Tuesday Reading: Exodus 21 12-21
Key Verse: Exodus 21 17
And he who curses his father or his mother shall surely be put to death.
Devotion:
We may look at the laws of old and think that they are barbaric in their constitution, but if we were to stop and study them we would find out why they were written the way they were. The whole ethos of keeping it simple so that people would understand the gravity of the law was amazing and is lost in modern society. We now have legal documents for the most simple of laws that span pages and pages just so that intelligent lawyers do not bend the meaning of the law because the words could just be taken out of context! The bible was not written in that way, but man has corrupted it in that way…
The law was simple. If you mistreat your mother and father then you need to be punished. If that punishment seems a bit harsh nowadays, then go back and think about what your parents actually are, who they are, what they have done and how God has given them a task to do. If God has given them that task, then we ought to stand up and obey those ways; this is God we are talking about!
We don’t have to bring back capital punishment in order for man to be brought to his senses, but if that is what is required for man to stop and think, then we should be thinking about what need to happen. But don’t get caught up in trying to lay down the law so that others can be judged righteously because we are also on the front line and have to live by those same laws. When the sinful woman was brought before Jesus for judgment, He turned the situation round on the people that brought her to Him by asking them if they were guilty too.
God gave us His Word so that we can know that He means business. Man has ignored the words and has come up with his own rules so he does not have to face death. That is what we all deserve because that is what was written down in the beginning. We need to bring our own sins before God and lay them down right now, asking for forgiveness before we have to face Him and explain what we have gone and done! God is holy. God is righteous. God is just. Remember that!
Points to Ponder:
How often have you called for justice?
How often do you face justice?
Monday Reading: Leviticus 19 3-4
Key Verse: Leviticus 19 3
Every one of you shall revere his mother and his father, and keep My Sabbaths: I am the Lord your God.
Devotion:
How often do you go back over verses in the Old Testament and think about what they are saying? I fear I am one who tries to read the bible each year but does not always take in the wording as I read it. So let us stop and take in just two verses today. They key phrase I want you to remember out of this is “I am the Lord your God!”
So often we do read our bibles and put them down without thinking about the gravity of what we have just read. I am not talking about the verses that warn us of death and destruction but the simple commandments that God has given us from the beginning. Those same commandments that Moses recorded. Those same commandments that Jesus reminded us of. This is the Word of God! Take a moment to think about that… this IS the WORD OF GOD!
There are many scholars who will come up with all manner of suggestions about what the words mean, and no doubt they have a very keen insight into what has been written down as they study the ancient languages. But each of us have to grow from this point onward into a stronger Christian, which means taking this very Word of God and applying it into our lives so that God can guide us. When God gave these words to Moses, it may have been for the purposes of steering the Children of Israel into a better relationship with God, but it is also so that we may achieve the same! Don’t ignore God!
God has given us simple commands to follow. Respect your parents! Yes they get it wrong at times, but so do we! Respect the Lord’s day. Just because others don’t care to do that, does not mean that we can ignore God as well. We need to grow up with God and in God; which means respecting Him and keeping His commandments. Just as we try to keep the wishes of our parents, we should be doing so for our Heavenly Father too. Don’t turn around and make your own rules or gods because they will only apply to you and nobody else. God is God and there is no other.
Points to Ponder:
Have you shown your parents respect today?
And what about God?
Sunday Reading: James 2 1-13
Key Verse: James 2 9
but if you show partiality, you commit sin, and are convicted by the law as transgressors.
Devotion:
It is hard not to show personal favouritism toward the people that you like the look of because we all like to be able to surround ourselves with things and people that look nice! If there is anything that God has shown me over the past decade it is that I need to look at people through new eyes just as He has given me a new heart for Him! If God looked at me as the sinner that I was, then I would be in big trouble because of all the things I got up to; but He looks at me in a different way because of what Christ has done for me and because of the decision I took to ask Him into my life.
When others come to us we have to do things in a similar way too. We have to set aside our favouritism that we have so that we can look into their hearts to see what they are really like on the inside. That is always going to be hard for us because we are not God and we cannot see them on the inside. But what we can do is to see what they are willing to do for Christ and be willing to accept them for that.
When Christ asked the disciples to follow Him, He was not asking people without sin to put the world aside and follow Him, He was asking sinners to put aside their old ways and follow Him for instruction in a new life. If Christ was willing to do that for others, then we should be willing as well. We may be the ones who get hurt because we trust others, but without that trust in the first place we will not find out what they are really like.
If we turn our backs on people just because we don’t like the clothes they wear or because we don’t care for their situation or we don’t care for their friends, then we are turning our backs on the people that Christ has brought into our lives. We have a choice as to whether we get caught up in what other people do, but we also have a choice as to whether we reach out to others in Christ’s love or not as well. I stand and reach out to people around me now. I know some people get upset with me for doing that but I do it in Christ’s name and I try to do it with an open heart. Will you?
Points to Ponder:
Who do you bring into your life?
Are you willing to accept who Christ brings into your life?
Saturday Reading: 1 Corinthians 2 10-15
Key Verse: 1 Corinthians 2 14
But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
Devotion:
Sometimes it is hard to explain just how God can give us knowledge and wisdom when in one breath we are saying that nobody has seen God but Christ, and in the other breath we are saying that He talk to us! Some people give us pretty strange looks when we say things like this because they cannot understand what is going on. In the beginning we were just the same, struggling to understand how this could be possible never mind whether it is probably or not!
But when Christ said we would be given someone special to explain things to us, He knew exactly what we needed and hence left us with the Holy Spirit. It is this same Holy Spirit that Christ left us with that gives us understanding far beyond our mortal brains. We cannot hope to be able to take this all in and understand it without this discernment He gives us. It is not our own learning that can give us this understanding but the wisdom and knowledge that is given us through the Spirit in the beginning.
I thank my God that He has given me such a clear light to follow and such a brilliant one too. I thank Him that He gives me the understanding through His Holy Spirit simply because I choose to believe in Him and have asked Him into my life. For those around me who have not done so, I try to explain but am met with many a blank look as they struggle with the concept that Christ is who He is!
When we try to justify this all through earthly explanation, it all collapses in a heap! There is no way on earth that we can describe this without acknowledging that Jesus Christ is our creator and that He died for our sins, was buried and raised from the dead and that He sent the Holy Spirit to give us clear understanding of what this is all about. Without Him we are nothing. Without God we would not exist. Without Light we are dark. Without Christ we know no love. Without Him we fail to start. With Him, we are everything!
Points to Ponder:
How important are you on earth?
Do you know how important you are to God?
Friday Reading: John 1 1-5
Key Verse: John 1 5
And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it
Devotion:
What an awesome thing to think about – that Christ created everything in the beginning and that He started with light! I seem to have heard many sermons about the light and how it shines through the darkness or how it reveals all the things in the darkness or how we hide in the darkness instead of in the light… But not too many of the simplicity of the light!
In the beginning was Christ. Christ was in the beginning because He was there to create everything. In Him is the life of the universe, of everything, of us. He breathed life into us so that we may live. He loved us from the beginning and gave us everything so that we could know Him, love Him and worship Him. He did not do this in darkness in fear of allowing others or in fear of others finding out what He was doing. He did this in the light because what He did is perfect and perfectly acceptable to all!
And yet we look at everything that He has done and we still get confused by the simplicity of the Gospel. We get confused because we see something that is perfect and cannot understand how anything can be so good when we are not. The life that Christ created was our life, giving it to us as a free gift to be treasured and to be placed on full display for all to see, accept and show to others. This special gift He has given us is to be shown to others so that they can begin to understand it too.
We could not understand it in the beginning because we did not understand it. But through His life and through His love, we begin to live in it and learn about this awesome love He alone has for us. The love He has shared with us so that He can give the glory to God; this love He has shared with us so that we can worship Him and bring that glory to God. We may take a while to understand things, but when we begin to see the light, we lift it up and glory in it and with it. Don’t hide your light under a bushel, let God’s light shine out through you!
Points to Ponder:
Do you despair at your sin?
Do you let Christ’s light shine through you?