Friday Reading: Matthew 10 26-33

Key Verse: Matthew 10 27
27  What I tell you in darkness, that speak ye in light: and what ye hear in the ear, that preach ye upon the housetops.

Devotion:
When Jesus was telling the disciples about going forward and preaching the gospel to all the people in the surrounding villages and cities He made sure that they knew that there were going to be people that would reject them and reject the gospel. When people showed no interest in the truth, displaying what could only be seen as them rejecting Christ, the disciples were to reject them in turn. Christ will be the one rejecting them when they have to face Him on judgement day.

But when people show even a glimmer of interest then the disciples were to feed them with the gospel so that they would want for more. When we get to hear the gospel we begin to see just how amazing it is and we crave for more of that truth as we learn. It is no small thing that the gospel is described as a two-edged sword that is able to divide the marrow from the bone because it is this same gospel that will separate the people who say they believe and the true believers. The gospel will show the cracks in their cover story as they try to hide the lies they are living.

The most they these people can do is to kill our physical bodies. Whilst this may sound harsh it is little compared to the eternal death we will face if Christ rejects us on that judgement day! Just as the disciples would reject the people who rejected the gospel, Christ will have no option but to reject us because we never tried to invite Him into our lives. If we think we are not worthy of His love and support then we need to take a look at the world around us.

Christ took the everyday sparrow and reminded the disciples that it is God alone who has made them the birds they are. He alone is the one keeping them in the air through His creation. They do not have the power of reasoning so they rely totally on God. We, on the other hand, have been given the capability to reason, to make our own choices. God knows every little detail about us. If He did not care for us then He would not keep such details of each one of us; He knows the number of hairs on our heads! His love is so much deeper than we could ever imagine so we should never doubt His sincerity or His gravity of the words He spoke. He meant what He said!

Points to Ponder:
Can you describe everything about a sparrow?

Do you know how much information God has on you?

Thursday Reading: Ecclesiastes 12 6-7

Key Verse: Ecclesiastes 12 7
7  Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.

Devotion:
There are so many ways of describing how people die but I think this is one of the most special places in scripture talking about our physical death. God is our Creator and He is the one who made us the way that we are, having body soul and spirit. He created us so that all three are linked into one whilst we are alive and live on earth. No manner of science can describe how we are beings that live with our consciences like God’s Word describes it to us because no manner of science can tell us how we came into being. God created us to be very different from all other creatures and we need to remember that!

Our body, soul and spirit act as a single entity when we are alive and well; or at least they should. We have to wonder why we do certain things in our lives when we know that they are going to damage our spirits or hurt us ‘on the inside’; but we do. What we allow into our lives in this physical world is going to affect every part of our beings and not just the physical. When Christ reminded us that we are like temples it was so that we would stop and think about what we allow into our lives. Christ came into the temple to chase out all the reprobates as they treated the temple like a market place and ignored God; do you think we should be treating our temples like dirt as well?

If we are going to allow our temples to be made filthy then we are inviting that same filth into our souls and our spirits; the very parts of us that God is trying to clean so that we may join Him in heaven! The more filth we allow into our lives the more we have to clean up when we see what we have done.

Christ is willing to forgive and forget, but if we are not willing to help by not bringing the dirt in in the first place then we are describing what Christ has done for us as something that we are using to clean up with; we are almost saying that it is nothing more than a cloth we use to clean up our mess with. God wants us to be living temples that are kept and maintained in a proper state. Don’t wait until the end before you try to clean up the mess because that may well be too late!

Points to Ponder:
What do you let into your life?

Do you think The Holy Spirit like what you let in?

Wednesday Reading: Psalms 103 13-14

Key Verse: Psalms 103 13
13  Like as a father pitieth his children, so the LORD pitieth them that fear him.

Devotion:
When we look at how The Lord continues to be there for us, continues to reach out to us and continues to strengthen us, we have to look at why. His love for us does not know any bounds and we often simply rely on those words to explain why God does not punish us for everything we do wrong. It is because of what Christ has done for us, how He allowed Himself to be lifted up as a perfect sacrifice for us that we continue to stand even when we do sin against our God.

A good parent will always be willing to forgive a child that has made mistakes in choosing the wrong path. If we would not be forgiven then I’m pretty sure the human race would have died out a long time ago! The Lord shows us pity just as a good parent, knowing that we are going to make mistakes and knowing that we will need help getting back on track. He is the one who created us from the dust of the earth so He alone knows that that is all we are in the end. He is the one who breathed the breath of life into our bodies after making us from the dust of the earth. No amount of chance would ever make an environment whereby a human would be able to evolve against the odds.

God does not expect us to be perfect; He knows that we are sinners and that we will make mistakes time and time again. But He also knows that when we walk with Him we will have our consciences pricked so that we do not want to continue sinning against Him. He gave us those consciences so that we would be able to stop and take a breath before jumping into a bottomless pit.

If we were not created by Him then we would be acting like lemmings and following on from our ancestors, jumping into those same pits and falling short of being able to see Him. We would make ourselves extinct within a few generations! But because of His outstanding love for us and the grace and mercy He continues to show, we are able to be separated from our sins so that we can walk with our God. Then we begin to see just how special our relationship is with Him and we are then encouraged to follow His ways and to shun evil.

Points to Ponder:
Do you like being forgiven?

Are you willing to say sorry?

Tuesday Reading: Isaiah 49 14-17

Key Verse: Isaiah 49 15
15  Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee.

Devotion:
The law in this country favours the mother when there is any dispute between parents; this is because there is a firm and lasting bond between mother and child as she nurtures that child. That bond is not normally broken, but it is possible. What God is saying here is that the bond that He has with you goes further than the bond that a mother has for her child!

We often say that God’s love for us knows no bounds; but how do we express that into real words that we should be able to relate to? Well, this is one way that will be understood by almost everyone because of this bond that builds up when a mother feeds her child from her own body. Mothers will always want to go that extra mile when it comes to looking after their children, more so than us men! Mothers will always have a tender side that goes far beyond the despair that a child may bring into the family through breaking the rules. God goes further!

Yes children can drive us round the bend and we may well have a child thrust into our arms when we come home because they have gone too far that day at home, but Mum will be there, ready to take on another day before long. What love! God continues to care for us and to love us when we bring all manner of things into our lives. Just because we push Him further than we should does not mean that He will ever reject us. He does have to punish us when we do not listen so that we will stop and listen. He does have to allow us to fall sometimes so that we know how to get up and that we know that He is going to be there to help us get up again. What love!

When God said that He had written us into the palms of His hands, little did we know that that would literally mean that He would have nails driven through those palms so that we could be forgiven. Christ has endured so much for us. He has endured so much from us. And yet He continues to be here for us and with us, every step of the way; He continues to support us with love and care that goes far beyond what we could ever expect and hope for. Next time you see the love a mother has for her child, think of the love that God has for us…

Points to Ponder:
Do you know love?

Do you know God?