Thursday Reading: John 5 30-38
 
Key Verse: John 5 38
38  And you do not have His Word abiding in you, for you do not believe Him whom He has sent.

Devotion:
If Jesus was a man then what sets Jesus apart from us? Well the answer should be easy to spot after seeing words like these spoken by Jesus Himself! Jesus indeed came down as a human being to be amongst us and to live with us and then to do something for us that nothing else on earth could fulfil; He laid down His life for us as a perfect sacrifice so that we would no longer have to continue giving God what we consider to be a good enough sacrifice...

In this passage Christ explains that He was there at that time to go God the Fathers will and to show people that they need to have a personal belief in the truth rather than following on in a religious way. How do you feel when others simply do things because they have to and not because they want to? Does it make you despair to see people just doing a task because that is what someone has said they need to do rather than doing that task because it is what they want to do? There are always going to be people that do things for money or do things for their own glory, but when you meet someone who is doing what they do because they want to you see quite a difference in their work.

Jesus was here doing God the Fathers work willingly and with His whole heart. We know He is the Son of God because of all that we now know that He did for us. We know that what He tells us through our bibles is the truth and that we need to stand by that truth... but unless we are doing that willingly because we believe it to be the truth, we are doing nothing more than someone who would do it just for the money. We need to set ourselves apart from others by being willing to be faithful Christians following in Christ’s footsteps where we can; that way we are closer to doing God’s real work. Leave self pride behind and follow on as a faithful and willing servant of Christ!

Points to Ponder:
What are you willing to do for money?

What are you willing to do for Christ?

Wednesday Reading: 2 Corinthians 8 7-9
 
Key Verse: 2 Corinthians 8 9
9  For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though He was rich, for your sakes He became poor, in order that you might be made rich through His poverty.

Devotion:
Faith is the root of our relationship with Christ; without faith we have nothing because we will not be able to please God. It is not up to Him to make sure that we are constantly reminded that He exists (though we have but to look around us to see the awesome splendour of His creation to remind us) nor is it up to Him to keep showing us proof that He exists. He has put in place a perfect solution and a perfect way of telling us everything we need to know and to then show us just how much He loves us... All we need is to believe that what He has already shown us is the truth!

And it really is that easy when you look at it. The more that we try to find out about God; the more we are convinced that He is real. The more we depend on Him, the more we know He is real. The more we look for Him, the more we find Him. Why then is it called faith; should it not just be known as the truth?

When we first go seeking God we do not yet know it as the truth. We are not convinced that He is real because we cannot see Him; much like Thomas we need to have visual or physical evidence before we believe things. When we first start to believe that what people are telling us is the truth we still have to take that first step to really believe. Much like learning to drive a car or learning to ride a bike; until we actually do things for the first time we don’t know that we can. It takes a certain amount of faith to take that first unseen step! When we have taken that first step with Christ we then find out that He is real and that it is all as simple as it sounds!

With that first step comes a whole lot of things that we never knew we had; the love and concern for others in Christian love, the earnestness of our work for Him, the grace to accept many things in His name and a certain eagerness to continue doing what Christ did so many years ago – love thy neighbour...

Points to Ponder:
Are you still waiting for proof?
 
Are you willing to take a single unknown step?

Tuesday Reading: Luke 22 24-28
 
Key Verse: Luke 22 27
27  For which is the greater; he who reclines, or he who serves? Is it not he who reclines? But I am among you as He who serves.

Devotion:
Isn’t it amazing how so many conversations turn into rallies about who is better than whom? No matter what sort of thing we are talking about or going over there is always an element of superiority somewhere close by that we latch on to and we try to lift ourselves higher than others. Jesus and the disciples were in the upper room and Jesus had said that someone there with them was going to betray Him and that then turned into a bit of a discussion about who was the better rather than who was the worst!

Jesus’ response to this was to remind them of their position as followers of Christ and not as their positions in social circles. Far too many times we hang on to our social positions rather than remembering our position as God’s servants. I’m sure we have all imagined ourselves in some sort of position of authority or royalty at some stage in the past – whether it be playing as the prince or the princess when we were young or imagining that we are in fact the rightful heir to some important position. But life is not about what position you can attain here on earth but what position you are willing to accept with God.

God is the one who has created everything and allowed us to live the way that we have. We are the ones who have chosen to live under kings and queens and under human authority so that we can have social order. God’s request to us is not that we submit to human authority but that we submit to His authority. Part of that is the willingness to live within the social structure provided and to be an example that others may see as one willing to live for Christ. Jesus made sure that everyone knew that He was living for God the Father even though He is God the Son. Let us take a leaf from His book and live our lives proclaiming God as our Father too. Let us allow others to see that we willingly act as His servants to show our love for Him.

Points to Ponder:
What social position would you like to have?

Would you rather have that position or everlasting life with God?

Monday Reading: Luke 20 20-26
 
Key Verse: Luke 20 25
25  And He said to them, Therefore render to Caesar the things which are Caesar's, and to God the things which are God's.
 
Devotion:
There are going to be times when we seem to be faced with conflicts in our lives because of the laws of the land and the laws of God and in those times we have to seek wisdom from God in order to help sort things out in a manner whereby we keep God’s laws but also are not seen to break the law of the land (unless they are truly opposing God’s law). The more we read our bibles, the more we will be able to make good judgment calls through knowing what Christ would do or has done; but there will always be cases where we don’t remember or cannot figure how God’s Word relates to our predicament.

Prayer is a powerful tool that we should never forget and should never give up on. Yesterday we were reminded how we should never cease to pray and today we look at our different worlds we live in. We live in a world that is controlled by various people making decisions and we have all agreed to try and live by those decisions in order for there to be some sort of order in our lives. God has allowed each of those people to be in the positions that they have – this does not mean that they follow God nor does it mean that they do God’s will. When man gets into a position of power, greed takes hold and he takes many more handfuls than he rightly should carry... and that is what we face every day in our lives.

When it comes to us trying to balance our lives we have to always remember that there are two separate areas, God’s and mans. We should never get these two confused otherwise we may well find ourselves walking after man rather than walking after God. It is very easy to allow greed in various its forms to take hold in our lives and lose focus on God. By continuing to ask for guidance and wisdom through prayer and reading our bibles we are allowing ourselves to continue separating man from God; that way we will never confuse our greed with God’s awesome power.

Points to Ponder:
Are you mixing your life up?

Can you still see God’s separate ways?