Lord's Day May 10 2015

We started the day yesterday with a few of us gathering to look at reconciliation in our Bitesize Theology series. The morning service was a little down in numbers. We seemed to have a lot of Nigerians present for one reason and another, although one whole family was missing for some reason. There were four children for Sunday School during the sermon, which is good for us. I preached on the opening verses of 1 Corinthians 16 on the subject of giving. I took opportunity to note what the passage does not say as well as what it does say. In the evening we had tea before the meeting as we do every other month. A Muslim lady came for the service. I believe it was her first time in a Christian church. Providentially a former Muslim sat next to her and chatted to her before we started. The lady had to leave before the sermon was over but I think this was to keep a prior appointment rather than because of anything I said. I was looking at the Lord's Prayer and what I had to say about coming to God as our Father resonated, I think. We pray.

Yet another Sproul kindle freebie

If you look here you will see that you can currently get a free kindle version of R C Sproul on the Lord's prayer.

Praying for Saudi Arabia

From Global Prayer Digest

Saudi Prince Al-Saud was making a strong appeal to some of the Council of Ministers in his father’s Kingdom. “The lesson to be learned from the recent upheavals in the Middle East is that Arab governments can no longer afford to take their populations for granted, or to assume that they will remain … subdued. Nor can the soothing instruments of yesteryear which were meant to appease serve any longer as substitutes for meaningful reform. For any reform to be effective, it has to be the result of meaningful interaction and dialogue among the different components of a society, most particularly between the rulers and the ruled. It also has to encompass the younger generation which, in this technologically advanced age, has become increasingly intertwined with its counterparts in other parts of the world.”
Saudi Arabs make up the majority of Saudi Arabia’s 25.7 million people. However, almost 35 percent of the inhabitants are from outside of the country. Officially Saudi Arabs follow a strict form of Sunni Islam known as Wahhabism. No faith other than Islam is permitted among Saudi citizens. However, there are nearly a million Christians from foreign countries in the land.

Daily Devotions 02

Earlier this year I tried to combine some devotional reading with my Bible reading and prayer. I found a puritan work here and tried to read a bit each day but that didn't work out. I just found this site and may be that will help in future. This site may also be of interest but has very limited content.
To help with prayer I use GBM's Prayer Diary and the Operation World Prayer Diary (there should be a button for this in my sidebar). More recently in a desire to pray for persecuted Christians with better intelligence I have tried using the prayer guides here and here. I've also turned my own personal prayer diary into an html file for easy access at the same time.
While still in a prayerful spirit I then try and make quick visits to my online bank, my facebook and twitter accounts and one or two other things sometimes eg Youtube.

52 JC No 6

Matthew 6:13. And lead us not into temptation ...
Some people have split this petition into two. This is wrong: for the nature of the subject makes it manifest, that it is one and the same petition. The connection of the words also shows it: for the word but, which is placed between, connects the two clauses together, as Augustine judiciously explains. The sentence ought to be resolved thus, That we may not be led into temptation, deliver us from evil. The meaning is: “We are conscious of our own weakness, and desire to enjoy the protection of God, that we may remain impregnable against all the assaults of Satan.” We showed from the former petition, that no man can be reckoned a Christian, who does not acknowledge himself to be a sinner; and in the same manner, we conclude from this petition, that we have no strength for living a holy life, except so far as we obtain it from God. Whoever implores the assistance of God to overcome temptations, acknowledges that, unless God deliver him, he will be constantly falling.
The word temptation is often used generally for any kind of trial. In this sense God is said to have tempted Abraham, (Genesis 22:1) when he tried his faith. We are tempted both by adversity and by prosperity: because each of them is an occasion of bringing to light feelings which were formerly concealed. But here it denotes inward temptation, which may be fitly called the scourge of the devil, for exciting our lust. It would be foolish to ask, that God would keep us free from every thing which makes trial of our faith. All wicked emotions, which excite us to sin, are included under the name of temptation Though it is not impossible that we may feel such pricks in our minds, (for, during the whole course of our life, we have a constant warfare with the flesh,) yet we ask that the Lord would not cause us to be thrown down, or suffer us to be overwhelmed, by temptations
In order to express this truth more clearly, that we are liable to constant stumbling and ruinous falls, if God does not uphold us with his hand, Christ used this form of expression, Lead us not into temptation: or, as some render it, Bring us not into temptation. It is certainly true, that “every man is tempted,” as the Apostle James says, (1:14 ) “by his own lust:” yet, as God not only gives us up to the will of Satan, to kindle the flame of lust, but employs him as the agent of his wrath, when he chooses to drive men headlong to destruction, he may be also said, in a way peculiar to himself, to lead them into temptation In the same sense, “an evil spirit from the Lord” is said to have “seized or troubled Saul,” (1 Samuel 16:14 :) and there are many passages of Scripture to the same purpose. And yet we will not therefore say, that God is the author of evil: because, by giving men over to a reprobate mind,” (Romans 1:28 ,) he does not exercise a confused tyranny, but executes his just, though secret judgments. ...