Daily Readings for Monday 2nd October 2023

Prayer
-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 Readings
Verse 4 - Preface - Solomon's chief officers of state. The twelve officers who provided for his household, each in his month. The prosperity and grandeur of his kingdom. The daily provision for his household, suitable to the extent of his dominions and peacefulness of his reign. His stables. His extroardinery wisdom.
Verse 5 - Preface - Hiram sendeth to congratulate Solomon, who acquainteth him with his design of building the temple, and desireth him to furnish timber for that purpose. Hiram blesseth God for Solomon's wisdom, and promiseth the timber, requesting food for his household in return. The mutual services and good correspondence between Hiram and Solomon. The number of workmen and labourers employed in preparing materials for the building.
1 Kings 4-5
Preface - Paul setteth before the Ephesians their former corrupt heathen state, and God's rich mercy in their deliverance. We are saved by grace, not of works, yet so as to be created in Christ unto good works. They who were once strangers, and far from God, are now brought near by Christ's blood, who having abolished the ritual law, the ground of distinction between Jew and Gentile, hath united both in one body, and gained them equal access to the Father, so that the Gentiles are henceforth equally privileged with the Jews, and together with them constitute an holy temple for the habitation of God's Spirit.
Ephesians 2

Daily Light - Morning
The goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities unto a land not inhabited:
And he shall let go the goat in the wilderness.

As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.-In those days, and in that time, saith the Lord, the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for, and there shall be none; and the sins of Judah, and they shall not be found: for I will pardon them whom I reserve.-Thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.-Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity?

All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.-He shall bear their iniquities. Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his sould unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.-
The Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.
Lev.16.22; Ps.103.12; Jer.50.20; Mi.7.19; Mi.7.18
Isa.53.6; Isa.53.11-12; Jn.1.29

Daily Light - Evening
Who maketh thee to differ from another?
and what hast thou that thou didst not receive?

By the grace of God I am what I am, - Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth. - It is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy. - Where is boasting then? It is excluded. - Christ Jesus....is made unto us wisdom, and rightousness, and sanctification, and redemption...He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.

You hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. - Ye are washed....ye are sanctified....ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.
1 co.4.7; 1co.15.10; Jas.1.18; Ro.9.16; Ro.3.27;
1Co.1.30,31 & Eph.2.1-3; 1Co.6.11

A Puritans Catechism
​Q12 - What special act of providence did God exercise towards man in the state wherein he was created?
A - When God had created man, he entered into a covenant of life with him, upon condition of perfect obedience; forbidding him to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, upon pain of death.

Robert Murray M'Cheyne - God Makes A Path - Daily Devotional Readings
Make haste my beloved
Make haste, my beloved and be thou like to a roe or to a young hart upon the mountains of spices. - Song of Solomon 8 v 14
It is the presence of Christ that makes a sweet time of refreshing in a Church. When He comes leaping on the mountains, skipping upon the hills, the flowers immediately appear on the earth. The Lord's people are quickened in all their graces; they begin to sing songs of deliverance; anxious souls spring up like the grass, and the whole garden of the Lord sends out spices. Ah! if the Lord Jesus were to come in herewith power, I would preach and you would hear in another way than we do. I could not be so hard-hearted, and you would be melted under His word. Oh! will you not pray, 'Make haste, my beloved, and be thou like to a roe, or to a young hart upon the mountains of spices.' Is not such a time desirable?