November 5: Zechariah 3 6-10
Key Verse: Zechariah 3 8
‘Hear, O Joshua, the high priest, You and your companions who sit before you, For they are a wondrous sign; For behold, I am bringing forth My Servant the BRANCH.
Devotion:
Have you ever had to direct traffic, show people where to park or something similar? Standing in the middle of a road and trying to get a huge car to go someplace they are not going can be a bit daunting. I know it is the driver who should be in charge of the car but the though does go through your head that they are in a car and you are in the middle of a road! But still they listen and they drive where you tell them, mostly…
As Christians we should be like that. We should be the parking attendants trying to get people who are on a crash course to nowhere to change direction and try and be reasonable. If you are brave enough to get it right and stand up and direct properly, then people are going to listen and you will get the job done. We should be standing up and telling people that they need to know Christ and allow God to change their ways. The ways of the world may well get them some place, but it will probably not get them to the proper place.
We are not Christ. We are not angels. We are not God. We are just people like the rest of the other people, but we are willing to take a step out there into the road and make a difference. God has told us that Christ will return. We know that he has already been, just as the prophets were told that He would come. In this verse Christ is called the BRANCH.
We have been given direction, instruction and the ability to do what is required of us just as the people were given instruction in the days of the prophets. We must not ignore what Christ has told us otherwise we will be doing what the Jews did – they ignored the instructions from God and had to serve the consequences. I know God does not threaten us, but when He asks us to do something, we should be doing it!
Points to Ponder:
Do you get intimidated by the world?
Remember who God is!
November 4: Matthew 7 15-20
Key Verse: Matthew 7 17
Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.
Devotion:
You would be forgiven for thinking that were a lot of very nasty people lately because of the annual Halloween pastime of dressing up in the most evil looking costumes! I must admit that the pictures that have come out in the last few days of the makeup artists and clothes designers who have found a new vocation is incredible. But this is a one-off event which does not really get covered by this statement because when you meet the people dressed up as ghoulish characters they are actually normal people underneath it all!
But what about the people that look normal and yet you cannot even begin to imagine how they are going to react to the things which you would think of as being normal. The actions of some people in relation to what we think are normal events is jaw dropping in many cases. But who are we to judge how they should react to the situations? Well – we can’t judge in reality because we do not know how their minds work.
What we can do is to see how God through Christ has reacted to so many things in our bibles. We can then look at how we react and try to figure out how we can fix our own attitudes to make them more in line with Christ. Being Christ-like is not just about being good and not sinning but also about reaching out to the people around us with love and respect.
But as we do this we do have to be very aware of the people that look normal but are not what they seem to be. Satan is very aware of the types of people we will accept in our lives and he will use those types of people to distract us or tempt us just when we do not expect it at all. Just because they look like they are going to be the type of people we like, does not make them good people in God’s eyes. Take a good look at how Christ would react and compare what we do and say to what Christ would do and say. We can then aim to be more Christ-like and aim to be people that others can trust…
Points to Ponder:
Do you think you are trust-worthy?
How does your life compare to Christ’s?
November 3: Hebrews 3 12-13
Key Verse: Hebrews 3 13
but exhort one another daily, while it is called “Today,” lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.
Devotion:
What does it mean to not believe? I’m not asking what it means physically but rather what are the consequences for your own self if you chose not to believe in what the truth actually is. The consequences are not always thought about and certainly not considered in full by far too many.
We can look back on the people of Israel as they followed Moses through the desert and off toward the Promised Land. We can see how they have chosen their own path because of the decisions they make. We can see the consequences of what they are doing as they are doing it. We can almost shout out to them to stop, look and listen to what they are saying themselves. We can wonder why they could ever think anything other than how lucky they are to know God so closely.
And then we can look at the mark we make over Halloween with all the rubbish we let into our lives… Why do we even think about doing anything other than following Christ all the while? It’s got to be something along the line of, if it was so ornately made then we should look at it twice. We see the wonders of this universe all around us and even come up with the idea that they could not possibly come from anything other than a marvellous Creator God… but then we go out and create some dumb idol and start worshipping that!
The people must have known in their own hearts that they were working against God but they were too lazy to do anything about it until they had to face the music for what they did wrong. God does not want to punish us at all, but whilst we are in direct conflict with Him, we cannot hope to be able to do anything other than winding Him up! God is a God of love, but He knows that we must obey the rules in order to learn how to accept that love.
Points to Ponder:
Do you try to bride your way out of a problem?
Will you accept what Christ says?
November 2: Philemon 1 4-7
Key Verse: Philemon 1 5
hearing of your love and faith which you have toward the Lord Jesus and toward all the saints,
Devotion:
This letter to Philemon describes the love and faith that he had not just for and of Jesus Christ but also to all the people of the church as well. Why was it mentioned at the beginning of the letter? We need to encourage one another to lift up our faith and love toward each other to make sure that people notice we are different and not just like everyone else in the world. Christ has set us apart from the world and we need to show people that we are set apart because of this love!
Philemon had set an example to the people of his household and to the people around. He was clearly looked up at by the people because word had got back to Paul about the joy the people felt to have Philemon and company with them and teaching them. Philemon had a servant heart whereby he made sure the people around him knew what it was like to know and love Christ; Christ being the ultimate example of a person with a servant heart to start with.
It was not the fact that Philemon had this heart that was impressing Paul here but the fact that there was a direct trail of faith and attitude pointing toward Christ and not to the people. If we gain a name for ourselves and not for Christ then we have clearly failed at doing our work. I don’t like to get praise when I am trying to tell people about Christ or direct people towards the ways of Christ because that means that I am not succeeding in my mission to promote and glorify Christ first of all.
Now whether the people around Philemon saw this or whether they just saw a man who was doing all the right things is not clearly mentioned; though Paul knew this is what was actually happening in the background. When we know in our own hearts that we are serving our Living God by making sure we follow His ways and His will in our lives, then we are being more like Philemon and people will notice!
Points to Ponder:
Do you make a difference?
Do you lift up Christ?
November 1: 1 Corinthians 14 26-33
Key Verse: 1 Corinthians 14 33
For God is not the author of confusion but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints.
Devotion:
One of the most amazing things I have learned is summed up in this one verse quoted above today. When people all come together in the name of Christ and lift Him up in unison, then you will see a congregation that is working together praising God. I have been to some meetings where there seems to be several groups of people each wanting their own way and their own order and that tends to pull the meeting apart rather than bring people together. When we come together to try and glorify God, we should be working together as one body – that is the church!
This is obviously nothing new because it is plain to see this is what is being taught about in this letter to the Corinthian church; there were people all wanting their own agenda rather than glorifying God. This does tend to make people think more of themselves than of God when they gather because they are all fighting to try and fix the situation rather than coming together to praise God.
A church that actually works together is one that is openly glorifying God and not trying to bring glory to any one person or group of people. And yes, there are far too many cases where people are bringing glory to themselves without thinking about it. I try to go into and church service and lift up God before anyone of anything else. If we are all trying to do that then God will make sure that we do work toward the same goal.
When we do all glorify God together we find that we all seem to be thinking of the same thing and all seem to come together with the same message. And that is the message that every church should try to bring – that we are all working together to glorify God and lift up the name of Jesus our Saviour. So let us work together as one body praising God above all else.
Points to Ponder:
Do you focus on yourself?
Or do you focus on God?