October 25: Matthew 7 13-14

Key Verse: Matthew 7 14
Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.

Devotion:
It is good to look back at adverts from the first days of television sometimes. It is good to see the simplicity of the adverts. Nowadays you get so many glitzy adverts buzzing permanently through our minds I think we lose track of what they are advertising. But just as we think we can't remember what it was all about, there is something which gives you a not-so-gentle reminder, maybe a music track or an every-day activity. Advertisers use whatever means they can now to get right into our heads and fill our brains with so much garbage that we can't help but think of their products each and every day!

If you have the chance to ever flick through channels on a satellite television system, do so and see how much there is that is just useless information! The more people want access to more films and series the more the providers pay for it all with adverts and the less time we actually get to watch what we thought we would watch! It is not many channels which are not plugging adverts as much as possible to pay for the fees and make as much revenue as possible. This sort of behaviour is now accepted as being part of life.

When we are young, we are taught not to swear and not to tell lies, but as soon as we are old enough to watch television many of those rules go out the window because children have free access to even more junk. It is hard to focus on the fine line between true news and gossip, but we see our news channels full of gossip because it is what the majority of people want! If we took that sort of attitude in everyday living, then we would not have schools because they would not want to go to school!

There is only one way we are going to get to heaven and that is through Jesus Christ our Lord. There are far too many distractions in life now to be able to relax and enjoy the ride to heaven. God warns us the way to heaven is no longer smooth and simple.

Points to Ponder:
How many answers on a multiple choice question are right?

Are you filtering out all the wrong answers?

October 24: Matthew 6 24

Key Verse: Matthew 6 24
“No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.

Devotion:
Off we go into town again... Now, do we stop and go through that high street fashion shop which has a sale on, or do we go to the planning office to make plans for our big mansion, or do we just walk around town and enjoy things... Or do we go to Church because it is, after all, Sunday (or at least it will be tomorrow.)

We have to make choices throughout our lives. We have to choose between the wrong choice and the right choice. We have to choose between something that is going to fail, and something that is going to succeed. We have to choose between something we are dreaming of, and something that we know is there. We have to choose between something we think will last, and something we know has lasted and will always last! I know not all decisions and choices are so black and white but you get the idea we have choices to make all the time.

We have so many choices in our lives it is no wonder that we sometimes get a bit confused. And just when we think we are on top of things, we suddenly find we have so many choices we think we can choose more than one thing. But what we have to do is to filter out our choices we have, sift through each one of them to see if God is behind it. If He is not behind each one of those choices, then just maybe we are trying to make a choice look a bit better than it really is!

We are given the choice are to whether we should choose what we are looking at, what we are thinking about, what we desire, what we need, what we want and what we should have. If we start making choices and leave God out of those choices we are walking away from Him. If we are making choices just to please ourselves we are leaving other people out of our lives. Include people, include God and enjoy life.

Points to Ponder:
How many choices do you face each day?

Are you making each one with God?

October 23: Matthew 6 22-23

Key Verse: Matthew 6 23
But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!

Devotion:
Every time I come close to mentioning 'The Light' that is Jesus, it reminds me of that film where the bug flies into the light! It is so easy to give into a temptation which is so bright around us and fly straight into it. It is so easy to ignore the real light thinking something else is brighter that The Light. That is exactly what we do in our lives all the time – we give in to the light which we think is the brightest, and the only reason we think it is the brightest is because it is the only light we are actually looking at!

If you want to be able to identify the truth, then you have to be able to sift out all the garbage and lies to dig down to the truth. You cannot simply look at the first likely scenario that comes along into your life and go with that to find out how good it is! You have to find out if it is the truth before you go with it, because if you find yourself flying into the bug zapper, it will be a bit late!

Each of us have been given the ability to discern right from wrong and it is that ability that will be put to the test to see if you can choose right from wrong. If you are going to try and look for a book on ancient history, the last shop that you are going to go into would be a high street fashion shop! But that high street fashion shop may well be the first shop you do visit, because it looks so good. By the time you have finished looking in that shop, your mind has been changed and you come out with a new garment instead of a book on ancient history... You'll be back next month...

But what happens when the book shop shuts down because of lack of business – and you have not got the book yet!

Points to Ponder:
What did you last buy on sale?

Are you seeking bargains or real life?

October 22: Romans 7 1-6

Key Verse: Romans 7 5
For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit to death.

Devotion:
Many times in our lives we set our goals on something we 'have to achieve' in our lives. We do all sorts of things to make sure we do achieve that goal even if it means bending a few rules on the way. Many of those times we are setting goals which are purely physical, or which are just 'for show' so others can see how good we are! What we are doing is building sand castles for ourselves here on earth.

Have you ever thought about how constructors build houses? What is the first thing they do when building a house? They put down some sort of foundation so things can be built safely on top of it. That foundation is the basic strength of the house, because without it, the house would start to sink into the ground (albeit slowly). So if we design our house properly, we can even have a huge mansion of several stories high, having a many rooms and which can cater for all our friends coming to visit us all at the same time – even bringing all their families with them! ... If only we had the money to do it....

But what are we doing by building that house? We are fulfilling our desires. We are doing what we want. And, I can almost guarantee by building that house, we are going to ignore all sorts of things in our life until it is built!

'But', you may say, 'I am building this house to last... It is going to last a few thousand years, never mind a few hundred years like those of the past!' That is exactly what you are doing. You are building something here on earth that is built to last on earth. When you die, that house stays put. It does not move. It does nothing for you after your death...

Points to Ponder:
What is the last thing you did just because you wanted it?

Did you involve God in your quest?