Monday 8 Jun 2009

Monday Reading: Psalm 1:1-3
 
Key Verse: Psalms 1 3
3  And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivulets of water that brings forth its fruit in its seasons, and its leaf shall not wither, and all which he does shall be blessed.
 
Devotion:
At first glance we may think that we have no hope because we have walked with the ungodly and we have not meditated on God’s word both day and night; there may have been hours or even days in which we have done that but we have always been exposed to wickedness and have given in to it too. But do not despair because we do have hope through Jesus Christ our Lord and through Him and what He has done for us, we are able to receive that blessing. Christ may be the only one who has not sinned, but we can be presented to God in the same light because Christ took on our sin debt!

This does not mean that we can rest in our sin and just leave it to Christ to forgive us; far from it. When we begin to grow in Christ we need to grow in His Word too. By learning and following His Word we are able to understand how our lives should be lead with the goal of pleasing Christ. We cannot simply take our bibles and follow the words for 5 minutes a day... we need to take those words with us so that we can think about them every hour of every day. That way we will have an everlasting supply of food that will make us last and allow us to survive in this otherwise desolate world.

A Tree planted close to a water source will continually draw up water through its roots so that it can flourish. If it were only to try and draw up water for 5 minutes a day it would dry up and die – it needs a constant supply of water to survive properly. It will use that water to grow stronger so that in times of drought it may have enough strength to continue on and survive. When the good times return it does not restrict itself to a tiny supply but will take all that it can to build itself up again in preparation for the next dry season. We need to be like that with God’s Word because we may not always have ready access to it.

Points to Ponder:
Do you save up for the future?

Are you building yourself up in God’s Word?

Sunday 7 Jun 2009

Sunday Reading: Psalm 119:9-12
 
Key Verse: Psalms 119 11
11  I have hidden Your Word in my heart, so that I might not sin against You.

Devotion:
How often do you try read parts of your bible to get encouragement or to seek an answer to something? Do you wait until something goes wrong in your life before picking up your bible and reading it? We all tend to get side-tracked by life in general when things are going along smoothly, but when things start to get rough we look around for help... but what help are we able to find?

If you were trying to do something for the first time, like walk a tightrope or abseil down a cliff, you would want to be sure that you would be safe whilst trying it out. To that extent you would probably have a safety rope attached to you so that you would not fall and hurt yourself. Whatever we do that is out of the ordinary, we like to know that we are going to be safe; so we stay close to safety or make sure that safety is at arm’s length. Why should we live any differently in spiritual terms?

Should we have to walk around without any safety net when we are finding out about God? Should we have to go it alone when we know Satan is going to be trying to trip us up? No! We should know that we have safety at hand and that we will not fall and hurt ourselves. Well, we do have that safety net in Christ; but if we are not going to follow the instructions, then what use is a safety net at all? If you went mountain climbing you would make sure the safety rope is secured to you and not just flapping around in the wind... why then treat your spiritual life any differently?

God wants us to know that we can be safe but He also wants us to be safe. We can only be as safe as we allow ourselves to be because we are the ones that have to follow the safety instructions to keep safe. He will make us perfectly safe so long as we want to be safe and try to be safe!

Points to Ponder:
Do you temp death all the time?
 
Are you tempting God through your actions?

Saturday 6 Jun 2009

Saturday Reading: 2 Corinthians 9 6-7
 
Key Verse: 2 Corinthians 9 7
7  Each one, as he purposes in his heart, let him give; not of grief, or of necessity, for God loves a cheerful giver.

Devotion:
If you were a farmer and you wanted to grow a crop of wheat, you would sow the relevant wheat seeds and then water them. You would not just throw any seeds into the field and expect them to grow into wheat. You would not throw all the seeds in the middle of the field but spread them out. You would not leave them exposed or the bird will finish them off before they grow. You would have to know how many seeds to plant and how close together or far apart they must be. You would also have to start planting at the right time... I think I may well fail before I started! The fact is that things have to be planned so that they can be done in the right amount and at the right time. We cannot hope to get the maximum benefit if we are not going to put in the time and effort that is required for the task in hand.

The Apostle uses sowing and reaping here in its metaphorical sense to remind us that so much in our lives depends on doing things in the right way to start with. If we go about our work in the wrong attitude then we are not going to put our best efforts in because we will begrudge doing the work to start with. Our hearts have to be in the work that we are doing so that we can focus on the best methods we can achieve.

The sowing is also used to remind us that we do have to prepare for things. It is no good knowing exactly what has to be done but not having the appropriate seeds to sow in the end! Just like that, we may well want to be able to achieve so much for God, but unless we prepare ourselves in the right manner, we will not have the right tools or supplies for the job when the time comes to do the work.

One final point to ponder on... Don’t expect your seeds to sprout up and grow the following day; it may well take time before any signs of life show up!

Points to Ponder:
Do you like doing things for others?
 
Are you prepared to do God’s work?

Friday 5 Jun 2009

Friday Reading: 2 Corinthians 5 17-21

Key Verse: 2 Corinthians 5 17
17  So that if any one is in Christ, that one is a new creature; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.

Devotion:
No, I have not gone nuts and sent you the same devotion again today. I want to look at these verses in a new light following on from the devotion we did yesterday...

When we do get to know God in our lives we do change. Just like getting to know someone personally you like to start doing things for them in the hopes that you will please them. When you do please them, you see the reaction that you do get and you then want to do more; not because you have to but because you want to. When we get to know God we want to do things for Him because we can see how it pleases him through the things that He does for us. We don’t just have to rely on what is in our bibles but rather on the things that He continues to do for us each day – things that we ask and He does.

When you experience a good relationship with someone you know you find that you do change in the way you do things when you are with them. If you tried to change like that without there being someone special in your life, it may well not last more than a few days. It is like that with Christ because He is the one that makes the change in us rather than we ourselves making the change. When He says we are a new creature it is pointing to that change in our lives where we turn towards being in a relationship with Him and turn away from the things of the world.

When Christ came into this world as a human, He did it to show us His absolute love for us. The things that He did whilst on earth showed us that He loved us then. By giving His life for us He showed us the measure of His love. By raising Himself from the dead He showed us the eternal nature of His love. By giving us the Holy Spirit He showed us His commitment.

Points to Ponder:
How do you act differently to a personal relationship?
 
How are you treating God?

Thursday 4 Jun 2009

Thursday Reading: 2 Corinthians 5 17-21
 
Key Verse: 2 Corinthians 5 17
17  So that if any one is in Christ, that one is a new creature; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.

Devotion:
Have you ever heard someone say something like “you don’t know me until you know me”? I know it sounds strange, like you are doubling up on things, but there is a lot of truth to that sort of saying. You may know someone in that you get to hear about them and you may even talk to them each day, but until you really get to know them well, you don’t know what they get up to behind closed doors. We can tend to be like that with many people, but we can also be like that with God.

Getting to know God is not something you can do by reading through the bible once or going to church a few times a year... getting to know God means being willing to commit yourself to a relationship with Him so that you can really get to know Him more – more than just an acquaintance, more like a friend. Christ has done so much for us already and unless we truly understand just how much He has done, we will never get to know just how much He actually loves us already. When we start getting to know those sorts of details then we are starting to get to know Him more.

The more that we are able to understand Him, the more we get to know Him and the more we will be able to show Him our love and respect through following in His will rather than just treating Him like any other person in our lives. God does not want to be the person you pass by on the street every day; He wants to be the person who walks by your side all day long. He has already shown us how special we are by Christ laying down His life on the cross for us; He wants us to be close enough to Him that we actually do know Him rather than just knowing of Him.

Points to Ponder:
How many people do you know?

How much do you know Christ?