Falmouth Evangelical Church

04/09/2026

Our services this coming Lord's Day will be led by Patrick Buckley (Hope Church, Truro) @ 10:30 am and our Pastor @ 6:30 pm
All welcome to either or both services

Devotional for the coming Lord's Day from John Hooper
Dear Friends,

“Drop down, ye heavens, from above, and let the skies pour down righteousness: let the earth open, and let them bring forth salvation, and let righteousness spring up together; I the LORD have created it.”

(Isaiah 45:8)

The long hot summer is over and the recent downpours of rain have been most welcome. They bring refreshment, life and fruitfulness to the earth and we give thanks for them. But in our text it is not rain that is being sought from heaven: it is righteousness. The desert conditions are not caused by a shortage of water but a lack of all that is right, just and virtuous. And just as the rain washes the earth of the dust and filth that accumulates during a period of drought, so it is showers of righteousness that bring spiritual cleansing to all whom they pour down upon.

Righteousness comes from above, from God to whom alone righteousness belongs. On earth there is none righteous, no, not one, until He drops down righteousness into the hearts of men just as the rain itself falls down from the clouds. Do we understand this, that we have no righteousness of our own, and that we can neither work it nor produce it? It does not and cannot come from within us or from around us, but only from above. Heaven is where the righteous Saviour is, He who is the Lord our righteousness. The only righteousness that can be ours is His, so it must drop down. Oh, that righteousness would pour down! Only then, as righteousness falls, does it bring forth the precious fruit of salvation.

We should notice that our text is largely a prayer, but have you ever prayed such a prayer as this for yourself? Have you sought the righteousness that is from above? “Drop down, ye heavens, from above, and let the skies pour down righteousness upon the desert that is my dry and fruitless heart. Drop down upon the dust and filth that attach themselves to me, and cleanse me; drop down to rid me of my guilt and of all that defiles; drop down to cover me like a robe of fine linen, clean and white, clothing me with the garments of salvation, delivering me from my condemnation and from death. Drop down!”

Drop down so that righteousness might bring forth more righteousness. Yes, righteousness begets righteousness so that we live unto righteousness; we follow righteousness; we work righteousness; we suffer for righteousness. The fruits of righteousness spring up in the life as works of thankfulness that are worthy and acceptable to God; the fruit of the Spirit in the heart; obedience and faithful service in the life. Do you know that? Do you know it in your own experience and see those fruits in your life? Do you see that righteousness? It is the righteousness of Christ Himself, the righteous One who came down to be made sin for us, “that we might be made the righteousness of God in him” (2 Corinthians 5:21).

We cannot but be conscious of the spiritual desert, the moral morass, that is all around us. We cry, what is the answer? There is only one. It is the answer of this very Scripture, that the heavens themselves would drop down from above, and the skies pour down, righteousness. There is no other source but heaven, no other help or hope for us but God, no other Saviour but the crucified, risen and ascended Jesus. Oh, that righteousness would drop down upon our loved ones, our neighbours, our colleagues, our politicians and royal family, that they might love righteousness and hate wickedness. What a difference it would make! The words of the prophet are as valid now as ever: “It is time to seek the LORD, till he come and rain righteousness upon you” (Hosea 10:12).

What a miracle it is that there is any righteousness at all! That there still remains a remnant is only according to the election of grace. That there is a local church where you and I are able to meet with others similarly clothed in righteousness to worship the King of righteousness and hear the Word of righteousness is only because, as our God has said, “I the LORD have created it.” He rains down showers of righteousness, one here and another there, according to the sovereignty of His grace. The righteousness that is ours is so only because God in His grace has sent it. O that there might be more such showers!

May that be our prayer today, that in this time of spiritual drought the skies will yet pour down righteousness upon the barren soil of men’s hearts, that righteousness might yet spring up across the land.



He shall come down like showers
Upon the fruitful earth,
And love, joy, hope, like flowers,
Spring in His path to birth:
Before Him on the mountains
Shall peace, the herald, go;
And righteousness, in fountains,
From hill to valley flow.

James Montgomery (1771-1854)

26/08/2026

Our Wednesday evening prayer meetings will restart on 9th September (DV)

22/08/2026

Devotional from John Hooper for the Lord's Day 23rd August 2026- services @ FEC will be led by our Pastor (DV)
ALL WELCOME @ 10:30 am & 6:30 pm

Dear Friends,

“My soul doth magnify the Lord, And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour.”

(Luke 1:47)

God my Saviour! Let’s pause for a few moments to meditate on those precious words. They are found at the beginning of Mary’s great hymn of praise and thanksgiving to the Lord. Sometimes called the Magnificat, she frames it in the form of a confession, her very own intensely personal and spiritual confession of what the Lord has done for her soul. He is “my Saviour.” Mary knows and confesses salvation to be personal, and that God has done it. He has saved her.

Is that not our own experience and confession? Can we not take Mary’s words into our hearts and put them upon our lips in praise and gratitude for all that the Lord has done for us? Oh that our testimony may be like Mary’s, one in which it is the Lord alone who is magnified and given all the glory, and in which He alone is the source of our joy, because He has saved us and not we ourselves.

Firstly, note that Mary exalted God her Saviour while recognising her own “low estate” (v. 48). Her theology is what some have so disparagingly called worm theology, but it is good theology and may it be ours too. A great gulf is fixed by sin and our estate is low, it is a pit, a deep mire from which we cannot look up and much less rise from to meet with God. But we know what God has done. He has condescended to look down into the pit and He has “regarded” our low estate. In the language of the psalmist, He has “remembered us in our low estate: for his mercy endureth for ever” (Psalm 136:23). In His mercy, not only has God looked down but He has come down, and he has “exalted them of low degree” (Luke 1:52). Mary uses words that echo down the centuries from the lips of Hannah, “The LORD … raiseth up the poor out of the dust, and lifteth up the beggar from the dunghill, to set them among princes, and to make them inherit the throne of glory” (1 Samuel 2:8). This is what God our Saviour has done for every one of His people. It is what He has done for us.

Secondly, in extolling the mightiness of God her Saviour, Mary recognises the greatness of the miracle that He has performed in her. We may be prone to think of God in His mighty power as being distant and remote from us, but in salvation the omnipotent One comes near. He draws near to us in our sinfulness, our feebleness, our worthlessness. He comes so very near as to enter into our personal experience so that we too can say, “he that is mighty hath done to me great things” (Luke 1:49). To me! He is “my Saviour.” This is personal. Three times in the text Mary uses the possessive pronoun “my.” It is a work “to me” that causes her to rejoice. To me “He hath shewed strength with his arm” (v. 51). Something mighty has been done in her, and she knows it. Do you have that same firm confidence to say, “He is my Saviour”?

Of course, Mary’s unique role in redemptive history means that those “great things” included the Holy Spirit coming upon her and the power of the Highest overshadowing her such that she, a virgin, had conceived and the “holy thing” to be born of her would be called the Son of God (v. 35). But let us never underestimate the greatness of the wonder that the Lord has done to every one of us whom He has saved. Take Mary’s words to your heart and lips and rejoice “in God my Saviour” because He that is mighty has done to you “great things.” Sing with the psalmist,

The LORD hath done great things for us;

Whence joy to us is brought.

Psalm 126:3 (Metrical version)

I wonder, how much do we really appreciate the greatness of the things that God has done in saving us? “No small things can fall from so great a hand,” wrote John Trapp (1601-1669). The apostle Paul, when writing of these things, could hardly find the words to express himself: “the exceeding greatness of his power to usward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power” (Ephesians 1:19). Just as Mary says, “To me,” so you and I say “to me” because God has done great things to us.

Thirdly, Mary rejoices that when she was hungry, empty and in the greatest of need, God came and “filled the hungry with good things” (Luke 1:53). What a picture this is of grace! We come before the Lord empty. There is no good in us, but God our Saviour has a storehouse of grace that is full of good things and He draws from it to fill us. It is not that God has put the food in front of us and left us to eat it, when in our helplessness we cannot bring the spoon to our mouths. No, graciously He comes and fills us Himself! He feeds us. He satisfies our mouth with good things (Psalm 103:5), the very best things. He feeds us with heavenly manna, the bread of life that sustains us into eternity. He fills us! He does not leave us half-fed and still hungry for “he satisfieth the longing soul, and filleth the hungry soul with goodness” (Psalm 107:9). May you feed well on that goodness today.

My soul shall magnify the Lord,
My spirit yet rejoice,
For He, my God, my Saviour is;
His ear has heard my voice.

Yes, He my low estate has seen,
And done great things for me;
In mercy He has lifted up
My soul, with Him to be.

Come, magnify the Lord with me
And praise the name of God,
For He has filled our hungry souls
And satisfied with good.

19/08/2026

19/08/2026

Our prayer meeting is suspended through the school holidays, restarts on Wednesday 9th September

16/08/2026

BARELY A BIRD, CLEARLY CREATED

The kiwi stands in a class of its own. It is so unusual that many people have joked it would not be recognized as a bird if it did not have a beak. Its features are so unlike typical birds that some have even called it an honorary mammal.

For starters, the kiwi is completely flightless, joining the ranks of the emu and the ostrich. It lives only in New Zealand, and its feathers are so hairlike that they hardly resemble feathers at all. With wings only about 2 to 3 centimeters long, flight is simply not part of its design.

The kiwi relies heavily on smell. Its olfactory bulb is the second largest of all birds, and its nostrils sit at the very tip of its long beak instead of up near the skull like other bird species. It uses this beak as a probe, plunging it into the soil while sniffing loudly. The tip contains special vibration detecting nerves that help it locate food. Oddly enough, kiwis sometimes do a full headstand, legs in the air, to push their beaks deeper into the ground. When they locate a worm, they patiently wait for it to stop struggling before pulling it out so it will not break.

At the base of its beak, the kiwi has whisker like structures that probably help it navigate the forest floor at night.

Kiwis also carry the largest egg to body size ratio of any bird, around twenty five percent. To make room for that enormous egg, the female stops eating during the final stages of development.

Some claim that kiwis once flew and simply lost this ability. But considering how perfectly suited they are to their ground dwelling lifestyle, creationists point out that a loss of genetic information does not explain such a well fitted design. It is far more reasonable that the kiwi was created with the exact traits it needed to thrive in its environment.

One proposed explanation for how the kiwi reached New Zealand is that it traveled on massive floating vegetation mats ripped loose during the global Flood, eventually settling in a land with no native predators until people arrived.

15/08/2026

Our services for the Lord's Day 16th August 2926 will be led by Patrick Buckley (10:30 am) & Ian Leedham (6:30 pm) both Hope Church Truro
Our own Pastor leads worship at Gloweth Chapel Truro @ 10:00 am
All welcome to all services

Devotional from John Hooper for the Lord's Day:

Dear Friends,
“He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.”

(Psalm 126:6)

This is the time of year when, for the writer, distant memories are stirred of hot and happy August days in the harvest field! Yes, it is a happy time when the farmer sees the fruits of his labours. “They that sow in tears shall reap in joy” (v. 5).

This is a glorious theme that the Holy Spirit uses many times in Scripture to teach us great spiritual truth. The cycle of seedtime and harvest is not only one that will and must continue in nature “while the earth remaineth” (Genesis 8:22), but in grace too. It is a cycle that cannot be broken. Just as there cannot be a reaping-time, a harvest, if there has not first been a ploughing and a sowing, so we cannot expect to see grace in the life where there has not first been the sowing of the good seed of the Word into the good ground of hearts made ready by the Spirit. With this in mind, Mrs Caroline Fry (1787-1846) exposed the emptiness and hopelessness of a good-works gospel: “While the heart is unchanged and the spirit unrenewed, vain is every exhortation to serve God and lead a good and Christian life. This is to demand the fruit before the tree is planted; to reap the harvest before the field is sown.”

Bishop George Horne of Norwich (1730-1792) summarises the cycle so beautifully:

In the sweat of his brow the husbandman tills his land, and casts the seed into the ground, where, for a time, it lies dead and buried. A dark and dreary winter succeeds, and all seems to be lost. But at the return of spring, universal nature revives, and the once desolate fields are covered with corn, which, when matured by the sun’s heat, the cheerful reapers cut down, and it is brought home with triumphant shouts of joy.

Here, O disciple of Jesus, behold an emblem of thy present labour, and thy future reward. Thou “sowest,” perhaps, “in tears;” thou doest thy duty amidst persecution and affliction, sickness, pain, and sorrow; thou labourest in the church, and no account is made of thy labours; no profit seems likely to arise from them. Nay, thou must thyself drop into the dust of death, and all the storm of that winter must pass over thee, until thy form shall be perished, and thou shalt see corruption.

Yet, the day is coming, when thou shalt “reap in joy;” and plentiful shall be thy harvest. For thus thy blessed Master “went forth weeping, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief, bearing precious seed,” and sowing it around him, till at length his own body was buried, like a grain of wheat, in the furrow of the grave. But he arose, and is now in heaven; from whence he “shall doubtless come again with rejoicing,” with the voice of the archangel and the trump of God, “bringing his sheaves with him.” Then shall every man receive the fruit of his works, and have praise of God.

Yes, the great Sower of the seed is none other than our Lord Jesus Christ Himself. He is the sower who “went forth to sow” (Matthew 13:3) in an “adulterous and sinful generation” (Mark 8:38), and still today He sows wherever and whenever the seed of the Word is broadcast by His servants on the earth. The day is evil, but by way of the preached Word, by Christians sharing the gospel with anyone who cares to listen, by Scripture texts displayed outside churches, and so forth, Christ continues to sow and the seed falls upon the ground that is the hearts of many hearers. Still the seed must be sown, not only on good ground but also, according to the sovereign good pleasure of the Sower, on hard, rocky and thorny ground that will never bring forth fruit.

The sower sows in tears because of the difficulty of the work. In our neighbourhoods, our wider families, and our own households we sow. We persevere. It is hard labour that involves sacrifice and invites opposition, even persecution, but still the seed must be sown, sown with a view to the coming harvest. For now, to slightly adapt some words from John Newton (1725-1807),

we are still in a state of warfare and trial; we are exposed to many troubles, to reproach, opposition, and temptation; we are still straitened and hindered in our best attempts and desires by an indwelling principle of evil. We are sowing in tears; but when our Lord shall descend we expect to reap with joy. He is coming to wipe away all our tears, and then we are assured we shall weep no more. The days of our mourning shall cease for ever. He has prepared for us a kingdom, “incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away.” In that kingdom we shall shine forth, each like the sun in the firmament, an immense constellation of suns!

Even so, Lord, quickly come!
Bring Thy final harvest home!
Gather all Thy people in,
Free from sorrow, free from sin.

Henry Alford (1810-1871)

11/08/2026

There will be no prayer meeting on Wednesday 12th August because of the Air Display and immediately following Eclipse
Falmouth is expected to be too crowded

08/08/2026

Devotional from John Hooper for the Lord's Day, 9th August 2026- our services @ 10:30 am & 6:30 pm will be led by our Pastor- All welcome to both/either service
Dear Friends,

“All scripture … is profitable….”

(2 Timothy 3:16)

Do you find the Scriptures profitable? The question is a subjective one that causes us to search our hearts, but we need to park it just for a moment because what Paul is giving us in the passage is an objective statement. He is saying to us, “All scripture … is profitable.” Whether Old Testament or New, whether historical books or poetic, whether prophetic or fulfilment, all of it is good for us. Whether we are old or young, mature in the faith or babes in Christ, it is profitable for all of us.

Scripture, the apostle goes on to say, is profitable “for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect [that is, complete], throughly furnished unto all good works.” God has graciously given us Scripture as our handbook, our lamp and light, our pilgrim’s-guide through life to address our every need. As if to emphasise the divine origin of this gift, Paul tells us that God has given it “by inspiration,” by His very own breath. All of it is inspired, and that is why all of it is profitable. It is His book and is therefore truthful in every respect, authoritative, wholly reliable and wholly sufficient for our every need. There is not a situation we will meet with in life for which Scripture is not profitable.

So, from a purely objective standpoint, Scripture is profitable. It is nothing but good for us. But let’s return now to the original question, do we find Scripture to be profitable? Is it helpful in our own experience? Do we benefit from it day by day? Of course, we will not find it profitable if we are not reading it, so let us make time to read it. But do we understand what we read? Scripture will not do us good if we do not know what it is saying to us and we make no effort to find out. Reading the Bible lazily will not profit us. It will not bring us nearer to God, feed our minds, straighten our walk, bless our souls, or improve our testimony before the world.

We will not find Scripture profitable if we have no respect for it as the Word of God. If we come to it with the mind of the sceptic, the doubter, or the critic, it will not profit us. If we come to it without faith it will not profit us, just as it did not profit those who heard it in the wilderness (Hebrews 4:2). If we come to it in pride, as one who is above Scripture, it will not profit us. No, we must come in the spirit of meekness, humility and submissiveness, ready to learn what the Lord would say to us, and to obey. We must come ready to learn its doctrine, yes, but equally ready to be reproved, to be corrected, to be instructed in righteousness. The profit comes in trusting what Scripture says and doing what Scripture requires.

How will we know that Scripture has profited us? When it has changed us! Scripture is profitable, above all else, for salvation, but our salvation is the work of God in us from regeneration to glorification. At every step in between the Holy Spirit graciously works in us by way of the Scriptures to perfect us and furnish us to all good works. Yes, all good works! In every sphere of life, in every avenue of work and Christian service, in every relationship, in every difficulty and temptation, in every decision, Scripture is profitable.

Time invested in reading, hearing, meditating on and studying the Scriptures will be time well spent, a good investment that will bring profit to the soul. It will yield spiritual growth, an increase that is of far greater value than any financial investment is able to return. Am I growing in grace, am I increasing in godliness, in Christlikeness, by a profitable use of the Scriptures? A. W. Pink (1886-1952) challenges us further along these lines:



Am I acquiring a greater hatred of sin, and a practical deliverance from its power and pollution? Am I obtaining a deeper acquaintance with God and His Christ? Is my prayer-life healthier? Are my good works more abundant? Is my obedience fuller and gladder? Am I more separated from the world in my affections and ways? Am I learning to make a right and profitable use of God’s promises, and so delighting myself in Him that His joy is my daily strength? Unless I can truthfully say that these are (in some measure) my experience, then it is greatly to be feared that my study of the Scriptures is profiting me little or nothing.



Read again each one of those questions and pause over them. Let us all examine our hearts and answer them honestly before the Lord. If Scripture is not profiting us, there is something wrong somewhere, and we can be sure that it is not with the Scripture itself. Too often the problem is that we read the Word but we do not acknowledge its authority and submit ourselves to it. So, let’s determine today, by the grace of God, to remedy that.

The sacred lessons of Thy grace,

Transmitted through Thy Word, repeat,

And train us up in all Thy ways

To make us in Thy will complete;

Fulfil Thy love’s redeeming plan,

And bring us to a perfect man.

Charles Wesley (1707-1788)