June 28: Luke 10 13-16
Key Verse: Luke 10 16
He who hears you hears Me, he who rejects you rejects Me, and he who rejects Me rejects Him who sent Me.
Devotion:
When Christ chose more people to go out and tell others of the Gospel, He chose people who would go out and make a difference. He did not choose people who would go and make friends with everyone to keep the peace and make life go on as normal! He chose people to go forward and make sure that the world knew that God wants repentance from everyone!
Taking a message to tell people how much they need Christ in their lives is one thing. Telling them that they are sinners in need of repentance is another thing. But being able to combine Christ’s love, His justice and His will is not ever going to be easy. People want to be able to go off and do their own things because that gives them pleasure. Taking that away from then makes them hostile! Giving them something else to fill in the gaps to allow them to make sense of where they are going takes practice! Christ chose people who had learned how to approach others to make them think more of God than themselves.
Taking away an idol is never going to be easy, especially if that idol is anything like self-pride! Jesus wanted people to know that lifting themselves up higher than God would only lead to destruction; not just rejection but damnation. God alone is God and nothing we do or say should ever lift up anything or anyone else instead of God! People will get to see the error of their ways if they are shown. It does not have to be beaten in or out of them, you can approach this subject with love and support – but it needs to be told!
I don’t mind opening people’s eyes a little now and again because I know it took a drastic step for me to open my eyes to what God had in store for me. I know that God is the one who can supply our needs and will do so when we trust in Him. I know that God is God and no man can ever fill that gap in our lives. I know that God has sent me to tell others about Him. So I do. Will you?
Points to Ponder:
Has God chosen you?
Are you facing rejection from others?
June 27: Matthew 10 40-42
Key Verse: Matthew 10 40
He who receives you receives Me, and he who receives Me receives Him who sent Me.
Devotion:
It is amazing to look back at what you have allowed into your own life… When we are honest with ourselves we start to see the things that we have allowed knowing that we should not have. We start to see the things that we should have allowed when we know we have blocked them out. We start to see the things that have come into our lives without us being able to stop them. But most of all we forget what has gone before!
God wants us to be able to accept new things into our lives otherwise we will not be able to truly accept Him into our lives. Our lives without Him are very different to what they should be. We could be doing all the right stuff and getting great enjoyment out of doing that all, but if we do not have God in our lives then we are on a road to nowhere. We will get rewards because that is how we work. We work and we get paid for doing the work in all areas of our lives; but accepting Christ is something very different.
Christ wants to give us the reward so that we will know Him better. He offers us that reward before we even get to know Him properly. He offers us the reward before we deserve it. He wants to pay us before we take on the work. But we do have to accept the work so that we will get paid!
If we accept what man gives us then all we will receive is what man can give us. We need to aim higher than mankind because we are destined for much greater things than this world. We could live life to the fullest and still get to the end wondering what it was all about, or we could accept Christ and then live our lives to the fullest with Him every step of the way. Accepting that God is God and that Christ is our Saviour is only part of our lives with God. Taking Him into our hearts and living with Him is more in line with what he wants…
Points to Ponder:
Do you accept Christ as Messiah?
Are you just in it for the rewards?
June 26: Exodus 16 2-9
Key Verse: Exodus 16 8
Also Moses said, “This shall be seen when the Lord gives you meat to eat in the evening, and in the morning bread to the full; for the Lord hears your complaints which you make against Him. And what are we? Your complaints are not against us but against the Lord.”
Devotion:
I don’t think I would have liked to have been Moses or Aaron back in the days of the exodus from Egypt; not because of the fact that they were walking through the desert but because of all the moaning and grumbling. If there is one thing that will get many people down in the church it is the moaning and grumbling of one or two people! That seems to soak through the whole church and will often lead to discontent. If not faced up to it may even start splitting the church apart…
The moaning of a few people must have spread quickly through the Israelite camp because it was not long before it was heard by Moses and Aaron and that made them feel bad as well. Not so much because of the grief that it brought to their own ears but because of what it meant to them. They were there because of God. God had promised a lot and they had given those promises to the people and yet those same people that had accepted the word were now the ones coming forward and complaining to them, in front of God!
I despair at how some people complain without thinking about the consequences of their own actions. I despair at how some people will make a show of their complaints in front of the very people they are complaining about. It is one thing to complain and make your feelings know, but to do so without regard for others does get me down. (end of rant)
God is always watching over us and He does see the hardships we face. He does hear us when we lift up those hardships to Him and ask Him for relief. If we are not getting the relief then there is a good reason why it should not happen – and don’t think that it is because you don’t believe enough or because you don’t have enough faith otherwise that will get you down even more. It is because God knows what is best in our lives and He is working on a plan. Trust Him and believe Him. He has promised and He always keeps His promises!
Points to Ponder:
Do you trust God?
Have you given up waiting?
June 25: 1 Corinthians 8 9-13
Key Verse: 1 Corinthians 8 12
But when you thus sin against the brethren, and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ.
Devotion:
As we grow with Christ we get to learn a lot about the differences between God’s ways and the ways of the world and of the devil. Whether you see it as a clear split between God’s ways and the devil’s ways or whether you see man at some stage in between the two should not matter too much; the fact is that there is a separation between our ways and God’s ways. How we go about living our lives and seeing where we are in the degrees of separation is what should concern us.
If we were only ever to live in God’s ways and never to go anywhere near the ways of man, be it man’s ways or the devil’s ways, then we would probably not be able to reach other people and teach them about God. On the other hand if we spent all of our time doing what others did then the weaker Christians would look at us and consider that they may be able to do that instead of following God’s ways as they are trying to.
We need to be able to reach out to people and show them that Christ is with us wherever we are in life, but we also need to stand firm in ways that will encourage people to stand by God and grow with Him. It is not difficult really, it’s just about how we approach things. Being close to those who do not know God is hard work because we need to constantly strive to avoid those temptations that others are giving in to. We need to also make sure that we are not putting stumbling blocks in the path of Christians who are watching us reaching out. We may know that we do not have to worry about what people offer to idols because they are not real, but someone who is unsure will see us as giving in to or supporting those idols.
God does not need us to work against Him, there is enough people already doing that as they follow the devils ways. God does not need us ignoring Him because there are enough confused people out there just getting on with life. God needs us proclaiming His name and His ways in ways that will show support and encouragement to all others; and that is where things can get tricky… but trusting in God to show you the way is always profitable.
Points to Ponder:
Do you mix with non-Christians?
Do you still obey God?
June 24: Matthew 10 40-42
Key Verse: Matthew 10 42
And whoever gives one of these little ones only a cup of cold water in the name of a disciple, assuredly, I say to you, he shall by no means lose his reward.
Devotion:
When Christ spoke these words to the disciples He did not want them to get big heads or to be overly proud of who they were. The prophets were held in great esteem and rightfully so because they were the direct messengers of God. But anyone who only follows the prophets will only receive what the prophets can give them. And so on down to the very least of us, the disciples also being counted as mere people telling others of Christ. If people are going to only follow us, then the only reward they can get is what we give them.
But when we follow Christ, we get what He can give us and that is a relationship with God! We may be the smallest part of the whole cycle, but we are important parts because we are the one who will plant those very first seeds so that others will get to know that there is more out there. Those seeds may be what someone will take with them to visit a more righteous person and find out more about God. That information is then taken and built up with the law and the scriptures to reveal Christ. When that person gets to Christ He can open their hearts to the truth.
We (I say this as a Christian) should never count ourselves as being righteous in our own rights because we are just like every other person apart from the fact that we have a relationship with Christ. We should never count ourselves as being like the prophets because God has not approached us in the same way as He did to them. We are but messengers for Christ.
Our aim should be to remain steadfast in getting the Gospel out to people and making sure that they hear the truth about Christ. Not everyone is going to listen to us, but unless we do step forward they may not ever get to hear the Gospel in a way that they can relate to. Hearing the truth from a person you know is always easier to accept and tends to make more sense. When a complete stranger starts talking we may not be so intent in listening, especially if we think the subject is of no interest to us to start with. Be a friend today and tell someone about Christ!
Points to Ponder:
How important do you think you are?
Christ came as a servant!