Wednesday Reading: 1 Timothy 3 14-16
Key Verse: 1 Timothy 3 16
16 And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.
Devotion:
When we say that we serve a living God it is not that we are slaves to a God of wrath but rather that we are willing servants to a God that is real, is alive and continues to reign of all. Yes God is awesome. Yes God is to be feared. Yes God is Holy and Just. Yes God is not to be trifled with. But God has continued to show His love for us, man, in ways that we marvel at and struggle to see as logical when we find out what state we are in in His eyes.
When this letter was written by Paul to Timothy it contained many aspects of encouragement, discipleship and teaching not just to Timothy but to all that would read it over the years. Paul was a very busy man as he strove to fulfil the task of preaching the gospel to others as God had commanded him to and we see that he did feel guilty about not being able to be with everyone all of the time. Even we, in this digital age, must admit that we cannot be everywhere at once. We can spread God’s Word more readily and quicker than the Apostles would ever have dreamt of being able to, but we cannot personally accompany people in multiple places. Whilst emails, personal messages and phone calls may go a long way to being able to encourage others, it is that personal accompaniment or that personal touch that makes the biggest difference.
Paul was under no doubt that his being there with Timothy would have made a bigger impact than just sending a letter, but because he knew that he may not make it in time, the letter was the best option available. As long as we, the recipients, are willing to sit down and read the words carefully and take them in as if Paul was personally with us, we can obtain the encouragement that Paul wished for Timothy.
The encouragement for us to seek God through Christ must come from the fact that the Apostles were personally instructed by Christ in what they should be doing in order to spread the gospel. They were given the absolute truth so that they could pass that truth on to us so that we too could pass it on to others. That truth is that God gave us His only Son in the form of a man so that our sin debt could be collected and paid for once and for all to free us from the debt once and for all. Praise God!
Points to Ponder:
What does it take to encourage you?
How much do you look to God’s Word for encouragement?
Tuesday Reading: Romans 9 31-33
Key Verse: Romans 9 32
32 Wherefore? Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumblingstone;
Devotion:
One of the questions that the Apostle asks in this text is “why did the Israelites not find grace?” and the answer is given immediately to avoid others stumbling on that same question – because they did not seek that grace through Christ but rather through the ceremonial law. If we continue to try to follow a bunch of rules and regulations (it does not have to be those laid down by God for us) we will find out in the long run that it is quite hard to keep to rules. Take for instance something as simple as a diet, we try very hard to stick to the rules of the diet but we always seem to give in and take a bite of something we should not. The same is true for God’s laws that He has given to us; we try hard to follow the laws but we always seem to give in and take a bite from things we should not.
So when the Israelites continue to try to attain to those laws, they always find out that they cannot quite keep them all. If we were to try the same we would find out exactly the same answer so the only way through this shortcoming for us is to make a change so that we should not have to keep those laws. God knew that we would not be able to keep those laws because that is the way we have been right from the beginning; that is why He gave us His Son to pay the debt for those sins.
We may then turn round and ask why God gave us those laws in the first place. If we did not have the laws in the first place then we would not be able to know that we are doing things wrong and we would not know that we are going against God’s will.
In order to find direction in our lives we have to find a need which will give us a goal to aim for and hence give us direction. God has given us a very long history lesson to try and show us exactly what we need, where we should be aiming and what we should expect all along the way. We are the ones that continue to ignore the teacher and lose track of that lesson. We need to keep up with the lesson in order to make sure that we do do God’s will in our lives; one sure way to do that is to keep close to His Word and find out what God wants in our lives. If we get stuck on old rules and regulations we may well lose track of what God wants from us now. If we ignore the old rules and regulations we will find it hard to know what it is all about now. We need the whole truth and we need to keep up to date with God continually.
Points to Ponder:
Are you stuck on rules and regulations?
Are you seeking God through Christ?
Monday Reading: John 15 9-10
Key Verse: John 15 10
10 If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love.
Devotion:
Loving someone is not always about doing what you can for that person or buying what you can to keep them happy – loving someone can be about reprimanding people for doing things wrong when you know they are. But it can also be about making sure that you do what they say or what they suggest. There are many times in our lives when we just don’t want to get out there and do the things that we want to rather than doing what other people want – loving someone can mean stepping back from what you want and doing what others want instead.
It does not mean that we should go ahead and do all manner of things just to please others – we need to know whether what they are suggesting is in God’s Will or against God’s will. We always need to find out what God’s will is in our lives so that we have a chance at getting to do what His will is and not breaking things as we normally do every day of our lives!
God continues to make sure that we do know what He wants in our lives through giving us His Word in many ways. He allows us to hear it through teaching and preaching. He allows us to simply read it too. We have so many ways in which we can hear or listen to His word and yet we also ignore so many more of those ways. All we need to do is to look at the world around us to find out just how much He is trying to teach and how much He actually loves us.
But one of the biggest ways in which we can not just listen to His Word but do His Word is through obeying His commandments. The Ten Commandments given to Moses are actually very simply to learn and yet so very hard for us to follow. Just obeying them is not going to get you to heaven though because it is our belief and trust in Jesus Christ that will make the difference. When Jesus said that we should obey His commandments it was not just the literal Ten Commandments but rather the whole lifestyle. What good is doing the right thing if we are not going to believe what we do is the right thing – that would be like not swearing when you are with Christian friends but swearing when you are with other friends. God wants us to obey His Word but to obey it through belief in Him and not just something we learn from a book.
Points to Ponder:
What things do you do in secret?
How much are you trying to hide from God?
Sunday Reading: Romans 8 35-39
Key Verse: Romans 8 38
38 For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
Devotion:
One thing that you will find with being in love is that nothing in the world will be able to get in between you and the person that you love. True love is something so special that you feel that you should be able to do absolutely anything and everything together and that nothing and nobody will ever be able to spoil what you have. And as long as you do hold on tightly to that love you will find that that is absolutely true. The more that you can share that love with each other, the more that you will grow to know that you can depend on that love throughout everything.
So when we say that we love our Lord, we should be making sure that we do love Him in the same manner as we love that special someone in our lives as well. The love that He has for us is something so special that He made sure that He accomplished all that He had to and more for our sakes. He did that even before we loved Him as much as we do (or should) now and He continues on in that love so that we will never doubt Him.
When we want to be able to show our love for others we are normally ‘required’ to demonstrate that love in some manner so that the other person can know it to be so. He has shown us beyond what we would describe as being ‘required’ to demonstrate love. What Christ has done for us not only demonstrated how much He loves us but also showed us that His love goes beyond what we would think of as well. He did not do this to show off in any way but to make sure that we do understand just how much He does love us!
No matter what happens in the world around us we need to understand that God’s love will continue to stand forever and will not waver one little bit. We need to understand that that love that he has for us is complete and that it lacks nothing. When we share love with other people we also need to make sure that our love lacks nothing – that does not mean to say that we have to show love in the same way to a friend as we do to the one that we love, but to show that that love has no conditions, requirements or indeed limits is important.
Points to Ponder:
How much would you say that you love your true love?
How much would you say that you love your God?
Saturday Reading: 1 John 1 4-7
Key Verse: 1 John 1 5
5 This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.
Devotion:
What sort of light do you prefer when you are trying to work? To answer that you would probably have to take into account what work it is you are trying to do and what sort of environment you have as well. But in general we would all prefer to have a light source that would give us the best opportunity to see what need to be seen. If you are trying to watch a film being projected against a wall then you would not want a huge fluorescent light lighting up everything; equally if you are trying to work with minute items such a fixing watches then you will want a light source that is not going to cast shadows when you bring your hands in the way.
The apostles knew Jesus when He walked amongst them, but I think they got to know Him a whole lot more after He left them to go back to heaven! That light began to shine more and more because they began to realise that Jesus was not limited by the same human limitations that we are held within. If we are willing to trust wholly in God then we should not worry about being limited on this earth either. The light source that we should be seeking to work for Christ should be the very best light source we can find – and that is God.
There are no shadows thrown by God’s light because it is an all-encompassing light! When His presence is described in our bibles it is always as a light that shone all around and not just a beam of light that shone from a single source. God is certainly not limited by our earthly limits so why should we expect His light to be limited either? In order to work effectively for and with Him we need to walk in His light, or in other words we need to bring Him with us wherever we go because He is that light!
We need to not only tell people that we walk in that light, but we need to make sure that we do walk in it. Everyone, but everyone, will be able to see what we do if we do not walk in that light because God is the light. In many scriptures we do find that men felt undone or unclean when the light of God illuminated them or their lives in some way; that is the way we need to look at God because when we do invite Him into our lives we will have that light shining that will illuminate more than just the path that we walk. Walking with God is a very illuminating experience!
Points to Ponder:
What would you do if you always were in bright lights?
Do you think God’s light is ever off of you?