June 28: John 9 13-23
Key Verse: John 9 16
Some of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath.” But others asked, “How can a sinner perform such signs?” So they were divided.
Devotion:
Jesus did cause quite a stir wherever He went, not just because He was performing miracles or because He was telling people the truth about God, but because He was doing so when and where the help was required. Too many times we get caught up in the when and where and lose focus on the what and the whom for. Jesus was always focused on the whom for and He was willing to do what it took when it was required!
Now, if we were to do things more in the way Jesus did them, we too would find a barrage of people willing to speak up against us because we dare to do what is right! People are too entrenched in the ways of their lives and lose focus on who they are serving; and yes, as Christians we too are guilty of this because we get too caught up in what our church should look like instead!
One other thing we tend to lose focus on when we focus on our church or our own lives is what Jesus can do! The Pharisees refused to believe Jesus was the Messiah and limited Him to being a prophet, this would give Him authority to do some things, but He would have to keep within their laws – something Jesus was not willing to do. We need to free ourselves from the restrictions of what we think should happen and allow Christ to show us what can happen when we give Him the proper authority due!
When we impose our ways and our limits, we are also imposing limits on the people we are trying to free. When we limit Jesus in ways we can understand, we are limiting the faith of the people around us to what we can explain in human limitations. God is not limited by what we can understand! We need to change to expect more from God so the people around us can see more of what God can do!
Points to Ponder:
Do you limit your belief?
Will you free your faith to grow to Jesus’ proportions instead?
June 27: John 7 14-18
Key Verse: John 7 18
Whoever speaks on their own does so to gain personal glory, but he who seeks the glory of the one who sent him is a man of truth; there is nothing false about him.
Devotion:
How many know someone who is always telling everyone how things actually are and will not stop to listen to anything anyone else has to say? I’m sure we can all think of people in our communities who fit this description and if we are honest many of us will go out of our ways to stay out of their ways because we don’t want to get involved in an argument against someone who will never admit defeat!
But imagine if you met someone who actually did tell the truth and did know the answers for everything. Someone who was not pompous about it and did not refuse to listen to your point of view – or even more to know your point of view before you got into any argument and was able to point out the problems with your way of thinking before you dug a big hole for yourself with words which were more emotive than truthful!
I think I can imagine how the people in the temples felt about this ‘unlearned’ person coming in and telling them the truth. As much as they hated the truth being pointed out to them, they had to accept it. But they did not want to go down without some sort of fight or argument! So they started to blame His knowledge on things out of their control, things they knew as evil and demonic in any way!
We need to be more like Jesus and know what we are talking about if we are going to try and face arguments from others. But a better way is probably to simply tell the truth at the level of your own understanding and not to try and get one up on others who may well know more than you. Our’s is not to promote ourselves, but to promote God in all we say and do – this is the life of a Christian and one we should revel at upholding for our God!
Points to Ponder:
Do you like a good argument?
Will you stick to what you know about God?
June 26: John 4 39-41
Key Verse: John 4 41
And because of his words many more became believers.
Devotion:
How often do you talk about what God has done in your life. If, like me, the answer is always ‘not enough!’ We simply do not tell people enough about what God does in our lives because we don’t always think of the things He is doing for us every day, you know, the every day things… But when we realise He has done something big in our lives we tend to keep quiet about it in case someone does not like the fact we have had something special done for us… Bit of a catch 22 thing going here!
God would love us to talk about Him all the time so others will get to know the little things He does as well as the big advertised things He does. I am in the middle of trying to put pen to paper about just what God has done for me over the last year and a bit, how He has brought me through when doctors and family thought things were going south for me! It is difficult because I don’t want to sound pompous about God doing something for me – but that is God’s love in action and people need to know about it...
When Jesus talked to the Samaritan woman at the well, it was not a long theological debate, just the simple truth about who He is and what He can do! We don’t have to worry about the theology behind what God does in our lives, just to remember it is Him doing these wonderful things and not just random chance. I love God because of what He has done for everyone and want Him to be able to do so much more for other people, and He knew that so made sure I survived and will continue to tell the story and give Him the glory.
When the woman went back to tell others about what had happened, they knew her past, the knew who she was and they did not expect God to show her love. But He did! That is the base of the story which made others want to come and find out more for themselves. When we talk about God, we need to make it personal and allow people to see He does things for ordinary people like us!
Points to Ponder:
Do you think you have to be special for God to love you?
Have you asked Him to come into your life?
June 25: John 4 1-9
Key Verse: John 4 1
Now Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that he was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John
Devotion:
One of the things I have tried to stay away from is the ‘numbers game’ where church leaders or missionaries try to measure their success by the number of people the reach or gain into their ‘flock.’ I try to fool myself into believing I have never lead anyone to the Lord because I feel better for what I do if I think in that manner! Jesus went about His daily life in teaching mode when with the church leaders, in loving mode when with disciples, in exploring mode when with people asking questions and in merciful mode when meeting with sinners.
He did not treat people all the same. He treated them differently, but loved them all the same. When He heard the Pharisees were trying to take count of how many people were being added to the Christians following, He went off to do something different. It was the disciples who were doing the evangelising even though they did not see it that way. It was the disciples doing the baptising most of the time, but Jesus welcomed every one of them into the church, no matter what circumstance surrounded them.
When they came to the town called Sychar, Jesus sat down at the well and waited, not for the crowds to develop or for the number to increase, but for the lone person who was about to come to the well hoping they would not be noticed! It was not all about gathering as many people together to try and convert them, but reaching out to a single person at the right time with an open heart.
We need to stop our race to make a big church and reach out to the single people who come through our lives, the ones who are slipping through the cracks because they don’t want to be ridiculed by the righteous people. The ones who Jesus loves because they are hurting and missing out on the love He wants them to have just because of their circumstances.
Points to Ponder:
Who do you think your church is aiming to reach?
Will you step off the beaten track today to reach out to a very lost soul?
June 24: Mark 8 14-21
Key Verse: Mark 8 18
Do you have eyes but fail to see, and ears but fail to hear? And don’t you remember?
Devotion:
How quickly do you forget when things happen your way? I’m sure we can all recall a time when things went wrong or they did not happen in the way we expected them to, but how many times do you remember when things happened the right way? If you are like me, then you tend to forget the good things because we are expected them to happen and they happened; but those bad things I remember!
Jesus pointed this out to the disciples because He could sense they were only picking up on the bad things. We are very much like the disciples in the way we remember things too. If we want to try and see the amount of times God is actually doing things in our lives, then we have to make a big change in how we remember things. I could say we should all write down each good or bad thing, but I know I keep forgetting to write down the good times.
Our attitude needs to change, not so we can try to overcome the bad things but so we can focus on the good things and start to expect the good things every day of our lives. The more we expect God to do things, the more we will ask Him to intercede because we are expecting something good to come out of it! But so long as we focus on the bad times, we expect to not get our prayers answered – whether we use the excuse that we are asking the wrong things or at the wrong time, or whether we say “God doesn’t want me to have that yet” is not really the question…
We should be looking back in our lives and picking up on the things God has done so we will be encouraged to ask for more. We should be asking and expecting positive responses all the time. This is what God has promised and what we should expect! Is it time for us to make a change? Yes! Expect better things and start loving the people God has brought into your lives!
Points to Ponder:
Do you focus on the bad times like me?
Will you join me in trying to focus on what God has done?