May 4: Joel 2 28-32
Key Verse: Joel 2 31
The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord.
Devotion:
It is amazing that people wrote down these prophesies so many years before Christ came to earth and before all these things happened. The Jews had to look forward to all these terrible things happening to them; maybe this is another reason why they did not want to accept Christ as being the Messiah. But God has had His Word written down for us to look at and ponder over and for telling us of what is to come just as Joel told the Jews of what was coming. Don’t ignore God’s Word!
When we do put our faith and trust in Christ we will see a big difference in our own lives as we get changed from the inside with the Holy Spirit working through us. It is not a case of us doing any changes because we know the truth, it is a case of us being enabled through guidance from God to change. God will change our hearts and show us what we need to do and when we do listen, we will change. Just as a naughty child is told that they have to stop their ways, we are told of the changes we have to do in our own lives.
Social and peer pressure is far too great for us to be able to do any of this by our own selves so we do need the Holy Spirit every step of the way. When Christ appeared in the room with the disciples He did not tell them that they were being given magic powers to do things, He told them that they were receiving the power from Him to do these things and that was the Holy Spirit being given to them.
We have been given many prophesies through our bibles and we need to take notice of them. This is not some random things that have been written down by man but inspired words written down by man after God has revealed them to those writers. We need to be willing to listen to what God has to say to us and accept that he does actually know what is best for us. We need to stop feeling like we are self-important and accept that God is what we need to care about, His Word, His Commandments, His Son and the Holy Spirit through which we are enabled. Listen and learn.
Points to Ponder:
Do you accept God as the ultimate authority?
Or do you still try to do your own thing?
May 3: Psalms 2 1-6
Key Verse: Psalms 2 5
Then He shall speak to them in His wrath, and distress them in His deep displeasure:
Devotion:
Why does the world not want God to be real? It’s a simple question and one that all manner of people have been fighting against for a long time. What is comes down to is quite simple really, man does not want God to be real otherwise man has to listen to God! Satan planted those seeds of doubt and pride in the beginning and man has been fighting those weeds ever since.
The more we get given, the more we want, the more we want the more we take and that bring in deceit, lies and corruption. The only way we can hope to get away with any of those is to build upon them with more junk, more deceit, more lies and more corruption. We are building this huge pile of self-pride and self-glorification that has no real foundation. The only foundation it has is a lie in the beginning. Once that lie surfaces, and it will one day, the whole world we have built up on that lie will come crashing down around us.
Lay aside the ways of the world and pick up the ways of God because God is the foundation upon which the real world is built. Christ came into this world to be the cornerstone of the church that will not crumble because it is a base upon which everything can be built. This is real world information because Jesus Christ was born, did live, was crucified and did rise from the dead; it’s just that man does not want to have to accept this otherwise he has to accept everything that God has given us and that mean rejecting this great big world that he has built up for himself.
God’s world is real and firm as the foundation it is built on. Our world is only as firm as the foundation we have built it on. We have seen many buildings collapse and disappear because of things like earthquakes, but God’s church has stood from the beginning of time. It may have been reduced to eight people at one time, but it has remained there, always and will forever be. Submit to the truth. Submit to God!
Points to Ponder:
What is your world built on?
Is Christ your foundation?
May 2: Ezra 4 1-5
Key Verse: Ezra 4 5
and hired counsellors against them to frustrate their purpose all the days of Cyrus king of Persia, even until the reign of Darius king of Persia.
Devotion:
One of the things that I have grown to accept in life is that when the world wants to get in on the action it will try all manner of things to impose on us! I have seen far too many groups, cliques, even countries muscle in on the work that we do as Christians just so that they can get the glory or get their own way. Sometimes we just have to stand up for ourselves and say NO!
God wants us to share our gifts with others, share the Gospel with others and share our love with others; but when we are abused by others, we should not have to accept everything that they throw at us. God has not put us on this world to be constantly abused by the world. Yes He does tell us that we will have people hate us and do all manner of things to us just because we stand up for Him, but it does not have to be constant when we do have a choice. If we do stand up, they will notice us more and begin to realise that we are serious about our God.
The problem comes when we get carried away and do things out of spite instead of following God’s commandments. Some will say that it is a fine line between doing what is right and wrong; I say that the line is very distinct, very clear and one that we blur because we want our own way at times. God has given us the bible so that we know what we should do and know what is expected of us. We need to stand up for God and make sure that people know God is God and not just something we do because we are bored, weak, cultish or any other excuse man comes up with!
In order for people to know God they have to see Him in us. We have to stand up for God and make sure people know we are standing up for Him and not for some poor excuse we come up with to get our own way or to stop the world from getting their own way. We have to accept the way that people are, accept the fact they will come up against us, accept we are different and live for God and not for any other excuse. Put aside the excuses today and live for God!
Points to Ponder:
Do you use excuses to get your own way?
Do you accept others as being different?
May 1: Psalms 148 1-5
Key Verse: Psalms 148 3
Praise Him, sun and moon; Praise Him, all you stars of light!
Devotion:
How many times have you read something like this and wondered at how the writer ever thought they could get the moon to praise God. The answer is simple. We don’t get to make the moon or anything else bow down to God. But how we see the moon is entirely different. We could look up at the moon and think that it must be some sort of a god because it affects the tides and even people to some extent; but then we would be barking up the wrong tree again!
If you have ever had the privilege of being able to take a close look at the surface of the moon through a good telescope you would see how strange it looks and the fact that it is just like a mini planet. It is floating round in space; I use the term floating lightly because when you see it through a telescope you get to see that it is really big, I mean huge, like a planet! So what is the moon doing out there and how can it praise God?
The moon is not glowing because of any chemical or atomic reaction raging inside of it. It glows in the night because it is reflecting the sun light coming from our sun. That is the one with the raging nuclear reaction going on bursting forward light, heat and other radiation. The moon can be seen in the day time because the sun shines on it. It can be seen at night time because it is not hidden behind the earth and so still is light up by the sun. It is only when it gets stuck behind the earth or between us and the sun that we get to see something different. These are just down to physics and where God placed them and not down to them being some sort of gods!
So how do they praise God? They seem to praise God because we see such majesty in them. They inspire us and keep us in awe. But we should not be in awe because they did something by themselves. No; our God created them and placed them there for us to see and for them to be of use to us. So they bring glory to God because of how we see them, not because of what they can do. Just like that we can bring glory to God because of how we are seen by others and not just by what we do!
Points to Ponder:
How do you compare to the moon?
Do you know God knows you too?
April 30: Psalms 144 9-15
Key Verse: Psalms 144 11
Rescue me and deliver me from the hand of foreigners, whose mouth speaks lying words, and whose right hand is a right hand of falsehood
Devotion:
We need to be giving thanks to our God for all that He does and that does not just have to be for the things we see that He does in the world, the healing, the comfort and the supplying of needs; we all see those. What about the things that people do not see that we need in our lives? What about the strength we get to stand up for Him when the people around us are doing all manner of strange things which go against the Word of God?
I do depend more and more on God every day now and I tend to notice a whole lot more things that He does for us than I used to. Maybe I am the odd one out who has not noticed all these things before, but I do notice them now. I guess shutting yourself off from the world has the good side of being able to build up your spirituality, but it does shut you off from the world! When you are closed off from everything around you the things of the world go unnoticed; but when you are in the world and fighting every step you do notice what we are up against.
It is the strength that God gives me to fight in this world that I notice more and more. It is the knowledge that I have that God is always on my side when I am depending in Him (yes IN Him and not just ON Him). It is the faithfulness that I build up when I see Him faithfulness. All the little things that continue to grow inside of me because of God and not in spite of Him.
God would rather we all be more like the disciples and show others just how great our God actually is. Yes they faltered in the beginning too, but they all ended up bringing glory to God for all that He did in their lives. Let us live our life fuller and stronger in faith, knowing that God is awesome and that He is the one behind every step we take. That means we need to glorify Him more every day to make sure that others do see just how awesome He is!
Points to Ponder:
Do you count on God?
Can God count on you?