Wednesday 20 February 2008

Wednesday Reading: Jude 1:5-7
 
Key Verse: Jude 1:5
5  But I intend to remind you, you once knowing these things, that the Lord having delivered a people out of the land of Egypt, in the second place destroyed the ones not believing.
 
Devotion:
One thing that nobody is going to escape is final judgement. Not a nice thought, but something that has got to be remembered all the time. We are living in a world that has been created by God, is maintained by God and will ultimately perish through God. This world is but here under God's grace and nothing more. We like to think that we are in control of things and that we can control various things about this world, but we are only changing how we live in it.
 
At the allotted time we will all have to face up to God's wrath. From the beginning of time He has shown that people will not get away with evil and that we have to pay for our ways. Just because civilisation was almost entirely wiped out more than 4000 years ago, we don't tend to think about it. God saved the Israelites from Egypt around 3500 years ago, yet few people believe it. Christ came to earth only 2000 years ago, yet man insists on taking those truths away from us now too. God has show what has happened in the past and has warned about what will happen in the future – yet man continues to try and ignore the truth.
 
Pride, lust and want will continue to separate us from Christ until we do acknowledge Him as Lord. No matter how clean a life we try to live, no matter how good we are, our hearts are evil until such time as we inwardly acknowledge Him as our Saviour. No amount of outward displays of Christianity will prevent us from facing God's wrath. The only thing that will keep us from paying the penalty is our total inward belief that Christ is our Saviour. Only then will He be able to stand up and say “I know this person. I have paid for their sins. They are not guilty”.
 
Points to Ponder:
How much do you believe your friends?
 
How much do you believe the bible?