July 23: 1 Corinthians 15 1-11
Key Verse: 1 Corinthians 15 2
by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.
Devotion:
The biggest thing that struck me when I read this passage were the words at the end of verse 2: “unless you have believed in vain.” How many times has someone tried to tell you about how useless it is to believe in Christ? How many times have people told you that Christianity is a crutch for the weak? I could go on and on with all the sayings and things people have said about Christ to me but let’s not focus on the negative side but the positive side.
The apostle first tells of the positive: I am telling you the gospel which you have received and in which you live. This is not a step of faith in the unknown for the people of Corinth but a step forward into the arms of Christ. The apostle has already told them of Christ and all He has done for us, he has also encouraged them to find out more about Christ and leave their old beliefs behind. He has given them ample truth for them to stand firm in the truth; but he still puts forward the warning of unbelief.
I believe we must always do is to question our motives and our belief. Without questioning we get into a comfortable place where we just go along with the things people are teaching us and don’t do our own studying. We can quite easily fall into the trap of trusting in and following false teaching because we are just accepting someone else’s words. But if we take time to question what is being said to us, take time to study a bit and make sure we are hearing the truth, we will grow so much stronger and our faith will be made stronger!
At the time of this letter being written, so many things in recent history had been told to us in the scriptures and the people were living the history. Not everyone had managed to get to see Christ during His brief ministry, but enough eye witnesses had seen Him for us to trust in the words of the apostle. Don’t just go along with the crowd, be the individual Christ created in you and walk with Christ in His Word!
Points to Ponder:
Do you question your faith?
Are you looking to God for confirmation?
July 22: Acts 27 21-26
Key Verse: Acts 27 25
Therefore take heart, men, for I believe God that it will be just as it was told me.
Devotion:
A Pastor was preaching one day when he went on for a lot longer than normal. Many in the congregation started to fall asleep. Finally after the service a dear old lady came up to him and said “I'm sorry Pastor, but that was the worst sermon I have heard. Please stick to the point next time”. Another lady followed her out and stopped and blurted out “Don't you be going and listening to her now Pastor, she never has her own words, she always says what everyone else is saying...”
How many times have you tried to put a little cheer into the conversation and found you actually spread fear or more despondency! There are times when I have tried to say the right thing, but what comes out seems to do more damage than good. Those were the times when I tried to think of something good to say! Worse still, if you try to invent a bit of truth, it will often backfire and leaves even more devastation!
Paul, on the other hand, wanted to make sure that the people on the ship knew the truth. He was standing up for what was right. He knew they probably did not want to hear they were about to be shipwrecked! But he still wanted them to know when Christ is in it, even the bad times can have something good come out of it. That good news was that none of the people on board were going to perish – all would survive! It was only the vessel that was going to be crunched!
Too many times we do forget that about ourselves as well. We look after, or try to look after our human side without giving thought to our spiritual side. We make sure we physically are fit and well, but within us stirs up a boiling cauldron of emotions that are just waiting to spew out all over the place. Paul was trying to show the men on the boat they would find peace from the storm and the only reason for that peace would be because God was in it. When we face our storms, we need to make sure we are looking for God first!
Points to Ponder:
Do you suffer from “foot in mouth” disease?
How often do you ask God to guide your tongue?
July 21: Matthew 21 18-22
Key Verse: Matthew 21 22
And whatever things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.
Devotion:
One side of Jesus that we often forget is that He was perfectly human! As He returned to Jerusalem, He hungered – His body was quite normal and required food just like the rest of us! He lowered Himself down to our infirmity to show us He would know exactly what we went through. He did that so that He could pay for our sins through His “humanness”. He was a man that was so intent on getting God's work done the right way that He often went without food.
But through every one of His actions, we see God glorified. Even when it comes down to looking for a bit of food – He makes sure that He takes every opportunity to lift up God. But He was also just. He went to the fig tree expecting it to have fruit, after all, it did have leaves. What He found was a barren tree and He sentenced it to perpetual barrenness. There is coming a day when everyone will be facing Him in judgement and He will be just as perfect in His judgement then.
The barren fig tree can be looked upon as a hypocrite. The hypocrite shows off like a fruit tree showing off its leaves, but bears no real fruit. The disappointment for anyone who reaches out to that fruit tree for help is echoed in the disappointment to anyone who looks up to the hypocrite for help – they seek, expecting, and find a void. What Christ is looking for is a fig tree that is going to give fruit – He expects us to be able to bear fruit!
Many of us falter when we come to giving off fruit – mostly because we think we cannot do it. But as soon as you are willing to fully depend on God, then you will be able to bear fruit for Him. Just like a fig tree depends on a hidden water resource to bring forward it's fruit, we depend on our God to bring forward fruit. If a fig tree were to be planted next to a sour water supply, I don't think I would want to eat it's fruit. But planting a tree next to a sweet water supply will make sure it has sweet fruit. If we want to bear God's fruit, we need to make sure we keep close to Him through effective prayer. That effective prayer will ensure that we can do more than we had ever thought possible!
Points to Ponder:
Can you depend on friends?
Can God depend on you?
July 20: Isaiah 65 17-25
Key Verse: Isaiah 65 24
It shall come to pass that before they call, I will answer; and while they are still speaking, I will hear.
Devotion:
Around 700 years before Christ was born, the prophet Isaiah was telling of a New Jerusalem that was going to be made. What He was telling us about was the state of grace that we live in now – the time after Christ had paid for our sins but before we wait for His second coming. During this time he foretold of greater happiness and peace, longer lives and many other things which we take for granted now.
But the one thing that he told about that we need to remember all the time is that God is still listening to our prayers. Not only is He listening, but answering and also anticipating them! I wonder if you can sit down and think of a prayer that God has answered recently for you. Think about what would have had to happen around you for that prayer to be answered. Think about what had to have happened days, even months or years before to make that answer possible.
Back in Ecclesiastes we were given insight into how Solomon found out how many thing were vanity. Solomon was given riches and things beyond any other man, yet with that all, and with the life that he was able to experience, he was never satisfied with the physical life. He told us of the vanity of working because it would be left to someone who we did not know. The vanity of creating wealth only to have to leave it to others! Yet Christ wants us to be able to enjoy the things that we work for. He wants to make sure that we are able to enjoy what we have already worked for.
God wants us to be able to live together, not to have to worry about who lives where in this world, but living next door to people from different lands. Just like God was able to change the animals so that they could all live on the ark for so long, He is able to change us so that we can all get along! We can see how much better our lives are living in this time of grace; how much more can we expect when we leave this old earth behind and join Christ in heaven.
Points to Ponder:
How often do you think about answered prayers?
How often do you lift up your prayers?
July 19: Exodus 15 22-27
Key Verse: Exodus 15 26
and said, “If you diligently heed the voice of the Lord your God and do what is right in His sight, give ear to His commandments and keep all His statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you which I have brought on the Egyptians. For I am the Lord who heals you.”
Devotion:
If there are any times in our lives when we think we are hard done by, then we need to go back and ready a few chapters from Exodus as it described the journey of The Children of Israel out of Egypt. They seemed to go through so much and for so long, and yet they tried hard to not be side-tracked by their own desires...
We may think that we desperately need things in our lives when they are not actually required. We may think that we are hard done by because we don't have certain things. But how many times have you sat down and thought about just how much God has supplied for you when you really needed it? How many times has there been that silent hand of protection over you when everything else seems to be falling apart? How many times can you look back in your life and think “someone must have been helping me through that”?
God listen to each one of our prayers, the same as He does to the prayers of great leaders like Moses. He answers our prayers when they need to be answered. He answers them when we understand that it is Him that is answering them and not ourselves or others. He answers them because He has promised to do so and continues to keep each and every promise through His love for us.
No matter how much we stray away from Him, His love for us does not change. No matter how many things we do wrong, His love does not fade. He may well get cross with us for not listening, but His love does not alter. When we need something, He is waiting for give it to us. When we acknowledge that He is our God, He is happy to give it to us. When we worship Him, He gives us more than we expect. This can only be because of His non-fading love for us and not because we have done something right!
Points to Ponder:
Do your friends let you down?
Are you letting God down?