June 22: 1 Thessalonians 4 13-18
Key Verse: 1 Thessalonians 4 18
Therefore comfort one another with these words.
Devotion:
Have you ever had worries about what would happen to you when you die, or what happened to your Christian friends when they died? In this letter to the Thessalonians, we are given a good description of what will happen. When Christians die, they go to be with Jesus immediately. It describes it as being asleep because they will not have been raised up as we all will be when Christ comes back.
God has things all perfectly planned out for our futures. He has not missed anything out. We may think some things are missing, or other things are uncertain, but that is just because of our holes in our own faith in God’s word – nothing more. Our future is as certain as all scripture written in the Bible. Our future has been planned out. Where we stand in that future depends on our actions here and now.
The first thing Christ will take care of when He does descend is to raise up all the dead Christians... well, to raise up their physical bodies because their spiritual bodies will already be with Him. Once that is accomplished, He will then take us up in like manner – we will be transformed into our new bodies, leaving behind all the sickness and worries and death. What a wonderful day that will be!
Imagine meeting up with all the people from your past (and throughout history) and being able to be in a perfect body, without blemishes, without pain, without problems... All together so we can worship Christ for the awesome God He is! We certainly will not be able to figure out how Christ can do any of this – who can figure out how He created the world by simply speaking? But we will be able to see the results of our faith because we will no longer require faith – we will have physical proof standing with us! There is no law against sorrow, or against mourning, or against grief. What we must understand is those feelings are all for ourselves. It should not be for our Christians friends because they will be with Jesus!
Points to Ponder:
Do you worry about what will happen in your future?
Christ has promised never to leave nor forsake us! Do we need any more?
June 21: 1 Thessalonians 5 1-5
Key Verse: 1 Thessalonians 5 2
For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night.
Devotion:
Many have and continue to try and predict the end of the world. Many sects are based on the destruction of the world through some disaster or major event to frighten people into thinking the end is nigh. In truth, we do not know and we shall not know until that instant when we are taken up to be with Jesus. No thief in his right mind would send you a letter of intent, nor would he send you a reminder a few days before it happens to make sure you leave all your doors and windows open! When Christ Himself was talking to the Apostles before His death, He told them He did not even know when that day would be whilst He was as a human being. But when He went back to join with His Father, He knew.
To prevent thieves from breaking in, we do try to make sure we do have all the doors and windows locked or unreachable. We do try to keep our homes secure. We do take care of our physical livelihood... So why are we so willing to forget about our spiritual livelihood? Why do we continue to leave ourselves open to all sorts of abuse from evil? Why do we not make sure we are continually prepared?
It is that “comfort” zone we live in. We tend to let our guard down whilst we continue to live in a zone in which we have had no problems. We maybe leave a window open now and again. We maybe leave the door unlocked whilst we nip next door for a chat. And it is at those times when a thief would strike to take the best advantage of the situation. Satan is not going to try to persuade us whilst we are resting in Christ's arms. He is not going to be silly enough to think He can win in a no-win situation; but he certainly will take advantage of any chink in our armour!
One thing is for sure; nobody will be able to escape Christ's second coming. Not through death or ignorance. Not through pleadings of innocence. Christ has made sure we do have His Word. He has made sure we have had all the warnings. He has made sure we have been prepared – Or at least the steps of preparation are all there in front of us to take, should we dare to!
Points to Ponder:
Would you be ready for someone trying to break into your home?
Are you ready for when Christ will return?
June 20: Proverbs 14 11-12
Key Verse: Proverbs 14 11
The house of the wicked will be overthrown, But the tent of the upright will flourish.
Devotion:
It's funny how we always do think that we know best. Even at work and play we choose to believe our way, not matter how wrong it turns out, is actually correct. It is only when we get confronted by the truth we do realise we were wrong – but far too many times we continue to force our own way just to make it look like we still know what we are doing!
Have you ever tried to find a newspaper or TV channel which will just print or show the stuff you are interested in and nothing else? We can't. No matter how much we wish for it we will only ever get to see things suitable for a wider audience. Even the news is changed so it is more entertainment than newsworthy nowadays; they have got to make themselves look better and more fun than the other channels to try and encourage people to watch their adverts!
What am I getting at? We cover the truth. We hide the reality. We gloss over the problems. We highlight the entertainment. We are basically giving in to the entertainment needs of others rather than uplifting the truth for what it is. We continue to seek to show what we think we should be showing. We continue to seek out enjoyment the way we think we need to see it. We have given up trying to seek out the truth!
God has tried to use wise men such as King Solomon to give us the teachings and the warnings about the way we live and work. He has given plenty warnings, plenty time and poured out His love to try and encourage us. We are the ones who continue to ignore those truths and seek out our own enjoyment. But when we do see the truth, we need to give up our earthly ways to embrace and enjoy that truth. Our own found “truths” will only last as long as they do on earth. God's truth continues to last forever! Our ways will die with this earth. His ways will continue on beyond and forever (which is a pretty long time!)
Points to Ponder:
Which earthly truths do you seek?
Are you depending on God for the truth?
June 19: Mark 13 6-10
Key Verse: Mark 13 10
And the gospel must first be preached to all the nations.
Devotion:
One of the most important times on earth is regularly swept under the carpet. Why? Because people do not want to think of it yet because they don't want it to happen. Or maybe they don't believe it will happen; or they have given up waiting.
Our Gospel gives us many warnings and descriptions about how and when we are going to get to the end of this world. Scientists will come up with all sorts of amazing stories about how things have been going to millions upon millions of years and there will not be any change any time soon. Naturalists will tell of the imminent fate of the world due to global warming. Christians should be preaching about how God describes the end times; not to get on the band wagon but because we believe it is true!
Jesus gives us a good description in these few verses. Wars and rumours of wars will abound. We see wars in many places, we have seen world wars, and we see a global war against terrorism. What wars was Jesus was taking about? We cannot specifically tell. But we know things will only get worse – but He give us comfort saying “Be ye not troubled”. Don't worry, it's all in the plan. He warns about earthquakes and famines. We see plenty of that on the news now. When an earthquake happens, it is broadcast round the word for all to hear about. They may be happening more than usual, or it may be that we are reporting things more than usual. But these are all in the plan. Warnings to all that we are facing the truth and we should be prepared for that truth!
Some of us may well be blamed for things just because we are Christians. Some of us may well face our accusers. Will we be strong enough to admit we are Christians, or will be fade like Peter did in His time of testing? One thing remains certain – The Gospel is being published in almost every nation so far. There are few languages that it is not being published in. Nobody will be able to say that “they did not know.”
Points to Ponder:
How many times have you used the excuse “I forgot” or “I didn't know”?
Christ can see though our excuses better than any teacher or parent!
June 18: Jeremiah 51 15-17
Key Verse: Jeremiah 51 17
Everyone is dull-hearted, without knowledge; Every metalsmith is put to shame by the carved image; For his moulded image is falsehood, And there is no breath in them.
Devotion:
“I know how to do this, let me do it…” “No, I have done it before, so I know more than you…” And the argument continues about who knows more! I bet we have all been in an argument where we claim to know more than others. Or worse, we start to exaggerate as we tell our story, saying we know more than we actually do or have done much more than we have done! All too often we get to do something because we have said we can do it and we find out that we can't do it, or it takes 10 times as long as we said it would!
We all really do like to think we know it all! But when we start to change things to our way of thinking because we think we know better, things start to go away from the truth. We think we know how to do something and we change the way everyone is working because we just need to prove to everyone that we are clever! We have a desire to “out-prove” others so we come close to being top of the stack!
We have even seen scientists try to pull the wool over the whole world by saying they can do things nobody else can do. They even do experiments to help support their theory. But when they are faced with proving the truth in a way which is valid, they fall down. When the Bible describes us as being “brutish” or “dull-hearted” by our knowledge, it is trying to show us we do go too far in puffing ourselves up to more than we ought to. Be it the innocent “my dad's better than yours” or “I'm better than you”, we all do get quite brutal with our words. Our need to be better takes over and covers the truth until it is uncovered later (for that it will be!).
There is only one Creator. There is only one God. His power is Awesome. The whole world listens to Him, yet the people in this world choose to ignore Him. His wisdom is untouchable, yet we choose to try and elevate ourselves to His level. How long would it take you to draw a leaf which looked as good as a close up photograph? God made that tree by speaking…
Points to Ponder:
How often do you judge others by comparing them to yourself?
There is only one Judge. He who has made us...