Wednesday Reading: 1 Peter 2 1-3
Key Verse: 1 Peter 2 1
1 Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings,
Devotion:
When we come to know Christ and accept Him as our Saviour He gives us the opportunity to turn away from all of our sinful and lustful ways so that we may be able to grow daily with Him. If we continue in our sinful ways, sinful thoughts and deceitful ideas then we will be crowding the Holy Spirit out of our hearts. Just because He is with us and indwells us does not mean that we can no longer hurt Him or disobey Him!
We are still those same sinful people who continue to battle against our sinful ways. God is trying to encourage us every step of the way to walk in His ways and unless we are willing to put aside our old ways He is going to be talking against your shouting! If you wanted to be able to tell a room full of people about the Gospel you would not be trying to do so if the room was full of people shouting at each other because you would not be heard above the din. Instead you would prefer to have a room of people that are listening!
The Holy Spirit is facing that sort of choice with us daily if we do not turn from our old ways. The din we create inside of us as we struggle with our sinful ways must surely drown out everything as God patiently waits on us to calm down! Once we start to calm down and start to seek the new life with Christ He will be able to teach us a whole lot quicker! Just as a young child will learn quicker if they listen to their teacher, we need to be calm and listen to our new Teacher as He brings us the truth of the Gospel directly into our hearts.
As teachers we may have to battle against all manner of uproar in modern society, but it is us that have created this uproar by allowing them to run away from God in the first place. This does not mean shouting others down and beating them into submission – that is not the way that God works, nor is it the way that Christ taught either. Instead we need to reach out in love and invite the calm back into people’s lives; not just during lesson times but in every step of our lives.
Points to Ponder:
Do you put people down?
Or do you allow God to lift people up?
Tuesday Reading: Psalms 32 1-2
Key Verse: Psalms 32 1
1 A Psalms of David, Maschil. Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.
Devotion:
Sin is the cause of our misery; that same sin that we brought into the world through Adam, that same sin that has been passed on from generation to generation and that same sin that has separated so many from God, continues to be present every day. But the hope that we have through Christ Jesus is that we are forgiven and that we no longer need to take that sin debt and burden with us.
When we seek to follow Christ and what He has taught us we should be seeking to live our lives without sin. Sin should no longer have a controlling factor over us because we are separated from that sin through Christ’s death, burial and resurrection. It is because He gave His life for our sin that we are free and that we no longer have to be subject to that sin nature. But we still have the choice as to whether we will go down that route to sin or whether we try to give it up.
It is not an easy thing to give up on sin when we have spent much of our life being surrounded by it and giving in to it, so do not be disheartened when you find yourself slipping back into sinful ways now and again. Just remember that we need to bring our sins to the foot of the cross when we recognise them so that Christ will willingly forgive us for that sin. But just because He has died once for them does not mean that we can ignore them and hope they will go away – we need to bring them back to Christ when we commit them and ask for His forgiveness.
Yes He already knows we have sinned but that must never stop us admitting to them ourselves. If we do admit to them we will strengthen our resolve against them and will be more willing to give up on them before we commit them next time. When we live a life that is right with God we can expect Him to show us a good life – just don’t expect Him to do it all because we must admit our issues first of all! And when we bring it to Christ we must leave it with Him. What use is it to bring it to Him and then to try carry it ourselves once again!
Points to Ponder:
Do you bring your sin to Christ?
Are you leaving it with Christ or trying to take it back?
Monday Reading: Psalms 83 13-18
Key Verse: Psalms 93 19
19 That men may know that thou, whose name alone is JEHOVAH, art the most high over all the earth.
Devotion:
One of the things that we often forget is that God is the same today as He has ever been. And that means that He continues to uphold His just and holy ways. If we dare to turn against Him then we should not expect anything else than to face His wrath! This Psalms of Asaph pleads to God that He may turn people around by showing them His wrath; and on many an occasion that is what He did!
One of the things that we will find if we are seeking God without actually looking with our hearts and souls, is that we will continue rolling from place to place, maybe church to church, seeking something new to catch our eyes; we will be like a wheel rolling on down the hill with nothing to stop it, bumping, bouncing, but continuing on… Or we could find that we are just blown about like the stubble. Or we find everything slowly being burned up around us (so it may seem). We may well feel like we are being tossed about in a storm as we cannot seem to control anything around us…
It is God who will make people feel ashamed of what they are doing when they have to face Him just once. It is God who will make people feel totally undone as they realise that they are living their lives in spite of Him instead of with Him. It is God alone who has the authority to point this sort of thing out to all men. We have the duty to point out mistakes to others, but we do not have the right to put them down because that belongs to the only Holy one. God.
What we need to do before we get to that stage in our lives is to give God the control because it is God that will be able to achieve so much more through us than we can ever think of doing without Him in control! God alone is worthy of being called Jehovah. Let us give Him all the glory He so rightfully requests and deserves!
Points to Ponder:
Do you find life hard?
Are you depending on God?
Sunday Reading: Psalms 46 6-11
Key Verse: Psalms 46 10
10 Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.
Devotion:
Throughout history man has raged about God, bot in a good sense and in a bad way too. But since Christ came to be amongst men we have had another thing that the unbelievers can latch on to and shout the odds about. When I was posting these devotions as an audio blog I had a few followers but some of them were following me, waiting for me to make a mistake just so that they could shout me down. Fortunately my God has given me a heart that continues to reach out to those people and continues to wait patiently!
We do not have to wait until we hear a thunderous voice from above before we take a stance for God. We can take out stance now knowing that what He has given us through His Word is sure, true and just. We have this sure Word and we can take it anywhere we go. If we are banned from bringing it into a country then we can still take it with in our lips! God will continue to make sure we can do that – always!
We have so much around us that we can see that proves that our God is just as Awesome now as He was the day He parted the sea for Moses. We don’t have to have those miracles show to us every day because we have the miracle of life on earth itself bearing witness to His power. We don’t have to be a Christian to see His awesome power either; man and science come up with all manner of arguments, theories, justifications and more just to try and show that there is no God – that way they don’t have to admit their own sins…
But when we acknowledge God, we need to bring Him into our lives from the ground up and that may well mean that we are guilty of watering down His Word like the heathens are. One day, even they will have to face up to this truth that He is real and has always been. One day they too will bow before our God; but I would not like to be in their shoes when they face up to God!
Points to Ponder:
Do you acknowledge God?
Do you lift up His name?
Saturday Reading: 2 Peter 1 12-15
Key Verse: 2 Peter 1 13
13 Yea, I think it meet, as long as I am in this tabernacle, to stir you up by putting you in remembrance;
Devotion:
We have really amazing bodies when you get down to think about it; apart from the obvious that we live and breathe we are able to do so many things just because God has created us in this manner. But this body that God has given us is actually a tabernacle for our souls, almost like a tent or caravan in which we live and can move around in. Our bodies are quite fragile compared to many things and hence we should be looking after them so that we can do our best to give God the glory and allow more people to come to know Him.
What Christ wants of us whilst we live in these bodies is to remember Him always and to remember what He has given to us continually. If we do that we will be more apt to give Him the glory as we learn how much He continues to do for us every day of our lives. But it most certainly is not just remembering the physical that He has done for us but the spiritual through which our souls will be able to live and grow. What use is an empty tent of caravan?
God wants our souls to be filled with the Gospel so that we can grow from the inside, keeping our external bodies in faithfulness toward Christ. God wants our souls to be strengthened every day through reading His Word and continuing to lift up our prayers to Him always. The more that we remember that we do not have these bodies forever, the more apt we will be to live our lives growing our souls so that we can have the best possible life after these bodies fade and die.
Do you dream of being able to leave behind a legacy for others to follow or to inherit? What better legacy that the safety and eternal life of their souls instead of just trying to let their earthly bodies live for a few more days in comfort? We need to impress upon others the importance of looking after their souls and the best way of doing that is going to be to live our lives as an example as we live to strengthen our own souls through Christ Jesus. Each day is a new day given to us by our Lord in which we can live for Him and to glorify Him, strengthening our eternal place with Him and not giving in to the ways of the world.
Points to Ponder:
Do you live to die happy?
Or do you live to live happy?