Sunday Reading: Acts 9 1-9
 
Key Verse: Acts 9 5
5  And he said, Who are you, lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom you persecute. It is hard for you to kick against the goads.

Devotion:
What does it take for you to believe something? It seems like too many times in our lives we are faced with stories or things that just turn out to be lies or junk that we are now somehow conditioned to no believing anything until we have absolute proof. Well, things have been like that for a long time, the only thing changing being the media by which these untruths are being told. Back in the time of Paul/Saul we like to think that people had to take a deliberate and somewhat extended step to tell a lie. We can take a quick walk through our bibles to se that that actually has been the case all along and that we now still have to take a deliberate step; it’s just that our steps seem to be a lot easier for us to take…

Why should they seem easier? Has it become easier? Well, it probably depends on how you view God! The more that you distance yourself from God the more that you will find it easier to work against Him. The more that you work against Him the more you will find it easier… That does not mean that God is ignoring your! Saul (soon to be renamed Paul) was one who plotted and worked against God to entrap, punish and execute as many Christians as possible to try and get people away from the truth. He was brought up in the lies and he firmly believed in them. He certainly had enough head knowledge about God to know better but he chose not to dig too deep into the truth – therein lies another of our problems…

We tend to take the truth and let it pass us by rather than grasping it and finding out more about it. We should be taking God’s Word and finding out all we can about it so that we do know God’s will in our lives. Instead we tend to skim over things and take what we like rather than absorbing the whole truth. We like to ignore the small things so that we can still enjoy our own lives in the ways that we think are best. It took a rather drastic action from God to get Saul’s attention; what will it take God to o for you to stop and take notice of the real truth?

Points to Ponder:
Are you selective in your beliefs?
 
Are you taking in all of Gods Word?

Saturday Reading: Hebrews 12 25-29
 
Key Verse: Hebrews 12 28
28  Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear,

Devotion:
In this chapter of Paul’s epistle to the Hebrews, Paul reminds the people of the ordinances of God and of their history. If we look back in Exodus in chapters 19 and 20 we see that God was the one who laid down the law from Mount Sinai and He did it in front of the people so that they would remember. Paul was reminding people of what their ancestors had witnessed firsthand but he also reflected upon the major event that had happened a few years earlier – the life, death and rebirth of our Saviour Jesus Christ.

Paul speaks of a time when God will shake every kingdom on earth. We may find that hard to conceive because we have some powers that seem too big to move; but history has taught us that even the biggest powers can crumble. Paul warns us that God has told us that there is only one kingdom that will not be shaken and that is His own. But God’s kingdom is not just the kingdom of His glory in heaven but of grace too. Jesus came to show us a grace that we could not understand. Just like God came in a cloud before all the people to show them He is real, Jesus came to earth as a person so that we too could see He is real!

God spoke of His unmoveable laws and Jesus reminded us of them. We need to make sure that we too do not forget them even though we are living in the unshakeable kingdom of His grace. Jesus paid the right price for our sins and that means that as long as we do believe that that is what He has done, we too will receive that same grace that He extends to all who believe. That grace is perfect and unmoveable and will stand forever with Christ. No matter what happens on earth we will always have the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ! Just don’t forget that He is God!

Points to Ponder:
Have you seen how financial institutions can crumble?
 
Imagine God’s institution as it stands firm!

Friday Reading: Psalms 2 10-11

Key Verse: Psalms 2 11
11  Serve The LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling.

Devotion:
The more you read through the Old Testament the more you want to try and find out why the people turned away from God when He had done so much for them. But the more you read the more you find out that the people that we deem to be spiritual Giants also had their problems too. Then we look at modern society and we see the same things happening now as were happening way back then – man has got it into his head that he does not need God for some reason!

Over and over again we see reference where the writers who wrote God’s Word were given insight to try and persuade the people of the times to take notice that God is Just and that He cannot abide sin. Over and over again they (and us) are warned that God’s wrath is not something we should take lightly. When we do things wrong we can expect to have someone tell us that we have done something wrong. When we do things wrong against God then we can and should expect Him to remind us of that fact!

Whether we are leaders or followers we have to make sure that we follow God’s will in our lives. Just because you may be a king, queen or other ruler of a country it does not exclude you from God’s law! God’s law applies to each and every one of us whether we believe it or not – because there will be a day when every one of us will find out that God is real. If we profess to be believers and do not follow God’s ways then we are not being honest with God and not being honest with other people, never mind ourselves. If we always remember that God is our King and that what He says goes, we should not have a problem with anything we do for Him! As long as we remember who is in charge we will not have any issues. God is our Creator. God is the one who should demand our uttermost respect.

Points to Ponder:
Who do you look up to?
 
Are you remembering that God is in control?

Thursday Reading: Philippians 2 12-13
 
Key Verse: Philippians 2 12
12  Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, cultivate your own salvation with fear and trembling.

Devotion:
Much of the time we can tell when someone is not telling us the truth or when they are not putting all their effort into something that they should; and yet we still try to take shortcuts ourselves thinking that others will not be able to see the shortcuts and shortcomings that we take and make! Why then should we even begin to think that we can take shortcuts when God is concerned. If we start to think about what we are trying to do we should very quickly wake up to the fact that Christ will not miss out on anything that we do!

What has got to change is our attitude; our attitude towards the work that we do and our attitude towards the work that we have planned. It is not use making an elaborate plan if we are not then going to carry out that plan to the full. Why plan to do something incredible only to take a shortcut and do the least possible work? Why say we are going to do something in full when we know that we are going to take shortcuts and do as little as possible?

Jesus made sure that everything was done to the absolute when He was here on earth. He made sure that everything that was foretold came to pass. He made sure that He went ahead and did more than that too so that we could have inspiration to do that in our lives. When God asks us to be doing something we should not be being like Jonah and running the other way but we should stand fast and think of ways that we can do more than just the minimum to answer God! God will never give up on us so why should we even contemplate giving up on God? He knows what is best for us and He knows what is best for others too. Sometimes we do have to go a step further to make sure that we do complete our tasks for God in the best possible way we can think of!

Points to Ponder:
Do you like doing things properly?

Have you noticed how God completes everything?