Easter season: Jesus the good shepherd

Do not despise the little ones I myself will search for my sheep, And will seek them out. Ezekiel 34:11   Read Matthew 18:10—14 I only need to pause this night and the people Jesus is speaking about will come to mind. I know them. It is he who is directing my mind to them.…

Easter season: Jesus the good shepherd

Why do you doubt? He drew me up from the desolate pit, Out of the miry bog. Psalm 40:2   Read Matthew 14:23—33 Something is coming to mind. Some time is coming to mind. To my mind. I am sure there has been a time when I felt almost dared to trust Jesus. I mean…

Easter season: Jesus the good shepherd

Coming in, going out He makes me lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside still waters. Psalm 23:2   Read John 10:7—10 Coming in, going out. Coming in, going out. I love that easy language. There’s something very trusting about sheep that have found the shepherd they can really trust, who has their…

Easter season: Jesus the good shepherd

Hearing his voice He leads me in right paths For his name’s sake. Psalm 23:3   Read John 10:11—16 I need this prayer time tonight. I need quiet times for discernment. I need time set aside to sort the voices that have spoken to me during the day, the influences that pull me in their…

Easter season: New life through Christ

Who I am Yet you have made them a little lower than God And crowned them with glory and honour. Psalm 8:5   Read 1 John 2:12—17 When I quieten before God and reflect and confess, my prayer can go like this: ‘I’ve sinned. I’m faithless. I forget who you are. I submit to the…

Easter season: New life through Jesus

Freed from sin When God looks upon Christ he sees the sinner, And when he looks upon the sinner he sees his own dear Son. Martin Luther   Read Romans 6:3—11 Let me look back upon this day. I’m sure I’ll find in it reminders of my sinful nature. There’ll be something thought or done…

Easter season: New life through Jesus

God is God anyway But the one who endures to the end Will be saved. Matthew 24:13   Read 2 Kings 5:9—19 I’m not sure how to regard Naaman, except that he is so like me. He was a powerful man (that’s not like me), an army commander, reduced to desperation by leprosy. He was…

Easter season: New life through Jesus

Walking in newness of life Just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, So we too might walk in newness of life. Romans 6:4   Read John 5:5—11 Tonight I have the opportunity for a face-to-face with Jesus. I think of this man, thirty-eight years an invalid. Thirty-eight years…

Easter season: New life through Jesus

Liberty in Christ Then I will teach transgressors your ways, And sinners will return to you. Psalm 51:13   Read Colossians 2:9—15 Never! Never must I forget the sheer liberty I have in Christ Jesus. The record of this very day, all its shames, all its little compromises, the responsibilities I failed to assume, the…

Easter season: New life through Jesus

My Lord and my God That you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, And that through believing you may have life in his name. John 20:31   Read John 20:24—29 I live among people who are firm, I would say solid, brick-hard in belief. And among those who…