Saturday Reading: Romans 9 15-24
Key Verse: Romans 9 15
15 For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.
Devotion:
Why is it that man should think that God’s Word would change, that is should ever change? God has given us the same message from the very beginning, that He alone is God and that we are His creation. He has told us that He has all power and that what He says goes! He has given us many reasons to follow Him, to believe in Him and to trust in Him. He has also given us many reasons to fear Him by showing us His great power. And yet we like to think that this law that has been written down, the law that has not changed from the beginning, should change just for us!
God has told us from the beginning that He has chosen to do what He has done. It was His choice to create the world and to create man. It was His choice to love us from the beginning. But it is also His choice to show us the punishment that we deserve when we do not listen. It is His choice to keep His own Word and show us that we can depend on Him no matter what. It is His choice to show mercy to those that do not seem to deserve it – that is His grace, His choice.
Man cannot come up against God and change what God has set in motion. Nothing we do can change God. Nothing we choose will guide God. Instead it is the other way round. God is our guide and we should be following Him. God is all powerful and we should know that He can do anything. God has told us what is going to happen and we need to accept that this is what will happen – just because God has said so! If He has the power to speak the world into existence, do you not realise that He has the power to speak anything?
Why does God choose whom He chooses? Why does God seemingly ignore some? Our is not to ask why God has chosen what he has chosen but to ask Are we willing to accept His will and work with Him? God chose to create the world in which we live; should we then try and create a new world for ourselves because we want to? Well, good luck on that one! God has shown us His great power so we can understand that not only did He do this all, but that He has chosen to do it for us and with us because he wants to show us His love toward us.
Points to Ponder:
Do you question other peoples ways?
Are you questioning God’s ways?
Friday Reading: Matthew 20 1-16
Key Verse: Matthew 20 15
15 Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own? Is thine eye evil, because I am good?
Devotion:
There are probably times when you read through a story like this in your bible and begin to wonder just how it applies in our lives; and sometimes we have to think a bit outside our normal thought patterns in order to find out what God would have us understand from His Word. We like to think that we understand God’s ways of righteousness to a certain extent and want to believe that we can figure out what he would do when faced with a problem.
But then many times we just have to accept that God knows best and that His ways are far beyond anything we can understand. When it comes down to the simplicity of a story like this then we really do have to take another look at what we understand about God and His ways. Just as the householder was the one in charge and did not have to answer to anyone else, God is in charge and certainly does not have to answer to anyone else!
The householder was the one who made agreements with each of the individuals and he was the one who was going to make sure that he kept each of those agreements; it was not up to other people to judge other peoples agreements because they were not privy to those agreements. When we see how God treats other people we can often get upset because we may not agree with those ways – but it is not up to us because we do not know God’s ways!
God alone has infinite understanding and we are the ones who continue to have to learn things every step of the way. Just as each group of hired servants were learning something new about how God wants to treat us, we need to take note of the lengths that God goes to in order to find out how special He is toward us. We have this false impression that each of us has got to be treated in exactly the same way; but we are very different people each demanding different treatments and ways. God is the one who knows what we need and He is the one that will make sure that we do get what He thinks we deserve and not what anyone else says we should!
Points to Ponder:
Working for God can be hard…
Are you ready to toughen up for God?
Thursday Reading: Matthew 22 2-14
Key Verse: Matthew 22 12
12 And he saith unto him, Friend, how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment? And he was speechless.
Devotion:
When I read this passage it draws such a picture of the state of our people today because there are many who will say that they are Christians but when it comes to actually doing something about it they are nowhere to be seen. It is like the people who profess to be Christians to others and yet they cannot find the time to be with the rest of the church on a day of worship. Now I know that there are many who will not agree with some of the ways of some of the church bodies, but there is a difference between ignoring the church body and disagreeing with it…
Christ invites us all in to be part of the church, but it is only the ones who respond to that call that will be called His people. The Israelites are the chosen people of God and they were invited in first of all, but because of their unbelief and their attitude toward God they were put aside for a season and other people invited in instead. God is not going to give up on anyone but will rather make sure that we each do get a chance to come to Him. If we are going to ignore that chance then be it on our own heads.
And then there is the other side that come along and do all the right things but just don’t seem to be right because they are the ones who are likened to the wedding guest that came dressed as normal instead of being dressed for the wedding. This is not to say that we have to be dressed up before we may enter into God’s house; this is just that we should show due respect for our God! If we are going to turn up and join in but not show reverence and respect where it is due, then we will quickly find that we are the ones who will get asked to leave the party!
There is no way that I can judge anyone one way or the other because I know that I have been guilty of so much in the past. I know that I am doing what I can to please God and live for Him nowadays. I also know that my past is my past and because I have asked God to forgive me of that past, He has been Just to forgive me as He promised. So how can I, or any of us, judge others when we do not know what is in their hearts. Let us leave the judging to the Righteous One, Jesus Christ and come to Him with reverence and fear.
Points to Ponder:
How do you approach friends?
How do you approach God?
Wednesday Reading: 1 Kings 18 21-39
Key Verse: 1 Kings 18 21
21 And Elijah came unto all the people, and said, How long halt ye between two opinions? if the LORD be God, follow him: but if Baal, then follow him. And the people answered him not a word.
Devotion:
This is one of my favourite stories from the Old Testament not only because it shows the awesome power of our God but also because of the illustration that when we do place our full faith and trust in God, He delivers! Now this is not to say that if we ask God to prove that He exists that He will send fire and brimstone down to prove He is there! That would be abusing His trust and tempting God into doing something that is not going to glorify His position as God.
Elijah was surrounded by people who were trying to glorify a god that did not exist. He knew that he was in absolutely no danger from anything other than the people around Him; after all Baal was nothing but a figment of their imaginations. There are a few times when men have realised that Baal is not a god and have called upon him to prove himself or look to others to prove that Baal is a god. Each time he has obviously not been able to prove himself but even with that physical proof men have chosen to continue believing in him many times.
People have this built-in scepticism whereby they will not believe something that is right in front of their faces just because they don’t want to; or they continue believing in things because they want to. How else would all the conspiracy theories live for so long in this world? But when the priests that upheld the name of Baal tried to prove his existence they showed just how far they were willing to go to make their belief a reality – or at least try to. They so wanted their god to be true because it would mean that they would be the ones in power and the ones in control; it really had nothing to do with Baal being a god but everything to do with them being able to boast about their own positions!
You see, our greed kicks in a makes us do some pretty extraordinary things to try and glorify ourselves in some manner. This has nothing to do with Christianity or God and everything to do with pride and greed instead! God does not want us to be mixed up with our own pride and greed because He knows that that is exactly what Satan is using to tempt us away from living our lives with Him. How else can Satan fill our lives with so much garbage that we crowd out our one true God?
Points to Ponder:
What do you really seek?
Are you upholding your pride or God?
Tuesday Reading: 2 Corinthians 6 14-18
Key Verse: 2 Corinthians 6 16
16 And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
Devotion:
You have heard people talk about being as different as chalk and cheese, and if you have ever eaten a bit of chalk you will probably have a good idea of that difference! Some may say that we, Christians, are as different from other people as chalk and cheese, whereas others will say that they do not see any difference between some Christians and some non-Christians.
We have a choice as to how we are going to behave and it is that choice that is going to speak volumes to the people around us. If we act like any other person then others will not see that we are any different than others. Personally I would like others to speak of me as being very different, as being a bible basher or even a weird guy who has got religion. There are many different ways in which we are described when people can see that we are different; and people will continue to speak of us as being different when we are – because we tend to stand out a bit more than other socially acceptable vices such as drinking and smoking.
But it should not be this big difference that we seek after just to be different; it should be that we seek to be more like Christ and less like this world. This world and all its trimmings is what takes us away from Christ because we allow ourselves to be tempted and even run after temptation in preference to God’s ways. These verses were written as a reminder to the church at Corinth to keep in mind the fact they each of us is a temple of God. Christ promised us the Holy Spirit and His promise was that He would indwell us when we place our faith and trust in Him. If we are going to invite the world in instead of inviting God in, then we are not leaving any room for Him in our lives.
In order for us to get the most out of our relationship with Christ we have to allow Him to work in us and that means giving Him room to work and not crowding Him out with all manner of rubbish instead. Inviting Christ in means getting rid of much of the garbage we allow into our lives…
Points to Ponder:
Do you have room for God?
Are you crowding Him out?