November 1: Exodus 20 3
Key Verse: Exodus 20 3
You shall have no other gods before me.
Devotion:
This is the first of the Ten Commandments. It is listed in first place because of the environment the Israelites came from and the peoples they were going to be surrounded by later on. God wants us to focus on Him as the only God and not to be persuaded by the polytheism of many cultures today – just as it was back then. They had been under Egyptian rule for a long time; a society which promoted multiple gods just as the Gentiles would do so!
In life we are surrounded by leaders who have different agendas and different priorities of their own. If we try to please all of them all of the time, we are going to get lost and lose focus on those priorities as we spread our allegiance through each of those leaders. In our spiritual lives we cannot hope to try and appease multiple gods because we will lose focus just as we do in life. This commandment was listed first to show us just how important it is to stay focused on God.
We have seen how Jesus upheld God the Father above all else and did everything to obey His Father. If He had given in to the people around Him and tried to please them all, they would have been confused as to which God they should follow. If we run off and worship other gods the people around us will be confused as to who we do worship and will find it harder to understand what we stand for!
God has done so much to show us, through all our generations, that He alone is God and nothing and nobody else can hope to fulfil that role! And yet, no matter how far we go, He is willing and able to show us mercy if we are willing to come back to lift Him up as our one true God. Try to look at it from His point of view – He sees what is in our hearts and sees everything we get up to, because we are doing this all in front of Him. So how can we think about worshipping anyone else or hoping any other god will do anything in front of God for us – they know they are not God and still they try to persuade us to do things we aught not to!
Points to Ponder:
Do you spread your hope and faith thinly around every god you come across?
Are you willing to put all your faith and hope in God alone?
October 31: Acts 5 33-39
Key Verse: Acts 5 39
But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men; you will only find yourselves fighting against God.
Devotion:
These words from Gamaliel are quite profound. He was a pharisee and we see in so many places how the Pharisees were working against Jesus and the disciples, but here the disciples lives are being spared – God can and does use people for His good and His ways!
When people go ahead and try to persuade those around them of a new way or new product, things are going to collapse in a heap when the truth comes out. But if they are telling the truth, chances are things will look pretty good for them in the end. All this is assuming we are not trying to tell people something they do not want to hear! The more we try to persuade people against their will, the more they will object and fight against what we are saying. When we share the gospel with people, we are going to face some who will continue to reject our words and object to us being around because of this.
Jesus showed us time and time again how He continued to share the gospel even though those around Him were wanting to believe their own ways instead of the truth! This is not something new we will face but it is something we do have to face! When those objectors find out the truth in the end they will realise they have been working against God – and we can only hope they find out the truth before it is too late for them.
There will be times in our lives when we are going to have to face whole communities which seem to be working against God – in these time we have to stand up to the truth and continue to give people the chance of seeing the truth. At these times we need to allow God’s words to speak for themselves because it is His words which will be able to persuade people where we fail. Trust in the truth and pray people will accept that truth…
Points to Ponder:
Have you had to face up to a hostile crowd?
Do you trust God will be able to make His words known?
October 30: Hebrews 4 8-13
Key Verse: Hebrews 4 12
For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.
Devotion:
When God first gave us the example of taking one day of the week to stop and rest, He also showed us we should be spending time together as a church so we can learn from each other. God impressed upon the disciples how important it is to get together and share the gospel in the hopes we would do so faithfully and with joy!
The words in our bibles are described as being sharper than any two-edged sword, something which may be a bit lost in modern society due to the lack of sharp swords in our repertoire! As someone who enjoys cooking and preparing meals, I know the advantage of having very sharp knives to work with in the kitchen; cutting a tomato with a blunt knife invariably ends up with a squishy mess instead of nice thin slices! Equally taking your sharpest knife and using the back of the blade will end up in the same mess…
Just like having the right tools to work with in the kitchen, we need the right tools to work with people around us. God has commanded us to go out into all the world and teach them about Him, but unless we are willing to take the right tools with us, we may not be able to give people the advice they need – we may end up in confusing them instead of teaching them! We need to take the truth, God’s words, with us and share it in the right manner.
Another thing about preparing meals is we have to use what we have and not say we will prepare meals for which we do not have the correct ingredients. The same must be said of the gospel. We need to take what we have and use it without promising things we do not have or things which are not in our bibles. God wants us to take the truth as it is written down and share it with those around us. He made sure the right words were written down for us so we could have the best tools to share the gospel with people. Use your bible how it was intended to be used – follow Jesus’ example.
Points to Ponder:
Do you go to church each week?
Is the gospel being shared in your weekly gathering?
October 29: Psalms 139 1-6
Key Verse: Psalms 139 2
You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar.
Devotion:
God has already sized you up! He knows all about you and does not have to be introduced to you first in order to find out anything. Before we even speak the words, God knows what we are going to say – which should scare us! The words which come out of our mouths are not always what we want to come out because we tend to say things out of order when we get cross or upset. In those times we need to stop and think what God would like us to say before we start speaking!
When we stop and allow God to guide us we will find we can and will do things more in line with what He wants in our lives than the worldly examples we tend to follow! It may seem quite fanciful to think this is at all possible, but the proof come in trusting and following Christ. It is only after we have seen how He can help us in our lives that we will go looking for that advice and listen to it…
One of the most important things God wants us to do in our lives is to stop running round with worldly ideas leading us away and to focus on His ways – and the best way of doing that is to sit down and study Go’s Word! Taking time out of the world and filling our hearts and minds with God’s truth will help us to focus on the things God can do in our lives and not on the garbage we carry round from the world around us.
Studying our bibles is not just as case of reading a bit each day but taking head of what we are reading and thinking about what it all means. Yes it will be difficult in the beginning because we do not know His ways making it difficult to understand how any of what we read can be possible – but the more we go through His Word and the more we believe it, the more we will see what can be possible when we place all of our faith and trust in Him. It takes time, don’t give up just because you don’t understand the first few words!
Points to Ponder:
How much listening, studying and learning did you do to get through school?
Are you willing to take that same approach with God’s words?
October 28: 1 Samuel 16 4-7
Key Verse: 1 Samuel 16 7
But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”
Devotion:
Samuel was sent to anoint David to be the next king and told to take a heifer sacrifice with him so Jesse (the father of David) would know he was coming in peace. This was because there was a great respect for the prophets at that time by many of the people; they would fear their coming in case their past sins were going to be uncovered! If you have ever been in great debt or have done something terrible in your past, then you know what it is like to live in fear of someone coming to find you out!
After things settled down a bit, Jesse was asked to bring his sons before Samuel so the Lord could show Samuel which of the sons was going to become the next king. So, as was the custom, the eldest son was presented first. Samuel was sure this fine young man would be the one chosen to be king because of his outward appearance – just as Saul was chosen to be the first king because of his outward appearance!
But God had other plans and indicated to Samuel this son was not the one, telling him not to look at the outward appearance but to look at the heart; this is what God was doing. We have a saying which is: “Don’t judge a book by its cover.” We do tend to look at how things or people appear and make an initial judgement accordingly – this is not what God wants from us.
God wants us, just like Samuel back then, to look at what is on the inside because the appearance can be so deceptive. Take a bit of time to see what people really are like and don’t pass them by just because they do not fit into your description of what is good! God knows what is in people’s hearts and is not bound by their looks. We don’t always have that privilege because we can be persuaded by appearance so easily.
Points to Ponder:
What was your first impression of some of your friends?
Will you allow God to guide you to the right people?