Friday Reading: John 4 34-38
Key Verse: John 4 35
Do you not say, ‘There are still four months and then comes the harvest’? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest!
Devotion:
Jesus had a way of showing us all that we do have work to do whilst here on earth, just as He did. He was never short of work, always seeking to do the will of His Father, our God in heaven. When we start to think that we may not have work to do because it looks a bit barren here, maybe we have closed our eyes to the real harvest or maybe we are looking in the wrong field for the harvest. God has been sowing seeds for a long time, nurturing those seeds, watering them and feeding them with light; we have a task to do and that is to sort out the harvest and not leave it in the field.
It is Christ who will have the final harvest that will bring us all home, but it is us who have to deal with everyday life and those around us right now. If we ignore the field around us then we are saying to God that we do not care for the crop that He has planted and nurtured for us! Who are we to argue with our God who does know everything? Who are we to argue with our God who knows who will come to Him and who will reject Him? We may not like some of the people around us but we cannot see inside their hearts like God can – how do we know what they seek?
Our lot is to spread the gospel and bring those people in who are willing to listen, not the ones we think should grow up to be the best harvest! Yes it is hard to not be picky and try to lift up those that we think will work whilst leaving those that we think are failures; God is the one who has brought people into our lives so that we can work with them. God is the one who has brought the people into our lives that He knows we can help. We just have to listen a bit more!
We may be the ones who sow a few seeds that will be harvested somewhere else. We may be the ones who come along at the right second and bring someone to Christ. We may be the ones who say something that sticks in that persons mind that finally makes them go to church on the other side of the world. Or we may be the one who has to work with someone from when they were young right up until they finally accept Christ as Lord and Saviour. God has chosen us for a reason and we should be willing to come forward and be used of Him, daily.
Points to Ponder:
Do you select who you talk to about God?
Who is going to tell the others about God?
Thursday Reading: Luke 10 1-16
Key Verse: Luke 10 2
Then He said to them, “The harvest truly is great, but the labourers are few; therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into His harvest.
Devotion:
When the time is right we may be required to step forward in faith and do some work for Christ; what He asks of us may not be anything like we are used to and may even make us uncomfortable. He may ask us to leave the safety of our current lives and step forward in absolute faith. These seventy disciples that He chose had to do exactly that, step forward in faith to go and spread the gospel. He sent them out into pairs and not alone because He knew that they would need encouragement from each other from time to time.
The task He gave them was to make sure that others got to hear about the gospel message. That meant they would have to tell people the truth just as Jesus had and that would also mean that many would get upset by that truth because they just don’t want to hear it – they are too comfortable in their earthly ways and don’t want to budge! It is not up to us who we think should hear about God because His commandment to us is to go out into the entire world.
I really do love the people that I work with because I know that I can trust them to keep me going when I get weak just as I try my best to keep them going when I see them getting tired. But the most important thing is that we go out together and we proclaim the good news that Christ is our Saviour! If we were to stop doing that then we are failing God. If we were to go and sort our own lives out first of all and then turn back to God we are not putting Him first! He WILL give you the time to sort things out when He knows you need to.
There are far too few who are willing to take on this sort of life style but this is what God calls many of us to do – whether we do it or not is still our choice though. I may have a very stressful life at time as earthly ways pull me apart from my work for God, but I know that as long as I stay focused on God’s work and trust the loving companions that He has given me, we will succeed!
Points to Ponder:
How do you go about working for God?
Are you doing what He has asked?
Wednesday Reading: Luke 9 57-62
Key Verse: Luke 9 60
Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and preach the kingdom of God.”
Devotion:
Some of the statements that Jesus came out with may seem a bit harsh to some people because of the watered down state of affairs that we live in. Jesus did not come to this world to placate everyone and give them all a warm fuzzy feeling inside, He came to sort the world out and bring them back to Him. Jesus came to seek and to save!
I am sure that people at that time were also showing signs of being weak in their beliefs just as we are today; let’s face it, this has been going on for a very long time. It is us who have grown cold and we are the ones who should be sorting out our lives. God has continued to seek us and to save us, all those who are willing to take a stand in His name. But for those who are not willing to take the Word of God for all that it is and want to continue doing things their own way until they think the time is right… Christ now gives them a choice… follow me or get left behind!
When we make a choice to follow Christ we are making a very important and far reaching choice. If we simply accept Him as our Saviour and ask for forgiveness we are safe; but should we not be aiming for more than just a safe life? Many people are just seeking a safe life with Christ but Jesus warned the man who wanted to follow Him that there was no place to call home now on earth. Our home is now in heaven, we are just living here whilst we hopefully fulfil what God has designed for us.
We do like to make excuses to continue on with our own lives instead of making a stand for Christ. We like to tell others just how much we are able to do for the church whilst really doing it for our own reasons. We like to live out our family or earthly lives even when God calls us to come forward and change. Jesus turned His own earthly life aside and followed what God required of Him. In the same manner we should be following what God has required of us – finding out what He has in stall for us means we need to stop and listen to Him instead of being caught up in our own lives all the time!
Points to Ponder:
Do you help others?
Are you helping or hindering God?
Tuesday Reading: Luke 9 49-50
Key Verse: Luke 9 50
But Jesus said to him, “Do not forbid him, for he who is not against us is on our side.”
Devotion:
There are times when we all have to admit that we are different! That does not mean that we work against each other or that we cannot work together or that we have such big differences that we can’t be working with the same God! When I first got to know Christ I was in a different country, had a very different outlook because I was a teenager, had very different friends and certainly had different churches to go to. But the greatest joy for me was getting to know God with other Christians.
We are certainly not all the same and we may well get on each other’s nerves sometime, but working with other Christians has got to be what we are all about. This statement has got to be qualified by reminding ourselves that a Christian is a believer in Christ, someone who believes that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, that He came to earth as a man, lived as a man, died for our sins, rose from the grave, ascended into heaven and will one day come back for us just as He has promised. Just because one Christians wears jeans and another a full black suit does not make either of them a non-Christian!
When John and the other disciples saw someone else casting out devils, they probably got a bit worried that someone was trying to do something they should not do; this belief sounds like it stemmed from them not knowing this person and the fact that he was probably doing things differently. But the key here was that this person was casting the devils out in Christ’s name. This means that he believed that Christ was the one who was able to cast out the devils; just because he was not working with them did not mean that he was against them.
But let us not just accept everything that everyone does because we still do have this Gospel that God has given us and we still do need to believe Him above all else. Making up our own rules, no matter how good they sound, is not right and is not what Christ promotes. Jesus spent some time telling off the religious zealots for doing exactly that. Christmas should be a time when we can come together in the name of Christ and bring the truth back into people’s lives!
Points to Ponder:
Do you see yourself as different?
Are you focused on Christ?
Monday Reading: Matthew 20 20-23
Key Verse: Matthew 20 23
So He said to them, “You will indeed drink My cup, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with; but to sit on My right hand and on My left is not Mine to give, but it is for those for whom it is prepared by My Father.”
Devotion:
When the mother of Zebedee’s children came forward to ask if her children could sit on either side of Christ in heaven, I don’t think she realised just how much she was actually asking of Christ. So many times we look to ways in which we can promote ourselves because we either seek the fame through pride or we seek recognition for the work we think we are doing. I say ‘think’ because we often get carried away with the idea of how much we are doing.
On the other hand, when we come forward with a humble heart and attitude being willing to serve others and continue to promote others instead of ourselves, we may find that we can go much further than promoting ourselves. When Jesus said that the James and John (being the sons of Zebedee) would have to go through what He would go through they may have wished not if they knew what lay ahead. By the same token if we know what is ahead of us when we pick up the banner for Christ and serve Him, we may not wish to get too involved.
As Christians we should be prepared to face what the heathen will do to us just because they do not want to be called sinners and do not want to have to be blamed for anything that they do wrong against God. Man would rather others be blamed for what goes wrong in the world instead of accepting responsibility. Man does not want to have any guilt associated with what he does because that would mean having to give up on those unjust deeds.
God is the only one who has the power to say what should happen to us because we are His creation. We can ask all we wish of others and even of people in power, but it is God who has the final say. If we are willing to step forward and be called children of God then we should also be willing to take on what others will dish out to get out of being blamed themselves. Yes we can point things out as much as we like, but that does not mean that man will accept God’s ways and rules without argument!
Points to Ponder:
Do you like being called a child of God?
Are you willing to put up with what comes with that title?