Thursday Reading: Acts 18 24-28

Key Verse: Acts 18 26
26  And he began to speak boldly in the synagogue: whom when Aquila and Priscilla had heard, they took him unto them, and expounded unto him the way of God more perfectly.

Devotion:
Are you looking forward to leaving school? Or have you left school and are enjoying the world? Or are you now looking back on your school days and thinking how good it was? No matter where you are in life you are not actually ever going to stop learning and most of your life will be learning because you have to and may not be because you actually want to learn! But when you come to learn more about God and more about what Christ has done for you, you get a new look on life and learning and feel like you want to continue learning more every day.

For someone who has spent most of their life in schools and universities, learning is just a way of life and consumes most that they do. But for others they are there because they want to continue learning and being close to the source of learning allows them to pick up so much more. We should be more like that with our quest to learn more about God. We have been given our bibles which contain all that we actually do need to know, but how many of us do sit down and study the word instead of just reading it?

Every now and again I get caught up in work or other worldly things and loose track on where I should be in my studying; picking things back up again and getting back into the swing of good studying is there a hard task to do once again. If anyone tells you that it is going to be easy studying God’s Word then they have not actually tried it themselves! Yes it is hard, but it is also very rewarding because we then get to see just how special and awesome our God is!

When Apollos got up to teach others about God it was because he could do it and because he had studied what he had been taught; even though he had only been taught one side of the story from John’s teachings he got up and taught others! But he was still willing to listen and learn because when Aquila and Priscilla came along he listened and learned more about his awesome God. Learning is not just about reading God’s Word but about listening to others and discerning the truth not because we have to but because we want to learn about God.

Points to Ponder:
What is or was your favourite subject?

Are you listening to God’s teachers?

Wednesday Reading: Romans 12 3-8

Key Verse: Romans 12 6
6  Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith;

Devotion:
What do you see when you look at yourself? I’m not talking about the apparition that you see in the mirror when you wake up or the one that you smarten up before going out but the one that you see inside of you? Do you see yourself as being an individual who has to compete with others in order to win the latest ‘Oscar’ for life or do you see others as being challenges to get over? Well we do need to take a fresh look at ourselves now and again and today I want you to have another view to consider.

Consider yourself as a part of something bigger, a part that may not be seen by many or may only be seen by a few, but a part that is required in order for that something bigger to survive. All able bodied people take things like eyes, ears and various limbs for granted because we have them and they work. But consider what would happen if one of those would stop working… We may well struggle to do the work that we should be able to do or we may think that we are not be able to do anything at all without those parts. Now consider yourself as one of those parts.

You may have chosen an eye or a hand; how about a thumb? We don’t give these parts much though when we have them but as long as they continue to work as they always have then we enjoy everything that they bring to us. We may not be able to hold our cup of tea without the thumb that we have on our hands and we certainly will not be able to find it easily without those eyes we have in our heads.

God has given us a position in life and a position in His church that is required and is essential. We may not think that just being at church is essential but it may be the think that encourages someone else to come and join in or even to pick up a bible and read it for themselves. We may be one of the ones that have to open the doors or to clean up; but we are all essential parts of that church, just as the Pastor and other preachers are. God wants us to be a part of the church because He knows how much we will be able to gain from it – that very same church that He set up. Now it should not matter whether we are going to a huge church with thousands of people or a small family chapel with a dozen people as long as we go there to worship our Saviour and our God in honesty. We need to ensure that our church is getting proper food and that food is God’s Word not necessarily all the trimmings we want to have but the essential Gospel because Christ is our Bread of Life.

Points to Ponder:
What do you see yourself as?

Are you living for God?

Tuesday Reading: Acts 9 10-16

Key Verse: Acts 9 15
15  But the Lord said unto him, Go thy way: for he is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel:

Devotion:
Why do we doubt that God can do anything when we have been reminded time and time again that He is able and willing to do so much? Still we have our doubts and none more so that when we are faced by someone who just does not look like a Christian! I have come across some pretty strange characters in my time, but equally many may look upon me as being strange – so why should I be the one who chooses who works for God?

God is the one who is omniscient and omnipotent. God is the one who has planned things the way they are. Yes we seem to try our best to destroy what God has built up, but He continues to fulfil His will despite our worst actions. When Ananias was faced with going to meet Paul for the first time he was very sceptical because Paul was one of the men who was destroying Christians. He was doing what he though was good in his own eyes and in the guise of religion. But when God came to him and forced him to see what he was doing and admit to his sins, Paul did the right thing and repented of his sins.

If we are willing to repent of our own sins then God is willing to forgive us of those sins. That means that no sin is ever going to stand ground when we admit it and bring it to God. You may ask about the ‘unforgivable’ sin; but if we are coming to admit our sin then we are expressing belief in God – that has just overcome that unforgivable sin, unbelief.

Ananias was faced with a worldly choice in order to test his own faith. God may well use the world around us to test our faith as well. We should be willing to put up with what comes our way knowing that God is in control and knowing that as long as we trust Him, He will deliver us to the place where He can best use us. We may not like the look of what we are going in to and we may be frightened to take those first few steps, but because God is already there waiting to hold our hands as we walk with Him, we can be sure that He will keep us for His good pleasure.

Points to Ponder:
Do you doubt other people’s intentions?

Do you doubt God’s intentions?

Monday Reading: Romans 9 22-24

Key Verse: Romans 9 22
22  What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction:

Devotion:
You do not have to dig too deep to see how many things you do wrong; in fact we often think that things find us out rather than us going looking for trouble. Now when we look at these things we may well be discouraged into thinking that God is going to turn His back on us because we have strayed so far by sinning so much. But that is simply not the case – we will never be able to “out sin” the mercy of God!

This letter to the Romans has so many truths in it that we often turn to it when we want to be able to show others how they can get to know God. It is that thought of mercy and forgiveness that overcomes sin that runs through these words and should be ringing loud bells in our heads. Yes God is a just God and cannot abide sin; but His mercy extends further than our sin. Yes God does show His wrath o those who do not listen; but He showers His love on those who turn to Him.

We may feel like we are not good enough to do anything for God because of the sin in our lives, but we can still be used of God for His glory if we are willing to listen to Him and to obey His Word. We like to talk about God’s love because there is always a feel good factor involved when we talk about love but we also need to remember that God has promised to punish those who refuse to believe in Him. In other words God has already poured out His judgement on the people; we just have to choose which side of the fence we want to stand on. We cannot jump from one side of the fence to the other side continually because once we are in God’s keep we are safe for eternity. Yes we may well stand at the fence and act like the people on the other side, but we are still safe in God’s grip.

God wants us to be able to be shaped by His Word and by His love so that we can be used more by Him and less by Satan. Yes, we are used by Satan as soon as we give in to the things of the world! The evil one is very canny and will use whatever and whoever he can to draw all people away from God just so that he can have his way. God wants us to stand firm in His Word and resist those earthly and evil ways so that we can be used by His. He has shown us His amazing mercy so that we can come back and be used… we just need to come back…

Points to Ponder:
Do you want to act like others?

Are they acting for God?