pilate and as the Shepherd is struck, the sheep (including Thomas) scatter. So he is a doubter and now we realise that he doesn’t keep his promises either. Are you now beginning to regret naming your son Thomas?

We’re not going to change Thomas’ nickname and nor will we throw him to the lions. Brothers and sisters, do your intentions always match your actions? Do you always keep your promises? Do you always have unwavering and unshakeable faith? None of us are the heroes we imagine ourselves to be, yet by faith, our confession of Christ is the same as the confession of Thomas. He would see with his own eyes the risen Christ and declared “My Lord and my God!” (John 20v28)

Thomas didn’t die with Jesus but he would end up dying because of Jesus. Thomas the doubter became Thomas the resolute, taking the Gospel perhaps as far as India and eventually being tortured to death because he would not deny Christ.

I’m thankful that when my faith is weak and my doubts are many that my Saviour doesn’t wash His hands of one such as I. Jesus is the Saviour and friend of sinners, sinners who constantly fail but constantly know the glorious grace of Jesus. The Lord has gone to prepare a place for us and one day He will return so that where He is, we may be also. There is no doubt about that place or how to get there. Thomas once did not know the way, but soon Jesus declared to “the twin” and today to us “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14v6)    

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Q56 What is the reason annexed to the third commandment? The reason annexed to the third commandment is, that however the breakers of this commandment may escape punishment from men, yet the Lord our God will not suffer them to escape his righteous judgment.
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Year 2 Day 170

Pray (ACts)

Read - 1 Samuel 1:21-28

Message - Alan Burke 

It can be easy for us to get ourselves into the situation where we are left thinking “why did I say that”. Some times it’s because we said things that we shouldn’t have, had a barney with a loved one for example, there are other times though, it’s because we have got ourselves into something that we wish we hadn’t. Then we spend months or years trying to get ourselves out of it even though we feel obliged and if we said were going to stop we feel we would be letting someone down. In her prayer, in her brokenness, Hannah had prayed to the Lord, she had made a vow, saying “O LORD Almighty, if you will only look upon your servant’s misery and remember me, and not forget your servant, then I will give him to the LORD for all the days of his life…”. Here’s the thing though, the Lord had answered her prayer and the question is now will Hannah keep her vow or keep her son, would she try to wrangle out of it. 

The time comes for them to make their annual sacrifice to the Lord and Hannah decides to stay behind with Samuel (21-22). Instead she tells her husband that after he was weaned then she would go. Now today things are different we have all types of different alternatives to breast feeding, many brands of formula milk although none of it is as good for a child as breastfeeding. In our culture babies are weaned from 6 months, as solids are introduced and the world health organisation recommends that breastfeeding should continue up to two years and beyond. It was not like this in Samuel’s day, as we know from sources at the time of Samuel mothers would breastfeed their children as long as three years. Knowing this, Elkanah tells to Hannah “do what seems best to you”. 

What is most surprising in all of this is Elkanah. He supports Hannah in the decision that she has made, in the culture of the time this is a big thing. Elkanah could have simply refused, brought her with him, he could have said that ‘you are not presenting this child to the Lord for he is mine’ and Hannah would have been unable to do anything else. If Elkanah had have refused her decision to take Samuel to Shiloh and present him there, Hannah would have been released from her vow (Num 30:8). But she did take him there, she gave him over to the Lord for her prayer was answered and she knew he was a gift from God. 

Two things I want to leave you with. Firstly some of those of you who are reading this may not have children, or your children may have flown the coop years ago, for others you are still a full time dad or mum dreaming of being able to drink a cuppa while it is still warm. If you are still full time dad or mum then know your children are a gift, teach them the faith, read and pray with them, bring them to worship, make it the priority for they are a gift of God and they are only lent to us like Samuel was with Hannah. Secondly For Hannah she gave the son she had longed for to the Lord, but for all of us in this life we should bear in mind the words of Jesus in Mark 10 when there seems a great cost what ever that cost may be. “Truly I tell you,” Jesus replied, “no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age: homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields—along with persecutions—and in the age to come eternal life. (Mk 10:29-30)

Pray (acTS)

Sing

WSC 
Q 54 What is required in the third commandment?
The third commandment requireth the holy and reverent use of God’ s names, (Matt. 6:9, Deut. 28:58) titles, (Ps. 68:4) attributes, (Rev. 15:3–4) ordinances, (Mal. 1:11,14) Word, (Ps. 138:1–2) and works. (Job 36:24)