Monday 17 May 2010

Monday Reading: Acts 10 34-35
 
Key Verse: Acts 10 35
35  but in every nation he who fears Him and works righteousness is accepted with Him.
 
Devotion:
How do you make your mind up about other people? How do you decide as to whether they are good in your eyes? No matter how much we try to not judge others, we do. We have our own rules as to how to decide whether people seem good or not. If truth be told we like to make up our minds pretty quickly about whether we like others or not and it is those first impressions that sometimes last for longer than they should. So is it important to make a good first impression – certainly!

We do not have the vision and sight that God has to be able to see into the very substance of people – we take quite a long time to get to know that and even then we allow our sight to be blurred by prejudice rather than allowing other people to show us what they actually are like. We can thank God that He does not take us on first impressions otherwise we would all be in big trouble! Our first impressions on many people are not good because we regularly are out of control in various ways. Anyone who first sees us in that state is not going to have a good impression of what we are like...

No matter what background we come from, no matter what side of the world we are from, we all have an equal choice that we can make – whether to follow God or not.  There is one God. One living God. Only one we should look up to. One who should be feared. Only one righteous. He does not want us to be fearful of Him as slaves but rather to respect Him for what and who He is. Every living being, no matter where we are from, has the right to call on His name to be forgiven. He died for us all and He wants us all to acknowledge that and to love Him back for all He has done for us. We need to have faith in our belief that He will forgive us and that He will continue to look after us. We need to exercise that faith and to depend on Him in every walk in life. We need to obey His commandments to show Him that we do love Him... Why? Because He is GOD!

Points to Ponder:
What do you think God’s impression of you is?

Are you following His commandments?

Sunday 16 May 2010

Sunday Reading: Ecclesiastes 9 4-10
 
Key Verse: Ecclesiastes 9 7
7  Go, eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart; for God now is pleased with your works.

Devotion:
Don’t you just love it when the bible tells you things like this... Well, take a second look at the verses that surround this one because this is the type of verse that gets so many people into trouble because it is one that will be quoted by all those who want to take you away from God’s ways!

God certainly does want us to live a good life because that way we will know that He is blessing us; but taking your own liberties instead of following God’s ways is not what He had in mind! He has given us free choice but that does not mean that we should go off and make the worst choices that we can think of! It must be said that the worst possible state that we can get ourselves in is still preferable to having to face death without eternal life with God. No matter how much fun you can get out of life, it is nothing compared to what we will have to face if we do not place our faith and trust in Christ whilst we are still alive. No amount of fun living will ever make up for an eternity of death without God!

We need to get to know God before we die because when we do die we will come face to face with Christ and then we will have to answer to His wrath being judged by His rules. It is not a pleasant thought to think that you will have all the things that you have done wrong brought up again while you are face to face with Christ! But if we get to know Christ before we die then He will stand up as our advocate and declare us as being not guilty because He has paid the price for those things that we have done wrong. When we live our lives with Christ and we walk with Him daily then we have nothing to fear. He wants us to be able to have a peaceful and secure walk with Him as He holds us in His arms. As sinners we need to seek God. As believers we need to live with God, working with Him and being an example for others to find Him too.

Points to Ponder:
Do you have a happy life?
 
Is your life God centred?

Friday 15 May 2010

Saturday Reading: Luke 7 48-50
 
Key Verse: Luke 7 48
48  And he said unto her, Thy sins are forgiven.

Devotion:
There is only one Person who can forgive us and that is Jesus Christ our Lord. He is the one that has taken on the debt that we owe because of our sins. He took on our debt so that we would not have to pay it... But have you ever though just how much that actually means?

These few verses come after we are told that this woman was a sinner, a great sinner. And yet, when she heard that Jesus was coming to this place she came and did something that nobody else did. She cried before Jesus opening her heart to Him. It does not say that she said anything but Jesus knew why she was there from her heart that she opened before Him. The first words Jesus spoke to her probably stunned everyone around, especially the Pharisees. Firstly how could anyone forgive such a sinner? Secondly how could He?

He knew what she had done and yet because she came and begged forgiveness, He willingly forgave her. Before this forgiveness she would have been shunned by everyone for being the woman she was. And yet she was now cleansed, washed, forgiven, sanctified, justified, equal before others again. The last words were to go in peace... Jesus had just turned her life around because she was willing to admit to her sins before Him. This was a demonstration before everyone of what Christ is willing to do for each one of us. No matter how much we have done wrong in our lives, if we are willing to come to Him with an open and sincere heart then He is willing to forgive us of our sins. It does not matter that we have done things wrong, nor that we have ignored Him before then... the fact is that we have taken a point in time to choose to believe that He can and will forgive us because He has paid for our sins...

Points to Ponder:
Do you admit to what you have done wrong?
 
Are you willing to call Christ now and tell Him?

Friday 14 May 2010

Friday Reading: 1 John 5 9-12

Key Verse: 1 John 5 9
9  If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater. For this is the witness of God which He has testified about His Son.

Devotion:
How often do you question what others say to you and how often do you believe them until it is disproven? If we are honest with ourselves then we will admit to believing many a thing that comes from our friends’ mouths without question because we have learned to trust them. When we trust them we think that we can believe what they say without question because they have told us the truth (or mostly the truth) up to then. If they are truly our friends then they will also admit when things are not the truth or hearsay.

Have you ever noticed that even our closest friends do “extend the truth” or “embellish on a story” when they want to make things sound a bit better than they are. When they do that we still trust them knowing that they may have overdone things a bit. So if we can place that much faith and trust in someone we know lies, why can’t we place more faith and trust in someone who cannot lie? Therein lays the age old question – why don’t people trust God for who He is rather than whom they want Him to be?

It is not a small thing to actually find someone that will always tell the truth to us because we live in a society that has learned to lie as part of life. We live in a world where deception is part of life. It sounds so horrible when you say it out loud! Sadly it is the truth...

When we believe in Christ and what He has done for us we start to see the world for what it is and we start to realise just how awesome our God is for giving us the truth from the beginning. When we see what Christ went through and still spoke the truth we have to stand in awe of His mighty presence! He chose to give us the gift of everlasting life when we put our faith and trust in the truth – in Him. It sounds so simple... It is that simple... Believe in the truth, Believe in Jesus Christ and You will be saved!

Points to Ponder:
Who do you believe the most?

Are you reading Gods Word as the truth?

Thursday 13 May 2010

Thursday Reading: James 1 13-17
 
Key Verse: James 1 13
13  Let no one being tempted say, I am tempted from God. For God is not tempted by evils, and He tempts no one.

Devotion:
“But he made me do it Sir!” How many times have you tried that one? There are only so many times that you can use that excuse before people start to not believe you anymore. But isn’t it funny that when we are confronted by someone who does have authority and who’s authority we respect then we suddenly cave in and start telling the truth? God is not only a perfect teacher and guide but also one who’s authority we can never ignore because His authority is the ultimate authority. Yes He does allow us to get up to all sorts of things but when push comes to show we have to answer to Him!

He is never going to give us anything that will detract us from His work or from doing His will. Anything that does come our way that does that is not from Him. We live in a world where we are constantly looking out for what others are doing just in case we miss out on something! We don’t get to think much about how many things we let into our minds just from all of the possibilities that we observe each day – we just take it all in and store it up; but taking it in is what we have to watch out for...

When you walk past something that you desire, you are the one that is thinking about how good it is or would be if you could have that. God is not the one putting those thoughts in your head – you are. You are the one that then begins to think about ways in which it would be possible for you to have that object of desire. You are the one that comes up with all manner of things based on what you have observed in the past. We could turn round and say that we should get rid of all of those places that encourage lust and desire but then we would start thinking more of other things of desire. Much of our time of suffering is because we bring things on ourselves and we leave God out of it. Leaving God out of it means we no longer have the strength to combat it... that’s when we lose out...

Points to Ponder:
How easily are you distracted?

How easily are you distracted from reading God’s Word?