https://www.facebook.com/1512962309029859/

The Good Shepherd, 62 Spital Street, Dartford (2026)

06/01/2024

Life isn’t always easy but it’s refreshing to know that we serve a God who understands our times
and seasons.

Let us know in the comments how we can pray for you!

05/01/2024

▶️ God Wants You To Cast Your Cares On Him

1 Peter 5:7 AMP …casting all your cares [all your anxieties, all your worries, and all your concerns, once and for all] on Him, for He cares about you [with deepest affection, and watches over you very carefully].

03/01/2024

▶️ 2024 Is Your Year of More

📖 Heb. 11:1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

27/12/2023

Week 52
Finishing Strong

2nd Timothy 4:6-8
For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.

Congratulations!! You have run the race and you have completed this devotional. Since it is a weekly devotional, you can go right back to the beginning and start all over again. The Word of God is that it is alive. Just like any other living thing it, what we receive from it changes to us over time. Life is like a football game. It doesn’t really matter what happened in the first three quarters. The most important quarter is the fourth because it’s the fourth quarter that determines who wins!!

Have you ever started something and been fired up about it at the beginning and then towards the end kind of fizzle out? This is because somewhere in the game, you lost your passion. You forgot why you started. The Apostle Paul lived an incredible life. Starting as an educated Jew who was a Pharisee, after being confronted by Christ, he converts and becomes the apostle that takes the gospel to the Gentiles. From imprisonments and persecutions, he went through a lot that could have taken his passion away. Even after being rejected by many of his Jewish counterparts the more trouble he encountered, the more fired up he became about his God. He realized that no matter what people had done to him, that he could not die until everything in him was released. He knew he could not go anywhere until the complete deposit he was to make in the earth realm was completed. He was just as passionate at the beginning as at the end. His missionary journeys were unparalleled in their impact.

When we start, we must have the same determination like Paul to finish strong. The win is not in starting, it’s in finishing. Stop giving up so easily. The moment things get tough we’re ready to give up, that’s not the will and purpose of God for our life. The early church went through hell and most paid with their lives in order to further the kingdom. When we finish strong, there is a reward waiting for us.

Faith Confession: Father, I commit to finishing everything I do strong. I am at peace with the fact that You have called me to greatness. I thank you that my tribulation does not even compare with the tribulation of the Apostle Paul. I will finish work strong. I will love strong. I will pray strong. I’ll serve strong. I will run my good fight of faith and pour out everything I have. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Challenge for the Week: Are you a good starter, but not as good of a finisher? Change it. Passion makes all of the difference. Many times when Christ was tired and needed to rest, he was moved with compassion for the multitude. Ask God to renew your strength and your passion. Stop giving up. Quitters never win and winners never quit!! Finish strong and give it everything you’ve got!!

20/12/2023

Week 51
The Father’s Business

Luke 2:49
And he said unto them, How is it that ye sought me? wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business?

Man is not your source, God is your source. If He takes care of the birds of the air, he’ll take care of you and I. There was such a tremendous amount of controversy brewing around the birth of Christ. Joseph had not yet had sexual relations with Mary so she was a virgin giving birth. Naturally, not many believed that it was an Angel of the Lord that impregnated her.

The King of the Universe was born amongst the filth of animals and laid to rest in a manger. God loves us so much that He sent His son, who is a King, to be born like a peasant. Even though Christ didn’t have an ideal start, He found out what He was called to do and then He did it. This is just how we must be. God has sent us here to further Christianity. Christianity, in its simplest form is Christ’s agenda in the earth.

In the Hebrew culture, rabbi’s (teachers) were like the NBA stars of today. Everyone wanted to be like the rabbi. The young men would be trained from a very early age in the Hebrew scriptures. They were setting a stage that young men would be about the Father’s Business. God’s business is the business of changing lives. Most of the disciples were found doing their father’s trade. When young men were not good enough to apprentice a rabbi they were told to go to their father’s trade. So when Jesus came and told them that He would make them fishers of men, the disciples dropped what they were doing and immediately followed, because those were the words they were waiting to hear for years. Are you about the Father’s business or do you just take a place in a pew? We are part of the oldest company in existence. God’s credit is good and His payroll checks have never bounced!! Put your work clothes on and come join the family business.

Faith Confession: Father, every place my foot treads You have given to me to further Your agenda on earth. You use foolish things to confound the wise. My testimony will touch the lives of many. I will get in the family business and be about it. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Challenge for the Week: Quit running, you can’t hide. Find out how you can serve in your church and then do it.

13/12/2023

Week 50
Spiritual Divorce

Malachi 2:15
And did not he make one? Yet had he the residue of the spirit. And wherefore one? That he might seek a godly seed. Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth.

You’d figure that after thousands of years of seeing God’s faithfulness that the Israelites would stop turning to false gods. Malachi, like most of the books of the prophets, is dealing with the harlotry of His people. Malachi warns the Israelites who are intermarrying with people that serve different gods. God didn’t want His people intermarrying with those that worshipped pagan gods because He knew that would turn them away from Him.

Scripture must be interpreted in one of three ways. The first is literally. The second is in context of the time in which they lived. For example certain things would not have the same meaning to us today because the context would be different. A good example of this would be in dealing with sheep. Most don’t own sheep today, yet we understand the semblance in today’s context is people. Lastly, is what I call the rhema interpretation. That’s what can be learned through the principles illustrated in the text? When Malachi refers to the wife of their youth, he was talking about their relationship with God. We can see this pattern with King Solomon who was turned away from God because his many wives and concubines (girlfriends).

When we make a covenant or an agreement, we are creating a marriage of sorts. It is better to never make a vow than to make one and not honor it. When we don’t honor our covenants, we are committing adultery. This is why sometimes it is very difficult for us to make decisions because we are married to so many different things. Married to our ex, married to the T.V., and married to the past. Anything that keeps us from our relationship with God, is good to remove. If something is keeping you from reading your bible, cut it off. The Lord hates when we divorce ourselves from Him.

Faith Confession: Father, I apologize for allowing anything to come between my relationship with You. Forgive me. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Challenge for the Week: Identify what may be negatively impacting your relationship with God. The Israelites married strange people that carried them away from God, what have you married

06/12/2023

Week 49
20/20 Vision

Habakkuk 2:2-3
And the LORD answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it. For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry.

Nothing in life ever just happens. What we sow we shall reap. Don’t misunderstand, favor has a way of doing things that planning and preparation can’t do, but even favor is a result of something that we sowed. Vision is the difference between soaring like and eagle or floundering like a fish stuck in the mud. Vision is so important that everything in life is predicated upon it. As a man thinks, so is he.

In Numbers, before God sent the Israelites to Canaan, he allowed them to spy it out. What they saw messed them up!! Our vision can sometimes become blurry and we have to go have our vision checked. If your vision is not 20/20, the optometrist will issue what’s called corrective lenses. In other words they will give us something to see through until our vision improves. This is exactly what’s happening with Habakkuk. He says that He will stand his watch and await correction.

To correct our vision, we must write it. Anytime we lose focus, we can go back to what we’ve written. Maybe your goal was to earn a degree, but things keep distracting you – you can go back to your vision to keep your passion on fire. The vision will speak for itself. You don’t have to run around telling people all about your vision, let it speak for itself.

Faith Confession: Father, thank You for helping me to keep things in perspective and on track with what You’ve told me to do. I am confident that
You will bring the vision to pass. I will wait on it because I know it will surely come. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Challenge for the Week: Write your vision. Families sit down together and plot out where it is that you are going. It’s hard for people to submissive when there is no mission. Plot out the big picture and then break it into bite size pieces. Set goals that you can track. Example – I want to be a better money manager. That’s not a good goal because you can’t track that. A better goal – I want to pay off $5,000 in credit card debt. Bingo. Now you have a goal that you can track. Remember take your vision and submit it to Christ’s vision. He’ only obligated to pay for what He’s ordered!!

01/12/2023

Week 48
Changing Our Habits

Jeremiah 16:19
O LORD, my strength, and my fortress, and my refuge in the day of affliction, the Gentiles shall come unto thee from the ends of the earth, and shall say, Surely our fathers have inherited lies, vanity, and things wherein there is no profit.

The God of the Old Testament is the same God of the New Testament. 85% of what’s in the New Testament was derived from the old. Somehow, over the years, believers started seeing the God of the Old Testament as a mean, law giving God and in the New Testament this God of grace and mercy that contrast isn’t true. God has always been in love with all of His creation and His plan has always been to take them back to the state we were in Eden. God has been revealing Himself throughout all of history.

Everyday we make hundreds of choices. Where will we eat for lunch? Will we buy that pair of shoes? The choices we make are all a product of habits that we’ve developed. There are two realms in life - the realm of life and the realm of death. When we are operating in the realm of life everything will succeed. When we operate in the realm of death, nothing will succeed the way we expect it to. Much of what we do is based off of something we saw.

Things like alcoholism are traits that are passed down. Even the smallest habits like how we walk, how we talk and how we interact with people come from somewhere. The prophet Jeremiah is declaring that in the last days the Gentiles (non Jews) would come to the Lord declaring that the habits and teachings that were learned from their fathers were all lies, worthless, and unprofitable. In fact it even goes as far to say that Gentiles would have been shown how to make false gods for themselves, but we would cry out to God for His habits and His ways, which are found in His Word. What bad habits have we learned that we need to disinherit?

Faith Confession: Father, Your Word is coming to pass in my life. I am thirsty for Your habits and Your ways. There is no stumbling in Your ways. I am zealous for good works and zealous to grow. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Challenge for the Week: Write down bad habits in your life in one column and in another your good habits. If you find that your bad habits outweigh the good it’s time to make some changes. Take the list to God in prayer and watch Him begin to change you. Your habits determine your future.

21/11/2023

Week 47
Grace vs. The Law

Romans 6:14-15
For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace. What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid.

Are we bound to keep the holy days and festivals of the Torah? Are we bound to observe the law of God? Let me begin by saying that as Gentiles and not Jews, we are not bound to keep the ritualistic application of the law. The word “Torah” does not translate directly into law. There are three times as many words in Hebrew than in English and in translation, the closest word was “law”. The law was instituted by Moses through the inspiration of God to govern the affairs of the people. The law was so that the God’s people would be different than the pagans. There are 613 mitzvah or commandments in the Torah that governed everyday life.

One of Paul’s biggest discussions in scripture was the battle between Jews and Gentiles. Judaizers arose to try to convince the newly converted Gentiles that in order to have salvation, they had to keep the Torah. In order to walk in salvation, we do not need to keep the Torah. However, it is important for us to know that the bible was a Hebrew book written primarily by Hebrews. As Jews, all of the disciples kept the law. Jesus kept every aspect of the law, which was proof the He was the Messiah. The Torah provides instruction for us to live everyday life. For example, one of the mitzvah was not to eat non kosher animals, like the pig. Of course eating the pig will not kill you; however, many diseases are linked to eating undercooked pork.

The Torah brings order and removes confusion and disorder. The word Torah mean to hit the mark opposed to sin which means to miss the mark. In observing the feasts and Holy Days we honor what’s important to God. All disorder in our lives can one way or another be traced back to something in the Torah including, sickness, bareness, mental and emotional breakdowns, the breakdown of family and marriage, financial insufficiency, su***de & un-natural family deaths, and being accident prone.

Faith Confession: Father, You’ve freed me from the curse of the law which required death. You’ve freed me from the ritualistic application of the law and the sacrifice of animals. Christ was the perfect and final sacrifice. You have given me your Word as a way to bring order into my life. I need order and thank you for teaching me your Word. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Challenge for the Week: Again, remember we aren’t bound to keep the ritualistic application of the Torah. It is provided for us to have guidance and clarity in the decisions that we make. Sometimes the prayers we pray aren’t answered because the answers are already in the Word. My challenge to you this week is to study to show yourself approved unto God. Get into your Word like never before. Don’t just ready, study. Take notes. God’s Word is a lamp for you. It turns on the light!!

15/11/2023

Week 46
What’s Love Got to Do With It?

1st John 3:18
My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.
God is love. The foundation of Christianity is love. God loved us so much that He sent His only so to redeem us from our own sins and failures. His son loved His father so much that He was obedient unto His death, burial, and resurrection. The love of a father is a love that many may not have a clear understanding of. The love God has for us is unconditional. No matter what we do, He will always love us. No matter how far we stray, He will always love us.

The love of a father is an unconditional love. Just like the father of the prodigal son, despite what his son had done, he took him back and restored him. For many, growing up, the love of a parent may have been conditional. Many children seek the acceptance and the approval of their fathers and when they don’t receive that, they can develop a jaded image of God. Love is a decision and not a feeling. Many times in relationships people “fall into love”. The problem with falling in love is that you can fall out of love. Love is a decision. It is in deeds and not just in words.

Do you know what real love is? A shepherd loves his sheep to the point that he’ll leave ninety-nine to get the one that strays. A father that loves his son teaches him the right path and if he strays, corrects him and takes him back. Love is far greater than an emotional state of being, it is a way of life. Loving people are givers. Loving people are compassionate.

Faith Confession: Father, I thank You for making me a person of love. Reveal Your love to me so that I can reveal love to others around me. I choose to love everyday. I love not just through my words, but through my deeds. There is no hatred inside of me. There is nothing in me that is not like You. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Challenge for the Week: It feels good to love. It feels good to have compassion on people. Start everyday with making your faith confession and challenge yourself to demonstrate love to one person everyday. Maybe it’s a co-worker or maybe it’s a complete stranger. Show them love. Let them know that God loves them and is not mad at them. It doesn’t mean that you empty out your bank account to them, but it does mean that you show them the love of Christ. You’ll get flies more with honey than with vinegar!!

The Good Shepherd

06/01/2024

05/01/2024

03/01/2024

27/12/2023

20/12/2023

13/12/2023

06/12/2023

01/12/2023

21/11/2023

15/11/2023

Address

Telephone

Website

Alerts

Contact The Place Of Worship

Shortcuts

Share

Category