Daily Readings for Friday 22nd 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 - Uzziah succeedeth Amazziah, and reigning well in the days of Zechariah the seer prospereth. His buildings: his host, and engines of war. Growing proud he invadeth the priests' office, is opposed by Azariah, and smitten with leoprosy by God. He dieth; Jotham succeedeth him.
2 Chronicles 26
Preface - A beast with seven heads and ten horns riseth out of the sea, to whom the dragon giveth his power, wherewith he blasphemeth God, and vexeth the saints. Another beast cometh up out of the earth, which supporteth the worship of the former beast. The number of the beast.
Revelations 13

Daily Light - Morning
Your work of faith.

This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.

Faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone. - Faith...worketh by love. - He that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. - We are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. - Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous fo good works.

We are bound to thank God always for you, brethren, as it is meet, because that your faith groweth exceedingly, and the charity of every one of you all toward each other aboundeth... Wherefore also we pray always for you, that our God would count you worthy of this calling, and fulfil all the good pleasure of his goodness, and the work of faith with power. - it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.
1 Th. 1.3; Jn. 6.29
Jas. 2.17; Ga. 5.6; Ga. 6.8; Eph. 2.10; Titus 2.14
2 Th. 1.3,11; Phil. 2.13

Daily Light - Evening
Where is the promise
of his coming?

Enoch...the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, to execute judgment upon all. - Behold, he cometh with clouds: and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him.

The Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.

The grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ.
2 Pe. 3.4; Jude 14-15; Rev. 1.7
1 Th. 4.16-17
Titus 2.11-13

A Puritans Catechism
Q11 - What are God's works of providence?
A - God's works of providence are, his most holy, wise, and powerful preserving and governing all his creatures, and all their actions.

BAPTIST CONFESSION OF FAITH

Of Christ the Mediator
Chapter 9 
PARAGRAPH 2
Man, in his state of innocency, had freedom and power to will and to do that which was good and well-pleasing to God,2 but yet was unstable, so that he might fall from it.3

2 Eccles. 7:29
3 Gen. 3:6

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Robert Murray M'Cheyne - God Makes A Path - Daily Devotional Readings
The gospel bell
... a bell and a pomegranate, round about the hem  of the robe to minister in; as the Lord commanded Moses. - Exodus 39 v 26
Christians you are priests. Be like Christ in this. Wherever you go, carry a saviour of Christ. His name is like ointment poured forth; it is like the vine flourishing, and the pomegranate budding. Let men take knowledge of you, that you have been with Jesus; let it be plain that you come from within the veil; let the smell of your garments be as a field which the Lord hath blessed. Carry a sound of Christ wherever you go. Not a step, Christians, without the sound of the gospel bell. Even in smallest things, be spreading the glad sound. Edwards says, wherever a godly person enters, he is a greater blessing than if the greatest monarch were entering. So be it with you. It appears to me that even the tracts for which you contribute, are like little bells. They are small and despised by some, yet they carry the clear sound of the Gospel wherever they go. What Christian among you would not love to see them multiplied, till every family on the globe should hear the message of mercy? Come, then, to the help of the Lord against the mighty.
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