Friday Reading: Isaiah 43 8-13

Key Verse: Isaiah 43 13
13  Yea, before the day was, I am He; and no one delivers out of My hand; I will work, and who will reverse it?

Devotion:
No matter how much others will think that their gods are real or great, it will never make them real or great; none can ever compare to God! People think that they can carve, cast or build the greatest statues of their gods and think that by doing that they can worship them – but that is only bringing their gods down to their own levels because they are building them first. God created us, not the other way round! The only ones that they are fooling are themselves and the ones that they entrap by getting them to follow them – just because a whole country does one thing, it does not necessarily make it right!

Who can get their gods to tell them about the past, present and future? How can they do that if they have been made by man because man cannot do that without God! How can their gods show them compassion and mercy when it is going to be limited by man and his own thoughts! God alone is the one true God who can and does show us His mercy and compassion. Each one of us can attest to that because of what He has done for us. There are things that happen and we cannot understand at this time, but He still gives us the mercy, love and grace to continue on in His name. All servants of God can give testimony to the fact that He does work outside of what we can do or think about...

The one thing that we must always remember is that God is a jealous God and will not put up with us worshipping false gods or idols in any way. If we are not willing to put our faith in Him then we are telling Him that He is only a part-time God... That He certainly is not because He is our Creator and He is our God. We are here as a testament to His existence and to His name; He has placed us here so that others may see just how special He is and how wonderful He has been, is and forever will be. It is hard for us to imagine how He can exist outside of time because that is all that we can understand. He created time for us so that we can exist. Let us use our time wisely to love and cherish Him for everything that He is.

Points to Ponder:
Do you hold on to other idols in your life?
 
Are you trusting fully in God?

Thursday Reading: John 8 54-59
 
Key Verse: John 8 58
58  Jesus said to them, Truly, truly, I say to you, Before Abraham came into being, I AM!

Devotion:
Jesus had every right to glorify Himself because He knew who He was and He knew that God was His Father – yet He chose to remain as a servant, as a human, so that He could complete His task in its entirety – just for us! As such, Christ had to (and did) depend on God for everything – from the basic necessities through to His own honour and glory – everything was of God. He also knew that that was going to be stripped from Him when He went to the cross carrying all of our sin debt on His own shoulders! And yet He chose to continue on for our sakes, knowing that what He did would count for everything for us!

We can argue between ourselves about God, about His existence, about what is true and what is not because of our differing beliefs about God; but Jesus did not have that option because He knew God. When you get to know someone intimately, you do not have to argue about what they are or do because you know them. When you do not know someone as fully as you could, then you may well find yourself in arguments with others about that person because of your lack of understanding about them. Christ knew God the Father intimately and wherever Jesus went He made sure that others would get to know the truth about God. His mission was to tell people the truth about God so that we could all get a chance to know Him personally.

When Christ said “Before Abraham was, I AM”, He told the world that He was our Creator. This put Abraham as one of the created and Christ as our Creator. The words He used were the same as those that He used when Moses was to bring the children of Israel out of Egypt – I AM – the very name of God that speak for itself! God exists outside of time. He is the one that created time. If He lived within time then He would be limited by time and would not be able to exist forever. God chose to create time for us. He can end time... That is something that we can and always will argue about because we have known nothing else other than living in time; but God is not limited because He was NOT Created. He IS and will ALWAYS BE!

Points to Ponder:
How long will you live?

God alone knows each one of us intimately?

Wednesday Reading: Galatians 3 1-5
 
Key Verse: Galatians 3 5
5  Then He supplying the Spirit to you and working powerful works in you, is it by works of the law, or by hearing of faith?

Devotion:
If you are a strong Christian you may look at these verses and think that it would be impossible to be able to turn from God’s teaching back into the way of the world; but truth be told, Satan is going to use whatever methods he can to be able to trip us up. If that means getting someone to start convincing you that you have to take more notice of the law than of your faith in Christ then he will do that. If he can trip you up and make you stumble in front of someone that is trying to find out the truth, then that person may well never get to know the truth...

During their ministry to the people of Europe, the Apostles would have to face many an enemy who were looking to make them trip up in front of other Christians just so that they could sow the seed of doubt. Each time we can look through the books of the New Testament and find out how they relied on their faith to pull them through and on the Word of God to strengthen themselves during those times. We have been given the full truth that God knows that we need – we have to use that truth to strengthen ourselves so that we too can be an example to others... an example of faith.

Nothing that we did was able to bring us before God. It was our belief that allowed Him to approach us and to take us in. It is our faith that keeps us with Him. As soon as we start to try and do things our own way, we start to fall back into the ways of the world; we need to remain steadfast in our faith to make sure that He is able to guide us all the way. Yes, that does mean keeping the laws as He has laid them down, but it does not mean that that is what is going to keep us safe or to save us. It was because of what Christ did for us that we are able to be saved from our sins. It is because of our belief in that fact that we are able to accept that truth and it is through that belief that we are brought to Christ. The evil one is going to do all he can to continue to try and trip us up; something he cannot do whilst we are trusting in God. Trust in God and be faithful to Him alone.

Points to Ponder:
What do you do as a Christian?
 
Are you relying on your faith?

Tuesday Reading: Acts 13 38-41
 
Key Verse: Acts 13 41
41  "Behold, you despisers, and marvel, and perish; for I work a work in your days, a work which you shall in no way believe, though a man declare it to you."

Devotion:
The two great things that come to us through this passage are that our sins are forgiven because of what Christ has done for us and that nothing we can do will save us from our sins. These truths are given to us time and time again throughout our bibles; the first, of belief being given to us from the beginning and is something that we need to know and remember. We live in a world where we are faced with people that do not believe and through that our faith may well be weakened. The second is given to us mainly through the New Testament because that was written after Christ was born. No matter how good we think we are, no matter how many rules we follow and how much we do not sin, it is our belief in God and what He has done for us that saves us from having to continue to offer up sacrifices to God. It is because of what Jesus Christ did for us that we can really be thankful for.

But that does not mean that we should disregard the Old Testament because the New Testament is “what really counts”. That cannot be further from the truth! Jesus, throughout His ministry, upheld the Old Testament in everything that He did. Just because He was getting ready to take on our sin debts, does not mean that we can throw that all away! We need to believe in what Jesus has done for us and take it to heart. We need to remember it always and act like we do. We need to take on the whole bible and learn because Christ would have us to do exactly that. After Christ went back to be with God in heaven the Apostles continued to make sure that people knew that the Old Testament was just as important to us as the new because it is through that that we can learn so much more. We tend to forget things as time goes by, but we must never forget what God has given us through our whole bibles! Read it and believe it! Read it and learn it so that you can tell others of the glorious truth that is held in God’s Word!

Points to Ponder:
Do you have to be told something many times before you believe it?

Do you read your bible?