Daily Readings for Wednesday 4th October 2023

Prayer
-Give thanks to God for the Bible, its inspiration and preservation for us to read it today. (2 Timothy 3.16, Proverbs 30.5.)
-Give thanks to God that we have easy access to the Scripture in English, in our mother tongue.
-Pray the Lord would bless us as we study the Bible through the ministry this coming year. That as we work through a book of the Bible the Lord would continue to help us to grasp God's truth.
-Pray for the Lunchtime outreach service and those who attend; pray that more from the offices nearby and Christians who commute are able to join us.

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
Preface - The building of Solomon's house; of the house of the forest of Lebanon; of the porch of pillars; of the porch of judgment; of the house for Pharaoh's daughter. The costly materials for these buildings, and for the great court round about. Hiram, a skilful artificer, is fetched from Tyre. His work in brass of the two great pillars, the molten sea, the ten bases, the ten lavers, and other vessels for the use of the temple. The furniture and vessels of gold which Solomon made for the temple
1 Kings 7
Preface - Paul exhorteth to those virtues which become the Christian calling, particularly to unity: declaring that Christ gave his gifts differently, that his body the church might be built up and perfected in the true faith by the cooperation of the individual members with one another, and with him their head. He calleth men off from the vain and impure conversation of the heathen world, to renounce the old, and to put on hte new; man: to discard lying, and sinful anger; to leave off dishonest practices, and to gain by honest labour what they have occasion for; to use no corrupt talk, nor grieve God's Spirit; to put away all expressions of ill will, and to practise mutual kindness and forgiveness.
Ephesians 4

Daily Light - Morning
Moses wist not that the skin of his face shone
while he talked with him.

Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory.-Lord, when saw we thee in hungered, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink?-In lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves.-Be clothed with humility.

(Jesus) was transfigured before them: and his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light.-All that sat in the council, looking stedfastly on (Stephen), saw his face as it had been the face of an angel.-The glory which thou gavest me I have given them.-We all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.

Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house.
Ex. 34.29; Ps. 115.1; Mt. 25.37; Phil. 2.3; 1 Pe. 5.5
Mt. 17.2; Ac. 6.15; Jn. 17.22; 2 Co. 3.18
Mt. 5.14-15

Daily Light - Evening
There are diversities of operations,
but it is the same God which worketh all in all.

There fell some of Manasseh to David... And they helped David against the band of the rovers; for they were all mighty men of valour.-The manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal.

Of the children of Issachar, which were men that had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do.-To one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit.

Of Zebulun, such as went forth to battle expert in war, with all instruments of war, fifty thousand, which could keep rank: they were not of double heart.-A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.

There should be no schism in the body; but...the members should have the same care one for another. And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it.

One Lord, one faith, one baptism.
1Co. 12.6; 1Chr. 12.19,21; 1 Co. 12.7
1 Chr. 12.32; 1 Co. 12.8
1 Chr. 12.33; Jas. 1.8
1 Co. 12.25-26
Eph. 4.5

A Puritans Catechism
Q14 - What is sin?
A - The covenant being made with Adam, not only for himself, but for his posterity; all mankind, descending from him by ordinary generation, sinned in him, and fell with him, in his first transgression.

Robert Murray M'Cheyne - God Makes A Path - Daily Devotional Readings
Family government
For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment; that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him. - Genesis 18 v 19
There are three things very remarkable in these words.
-1) That Abraham used parental authority in governing his family: 'I know him, that he will command his children and servants after him.' He did not think it enough to pray for them, or to teach them, but he used the authority which God had given him. He commanded them.
-2) That he cared for his servants as well as his children. In Genesis 14 v 14, we learn that Abraham had 318 servants born in his house. He lived after the manner of patriarchal times, as the Arabs of the wilderness do to this day. His family was very large, and yet he did not say, 'They are none of mine.' He commanded his children and his household.
-3) His success. 'They shall keep the way of the Lord.' It is often said that the children of good men turn out ill. Well, here is a good man, and a good man doing his duty by his children - and here is the result. His son Isaac was probably a child of God from his earliest years. There is every mark of it in his life. And what a delightful specimen of a believing, prayerful servant was Eliezer! (Genesis 24)
It is the duty of all believers to rule their houses well.