Davy's Devotions

  Do not forget your first love part 2 2 “To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: These are the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand and walks among the seven golden lampstands. 2 I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked people, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false. 3 You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary. 4 Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first. 5 Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place. 6 But you have this in your favour: You hate the practices of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. 7 Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life,...

  Do not forget your first love part 1 Jer 2 The word of the Lord came to me: 2 “Go and proclaim in the hearing of Jerusalem: “ This is what the  Lord  says: “‘ I remember the devotion of your youth, how as a bride you loved me and followed me through the wilderness, through a land not sown. 3 Israel was holy to the Lord , the first fruits of his harvest; all who devoured her were held guilty, and disaster overtook them,’” declares the Lord . The promises of the Lord had been steadfast and sure. Israel had known the Lord's blessing on them and delighted in them. Now God was rebuking them for leaving their first love. He begins by reminding them of the relationship they had and how far into idolatry they had slipped. A people who were separated and made holy in order to display the awesome might and love of God had now become no better than the godless people around them. Is this the case with the church today? Where our lives transformed at t...

  Who is the church? Acts 8:29 The Spirit told Philip, “Go to that chariot and stay near it.” 30 Then Philip ran up to the chariot and heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet. “Do you understand what you are reading?” Philip asked. 31“How can I,” he said, “unless someone explains it to me?” So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. Many years ago when I worked for Prison Fellowship, I planned a trip to Penningham Prison which is close to Newton Stewart around 50 miles west of Dumfries. I usually travel alone but this time I had a new friend I met in a church during a visit there. He had joined Prison Fellowship as a volunteer and asked to accompany me. After about 130 miles travel we broke down somewhere near Gatehouse of Fleet. We were on a long country road but stopped beside a solitary cottage house. We hoped someone was in and when we got an answer we asked to use their phone. PF had given me a breakdown card but it only covered a tow to the nearest ...

 Luke 3:15   The people were waiting expectantly and were all wondering in their hearts if John might possibly be the Messiah. 16   John answered them all, “I baptize you with [ b ]  water. But one who is more powerful than I will come, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with [ c ]  the Holy Spirit and fire. 17   His winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” 18   And with many other words John exhorted the people and proclaimed the good news to them. A few things troubled me this week. I will speak of two. One was reading about the upsurge of Islamic extremism in Mozambique which has let to so far 2,500 dead and a further 750 thousand people being displaced. The second was the Netflix documentary Seaspiracy, in which is highlighted the bad management of our oceans through over fishing, poll...

 Luke 25:   He said to them,  “How foolish you are, and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken! 26  Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?” 27   And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself. I have in the past heard Christians being accused of worshipping the bible rather than God Himself. It may be true that some people stick to every letter of scripture, every rule or at least find ways of living out a biblical life to find salvation without recognising the finished work on the cross.  Perhaps it is more common nowadays for people to play down the bible and make God the god they wish to have rather than the biblical version. Certainly it is difficult to live in today's society and try to uphold a biblical way of life. Yet if we only look to the bible as a set of rules, or a blueprint for life, or even a code for the rev...

  Eccelsiastes 1:9 What has been will be again,      what has been done will be done again;      there is nothing new under the sun. I attended a funeral today. Later after reading a few words on Eccliasiastes which I wrote some time ago, I got to thinking how everything has changed. and yet nothing has changed. While it is true that the car has replaced horse and donkey as a means of transport. Computers surpassing ancient modes of communication and Aeroplanes that can take us to the other side of the word in a few hours, yet the fundamental thigs in life have not changed. People still have children, children grow up and find partners and have more children. People invest time in their work seeking primarily a way to make money to survive comfortably, and if they are lucky a career they can believe in and find satisfaction in their toil. People still undergo a raft of emotions and behaviours: happiness, contentment, greed, anger, love, lust,...