Friday Reading: Matthew 12 33-37

Key Verse: Matthew 12 33
33  Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or else make the tree corrupt and its fruit corrupt; for the tree is known by its fruit.

Devotion:
Have you noticed that you can get to know what part of the country or world people are from just by the way that they talk? You even get to know what part of town people are from when you hear how they talk. If it becomes easy for us to be able to identify people from how they speak, think how easy it is going to be for others to know more about us from how we speak. I am not just talking about being from Liverpool because you speak with a ‘scouse’ accent, nor about being from Zimbabwe because you talk funny. I am thinking more about what sort of language you use when you do talk.

A person from this side of the world and a person from the other side of the world may well use similar language when they speak even though they sound totally different. It is that language that they have learned as they were growing up that comes out of their mouths. I can remember learning all manner of foul language from my school days and using it too as I grew up with those people. It was only when I started hanging out with people that did not speak like that that I learned that what I was doing was very wrong. But the sad part is that those words are all in my head now and I cannot forget them. Those words and things may well be quiet because I no longer use them but they are still there like a pollutant that will not go away.

Our lives are what we make of them. The more garbage we let into them the more garbage we have to carry round with us. The more garbage we are carrying round the more likely we are to spill that garbage when we get into difficult places. Oh, it’s nice and easy not to get caught up in those ways when we are amongst good people, but when we are around people that use those bad words and ways we are more likely to give in and use them too... just because we have that garbage with us... People are going to see us act in the ways that we do and they will make their minds up about what sort of people we are just because of the things we do. Those things are going to be coming from the garbage we carry round with us...

Points to Ponder:
How much garbage do you carry round with you?

Do you ask Christ to help you pack that garbage away?

Thursday Reading: Genesis 6 1-8
 
Key Verse: Genesis 6 6
6  And Jehovah repented that He had made man on the earth, and He was angry to His heart.

Devotion:
What sort of feelings went through your heart when someone did something to you that was not nice at all? Maybe it was someone who you called a friend that went out of their way to do something horrible or maybe you found the true side of people that you had thought that you knew well. Ours is not to judge people because that is God’s domain, but ours is to take note of what goes on around us and apply that to our own relationship with God. What could be worse than hurting God?

Well, there is nothing new there because man has this inbuilt self destruct mode that allows him to continually walk away from God and walk in his own ways toward destruction. We have shown over and over again that we tend towards chaos and destruction rather than towards evolution. We have shown that we cannot live by ourselves because we break things rather than build them up – ourselves including. But God continues in His amazing ability to show us grace no matter how bad we do get. He does draw the line and we must be aware of that fact!

In the days of Noah, God could not find any righteous people other than Noah and his immediate family. Nobody else seemed to care about God or about all that He had done for them so far. Nobody was acknowledging the fact that God was their creator! Does that sound sort of familiar – it should do because we always seem to fall back into that same hole time and time again. God gave man 120 years to sort himself out and to repent. What could you do in 120 years? Think how much could you accomplish for God in just 12 years, never mind 120! But God’s grace shone out as He gave man 120 years in which time Noah continued to try to convince people to turn back to God. Can you imagine such a soul destroying ministry? God never gave up – neither should we!

Points to Ponder:
How long do you try to show people the truth?

Do you find it hard telling other about God?

Wednesday Reading: Romans 3 7-11
 
Key Verse: Romans 3 7
7  For if in my lie the truth has more abounded to His glory why am I still judged as a sinner?

Devotion:
How many times have you done something that you know is wrong because you thought that what would happen in the end was going to be something good? If that does happen then was it not a good thing to do wrong? Absolutely not. No excuse will ever be able to stand up in front of God. No amount of lies nor wrong doings will ever be counted as right in God’s eyes. And yet we still continue to think that we can either get away with things, or do things wrong for good to come out of it... Do we not see the consequences of sin in our world? Do we not notice the pain and suffering that sin causes? Why then do we cling on to it in our lives?

Sin has become so engrained in our society that more people believe that there are bad things that have to be done in order for good to come from them. That is not what God teaches us, though He knows full well that that is exactly what is going to happen in our lives. He knew that Adam and Eve would sin in the beginning and that He would have to do something to cover that sin. He knew that He would have to be the one that made things right because He knew that no good thing would ever come out of sin! That does not mean that God is never going to forgive our sin because He has shown what He is willing to do by allowing Christ to die on the cross to cover our sin debt.

We must always remember that no matter what others try to convince us of, sin is sin and will have to be dealt with in the same was as all sin is. None of us are righteous because we all do sin, we all do things wrong in our lives. But Christ has already paid for our sins so all we have to do is to bring them forward to Christ and to ask Him to forgive us for what we do do wrong. He will be willing to forgive us of anything so long as we openly admit that we did it wrong and that He is our Lord and Saviour. What a gracious God we have.

Points to Ponder:
Do you think you can get away with it?
 
Do you not know God is watching?

Tuesday Reading: Hebrews 11 39-40
 
Key Verse: Hebrews 11 39
39  And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, did not receive the promise,

Devotion:
How many times have you wished for something that you have yet to receive? How many times have you wanted something, and still not got it? How many things do you still seek out? Have you ever wondered why people continue to ask things of God if they don’t seem to get them? Maybe you have been asking Him for something and are still waiting.

Well, it is not the fact that you are going to receive what you ask for that should drive you forward but the fact that you believe that you will obtain it when the time is right. We seek things all the time and do not think of all of the variables in the equation. Maybe we ask for sunshine because we don’t want it to rain; how do we know that a farmer does not require that rain so that the crops will be able to feed one thousand people. Maybe we ask for a miracle cure when God can see that the scientist will be able to use this one life to find the cure for millions that will follow. You see, we just don’t know it all... but God does...

That does not mean that we must stop asking because that would be giving up on our faith in God. If we don’t ask we are saying that God is not listening to us and that it does not matter what we do because God will do His own things anyway! Nothing could be further from the truth because it is what we pray for that God listens to each and every day. It is us lifting up our prayers and opening our hearts is what God is waiting for. We cannot simply have faith that He will do it all right. We need to show God that we have faith in asking for things, knowing that what we ask for will make a difference. Placing our faith in Christ does not mean giving up our requests but rather making them all know to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. How will other learn of such a great thing as faith unless we are willing to demonstrate it just like Christ did before us?

Points to Ponder:
What do you ask for when people ask what you want?

God has already asked what we want – what are you praying for?