Daily Readings for Friday 20th December 2024

Daily 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.)
- Pray for the ministry among the children and that they would know Christ from a young age. A rich blessing in this troubled world.
​- Pray for the evangelistic work, that people would know the greatest blessing of all salvation by the grace of God through Christ.


Church Services
Sunday morning at 11:00am in church (and also available online via Facebook)
Doctrine Class - in church (after lunch) (and also available online via Facebook)
Sunday evening at 6:30pm in church (and also available online via Facebook)
Bible Study and Prayer
Wednesday evening at 7:00pm in church (and also available online via Facebook)
Lunch Hour Service
Thursday afternoon between 1:00pm and 1:30pm in church (and 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 - The Jews having sent to enquire concerning the set fasts, Zechariah reproveth the hypocrisy of their fasts. They are exhorted by repentance to remove the cause of their calamity.
Zechariah 7
Preface - Christ declareth himself to be the door, and the good shepherd. Various opinions concerning him. He proveth to the Jews by his works that he is the Christ, and asserteth his unity with the Father. The Jews go about to stone him; he justifieth his doctrine; and escaping from them goeth beyond Jordan, where many believe on him.
John 10


Daily Light - Morning
He hath chosen us in him
before the foundation of the world.

That we should be holy and without blame before him in love.

God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth: whereunto he called you...to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. - Whom he did forever know, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified. - Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ.

A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. - God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness.
Eph. 1.4; Eph. 1.4
2 Th. 2.13-14; Ro. 8.29-30; 1 Pe. 1.2
Ezek. 36.26; 1 Th. 4.7


Daily Light - Evening
If the LORD would make windows in heaven, might
this thing be?

Have faith in God. - Without faith it is impossible to please him. - With God all things are possible.

Is my hand shortened at all, that it cannot redeem? or have I no power to deliver?

My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. - Prove me now herewith, saith the LORD of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.

Behold, the LORD'S hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear. - LORD, it is nothing with thee to help, whether with many, or with them that have now power.

But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead: who delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver us: in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us.
1 Ki. 7.2; Mk. 11.22; He. 11.6; Mt. 19.26
Isa. 50.2
Isa. 55.8-9; Mal. 3.10
Isa. 59.1; 2 Chr. 14.11
2 Co. 1.9-10


A Puritans Catechism
Q 40 - What did God reveal to man for the rule of his disobedience?
A - The rule which God first revealed to man for his obedience is the moral law, which is summarised in the ten commandments.

The 1689
Baptist Confession of Faith
Of the Assurance of Grace and Salvation
Chapter 18
PARAGRAPH 3
​
This infallible assurance does not so belong to the essence of faith, but that a true believer may wait long, and struggle with many difficulties before he be partaker of it;9 yet being enabled by the Spirit to know the things which are freely given him of God, he may, without extraordinary revelation, in the right use of means, attain thereunto:10 and therefore it is the duty of every one to give all diligence to make his calling and election sure, that thereby his heart may be enlarged in peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, in love and thankfulness to God, and in strength and cheerfulness in the duties of obedience, the proper fruits of this assurance;11—so far is it from inclining men to looseness.12
9 Isa. 50:10; Ps. 88; Ps. 77:1–12
10 1 John 4:13; Heb. 6:11–12
11 Rom. 5:1–2,5, 14:17; Ps. 119:32
12 Rom. 6:1–2; Titus 2:11–12,14


Robert Murray M'Cheyne - God Makes A Path - Daily Devotional Readings
A shield for sinners
Behold, God is my salvation;
Isaiah 12 v 2

If trembling sinners only knew the person who had undertaken to be a Saviour, it would dispel all their fears. He is the brightness of God's glory, and the express image of His person. He is the peerless, matchless Son of God that has undertaken to stand for us. He is the maker of the world. He that sees the end from the beginning. 'By him were all things made.' He made the sun, moon, and stars, He made the solid earth. He upholds all things by the word of His power.
Do you think He would fail in any undertaking? Co you think if He engages to be a shield for sinners, that He will not be enough to cover them? Oh! be ashamed of your unbelief, and come under this infinite Shield. 'Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid.' Come, trembling soul, under this divine Shield, and you will find divine peace. Come under this Rock, and you will find rest for your weary souls. It matters not what sins you have; if you come to Christ, you shall have peace.