Wednesday 18 Nov 2009

Wednesday Reading: Hebrews 13 20-21
 
Key Verse: Hebrews 13 21
21  make you perfect in every good work to do His will, working in you that which is well pleasing in His sight through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.

Devotion:
This letter to the Hebrew people ends in a prayer just as the Apostle requests that people continue to pray for Him, he in turn prays for them. His prayer is an example that we need to take notice of, one our Lord wants us to know. When we pray that others will be able to continue in their walk with Christ we also need to pray that they walk in a manner that is pleasing and profitable to Christ for His glory. What use is a person if they walk in a manner that is glorifying themselves – for when they do pass on they will be remembered as a person that did that but nothing more came out of it.

When we (and others) walk with God and try to do His work, then others will be able to see that we are doing a profitable work that has history and has a future in that it will be continued on by others that follow. More importantly though is that it will have results that show that we believe in God and hopefully give others the encouragement that they need to walk in His will. No matter where in the world we are we can and always should be walking with Him. That is the hard part because we have so much around us that distracts us from our walk with Him. Prayer is the most powerful supply that we have that is able to encourage us, give us the strength and prompt us forward to do God’s will in our lives.

What better wish could you have for anyone else than for them to be able to continue in God’s rich blessings because of the work that they are able to do for Him. We are forever in His debt for all that He has done for us and yet He continues to want to give us more as long as we are willing to accept it by walking by His side. Pray for others that they may do exactly that as they pray for us to have the same pleasure in Christ.

Points to Ponder:
What do you want for others in their lives?
 
Are you seeking God’s blessings for them?

Tuesday 17 Nov 2009

Tuesday Reading: Isaiah 40 11-15
 
Key Verse: Isaiah 40 11
11  He shall feed His flock like a shepherd; He shall gather the lambs with His arm, and carry them in His bosom, and shall gently lead those with young.

Devotion:
You may, at first glance, think that the first verse does not go along with the rest of this passage this morning, but I beg to differ. The following verses show the mightiness of our God, the wonders of what He has laid down, the beautiful earth He has made for us; whilst the first verse reminds us of the importance that He places on each one of us. What an Awesome God that He should do so much for us!

I could end it there... But the contrast between the verses is not fully understood until they have been read and re-read. So many times we go through life thinking that we are the ones (man that is) who are in charge of things on this earth. We think that we are the ones that can change coastal erosion and change the course of rivers only to be dashed after many years of trying. We think that we are the ones who can control countries and nations, only to find out that small nations can be just as tough as the biggest. We think we are the ones who can but wonderful building, only to be dwarfed by the splendour and size of our mountains.

The more we find out about our natural world the more we should be realising that God has created such a complex and diverse earth that there is no way that any of this happened by accident! Why believe the lies of man when the proof of God is right in front of us. And yet, throughout all of this He has promised to gather us together as His lambs. He has promised to be our Shepherd. He has promised to do this all for us because He loves us so. There are many things in life that we cannot change and we should be taking those things on board and seeing just how awesome our God is. We need to lift up our prayers to Him and allow Him to answer us in the best possible way for us, for Him.

Points to Ponder:
Is there anything man made that dwarfs God’s creation?

Do you know His love?

Monday 16 Nov 2009


Monday Reading: Psalms 23 1-6
 
Key Verse: Psalms 23 1
1  The LORD is my Shepherd; I shall not want.
 
Devotion:
The more time that you spend with people the more that you get to know them and the more that you get to trust what they do and say – so long as they honest! When you do find someone who is trustworthy and is willing to stick by you then you want to be with them and you want to spend more time with them. When you get to know Christ you will very quickly find that He is more than that and that the more time you spend with Him the more time you want to spend with Him! David attests to that through this Psalms he wrote a few thousand years ago!

The very first line of the Psalms tells us exactly how he thinks of God. David had spent enough time talking to God that he now knew that God was with him always. He knew that he could trust everything that God did and said and he knew that there was nothing that God could not do! The comfort and support that God gave him was above everything that he could get from friends and family and it was that that made him whole.

How he described what God was like was by comparing Him to a shepherd that never left His flock. A Shepherd that was willing to lay make sure that His flock had the best pastures to be in and had access to water at all times. No matter how hard the times would get, David knew that God was always going to be there and would always bring him out the other side knowing that things were all alright! He knew God supported him even in front of his enemies and because he had seen that time and time again he knew that God’s love would follow him throughout his life. We can know that by trusting God too.

Points to Ponder:
Do you have someone really close?

Do you realise God is closer still?

Sunday 15 Nov 2009

Sunday Reading: Matthew 12 10-13
 
Key Verse: Matthew 12 10
10  And behold, a man having a withered hand. And they asked Him, saying, Is it lawful to heal on the sabbaths? This so that they might accuse Him.

Devotion:
How many times have you asked yourself the question about what you should be doing on Sunday? Sunday? I thought the passage said the Sabbath? Yes, we do now worship Christ on Sunday instead of the Sabbath but that is because we like to celebrate Christ’s resurrection which was on Sunday. God wanted man to set aside a day for Him so that they could make sure that they were thinking on God instead of being waylaid by all the trimmings of life! When Christ came and laid Himself down as the final sacrifice, the days of sacrificing were ended. There are still arguments about whether man should worship on Saturday or Sunday but most would agree to Sunday.

So, should we be giving up everything we do on Sundays and be spending it with God? Yes we should be aiming to do that; but as Christ points out, there are still things that we should be doing in our lives and those things always have to be done. If we give up eating and drinking we would starve… If we gave up tending to livestock, they may well suffer… If we gave up our normal family duties we would not be doing what God wants us to do and that is to live for Him.

If we want to live for Christ we have to make sure that we are prepared for it. Being prepared to live for Christ means that we have to have our lives in order so that we can concentrate on what we can do for Him… Ever so logical when we say it as simply as that, but we do tend to forget about all manner of things and then come Sunday we suddenly feel like we have to get al of those things sorted out before we can then give our time to God! We need to make sure that we do spend quality time with Christ and not just give Him our spare time! Make time and use it wisely.

Points to Ponder:
What do you do at the weekends?
 
Are you spending any quality time with God?

Saturday 14 Nov 2009

Saturday Reading: 2 Peter 2 4-10
 
Key Verse: 2 Peter 2 4
4  For if God did not spare sinning angels, but thrust them down into Tartarus, and delivered them into chains of darkness, being reserved to judgment.

Devotion:
In the world that we live in today we seem to be able to get away with all manner of things without being either found out or blamed; but that is because we live in a world where many people’s eyes are closed to the truth! The one thing that we can be sure of is that God is JUST! That means that every little things that we do wrong will count against us, but equally everything that we do right will count towards us. Unfortunately for us, the penalty for the things we do wrong is not good.

Over the ages we have seen what God has done to people who simply turn their backs on Him and go after their own ways, working against Him in everything they do. The major things are listed in this passage with death and destruction coming to everyone who worked against God. But it is the first verse that I want to take note of. God created the angels to do His work. He created them with special powers... He created them with the knowledge of who He is so that they did not have to learn about Him to start with. And yet, those angels that dared to sin against Him were judged in the same manner as man will be judged.

We will not get away with things when we face God. He is watching everything that we do and He will deliver the exacting judgement for each of us that is due to us. But because of His outstanding love for us He gave us His Son to pay for our sins. We have the chance to turn to face the truth, to believe in what He has done and to say sorry for what we do. When we do that, Christ is willing to forgive us from our sins and to then present us blameless before God. That is when we will be sure that we will have eternal life because that is what He has promised – and He never changes His promises!

Points to Ponder:
Do you get away with things?
 
Do you know God cannot ignore your sins?