Friday 9 Jan 2009

Friday Reading: John 8 12-16

Key Verse: John 8 12
12  Then Jesus spoke again to them, saying, I am the Light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.

Devotion:
It is hard to believe some people when they start talking about how much they have done or how good they are themselves; we seek proof from people who are uplifting themselves. Our bibles tell us of so many miracles that Jesus did, and yet they are by no means all listed. As John put it, there is probably not enough room in the world to keep the books if all of the things that Christ did were written down! If we ever wanted proof, there is only one place where we can find the central written depository of that proof – that is our bibles. If you had written proof of all that your friend had done that proved what they had done, you probably would not have any problem believing what they say.

On the other side of the coin, you may simply not like hearing about what your friend has done because it makes you look less good in some way. If they are able to list so many things that they have done and yet you cannot, you suddenly don’t look as great as you first thought you were... Our bibles and Christ’s Word will have that effect on us too because we will see how bad our lives are compared to His. We also suddenly see how much we owe Him for what He has done for us on the cross.

The Pharisees were up against these same things. They had heard others talking about Jesus but they had also learned a lot of rules and regulations from their religion. Their religion had conditioned them to such an extent that they did not want to believe Jesus. Through their religion they thought they were the good guys and told everyone exactly that. For Jesus to come before them and show them that they were not so good anymore meant that they would no longer be the men on the top of the hill! That too meant they did not want to believe. We have all manner of things like that in our lives that stop us from believing God’s Word and we do find it hard to let them go; but let them go we must if we want to continue walking by Christ’s side. Let go of the things that tie you down and take on the truth of God’s Word.

Points to Ponder:
Do you always believe what people tell you?
 
How much more proof would you need than the truth?

Thursday 8 Jan 2009

Thursday Reading: Isaiah 45 18-22
 
Key Verse: Isaiah 45 22
22  Turn to Me, and be saved, all the ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other.

Devotion:
How many times have you tried to figure things out and come to the conclusion that things are far too complicated to understand. I’m not just talking about faith, I’m talking about absolutely anything. Sometimes we look long and hard for a solution, seeking more and more complex designs and ideas only to draw a blank... then along comes someone and states the obvious answer which you did not even think of because it seemed far too simple an idea! Sometimes we just have to look at the obvious to see what the actual answer is!

So many people try to seek enlightenment by doing all manner to quests, though processes and scientific experiments. People try to come up with the most complex solutions by suggesting hidden words in original bible texts or hidden meaning in paintings or maps when most of the time the answer to their question is staring them right in the face. But because the answer is far too obvious for such an important question, they ignore it...

God’s Word may well be difficult to read in some places but that does not mean that the places that state the obvious should be ignored simply because they are so obvious! God’s Word is a complete work that gives us all we need to know. When it is straight forward such as in this passage, we need to make sure that we do take it in! There is only one God. He is the Creator of heaven and earth. He created earth as a living planet not a volcanic lump that had to evolve. He has not given us dark and secret quests to go on, He has outlined salvation as simply as possible for us. All we need to do is to gather our thoughts together and come to the obvious conclusion; that He is our one true God and that Salvation comes through Him alone. He wants all of us to accept this simple truth so that we too can have eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord and God.

Points to Ponder:
Do you always seem to seek the hardest solution?

Are you missing God’s obvious truth?

Wednesday 7 Jan 2009

Wednesday Reading: Isaiah 42 5-12
 
Key Verse: Isaiah 42 8
8  I am Jehovah; that is My name; and My glory I will not give to another, nor My praise to graven images.

Devotion:
Isaiah was a man whose life was filled with God; he made sure that everything he did was for the glory of God. Because of his absolute dependence on God he was chosen as a prophet by God and continued to be able to pass on God’s Word and wisdom to those who were willing to listen. We may not be anything like Isaiah in our walk with God, but we can still depend on Him and can still give Him the glory. This passage is just one of the many places where he writes down what God says; probably as close to what he had been told as possible. How much more encouragement can we get than Gods own words. We don’t have to wait for Jesus to be born to hear God’s Word; our bibles are full of His Word – if only we would read them more...

Many ties we do complain about not hearing from God or complain about God not working in our lives; but He does, all the time! Yes we were born because of a union between our parents, but God is the one who gave that child a spirit so that you could live your own life. He is the one that has given you the choice. He is the one that created the world around you. He is the one that has always been. That in itself is something difficult to grasp because we live within time itself; we are constrained by time – but He is not.

We need to take note of the things that are happening around us. Not just what we see and hear, but what has gone on before us and what is coming up in front of us. That is one of the reasons why we go to school, so that we can learn about the past, present and future. The bible also teaches us the truth about the past, present and the future; and yet we choose to ignore so much of it because we don’t like being told what to do!

We need to learn and remember what He has done for us. We need to learn all about what He has created for us. We need to learn what is in store for us. We need to learn about His love for us. We need to learn about His willingness to pay for our sins. We need to learn about our Saviour. That is why we have our bibles... Use them...

Points to Ponder:
Do you know roughly when your grandparents were born?
 
Do you know when Isaiah lived?

Tuesday 6 Jan 2009

Tuesday Reading: Psalm 46:1-11
 
Key Verse: Psalms 46 10
10  Be still, and know that I am God! I will be praised among the nations, I will be praised in the earth.

Devotion:
Many times we think that we are in control and try to time things down to the nearest minute, only to find that someone or something breaks the rules and we find ourselves in trouble! Last night I had a dream of such an occurrence where I had planned things just right, only to find that someone had towed my car away because I had inadvertently parked on yellow lines; that threw my plans out the window. But, within a short while my plans had been changed into God’s plans as I was able to tell someone about God’s Word.

We must not be discouraged by things that happen in this world because we know that God is the one who is ultimately in control. We find that we try to do our thing but God is the one who guides our lives as He knows best rather than how we think we can do it. There is nothing in this world that we can have more confidence in than God Himself. No mountain, river, sea or sky is great enough to come up against Him. In our natural history of this planet we have seen mountains explode into volcanic eruptions. We have seen rivers dry up and countries brought to their knees by droughts. And yet God is still there, watching and waiting for people to depend on Him rather than themselves.

We are the ones that will continue to cause wars to ravage the earth because of our constant bickering between nations. We are the ones who seek out and destroy our neighbours because we don’t like what they have done. We are the ones that take control of other people and force them to do things our way... But, for each of us, there will still come a time when we have to face our God and explain what we have done. He alone is the one that can bring peace to lands that have been at war for centuries; He alone is the one that can stop nations from destroying others. We, on the other hand, are the ones who think we can do it without knowing the full consequences of what we do until it is too late. Let us take a step back in our lives and allow our God to show us in due time what we should be doing for Him. Let us give Him the time that He deserves...

Points to Ponder:
Are you a control freak?

Will you let God take control of your life?

Monday 5 Jan 2009

Monday Reading: Psalm 95:1-9
 
Key Verse: Psalms 95 3
3  For Jehovah is a great God, and a great King above all gods.
 
Devotion:
If you were to visit the Queen or some other dignitary, you would be expected to behave in a prescribed manner. If you were to visit a royal person from a foreign land, you would be expected to behave in the manner expected from them and not how you think things should be done. Why then should we think we can come before our Great God and behave how we think we can? Well, we seem to do whatever we want every day of our lives and we know that God is with us!

When we come before God we need to remember just how much He has done for us and how much He does for us; that way we will come with thanksgiving. No matter how we perceive things we need to remember that He alone is our God and that He is our Creator. He is not just a god who we pray to, He is the Great God. Why should we want for anything more than God gives to us? He directs the paths that are before us and protects us along the way. We still live within a world that is governed by people so we still have to work with people; we continue to work to gain money so that we can survive... But God is the one that has made all this possible in the first place!

Why should the seas obey the pull of the moon? Why should the sky hold water and rain? Why should plants grow from the dirt? Our Awesome God is the one that had made it so. God is the God of everything and we need to remember that. There is so much that we can learn about how and why things exist, as long as we remember just who created us! There is so much for us to do and experiment with, as long as we remember who allows us to exist! There is so much we can learn about what will happen in the future, so long as we remember who is in charge of our futures!

Our God indeed is a Great God and one to be praised with our whole beings! Let us remember that and praise Him for all that He is. Let us not be persuaded by worldly things but allow His Majesty to shine through each one of us!

Points to Ponder:
What would you do if you met the Queen?

How will you react when you meet Jesus?