Wednesday, 7th August

READING:

Hebrews 10:24-26

MEDITATION:

Hebrews 10:10-25

When you leave church on a Sunday do you feel you have met with the Living Lord Jesus?

People treat church as we treat ice cream.  When it comes to ice cream, we all have our preferred flavour.  For many of us Ice cream is a comfort food.

When it comes to church, we have a particular idea of how it should look, and what the flavour should be.  We have a preferred sermon style; we have our favourite songs which we want sung, etc.  We easily get caught up in tradition.

But the key question we must all ask is; “What does the Bible say about church?”  For the Bible has a lot to say.  Jim packer writes;  “Essentially the church is not a human organisation as such, but a divinely created fellowship of sinners who trust a common saviour, and are one with each other because they are all one with him in a union realised by the Holy Spirit.”

We are told what preaching should look like.  Paul tells the young pastor Timothy that he must correctly handle the word of truth.  That is, teach the Bible properly and carefully.  That’s why we are committed to expository preaching at CCB.

The Bible speaks of worship and what that is all about.  It speaks of praising Jesus.  The Bible tells us why we should meet together physically, and why we should not stop meeting together.  The Bible is clear that we must come to encourage one another.  We don’t come for moral lessons, or theological lectures.  We come to hear Jesus.  In the end it is really all about Jesus.

We must never give up on wanting to put Jesus into people’s lives.  We want people to be encouraged to live for Jesus, for we all need Jesus.

PRAYER:

O Lord, you are the God.  You have called us together and have formed the church with Christ as its head.

Please help us to put aside what we want and to ask of you: ‘What do you want us to do?’

I pray that I would come to church wanting to encourage others in Jesus.

And to praise Jesus, and to hear from Jesus, amen.

PRAYER for WEDNESDAY:

Today we pray for the following 6 things:

• That we at CCB, would never give up on teaching the Bible with great care; understanding that it is your word to us.
• That we at CCB, would be a church that is filled with Jesus. We will always have the priorities of Jesus as our priorities.
• Pray that we will not stop meeting together; that we would make an effort to come to church and fellowship with one another.
• Pray that we would together, lift our praises to Jesus, and in song encourage one another in Jesus.
• Pray that newcomers would be welcomed and loved at CCB, whomever they may be.
• Pray for all those involved in planning and leading church on Sunday.