Saturday 4 Jun 2011

Saturday Reading: Ezra 10 11

Key Verse: Ezra 10 11
11  And now confess to Jehovah, the God of your fathers, and do His pleasure. And separate yourselves from the people of the land, and from the strange women.

Devotion:
What is one of the weakest points in your life? What do you give in to the quickest? Some people may say things like chocolate and sweets, others may just answer food, but others may well be more open and say that the ways of the world, lust and the like will tempt them far quicker than things they may simply eat. God knows our weaknesses and He knows the things that will break us from the inside. That is why He has continued to give us His Word, generation after generation, so that we may be strengthened into knowing that there are certain things in life that we can depend on. One of those, unfortunately, is our own weaknesses.

God does not want us to give in and go with the flow. He would rather that we separate ourselves from those very things that we will give in to so that we may not be so easily tempted. Satan knew the very thing that would tempt Adam and Eve and used it to his best advantage; not the fruit itself but the idea behind that fruit – that they would be more like God and know good and evil. We do not have the mind of God and we do not have the strength and wisdom to be able to avoid the temptations that come up in front of us. That is why He demanded that we do not eat of that fruit in the first place!

What we need to do is to make sure that we do give God the position in our lives that He deserves. How are we ever going to be able to fight against the things of this world unless He is fighting in our place? Yes we could be big-headed and say that we can win if God will fight next to us, or we could admit defeat and be honest and say that we will not win unless He will fight in our stead! God is the one who can continue to keep us. We have to give up our ideas of being able to lift ourselves up and to lift Him up instead. Nothing we can do will strengthen us more than giving God control in our lives. So if you think you are in control then you are only fooling yourself!

Points to Ponder:
Will you give God a chance?

Will you give God control?

Friday 3 Jun 2011

Friday Reading: 2 Corinthians 6 17-18

Key Verse: 2 Corinthians 6 17-18
17  Therefore come out from among them and be separated, says the Lord, and do not touch the unclean thing. And I will receive you 
18  and I will be a Father to you, and you shall be My sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.

Devotion:
It is wrong for believers to run off and live with evil people; these sorts of words seem far too strict to be able to be used in modern society. We fear that we are not being politically correct in allowing people to be evil; but it certainly does not mean that we need to put up with them in our lives because it is far easier for Satan to trip us up if we are going to walk through his treacherous land rather than walking on God’s path!

If we are going to continue our walk with Christ and continue being strengthened by Him then we have to make sure that we are going to be in a position to receive God’s Word in the first place! How else are we to hear God unless we draw close to Him? You would not choose to walk into the noisiest possible room to be able to make a phone call to a friend, so why should we walk in the noisiest possible environment to be able to commune with God? But that is what we seem to want to do in our lives each day!

God would like us to be in a place where we can hear Him; He would like us to be in a place where we will be able to understand Him and to be able to follow Him. If we choose to separate ourselves from Him in the first place then we will certainly not be in a good position to hear what He has to say to us. How are we going to hear His guidance and instruction if we are not listening? Being in and around people who do not care about God will continue to hide God and His will from our lives. Instead we will be surrounded by the ways of the world and all we may well hear is those ways and not God’s ways. If we do not take time out to be with God and to be strengthened by Him; how will we ever face up to the ruin that we live in?

Points to Ponder:
Are others in control of your life?

Does God’s Word manage to get through to you?

Thursday 2 Jun 2011

Thursday Reading: Psalms 33 10-12

Key Verse: Psalms 33 12
12  Blessed is the nation whose God is Jehovah; the people He has chosen for His inheritance.

Devotion:
How many times do you have to witness something before you will believe it? Do you actually have to see it with your own eyes and feel it with your own hands before it will sink in? Are you going to be as stubborn as Thomas and demand that God shows you the truth before you will believe Him? It is a sad thing that we do demand so much proof and demand so much of God when He has actually given us so much in our lives already!

Is it right to demand so much proof of things before we believe them? Well when we look at the world around us and see just how much people do lie then it probably is very wise to demand more proof before we start believing. But to have God’s Word as proof, a proof that has continued to stand up to every person that has tried to work against it, must be proof enough for anyone who has any sense! Maybe that is why God’s Word does remind us that it is the fool who will reject God; and maybe that is what winds people up the most is that they are called fools...

When we choose to believe the truth because it is presented to us in all God’s Glory, then we are choosing to believe in something that has been shown us by God. God will continue to try and give people the truth through His Word and through others that are willing to take His Word with them. If you knew the truth, would you not want others to know it too? Religions continue to be invented in mans quest to try and afford himself a god that will listen to him rather than one who will give him the truth. We like to think that we should be in charge rather than someone who we cannot see; after all, this God is the one demanding that we do things right instead of doing things our own way! God’s promise that the truth will continue to be upheld has stood the test of time, man and even Satan – why turn away from that sort of proof?

Points to Ponder:
One more time... Are you in charge?

Are you rejecting God’s Word at all?

Wednesday 1 Jun 2011

Wednesday Reading: 1 Peter 2 1-10

Key Verse: 1 Peter 2 9
9  But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for possession, so that you might speak of the praises of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvellous light;

Devotion:
Evil speaking seems to be more a part of life now than it ever was. I would age myself terribly if I were to mention the times when people would not dare to swear in public, so I shall not. But each one of us does not need to look too far back or in too many directions to find that there are or were people that refuse to allow themselves to get caught up in swearing and other bad language. We do have a choice as to whether we follow the evil around us or whether we turn our backs on it and seek God instead.

It is not just the swearing but the way in which we talk about others, the deceit that we carry round with us, the lies that we allow into our lives; and to what gain? Well, we like to think that we will gain out of allowing some evil into our lives because it will allow us to be with more people thus giving us a better chance at things – or so we would like to think! God has rejected mans evil ways from the beginning of time and will continue to do so because He is Just! But God also chooses many people to do His work and to display His will to the rest of the world.

I praise Him and lift His name up high through what I do so that others may know that He is God and not just some prophet or king that may or may not be able to do things. God is God! Let us lift Him up to His rightful place. If we start to do that then we have a duty to make sure that we do not bring Him down; and bring Him down we will through what we do in front of Him. If we say He is God and then act the fool in front of Him and in front of others, are we not then showing others that we no longer fear our Very God? Being a Christian is about living with God and not in spite of God. Let God in your life and let Him be in control!

Points to Ponder:
Are you getting the picture?

God needs to be in control if you want to lift Him up!

Tuesday 31 May 2011

Tuesday Reading: Isaiah 65 1-7

Key Verse: Isaiah 65 1
1  I am sought by those who asked not for Me; I am found by those who did not seek Me. I said, Behold Me, behold Me, to a nation not calling on My name.

Devotion:
Is this something new that we are a nation that has all but forgotten about God? Are we the first to reject God and work against Him instead of for Him? I fear not. We can read just about any book in our bibles and read about the way that man has rejected God and has conspired to lift himself up rather than God. This all comes from the original evil one to lift himself up instead of God and that is Satan.

Throughout time man has continued to think that he is the one that is the most powerful and it is not limited to a conflict between man and God but between men themselves. Wars continue to be fought up and down our land just because someone thinks that they are better than someone else or through greed for what someone else may have. These conflicts all work against what God has tried to teach man from those very first days right through to the present times. He has laid down rules and guidelines for us and yet we continue to ignore them and make our own ways; our foolish ways.

Do we not look back and wonder why we got up to those things? Have we forgotten so quickly all that we have been up to and all that we have rejected God with? And yet we continue on in our sinful, lustful ways until we come to the end and break down because we have nothing else left! Why do we continue one against God when He has given us so much? Why should God continue to allow us to even live when we do so much against Him? There will be a time when we do have to face up to the consequences for our actions – before then we have a choice to make, continue on until we break, or change our ways and follow God’s will!

Points to Ponder:
I ask again, are you in control?

How much will you do against God before realising it?