Bible Focus                                

Bible Focus started as a brief daily devotion in mid-2012. I found I was soon sharing the thoughts the Lord was giving me, with an increasing number of brethren via sms phone messages. The task and number of messages became too large to pursue every day, which gave rise to this blog of daily devotions linked to  our church website: http://www.pentecostalfamilychurch.com.au  

Here, all those who wanted to access the daily portion and make it part of their personal devotional time of prayer and study, could do so at any time it suited them.

Over the past year, 356 plus devotionals on various parts of the Scriptures, have resulted. These offer a full year of daily spiritual servings for contemplation and discipline in the Word. I do not profess to have the greatest or best content, but have prayerfully tried to offer a focus and brief look into portions of God’s Word and verses not usually visited for devotional purposes, or in fact in some cases hardly read at all! While providing some comments and thoughts, the brief messages contained in each entry have been intended as primers or starting points for further personal meditation, study and development, or maybe as seed for sharing and discussion.

Some have suggested that an audio version would be useful and in some cases desirable. As requested, I intend to make this endeavour available in audio format also for those who may prefer or be more inclined or limited to listen rather than actually read.

With God’s help I will in time return to Bible Focus and attempt to produce a second year of brief notes on various scripture passages, so that they may be used either as an am/pm devotional focus in the Bible, or as a means of alternating the daily devotional from one year to the next, so that the material offered may remain fresh to the reader.

I covet the prayers of those who have participated by reading these simple offerings, and pray with all humility of heart that some benefit to the soul, help in the Christian walk and encouragement to study God’s Word further and deeper, may ensue from them. I know I have personally benefited from the prayer, study, research and meditation which have gone in each brief article every day for the past year.

I glorify the Lord Jesus for all He has supplied: all inspiration, understanding, thought and word, for without Him and the help of His Holy Spirit, there would be no spiritual understanding, strength or growth.

May the Lord richly bless every faithful believer who daily builds relationship with Jesus by fervent prayer, and drinking deeply from the everlasting, fresh and restorative fountain of His Holy Word.

July 3

 “But godliness with contentment is great gain.” 1 Timothy 6:6

Godliness is God-centeredness, having the Lord at the centre of all aspects of life, or as Poole puts it: “…the exercise of a true faith in Christ, conjoined with a holy life…”! The outflow of all we might call ‘true religious piousness’, the practice of holiness, along with the serenity of the sufficiency which is found in Jesus, is truly great riches! Those who have built this level of relationship with the Lord are satisfied individuals, people who will not need much else in life. The truth and depth of the text before us, escapes most believers. All too often godliness is taken to be a burdensome chore, an unwelcome imposition on mind, heart and time. Unholy, disgruntled and discontented ‘Christians’, are merely church-going, pew warmers! That is not at all the life to which Christ has called us to follow! He is the King Eternal and His riches are our great gain, if we but partake of the kind of life He wants us to live. It is a life of holiness, faithfulness and love; a life filled with new discoveries of truth and life principles, freshly delivered to us by His Holy Spirit every day! It is a life that fulfils, contents and satisfies beyond anything which we ever experienced prior to knowing the Lord! The key is living it the way Jesus wants us to live it, according to His word and in His Spirit. It is like having a very specific recipe which when followed will yield the desired result. Obviously if we choose to change the values, contents or method, in the recipe, we cannot expect the same outcome! Yet foolishly so many think they can manipulate God’s precepts to suit themselves and still retain a contentment in Christ, a fulfilling joy or a sense of real purpose, direction and growth! 

http://www.pentecostalfamilychurch.com.au/devotion

Apr 18

“…also upon the servants…will I pour out my spirit” Joel 2:29

God makes it amply clear in His Word that He is not a respecter of persons. Our text further confirms this truth, as in it the Lord, through the prophet Joel, promises to pour out His Spirit upon all (human) flesh, excluding no one as to gender, age or social status. In providing salvation for lost humanity, Yahwah had to break the bondage of sin, cleanse and remove it from the soul, and sanctify the individual by imparting His holiness, through the agency of His Holy Spirit, and the direction of His Word! The ministry of God’s outpoured Spirit in the heart and minds of those who believe, promotes the holiness of God, and makes it possible for fallible and imperfect humans, to live in righteousness and grow into perfection. This endowment is not restricted to those who are wealthy, worthy or well positioned. God includes all who will believe and accept His provision, in the blessing and glory, of becoming ‘new creatures in Christ’. The love of God is so powerful and all-inclusive, that it reaches to the most distant of mankind, the lowliest, and the most depraved, and makes available to each, should they accept and believe, the redemption the Saviour has supplied. We cannot but rejoice in the great and wonderful reality of God’s amazing grace and awe-inspiring love! It reaches out to each of us, and without regard for who we may be, or the condition we are in, opens wide the doors of spiritual life here on earth, and the potential of a blissful eternity with the Lord in heaven.

http://www.pentecostalfamilychurch.com.au/devotion

Feb 18

“Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” Ephesians 4:3

As can easily be verified by a reading of the Epistles, even from its beginnings, the church was adversely affected by the factions, divisions and strife so common and peculiar to our flawed human nature. The exhortation before us is a hearty encouragement to work hard and consistently, at the maintenance of the ONE mind and accord, identifying the ONE Body of Christ, into which we have all been baptised by the ONE Holy Spirit! There is no division in God! His unity should be reflected in us as His people. Firstly, by each of us being truly one with Him. This means taking on His life, His ways, His will, and making it our own, and in this way aligning ourselves with Him. Secondly, by being united one with another, in purpose, manner, desire, peace and love. This harmony clearly does not happen automatically, nor is it our natural bent. It takes effort, and it is a clear Christian duty and endeavour, to instigate and keep the kind of unity and accord which pleases God, and correctly reflects His nature. Without God’s Spirit in us, and a willingness on our part to yield to His influence, we will not be able to remain close, even less in true concord. This is one of the wonderful aspects of the ministry of the Holy Spirit, which God pours into each believer, when we come to salvation! God’s Spirit strives in us, to preserve the unity God desires in His church. When we yield our personal preferences, agendas and control, to the Holy Ghost, and humbly follow His lead, we place ourselves in the best and most favourable position, to help maintain the kind of harmony and connection, God wants for His people. Our carnally induced contentions, frictions, criticisms and discontents, cannot but produce divisions and obstruct the condition of peace and unity, which must exist among believers. The bond of peace is a strong bond if we remain ‘in the Spirit’, but can conversely become fragile, when we step out of the flow of the Spirit of God and into our own fleshly mode. Those who claim to be believers yet insist on bellicose opinions, antagonistic behaviour, negative conversations and contentious unedifying attitudes, are not walking worthy of the vocation of peace-keeping to which the Lord Jesus has called us, and which we must in all humility of heart fulfil.

http://www.pentecostalfamilychurch.com.au/devotion