Saturday Reading: Romans 6 1-7
 
Key Verse: Romans 6 6
6  knowing this, that our old man is crucified with Him in order that the body of sin might be destroyed, that from now on we should not serve sin.

Devotion:
Just because we know that Christ is willing and just to forgive us of all of our sins that we bring before Him, does not mean that we can go out and sin a bit more so that we can show just how much He does love us – that would be counter intuitive. We need to separate ourselves from sin and we do that by following on in Christ’s example. No, we don’t all have to go and be nailed to the cross so that we can die, nor should be take our lives and make sure that we do die. What we do need to do is to give up one life so another may reign.

We started out living in a life of sin. That life was the only one that we knew about until someone was kind enough to tell us about God. When we then found out more about God we wanted to bring Him into our lives and we did that by admitting that we were sinners and asking Him to forgive us for those sins. At that moment we can say that we let go of our life of sin, or we died from that life of sin. Just like there are marvels of science and medicine that can now bring people back from the point of death, we may not fully let go of that life of sin but rather cling to it because we don’t know any other life. But we will never move on until we do let go of that life.

Baptism is our way of showing that we are letting go of the life of sin and are being buried under Christ’s cleansing blood. When we come back up again we are being born into a new life where we are not bound by sin. The physical act of baptism does not do this, Christ does that by forgiving us. The baptism is just our way of showing that we are willing to let go of our sin life and take on our new life in Christ. It is God who gets the glory and we are the ones showing everyone else that we are willing to take on our new life in Christ with all to see... It is by God’s grace that we are saved from our death penalty and it is through His mercy that we can continue to live, but let go of that old life of sin we must...

Points to Ponder:
Do you find it hard letting go?
 
Are you depending on God to help you let go?

Friday Reading: Romans 5 15-21

Key Verse: Romans 5 20
20  But the Law entered so that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound,

Devotion:
Does it seem strange to you that to do things wrong is easy but to do things right is hard? Shouldn’t it be the other way round? Well, the reason for that is the way that we are brought up... the world around us is deep in sin and following on the example of all those around you seems to be the easiest thing to do. Trying to find people that are doing the right thing is now a task in hand and seeing the hardships that they have to face in order to try and get done what is right is not pleasing to the eye – so we give in to the other things in our lives and take the easy route!

Man has always been like that and continues to make bad choices – we only have to look through history and see just how much we have destroyed in our history to realise that we do continue to make unsound decisions that lead to sadness, death and destruction. Digging our way out of those rather large holes that we insist on making for ourselves is then an uphill struggle which we don’t like to take; instead we try to find a quick fix or easy way out. Sometimes what we have to do is put aside the easy and tempting ways and dig in to do it the right way no matter how hard it may seem.

God has shown us His mercy and grace and leaves before us the free gift of eternal life through Jesus Christ. He has given to us a safe place whereby we will retain eternal life. It’s not an easy path to try and stay there whilst everything else around us seems to be crumbling and tempting, but try we must. His grace will support us through our trials and will give us the encouragement that we need – so long as we continue to depend on Him. That is the key factor – we need to depend on Him. If we try to justify things ourselves we end up in hot water because we are all guilty. We have the choice as to whether we stay in bonds to a life of sin or whether we turn our backs on it and depend on the unseen. We gain more when we turn to Christ than we lose when we turn away from sin. It may not seem like that when you are drenched in sin, but that is the truth. The only way we recognise that is when we do take that step away from sin and fall in Christ’s arms.

Points to Ponder:
Do you think everybody else has a good life?
 
Are you looking at your life in eternity?

Thursday Reading: Romans 5 12-15
 
Key Verse: Romans 5 13
13  for until the Law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law.

Devotion:
One thing that is asked many a time is why should we be known as sinners? The obvious answer would be because we are, but you cannot turn round and tell anyone they are a sinner without telling them what a sinner is and why they should be called a sinner. You cannot stop there either because beating someone down into submission without giving them hope is not what God wants. If you want to show someone that they are sinners against God then you must approach it by showing them why there is sin, why they sin, why you sin too and then give them encouragement by showing them that God has already given them a way out...

Sin entered into the world right from the beginning when we chose to go against the most basic of laws. The only reason why we know it was sin is because the law was there in the first place. If the law had not been given in the first place, man would not have known that it was wrong. The laws that God gives us are not grievous and yet we choose to work against them because we see other ways which seem like a good idea at the time. Looking back after the fact we can see that we have done wrong – that is sin. None of us can step back and tell everyone else that they are sinners because we are sinners too. Unless we are willing to show others that they are just the same as us, they will not know that they are working against God.

It does not matter that we may not have done the same things wrong as others, the fact is that we have done something wrong and God’s Law states that if we are guilty we face death just as all other men have faced before us.

The greatest part is that we do have forgiveness given to us on a plate. All we have to do is to accept that plate so that we may have that forgiveness. Jesus gave His own life on the cross to pay for all the things that we have done wrong. He did that because He loves us and wants us to be saved from the penalty of eternal death. It is a free gift for anyone who wants it and showing others that we have accepted that must be our goal.

Points to Ponder:
Do you think you are better than others?

Does God see you sin?

Wednesday Reading: Proverbs 15 3
 
Key Verse: Proverbs 15 3
3  The eyes of Jehovah are in every place, beholding the evil and the good.

Devotion:
God has a full, clear and perfect knowledge of all things on this planet (and more besides). He continues to watch over everything that exists and continues to balance our world that we live in. Scientists continue to guess at why atoms do not fly apart and why things happen the way they do. Granted that there are some amazing scientists out there who have been able to predict behaviours of particles that we cannot yet see, but they are not the ones holding them together. Just like children playing with new toys, we seem to want to be able to try and break anything that we touch! But God continues to watch over us as a parent does, waiting for us to learn from our mistakes. He encourages us when we stop finding things out and He discourages us when we break too much. He is there and He is watching and He is so patient with us!

It does not mean that He is willing to sit back and watch us break the world and all our fellow people! He has given us the rules and given us the encouragement that we need to be able to understand things, but He also keeps a close eye on us. When we do bad stuff He does not like it. It displeases Him. How long do you think it would take before the person looking after you would start disciplining you when you started playing up? People tend to be impatient when things are going wrong and we also tend to shout rather than work out the problem properly. God, on the other hand, knows exactly what is best for us and will do that... It does not mean that we will like what He does!

We cannot hide from God like we can hide from our parents or those in charge of affairs. We like to seek out dark places to hide (places that are far from the truth – the truth being the light). We like to think that nobody can see us if we are far enough away from the truth... but God is watching over us. Each time we rebel in any way, we are doing that in front of Him. Each time we hide from the truth, He is watching us try to hide. He wants us to be good. He wants us to follow the truth. All He asks is that we ask for assistance to do what s right!

Points to Ponder:
Where do you run to hide?
 
Do you realise how much you affect God?