Thursday Reading: John 9 39-41
 
Key Verse: John 9 41
41  Jesus said to them, If you were blind, you would have no sin. But now you say, We see. Therefore your sin remains.

Devotion:
We must never forget that God is God and that He cannot accept sin. We, on the other hand, think that we are OK or fairly good or even without much sin... It should not take us long to spot that we are still sinners! As long as we are able to identify what we do and think we will be able to see that we do do things wrong; and we do those things wrong against God. He is the one that has given us the commandments whereby we must live; they are not grievous but they not to be messed with either!

If we were not able to identify that we did do things wrong then we would still be innocent; but right from the beginning we have been given the ability to identify right from wrong and through that we do not have any excuse! We like to think that we are good people by closing our eyes to some of the things that we do and think about hoping that these things will not affect us. The sad truth is that every little thing that we see (physically or spiritually) will affect us in some way. The more we allow into our lives, the more we will be tempted to follow some of those things because they look so good... that is us closing our eyes to the things that surround us!

But we do not have any excuse for doing that. We do know what is right and wrong. We learn that at a very early age. As babies we learn to do so many things just to get our own way. As adults we force those ways on others still trying to get our own way. As we begin to see our ways are not God’s ways we will then begin to see just how much He has tried to do for us so that we may be forgiven for all that we do, say and think. What an awesome God we have; one that cares for us so deeply that He paid for our sins through what He did on the cross. Let us open our eyes to see just what we do and what Christ has already done for us.

Points to Ponder:
Do you think you are a good person?

Do you realise that Christ died for each one of us?

Wednesday Reading: Revelation 3 15-20
 
Key Verse: Revelation 3 17
17  Because you say, I am rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing, and do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked,

Devotion:
How do you take criticism? Most of us do not like being criticised in many ways but will accept criticism where we think it is valid. But imagine getting loaded with this sort of criticism listed in these verses... So many of us take it for granted that we are Christians because we do go to church and we do do some of the right things. That is not what God wants from us. He does not want a whole bunch of “middle of the road” people because that just doesn’t help anyone. You can look at a really bad person and realise that there must be good because not everyone is like that. You can look at a really good person and think that you would like to be more like them... but you just go along with the others because they are close to your comfort zone.

We don’t all have to be the most zealous people who spend all day reading our bibles and all day praying; how would we ever get to reach out to other people with God’s word. But equally, how will we reach out unless we do allow other people to see a difference in us? In order to show that you are a Christian, you have to be different. You have to stand out from the crowd. You have to be willing to do a little bit more than people expect so that they will notice a difference. There are many people in life who do do a little bit more and they are noticed, be it for good or bad reasons; that is what we have to do – be adventurous and walk a bit further down God’s road each day so that we will be strengthened and encouraged. You will not only see a difference in your life, others will see a difference too and they may just get to hear about God because of that difference they see in you. God wants us to be different, to stand out in the crowd, to give Him the glory.

Points to Ponder:
Are you different?
 
Are you standing up for Jesus?

Tuesday Reading: Titus 3 1-3
 
Key Verse: Titus 3 3
3  For we ourselves also were once foolish, disobedient, deceived, slaving for various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another.

Devotion:
How many times have you looked at someone and wondered how or why they do the bad things that they do? Take a silent look at what sort of things that you have got up to in the past, not the things that you do now, but things that you have done that you are not proud of. I am sure that we all have our skeletons in the cupboard. We can also, perhaps, look at some of the things we still do or the things that we think of doing – both are not received well in the sight of God, and yet we still do them.

If we are honest we will admit to the fact that all sins are equal in God’s eyes because they are either sins or not. No matter how small the sin, God will not accept sin from us. Thank goodness for His grace and favour towards us in that while we are yet sinners, Christ died for us! It’s not the fact that we were once sinners and that we do not sin now, it’s the fact that while we are sinners, Christ died for us. That is why Jesus came to live and die amongst us, so that we may have a way of being forgiven for the things that we insist on continuing to do! He did not come to take our sins away from us so that we would no longer sin; He came to take on the punishment for our sins, that same punishment that we deserve because of what we do.

If we want to be able to help Him in allowing people to see this truth, we must not be the ones going round and speaking evil of others, fighting with yet more and causing havoc to try and rid the world of sin... Christ has already paid the price for that sin! If we want to help then we must be the ones that show meekness and uphold good works. If we are able to encourage just one more person to see that Christ is the one that allows us to be happy in His name, then we have done our work!

Points to Ponder:
Do you blame others for what they do wrong?

Are you doing things right in front of God?

Monday Reading: 1 Corinthians 3 1-4
 
Key Verse: 1 Corinthians 3 3
3  For you are yet carnal. For in that there is among you envyings and strife and divisions, are you not carnal, and do you not walk according to men?
 
Devotion:
How much do you think you know about the bible? How much have you studied biblical writings? How well do you know God? Do you see the vast difference in the questions? There is a big gap between knowing the bible, knowing about Christianity and knowing God. There is a huge difference between going to church and being with God. On one side we are scholars of wonderful words, on the other we are partakers of those wonderful words.

To be a Christian does not mean that we have the know the bible inside out before we get to know Christ. Christ would have us to know Him first because getting to know Him is then accomplished through getting to know His Word better. If we do not first know Him then we may well find that getting to understand His Word is going to be a bit of an uphill struggle. When we do know Him then He will give us the knowledge that we require to understand His Word as He gives it to us.

As a child we could go to school and learn very little – that is a choice that we make and one that the teachers cannot do too much about; if we refuse to learn then we will remain in our useless state. But when we find a teacher that we get on well with we are more than willing to learn whatever they teach us. That same is with Christ; as long as we know Him then we are more than willing to learn from Him and from His Word. A Baby will soak up all manner of learning from their parents just as they will drink as much milk as they require when new-born. We need to take that first step of trusting Christ in order to get to know Him so we can get to know Him more... It’s all in that first step...

Points to Ponder:
Do you like learning about things you enjoy?

Do you know Christ enough to learn from Him?