Tuesday Reading: Ezekiel 36 25-27
 
Key Verse: Ezekiel 36 26
26  And I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit within you. And I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh.

Devotion:
Isn’t it amazing how children can always seem to get dirty no matter where they are? I can remember many a time when my children were growing up that they would come in dirty just about the time when I was ready to go out with them; off we would go to clean them up again with water... again... But that is all water can do. It washes us clean at the time. It does not keep us clean. That is exactly the same thing that happens in our lives with God; He cleans us and off we go and get dirty again before we know it.

If our parents have been able to convince us of the advantages of staying clean by the time we grow up, then we will try our best to keep ourselves clean.  We know that there are going to be times when we get very dirty again, but we know we can take a bath or shower and get clean again. It does mean that we have a ready supply of cleanliness, but it does not mean that we should spend as much of our time as possible being dirty and then only clean ourselves at the last second...

We like to think that we have things sorted out just right so that we can time things to the last minute or so but when we try to do that we always seem to run out of time just when we need it most. Being prepared early will make our lives a whole lot easier to handle. Being ready for Christ’s eventual return is something that we should be striving for as well. It’s no use getting down and dirty only to be caught in the act because our timing is a bit out! Christ made sure that everyone knew that what He would do would give us the opportunity for cleansing our sins at any time. We need to be ready for Him by making sure that we do try to be ready!

Points to Ponder:
Do you like getting dirty?

Are you ready for Christ’s return?

Monday Reading: 2 Corinthians 3 1-3
 
Key Verse: 2 Corinthians 3 3
3  it having been made plain that you are the epistle of Christ, ministered by us, not having been written with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not on tablets of stone, but in fleshly tablets of the heart.
 
Devotion:
Have you noticed how fraudsters will always try to have some sort of documentation to support their claims so that they will sound more convincing? No matter how much documentation we have with us none of it is going to show us to be a Christian in others people’s eyes if we are not going to act like Christians! The plain truth is that our actions are going to count for more than any official written documents when it comes to convincing others...

When the Apostles wrote that Christ looks at the inner man rather than the outward man, those words serve as a reminder that we are to be genuine. Christ can see straight through our outward actions and see into our hearts; but you will be surprised at how much of our inner beings come out through our actions! When we do things without thinking we tend to do the things that we know by heart; something as simple as walking up stairs becomes difficult if we try to concentrate on the task. So what we need to do is to learn God’s Word so that we will do His Will without having to think about it!

There will be no better example of God’s Word to others than the way that we act; so our actions have to count towards God and not against God. It will only take one step against God to break down all that we have tried to achieve for God. But, on the bright side, our actions will be able to count for so much toward others being encouraged to find God themselves. We don’t have to have reams of documents to back us up if we are walking with God because He will give us what it takes for others to follow on. Moses thought himself to be of no good but God used him in an amazing way! Stand up and be counted towards God’s Church.

Points to Ponder:
Do you seek documents over experience?

Are you seeking God before documents?

Sunday Reading: Isaiah 44 21-23
 
Key Verse: Isaiah 44 22
22  I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, your transgressions, and, as a cloud, your sins; return to Me; for I have redeemed you.

Devotion:
Even before Christ had come and died on the cross the Jews were reminded about how they needed to return to God when they start wandering off by themselves. These verses in Isaiah were also pointing toward the future when Christ would die on the cross, but as you can see from the tense, it was as if it had already happened; because Christ died for all sins, for all people... we just have to come back to God.

God had already set everything in motion to ensure that He would cover all of our sins as a thick cloud covers the landscape. He puts our transgressions away, not just hiding around the corner so that they can be found another day, but rather He takes them away forever. When we leave His side and wander off, it is like we are trying to leave the confines of the cloud that He has set up around us to cover our sins. Why would we want to have our sins on full display for everyone?

We need to remember exactly what Christ has done for us and to put away our ways and work towards His ways. He has given us our bibles to make sure that we can know what He wants in our lives and to know that He has forgiven our sins and that we can put them behind us. We don’t have to carry around the shame but rather leave it with Him and move forward in His loving arms. He does not want us to walk away but to stay with Him where we can be of best use. As we revel in His love, why not let the world know about it so they can look forward to something too!

Being in church allows us to lift up our voices and prayers and songs so that we can proudly tell the world about what Christ has done for us!

Points to Ponder:
How do you look at going to church?
 
Are you going to church to praise Him for what He has done?

Saturday Reading: Hosea 6 1-3
 
Key Verse: Hosea 6 2
2  After two days He will bring us to life; in the third day He will raise us up, and we shall live in His sight.

Devotion:
There are many who will come to know Christ and yet will go a wandering off into the world and be side-tracked for quite a while. When we see such people we should be reminding them of God’s faithfulness and justness. God has promised us that we will be safe with Him from the time that we believe that Christ is our Saviour; that means that if we do get tempted away and fall into other ways of life for a while, we are still safe in God’s hands. We may well be out of favour as we continue to disobey Him, but He will never let us go.

When your friends run off and do other things instead of being with you, you begin to wonder if they are indeed your friends. We tend to get upset by people saying that they are our friends and not acting like it. We may well even go as far as rejecting them whilst they are away from us. But that is something that God will never do... He may well let us trip up and fall just so that we can see how far we have wandered off into the world, but He will always be waiting there patiently for us to return.

The Jews are God’s chosen people – just like we choose who should be our friends at first, God chose the Hebrews. When we choose friends we like to be friends to them and expect them to be friends with us. We also show others that they are our friends by what we do with and for them. Others may also see how upset we get when our friends seemingly desert us... It does not exclude others from being our friends and it does not mean that we have no time for others. Similarly, God does not have restrictions; He would rather that we all be His friends so that He can look after us all that way that He wants to!

Points to Ponder:
How do you treat your friends?
 
How do you treat God?