December 3: John 7 1-13

Key Verse: John 7 13
But no one would say anything publicly about him for fear of the leaders.

Devotion:
How many times have you been told one thing and then heard another thing from the same person when they don’t think you’re around? We expect friends and honest people to say the same thing when they are with us as when we are not with them – whether those things are about us or not. But many a time we often find that people will act kindly to us whilst we are with them and not so when we are not around. If we are going to be totally honest then we will admit to having done that at some stage too.

Jesus knew what the Jews were saying about Him and He knew where their hearts lay. He also knew what they were going to do to Him. He also knew the time was not yet right for Him to lay down His life so He told His kinsmen He would not yet go to the feast of tabernacles. If He had gone with them, then everyone would have known about it and Jesus would have been taken prisoner earlier. Instead He followed on later in secret so the Jews would not know He was in amongst them. Talk about being a fly on the wall! We can only imagine what sort of things He may have heard; and we can only begin to imagine just how much those things must have hurt Him. Think how much you have been hurt by someone saying something horrible behind your back...

There are times when we want God to physically intervene in our lives; times when we just wish He would either change us or our circumstances overnight so we would be better off. But during those times, are we thinking about our physical selves or our spiritual selves because we may well not be thinking on the same lines as Christ is about us. Jesus’ kinsmen wanted Him to show off His miracles to the Jews so they could be held in high esteem. There is a big difference between wanting something for our own good and wanting something so that God may be glorified; we are not here to glorify ourselves, but God. We need to remember just who is in charge and who has the power and who should get the glory!

Points to Ponder:
Do you like people talking about you behind you back?

Do any of your conversations let God down?

December 2: John 1 6-13

Key Verse: John 1 12
Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God

Devotion:
How many people do you think you know who are committed to following Christ? How many of them do you think would compare with John? John was a man who was not after things of this world; indeed, he left them behind and lived in the desert. He gave his life to serve Christ in a way which puts us all to shame. We still live in our “little worlds” where we think we are safe and we think we are not being tempted by things around us, but if truth be told, those little worlds of ours that we have set up contain many of the temptations we don’t want in our lives. We have grown so used to having things around us that we accept them as being part of our lives!

John was looked up to by so many people because of the stance he had taken. Many people went out to get baptised by him in the stream where he was. Many people thought he was someone special not because of the way he dressed (camel skins are hardly the best clothes) and certainly not because of his great church building (he had none). They knew he was special because of the truth he would talk of; he preached Christ. He did not take any of the praise for himself but made sure all the glory was given to Christ who was going to follow him.

Christ is our Light whom we need to let into our lives; not just let in but to fill our lives with. If we are willing and able to let Him fill our lives with the good things, then there is going to be less room for those sins in our lives. Too many of us are allowing the worldly things to fill our lives rather than heavenly things. Because of that we walk in the way of the world and others around us will see us in that light too – no matter how much we think or know of ourselves! When we block Christ from our lives, we are blocking the truth and following the world instead. We need to open our eyes and let in the light; through letting in that light we will learn from it and we will grow in it. When we live in Christ’s Light, we live in a life full of grace and truth, begotten of God.

Points to Ponder:
Name the top 10 things in your life?

How many of them are you willing to let God take?

December 1: Psalms 90 10-17

Key Verse: Psalms 90 14
Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love, that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days.

Devotion:
The doctors and scientists have made remarkable advances in medicine over the last few decades and with them has come an extension in the average time we each get to live. More people are more able to get closer to living for 100 years instead of the 70 or 80 years given to us by God; but it has been hard work for many people to get that far. No matter how hard we do work, we will continue to find we have a finite lifespan here on earth just as God has given us.

Because we have a finite lifespan, we need to make sure we do what we can in those short years otherwise we will get to the point where we suddenly find we have run out of time. To find out what we should be doing is the easy part – we read God’s Word and understand it. He has given us His Word so we can understand more about Him and we can know what He would have us to do. Following God’s Word can be the hard part because of the multitude of other things we allow into our lives. If only we were able to focus on the things in life that He would want us to and to disregard others...

God continues to show us His mercy, so we can be encouraged to follow His Word. He is faithful to show us His mercy, so we can focus on His will in our lives. When we focus on Him, we grow in the wisdom He would want us to have so we can know the best way to live out our lives. We need to do this as His servant, faithfully and willingly doing His bidding. Doing this will give us more joy in our lives than any earthly works because we will be looking forward to the rewards that we will be getting with our eternal life with Him. Read His Word. Listen to His Word. Absorb His Word. Meditate on His Word. Establish His Word in your life. Through that we will be more able to do His will and enjoy His company throughout our lives on earth.

Points to Ponder:
Which rules do you listen to and which do you ignore?

Are you really listening to God’s rules?

November 30: Hebrews 11 4-7

Key Verse: Hebrews 11 6
And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.

Devotion:
Hebrews 11, the faith chapter needs to be one of those places we revisit at regular intervals to remind us how important our faith is; not a blind faith, but a trusting and believing faith. Abel was the one who had obviously listened well to what Adam had to say and took it to heart that he was not good enough to pay for his own sins. You have got to wonder just how many sins they could get up to back then – but it only took a few more hours before murder was committed! Each one of our sins carried the same debt – death. It is only by faith Abel brought his sacrifice, hoping that it would be good enough to cover his sins. Yet Cain thought it good enough to make a big display of the stuff that he had made... his sacrifice was a showing of his pride rather than a true sacrifice.

Enoch had demonstrated his faith in so many ways that God decided to take him directly home without him having to face death at all! What a demonstration of faithfulness on God’s part and a demonstration of his love for us too that any man should receive such a reward for simply being faithful. And when Christ is ready to return a second time, the same thing will happen to all those that are remaining faithful; we too will be taken up before our bodies die. If we are going to diligently seek Him, He is the one who is faithful to reward us with rewards which we cannot begin to think of.

Noah is one who had to take his faith and demonstrate it to a world that would never believe what he was doing. He had to stand firm by what God had told him; that it was going to rain and the earth would be flooded. If we want to be able to show others we have faith, then we must be willing to stand up for what we know to be the truth, even when everyone around us is going to tell us otherwise! We need to remember that God’s power is without limit and He WILL do as He has promised.

Points to Ponder:
Do you have to test a chair every time you sit down?

Why test God every time He asks us to do things?