Friday Reading: 1 Peter 5 10

Key Verse: 1 Peter 5 10
10  But the God of all grace, He calling us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a little, He will perfect, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.

Devotion:
There are, unfortunately, many people who go round telling people that they should become Christians and that from that moment on everything is going to be fine. They will say that anything bad that happens is due to your unbelief or lack of faith. They will say that you should not keep your money but give it to people who need it like the church – even though the church may be huge and lavish already... But that is not what God has taught us throughout our bibles.

Yes, God is calling us to heaven. He has shown us just how much He does love us through everything that He has done for us. He even allowed His only Son to die in a cruel manner on a cross so that He could pay our sin debt for us. That is how much He wants us to be in heaven with Him. But still we walk the other way... So many people will hear the truth but will not apply it to themselves because they think they can get away with it or that it simply does not apply in their circumstances. The truth is the truth and there is no getting away from it – it will catch up to you!

We start our lives walking away from the truth, walking away from God. We see good things and bad things happen to us and those around us. Then maybe we get to know the truth in our hearts and follow God... But you know what? We are still living in this same sinful, deceitful and downright ugly world. That means that even though we are working towards a heavenly life, we still have to put up with all manner of ‘earthly stuff’ that will happen to us along the way. With God’s help we can live through it and come out better people.

We are celebrating the wonderful union between Prince William and Catherine Middleton today. They will have many struggles after this because of all the pressure the world puts on them. But with God they would be able to come through things a whole lot better!

Points to Ponder:
Do you like an easy life?

What do you look forward to with God?

Thursday Reading: Galatians 3 13-14

Key Verse: Galatians 3 13
13  Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, being made a curse for us (for it is written, "Cursed is everyone having been hanged on a tree");

Devotion:
What is the first thing that happens when something goes wrong? Is it that everyone rushes around trying to find out who is to blame? That is the most likely scenario because we always like to be able to close off things by apportioning blame onto someone or something so that we can move on – but the last thing we want to do is to accept that blame on ourselves for any reason, even when it should be placed with us!

We like to live in a ‘blame-game’ world where everything happens because of a reason and when things go wrong it is because someone else did something wrong to start with! We like to think that we stick to the law (pretty much) and that when others do things against the law they should be punished or at least brought up before that law... but not so much when we slip up and do things wrong. Note how we slip up but others do it wrong... We just don’t like to take the blame for anything!

So how would you like to be labelled a murderer when you did not do it? How would you like to be called a thief when you know you did not steal anything? How would you like to be called an adulterer when you know nothing happened behind closed doors? None of us would like any of that to happen to us... So now I would like you to think of some of the little things that you have done wrong in your life. Not so that I can blame you but so that you yourself can recognise that you have done some things wrong. I certainly have and I do put my hands up to many things. But I also know that Christ has forgiven me of those things that I have done wrong and He did it in a very particular way! He took the blame for those things that I have done wrong upon Himself; and not just my misgivings but everyone’s. He allowed all of the blame to rest upon His shoulders when He allowed Himself to be hung on that cross as a murderer, thief, adulterer and all manner of things. He did that for you and for me!

Points to Ponder:
Will you admit that you have done something wrong?

Will you ask Christ to forgive you?

Wednesday Reading: Galatians 2 15-19

Key Verse: Galatians 2 16
16  knowing that a man is not justified by works of the Law, but through faith in Jesus Christ; even we believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith in Christ, and not by works of the Law. For all flesh will not be justified by works of law.

Devotion:
How many times have you tried to describe yourself with different words just so that you can look or sound different to what you are? I’m sure that we have all exaggerated the truth or hidden a few facts just so that we could sound better than we are. The world of employment seems to thrive in bending the truth nowadays with people exaggerating their experience or hiding certain facts just so that they can have a chance of getting employment. It is a sad reflection on society that people think they have to do this just to get by now!

The wonderful thing about God’s Word and about Jesus Christ is that they will both uncover the truth no matter how far down we try to bury it. In the days of the prophets before Christ came to live on earth we hear time and time again of God warning the people through the prophets that He can indeed see everything that goes on and yet man continued to try and hide his deeds from God and from others. Let us wake up to the fact – we can’t hide anything from God!

When we learn the truth from reading our bibles we then learn this fact that God sees everything. If we believe that in our hearts then we try to seek out some way in which we can be forgiven. Christ has done everything that is required in order for us to seek that forgiveness right now and to accept that forgiveness and to live a life that is free from that sin we try to hide. The more we sin the more we find that we have this huge pile of sin that more and more people begin to see in our lives. Yes we may have been able to hide it in the beginning but the more that we keep it the more it builds up until it overflows in our lives for all to see. How unclean we then see ourselves. How much more filthy do we have to be before we realise the truth? God wants us forgiven – He wants us forgiven right now!

Points to Ponder:
How much do you think you can hide?

Do you know God knows you?

Tuesday Reading: Habakkuk 2 4

Key Verse: Habakkuk 2 4
4  Behold, the soul of him is lifted up, and is not upright; but the just shall live by his faith.

Devotion:
It never ceases to amaze me just how many references to Christ’s coming can be found in our Old Testaments and so many of them spelled it out plain and clear – He is coming and you will not believe it when He does come! And that is just exactly what happened. Christ came to earth and lived His life as an example to us all. He fulfilled all the prophesies that were told and He did nothing without first making sure that it was God the Fathers will. If we ever want an example to live by it must be Jesus Christ!

Today we have so many echoes of those first elements of disbelief, those same elements that have run throughout time as man has grown up from being the humble and loved servants Adam and Eve started out as being. Now man continues to be lured away by the wiles of Satan as he lifts himself up instead of lifting up God. Christ always lifted up God first of all and yet we continue to try and lift ourselves up in His stead! Have we not seen the evidence of what happens to us time and time again when we do lift ourselves up? Have we not seen the consequences of our unbelief? And yet we ignore the things that we wish not to see and continue to do our own thing!

Now that we have seen that Christ has come as our Messiah, our Saviour, now we must walk by faith believing that He did that all for us. We have peoples words written down for us to show us the truth and we also have peoples lies written down to deceive us. We have to make the choice as to whether we have faith in the truth and wait for God, or whether we want something to happen now and jump into the fire instead. Christ has completed His task so that we can all be saved from our death sentence, but we still have to stand up in faith and ask Him for His personal forgiveness for what we have personally done against Him. He has already shown us that He wants to forgive us – we just need to take that next step in faith.

Points to Ponder:
Are you getting impatient?

Is your faith waning?