Short devotions for meetings

September is usually when local churches begin their calendar year. Programs and projects, classes and congregational gatherings which have been set aside for summer, get back into their full swing. As the people of God gather for different events - classes, studies, dinners, team meetings, and boards, pastors and other church leaders are often requested to begin the events with a short devotional.

Over the years that I have served as a pastor, I have written hundreds of devotionals which are short and to the point. I've used them with the congregation I serve, as well as other meetings in other churches. years ago, I had to hand write or print out those devotions, however, with the advent of tablets and kindles, I can now easily carry devotions with me anywhere.

The two e-books that I have written for pastors and church leaders contain 60 devotions each - 120 devotions in total, which is enough to last for several years. They can also be used as discussion starters for any small groups. Each devotion contains a highlighted Bible verse, a short commentary, followed by a quick prayer. All of the devotions have been tried and tested at various functions and gatherings where I was a participant.

Because pastors and churches normally work on tight budgets, I've kept the price down to $1.99 each or the equivalent of 3 cents a devotion :) Those pastors who have purchased these books have enjoyed reading and using them. For your convenience, I have listed them below this post.

May God bless all of your work for the Lord. May all of your hopes and dreams be fulfilled.

God be with you.

Church Meeting Devotions: A Great Savior

Hosea 14:4 I will heal their waywardness and love them freely, for my anger has turned away from them.

Podcast Version here:

Sometimes when I make mean mistakes or selfishly sin, I think that God is deeply disappointed and angry with me. I find it difficult to approach Him with the right contrition and sincerity, so I end up wondering if I will be forgiven. I don’t feel worthy enough to be saved or good enough to be pardoned, and sometimes a darkness overwhelms my soul. It’s a frightening thing to fear God and to think that He will harshly judge me.

And then, just as I need it most, the Spirit leads me to a biblical verse which turns out to be a wonderful promise of God’s grace in action. Even as a pastor, I need to hear God speak to my soul. And He does today through these wonderful words of Hosea. It’s as if God is saying to me: “I will heal your waywardness and love you freely, for my anger has turned away from you.”

I don’t know if you’ve ever seen the movie, ‘Amazing Grace.’ It’s all about William Wilberforce, the great anti-slave trade opponent who gave his life seeking to abolish slavery throughout Britain and her colonies. In one scene from the movie, Wilberforce is seen talking to John Newton, the slave trader turned preacher. Newton is agonizing over his sinful past and despairingly expresses his deep regrets. At one moment, he is almost overwhelmed with his past wickedness. Then he boldly declares: “I know two things – I am a great sinner and that Christ is a Great Savior.”

We all carry burdens of past mistakes and each of us have moments when we feel our guilt before God. But His grace through Jesus Christ is so almighty and complete, that all our sins can be forgiven, our past burdens can be relieved, and our future hopes can be restored. We just need to come to Christ in prayer to receive these wonderful blessings.

Prayer: Father God, we know that we offend, disappoint, and anger You with our sinful ways and selfish choices. We confess to doing stupid things and making serious mistakes. We seek Your mercy and forgiveness through Christ’s sacrifice and grace. In His Name, we humbly pray. Amen.

John Stuart is the pastor at Erin Presbyterian Church in Knoxville, Tennessee. If you would like to comment on today’s message, please send him an email to pastor@erinpresbyterian.org.

Church Meeting Devotions: Saving Grace

Ephesians 2:4-5 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions-it is by grace you have been saved.

‘There but for the grace of God, go I’ was one of John Wesley’s sayings. It was his way of expressing thankfulness to God for mercy, whilst at the same time realizing his own human weaknesses. If it wasn’t for God’s grace, John Wesley felt that he would have been overcome by all sorts of evil and sin.

Recently, I visited with the AA group that meets in our church. My usual Bible study had been cancelled, so I took the opportunity to make a house-call amongst the Twelve Steppers. It brought back memories to me and, as I sat there, I inwardly thanked God for His power and influence over me which kept me from remaining a hopeless alcoholic.

It was also good to see other men who had traveled that road, too. I admired their courage and knew of the struggles they described. It was a really good meeting and the Twelve Steppers are very supportive. None of them are judgmental; and all of them, including myself, began their sharing with the words: “Hello, my name is …., and I’m an alcoholic.”

But the grace of God just isn’t for alcoholics. It’s for all of us. It’s for the busy mother who is worn out looking after her children. It’s for the harassed worker who is trying to meet an urgent deadline. It’s for the school teacher who tries each week to inspire her students to learn something new. It’s for the teenager who is struggling with peer pressure, who wants to do what is right. And it’s for the senior who sees the world changing faster than ever and wonders where the good old days have gone.

The grace of God is for each of us. As human beings we are weak, frail, prone to temptation and apt to sin. No matter who we are or what we’ve done, we all need the grace of God to grant us that divine opportunity to begin again, to take a step in the right direction, and to be lovingly embraced by God. In other words, our lives are rescued from the messes that we create through the love, mercy, and grace of God in Jesus Christ our Lord.

So no matter who you are today or what you’ve done in the past, receive a new beginning through the gracious love of God.

Prayer: Lord Jesus, we make mistakes in our lives that negatively affect our relationships, spoil our dreams, and sometimes destroy our hopes. We come to You, seeking Your grace to give us the opportunity to begin again and start anew. We know that we don’t deserve this, but that’s why You call it ‘grace.’ Be with us and love us. In Your Holy Name, we pray. Amen.

John Stuart is the pastor at Erin Presbyterian Church in Knoxville, Tennessee. If you would like to comment on today’s message, please send an email to pastor@erinpresbyterian.org.

Church Meeting Devotions: R & F

Luke 24:47 …and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in His Name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.

It’s hard to preach this kind of message in today’s world. With so many people turning away from the Church, society is beginning to make up its own rules and regulations about what is and isn’t moral. Children who are given no boundaries, for instance, grow up with savage natures. People who have no conception of God, do not see any need for either repentance or forgiveness. The Church itself, which is supposed to be the faithful fence-keeper which keeps the boundaries intact, has sadly diminished its role and responsibility by relinquishing its devotion to Christ.

It’s almost as if we’ve turned back the clock and are living once again in New Testament times. Christians who lived in that world were surrounded by pagan temples, idols, and gods. People were superstitious and fearful, living their anxious lives and expecting disaster to be brought upon them by the wrath of the gods.

But Christianity changed all of that by revealing Christ’s grace, restoring hope into an unhappy world, and showing people how to live their lives positively and productively by adhering to the Christian creed. It didn’t happen overnight because it took about 400 years to complete and many good Christian people sacrificed their lives rather than give up their beliefs about Jesus.

It seems to me that the Western Church is wasting its well earned faith by embracing the world on society’s terms. We give up on the good far too easily and accept the mediocre far too readily. All of us need to repent, to confess that we have allowed the world and all of its distractions to make our faith easier instead of stronger. It’s time to ask Christ for forgiveness for straying away from Him, the Gospel, and God’s Word. The Church needs to re-Christianize itself and de-modernize its mistaken ideas. Instead of merging with the world and emerging as a social Christless institution, we need to re-immerse ourselves in New Testament Christianity and be humbly aware that boundaries do exist. Rather than re-invent the Gospels to accommodate our societal beliefs, we need to return to Jesus and follow Him.

Prayer: Lord Jesus, we have allowed ourselves to stray from Your path by indulging our feelings rather than securing our faith. We repent of our reckless ways and seek Your forgiveness. Allow us the gift of discernment and the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Restore us to Your Kingdom and God’s favor forevermore. Amen.

John Stuart is the pastor at Erin Presbyterian Church in Knoxville, Tennessee. If you would like to comment on today’s devotional, please send him an email to pastor@erinpresbyterian.org.

Church Meeting Devotions: Rebel Cry

How a religious rebel kept his faith in the midst of injustice and oppression.

Psalm 138:1 I will praise you, O LORD, with all my heart; before the "gods" I will sing your praise.

Podcast version here: http://media.libsyn.com/media/stushie/Rebel_Cry.mp3

This is a rebel psalm. It was perhaps written when the Jewish people were exiled in Babylon and found themselves surrounded by images and idols, statues and altars to the mighty gods of the Babylonian empire.

In such conditions, people usually become overwhelmed, but not the guy who wrote this psalm. When he bows down in front of the other ‘gods’, he doesn’t give his heart to them. When he sings praises, he doesn’t offer them to Bel or Nebo. And when he prays, he doesn’t ask foreign idols to intercede on his behalf.

On the outside, he may have looked like any other convert to paganism, but within himself he keeps his faith fully focused on the God of his fathers, the Jehovah of Jerusalem, the Lord God of hosts.

I love this psalm because it encourages God’s people to hold on to their faith in the midst of trying circumstances. This person would be silently praying in schools and public places. He would organize and attend underground churches in China. He would hold on to hope in the midst of a Nazi concentration camp. He would keep the faith no matter who or what tried to take it away from him. This psalm is a sacred poem of a religious rebel.

We may never experience anything like this in our lifetime, but the lesson that we learn from this psalm is the same as that of which Paul once wrote: “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:38-39)

Prayer: Lord Jesus, thank You for the courage of some of God’s people whose faith never fails them, even in the midst of tyranny, oppression, and injustice. We pray especially for Christian groups in China that seek to worship You, even though they are constantly harassed, arrested, and imprisoned. Help us to be reminded of the true cost of faith and of the blessings that we freely experience. In Your Holy Name, we humbly pray. Amen.

John Stuart is the pastor of Erin Presbyterian Church in Knoxville, Tennessee. If you would like to comment on today’s message, please send him an email to pastor@erinpresbyterian.org.

Church Meeting Devotions: Trying Times

Isaiah 43:2 When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze.

Podcast version here:

http://media.libsyn.com/media/stushie/Trying_Times.mp3

To paraphrase Thomas Paine, “These are the times that try the souls of men and women.”

The Stock Market has crashed again and the recession is getting deeper. No matter how many bail outs that our leaders employ, they just don’t seem to be working. We’re now at a 12 year low as far as the financial market is concerned, which means that we’re right back to where we were in 1997. If we follow the same pattern to reach our all time highs, it’s going to take about seven years to make up for the difference.

A lot of people are unsettled and sadly some have become unemployed. Everyone is tightening their belts and reducing costs. For the moment, gone are the days of unlimited credit cards, spending sprees, and buying luxuries. Most folks are doing well with what they have and just glad to be surviving.

In times like these, faith in God becomes a bulwark, an anchor, and a fortress. We need to feel that no matter what we are experiencing, He will help us to endure. That’s why today’s words, expressed and written by the prophet Isaiah 2700 years ago, are highly relevant to what we are going through.

When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze.

In other words, no matter what we face, our fears will not overwhelm us and our troubles will not destroy us.

Prayer: Lord Jesus, these are anxious times and we all worry about the future. We pray that You will help us endure and support us in the coming years. Remind us also that our lives and our faith are eternally invested in You. Guide us, protect us, and love us. In Your Holy Name, we earnestly pray. Amen.

John Stuart is the pastor of Erin Presbyterian Church in Knoxville, Tennessee. If you would like to comment on today’s message, please send him an email to pastor@erinpresbyterian.org.

Church Meeting Devotions: Lucky Charms

Isaiah 46:7 They lift it to their shoulders and carry it; they set it up in its place, and there it stands. From that spot it cannot move. Though one cries out to it, it does not answer; it cannot save him from his troubles.

When I was at High School all the girls used to wear silver bracelets with lucky charms. The charms were made up of tiny bells and lamps, carriages and locks, precious stones and symbols. The bracelets were beautiful, but I wonder how much good luck they actually brought to the girls who wore them.

For thousands of years, humanity has fashioned silver and gold into millions of lucky charms. Some of the earliest archaeological finds are fertility and prosperity charms shaped into bracelets, necklaces, and amulets. People of every place, age, and civilization want to be rich and happy, prosperous and wealthy. These days, you’ll even find lucky charm symbols on our coins, notes, and lottery tickets!

The Bible constantly reminds us that our lives are not subject to fate or luck. Our lives are given to us by God. If we are prosperous, we bless Him for our successes. If we are in trouble, we look to Him for salvation. And when at last, we leave the surly bonds of earth, we look to God to grant us everlasting life through Jesus Christ, our Savior, our Deliverer, and our Lord.

Prayer: Lord Jesus, the world tries to tell us how to be a successful winner in life, but Your Gospel reminds us that even if we owned the whole world, but lost our soul in the process, we would gain nothing eternally. In these uncertain times, remind us that we will not always be in this world, and that Your word is more precious than silver or gold. In Your Holy Name, we pray. Amen.

John Stuart is the pastor of Erin Presbyterian Church in Knoxville, Tennessee. If you would like to comment on today’s message, please send him an email to pastor@erinpresbyterian.org.

Church Meeting Devotions: Dead Reckoning

I can see the headlines now: “Palestinian Preacher Distresses Grieving Family,” with a possible quote: “He totally dishonored my dead Dad, dude.”

Matthew 8:22 But Jesus told him, "Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead."

Sometimes Jesus comes across as being hard-headed, uncaring, and insensitive to our modern hearts and minds. After all, how could anyone who claimed to be giving a message of God’s love, be so mean spirited about a death in the family? Was Jesus just having a bad hair day, or is there something hidden in His words?

I think what Christ is really saying is this: anyone who chooses not to follow Me is dead to God. In other words, Jesus is the only source of eternal life for each one of us and if we hold back on believing in Him, then our life is wasted.

But even that is highly controversial these days because our modern cosmopolitan society does not want to diminish anyone’s religious beliefs, or even their non-beliefs. Surely all religious paths bring us to God’s Kingdom? Isn’t Jesus being a bit presumptive and narrow-minded by insisting that those who don’t believe or don’t follow Him are better off dead?

It’s a tough choice and one that is very difficult to preach, hear or accept these days. But despite our objections, different opinions, and one world choices, there’s no denying this: Jesus said it, so we have to choose to live with or without it.

I wish that the Gospel was much easier to accept. I wish that Jesus hadn’t expressed those hard-headed, My Way or the highway words. But wishing is not going to change a thing about what Jesus said in the past. However, whether I choose to accept or reject them will shape and change my eternal future. One thing is for certain in my mind: I’d rather be alive with Christ than be dead to God.

Prayer: Lord Jesus, following You is not an easy path. Time after time, You say things that bother us, in order to challenge our cherished ways and put us on the right track. Open our hearts and minds to Your words and ways. Keep us from rejecting Your truth and help us to embrace Your Gospel. In Your Holy Name, we pray. Amen.

John Stuart is the pastor of Erin Presbyterian Church in Knoxville, Tennessee. If you would like to comment on today’s message, please send him an email to pastor@erinpresbyterian.org.

Church Meeting Devotions: Cold Water

Matthew 10:42 “And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is my disciple, I tell you the truth, he will certainly not lose his reward."

In my opinion, Scottish faucet water is the best drinking water in the world. As I’m writing this, I can still remember hot summer days of my Glasgow childhood, with me running into my house and slaking my thirst with a cold glass of clear water from the kitchen tap. It had its own particular taste, almost like a cold mountain river, and was very refreshing. The water also made great tea, which I have never been able to make here in the United States.

These days, I drink my water from a refrigerated filtered Brita jug, which is about as close to Scottish water as I can get. It meets my needs, especially during the very hot summer months that we experience here in East Tennessee. The filter needs to be replaced about every two months, otherwise the water doesn’t taste as good. It makes me sometimes wish that I had a pipeline all the way beneath the Atlantic to my hometown in Scotland, so that I could drink the fresh water of Loch Katrine, from where Glasgow gets its wonderful water.

When Jesus mentions giving fresh water to the little ones around Him, He’s talking about the future disciples of the church. He’s stating that those who will support and encourage them, in a future time of persecution, will be blessed because of the help they give to these upcoming followers of Christ. These days, I think this is the equivalent of teaching the faith to our kids in Sunday School, Vacation Bible School, and any other church program that helps children to learn about God and come closer to Christ.

Christianity is facing many challenges right now, so the faith that our children and grandchildren possess will be tested and perhaps sorely tried by the society that they are growing up into. This makes it very important for older generations to do as much as they can to support church children, as well as the teachers and leaders of these programs. The future of our faith depends upon the dedicated discipleship of those who teach the truths of Christianity to our children. They are the cold water cup bearers of our kids.

So let’s stop and think about those who are called and charged to teach faith to the church of tomorrow today. Let’s thank God for their commitment and honor them for their work.

Prayer: Lord Jesus, the little ones of our churches and communities need to hear and experience the stories of God and about Your Life. As they grow up into a world which may become hostile to our faith, we pray that the focus, dedication, and commitment of our present day teachers may inspire, encourage, and strengthen our children’s faith. In Your Holy Name, we gratefully pray. Amen.

John Stuart is the pastor of Erin Presbyterian Church in Knoxville, Tennessee. If you would like to comment on today’s message, please send him an email to pastor@erinpresbyterian.org.

Church Meeting Devotions: Community Calamity

Ezekiel 7:26 Calamity upon calamity will come, and rumor upon rumor. They will try to get a vision from the prophet; the teaching of the law by the priest will be lost, as will the counsel of the elders.

I cannot think of a more terrifying situation for a community of faith to be in. Ezekiel’s ranting about the loss of vision, teaching, and counsel reflects a time when the people of God were in absolute disarray. Their land was about to be overtaken and their people enslaved yet again. The political leaders could not parley with their enemies. God seemed to be absent from the whole situation and the religious leaders had no message of hope to give to the people.

As you know, faithful readers, I worry a lot about the National Church. I’m concerned about the lack of vision and leadership, sound teaching and spiritual counsel. We seem to be heading down into a dead end and even although we can see it, we don’t want to accept it. It’s as if we’re in some sort of huge spiritual denial and we don’t have the savvy to turn around and head back in God’s direction.

Recently, I’ve also been thinking about the wee church that I serve. It’s constantly growing, full of new ideas and people. We’ve been through some setbacks, but God always seem to lead us to something better and bigger. I just wish that our National Church would do the same. If a wee church like Erin can keep growing, there must be something that we’re doing that is right in God’s eyes compared to what’s happening nationally.

That’s why we’re entering into a new phase at Erin. We want to keep growing spiritually and numerically. We want to influence our community and make an impact for God’s Kingdom. We want to continue putting Christ at the center of who we are, what we do, and how we practice our faith. It’s not that we’re perfect, holy, or far superior than those around us – far from it. We’re just trying to please Jesus and help others experience that self-same joy of serving the Lord.

So this morning, we pray for a prophetic voice and vision to be heard and seen in our national Church. We pray for sound spiritual teaching to be placed before the people. And we ask that the counsel of all the elders across the church will emerge from being focused and centered on Christ. Otherwise the terrifying prophecy of Ezekiel could be our National Church’s ultimate destiny.

Prayer: Lord Jesus, thank You for the blessings that You have given to our wee church. Thank You for the vision of things to come, the teaching of the truth, and the wise counsel of our elders. Help other wee churches in other places begin to experience the same, so that Your Name may be truly honored and glorified, praised and adored. Amen.

John Stuart is the pastor of Erin Presbyterian Church in Knoxville, Tennessee. If you would like to comment on today’s message, please send him an email to pastor@erinpresbyterian.org.

Church meeting Devotions: Crossless Christians

Luke 14:27 And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.

We live in a cross-less society, where people are not willing to carry their own burdens or endure any trouble. Even some Christians want their faith to be light, worry-free, and non-challenging to their life-style choices. It’s as if we’re saying to Christ and His first disciples, “that cross carrying stuff is old-fashioned. We want to emerge as new Christians, who are free to reject what we don’t like of the old ways and re-invent our faith. We want it all to be light and fluffy, likeable and popular. We don’t want to carry nasty crosses anymore.”

The trouble is this: when we do that, we’ve become a New Age religion and no longer cross-carrying Christians. We want our faith to be convenient instead of persistent. We want it to be experienced on our terms instead of Christ’s. Rather than place Christ at the center of all things, we want Him to be focused on us. We want Jesus to like us and love us, laugh with us and live with us, instead of confronting and challenging us, or converting and changing us.

Sometimes I wish that Jesus had never said things like ‘anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.’ I wish that He had uttered something like ‘disregard your crosses, have fun with Me, and you can be My friends.’ But He didn’t. Christ knew that life was hard and that in every generation Christians will be faced with two choices: to throw off their crosses and go their own way, or to wearily pick up their heavy burden and plod on, following Jesus all through life.

Having faith in Jesus is never going to be easy, but one day we will get to lay our crosses at His feet and enjoy His peace forever. But if we want it all now, we will never experience that everlasting joy and peace.

Prayer: Lord Jesus, sometimes we want to give up being Christians and just fall into line with the rest of the world. It would be a whole lot easier just to ignore Your words and to go our own way. Instead of feeling guilty, we would be unburdened and could live our lives free from any commitment, challenge, or change. But You have called us to carry our crosses, to endure the world’s dislike, and to experience the cost of faith. It isn’t an easy path to follow, but we pray that You will enable and empower us to keep on going, so that we may emerge as real Christians and not phony disciples. In Your Holy Name, we humbly pray. Amen.

John Stuart is the pastor of Erin Presbyterian Church in Knoxville, Tennessee. If you would like to comment on today’s’ message, please send him an email to pastor@erinpresbyterian.org.