Sunday Reading: Colossians 2 5-7
 
Key Verse: Colossians 2 6
6  Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him,

Devotion:
During the last evening for one of our youth groups at church for this term one of the children wanted to know how it could be possible for God to be three persons, but one and then for Jesus to be able to pray to God the Father as well. It is one of those questions when you suddenly realise that they have been listening all year so far and that they have been storing this information up right until the last day! Pastor had the floor at the time and began to explain that it was very difficult for us to understand the ways of God but that we should look at it in terms of things that we can understand to see how it could be possible.

His explanation went something like this. We are people; but what makes a person. Well, we have a body which everyone can see. But we also have a soul which nobody can see, but what shows up in what we choose to do making others think that our bodies are us... but we may well know that we are different on the inside because only we can know what we think (apart from God knowing everything!). That gives us two parts, body and soul. The body may well die one day but our souls will continue on after that. Now, when we get to know Christ our spirits are awakened. Before that they were effectively dead, but after that they too live because of what Christ has given us. God’s three parts are just more complex!

But in saying that it got me thinking more about our souls. When we are happy it is because our souls are happy and that then shows through the things that we do. Now our souls can be happy through earthly things that we do but those things will stop when we can no longer do them so our souls lose that happiness. But when we get to know God our souls are kept alive through our spiritual relationship with Jesus. From that moment on we are kept happy through our faith which may well be exercised every day!

Points to Ponder:
Do you know happiness?
 
Do you know God spiritually?

Saturday Reading: John 1 6-11
 
Key Verse: John 1 9
9  He was the true Light; He enlightens every man coming into the world.

Devotion:
Have you ever been in a very dark place without a light? When in such a place you long for a light and when you see a light you cannot help but notice it! But take another look at the words here in the gospel according to John... John was sent to bear witness of the light! Not only were we sunk deep in sin and darkness, but when the light was going to come into our lives we had to be told about it before hand to make sure that we noticed it! Don’t you think there is something wrong with that? We are so tied up in ourselves and in our own lives that we ignore the truth!

When you have time next, try to shut off as much of the light in your room as possible. You will begin to notice the tiny lights in so many of our appliances today that shine all the time. You may even get to the stage where you wonder why you have not noticed all of these little lights before... The answer is simple, because you have had so much other light all the time that you have never noticed them before. The more we get in the ways of technology, the more lights we seem to have switched on in our houses all the time and the more we ignore those lights...

Our lives with Christ become like that. We know that He is there and yet we spend so much time doing all the other things that attract our attention that we begin to forget that He is always there and always alive. We even have advertisements on our televisions reminding us of the fact that we do have so many things switched on, each one having a small light to remind you of the fact. There is going to be a time when the only light that we will see if Christ. If we have not been introduced to Him when He does come, we may well find that we are left behind when others go away with Him. Don’t ignore that Light because He is real and He is truth.

Points to Ponder:
Do you ignore lights in your home?
 
Are you ignoring His Light?

Friday Reading: John 13 6-9

Key Verse: John 13 9
9  Simon Peter said to Him, Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and head.

Devotion:
Have you ever been afraid that someone is going to ask too much of you? It is amazing how much we will hold back when someone is trying to do something for us and we are a bit suspicious that they want more in return. Or maybe you have tried to do something for someone else and they have turned you down thinking that you want something back in return... And yet when we realise that someone is giving us something for free we suddenly wants more of it! Maybe a person standing in a superstore giving out free samples to people... do you avoid them in case they ask you for something in return, or do you take one just because they are free?

Depending on where you are in the world, people’s different lifestyles would dictate what would be the normal thing to do. The people here in England are very reserved and it may well be a hard task for someone to give out free samples! And it is that sort of attitude that people seem to have towards Christ’s free gift to us as well. He has offered us a free gift, one that is ours for the taking, one that will last for eternity – all we have to do is to accept it instead of walking down the other side of the road or down a different isle!

Yes He is our Master and King, but that does not stop Him from humbling Himself to bow down and give us forgiveness for the sins that we have done in our lives. He does not require that we do anything other than believe in Him. Once we do believe we will change our attitude towards what we want to do for Him... But that first step of going towards Him and asking for the free gift He is giving out has got to be our first step. Take that first step towards eternal life! Encourage others by showing them it is safe to do so!

Points to Ponder:
Are you very reserved?
 
Are you trusting Christ?

Thursday Reading: Matthew 3 13-17
 
Key Verse: Matthew 3 15
15  And answering Jesus said to him, Allow it now, for it is becoming to us to fulfil all righteousness. Then he allowed Him.

Devotion:
There may well be a time in your life when you are called on to do something special, something that you may well think that you are not worthy of doing but because you have been asked you will do it. Many times we are asked to do things that we think we may not be capable of doing but unless we try to do them we will not find out if we are capable. Jesus came to John to be baptised in water as a sign of His obedience to God and to show an outward sign to others that He was willing to do God’s will.

When we are asked to do things we start to think of so many things like are we capable, should we, why me, can I, why should I, will it make me look good? Instead we should be thinking of just two things, will it glorify God and what would Jesus do? If it passes those two questions then no matter how difficult a situation it may place us in, we can be sure of God’s support in doing that task; and we can be sure that God will approve! Far too many times we look to promoting ourselves when we do things and not to promoting God!

John thought himself not to be worthy of baptising the One who should baptise him instead. Jesus knew that He had to show Himself humble before God and before the people to show that He held God above all. When we go forward to do something we should be making sure that God will get the glory for what we are going to do. If we are willing to allow God to get the rightful glory, then He will be willing to give us the blessings that He has promised for us when we do obey His will.

Points to Ponder:
Do people ask you to do things?

Do you try to take all the glory away from God?