October 21: Acts 15 18-21
Key Verse: Acts 15 20
but that we write to them to abstain from things polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from things strangled, and from blood.
Devotion:
I always find it amazing picking up my bible and reading over the same verses again a day or two later. So today we have the same verses as yesterday but looking at it from a different angle. When God tell us to go forward and tell everyone about the Gospel message, it is not just to go and read stories to them (no matter how good) but to support them as well. One of the things we find lacking in so many walks of life is the support structure after you have taught someone something.
If we are going to be bold enough to tell people about God, then we should be bold enough to teach them when they have questions as well. Most people will not come back and boldly ask questions but will rather sit and stew on them or try and attract attention in some other way. We need to be vigilant and pick up on those cries for help. Nicodemus did not come to Jesus in the open but came in the dark of night.
When we have opened up the Gospel to people and they have responded in any way, we have to continue to encourage those people to seek and follow Christ and not to use Him as an excuse to get out of trouble now and again. We need to show people that being a Christian is a way of life and not just something we do at the weekend or on nights when we have bible study; yes it will be hard for many people to understand our ways of life, but we should be consistent in our relationship with Christ.
The biggest trap for people is always going to be the world around us and all its trimmings. Satan has a way of opening up a box of toys just as we should be laying down to rest! We need to encourage people to do what is righteous. We don’t have to give up on life nor walk around declaring doom and gloom; God wants us to enjoy life, but to do it so that we can glorify God always.
Points to Ponder:
Are you keeping God’s Word a secret?
Are you supporting your new family?
October 20: Acts 15 18-21
Key Verse: Acts 15 18
Known to God from eternity are all His works.
Devotion:
When the disciples had to face up to the Jerusalem Council about the work they were doing they did so knowing that what they were doing came from God. None of us like to face a grilling from the authorities but when we do we should make sure that what we are doing comes from God otherwise we will be facing an uncertain future. I do not like to be questioned about my faith and about the work that I do, but I do have to face it from time to time just as the disciples did.
Jesus does not call us to be sheep who will blindly follow others because that is what has been written down by someone. Jesus calls us to be sheep who will follow Him, our Good Shepherd. Following the law of the land and following Christ do not necessarily meet up. Man has corrupted some laws and some of those are the laws that God set up in the beginning. Just because lots of men have chosen to follow the new laws set up by man does not make them right! We need to check with God and make sure that we are following His will and not our own will.
When God calls you forward to go up against the laws set up by man you can bet that there will be a very long queue of people willing to have a go at you because you dare to show up the people who wrote down the laws. Paul found this out very quickly as he went out to invite the Gentiles to come to know Christ. The Jews were trying to protect their ways and part of that was the thoughts that they were the only chosen race. Well, they got the chosen race part right, but they missed the prophets message that the Gentiles were going to be saved as well.
When we step forward for God we must be prepared to have to face opposition because we are stepping forward into the enemy’s territory. We will face people who assume that they know better because they have been told by other people. If we are not careful we will fall into that same bracket. If we simply go about telling others what we have heard, we may be telling them pure fiction; so stepping back from time to time and making sure that we have learned correctly from God and not from man is sensible and required. God wants us to be faithful followers and not faithless sheep.
Points to Ponder:
Are you reading your bible?
Are you listening to God?
October 19: John 13 18-20
Key Verse: John 13 19
Now I tell you before it comes, that when it does come to pass, you may believe that I am He.
Devotion:
When Jesus had to tell His disciples that one of them was going to betray Him, it hurt! This was something that was on the cards from the beginning, but it did not make it any easier now that the time had come. When we are faced with hardships in our lives, just because we may know what is ahead or we are prepared for what is ahead, does not make it any different when the time comes. Yes we are more prepared and we know what we should do or have to do, but we still have to go through the trial.
Jesus knew what had to be done because this moment was written down in the scriptures already, but actually stopping and telling the disciples was difficult. He knew how much some of them would be hurt by the discussion which probably made it all the harder for Him to say. But He did. This is the will of the Father, our Father in heaven, God Almighty. When we face up to God’s will in our lives it may not be to our liking, but we will know that it is His will when we do face it.
God is always going to give us some sort of escape from the hardships we face; that may not seem like it right now, but He does. Being patient and waiting for the right moment to face up or speak up is also hard going. Most of us cannot imagine carrying round a secret for most of our lives and then having to tell that secret when the time is right because most of us will give in and tell someone about that secret before too long; but Jesus did so and carried it right up until this moment knowing that the time had come.
I thank God for being so loving and faithful that He did this for our sakes so that we may believe in the truth ourselves. He could have swept it under the carpet and tried to convince us in an easier way, but he chose to make sure that this happened in exactly the way that the prophets had said it would. God does not go back on His word. God will never let us down. We can depend on Him now and forever more!
Points to Ponder:
Do you like secrets?
Are you trying to keep secrets from God?
October 18: Acts 9 10-16
Key Verse: Acts 9 13
‘Lord,’ Ananias answered, ‘I have heard many reports about this man and all the harm he has done to your holy people in Jerusalem.
Devotion:
I could quite imagine what Ananias must have though when he was told by The Lord in a vision to go and heal Saul. Saul had built up a bit of a name for himself as being the one the Jews should avoid at all costs because he did nothing but persecute them; now here was God saying that he should go and be kind to him! How many times have you had something similar told to you? Maybe you really did not like someone at school and the teacher pairs you off with that person!
God is the one who knows what is going on inside people’s hearts and He alone is the one who is able to put the right people together at the right time to make sure they have the best opportunity to get to know Him! We come up with all sorts of excuses so that we don’t have to mix with the people that we do not like. God is the one who says we should love our enemies as well as our friends. He says that we need to forgive people over and over again. He wants us to make a difference in the world and not just to the same people over and over again.
Ananias did not want to go out and make friends with the enemy for fear of his life and the lives of the Jews around him. But when the Lord told him that He had chosen Saul for the task, Ananias did not stand around complaining about things all day long; he got about doing what God had told him to do. Too often in our lives we try to make the choices for God because we think we know the people around us! It is not our job to judge the people around us. That is God’s position. Our lot is to listen to what God tells us and where He tells us to go.
I would never have dreamt that I would be serving the type of teenagers that I steered clear of when I was in school. I would run a mile before mixing with those types, and yet that is where God has placed me in my ministry. Yes it is hard work at times but it is very rewarding because I know that I am doing what God has asked me to do and not running the other way like I used to. When God ask, smile and say ‘yes Lord’.
Points to Ponder:
Are you trying to guide God?
Do you really listen?
October 17: Acts 17 16-21
Key Verse: Acts 9 21
For all the Athenians and the foreigners who were there spent their time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear some new thing.
Devotion:
I could just imagine the picture that is being painted here, all the people come to learn something new as they listen to the philosophers, and the philosophers listen in return to see if they can glean something new as well. They were now consumed in the consumption of information, much like we are doing today but in a very different and digital manner! Mankind has this thirst for information so that he can become wiser as he grows older.
But sometimes we do just have to admit that there is a higher power and that God is the one who does know it all and control it all. Why should we want to reach such high posts after He has told us that He wants to look after us? Why do we seek even more information when God has limited what we take in to make sure we take it in properly? Our thirst for knowledge and wisdom can outgrow our ability to take it in properly and we then start to make up our own plans with the information that is coming in.
When we study our bibles we could study the same passage over and over again and seemingly take in new information each time we do so. This is because our brains not only take in a deeper understanding of the words we read but they begin to link in events and information from other places to make a better picture. This is the goal of many computer scientists, to be able to create a computer that can link information together properly – and they are getting closer as time goes by.
What we must not do is to allow that quest for information to take over our lives and block God out of the decision making process. God wants to help us understand the information we take in because without His infinite understanding, we may well build up the wrong picture from all the pieces we have and come up with something that is not actually reality!
Points to Ponder:
Do you like puzzles?
Will you allow God to help you?