March 15: 1 Corinthians 1 10-13
Key Verse: 1 Corinthians 1 10
Now I plead with you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.
Devotion:
Paul reveals to the Corinthians that there is division appearing in the church. For that to be visible by him means that it must have been known to many people so that at least one of them would have mentioned it to others for word to spread. It is not as if he was there watching via closed circuit TV or anything… When we are in the midst of the trouble and strife we do not often see what is going on because we do not look at the overall picture, focusing instead on our own objectives or wants.
Just because we are different people and we think differently does not mean that we have to impose our ways on everyone else. We should celebrate our differences and live life knowing and accepting those differences. As long as we are all working toward the same goal of living our lives with Christ, obeying Him and bringing glory to God, we should be able to get on… but we don’t!
So what do we do with our differences? What do we do with our different skills and gifts? We combine together to be able to do more than we can apart from each other. God made us different so we can complement each other. He did not create us different so we can each worship our own gods but that we could come together as one church and worship the same God. It takes a whole lot of different things to make up a church body that can effectively worship God.
Instead of closing ourselves off from others and only doing things our own way, we should be embracing differences so we can learn more from each other. God knows we are weak and that we will wander off under temptation so we need to keep Him close so we can hear Him when He speaks. Having other agendas means we are listening to too many other things!
Points to Ponder:
Who do you follow?
Are you walking with Christ?
March 14: 1 Peter 3 8-12
Key Verse: 1 Peter 3 8
Finally, all of you be of one mind, having compassion for one another; love as brothers, be tender-hearted, be courteous;
Devotion:
The apostle Peter writes about being obedient in many ways including being obedient to God’s Word. Our Bibles teach us we should love one another and not just because that is what Jesus said but because this is what God has been trying to teach us from the beginning. That love we have for each other should extend beyond the words we say to each other and should be followed up by actions to show we mean what we say!
Saying one thing and acting differently shows others that you do not really mean the words you are saying! Peter backs this up by telling the people they need to follow up their love for each other with actions that show just how much they care. That also means not reacting and retaliating when anyone does anything against you. Does this mean that we should just take anything that comes our way? No. We need to be able to tell people they are doing something that upsets or annoys us, but we should not turn round and do something to upset or annoy them because of what they have done to us.
Loving others allows us to love life more because we get more out of it; by loving others we can bring joy to their lives and to ours, with that joy comes contentment and a real sense of sharing your life with them. Jesus did not just come and do things for us. He came and shared His love and His life with us, giving us the opportunity to live our lives in a better way knowing He loves us!
God continues to watch over everyone, but as we have seen in the Old Testament in places such as the book of Job He is very pleased with people who live a righteous life and those who lift up His name and glorify Him. If we want to be able to show others real Christian love we have to understand His love a bit more and accept all facets of that life style. Jesus shared His life with us. Let us share our lives with others!
Points to Ponder:
Do you share your love for Christ?
What does God see you actually doing?
March 13: 1 John 3 10-12
Key Verse: 1 John 3 11
For this is the message that you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another,
Devotion:
God has been trying to teach this same message from the beginning of time: that we should love one another. When He placed Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden it seemed like it was the perfect match, and it was. But then the evil one got in and started doubt and greed which slowly ate away until they decided that their own ways would be just as good as God’s ways and everything fell apart!
The perfect relationship should not be between two people but between three people. It should not be between four people either, just three. It all started out just as God planned with Adam and Eve and God. Never leave God out of the relationship otherwise all you can hope for is a worldly romance which will seem lacking when tested. But with God in that relationship as the anchor, love and light, you have a relationship that is going to last forever.
So which should partnerships outside of Christianity last longer than many inside the church? Why should the evil one care about people who don’t care about God? He has no battle to fight there… What he will aim for is the relationship that has God on the side instead of in the middle because they will be easier to disrupt when God cannot act like the love and light He should be.
The same is going to be true for any relationship, be it between two people who love each other and want to spend their whole lives together or between two friends who live on the other side of the world to each other. As long as the love of God is there holding things together, the love of the people will continue to flourish and to remain strong and true. I thank God that I have many friends whom I can share God with whether they are by my side or on the other side of the world!
Points to Ponder:
How do you treat love?
Are you keeping God in it?
March 12: 1 John 2 7-8
Key Verse: 1 John 2 7
Brethren, I write no new commandment to you, but an old commandment which you have had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which you heard from the beginning.
Devotion:
It is strange that we look at taking the Gospel out to others as being something new, something that we may be doing in a new way or at least think we are doing in a new way. But if we are honest and look at the content of God’s Word we will see that it has remained unchanged for all time, even though we try to make more sense of it and re-write things so we can better understand it… Are we simply re-writing it so we can have something we like more ourselves, or are we actually getting to the true translation?
Each time we go through another iteration of translating, finding, seeking, re-writing and so on, we tend to impose our own likes and dislikes on the finished article ending up with something that pleases us and not necessarily God! And yet when Christ came to be amongst us, He declared a new commandment to be taught and that is to love one another.
Did people not love each other before this? Of course they did, but were they doing it for the right reason or doing it correctly according to God’s instruction? Well that could be debatable and something each of us has to look for in our own lives. We are not here to judge others but we do. We cannot hope to understand God’s ways and yet we try to define them. The Old commandments are those that have been written down for many many years and shared with us time after time because we know them to be truthful.
The New Commandment is from Christ to teach us to love each other without being hypocrites! It is not an easy task for many because we have learned to live a life full of lies and to cover up our true feelings most of the time. Being able to let out your true feelings may not be politically correct, but it will get you closer to God! God’s light is already shining and is on show for everyone to see. Don’t try and hide something that is already on show but rather allow others to see it and know it as the truth!
Points to Ponder:
Do you gossip?
Do you tell others the Gospel?
March 11: Psalms 19 7-11
Key Verse: Psalms 19 7
The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul; The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple;
Devotion:
It is God’s Word that shows us we have strayed away from His will in our lives. Without the direction of His Word we would not know we have strayed because we would do things that we thought were right and assumed that we were going in the right direction. It is not good practice to try out everything in life to figure out what is right and what is wrong – doing so is going to open us up to more than we can handle. Why should we think of doing that when we do have our instruction manual?
The more we see how God has instructed us in life the more we will be encouraged to do the right thing by Him and the more we do the more we get to see how good life can be with God. As we grow in knowledge and wisdom with Him we have our eyes opened to the amazing things He does and just how awesome this place is that he created for us!
But unless we are going to realise that it is God who has given these instructions and that it is God who we should be following, we are not going to see how important they are. We could take them as a rough guide to life and still get things terribly wrong because we do not follow the way He sets forward. Our translations of His word may not be up to scratch at times, but that does not make His Word wrong – it is just our translations that are lacking.
The more we find out what God has in store for us the more we want to find out what He has for our futures. As we walk with Him we see how much He does and how much he supports us, giving us hope and encouragement to walk longer and stronger with Him each day. It is only when we stay close to God and His Word that we see how great a reward we have through His Son Jesus Christ. Keep walking and keep talking with Him every day!
Points to Ponder:
Do you know your Bible?
Do you remember God inspired these words?