Wednesday Reading: Numbers 32 20-23

Key Verse: Numbers 32 23

23  But if you will not do so, behold, you have sinned against Jehovah. And be sure your sin will find you out.

Devotion:

No matter how strong we do think we are we will always manage to find a weakness at the most inappropriate time we could imagine! I’m not talking about finding out that you really hate snakes just when you are confronted by one but rather the things like we think we are strong enough to do something until we try it and find out we cannot stomach it! In those circumstances we need to be able to call on help from others to see us through and if we did not get that help we may well be the ones falling flat on our faces.

Nearing the end of their time in the desert, the children of Israel were on one bank of the Jordan knowing that they had to cross over the river to go and take the land which God had told them would be theirs. This would mean that they would all have to go forward together, fight together and continue to rely on God and His direction for them. They had seen what happens to them when they disobeyed God and that should not have been one of the things that they were even thinking about at that time. But one of the tribe turned round and said that they wanted the land on this side of the Jordan and not the land on the other side that God had promised them!

Fortunately for them they were not going to go against God’s will by not going forward with the rest of Israel. They promised to go forward and fight along with the others. They promised to continue fighting until all the land was allocated; only then would they return to the land this side of the river and take it for their own. Whilst that is not what was the initial design of things, they were allowed to do that but for one thing. Moses said “if you will not do so, behold, you have sinned against God!” In other words, no matter how much you try to say you did things right, God knows exactly what you actually do get up to and exactly where your heart is. Your own actions and thought will be what let you down – directly in front of God!

Points to Ponder:

Do you like getting away with things?

Do you really think you get away with it?

Tuesday Reading: Colossians 1 15-23

Key Verse: Colossians 1 21-22

21  And you, who were once alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled 22 in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy and without blemish, and without charge in His sight,

Devotion:

You didn’t think you would get away with a single devotion on a piece of text that I said I had read a few times, did you? The more that we read God’s Word, the more information we get out of it and the more that He can guide us through our daily lives. It’s not about brain washing. It’s not about letting your mind go. It is all about reading God’s Word and understanding it. Far too often in our lives we allow so many things around us to distract us from the task that we should be taking into hand – not just in studying God’s Word but just about everything in our lives... there is always something that will take out mind off of what we should be concentrating on!

The more that we get distracted, the more that we will go on and do those things that we did not want to do because we are no longer concentrating on what we should be doing. The more we do get distracted, the more we get used to doing those distractions and the easier it will be next time to get distracted. That is the simple fact of life that separates us from God!

It is that time when we allow our minds to become idle that our minds will start to go off and hunt for things to do. When our minds become active, then our bodies don’t really have much of a choice other than to follow on in the so called playful footsteps of our minds. Unfortunately our wandering minds will pick things that are or can be regarded as sinful or at the least discordant with our normal lives; we can’t seem to resist having a go at some things! Fortunately for us, Christ is the one who came forward to present Himself in our stead so that we would not have to be regarded as being guilty for giving in when we let our minds wander. This does not mean we have free time to go and do what we want, but rather that we can rely on Christ to forgive us when we come back to Him in admitting that we have done wrong.

Points to Ponder:

Do you think you are strong?

When was the last time you let your mind wander?

Monday Reading: Colossians 1 15-23

Key Verse: Colossians 1 23

23  if indeed you continue in the faith grounded and settled, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which you have heard and which was proclaimed in all the creation under Heaven, of which I, Paul, became a minister,

Devotion:

Sometimes it is just worth sitting down and reading God’s Word, not just once, or twice but quite a few times. God has given us His Word so that we can study it and begin to know what He has in store for us. If we do not do the studying then we will never find the depth of the wisdom and knowledge that is held between the two covers of what we now call our bibles. It does not mean that you have to sit down and read all day long – though there would not be any harm in trying to do that!

Not all of us are gifted in the literary sense in that some of us find it hard to read and learn from that which we read; even worse trying to write things down so that others will be able to understand the rambling of my brain! But if we are willing to sit down and read through a small passage at a time and study it, we should get a whole lot further than we do in our normal reading. The depth of God’s Word is truly incredible and it is only through studying that we will find that true depth.

I know some people who are blessed with literary skills, some of which are able to read through God’s Word without a problem and are able to grasp that meaning quite quickly. For me it has taken quite a few years before I can now say that I do know some of what God is telling us all; I only say some because we all do still learn through re-reading! Our gift from God is His Word. It has been given to mankind from the beginning of time and has stood that test of time; everything else changes and groans under repeated study, but God’s Word uniquely remains firm. It is the only thing that we should ground our faith on because it is the only thing that does not change (God obviously included in His Word). We have both modern and ancient accounts to follow – and follow we should and must.

Points to Ponder:

How often do you read God’s Word?

How often do you study God’s Word?

Sunday Reading: Ephesians 1 3-14

Key Verse: Ephesians 1 13

13  in whom also you, hearing the Word of Truth, the gospel of our salvation, in whom also believing, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise,

Devotion:

Although I do love the way that this passage I have chosen today starts (3  Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ;) I also praise God for the simple fact that He has sealed us with the Holy Spirit. I can remember the days when I would be helping out my Grandmother in the back office of the shop and she would seal a letter with wax and a stamp. That was to make sure that the person receiving that letter would know that it was from her and know whether anyone along the line had tampered with it. What a wonderful thought it is that Christ made sure that we were sealed with His seal so that we would be able to be presented to God in the exact same manner as which we were when He cleansed us from our sin!

Each time I think about something I have done in my past I am also reminded that Christ has paid for my misgivings; because that is what He said He would do when I brought them up before Him, asking for forgiveness. I am not proud of many of the things I have done and most often refuse to be drawn into describing them to the youth that I teach – why should they be exposed to something that Christ has already taken and buried?

Christ does not only bury those sins that we have brought before Him, but He separates us totally from them before we are sealed and marked as having to be delivered to God. What an awesome thought that we cannot be tampered with without God knowing about it. No matter what Satan could get up to, God has got the final say and it is His way that will be and is the ultimate way. It is Christ who gave us the means to be able to be presented before God; without that means we would never be able to approach God at all because He cannot abide with sin. God continues to remind us that we have a problem when we sin and that the only way to get around that problem is to bring Christ back into our lives.

Points to Ponder:

Do you realise how ‘forgiven’ you are?

Do you realise your seal is permanent?