Thursday Reading: Galatians 3 26-29
Key Verse: Galatians 3 26
26 For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.
Devotion:
One of the best descriptions of the differences between humanity and Christianity I have come from a book I have been reading entitled “On earth as it is in Heaven” where the author describes such: “Unity without diversity is uniformity, and diversity without unity is anarchy; but unity and diversity combined by the Holy Spirit in the church will produce a dynamic life of sacrifice and service that can change the world”. I really love those words because they remind us that we do have to accept differences. If you look at any tree or vine, none of the branches are ever the same because they each grow in their own ways.
Each of us takes the same daily bread that we receive and we use it slightly differently to bring forward God’s light to ourselves and to others. But it has to be done in some manner of order through God otherwise we will descend into chaos or anarchy before we can see where we are going. If we try to do anything by ourselves we will quickly find out that we both dry up and cannot produce fruit, or we bring forward stuff that does not come from God and we end up poisoning others rather than feeding them. If what we bring forth cannot be traced back to God and His Word then we are not being a faithful servant of God because we are not glorifying Him.
If we are willing to make sure that God is at the centre of our lives then we will find that we receive great privileges through our service toward and for Him. As this passage infers we will no longer be called servants of the Most High but rather be called children of God – we will be called His Sons and Daughters! We no longer have labels saying whether we are a Jew or a Gentile. We no longer have labels saying that we are a servant or otherwise. We become part of His family and as such receive the rewards and blessing as being part of His family.
Being a Christians is therefore not a job nor a pastime but rather a way of life. Christ has made this all possible through what He has done for us on the cross and through what He has given us in His Word. We now have a sure future because we are part of His eternity once we place our faith and trust in Christ!
Points to Ponder:
What do you seek from your relationship with God?
Do you give what you expect?
Wednesday Reading: John 15 1-9
Key Verse: John 15 5
5 I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.
Devotion:
Just as we Christians are all part of one body, the church, we have a head of that church, Jesus Christ who is there to teach us the way that we should go. Jesus took time out of every day to make sure that people got to hear the Gospel and that they got to know God a little better through Him and through His teaching. Whilst we may not all be able to teach (or at least we may think we cannot) we are all able to communicate with others in one form or another. It is that communication which should always glorify God in some manner so that others will know God a little better just by us being there.
God the Father has made sure that we do get our fill from Jesus and from the Holy Spirit. He has made sure that we have a good supply of daily bread to sustain us through each day that we face because He wants us to know just how much He cares for us in ways that we don’t often think too much about. He is always there, always giving us more, always allowing us to take our full share of what we need from His abundant supply that He alone has.
Each one of us is a branch taking from Him and He expects us to be able to pass a bit of what we obtain through Him on to others who are willing to listen to what we have learned from Him. We may not be learning directly from Him as the disciples did, but He teaches us through His Word and through others so that we can know all we need to know. But in order to be able to learn from Christ we have to be connected to Him, be it through someone or through lots of people; we have a direct source of the Word that comes to us in many ways – but we also have to make sure that it is the Word.
It would be no good if we were to take on all manner of stuff from someone who is not part of the church because we would not know where that would lead us. God wants us to only learn His gospel because He knows that that is what we need in our lives. When we take in that Word we take in exactly what God has designed for us and what He wants us to know. If we are not going to take on that goodness from Him and pass it on then we are not going to allow others to bear the fruit that God wants them to bear.
Points to Ponder:
How do others view you?
Are you encouraging others to bear fruit?
Tuesday Reading: Ephesians 2 19-22
Key Verse: Ephesians 2 20
20 And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone;
Devotion:
When God chose the Jews to be His chosen people it was not so that He could separate them from the rest of the world to reject the rest of the world but rather so that He could separate them to be an example to the rest of us. When Christ came to earth He came to seek the lost, not just the lost Jews but the whole of man because we are all God’s creation and we are all given the same invitation to join Him. Throughout our bible history we are shown that God has given many signs to the Jews so that they would know that He is God; but He did not hide those signs from the rest of the world – He showed them to all so that we would know that when God choses us we need not be afraid of anything that lies in our path.
God sent the apostles out to teach everyone about the truth that unfolded right in front of their eyes. They were eye witnesses to the Son of God and they had to go out and make sure that other people knew this. God has built the modern church upon a foundation that is secure – The birth, life, death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. He has placed each of us into that church to be another stone or part of that building. Some of us may well be placed in positions of prominence whilst others of us will continue working silently but dependably in the middle of a wall, hidden to all but those right next to us. But we are all required to make up this building, this church.
God has chosen each of us because He knows that we are needed. He has chosen to make us part of His church and given us a special part within it. God has chosen us so that we will continue to be a part of the church for as long as He requires us there. When building a new building there are often unsightly scaffoldings erected so that the building itself can be made whole. There will be other things that happen around that are not part of that building but they are required so that the building may be completed. These are all in the plan of the mast builder, our God!
We can be thankful that we have been chosen to be stones in His building because we can be sure that this building, His church, will stand forever more!
Points to Ponder:
Are you continuing in God’s will?
Are you allowing Him to use you to the fullest?
Monday Reading: 1 Corinthians 12 12-26
Key Verse: 1 Corinthians 12 13
13 For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.
Devotion:
One thing that stands out for me as a Christian is that even though I think at times I may be the only one standing up for God in a cloud of unbelief, I know that I am just one part of the body of the church. Yes we are going to come up against some pretty horrible things in our lives because of the sin nature of man, but we will also meet some pretty remarkable people along the way who will help to strengthen our resolve to do God’s will and not to be crushed by the will of man.
We may not be standing together with another Christian right now, we may not be in sight of another Christian, but we know that we are all spiritually connected through Christ as one body. When we invited Jesus Christ back into our lives as we asked Him to forgive us of our sins for that very first time, we were brought into spiritual unity with others who have done exactly the same. Just as we have many parts of our own bodies, some of which are strong, others weak, some critical, some less so; each part of our bodies makes up the whole and each part of our spiritual body in Christ makes up the whole. We are not alone!
We need to realise that we are of one body in Christ and we must not reject other parts of our body just because we have an issue with them. Just because the left hand works totally differently to the right hand it does not mean that one should be excluded because together they can hold a lot more than just by themselves. Similarly we need to embrace other believers in Christ knowing that together we will be able to achieve more than we can working alone.
This does not mean that we turn round and accept any person who believes in anything! We have one Father God, one God the Son and one Holy Spirit under whom we serve. If others do not accept the single God in three persons that we serve as God of all, then they are not part of the same spiritual body. We do need to be careful not to graft in other religions and other gods just to keep people happy otherwise we are turning away our God in preference to man.
Points to Ponder:
Do you feel alone at times?
Are you rejecting Christians who are different?
Sunday Reading: Joel 1 1-7
Key Verse: Joel 1 3
3 Tell ye your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children another generation.
Devotion:
There are times in our lives when we are faced with all manner of things that go wrong and it is at those times when we sometimes begin to wonder why these sorts of things should happen to us. Many would even ask why they should happen is we have a God that cares for us. Well we can go through the whole history of the world that is covered by the bible and we can see time and time again that bad things are always going to happen in this world. Whether you want to blame someone else or whether you take on blame yourself we have got to realise that because of sin, we, humans, have brought this upon ourselves.
God is the one who is in control of this earth and everything about it. He knows every little detail about us. He knows every detail about the animals and insects around us. We are the ones who have been given free choice as to how we use or abuse things around us and if we are not careful we will abuse everything and then have to live up to the consequences of our actions.
In these first few verses in the book of Joel we find that Joel has been told by God to make sure that people remember what is happening. God had given the Israelites many warnings that they would lose everything if they continued to abuse their position that God had allowed them to attain. God had given them opportunity to repent for their lustful and greedy ways, but they refused time and time again. God was absolutely just to allow the famine and calamity that was to follow; so God made sure that people were told that they needed to remember this and to tell of these events to their children and their children to their children.
God wants us to remember what has happened in the past so that we will not give in again to the lust and greed that man has given in to time and time again. He warns us and warns us and then is given no choice but to carry out what He has said will be done! I am very thankful that we live in an age of grace but I desperately fear what is going to happen in the future – we do have to remember that God is God and that He has promised us that things will happen when we ignore Him continually. The time to stop ignoring God is rapidly passing us by!
Points to Ponder:
How many times do you ignore warnings?
Are you still ignoring God’s warnings?