Episodios

  • November 8th - Psalm 86:5

    November 8th - Psalm 86:5
    Nov 8 2025

    Psalm 86:5

    O Lord, you are so good, so ready to forgive, so full of unfailing love for all who ask for your help. Sooner or later, everything breaks down. Whether you are thinking of your health, car, bicycle, microwave, computer, vacuum cleaner or heating system, all of them will, one day, encounter problems. In this psalm, David faces up to the fact that we all sin. It’s not pleasant to admit, but we would be crazy to suggest that it doesn’t affect us. Of course, we may try to wriggle out of this by suggesting that our sins are not nearly as bad as other people’s sins but, at the end of the day, we need to acknowledge that we are sinners, falling well short of God’s standards. The Bible doesn’t draw our attention to our sin in order to humiliate us, or to encourage us to beat ourselves up. It shines the light on our sin in order to show us the remedy. In Romans 3:23, the apostle Paul wrote: “For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard.” Sadly, we let God down each day through our self-centredness. Our thoughts, words and actions are all cheapened and spoilt through our preoccupation with ourselves. Because we are not entirely in tune with God, we fail to say and do many things that he would have wanted. The remedy for sin is truly amazing. God offers to wipe it out. He offers to forgive our sins. We are familiar with the fact that failings normally lead to penalties. If I fail to drive at an appropriate speed, or to park in the right place, I am likely to get a penalty, and although we huff and puff, we know that’s what happens and we accept it. But what happens about the penalty for our sin? The Bible tells us that Jesus took that penalty upon himself through dying on the cross. He was perfect, so was able to take the weight of our failures upon himself and offer us forgiveness. God offers his forgiveness to us today and, as we face the facts, we all need to turn to him and receive his gift.

    Question In what ways do you regularly let God down?

    Prayer Lord God, I admit that I have failed you in thought, word and deed and I accept your generous gift of forgiveness. Amen

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  • November 7th - Psalm 86:1

    November 7th - Psalm 86:1
    Nov 7 2025
    Psalm 86:1 Bend down, O LORD, and hear my prayer; answer me, for I need your help. Finding peace and purpose in our lives is something that we all want, and the first step to achieving it is recognising that we need God’s help. David, the author of this psalm, was Israel’s king in about 1000BC and had that experience time and again. This was clearly one of those times. He knew that although he was incredibly wealthy and powerful, he simply couldn’t manage without God. Bernard Levin was one of the most respected political commentators in the UK. He once wrote: “Countries like ours are full of people who have all of the material comforts they desire, yet lead lives of quiet (and at times noisy) desperation, understanding nothing but the fact that there is a hole inside them and that however much food and drink they pour into it, however many motorcars and television sets they stuff it with, however many well-balanced children and loyal friends they parade around the edges of it…it aches!” I firmly believe that it is only God who can answer that ache. Only when we acknowledge our need of him can we start on the road to finding his peace. Calling out to God is where it begins, and we can all do that. It may begin with a simple cry of: “God help me. I can’t do it by myself.” There is no need to come up with a long or polished prayer. God loves it when people tell him they need him because he can then get to work, doing what he loves to do and answering our prayers. However, God steadfastly refuses to work in our lives without our permission. The Bible shows us that time and again, God let people reject him and go their own way. He often warned them of the consequences of their actions, but he never compelled them to follow him, and he won’t do so today. God waits for us to recognise our need, and then the journey can begin. Question When did you last tell God how much you need him? Prayer Loving God, thank you that you hear my prayers and are willing to answer them. Amen
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  • November 6th - Psalm 85:8

    November 6th - Psalm 85:8
    Nov 6 2025
    Psalm 85:8 I listen carefully to what God the LORD is saying, for he speaks peace to his faithful people. Listening is crucial to every part of life, but that doesn’t mean it is a simple process. It requires a huge amount of thought and care, so it isn’t surprising that courses in listening are widely available these days. There are essentially five stages to the listening process: receiving, understanding, evaluating, remembering and responding. I am sure the psalmist would have seen this as a good description of what it meant to “listen carefully” to the Lord. It’s possible to hear someone speaking without taking on board anything that they have said, but when you listen, you deliberately receive what they are saying. However, even that isn’t enough. You need to understand the words they are using. Without that, their words are nothing more than sounds. Having understood the words, they need to be evaluated. What exactly was the person trying to say, and how does it apply to you personally? When God speaks to us, we need to see how his words relate to our everyday lives. We then need to remember his words so that they continue to influence our thinking. However, all of this process is worth nothing unless we respond to what we have heard through our actions. The Bible’s truths can wash over our heads and have absolutely no effect, or they can transform our lives. As I write these notes day by day, I am acutely aware that the key question is whether we are truly listening to what God is saying. We all hear many voices each day – from friends, family, colleagues, the media and so on – but the crucial question is whether we are giving quality time to listen to the voice of the living God. Question What could you do to help you to listen more fully to God’s voice day by day? Prayer Lord God, thank you that you are a God who speaks. Help me to listen more attentively to you each day. Amen
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  • November 5th - Psalm 84:10

    November 5th - Psalm 84:10
    Nov 5 2025
    Psalm 84:10 A single day in your courts is better than a thousand anywhere else! I would rather be a gatekeeper in the house of my God than live the good life in the homes of the wicked. I wonder if you’ve ever experienced homesickness. I certainly have. I loved the years I spent in India and my Indian friends couldn’t have been kinder or welcoming, but there was still a deep longing to see my family and friends and to experience cold weather! At the time, the phone connection between India and the UK was very poor, and in two years I only managed to make one incredibly expensive call to my parents. The line was very crackly and it was very difficult to hear anything, but there were tears rolling down my cheeks as I heard their distant voices. I think the only information we shared that could be clearly heard was them telling me it was raining in Essex, and me informing them that it was hot in India! The psalmist was thoroughly homesick when he wrote this particular psalm. The home that he longed to be in was the temple. We don’t know why he was unable to get there, but he couldn’t have described his anguish more powerfully. He wrote: “I long, yes, I faint with longing to enter the courts of the LORD. With my whole being, body and soul, I will shout joyfully to the living God” (Psalm 84:2). Clearly, the temple itself was incredibly precious to the psalmist, but his longing was to be close to God. He spoke of the joy of those whose strength comes from the Lord and then movingly described the way that even “when they walk through the Valley of Weeping, it will become a place of refreshing springs” (Psalm 84:6). Even the worst experiences of life can be miraculously transformed when we place our lives into God’s hands. No wonder the psalmist concluded that it would be better to have the lowest job of all in the presence of God than to have all power and wealth and live at a distance from God. The psalmist’s words are a good reminder for us all of the incredible blessing and privilege of spending time with God. Question How important is it to you to spend time with God? Prayer Lord God, I praise you for the blessing of living in your presence. Amen
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  • November 4th - Psalm 82:3-4

    November 4th - Psalm 82:3-4
    Nov 4 2025
    Psalm 82:3-4 Give justice to the poor and the orphan; uphold the rights of the oppressed and the destitute. Rescue the poor and helpless; deliver them from the grasp of evil people. When I was in my 20s, I lived in an Indian village for a year. I had the incredible privilege of living with a family of Dalits, who have generally been known as untouchables. Dalits form about a quarter of the Indian population and have always been regarded as the lowest of the low. My Indian family was a typical extended family with a granny, mum, dad, three children and various aunts who would stay with us from time to time. They generously opened their home and their hearts to me and gave me the most amazing insight into their way of life. In doing so, they opened my eyes to injustice on a scale I had never seen before. Every part of their lives was defined by the fact that they were Dalits. Life was a daily struggle as they lived with the certainty that they would never receive fair treatment from society. It was distressing to see how they were constantly disadvantaged in education, employment and even in the justice system. This is the experience of many people in our world today, and we need to remember that our God is passionate about justice. This psalm, like so many others, focuses its attention on the obligation that God’s people have to live justly and to speak up for the oppressed. Here, Asaph refers to the vulnerable members of his own community – the poor, the orphans, the oppressed, the destitute and the helpless. He is scathing about their leaders, who lived in total ignorance “wandering about in the darkness, while the whole world is shaken to the core” (v5). We can’t solve all the injustices in the world, but we can all get informed. We live in an age that has more readily available information than ever before. To be ignorant of the issues can only be because we have refused to hear the cries of the vulnerable members of our community. The world is truly being shaken to the core and, for God’s sake, we need to act. Question In what ways could you work for justice today? Prayer God of justice, I praise you for your love for all people and your passionate desire that everyone should be treated with care and dignity. Amen
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  • November 3rd - Psalm 81:10-11

    November 3rd - Psalm 81:10-11
    Nov 3 2025

    Psalm 81:10-11

    “For it was I, the LORD your God, who rescued you from the land of Egypt. Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it with good things. But no, my people wouldn’t listen. Israel did not want me around.” We probably all know the feeling when someone doesn’t want us around. It’s painful. For some reason, they don’t come out with it plainly and clearly, but we get the clear impression that we are not welcome. However, it is much more tragic when people decide that they don’t want God around, and that’s how the psalmist described Israel. He was the God who had led them out of slavery in Egypt. He was nothing less than their God of salvation, but time and again they rejected him and refused to listen to him. We are not just talking about ancient history – we are describing our society today. The majority of people totally ignore God. They don’t want him around because they think he will spoil their fun. They are concerned that they will lose their freedom. However, we need to take every opportunity to inform people that actually he is the God who wants to fill their lives with good things. As the psalmist put it in Psalm 84:11, “The LORD will withhold no good thing from those who do what is right.” Far from spoiling our fun, God’s desire is to complete our enjoyment of life. Far from limiting our freedom, God enables us to find true freedom for the first time. The key to receiving God’s blessing is listening. Israel’s refusal to listen to God was at the heart of their downfall. God is kind and merciful, and as soon as we listen to him, he is able to bless us. Listening is much more than simply hearing. The listening that we need to do is all about giving God our full attention and showing our willingness to turn his words into action. When we listen like that, it is like opening our mouths wide, and, when we do, God is then able to fill us with good things.

    Question Why do we often find it hard to listen to God?

    Prayer Lord God our Father, we thank you that you are always looking for an opportunity to bless us. Help us to listen hard to your voice and be willing to turn your words into action. Amen
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  • November 2nd - Psalm 80:19

    November 2nd - Psalm 80:19
    Nov 2 2025

    Psalm 80:19

    Turn us again to yourself, O LORD God of Heaven’s Armies. Make your face shine down upon us. Only then will we be saved. When someone looks at us with their full attention and warmth, it tells us everything we need to know – that we are welcome and that they are on our side. On three occasions in this psalm, Asaph expresses his longing that God’s face would shine upon the people. This psalm was probably written at the time of the fall of Samaria to the Assyrians in the 8th century BC. The destruction of the ten northern tribes left little Judah terribly exposed and the people feared for their lives. In their despair, they turned to God and longed that he would turn his face to them and give them his blessing. God longed to give his people his blessing. Any loving father does, and the Old Testament makes clear to us that it was consistently God’s desire. Today’s verse reminds us of the Aaronic Blessing which we find in Numbers 6:24-26: “May the LORD bless you and protect you. May the LORD smile on you and be gracious to you. May the LORD show you his favour and give you his peace.” I love every opportunity to use those precious words. They poignantly express God’s desire to smile on us, but he will only do so when our lives are turned towards him in obedience and trust. Long ago, a friend showed me a picture of her father. He was smiling warmly and she explained that when the photo was taken, he was looking at her. I think that’s a beautiful picture of our God who longs to smile at us and throw his arms around us, but can only do so when our lives are committed to him.

    Question In what way do you believe God smiles on you?

    Prayer Loving God, thank you for your continual love and faithfulness. Help me to turn my full attention to you each day. Amen

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  • November 1st - Psalm 78:2-4

    November 1st - Psalm 78:2-4
    Nov 1 2025

    Psalm 78:2-4

    I will teach you hidden lessons from our past – stories we have heard and known, stories our ancestors handed down to us. We will not hide these truths from our children; we will tell the next generation about the glorious deeds of the Lord, about his power and his mighty wonders. In a speech in the House of Commons in 1948, Winston Churchill paraphrased the philosopher Santayana when he said: “Those who fail to learn from history are condemned to repeat it.” This was precisely the concern of Asaph as he wrote this particular psalm, reflecting on five centuries of the life of the people of God. Time and again they had disobeyed God, but he had consistently responded with love and forgiveness. Asaph was concerned that future generations should be reminded of their history, and of the gracious way in which God had provided for his people. Teaching the next generation about God always needs to be a priority for the Church. I often find that the approach to children’s and youth work is incredibly patronising. I hear people say, “They are the church of tomorrow”, but that precisely misses the point. Children and young people are an integral part of the Church of today, and we will have no future unless we are energetically and enthusiastically reaching out to them with the good news of Jesus. Passing on the faith to younger generations is always a challenge because the world changes so fast. The ways in which we communicate have changed out of all recognition in the last few years. Twitter (now X) only came into the world in 2006. Snapchat was born in 2011. TikTok arrived in 2016. Billions of messages are sent every year on platforms that didn’t exist only a few years ago. Of course, the good news of Jesus Christ doesn’t change, but how we communicate it needs to, and we must ensure that the resources for this are available. If we fail to do so, the danger is that the sad history of people’s disobedience to God will repeat itself.

    Question What are you doing to ensure that younger generations are hearing the good news of Jesus?

    Prayer Lord God, we praise you for your faithfulness through thousands of years. Help us to be faithful in passing on this wonderful message to others. Amen
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