Wednesday Reading: John 14 1-11
Key Verse: John 14 6
6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
Devotion:
Sometimes in our walk with God we read through His Word and we feel like we have missed something or that we have missed out on something. Sometimes we feel like there should be more to this than the words that we read… and it is those time when we are the ones trying to lift up our own ways instead of the ways of our Awesome God! The only bad part of that is that we often only realise that fact long after we have already discounted what we read because we just didn’t get it at the time!
The more that I am able to read my bibles the more that I am able to find out about God’s truth that He has been trying to show me for so many years (and they are catching up with me now!) But when I am finally able to look at a passage and to be able to believe it in my heart, then I know that I have finally accepted the truth and I have finally seen the light! Jesus must have faced a very frustrating time whilst on earth as man after man would reject the word just because they thought they knew a little bit better and it is that that we fight against every day of our lives. We like to think that we know better because we have done things. Yes, we have done some things wrong and we have found some things out the hard way, but we have continued to find out the truth – or at least we do if we are willing to listen to witnesses.
When Jesus spoke, He spoke with absolute authority because He knew what God wanted and was not about to share anything other than that truth. When He shared that truth He tried to get people to understand, but He also knew that there were many people who would not understand and He also knew that it was His Father’s will than the Jews would not come to know Him personally just yet.
But to us He has given His Word and He has given it to us openly such that we may know Him by the truth that He has told us and through trusting in the witness of many that have come before us. It is through believing in and trusting Christ that we will be able to join Him in heaven. It is not through anything else that we should be able to pay, do or say. We should not have to face God face to face before we believe in Him because we have His Son’s word, we have the word of the Prophets, we have the word of the Apostles and we have the word of many witnesses – all telling us the same thing.
Points to Ponder:
How often do you read?
How often do you put time aside to read God’s Word?
Tuesday Reading: John 8 17-19
Key Verse: John 8 18
18 I am one that bear witness of myself, and the Father that sent me beareth witness of me.
Devotion:
Jesus always made sure that He quoted God’s Word. He always made sure that He showed people He followed God’s Word. He always upheld God’s Word. So when people started to ask Him questions, try to trip Him up or to prove Him wrong, He always went back to the absolute truth to show others the right way – God’s Word.
To try to make sure that people did not take the law into their own hands and to make sure that people were as fair as they could be, God gave us a whole lot of laws to follow. They were not just there to show us ever righteous thing but also to show us where we would go astray and to show us how to get back to God. Without the law we would not know for absolute certainty that some things were wrong because there are many things that we think feel right that do go against Gods ways; those we should be very wary of!
One of the important laws that God gave us was that we should make sure that we always follow the testimony of two men rather than of one. Yes that has led us to many a problem because people do tell lies, not just one but many! But when we are trying to find the truth we need to follow the word that has been backed up by others or backed up by what we see and hear around us – that way we learn it as the truth. When God inspired people to write down His Word it was not just one person but many people. He gave them the word individually so that we would gather it in and see that many people did agree on what is right – that being the truth given to us from God.
God made sure that we would not be in any doubt about the truth because He backed up that truth by sending His Son to proclaim that same truth. He gave the truth in the beginning to the Prophets and Kings. He gave that truth to Preachers and Teachers. And He showed us that same truth through His Son and all those that came before and after His Son. God wants us to be convinced of the truth through multiple witnesses and not just to take the word of a single person. God continues to give us multiple witnesses and continues to uphold the very same Word that He gave to man in the beginning, just as Jesus proclaimed that same truth… because it is the truth!
Points to Ponder:
How many people have to tell you something before you believe it?
How many time does God have to tell you the truth?
Monday Reading: 1 John 5 6-8
Key Verse: 1 John 5 8
8 And there are three that bear witness in earth, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one.
Devotion:
Have you ever tried to wash a car within a certain time limit? As soon as we put a time limit on something we rush to get things done within that time and while we are rushing we start to skip over a few things or miss a few things in the rush. When we stand back and look at the car that we have been able to wash in three minutes because that is all the time we had for the power washer, then we start to see the parts we have missed and the parts we overlooked because we thought they would not matter. If we were to try that same approach with our own lives then we would also be skipping over parts and missing the parts we thought were ok – but when we see the other clean parts we then see the parts we missed were actually dirty, just not as dirty as those really dirty parts!
When Christ came into the world it was neither in a rush nor in a manner in which He would just wash the parts that looked dirty. He came to fulfil an end. He came to complete a task. He did not set a time limit in which He had to do everything, though He was working to God’s planned time. He came to complete the task at hand and to make sure that it was done to the fullest extent. What an example was He!
There is no way that we can hope to appease God by doing things right in our own eyes. There is no way we can make our sins go away by washing ourselves in our own earthly ways. It is only through Christ that our sins may be forgiven! Once He came and gave His life on that cross, the final sacrifice had been given – no more sacrifices had to be given because the ultimate sacrifice had finally arrived.
It is not a guess that this is right. It is not an assumption that we have made. This is what God ordained and what He required for our sins to be forgiven. None of the earthly sacrifices that we make can ever cover sin in the same manner as Christ has done for us. No sacrifice, no matter how important to us or how horrible for us, can ever pay for our sin debt in full. Yes God does like to see us offer things out of humiliation or because of our love toward Him, but none of those should ever try to take the place of Christ otherwise we are saying that Christ did it for nothing! Abel offered what was right in God’s eyes whereas Cain offered what was right in his own eyes. Let us look to our God for His guidance in showing us what is right for Him.
Points to Ponder:
Do you like to think you know what you are doing?
Are you turning away from God by following your own ways?
Sunday Reading: Genesis 4 6-8
Key Verse: Genesis 4 7
7 If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.
Devotion:
I is interesting to discuss with others how different roles are played out in families that have more than one child; to see what role each of the children play in the family. All families are different and they make up their own hierarchy which they then tend to stick with for a long time, each of the members of the family fulfilling the role they have grown accustomed to. Our first family on earth had no role models to follow other than each other’s, God and of course, Satan; so when we try to understand what was going on we often get bogged down in thinking that they should have done one thing or another because we have seen it all before… They had not…
So even though we may think of them as being able to seek out God so openly we do forget that they also had much to worry about with temptation in their way. There was not the temptation of following peers because there were so few to follow, but temptation was there because we see how Cain took Abel’s life. It may have been the first time anyone had killed another person, but they were not strangers to killing for food and for sacrifice – so it was that temptation to start something new or to do something because you think it is good enough instead of doing what you know should be done.
In our family roles we all choose to do things and to do it our own way. That way may well be to follow on from someone else’s example or to go and start something new; but we are still making a choice. Each of us may look up to others in the family or may even look down at others because we think they may not be doing what they should be or what they had promised to do. But we should always examine ourselves first of all before going off and telling others about their shortcomings because we need to make sure that we are right with God before blaming others.
Jesus often raised that point by bringing people to the point where they had to think of their own faults before judging others. Now, with hindsight, we can turn round to Cain and say that he should have taken a bit of time to think about what he was doing; but it is hindsight. When we are there at the front of the line and we are faced with the choices, how are we choosing? What direction do we run off in? Are we giving in to those hidden temptations to start our own ways?
Points to Ponder:
Do you like being told what is right?
Do you like following God’s Commandments?
Saturday Reading: Isaiah 42 1-4
Key Verse: Isaiah 42 1
1 Behold my servant, whom I uphold; mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth; I have put my spirit upon him: he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles.
Devotion:
One of the best things I like about reading my bible is when I read an Old Testament passage and a New Testament passage and they suddenly make so much sense when read together. That then gives me strength and encourages me to continue on in reading God’s Word so that I can understand Him better each day. That is also one reason why I read both Old and New Testament passages every day; my daily reading plan makes sure of that and my studying to bring you devotions strengthens that too.
God has given us His word, not in part but in whole. Yes men of God did do a lot of work several hundred years ago to try to bring us one book from which we can get the truth. They studied the scriptures and compared things and make it their task to seek out the truth so that we could know it. When someone tries to tell me that this is better than that because it is written in better English or in a language I can understand I begin to question where they have got their knowledge from. I continue to try to seek out the truth through studying and through comparing notes. God has given us many people’s writings to make it easier for us, but we are the ones who have to make the effort to seek out the truth and that means not just taking someone’s word but checking to see if it is the truth.
If someone said something was going to happen, did it happen? If someone says that something did happen, is their another account of it? These are the type of questions we need to continue asking until we find people who we can trust – then we can build up our knowledge based on what they have learned, but always making sure that we stick to the truth. That truth may well be hard to find sometimes because of the amount of people who seem bent on destroying the truth or making things happen in their own ways. We have governments and all manner of people in power who are doing the wrong thing – but we also have a lot of people doing the right things. Our choice is who we will follow…
God made sure that people were told that Christ would come. He made sure that people were there telling of His coming and announcing it. He used men and angels and even the heavens themselves to announce the fact. How can we ignore the truth when it supports itself? How can we ignore God who has constantly told us the truth from even before we knew Him?
Points to Ponder:
What do you like believing?
How much studying do you do in God’s Word?