Friday Reading: John 11 32-36

Key Verse: John 11 35
35  Jesus wept.

Devotion:
Sometimes all we need is a bit more compassion and a bit less vigour. We are growing up in a world where people are teaching us to be strong and to work hard and to make sure that we succeed; we are taught that we have to look after number one and promote ourselves otherwise we will never get far in life. Well, life is not all about succeeding and it is certainly not all about making sure that you are number one! Jesus showed us a whole lot of things just by coming down to earth and living as a human being. He lowered Himself from the position of God to the position of man.

If there was just one verse that you had to choose to show that Jesus was indeed human then this is the verse that you should remember – and it’s nice and short too so you don’t have to think too hard! For Jesus to show compassion for His friend Lazarus in a very human form by crying shows us that He endured the feeling of any human being just as we do. Yes, He was without sin so we cannot expect to know how He felt, but He was human! When we have someone pass away who we were close to we grieve by crying and by lamenting in various ways. We show our loss through grief.

We can only being to think about the loss that Christ was feeling as He walked along with Mary to be shown the tomb of Lazarus. Whether He was lamenting because Lazarus had had to die or not we will not know. But think about what else He had to put up with at that moment in time. He was surrounded by people who were sad and crying; when we are around others who we love and they are sad we cannot help but feel for them. But then He also had to put up with thinking of all the Jews that were following that would not accept the truth He was about to show them. Who else but the Son of God could raise Lazarus from the dead after he had been there for four days? Yet instead of believing in Him they would reject Him right in front of His face. His love for each one of us is great and thankfully is not dependant on our works for Him...

Points to Ponder:
How does love affect you?

Do you know how much Jesus loves you?

Thursday Reading: Psalms 133 1-3
 
Key Verse: Psalms 133 3b
3b  ... for there Jehovah commanded the blessing, life forevermore.

Devotion:
One can only imagine what the miners in Chile have been through over the past few months and I am sure that none of us would want to go through anything that they have been through. The overwhelming sense of freedom after being trapped for so long must be tremendous... I must admit that I did stay up late last night to watch the last few miners come out from that small and cramped escape capsule. If there was anything that would bring them closer to God it would be an experience like that – it is a shame that we have to be bullied into experiences in order to grow closer to Him.

We should not have to be forced into any sort of gathering in order to fellowship with Christ or with other people. We should not have to be trapped in order to see how much freedom we have. When you consider the freedom that we have as Christians in the Western world we should be celebrating each and every day knowing that God is on our side. As we celebrate we should be lifting up Christ for all that He has done for each one of us. Yes, He is the one who has made it possible for each of us to have eternal life! We have been given absolute freedom! Use it wisely!

I would not like to have the press hounding my every move, and luckily for me they don’t know of me or more likely don’t care about me. I am blessed with the life that God has allowed me to have and blessed with the wonderful friends and family that He has given me. Each day I ask for His blessing on those near and dear to me because I know that He has made that possible. When I look back on my life I see a constant theme, one which I have not always responded to, but one that is there nonetheless. That theme is a God who cares for me and tries to guide me always. Don’t wait for Him to invite something extraordinary into your life before you realise that He is there for you too!

Points to Ponder:
Are you still waiting for your earth to move?

Do you really want an earthquake to get you to realise the truth?

Wednesday Reading: Hebrews 4 12-13
 
Key Verse: Hebrews 4 13
13  Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in His sight, but all things are naked and opened to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.

Devotion:
How many times have you been caught out doing something that you should not be doing? Well the answer actually is a whole lot more than you realise. It is the ones where we have been caught out by other people that we tend to remember because we may well be embarrassed by those things that we have been doing when others have always thought that we do not do that. It is the ones where we realise too late that someone else has seen us that we tend to remember. But what about all those things that we do in front of God? How many of those do you suddenly realise that God is the one watching you do them? How many do you become embarrassed of because God has seen you?

Sadly to say we do not have that same realisation that we are sinners and that we sin in front of God that we do when we do embarrassing things in front of our friends. Is it because God is not seen by us that we think that He cannot see us? Is it because we put Him to the back of our minds rather than remembering that He is always with us? Whatever we think, that does not change the truth. God is always with us and is always watching us. If we are going to willingly sin then we need to remember that we are doing it directly in front of Him!

We need to remember that we are naked in front of God. Not physically naked but rather that we cannot cover anything up in front of Him. What would you imagine would be the most embarrassing thing that any friend could catch you doing? Now multiply that feeling a few times and that is what we should be feeling when we do give in and do those things – even when we do not get caught out by friends... because we have just been caught out by God! We do not have to give in and follow those old sinful ways because God can give us the strength to stay on top of those things. He can guide us away from those things – so long as we are willing to ask for help before we let loose!

Points to Ponder:
What was your most embarrassing moment?
 
What do you think God thought about it?

Tuesday Reading: John 6 60-63
 
Key Verse: John 6 63
63  It is the Spirit that makes alive, the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit and are life.

Devotion:
It still amazes me how people take a part of a sentence or a phrase and turn it into something that the original author did not mean. Our language is by no means a foolproof method of communicating and we have to remember that. When we read a snippet from our bibles we need to know how that snippet was being used, we need to know the context that it was being used in. Can you imagine what would go through your mind if someone stood up and said that His flesh was food and His blood drink for us? I know we know that truth now, but can you imagine what you would have thought if that was the first time that you heard that?

Jesus did not say that people had to literally eat His flesh or drink His blood but rather to take in the living flesh and blood that He gave them through what He was saying. Believing that He is the Son of God and knowing that if we do believe in that that we will receive eternal life. How else can we understand that than by thinking of that in terms of eating and drinking something that will make us no longer hunger and thirst? That is exactly what God’s Word should do for us because we should no longer feel the need to seek out any other words than the truth that we have received.

That is why Jesus said that the flesh does not profit us. We eat and then after a while we grow hungry again. We drink and after a while we grow thirsty again. Even though we thirst for His Word continually we no longer are seeking something to fill that void that we had, we are seeking because we wish to know more of that truth; we are seeking because we enjoy what we are receiving. God wants us to be filled with His Word so that we will not have room for the junk that we had been seeking before we got to know Him. God wants us to be happy and content in His Word and in His arms.

Points to Ponder:
Are you still seeking something?

Do you take your fill of God’s Word every day?