Daily Readings for Tuesday 7th November 2023

Prayer
-Give thanks to God for those who have recently recovered from sickness.
-Pray for those who are sick or receiving treatment in our congregation.
-Pray that we each would walk close to God, putting off sins that easily beset us and that we would daily give thanks for our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. (1. John 1.3; Hebrews 12.1; 1 Thes 5.16.)

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 - Hezekiah, warned by Isaiah to prepare for death, upon his prayer is promised an addition of fifteen years to his life in confirmation whereof the shadow goeth ten degrees backward on the sundial of Ahaz. Berodach-baladan sendeth to congratulate Hezekiah on his recovery, who ostentatiously sheweth the ambassadors his treasures. Isaiah hearing this foretelleth the Babylonish captivity. Hezekiah dieth: Manasseh succeedeth him.
2 Kings 20
Preface - The obligation we are under to give more earnest heed to the gospel doctrine. The dominion of the world to come was not granted to angels, but to the Son of man, whom it behoved to undergo a previous course of humiliation and suffering.
Hebrews 2

Daily Light - morning
Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness,
and for his wonderful works to the children of men!

O taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the man that trusteth in him. - How great is thy goodness, which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee...!

This people have I formed for myself; they shall shew forth my praise. - Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved... That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.

How great is his goodness, and how great is his beauty! - The LORD is good to all: and his tender mercies are over all his works. All thy works shall praise thee, O LORD; and thy saints shall bless thee. They shall speak of the glory of thy kingdom, and talk of thy power; to make known to the sons of men his mighty acts, and the glorious majesty of his kingdom.
Ps. 107.8; Ps. 34.8; Ps. 31.19
Isa. 43.21; Eph. 1.5-6,12
Zech. 9.17; Ps. 145.9-12

Daily Light - evening
Behold, we count them happy
which endure.

We glory in tribulations...knowing that tribulation worketh patience; and patience, experience; and experience, hope: and hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us. - No chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: neverthless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. - My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing... Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him. - Most gladly therefore willl I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me...for when I am weak, then am I strong.
Jas. 5.11; Ro. 5.3-5; He. 12.11; Jas. 1.2-4,12; 2 Co. 12.9,10

A Puritans Catechism
Q48 - What is required in the third commandment?
A - The third commandment requires the holy and reverent use of God's names, titles, attributes, ordinances, Word, and works.
​
The 1689 Baptist Confession of Faith
Of The Holy Scriptures
Chapter 1 - Paragraph 7
All things in Scripture are not alike plain in themselves, nor alike clear unto all; 12 yet those things which are necessary to be known, believed and observed for salvation, are so clearly propounded and opened in some place of Scripture or other, that not only the learned, but the unlearned, in a due use of ordinary means, may attain to a sufficient understanding of them. 13
12) 2 Pet. 3:16 13) Ps. 19:7; Psalm 119:130

Robert Murray M'Cheyne - God Makes A Path - Daily Devotional Readings
Separation better than strife
And Abram said unto Lot, Let there be no strife, I pray thee, between me and thee, and between my herdmen and thy herdmen; for we be brethren. Is not the whole land before thee? separate thyself, I pray thee, from me: if thou wilt take the left hand, then I will go to the right; or if thou depart to the right hand, then I will go to the left. - Genesis 13 vs 8-9

Abraham yields the choice to Lot. Brethren, this is what it is to be a Christian, this is what Christ did. Do you remember the command to resist not evil? 'But I say unto you, that ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.' (Matthew 5 v 39). Now, many of you do not know the meaning of this; I have been asked its meaning often; Abraham was smitten on the one cheek, and he turned the other also. See also 1 Corinthians 6 v 7 - 'Now therefore there is utterly a fault among you, because ye go to law one with another. Why do ye not rather take wrong? why do ye not rather suffer yourselves to be defrauded? You will see an example of the same thing in chapter 9 v 19 - 'For although I be free from all men, yet have I made myself servant unto all, that I might gain the more.' My dear brethren, this is exactly what Abraham did, he suffered himself to be defrauded, he suffered himself to be a servant, that he might gain lot. This was what Christ did Himself. When they smote Him on the one cheek He turned the other also. Ah, brethren, you know little of the love of Christ, if this is not in your heart. There is a great mistake, I observe, in our day; people think that to be a Christian, is to have certain doctrines in the head - to be a Calvinist; but remember, that to be a Christian, is to have Christ in you. Abraham did not say, I will have it, for it is my right to have it. No! but he said, 'Let us separate; if you go to the right hand, I will go to the left.' Ah! this is to be a Christian. It is not words that will make a Christian. It is not views that will make a Christian. It is this, and this alone.