Saturday Reading: Leviticus 11 44-47
Key Verse: Leviticus 11 44
44 For I am the LORD your God: ye shall therefore sanctify yourselves, and ye shall be holy; for I am holy: neither shall ye defile yourselves with any manner of creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
Devotion:
When we read through the first books of our bibles we begin to get a picture of a people who had a very strict set of laws to live by. Those same laws are what our modern laws are based upon with our worldly view on life wiping out many of the laws that include keeping God in our lives because man thinks that he should not be bound by religion. But when we study those same laws that were written so many years ago they are all based upon the fact that man should be listening to God.
Modern society has all but wiped out that fact: Listen to God because He created everything and it is because of Him that man is still alive. If we had been left to our own devices then we may well have wiped ourselves off the face of the earth already; instead God has made us a promise that the world (including us) will continue to exist until He deems it necessary to end it and make a new earth for us to live on.
These laws have been and continue to be a test of people’s obedience. Right from the first law given to Adam and Eve we have been given choices and we have failed in those choices, choosing chaos and evil over righteousness. Those laws are set so that we can choose to deny ourselves the desires and lusts of our bodies and follow God’s rules instead. Those laws were primarily to keep the people of Israel apart from the corrupt world around them so that they would not fall into the same pits as the rest of man had already done. If you want proof of man’s ability to destroy himself then look at every nation and see how they have failed until they have embraced God’s laws; in part of in whole.
Some of these laws may seem very alien to us nowadays because they were aimed at the people of Israel at that time, but when we look at how they were constructed and how they had to be applied, we can learn a whole lot more about how we should apply God’s laws into our lives today. God wants us to live our lives with Him and not against Him. He continues to make sure that those laws are taught generation after generation so that we can understand our heritage and try to figure out that the only way we will survive is by listening to Him. But it still is our choice…
Points to Ponder:
Do you trust the law of the land?
Do you trust God’s law?
Friday Reading: 1 Peter 1 13-16
Key Verse: 1 Peter 1 15
15 But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation;
Devotion:
If you got yourself all dressed up in long robes, tunics (or a long dress if you are a lady) and you decided that you had to run, you would have to gather up as many of the long and loose ends before you tried to run or you would be tripping over everything instead. What you would be doing is using common sense to prevent an accident. So why then do we not use common sense in our own spiritual lives?
God has given us the truth and the minds to be able to discern that truth from the lies of the world. He has given us the common sense that we have in order for us to utilise it for our betterment. Why should we leave it behind when we come forward to carry out God’s will in our lives? Man has made a habit out of doing some pretty strange and even stupid things and daring to say that we do it in the name of our Lord or because of what we think God has written down. God has not written anything down that is going to trap us into doing evil, we are the ones who walk along the wrong path ignoring common sense until we find it is too late to do anything else other than break the law in some way.
What God wants us to do is to gather up our thoughts and our lives and be prepared for what lies ahead. That common sense and intelligence that He has given us is so that we may figure things out before we break everything; it is so that we can gather up the loose ends before we trip over ourselves.
We do face many evil people and things in our lives and the more that we aim to do for God the more that we will find that there are things in our way. If we do not rely on God to strengthen us and teach us how to gather up our loose ends, we will find that we trip a whole lot more than we need to. We do not have to give in to our old ways and our old thoughts but rather cling to the ways that Christ has shown us so that we are more prepared to avoid the pitfalls that engulfed us all the time previously. Trust in our Teacher and Saviour…
Points to Ponder:
Do you find yourself tripping up still?
Are you listening to Christ’s teachings?
Thursday Reading: Psalms 37 23-28
Key Verse: Psalms 37 24
24 Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down: for the LORD upholdeth him with his hand.
Devotion:
When we start to follow that truth which God is showing us through His Word then we begin to find so many treasures that will bless us in many ways. We find that all those things that Christ taught the disciples are embedded in many years of scripture and supported by what God taught us through the prophets from the very beginning. God’s Word has not changed, but man and society has certainly changed.
One of the most amazing things to find is just how much God is willing to support people who stand up for Him and the Gospel. Throughout history we see men and women who stood up for God and His ways and we see just how much God, in turn, upheld them in their lives and in their faith. God supports us both physically and spiritually when we do trust Him to. He wants to be able to support us but we are the ones who think that we should be able to support ourselves and try to go it alone instead.
It is not going to be smooth sailing when we live for God because just living for Him is going to show other people that they are not doing so. That then puts them on the defensive to start with. When we then dare to talk to them about God they sometimes come back at us on the offensive. That is what Christ was trying to warn the disciples about and as we read here in the Psalms, it has always been that way. We like to think everything has changed, but God reminds us that men don’t change that much, they just approach the same problems with a different angle so they can try to go it alone once again.
We need to look over what God has done from the beginning of time and realise that He actually does know what is going on and that He wants to be able to guide us through this mine field we call life. God will always uphold His ways and if we are willing o allow Him to teach us those ways and try to walk in those ways then we will find a lot of support coming from Him as He strengthens us in His ways. We may well find that we fall down, but God is there to pick us up and strengthen us to walk further next time. We may find we are persecuted but we will find that we have even more support because of that persecution. God wants us to live for Him by allow Him to lead us and keep us!
Points to Ponder:
Do you look for support in others?
Do you openly seek God’s support?
Wednesday Reading: Mark 1 21-22
Key Verse: Mark 1 22
22 And they were astonished at his doctrine: for he taught them as one that had authority, and not as the scribes.
Devotion:
I can remember some of my classes back in school and the teachers that tried to teach me too (it wasn’t that long ago!) The ‘best’ teachers were those who were able to engage me in dialog or in what they were saying and doing; they gained my attention and they fed me in amounts that I could absorb that also made me want to go and find out more. And then there were the others who sent me to sleep so that I ended up getting into trouble once again!
When Jesus was preaching in Galilee, specifically in Capernaum in this instance, He taught in a different way to the scribes. I imagine the scribes as being like those teachers that would send me to sleep… Yes they had a whole lot to say and what they were saying was very important in their own eyes; but that did not make it right in God’s eyes or even right at all! Jesus taught the people what they needed to know and He made sure that everything He taught was the truth as He knew it and not as someone else had theorized or made up. Jesus taught with authority because He knows the truth!
Jesus taught people about repentance and about our Blessed Redeemer. They did not understand it at first because Christ was still there teaching and preaching; but when the time came for Him to be offered up as our sacrifice, He willingly stepped up and took His place in our stead! Jesus did many things that people thought were wrong because of the lies that they had believed in for many years…
We do not have to put up with lies and theories; we can stand up for the truth and even tell others about that same truth. Each of us has a choice as to whether we want to believe in that truth but our position in life is to be diligent with what we know as the truth. If we learn theories then we need to teach them as theories until we find out the truth, not teach them as the truth until someone can prove them wrong. Jesus came forward and preached the truth because He knew it was the truth to begin with. It went against what many people believed, but He was diligent in spreading the truth. Spreading lies and gossip is going to corrupt and break down society instead of bringing it together like Christ teaches us to.
Points to Ponder:
Do you spread gossip?
Do you teach the truth with authority?
Tuesday Reading: Mark 7 18-23
Key Verse: Mark 7 23
23 All these evil things come from within, and defile the man.
Devotion:
On the other side of the coin (from yesterday’s devotion) is the garbage that we have to put up with that comes out of certain people. They have spent a lifetime ‘learning’ facts and figures that others have theorised about and then have had the cheek to turn round and tell us that this is the truth… If you corner a true scientist they will tell you that things are theories and they may even tell you that they firmly believe that their theories are going to be proven right someday – but that does not make it the truth!
Are we the ones who are pushing our beliefs or are they pushing their beliefs? Well, both. I believe that there is only one God and that He created everything that we can conceive on. I know there are scientists who believe in other random occurrences that came together at the right time so that life could begin. I know there are other religions that have many hundreds of gods each of which made their own things. But just because others wish to believe in what man has come up with to fill in a void in their lives does not mean that t is the truth. There can only be one truth and we have this built in desire to seek that truth.
Our problem arises because we are not always willing to listen to what others have to say before we make up our own minds. I have listened to scientists and philosophers and religious people and I cannot put my hand on my heart and say that what they have told me could ever persuade me from believing in the bible. To me there are too many unanswered questions raised in other people’s religions and theories for me to trust what they have to say.
We have to be very careful what we take in as the truth because sooner or later we are going to start believing what we read as the truth and we will end up being one of those people that trust in theories.
To all those people now standing up and saying that the bible is based on theories… I have never yet been told about a theory that has remained unchanged for many thousands of years and still continues to fill in all my questions like God’s Word does. Yes men has written the words down but those words are grounded in man’s history with many years of proof supporting those words. People continue to find amazing things which are also true, but they then make up theories so they don’t have to believe that God is real, ending up spewing out all manner of junk for us.
Points to Ponder:
What do you believe?
Do you tell others the truth or theories?