Wednesday 20 Apr 2011

Wednesday Reading: Matthew 26 14-16

Key Verse: Matthew 26 15
15  And said unto them, What will ye give me, and I will deliver him unto you? And they covenanted with him for thirty pieces of silver.

Devotion:
... the news continues ...

“Well after another day of disruption I can safely say that this man Jesus certainly does know the Law. He was able to talk circles round every religious person that I saw or heard come to Him. Unfortunately for Jesus I fear that these priests that He is confronting are very powerful and may find a way very soon of getting rid of Him. Indeed He has confronted the chief priests, the Pharisees, the Herodians, the Sadducees and a bunch of others who were in the temple.

I have heard from a reliable source that the chief priests, scribes, elders along with the high priest, Caiaphas, have all got together to try and plot how they can take Jesus away and dispose of Him. What is this world coming to when we hear such talk coming from high places in our temples? At least they have seen sense and have agreed not to do anything on the day of the Passover feast! Seems like they are afraid of the uproar that may result from that... Jesus has been staying out in Bethany rather than in town and I certainly do not blame Him for doing so since tension is rising in town.

I have just heard from a local source in Bethany that Jesus, even though people have been calling Him the Messiah and King, actually sat down and washed His disciples’ feet. I have never heard of anything like that before. Can you imagine how great it would be to have a king that was willing to do their fair share of work with the rest of us? But that same source has told me of a traitor in the midst. One of the disciples that follow Jesus was heard trying to make a deal with the chief priests to deliver Jesus to them. Just who can we trust nowadays?

It has also now been confirmed that there is a direct lines of descendants from both Mary and Joseph back to King David.

Points to Ponder:
What King would act like a servant?

Could this be?

Tuesday 19 Apr 2011

Tuesday Reading: Isaiah 35 5

Key Verse: Isaiah 35 5
5  Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped.

Devotion:
... the new continues ...

“The more that we are able to find out about this man, prophet, king, whatever He is, the more we find the more we are amazed. Our prophet Isaiah told us that the eyes of the blind shall be opened and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. This Jesus has come into the temple and thrown out all of the traders that the priests had allowed in and set about healing people. We definitely know that this is a man of God but we still need to find out more. Those around Him continue to say that He is the Messiah whilst the chief priests had set about plans to unseat Him.

They came to Him whilst He was in the temple teaching those who wished to hear God’s Word. They asked Him outright ‘By what authority do you do these things? And who gave you this authority?’ I must say I was astonished at His reply. He simply said that He would answer their question when they answered His question which was to tell Him whether the baptism of John was from heaven or from man. I overheard them talking and discussing the answer amongst themselves. This Jesus had them! If they answered from heaven then they would have to admit that they were sceptical about him, but if they answered from man then they would have to admit that they followed man and not God! That was a first for me to see them stumped like that!

The teachings that this man is giving all those who listen are truly astounding. I have never heard anyone speak with so much authority and with so much compassion. If this reporter was not just a common man then just maybe he too would start to believe in this character! So far we have uncovered quite a bit of His ancestry on Joseph's side but we are still finding out more about His mother, Mary.

I think it will not be too long before the chief priests make a plan to lay hands on this man because He is beginning to embarrass some of them!

Points to Ponder:
What if He is from the line of David?

Why is there so much disagreement?

Monday 18 Apr 2011


Monday Reading: Matthew 21 1-11

Key Verse: Matthew 21 9
9  And the crowds who went before, and those who followed, cried out, saying, Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!

Devotion:
Can you imagine what the local news (should there have been news or even newspapers back then) would have said about the entry of Jesus into town? Maybe they would have been something like this:

“New King in Town”

“And in the news today from Faith we hear of a new King in town. Yesterday a man came riding into Bethphage to be greeted by a huge crowd who cheered Him into town. The crowd was making quite a scene by pulling down branches from palm trees and laying them down in the road before this man. Some where even taking their own garments and placing them in the path before Him. We managed to catch up to the crowd as they came into Jerusalem so that we could ask who this man was. The reply we got was that He is the Son of David, our Messiah!

According to our scriptures our Messiah would indeed come riding into town upon an ass and a colt, the foal of an ass. Lo and behold, so did this Man. Again in our scriptures we know that our Messiah will be of the lineage of David – so far I have managed to find out His parents so will have more news later to check on that lineage. Certainly most of the crowd that was following Him were calling Him our Messiah – unfortunately we could not get close enough to ask any questions at this stage. I did manage to get a statement from one knowledgeable person who said “This is Jesus the prophet, from Nazareth of Galilee.” Just maybe this is what we have been waiting for!

So far we have not had any official statement from the chief priests although they did seem somewhat annoyed that anyone would be given the label of ‘Messiah’ or even ‘King’ in their absence! We will have our chief correspondent with them over the coming days to follow their reaction. More tomorrow!

Points to Ponder:
Can you help out with finding who this Jesus is?

Is this our Messiah?


Sunday 17 Apr 2011

Sunday Reading: Ephesians 6 1-8

Key Verse: Ephesians 6 6
6  not with eye-service, as men-pleasers, but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart,

Devotion:
One of the best things about serving God is that you see how you can help others through doing His Work. No matter how much you think you have to go through in order to reach others with God’s Word, it will never go unseen in God’s eyes. One of the most exciting things is when you hear back from someone whom you have taught many years previously and hearing that they remember what you have tried so hard to teach them. It is that sort of feedback that reaches deep down into your heart and you know God is in it! God has given us His Word for a reason and that is that we can not only learn so much from it but that we can then take it with us and share it with others.

Each time I am with other Christians I marvel at how much of a difference we are able to make when we put our hearts to it. If we do not let it come from our hearts then we are just another automaton reading God’s Word; but when we allow His Word to soak deep into our heart and then let it come forward, we allow others to see just how much it means to us – and that may well mean the difference between them listening and them remembering.

We are servants of God and we need to remember that; but that does not mean that we have to be slaves. We can lift Him up through what we do. We can lift up His Word. We can allow it to come from our hearts. We must never be ashamed. How can we be ashamed when we learn just how much Christ has done for us and how much He was willing to endure for our sakes? When we go to meet with our churches today we need to go with an open heart so that all around can see that we go because we want to because we serve a risen Saviour!

Points to Ponder:
How do you show others you are a Christian?

How often do you wear your heart on your sleeve?

Saturday 16 Apr 2011

Saturday Reading: Colossians 3 23-24

Key Verse: Colossians 3 23
23  And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men;

Devotion:
How many times have you done something for someone else just to keep them happy? How many times have you gone out and done something for someone that you would not normally do to make that person happy? We all like to keep some people happy in our lives whether it be our partners, perspective partners, friends, family or just someone special; we do things that will please them because that makes us feel better. Whilst I could never say that that would be a bad thing we do have to remember just who we serve in the end because we can very quickly lose sight of our Lord when we get caught up in doing things for others.

That is something that I have always found difficult in my life – trying to do things for others whilst still keeping in line with what God would have me do! Why? Because when we focus on doing something for others we do lose sight of our focus on God. If we are not careful we may well find ourselves focusing on people who do not serve God or who are rejecting God. When we do that we start to fall in line with the things that they do and not what God has had us doing all along. You may think that you are strong enough to resist that sort of thing and that you would be able to turn them round to be with God before they turned you away from God. That is when we find that doing things for others then conflicts with doing things for God!

If we want to please others then we should be trying to do for them what God would want you to do for them and not what you want to do for them! If we keep God in our focus and keep Him in our minds then doing things for others becomes easy but we also do not lose sight of God. Try not to look at it as how much you can do for others but look at it as being how much can you fulfil God’s will in doing things for others. As long as you give God the glory for all that He allows you to do for others then you will be taking God with you wherever you go.

Points to Ponder:
Do you like helping others?

How much do you do for God?