March 19: Revelation 21 1-4
Key Verse: Revelation 21 4
And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.”
Devotion:
In Revelation 14 we are told of the 144,000 redeemed who will return to come and preach the Gospel to the lost. They will return singing a new song, praising God. It is right near the end of the Bible where it talks about the wonders of heaven, about how we shall no longer see death, pain or sorrow. Personally I can't wait to be in a place where I will not have to put up with the aches and pains of growing older! But, the fact remains, we are surrounded by many people who just will not accept that God is God. We are surrounded by many people who will be beguiled by the tricks and treachery of Satan.
It takes a lot of time and understanding to come to terms with everything written in the Bible, but the good news is we don't have to understand it all in order to be saved. We don't have to know it all in order to be saved from death, pain and sorrow. All we have to do is to find out the simple truth, to know that God is God, that we are sinners and that we need Him to forgive us of our sins. Knowing there is a God is not enough; having a loving relationship with Him is what is required!
Many of the people described above are the ones who refuse to believe they are sinners and they refuse to believe they could have broken the laws of God. It does not take a genius to find out the truth, but it does take the Word of God. There is no way people will be able to know they have done wrong without first hearing about what is true and righteous. Only then will people be able to understand what it is they are doing wrong!
We can help to spread God's Word by the example we set. We can help to spread God's Word by showing others the Bible. We can help to spread God's Word by learning more so that we can stand up to people telling false stories. God wants each one of us to do our part, showing Him our love for Him in our own ways.
Points to Ponder:
How often do you read your bible?
How often do you show someone else your Bible?
March 18: Luke 23 39-47
Key Verse: Luke 23 43
And Jesus said to him, “Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.”
Devotion:
We will never fully understand the wonderful, everlasting, awesome, perfect, steadfast love which Christ showed for us by allowing Himself to be crucified for our sins. We can only hope that when we are with Him in paradise there will be enough time to fully worship Him for all He has done for us; they say eternity I a long time!
Not only was His act sufficient to cover all of our sins, He went to the cross with love in His heart, being able to invite a thief to be with Him in heaven that very day! There He was, being the centre of hatred for so many people, but he was still able to expand His love to cover one more sinner on His way to Heaven.
As we come up to Easter, we will constantly be reminded about the things of this world instead of the real reason why Christ went to the cross. We will be surrounded by chocolate goodies and all manner of things which have absolutely nothing to do with being a Christian, about Christ giving His life, or even a hint of worship. Instead, this world we live in would rather we put Christ behind us and had a “happy holiday time!”
I challenge each one of you to do something different this year and to follow the words of this song today: God's Perfect Lamb.
Sing alleluia!
Praise to Jehovah!
Worship the God of Abraham.
Sing alleluia!
Praise to Jehovah!
Once for all is slain God’s perfect Lamb.
If we are to be serious about our relationship with Christ, then we have to get serious about what we do. Move into second gear and start to worship God now as he should be worshiped for all He has done for us!
Points to Ponder:
Do you listen to your parents all the time, or only when you want to?
What are you going to do this week to prepare for Easter?
March 17: Galatians 3 10-12
Key Verse: Galatians 3 11
But that no one is justified by the law in the sight of God is evident, for “the just shall live by faith.”
Devotion:
The more that I grow as a Christian, the more I look back on my life and am not impressed! The more I find out about what God would have me do in my life, the more I find what is wrong in my life. You would be forgiven for thinking I would be almost suicidal by now! Far from it... The more I find out about God, the more I want to learn and the more I want to grow as a Christian knowing Christ’s forgiveness.
If you were to move into a house which was old and needed work doing to it, would you simply bring out the paint pots and paint over the cracks, or would you try to find out the reason for the cracks. Many of us make the wrong choices in our lives because we fear the work which may have to be done by finding out what is wrong. But the more we think about it, the more we find out we are doing the right thing by digging deeper. Because each time we dig, we find out the real reasons behind the problems. We will never be able to move forward in life until we do find out those reasons which have been our stumbling blocks for so long.
If you were to move to a different country, would you take the laws of this country and apply them there, or would you try to follow the laws of the country to which you have moved? When we become Christians, we move to a new country and because of that, we should be trying to follow the new rules which have been laid down. The best part is there is no more punishment for the wrong we have already done! All we are doing is working for a better reward!
We do not have to look too far in the Bible before we realise the punishment for our sins is indeed death. We cannot escape that unless Christ comes to take us home before we die! But we also find our gift from Him is eternal life. Because we have accepted Him as our Saviour, we no longer have to fear death. We no longer have to fear the punishment for the law – but we should be striving to get as close to it as we can. None of us is perfect, but with Christ's help, we can change in remarkable ways.
Points to Ponder:
How many times do you break your word?
Are you glad that Christ has never broken His?
March 16: Psalms 40 13-17
Key Verse: Psalms 40 16
Let all those who seek You rejoice and be glad in You; Let such as love Your salvation say continually, “The Lord be magnified!”
Devotion:
The Lord's awesome power cannot fully be understood by any of us. We will find out more about it when we do meet Him in heaven, but until that time, we have to try to understand just how much He loves us by reading great things in the Bible. King David was running for His life. He knew many people, in fact a whole army, were after him and by himself, he would never be able to stand up to the onslaught. This Psalms echoes Jesus' words when He taught the disciples how to pray.
The first thing we should be doing is making sure we acknowledge God is God and He is above all. The Lord be magnified! By doing that first, we give our own brains a bit of a kick start to remind ourselves of His awesome power. Our faith is built up on believing the unseen. If we are able to encourage ourselves, our faith becomes stronger. The stronger our faith, the more we please God.
God's love for us was shown by Jesus' self-sacrifice on the cross. The more we realise His love for us, the more we will be encouraged. The more we read His word, the more we can realise His love. The more we pray and acknowledge His love, the more we are able to tell Him how much we do care.
Nothing can be gained by allowing your love for someone to go unnoticed. Nothing can be gained by hiding your love for anyone. But by hiding your love for Christ, you are showing Him you have a problem! God is everywhere. Why deny Him at all. How would you feel if a friend told someone else they hated you whilst they were standing in front of you? I don't think that you would think much of that friend anymore...
Points to Ponder:
How many times have you said the wrong thing at the wrong time?
Will you answer God’s call?
March 15: Colossians 2 4-10
Key Verse: Colossians 2 8
Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ.
Devotion:
Many times in our lives we get warnings from various people and many of those times we choose to ignore those warnings, only to find out later in the day that those warnings were dire or the consequences of ignoring them dire. Sometimes we also find out the warnings were nothing more than scaremongering by people who wanted us to be away for some reason. Caesar was a man who had a warning about today (“Beware the ides of March” - the ides of March being 15th of March) from one of his soothsayers. He was persuaded to ignore this warning but ended up paying for it with his life. Maybe a lucky guess from the soothsayer, or maybe he knew something about the plot against Caesar's life.
As we go through our life we are going to be told all sorts of things from both reputable and strange sources and we are the ones who have to make the choices as to whether we believe things or not. The older we get the more that we are able to decipher the truth from the dross – but far too many a time we are beguiled by our beliefs from things in our lives. Maybe we have come to depend on the advice from another, or to depend on something in our life which we should not.
The only way we are going to continue to get through life is to depend on someone who is steadfast, true, will never fail us, will always give good advice and who is above deceit. God is our Rock on whom we can stand steadfast and proud. It is our faith in Him which will stand us on firm ground. It is our belief in Him that will give us eternal life when we are finished here on earth.
The hard part comes with staying here on earth in amongst the people who want us to go every-which-way but with God. Those who are close to us can often persuade us even when we know it is not in God's Will. Those who frighten us often persuade us through intimidation – but we have the ultimate power behind us. Trust God!
Points to Ponder:
Do you ignore road signs?
Why do you ignore God then?