Sunday Reading: Psalm 32:1-2
 
Key Verse: Psalms 32 1
1  Blessed is the man whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.

Devotion:
Have you ever tried to work out what is making or has made you miserable? Have you ever compared how you feel when you are wallowing in sin to the time when you are walking with Christ? Sin is the cause of our misery! Yes there are many sins that give us instant gratification and many that lead us to money and even some that will prolong our own lives – or at least that is how we view it when it happens. But what is actually happening within our souls? What is actually happening to our spirits? We may well think that we can get a bit more here and a bit more there, but eventually we will realise that we have done that through the expense of something or someone else. We begin to realise that someone has to pay for the things that we are doing!

We may be able to trace our problems back and find out who has been affected by our transgressions; we may even be able to face them and apologise for what we have done... but we will all eventually reach the stage where we realise that Christ is the one who has stepped up and paid the ultimate sacrifice for our transgressions and has taken on the punishment Himself! He did not deserve any of the blame for what we have done and what we do, but He willingly stepped up and took that blame because of His love toward us! Because of that, we will not have to face the price for our sins. God will judge every one of us and only those whom He knows as His children will not have to face the ultimate price.

When we realise the full extent of just what has happened for us we begin to realise just what we have and just what we need to do! When we accept what Christ has done for us, we must accept that any time we continue to sin we are continuing to add to what He has paid because of us. Yes, He has already paid the price and knows how much we will do, but that does not excuse us from turning our backs on sin. When we are justified by Christ’s blood we should be sincere about our lives with Christ from that point on. From that point on we need to turn away from our sinful lives and live for Christ!

Points to Ponder:
How happy are you when someone bails you out?
 
How happy are you that Christ has bailed you out?

Saturday Reading: 1 John 1 5-10
 
Key Verse: 1 John 1 9
9  If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Devotion:
I was doing some reading up to try and think of a way of putting today’s devotion when I came across this quote from Charles Swindoll's Come Before Winter (Multnomah Press, 1985): “The IRS received an anonymous letter:
Gentlemen:
Enclosed you will find a cashier’s check for $150. I cheated on my tax return last year and have not been able to sleep ever since. If I still have trouble sleeping I will send you the rest.”

Would you have to admit to having that sort of attitude towards some of your sins in your life? This does not only apply to people who have cheated the tax-man out of money, or the government, this applies to anyone who has not paid the price for anything they have done wrong! When we argue with our parents, they get cross with us and may well dish out some sort of punishment to us to try and discourage us from doing that again. We then have the choice as to whether we are going to learn from that experience, or discard it and continue on. Our choice may not affect our relationship with our parents, but it is going to affect our parents’ feelings. Just as our parents are going to be our parents for the rest of our or their lives, God too enters into a permanent relationship with us when we invite Him into our lives. We can see this from Ephesians 4 30 where is states “And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you are sealed until the day of redemption.”

In other words when we are joined with God, nothing can separate us... Because that is true we need to start thinking about how we act when He is around (i.e. always!) We have to remember that there is no sin in God. He cannot abide with sin. So each time we do sin we are chasing Him away in our lives. It’s no good saying “I’m half sorry, is that good enough?” We have to say “we are sorry for everything” and move on in our lives to try and separate ourselves from that part of our lives....

Points to Ponder:
Do you always try to say sorry?
 
Do you mean it when you apologise to God?

Friday Reading: Jeremiah 3 1

Key Verse: Jeremiah 3 1
1  They say, If a man puts away his wife, and she goes from him and will be for another man, will he return to her again? Would not that land be greatly defiled? But you play the harlot with many lovers; yet come back to Me, says Jehovah.

Devotion:
It is often good to look at how different people handle the same situation in order to get a deeper understanding of a situation; but doing this may well get you into deeper water than you first thought. We are just people and each one of us has our own choices that we make and have made in the past. Each one of has been moulded by the choices that we have made so far and by the choices of those around us. It is always a very sobering and fruitful thing to go back to God’s Word and see what God would have us to do. Just picking up God’s Word and reading a random passage may well not answer anything for you, but by keeping God’s Word constantly in your mind, He will be able to guide you through it.

We can look at this verse from Jeremiah and compare it with the law as laid down in Deuteronomy to get an understanding on the law at the time. We can also compare the situation with normal civil behaviour (as we see it) and draw another conclusion. What we really need to do though is to compare it with our relationship with Christ. Everything in our bibles is there for a reason and it is only going to be through constant reading and learning that we will find out just how much guidance God has given us already – guidance that we may be ignoring every day because we don’t read it enough...

If you had a partner that left you and went of being with one or many other partners, how willing would you be to allow them back into your life knowing just how they have behaved? You may answer that they have broken your trust relationship forever and you can’t take them back knowing that they may do it again. You may turn to Deuteronomy and see that there are laws that will allow you to never have to mix with them again. Or you may be willing to give them another chance – but how many chances do you give them? If we have run from God and played the fool with other gods, should we expect Him to take us back? In our minds, No! But His mercy extends forever – something we find hard to believe...

Points to Ponder:
Do you push others until they break?
 
Are you pushing God?

Thursday Reading: Jeremiah 2 32
 
Key Verse: Jeremiah 3 32
32  Can a virgin forget her ornaments, or a bride her attire? Yet My people have forgotten Me days without number.

Devotion:
How often do you think about your best possession, be it clothes, toys, money or whatever? Back in the days that Jeremiah wrote these words they did not have Wii games or mobile phones or nice cars or the amazing houses that we have today. What would matter most to girls back then may well be the clothes that they were saving for their weddings or such like. What seems to matter most nowadays are the luxuries in our lives. Take a look at it this way... if you woke up to a fire in your house, what would be the first thing (besides yourself) that you would think to pick up before exiting the burning building?

Is it a good thing or a bad thing that our focus on things has changed over the years? Well, I’m not going to attempt to answer that because it is the simple fact that we do focus on something in our lives that is of concern today. Some may spend all of their spare time following up football teams or stars, others all their time playing computer games, others all their time watching TV; the fact is that we have more distractions today that there were back in Jeremiah’s days. Distractions are distractions, no matter how they are view, they are distractions. Some will argue that they are better distractions because of their quality whilst others will argue that they are worse because they consume more of your time.

Does God want us to turn our backs on everything in our modern world? I don’t think so; but what He wants us to do is to stop making it the focus of all of our attentions. If we are totally focused on things of this world then how are we ever going to build up treasures for out everlasting life with Him? After all, when we do pass on we will not be taking anything with us because it will all be left behind! We need to take time out of our distractions and put some time back into our relationship with Christ so that we can focus on what is important for our lives with Him. It is not a sin to enjoy yourself, but turning your back on God is not a good move!

Points to Ponder:
What is your favourite pastime?

How much of your time is wasted that could be spent with God?