Thursday Reading: John 15 26-27
Key Verse: John 15 27
27 And ye also shall bear witness, because ye have been with me from the beginning.
Devotion:
We have a group of a dozen disciples of Christ who have given us accounts of all that Christ did which He had His all to brief ministry to the Jews before He was crucified for our sakes. These accounts of much of what Christ did and said now bear witness to us of the greatest events in history that were witnessed by others. I say that because I see the Creation event as the most remarkable event in all history and one that I shall always marvel at.
We may like to think that we will be able to learn all about creation when we get to heaven, but I fear that even by using the whole of my brain I shall not be able to get to grips with that. But what I can do now is to pick up my bible in whatever form it is in and read about what happened almost two thousand years ago. Whilst that may be a short time compared to the time span back to creation, it certainly is more than a lifetime to me. And because it is more than a lifetime I need some sort of media to bring that truth to me rather than me witnessing it.
Each day I read more about God and write about what He shows me through His Word I am more in awe of all that wisdom and knowledge. I know that there are simply not enough books, computers or even people to remember all of the wisdom that God has; I can know that all that He wants me to know is written down for my taking. I know that all I need do is to pick up His Word and start reading it to be reminded of His Awesome knowledge.
What we have in our bibles is a whole string of accounts brought to us by actual witnesses; not one or two but many witnesses, each giving us an account that bears witness to Christ, to God and to all that He has done and promised. Through that Word and through what He teaches us daily we know as much as He wants us to find out. And that is all about who God is, who Christ is, what He has done for us and what He has promised for us in the future! It is just amazing that we do have such a vast amount of knowledge built up by many people and over many years – there is no other religious text that bears so much truth than God’s Word!
Points to Ponder:
How many witnesses do you need?
Will you trust God’s Word?
Wednesday Reading: Acts 2 27-32
Key Verse: Acts 2 32
32 This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses.
Devotion:
Being able to see how much Jesus taught His disciples from what we know as the Old Testament (and what they knew as The Scriptures) is amazing and encouraging. It is by these examples and through these promises that we know that our Bibles are true because there is no other book like it in history. These words, written by Luke, show us that Christ taught the same truths that we know today – the Word of God does not change and it is there to be learned and remembered by us just as the disciples took it in and learned it back then.
This passage clearly mirrors the Psalms that David wrote so many years before and reminds us of the promise that God showed us through His example. Even though Christ shouldered our sins on that cross He did not take them with Him to Heaven because that would not be possible. Instead those sins have been separated from Him totally so that He can sit at the right hand of our Father in heaven.
It is that same promise that Christ has given us; that our sins will be able to be separated from our souls so that we may live with Him in eternity. And this was not just a thing that someone wrote down on a piece of paper or even on a stone tablet. This was witnessed by the disciples so that they could write about it to prove all that Christ has told us is the truth. Nowadays we to tend to believe some rather far-fetched stories about things in this world even though we are not witnesses to the events. We do this because someone has written things down or has told us… and that is being told by someone who is a sinner! So why should we ever doubt Christ’s teachings which we know as the truth?
Through reading our bibles we can find out the truth as God has told the prophets. We can then find out the truth that Christ has given to His disciples. We can then compare those two accounts and find out that they are in total agreement – because they are both the truth. This gives us more than just hope; this gives us the sure knowledge that our bibles are the truth and that we can trust God’s Word more than we can trust any of our text books that we believe during our school years! Trust and believe in the truth!
Points to Ponder:
How many times do you have to be shown the truth before you believe it?
How often does God need to remind you too?
Tuesday Reading: Psalms 16 9-11
Key Verse: Psalms 16 10
10 For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.
Devotion:
No matter how you look at it you will see two sides to king David and if you are honest with yourself you may see both of those sides within yourself too. The first is the side we don’t like to admit to – that of being a sinner who continues to sin against our God in heaven. The second side is that of being a Christian with eternal hope.
God has given us promises that we can depend on because of His Holiness. He has promised us and therefore we can rely on those promises with absolute surety; and I like the way that king David was able to see both sides of his life and admit to them too. It is all very well admitting that you are a sinner, but if you do not firmly believe in the mercy of our God and the faithfulness with which He shows us His grace and mercy then we shall not have that hope that is talked about here.
David states quite clearly that God will not leave his soul in hell – and he knows that that is where he belongs because of the sins that he himself has done against our God. That is not a good thought to dwell upon because we will very quickly get depressed unless we know God’s mercy first hand. David knew it because God had shown him mercy time and time again – when Jesus told us that we should continue forgiving it was by example because He has shown us that He is willing to continue forgiving us time and time again as long as we are willing to come to Him in repentance.
How was David justifying this “knowledge” that he was so sure about? David knew that God was gracious through experience. He knew that God was Holy and could not abide sin – that then assures us that there will not be sin in heaven because God is already there. If Jesus has told us that we can join Him in heaven it must mean that He will totally and eternally forgive us of those sins and put them out of us totally – otherwise how could we ever join Him when we know He cannot abide sin?
God has promised us that we will be forgiven because Christ has taken our sins away once and for all – He has proven that because Christ is in heaven right now!
Points to Ponder:
Do your clothes always come out of the wash totally clean and stain free?
What is it going to take for God to remove your sin from your life?
Monday Reading: Romans 15 23-29
Key Verse: Romans 15 29
29 And I am sure that, when I come unto you, I shall come in the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ.
Devotion:
When the Apostle was on his travels he had an aim to go to various places to bring God’s Word to them but rather than making a point and taking time out to go to them directly and immediately, he continued doing what he thought God wanted him to do rather than what he wanted to do. If we go off and do what we want we may well be trying to do good things for others because we want to be nice to others; but are we actually doing what God wants us to?
The Apostle continued to give people God’s Word; he was not shying away from doing that by any extent, but what he was not getting round to doing as quick as he would have liked was actually visiting the saints in places where he knew them so that he could talk face to face with them. But when we give ourselves to doing God’s will we often find that what we first though was a good plan is not what God has in mind for us to do. Instead He is going to lead us to places where He knows people actually need His Word first of all. And if we are willing to give our time to Him then He is willing to use us to the fullest extent that He can.
We must be the ones that are willing to listen to Him all along the way because we are going to be surrounded by people who may try to convince us that their ways are the right ways and that if we do things their ways we will end up doing it right for God! The hard part comes from actually sitting down with God and trying to decide what is His ways and what is man’s way. Why do I say it is hard? Well it is simply because we always want to do what we want to do and if anything goes against that then we will think that that is not what God wants because it is not right for us… it is going against our feelings.
If you want to know what God wants you to do then you have to compare it with God’s Word. There is nothing that is going to explain things better than God’s Word because we know that that is what He wants because it is what He has written (or had written down) for us! God’s Word explain what He wants us to do with our lives and just one part of that is taking that word to others physically.
Points to Ponder:
Do you know what you want?
Do you know what God wants?
Sunday Reading: 2 John 1 9-12
Key Verse: 2 John 1 12
12 Having many things to write unto you, I would not write with paper and ink: but I trust to come unto you, and speak face to face, that our joy may be full.
Devotion:
We are always going to be faced with people who say all the right things in life but do not follow God’s ways. We may well be tempted, side tracked or even persuaded by people who seem to be able to make sense when others are not. But what we do have to be careful of is whether they are following God’s ways or the ways of the world. The worlds ways will sound sweet and sound until they are compared to God’s ways, then we will see them in their true light.
God has given us His Word so that we can identify our ways and see His ways – by comparing the two we can identify where we go wrong, where we depart from His ways on go off in the ways of the world. If we just had His Word and nothing else, that should be enough, but in reality we would still have problems. We are human and part of being human is that we need companionship in order to help us through certain things in life. Just being able to pick up a book and read about things does help, but after we have read that book we are left with holes that can only be filled by people bringing us that same word.
God has given us a commission to take His Word out there with us and give it to others. He has not just said that we should speak to people and then leave but to discuss, reason and encourage others with that Word just as we were in the beginning too. God wants us to share this Word that He has given us, and sharing means that we need to give that Word to people with meaning and with heart.
For the Apostle this meant that he wanted not to just give them a letter to explain things but to actually meet them face to face and discuss things through with them. Now don’t get me wrong, when I was a bit younger I used to love getting hand written notes from my girlfriend in the rather unique green ink she used to write with. But being able to see her face to face was so much more than being able to read those letters. God wants us to be like that with taking His Word out to others – to be able to take it to others face to face and not just through special books or even hand written notes. God’s Word is worth so much more…
Points to Ponder:
What do you find special in communication?
Are you communicating God’s Word effectively?