January 13: Isaiah 33 15-16

Key Verse: Isaiah 33 15
He who walks righteously and speaks uprightly, He who despises the gain of oppressions, Who gestures with his hands, refusing bribes, Who stops his ears from hearing of bloodshed, And shuts his eyes from seeing evil:

Devotion:
Isaiah directed people to turn away from their evil ways and turn back to God. He showed people they needed to recognise the law which God had given them many years before and uphold it. He reminded people of the law and how they were neglecting it. This was not a man who was judging other people but a man who was lifting up the law and showing people they were falling very short of the mark!

Isaiah was a man who wanted other people to see how important God’s law is. He reminded people of the law and gave them direction as well as example of how they fell short. He included himself and his fellow people in many circumstances because he recognised his own shortcomings. If we just blame other people and do not recognise when we fall short then we are nothing better than a judge against the law.

Against the law? How can I say we are against the law if we are trying to show people they are wrong? The law does not say we should put people down by calling them sinners and showing them they are wrong. That is only part of the law. The law says we need to uplift people so they want to be able to obey the law. If we put forward the law as a pure hardship we will not gain many followers. But equally we do need to remind people of the law.

Yes it is a fine balance and one which is difficult to maintain. The world will always seem to offer so many ways out or ways in which things can be bent to allow people to be happy in what they do. The law does not bend and fold under pressure. The law stays firm and has a foundation in Christ, our Rock, our Saviour. Turning our ways away from the ways of the world will allow us to aim toward Christ and to encourage people toward Him. Abusing the ways of the world will only lead to strife and chase people away from God. Be sensible, but be honest.

Points to Ponder:
Do you struggle with the law?

Are you being real with God?

January 12: James 4 11-12

Key Verse: James 4 11
Do not speak evil of one another, brethren. He who speaks evil of a brother and judges his brother, speaks evil of the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge.

Devotion:
Back in the Old Testament God did appoint certain people to be judges over Israel and He did that to make sure the people understood what was right and what was wrong. God did not appoint the judges so people would be under oppression; God appointed them to point people back to God. How can we go toward God is we are constantly striving against Him. These verses bring home the same message; if we work to judge people or to speak evil of people, we are working against the law because the law has been laid out for us already.

If we are upholding the law and bringing it to the attention of our fellow saints, then that is a different thing. But taking the law into our own hands by being the judge and telling people where you think they should be is not what God wants of us. Being a follower of Christ should mean we want to uphold the sayings of Christ our Saviour and bring glory to His name. Jesus upheld the law as it was written. He made sure people understood that the law as given to them by the prophets and judges is the law of God. We may interpret it incorrectly at times because we do not fully understand it, but we should still be working toward upholding it just as Jesus did.

There is only one person who is able to be the final judge. There is only one person who knows the law better than the people who penned it down. Jesus is worthy of being our judge and He has shown He is willing to lay His life down to uphold the law He brought back to us. We need to take notice of this man called Jesus because He is the Christ, the Son of the Living God!

We may get called all sorts of names as Christians. We may even be persecuted. We may even be martyred. None of this gives us the right to judge other people. We can compare what they do to the law and recognise it as wrong, give guidance to try and allow them to see it is wrong; but that final judgement belongs to Christ alone.

Points to Ponder:
Do you judge people?

Will you join me in trying not to judge?

January 11: 1 Corinthians 5 1-8

Key Verse: 1 Corinthians 5 6
Your glorying is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?

Devotion:
It is a difficult thing to imagine how much a little temptation can ruin our lives, but it can happen so easily that it should scare us. God continues to warn us against allowing the small things into our lives that we know will do a little damage because once we let the first things through we are opening our hearts to so much more. We all think we are strong enough to withstand the first five minutes and think we can step back after that and continue on our walk with God as if nothing had happened.

What we don’t realise is that once we have got past that first five minutes we are now open to another ‘easy’ five minutes; and so the snowball effect starts! God does not want us to give in to the first part because He knows we will be open to the next and then the next. We don’t see beyond the first step and think all will be fine as long as we keep an eye on God. Real life does not work like that.

It does not have to start with something we do ourselves either. We may be the ones allowing something to happen just because we think it will not harm anyone in the short term. What we are doing is giving them that first five minutes on a platter and expecting them to be able to resist the next onslaught under their own strength. None of us is strong enough to resist the wiles of the evil one so we should not expect others to have to put up with what we cannot. Think about how you would give in. Think about how it may weaken your soul. Think before allowing someone else to give in to temptation.

Sometimes it is just better to get rid of the temptation from other people’s lives without seeing if they can handle the first five minutes. If we are allowing stumbling blocks to be placed in front of other people just to see if they can weather the storm, are we not doing the evil one’s job for him? Are we not playing at being the devil? Horrible thought, but one we need to consider. Jesus did not go around seeing if men could resist a bit of temptation. Jesus went around telling people they should not go near temptation at all.

Points to Ponder:
Do you feel tempted?

Are you tempting Jesus?

January 10: 1 Corinthians 4 6-10

Key Verse: 1 Corinthians 4 7
For who makes you differ from another? And what do you have that you did not receive? Now if you did indeed receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it?

Devotion:
What do we have that has not been given to us by God? Nothing! Everything that surrounds us has been allowed by God. That is an incredibly difficult thing to accept as we remember all the bad things that have happened over the past few weeks. Here we have been trying to enjoy the time off for Christmas and New Year and instead we have had to remember some pretty horrible things that have happened. Why does God allow this? Why should we have to endure this all?

How do we differ from the people who have done things wrong? How do we differ from terrorists or overly religious people? We differ in our acceptance that Jesus Christ is Lord. We differ in our belief that God has allowed things into our lives. We differ in our faith that we serve a living, risen Saviour. Do we have to boast about how bad we have it or how we have had to do without? Do we have to boast about the atrocities we have had to face? No, we don’t have to, but we choose to!

Just like there are people in this world that choose to be overtly extremist and make things happen that appal us, there are people in this world that have faith in something so incredible others find it hard to believe. We believe in a God who allowed His own Son to die for us. We believe in a God that allowed His Son to be nailed to a cross. Do you not think others will find that difficult to accept? We should not try and make people feel guilty because we go without when we are choosing to follow our God. We should not make people feel bad just because we accept that bad things happen.

We should be lifting each other up and praising our God; not for allowing all those bad things into our lives so we can boast about how bad it is, but praise Him for allowing us to remember humility before an Awesome God! Don’t put God down because other people abuse Him or us, lift God up so they can see they too have a chance with this God we know and love.

Points to Ponder:
Do you complain to God?

Do you praise God?