Wednesday Reading: Matthew 18 15
 
Key Verse: Matthew 18 15
15  But if your brother shall trespass against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he hears you, you have gained your brother.

Devotion:
How many times have you been surprised by what people have done to you? I am not talking about the good surprises but those that you would not like, did not like or fear. Every now and again we are caught off-guard by what someone does to us and in those cases we need to think carefully about what has happened. If we were to simply react to the situation we may well end up breaking apart any friendship that we had through something we say and regret afterwards. On the other hand if we let it ride then they may begin to think that we either don’t care or that we are just pretending things are ok.

When things go wrong because of what someone else has done to us then we need to let those people know that they have done something wrong. If they are not told then they may well go on and do that to more people without realising just how much they hurt others. Yet if we are able to stop them before they make a continued fool of themselves then we have made a friend stronger and they will recognise us for that action.

When we do things wrong in front of Christ He continues to try and get our attention so that we will see what we have done wrong. Look back on your life and see how many times He has tried to get your attention through various things in your life. He will not stand idly by and allow us to continue making a fool out of ourselves unless we blatantly reject Him. If we reject a friend then they are not likely to tell us when we have gone wrong; why should we expect anything less from Christ? He does not place a huge banner in front of your house telling you of what you have done wrong but tries to warn you through more subtle means so that you will not be embarrassed in front of all your friends! Christ is compassionate but He is also just. He will not let you get away with things that you know are wrong and those things that you do not yet know are wrong will be brought to your attention... so long as you are willing to listen to Him!

Points to Ponder:
Do you get told off a lot?
 
How do you take criticism from others?

Tuesday Reading: Proverbs 27 5-6
 
Key Verse: Proverbs 27 6
6  Faithful are the wounds of a friend; but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.

Devotion:
Just because we love someone it does not mean that we should never tell them off for doing something wrong; far from it because if we do love them we would want to rebuke them to protect them from going any deeper into the sin they are walking towards. It certainly is more effectual being rebuked for something than being loved no matter if we do right or wrong – how else are we to continue learning right from wrong unless we have friends who are willing to point out those opposite directions?

Being publicly rebuked is not fun and that, I think, is not what is meant by these words. Rather the rebuke from and open heart; if we are rebuking with a hidden agenda then we are no better than the person we are rebuking, but if we are rebuking with all truth and an open heart then we are showing that we follow the truth and that they should be as well. Yes there may well be someone who comes out being hurt by open rebuke but what hurt is going to be worse, the short-term hurt of being told off or the long-term hurt of the recipients of what is wrongfully done against them?

When people do wrong they affect many other people and not just those by their sides. We also have a chain effect where one person hurting another will affect yet another person because they are friends with that other person who in turn has friends that are hurt because they are hurt. It is not just the person you are affecting that feels the effects of things you do. As Christians we have to open our hearts to those around us knowing that that will in turn affect still more; just like the rings of a ripple on a pond as they spread out and gently shake plants and animals that make be far away from the original splash. That does not give us the right to abuse that love that we should show to give others a false sense of security when we do not mean it in our hearts! God wants us to love others from our hearts and not just through the words we can use...

Points to Ponder:
Who do you think you affect when you misbehave?

Have you remembered God?

Monday Reading: Psalms 141 3-5
 
Key Verse: Psalms 141 5
5  Let the righteous strike me; it shall be a kindness; and let him correct me, it is oil on my head, let not my head refuse it;...
 
Devotion:
We all like to think that we can control what we do and say but as soon as someone dares to get us upset all of our rules that we have go out of the window! We do have to admit that what we do and say is more often controlled by our reactions rather than our actions. Reactions are things that are learned over time by repeated actions to something other action; pretty soon we learn to do some things without thinking about them. That is where we run into dangerous ground because we typically learn those reactions at a young age and keep them with us as we grow. If we have learned those reactions before we come to know God and before we try to sort out our lives with Christ then we have a problem of trying to “un-learn” those reactions!

God is the one who is going to be our guide as we learn to leave our old lives behind and grow in our new life with Him. He wants us to be able to leave all those old ways and even those reactions behind and strengthen our resolve in His ways. He is the one who will guide us away from those evil thoughts and those evil ways. He is the one who will recognise those ways before we do. He is the one who will guide us towards His ways and His will in our lives. We are the one who have to listen.

But are we really committed to learning from Him. If we are then we will have no problem with verse 5. If we are not fully committed then we will not want anyone to come our way and tell us off for doing things that we have always done. Yes it is hard. Yes it will take time. No we will not enjoy getting into trouble. But if that is what it takes to get us out of that troubled life that we have dug for ourselves then we should be willing to endure it all the way. The more we listen the more we will find that we can avoid getting into trouble. The less we are willing to listen the more we will find we get into trouble... and that goes for any law in life! Let God be your guide and allow Him to correct you!

Points to Ponder:
Do you like trouble?

Are you willing to be corrected?

Sunday Reading: Psalms 139 14-15
 
Key Verse: Psalms 139 14
14  I will praise You; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Your works are marvellous and my soul knows it very well.

Devotion:
It is a truly wonderful thing that we can know that God has created each one of us and that He has watched over that creation from its very beginning. It is equally amazing that God continues to watch over each one of us throughout each and every day of our lives. His love for us continues to astound us and His compassion exceeds all our expectations. We can say that we came from our parents because it is our parents bodies that made it possible for us to be born through the amazing biological events that lead up to birth; but without God none of that would be possible. Without God holding the atoms together they would fly apart and we would be reduced to nothing. It is not through a ‘big bang’ that we were created because that goes against every natural and physical law that we know. Physicists are now saying that the ‘nothing’ in the beginning cannot have actually been ‘nothing’ but a different form of nothing that was not actually nothing. Man is beginning to realise that there must have been God in the beginning; a God who has created us and not just allowed a random big bang to make something!

God knows the very atoms that make us up. He knows the hairs on our heads (some of us make it easier for Him to count each year). He knows everything about us. There is not a single place anywhere in our universe (or outside it) where God will be separated from us!


If you have time to read this whole chapter then I encourage you to read it and read it slowly; think about each statement and why it has been written down. Think about the enormity of each verse as it explains that we are not alone. No there are not aliens out there; God is with us and He continues to watch over us. Whether He has made life on other planets or not is something we look forward to finding out – what we need to focus on is that God is our Creator and that He is our God. It really is that simple!

Points to Ponder:
Where do you come from?

How great is God to care simple me?