Daily Reading for Monday 1st January 2024

Prayer - Monday
-Give thanks to God for salvation and the redemption that is found alone through Jesus Christ.
- Give thanks to God for granting us particular skills and abilities that we might fulfil our vocations (jobs, studies, family responsibilities and time we spend alone). (Ecclesiastes 9.10, Ephesians 6.6)
- Pray for the Lord's blessing on the working week for us and all in the congregation.
- Pray the Lord would grant us grace to be good ambassadors for Christ (2 Corinthians 5.20)

​Church Services
Sermons
Sunday morning at 11:00am in church (also available online via Facebook)
Sunday evening at 6:30pm in church (also available online via Facebook)
Bible study and prayer
Wednesday evening at 7:00pm in church (also available online via Facebook)
Lunch hour service
Thursday afternoon between 1:00pm and 1:30pm in church (also available online via Facebook)
Outreach/Witnessing
Saturday morning at Victoria Street (outside the big Boots store) for 10:30am (across the road from Town Hall - No. 64). Afterwards we go back to church for prayer.

Daily Reading
Preface - The proclamation of Cyrus for building the temple. The people provide for their return. Cyrus restoreth the vessels of the temple to Sheshbazzar.
Ezra 1
Preface - Christ after his resurrection, having given instructions to his apostles, and commanded them to wait in Jerusalem the coming of the Holy Ghost, ascendeth into heaven in their sight. Two angels warn them to depart, and to look for his second coming; they return, and give themselves unto prayer. Peter exhorting to fill up the place of the traitor Judas, Matthias is chosen by lot to be an apostle.
Acts 1

Daily Light - Morning
This one thing I do, forgetting those things
which are behind...I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

Father, I will that they...whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me. - I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day. - He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.

Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain. And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible. - Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus.
Phil. 3.13,14; Jn. 17.24; 2 Tim. 1.12; Phil. 1.6
1 Co. 9.24-25; He. 12.1-2

Daily Light - Evening
The LORD, he it is that doth go before thee; he will be with thee, he will not fail thee.

If thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence. - O LORD, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps.

The steps of a good man are ordered by the LORD: and he delighteth in his way. Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down: for the LORD upholdeth him with his hand.

I am continually with thee: thou hast holden me by my right hand. Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory. - I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Deu. 31.8; Ex. 33.15; Jer. 10.23
Ps. 37.23-24
Ps. 73.23-24; Ro. 8.38-39

A Puritans Catechism
Q21 - How did Christ, being the Son of God, become man?
A - Christ, the Son of God, became man by taking to himself a true body, and a reasonable soul, being conceived by the power of the Holy Ghost in the Virgin Mary, and born of her, yet without sin.

​
BAPTIST CONFESSION OF FAITH

Of Justification
Chapter 11 
PARAGRAPH 3
Christ, by his obedience and death, did fully discharge the debt of all those who are justified; and did, by the sacrifice of himself in the blood of his cross, undergoing in their stead the penalty due to them, make a proper, real, and full satisfaction to God’s justice in their behalf;8 yet, in as much as he was given by the Father for them, and his obedience and satisfaction accepted in their stead, and both freely, not for anything in them,9 their justification is only of free grace, that both the exact justice and rich grace of God might be glorified in the justification of sinners.10


8 Heb. 10:14; 1 Pet. 1:18–19; Isa. 53:5–6
9 Rom. 8:32; 2 Cor. 5:21
10 Rom. 3:26; Eph. 1:6–7, 2:7

Robert Murray M'Cheyne - God Makes A Path - Daily Devotional Readings
Do not forget
... the fashion of this world passeth away - 1 Corinthians 7 v 31
A believer stands on a watch tower - things present are below his feet - things eternal are before his eyes. A little while, brethren, and the day of grace will be over, preaching, praying will be done. Soon we shall give over wrestling with an unbelieving world - soon the number of believers shall be complete, and the sky open over our heads, and Christ shall come. His parting cry was: "Surely I com quickly." Then we shall see him "whom, having not seen, we loved." A little while, and we shall stand before the great white throne; a little while, and the wicked shall not be - we shall see them going away into everlasting punishment; a little while, and the work of eternity shall be begun. We shall be like him - we shall see him day and night in his temple - we shall sing the new song, without sin and without weariness, for ever and ever. In a little moment, brethren, all this shall be: "For a small moment have I hid my face from thee; but with everlasting mercies will I gather thee."