The people walking in darkness have seen a great light;
on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned.
TO PONDER
Continuing with my reflection on my family Christmas tree growing up as a young lad in the country, I used to love sitting in the evening gazing at the tree with its lights on and no other light on in the room. Well, this is something I have continued to do to this day. Our current tree is a stunning large 8’ foot artificial pine that commands the centre of attention in any room. For me, it is a peaceful, almost tranquillizing experience to sit in the room with no lights on other than those we have on our beautiful tree. These lights transform the blackness of the room into a warm inviting glow of light that dispels the darkness.
Just like our passage from the book of Isaiah addressing the people of Israel, that portrays the coming of Christ Jesus like a light shining in the darkness to save the broken world filled with sin, despair and suffering.
The relevance of this verse for us today remains as strong as ever. We live in a world that remains broken and is full of confusion, despair, fear, suffering, unrest and selfishness. We all experience moments of personal struggles, societal issues and spiritual doubts. Today’s message underpins the hope and promise that Jesus brings into our world born to us in a manger in Bethlehem. The hope that our living Saviour provides us in our lives today through purpose, clarity, comfort, fellowship and guidance as well as the hope of the promise of Iife eternal with Him in Heaven.
Yes indeed, Christ’s light dawns for all of us in our bleak and weary world, just like dawn follows the darkest part of the night. What tremendous hope we have in Jesus, our light shining in the darkness. Come Lord Jesus, come.
PRAYER:Lord of Light. All my hope is in You. Amid the worlds despair and uncertainty, I know if I love and follow You, that You will provide me with strength to persevere and endure difficult times. You are my true hope. You are the light of the world. Amen
Today's devotion written by Shane Burdack, LifeWay Lutheran Church
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth."
TO PONDER
We are continuously encouraged in our walk of faith to try and be Christ-like in all that we do. Our best attempts to do this will be pleasing to God as we will be focussed on many of the areas that He cares about as well as shining Christ’s light for others to see, helping to bring others to Him as part of our earthly Christian mission.
Today’s Advent verses come from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. Jesus delivers the Beatitudes which are a set of blessings that highlight the qualities and attitudes valued in the Kingdom of Heaven and emphasizes the spiritual gifts for those who embody these virtues.
In yesterday’s devotion I reflected as a child often gazing at our family Christmas tree, hoping for what gifts might be there for me on Christmas day. The spiritual gifts we are promised in today’s scripture, are eternally fulfilling compared to any material possessions we may strive or hope for, with each unveiling a layer of depth and insight into the blessedness that we will find in God’s Kingdom.
To be poor in spirit means a state of humility and recognition of our own spiritual poverty before God. Mourning extends beyond sorrow from a personal loss to a repentant heart from a deep sense of godly sorrow for sin and the brokenness of our world. Whilst meekness, in total contrast to weakness means strength under control, characterisd by gentleness and self- restraint.
We are challenged to look beyond material possessions and social status to recognize the value of having a humble and compassionate (Christ-like) heart. So, rather than focusing on worldly success or power, Jesus invites us to cultivate a spirit of humility and caring for others, which leads to true blessings and fulfillment in life. What wonderful gifts to reflect on this Advent.
PRAYER:Lord of Hope. Help me to be humble, compassionate and to approach life with a servant orientated heart. I am truly thankful for all the gifts you shower upon me and those that await me, despite the fact that I am undeserving of them all. Thank you for all your gracious gifts. Amen
Today's devotion written by Shane Burdack, LifeWay Epping
See, the Sovereign Lord comes with power, and he rules with a mighty arm.
See, his reward is with him, and his recompense accompanies him
TO PONDER
Today is the first Sunday in Advent. We prepare for Christmas and the treasured gift that our Lord gave to us (in His only son born in a lowly stable in Bethlehem), as well as the season of hope and anticipation of His return, His second coming.
As a child, I vividly remember our family Christmas tree being put-up and decorated during this time while we listened and sang carols together. It was only once the tree was up, that my brothers and sisters and I became acutely aware and excited, that Christmas was on our doorstep and would soon be here. I often sat and looked at our beautiful family tree hoping for what I might find under it wrapped with my name on it on Christmas eve or Christmas morning. Advent was indeed a time of hope for me as a child growing up, as I'm sure it still is for many children around the world, even Christian children - including some adults.
Advent more than ever remains a time of hope today for me and I trust for you, my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. Hope – "a feeling of expectation and desire for a particular thing to happen." (Oxford dictionary).
As living disciples, we eagerly anticipate our Lord and saviours return. His second coming will not be an inconspicuous one in a cattle food trough as a totally vulnerable baby, but it will be all powerful with a strong hand and mighty arm! As believers we will be rewarded on Christ's return, with the promise of a place in our eternal home in Heaven, that He has prepared for each one of us.
This hope for us overwhelmingly exceeds an expectation! It is a promise and God keeps His promises!
What a wonderful and comforting thought for us to take through the season of Advent and in fact, everyday as we walk our earthly life journey.
PRAYER:God of hope. Shelter me from the busyness and many distractions in this secular world. During this Advent season, keep me focussed on my preparation to celebrate your birth in a manger in Bethlehem, and help me to prepare wholeheartedly for your second coming where You will take me home with You to Paradise. Amen
Today's devotion written by Shane Burdack, LifeWay Epping
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life”
To Ponder
Jesus word in our reading reminds us that eternal life isn’t just a future promise; it’s a present reality that shapes how we live today. When Jesus says, “whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life,” He is inviting us into a life anchored in God’s love—a love so vast it redefines our values, our purpose, and our perspective on time.
Living for eternity means seeing beyond what we see, here today, gone tomorrow. It calls us to invest in what lasts. Our choices, words, and relationships become opportunities to reflect the everlasting life we’ve already received in Christ. This eternal mindset doesn’t detach us from the present; it deepens our engagement with it. We live more purposefully, love more freely, and serve more faithfully because our hearts rest in something that cannot be lost.
Every day, the call of eternity reminds us that life is not about accumulation but transformation. The God who gave His Son has already secured our future; now we are free to live for what truly endures.
Prayer
Lord of life and eternity,
Thank you for the gift of Your Son and the promise of everlasting life through him. Teach us to live with eternity in view—to love deeply, give generously, and trust completely. When the things of this world distract us, turn our eyes back to what is eternal. May every moment we live reflect the hope and joy that come from knowing You.
In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Today’s devotion is written by Pr Nich Kitchen, LifeWay Epping
“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
To Ponder
Every day, people work hard for what they earn—wages, recognition, success. Yet we are reminded in our reading that sin, too, pays a wage: death. It’s the inevitable outcome when life is disconnected from God’s presence and purpose. But God offers something entirely different: not more wages to earn, but a gift to receive—the gift of eternal life through Jesus Christ.
Living for eternity means exchanging the mindset of earning for the posture of receiving. It means measuring life not by temporary success, but by eternal significance. Each day becomes an opportunity to live in gratitude for God’s grace, to shape our choices by his love, and to invest in what will last forever: faith, hope, and love.
So, pause today and ask: Am I living for what will fade, or for what will never end? Christ offers a life that is not measured in years but in eternity—a life already beginning now in him
Prayer
Lord Jesus, thank you for the free gift of eternal life through your sacrifice. Help me to live each day with eternity in my heart, turning away from sin and embracing your grace. Guide my steps to reflect your love and truth, so my life honours you now and forever. Amen.
Today's devotion is written by Pr Nich, LifeWay Epping
“And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.”
To Ponder
Reflecting on these verses I began to wonder whether we live as though this life is all there is. We easily forget who we are and seek to find meaning by what we achieve, what we have, or what we experience. But the Lord reminds us through John that life, in its truest sense, does not start or end with earthly moments. Eternal life is a present reality for all who belong to Jesus. It is not simply unending existence; it is a quality of life built on our relationship with Jesus—one that begins now as his presence transforms how we see ourselves, others, and the world around us.
To “have the Son” means to live each day connected to the one who conquered death. It means drawing our purpose, identity, and hope from him. When we live with eternity in view, our values begin to change. Temporary achievements take their proper place, and the love and grace of Jesus become what truly matter.
So today, I encourage you to remember you already hold eternal life—not because of what you have done, but because of who you belong to. Let that truth reshape how you face each moment. Live not for what fades away, but for what endures.
Prayer
Lord Jesus, thank you for giving me eternal life in you. Teach me to live every day with eternity in mind—seeking what lasts and loving others as you love me. Amen.
Today’s Devotion is written by Pr Nich Kitchen, LifeWay Epping
Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them, saying:
“To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honour and glory and power, for ever and ever!”
The four living creatures said, “Amen,” and the elders fell down and worshiped.
TO PONDER
The thing that strikes me most about this passage is all of creation giving glory, honour and power, to God. I think that is perhaps the most stark contrast between this vision of the end of days and our current reality.
It seems that today, particularly in the sphere of humanity, that everyone is out on a quest for their own power and glory. I can't tell you the number of social media posts I have been forced to watch by my teen and pre-teen children of people having a melt down because someone has not recognised or acknowledged them with the respect or 'honour' which they think should be paid them.
I guess the same it true to an extent in the natural world also. In the world of 'eat or be eaten' and 'survival of the fittest', I suppose every moment is one of exercising your own power in whatever way possible to ensure your own survival.
That's a large part of what changes in this scene of Johns revelation experience. When God is rightly recognised as having all power, glory, and power, there is nothing left to claim for ourselves. All we can do as his creatures is bow down and recognise his power and authority and trust in him to provide all our needs. This is the part of eternity that we, as disciples of Jesus, already get to live. The rest of the world may not yet know or acknowledge the reality of God's majesty, but those of us who follow Jesus do and we are invited to live free of the burden of earning or striving for power, and influence for ourselves and simply to rest in the knowledge that our God can do all things. Sometimes e even does them through us.
PRAYER: Heavenly Father, I think you that I have the freedom to live my time here on earth free of the burden of making a name or kingdom for myself. Thank you that by your Spirit, I have come to know the comfort and joy of resting in your name and living in your kingdom. Help me to show others the freedom I have found in you. Amen
Today's devotions written by Mathew von Stanke, LifeWay Newcastle
And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.
TO PONDER:
Every time I move house, I will invariably say that I never want to move again, knowing full well that I would be moving again. I have moved a lot, well over 30 times, one of those times was during lockdown when friends couldn’t come and help and the last time when we had no friends to help, as we were new to the area, so we hired a small company (2 guys with a truck) to help for half a day.
Today’s verse is about moving into a new place, a new place where all the work has been done for you in the moving, its all been prepared for you and paid for by someone else.
Jesus was telling the disciples that he would be leaving them for a time but only to prepare a place for them to be with him again and he was paying for the move (they probably didn’t realise the last part).
There is, and was, some debate in what he was talking about, whether his implication was in regards to his resurrection or about our resurrection after death, whether it was an eschatological statement (after the second coming) or a new-life statement on the other side of grace, for here and now.
In my opinion, I don’t think it matters as both are true. I think sometimes our walk with God focusses on the after-life, our final destination an eternity assurance or if you like, fire insurance.
But what if He was/is talking about the life he prepared for us on the other side of grace, the John 10:10 life, the overflowing life, the new reality of the here and now with God, with his ferocious love, his relentless forgiveness (grace), and what we at Westside call; his unreasonable hospitality towards us ferals?
The language used is bridegroom language, the bridegroom would go ahead of the (future) bride to prepare a place for her. The church (that’s us) became the (present) bride at the resurrection of Christ, so the here and now we live in a new reality, a new place, that he paid for and prepared for us.
PRAYER: Loving Jesus, I thank you for your grace, for coming as a servant to give your life for my new reality, for my new life on the other side of grace, the other side forgiveness. Help me share this life and your grace to all those around me. Amen.
See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.
TO PONDER:
Mondays I spend the morning working in a Café with the idea of getting a head start on the week. Now, the smart thing to do would be to spend the morning working in the Mission House office and avoid interruptions and distractions but if I was smart I would probably not be a church planter.
This week, as I walked through the door of the café I was greeted by the café owner/operators youngest child, a four year old boy, as he smiled at me and asked, “Where’s Mark (Simpfendorfer)?” As his six year old sister came running out from behind the counter to ask the same question, I was only slightly offended.
I ordered my usual large vanilla-latte in a take-out cup, sour dough toast with butter and sat down at a table to spread out my iPad, fold-up keyboard, Bible, notebooks etc. To start a busy morning.
I then found myself trapped, surrounded by two excited kids and that’s where I stayed for the morning, my iPad and phone co-opted by the kids.
Today’s verse is one of a church planter’s favourite passages, talking about new things springing up in the wilderness and streams in the badlands (and after all we are in Penrith), this is what we dream of.
Making a way in the wilderness is what we pray for, what we often beg for, often exhausted from trying to cut a path through the wilderness we beg for God to do the “new thing”, we search for those things we don’t perceive.
Monday was an answer to those prayers when my day was hijacked by two kids who are dragged along to spend the day at their family business, a family who immigrated to Australia with hopes and dreams of their own.
Monday, I was able to be one of the “streams in the wasteland” for that family, I followed the path in the wilderness.
You would be surprised how often an interrupted day and hijacked plans become those paths in the wilderness, and we fail to perceive where God uses us to be streams in the wasteland of people’s lives.
PRAYER: Almighty God, I thank you for all the times you have led me to the unplanned paths into the wilderness where I was able to be a stream in somebody’s wasteland just by being there, showing your love and grace. Amen.
Today's devotion written by Danny Brock, LifeWay Westside