Sunday Reading: Matthew 10 37-42
Key Verse: Matthew 10 37
37 He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.
Devotion:
I wonder if you have wondered at this verse like I used to when I was young in Christ? This verse may stand as a stumbling block to those who do not yet grasp the enormity of God’s love toward us, but to those who know God’s love it is a confirmation of just how we need to love Him back – because of His love for us. Do not be detracted away from loving your family and friends by these words because when you begin to follow these words, your love for you friends and family will continue to grow!
Christ was not telling us that we need to turn our backs on everything else and focus only on Him. If He had meant that then His words to us to love our enemies would have been hollow! Instead He is emphasising that the love that we need to share with His should be without limit and deeply embedded in faith and hope. Even our nearest and dearest could lead us away from Christ if we were to follow their example instead of sticking up for Christ and following His Word…
If we look at Christ as simply being a prophet (as some religions do) then we shall get nothing more back from that relationship than us knowing a prophet. That prophet would tell us of all the things that we did wrong but would not go further than that. But when we love Christ as we should, with our whole heart and soul, then we will get back more than we can ever imagine because we will then begin to see and experience the true love of Christ.
God wants us to embrace the world that He has given to us; not to love it like a god but to love it enough to show it our true love – Christ. God wants us to show others this love that He has shown us through Jesus and through everything that He has done for us. He wants us to share that love with the people around us, with our families, our friends and even our enemies. That is the first step toward showing them our God. Once we can show others that we have this great love we can then introduce then to our Awesome God. Once they know that God is the God we worship and love, then we can begin to explain them the rules that God has laid down before us and why they too should be constrained by those same rules as we try to obey.
Points to Ponder:
How deep is your love toward your family?
How deep is your love toward your God?
Saturday Reading: Matthew 5 13-16
Key Verse: Matthew 5 16
16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.
Devotion:
Salt is something that is both required by us and enjoyed by us as it not only is an essential part of our diet but a tasty edition to most meals. Something so strange as a rock crystal, yet so abundant in many areas (including in our seas) makes a big impact in our lives. We may not look at the work that we do for God as being essential, but without it many people would continue having a bland life. We may not look at what we do as being needed by anyone, but they may see us in a very different light.
God does not want us to hide away as Christians but rather to allow others to see that we are Christians who are willing to share what we have. If we hid away then nobody else around us would be able to enjoy the privilege we have in living with Christ in our lives. If we do not allow others to see a bit of Christ through us, then are we actually working against Christ instead of working for Him? You see we don’t have to go out and be employed by a church or by an organisation I order to make that difference because Christ is willing to use us in any forma as long as we are willing to listen to His instruction!
Christ described the apostles as being both salt and light in this passage because they were about to make a remarkable difference to so many people’s lives on earth. He wants to be able to continue using people who are willing to listen and learn and then take what they have learned and apply it to their lives. As I have said before, that does not mean going out and street preaching (God chooses those servant very carefully) but it does mean not hiding God’s Word away from everyone else.
To be a successful servant of God we need to follow His will in our lives and part of that will is following the great commission – to go out into the world and show them the Gospel as He has shown us. Someone else made a difference in our lives by allowing us to hear about God and we probably got involved through the example someone else showed us through their lives. God wants us to be that salt that will make a difference and that light that will allow others to see just a little bit more of that truth that we know from Christ.
Points to Ponder:
Are you hiding your Christianity away?
Do you allow others to taste a bit of Christ through your life?
Friday Reading: 1 Peter 1 22-25
Key Verse: 1 Peter 1 22
22 Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently:
Devotion:
If you take a cup to make yourself a cup of tea or coffee (or any other drink for that matter) do you look at the outside of the cup to make sure it is clean or at the inside of the cup before pouring anything into it? Normally if we can see that the inside is clean, we would expect the outside to be clean enough as well. Now take a few moments to think about how you are seen by others? Are you seen as someone who has a pure heart or someone who looks the part? I know that I no do not look the part – that is just something we begin to accept as we get older, but I do try to make sure that I am pure on the inside.
Whilst nobody else can see what is inside me, other than God, they will get a pretty good idea by simply watching me and seeing how I behave. No matter how hard we try to hide things on the inside, they always seem to pop their heads up at the most inopportune times so that we get found out whether we want to or not. Does this mean that God is there to try and trip us up all the time or to expose us? Far from it – we can manage that all by ourselves without any outside help!
All of the things that we bring into our lives, all of the things that we take in and all of the secret ways that we live will eventually make it to the surface because that is just so typically human! If we want to be pure in our living then we have to make sure that we start from the inside and let it shine through us. If we want that to be so then we definitely need Christ’s help!
Christ is the one who gave His life for us so that we can be cleaned from the inside out. He is the one who is willing to do the cleaning as long as we are willing to let Him in to do so. If we ask for someone to come and clean our house but never let them in the front door then we are not going to get a clean house, no matter how much we pay them! We need to make sure that we bring Christ into our lives so that He can help us to clean up the mess that we are in. Once we have a clean house inside, people on the outside will begin to see that we have changed and that we have something to look forward to every day – something that they can have too!
Points to Ponder:
What are you really like?
Have you allowed Christ into your life?
Thursday Reading: Romans 12 9-16
Key Verse: Romans 12 9
9 Let love be without dissimulation. Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good.
Devotion:
Have you ever thought about what the starting point should be when considering your relationship with others in God’s church? I think that this verse sums up what we need to start with, live with and finish with because it sums up so much that is missing or wrong in this world at the moment. People are just not showing that love in the way that it should be shown; people are too concerned with being correct or being seen to be good instead of actually being good.
No matter what we are able to do or to say, if we do these things without love then we are no better than a machine or an animal. That is the thing that separates us from the rest of the world, the fact that we can and do show love and we can show it without having to hide behind other things. If we give up that ability then we are once again nothing. Once we grasp that love and embrace it fully we are then able to take hold of more of what God would like us to do; or in other words we will be able to do more for Him than before.
The following verses show us just how we can and should be acting as Christians; we should be the example that others can look toward just as we look toward Christ as our example. By embracing that love we can rejoice in the hope that we have in Christ because we know that He has done this all because of the love that He first had for us. Just as He started this all with love, we must continue on in that same love.
But just because we have this love, depend on it, embrace it and even live by it, does not mean that we will have a life without trials and tribulation. We still live in a world that is full on sin and a world that is embracing evil instead of good. That means that we will still have many evil things that we will be faced with and many of those might have to be dealt with directly by us. But as long as we have God on our side we know that we face an eternal home with Him. That eternal home will be peaceful and will have no evil to corrupt it. That hope is what we can build our love upon and is what will charge us up when we do feel like evil is winning the fight. That hope is built on something small but incredible; love.
Points to Ponder:
What do you base your life on?
Are you upholding God’s love?
Wednesday Reading: 1 John 3 16-18
Key Verse: 1 John 3 18
18 My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.
Devotion:
Saying that we love someone is not enough – showing someone that we love them is what counts. How many times have you heard that said, or something like it? And how many times have you fallen short of the mark? If we are honest with ourselves then we will all admit to falling short of the mark both with God and with others. It is hard to actually carry out what we say we will do sometimes because of that fear that builds up inside of us. It is hard to just go ahead and do things without questioning every action and fearing any reaction.
Christ showed us true love by laying down His own life on the cross for us. We should be willing to go as far as it is required in order to demonstrate our love as well. That does not mean that we have to step out in front of a truck to show someone we love them! That is not what Christ did! He first displayed His love by teaching, healing and doing miracles for everyone, both followers and sinners alike. He openly displayed that love so that we could see it and feel it. He then told us why He would have to do what He did, because we had no hope unless He did that. He did not just go ahead and get killed but rather took upon His own shoulders the sin of the whole world; then He took away that curse of death for anyone who is willing to believe that that is exactly what He has done for us!
Demonstrating love is not just a case of getting on your knees and telling someone you love them, nor is it a case of sending messages in letters or on huge bulletin boards… Demonstrating love is showing someone that you are willing to go that extra mile to cater for their needs just because you can. Love is not demonstrated by giving when we have excess but rather by giving because we have the ability at that moment in time. Giving because you don’t need things is not love but simple charity that anyone can show.
When God showed us His love it was complete and absolutely true (I qualify that because we seem to have various levels of “truth” in society nowadays). Jesus only had one human life, He did not have an excess of lives like a cat is said to have. He did not give His life because He had many; instead He gave that single life because He had it at that time. He showed true love.
Points to Ponder:
How do you show love?
Do you realise how full God’s love is?