Daily Readings for Sunday the 10th September 2023

Prayer
-God thanks to God for His character, perfect, unchangeable, the same yesterday today and forever.
-Give thanks to God that we can meet in the church and have fellowship with one another.
-Pray the Lord would grant the preaching of his word power and clarity, and there are ready ears to hear and believe it. (2 Thes. 3.1.)
-Pray we would be granted faithful ministry and good spiritual food from God's Word. (1 Peter 2.2.)

Church Services
Sermons
Sunday morning at 11:00am in church (also available online via Facebook)
(Sunday morning) scripture reading - Matthew 6 v 9
Sunday evening at 6:30pm in church (also available online via Facebook)
(Sunday evening) scripture reading - Romans 6 v 1-5
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
2 Samuel 4) Preface - The Israelites are troubled at Abner's death. Baanah and Rechab murder Ish-bosheth, and bring his head to David to Hebron. David causeth them to be put to death, and Ish-bosheth's head to be buried.
2 Samuel 5) Preface - The tribes come to Hebron, and anoint David king over Israel. His age and reign. He taketh Zion from the Jebusites, and, fixing his residence there, calleth it the city of David. Hiram sendeth him timber and workmen to build him a house. Eleven sons are born to him in Jerusalem. David directed by God smiteth the Philistines at Baal-perazim, and again at the mulberry tress.
2 Samuel 4-5
Preface - From the truth of Christ's resurrection Paul inferreth the necessity of our own. Christ, the firstfruits, being raised, shall be followed in due order by those that are his; till having subdued all enemies he shall give up the kingdom to God the Father. If there be no resurrection of the dead, in vain is it for any one to risk his life, as teh apostle did, continually. The manner of the resurrection. The change which shall be wrought at the last day in the bodies both of the dead and the living. An exhortation to stedfast faith and perseverance in our duty.
1 Corinthians 15

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.

Robert Murray M'Cheyne - God Makes A Path - Daily Devotional Readings
Moses and Hobab
And Moses said unto Hobab, the son of Raguel the midianite, Moses' father in law, We are jouneying unto the place of which the Lord said, I will give it you: come thou with us, and we will do thee good:
For the Lord hath spoken good concerning Israel. - Numbers 10 v 29
So it was with Moses. Hobab had been his friend for forty years, in the land of Midian, where Moses married his sister, and lived in his fath Raguel's house. In that time, I doubt not, Moses had told him much of Israel's God, and Israel's coming glory. Many a time, while they fed their flocks in this very wilderness, Moses and reasoned with him of righteousness, temperance and judgement to come, till Hobab trembled.
Still it would seem Hobab was not quite convenced. He doubted, he lingered. He had been awed by the terrors of Sinai, but not won by the love of Calvary. He did not know whether to go or stay. But the hour of decision came. He must decide now. Now was the heart of Moses stirred in him: 'Come thou with us, and we will do thee good; for the Lord hath spoken good concerning Israel.'
So it was with Paul, when he himself had tasted the joy and peace of believing; then says he: 'My heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved.'
So it was with Andrew: 'Andrew first findeth his own brother Simon, and saith unto him, We have found the Christ.'
So it was with the poor maniac whom Jesus healed: 'Go home, tell thy friends how great things the Lord hath done for thee, and how he hath had compassion on thee.'
So it was with the poor slave in Antigua, who used to pray that there might be a full heaven and an empty hell.
Question: Is it so with you? Have you asked your friends to come with you? Have you a father whom you love? A mother that carried you at her breast? Have you a brother or sister? Are they lingering like Hobab? Oh! Will you not put in a word for Christ, and say: 'Come thou with us, and we will do thee good'? Have you a friend whom you love much, who knows nothing of Christ and of God, who is willing to die in the wilderness? Oh! Will you not win him to go with you to Israel's God and Israel's glory?