Friday 4 Feb 2011

Friday Reading: Matthew 9 10-13

Key Verse: Matthew 9 13
13  But go and learn what this is, I will have mercy and not sacrifice. For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.

Devotion:
My heart goes out to teachers in today’s society; the amount of grief and ‘back-talk’ they have to put up with from the children is just beyond belief. Yes there are many schools where the pupils are actually taught in classrooms that seem to be like classrooms, but there are also places where the teachers have to struggle to get past the weeds so that they can reach one or two pupils that are actually willing to listen. It is not always the ones that you expect that would make the noise that do but rather some that you would expect to be model pupils that cause the disturbances. I have the privilege of driving a minibus to convey children to and from church; listening to what they get up to in class is enough to give me grey hairs!

But these are the people that we need to reach out to, the children that are being left behind because they may be looked at as the disrupters in society. The children that miss out on the attention because they dare to show their distrust in society or dare to lift up their voices against the fact that they have been left behind are the voices of the children crying out for help from the inside, and these are the voices of the children that God hears. If we are going to obey God then we must not turn our backs on anyone in society, not even the ones who make a point of rebelling against all that we do.

Christ tried to set an example by opening up God’s Word to everyone. He set the example by reaching out to the lost. He set the bar at the level that He wants us to reach. It is no good waiting for the sinners to find their way into the light because they do not want to be seen in any light; we need to reach out into the darkness so that they can know the way toward the light. Only when they see how good the light is will they try to approach it. Reach out today and touch someone.

Points to Ponder:
Who do you like to be with?

Are you missing the people God is trying to reach?

Thursday 3 Feb 2011

Thursday Reading: John 21 15-17

Key Verse: John 21 17
17  He said to him the third time, Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me? Peter was grieved because He said to him a third time, Do you love Me? And he said to Him, Lord, You know all things, You know that I love You. Jesus said to him, Feed My sheep.

Devotion:
It never ceases to amaze me what God can reveal to us when we read His Word, all it takes is for a different day or hour and He will show us something else in the verses that we have read. When we read His Word we start to remember it and we can then bring it to mind and quote it without having to look it up – or at least some people can. But when we go back and read it after reading some other verses we can see those same words in a new light. We like to take God’s Word and apply it to the circumstances that we are currently in and in doing so we often miss some of the meaning of some of the words. I have never thought of looking at these verses and taking them from Simon Peter’s side instead of from Christ’s point of view, so today we look at it from Simon Peter’s view.

The first time that Jesus asked him “do you love Me more than these?” Simon Peter answered with what I like to think of as a double affirmative. He said yes, affirming that he did love Jesus but backed it up by saying that Jesus knew that he did. The second time was like the first but the third time Simon Peter expanded on the words a bit by saying “You know all things”. That was not just a casual reference to the fact that because they had been together for a few years that Jesus should have known how Simon Peter felt about Him. This was Simon Peter telling Christ that He was Christ. How could anyone “know all things” unless they were God?

We look up to people who have spent their years studying various things because they have taken the time out from their lives to pack as much information as they can into their brains. I am yet to meet any human who is able to answer all my questions. I have met many who have come up with answers for questions I would never have thought of, but true omniscience belongs to Christ, who is God.

Points to Ponder:
How much do you learn each day?

Have you ever thought how much God must actually know?

Wednesday 2 Feb 2011

Wednesday Reading: Isaiah 65 1

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:
Sometimes it takes something small to change the world and other times it takes a complete upheaval – quite what we will have to go through is something that we will find out when we get there. Many of us will go through life with no big deals, no big traumas, no big events and we will be quite happy with our lot. Others will face trial after trial, come head to head with danger round every corner and still be satisfied with their lot. Yet some will continue seeking for something they know is out there and never really find it because they have not looked in the right direction...

When I say that God is the way I do not say it as a saying that I have heard from others, I do not say it as something to pacify you with but I say it as something I know within my heart. No matter how much I jump up and down and preach God’s Word the choice of whether you want to believe has got to come from your own heart and nothing that I put inside you. Yes I can show you what God’s Word says and I can hopefully get you to try and understand things – but it is your choice to make...

Imagine how you would feel it you chose someone to be your friend, they treated you like a friend for a short while and then ran off and left you in the dark. Imagine the heart-break you would feel just for something like that. God chose the Jews as His people. He knew that they would reject Him but He loves them still. God has not rejected any of you because of what you have done – you have just not come to Him with an open heart yet. We are the ones that have to accept His invitation and come to Him. He extended that invitation to every person from the beginning and we are the ones that rejected Him from the start. Change that now. Change your life forever!

Points to Ponder:
What do you seek?

Are you listening to God’s call?

Tuesday 1 Feb 2011


Tuesday Reading: Ephesians 4 31-32

Key Verse: Ephesians 4 32
32  And be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake has forgiven you.

Devotion:
Holding a grudge is a complete waste of time because the person that you are affecting the most is actually yourself and not the other people. A grudge eats at your own soul a lot more than it eats at the other person’s soul. I am not saying that it does not affect others because it does, but why go through so much for so little an outcome? Christ has always taught us that we need to love one another and He even introduced that as a new commandment to His disciples. I can only imagine what hatred and bitterness He was able to see looking into the hearts of others when He was walking amongst us... And that is based purely on what has gone through my own mind over the years!

One thing that God has taught me is that we do need to put aside the feelings of bitterness, anger and wrath that we carry round with us. The only effect they have is to wind us up ourselves rather than the perceived threat that we think they carry. There is nothing more destructive than a person with a grudge because they lose sight of what should be happening and instead launch themselves into a ‘bull in a china shop’ mode that is going to destroy anything close to them when all they may have been after was a revenge attack on one person. We as humans are all the same in that we cannot focus our anger in the same way as we think we can – anger is always a loose cannon just waiting to go off at the most inopportune moment!

My heart goes out to those people who walk around ‘angry’ all day because they know nothing else. They lose sight of the real world and instead focus everything on the anger that they are carrying round. Yes there are times when anger can actually help you to get something done, but if we carry that anger round with us then it eats us up and starts to destroy us from the inside. Ask someone who did carry round anger for a decade and they will tell how it took another decade to let go of that anger...

Points to Ponder:
Do you carry round anger?

Are you giving your burdens to Christ?


Monday 31 Jan 2011

Monday Reading: Ephesians 5 1-4

Key Verse: Ephesians 5 1
1  Therefore be followers of God, as dear children.

Devotion:
You may be forgiven for wanting to take this first verse with a pinch of salt nowadays when you listen to what the children get up to in and out of school but I think we can all imagine the ideal here where the children being talked about are the ‘dear children’, those that hold fast to the good thing in life and not give in to the temptations that they are blasted with every second of every day. My heart goes out to the children of today when you see just how much more temptation they are surrounded by when compared to what we had to put up with (we as in a couple of generations ago).

I continue to try and introduce children to all that God is in the hopes that they will identify the truth for themselves and shy away from the anger and strife that this world is all about today. Every news bulletin shows the anger spilling out onto the streets in places all around the world. Each bulletin shows how people are persuading children to get involved so that they can break the God given mindset and permanently corrupt their ways – Satan sure is a wily devil who stops at nothing.

But you know what, when we or our children are willing to come to God with an open mind and an open heart, He is willing to show them the truth. They will know the truth when they see and hear it because that truth is what God gave them in the first place. The fact that we are sinners is what has separated us from God. The fact that we are sinners has widened the gap between Him and us. Being able to identify the truth once again is what can close that gap and that is God’s gift to us all. Our problem is that we are so fired up with this world that we forget how we need to approach God. We need to come to Him as willing, trusting and dear young children so that we can hear the truth and back away from the noise of this world.

Points to Ponder:
What do you think is one of your strengths?

Does not God want to build you up in the truth?