Daily Readings for Friday 1st December 2023

Prayer (Friday)
-Give thanks to God for many good things we enjoy and daily blessings.
-Pray the Lord would supply the needs of those in the congregation at Westminster and guide us as we help those destitute and suffering. Especially those we have met in the pandemic. (Numbers 6.24-26.)

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 - David by example and exhortation causeth the princes and people to offer willingly for the service of the temple. David's thanksgiving and prayer. The people having blessed God, and sacrificed, make Solomon king the second time. The prosperity and majesty of Solomon's reign. David's reign and death.
1 Chronicles 29
Preface - The apostle declareth it to be the design of both his epistles to remind the brethren of Christ's coming to judgment, in opposition to scoffers. No argument can be drawn against it from the delay, which is designed to leave men room for repentance. He describeth the day of the Lord, and exhorteth to holiness of life in expectation of it. He sheweth that Paul had taught the same in his epistles: and condludeth with advice to beware of seduction, and to grow in Christian grace and knowledge.
2 Peter 3

Daily Light - Morning
A man shall be as an hiding place from the wind,
and a covert from the tempest.

Forasmuch...as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same. - The man that is my fellow, saith the LORD of hosts. - I and my Father are one.

He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. - There shall be a tabernacle for a shadow in the daytime from the heat, and for a place of refuge, and for a covert from storm and from rain. - The LORD is thy shade upon thy right hand. The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night.

When my heart is overwhelmed: lead me to the rock that is higher than I. - Thou art my hiding place; thou shalt preserve me from trouble. - Thou hast been a strength to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shadow from the heat, when the blast of the terrible ones is as a storm against the wall.
Isa. 32.2; He. 2.14; Zech. 13.7; Jn. 10.30
Ps. 91.1; Isa. 4.6; Ps. 121.5-6
Ps. 61.2; Ps. 32.7; Isa. 25.4

Daily Light - Evening
Behold, I create new heavens and a new earth.

The new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me...so shall your seed and your name remain.

We, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.

I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea. And I john saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new.
Isa. 65.17; Isa. 66.22
2 Pe. 3.13
Rev. 21.1-5

A Puritans Catechism
Q72 - How is the Word made effectual to salvation?
A - The Spirit of God makes the reading, but especially the preaching of the Word, an effectual means of convicting and converting sinners, and of building them up in holiness and comfort through faith to salvation.

​BAPTIST CONFESSION OF FAITH

Of Divine Providence
Chapter 5  
PARAGRAPH 6

As for those wicked and ungodly men whom God, as the righteous judge, for former sin does blind and harden;17 from them He not only withholds His grace, whereby they might have been enlightened in their understanding, and wrought upon their hearts;18 but sometimes also withdraws the gifts which they had,19 and exposes them to such objects as their corruption makes occasion of sin;20 and withal, gives them over to their own lusts, the temptations of the world, and the power of Satan,21 whereby it comes to pass that they harden themselves, under those means which God uses for the softening of others.22
17 Rom. 1;24–26,28, 11:7–8
18 Deut. 29:4
19 Matt. 13:12
20 Deut. 2:30; 2 Kings 8:12–13
21 Ps. 81:11,12; 2 Thess. 2:10–12
22 Exod. 8:15,32; Isa. 6:9–10; 1 Pet. 2:7–8

​Robert Murray M'Cheyne - God Makes A Path - Daily Devotional Readings
Christ manifested
And ye know that he was manifested to take away our sins; - 1 John 3 v 5

O beloved, if Jesus had not been manifested, you had never been saved. It would have been quite righteous in God to have kept His Son in His own bosom - to have kept that jewel in His own place upon the throne of heaven. God would have been the same lovely God; but we would have lain down in a burning hell. If that Eternal Life which was with the Father - if He had remained in His glory as the Living One - then you and I would have borne our own curse. But he was manifested - 'God was manifest in the flesh - justified in the Spirit - seen of angels - believed on in the world - received up into glory.'
John saw Him - he saw His lovely countenance, he beheld His glory, as the glory of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. He saw that better Sun veiled with flesh that could not keep the beams of His Godhead from shining through. He saw Him on the Mount, when His face shone like the sun. He saw Him in the garden, when He lay upon the ground. He saw Him on the cross, when He hung between earth and heaven. He looked upon Him - many a time he looked upon His heavenly countenance - his eye met His eye.
He hear Him - heard the voice that said, 'Let there be light.' He heard all His gracious words - His words concerning God and the way of peace. He heard Him say to a sinner, 'Be of good cheer, thy sins are forgiven thee.'
He handled Him - he put his hands in His hands, his arms around His arms, and his head upon His bosom. Perhaps he handled His body when it was taken from the cross - touched the cold day of Immanuel. O beloved, it is a manifested Christ we declare unto you. It is not the Son in the bosom of the Father - that would never have saved you. It is Jesus manifested in flesh. The Son of God living and dying as man in the stead of sinners; Him we declare unto you.