Hi Brian!

Today's Evening Devotional by Charles Spurgeon is another one that I really like!

"All they that heard it wondered at those things." — Luke 2:18

We must not cease to wonder at the great marvels of our God. It would be very difficult to draw a line between holy wonder and real worship; for when the soul is overwhelmed with the majesty of God's glory, though it may not express itself in song, or even utter its voice with bowed head in humble prayer, yet it silently adores. Our incarnate God is to be worshipped as "the Wonderful." That God should consider His fallen creature, man, and instead of sweeping him away with the besom {broom} of destruction, should Himself undertake to be man's Redeemer, and to pay his ransom price, is, indeed marvellous! But to each believer redemption is most marvellous as he views it in relation to himself. It is a miracle of grace indeed, that Jesus should forsake the thrones and royalties above, to suffer ignominiously below for you. Let your soul lose itself in wonder, for wonder is in this way a very practical emotion. Holy wonder will lead you to grateful worship and heartfelt thanksgiving. It will cause within you godly watchfulness; you will be afraid to sin against such a love as this. Feeling the presence of the mighty God in the gift of His dear Son, you will put off your shoes from off your feet, because the place whereon you stand is holy ground. You will be moved at the same time to glorious hope. If Jesus has done such marvellous things on your behalf, you will feel that heaven itself is not too great for your expectation. Who can be astonished at anything, when he has once been astonished at the manger and the cross? What is there wonderful left after one has seen the Saviour? Dear reader, it may be that from the quietness and solitariness of your life, you are scarcely able to imitate the shepherds of Bethlehem, who told what they had seen and heard, but you can, at least, fill up the circle of the worshippers before the throne, by wondering at what God has done.

I really LOVE meditating on the awesome WONDER of Who our God is, and all that He has already done for us! I find myself thanking Him, sometimes with every breath, for LOVING ME and for NEVER giving up on me! Knowing that this wonderful life that HE has given me is so very far from what is ahead for us in the next life is almost impossible to fathom! So much of the new worship music is so powerfully real and on point! Here is another of my favorites concerning revival by Brandon Lake called "Rest On Us":

Love and Shalom from the Swoveys!

Hi Brian!

This week I want to share again from Charles Spurgeon's evening devotional from my PC Study Bible.

"Then opened He their understanding, that they might understand the Scriptures." — Luke 24:45

He whom we viewed last evening as opening Scripture, we here perceive opening the understanding. In the first work He has many fellow-labourers, but in the second He stands alone; many can bring the Scriptures to the mind, but the Lord alone can prepare the mind to receive the Scriptures. Our Lord Jesus differs from all other teachers; they reach the ear, but He instructs the heart; they deal with the outward letter, but He imparts an inward taste for the truth, by which we perceive its savour and spirit. The most unlearned of men become ripe scholars in the school of grace when the Lord Jesus by His Holy Spirit unfolds the mysteries of the kingdom to them, and grants the divine anointing by which they are enabled to behold the invisible. Happy are we if we have had our understandings cleared and strengthened by the Master! How many men of profound learning are ignorant of eternal things! They know the killing letter of revelation, but its killing spirit they cannot discern; they have a veil upon their hearts which the eyes of carnal reason cannot penetrate. Such was our case a little time ago; we who now see were once utterly blind; truth was to us as beauty in the dark, a thing unnoticed and neglected. Had it not been for the love of Jesus we should have remained to this moment in utter ignorance, for without His gracious opening of our understanding, we could no more have attained to spiritual knowledge than an infant can climb the Pyramids, or an ostrich fly up to the stars. Jesus' College is the only one in which God's truth can be really learned; other schools may teach us what is to be believed, but Christ's alone can show us how to believe it. Let us sit at the feet of Jesus, and by earnest prayer call in His blessed aid that our dull wits may grow brighter, and our feeble understandings may receive heavenly things.

I LOVE this! I've often shared in Adult Bible Study at church that we, Pastor and myself, teach the Word, but it is Holy Spirit Who teaches US what that Word says and means, and how to put it into practice! My prayer for you in 2025 is that Holy Spirit will be able to teach you great and mighty things that you have not known every time you open up with Word of God! Here is Hillsong with "Your Word":

Love and Shalom from the Swoveys!

Hi Brian!

The word for this week is "stones". We find it in a few verses in the New Testament, but we will be looking at just one of them today.  1 Peter 2:5:

5 [Come] and, like living stones, be yourselves built [into] a spiritual house, for a holy (dedicated, consecrated) priesthood, to offer up [those] spiritual sacrifices [that are] acceptable and pleasing to God through Jesus Christ. AMP

This is the Greek word "lithos". Vine's Expository Dictionary says: stones of the ground, tombstones, building stones, millstones. The verse above is speaking of born again believers being as stones brought together to build a spiritual 'house' where God is glorified, His Word is obeyed and shared and His praises are lifted up! I LIKE being part of THAT house! This new song by Josiah Queen with Brandon Lake speaks of GOD being the KING of 'rolling stones'! I think that's us! Here is that song!

Love and Shalom from the Swoveys!

Hi Brian!

I was really moved by today's Charles Spurgeon devotional on my PC Study Bible and I want to share it with you!

"And God saw the light." — Genesis 1:4

This morning we noticed the goodness of the light, and the Lord's dividing it from the darkness, we now note the special eye which the Lord had for the light. "God saw the light"—He looked at it with complacency, gazed upon it with pleasure, saw that it "was good." If the Lord has given you light, dear reader, He looks on that light with peculiar interest; for not only is it dear to Him as His own handiwork, but because it is like Himself, for "He is light." Pleasant it is to the believer to know that God's eye is thus tenderly observant of that work of grace which He has begun. He never loses sight of the treasure which He has placed in our earthen vessels. Sometimes we cannot see the light, but God always sees the light, and that is much better than our seeing it. Better for the judge to see my innocence than for me to think I see it. It is very comfortable for me to know that I am one of God's people—but whether I know it or not, if the Lord knows it, I am still safe. This is the foundation, "The Lord knoweth them that are His." You may be sighing and groaning because of inbred sin, and mourning over your darkness, yet the Lord sees "light" in your heart, for He has put it there, and all the cloudiness and gloom of your soul cannot conceal your light from His gracious eye. You may have sunk low in despondency, and even despair; but if your soul has any longing towards Christ, and if you are seeking to rest in His finished work, God sees the "light." He not only sees it, but He also preserves it in you. "I, the Lord, do keep it." This is a precious thought to those who, after anxious watching and guarding of themselves, feel their own powerlessness to do so. The light thus preserved by His grace, He will one day develop into the splendour of noonday, and the fulness of glory. The light within is the dawn of the eternal day.

There are a few people in my life that truly SHINE with the LIGHT of God's LOVE, and you are one of them! I don't even know if you knew JESUS when we first met you, but I DO know that HE KNEW YOU! The love, joy and peace that you helped return to my GORGEOUS Goddaughter's face spoke volumes to me of the person that you were and the even greater one that you have become! Together you are such a FORCE! I truly believe that GOD has some very special and maybe unique things in store for the precious Weber family this next year and I cant wait to celebrate them! We love you all so much! Here is another of my favorite songs by Brooke Ligertwood called "Bless God":

Love and Shalom from the Swoveys!