Saturday Reading: Luke 19 41-48
 
Key Verse: Luke 19 46
46  saying to them, It is written, "My house is a house of prayer," but you have made it a den of thieves.

Devotion:
In all the time that I have looked into God’s Word, I have not looked upon these verses in the manner in which I have today. Every time I have looked at these verses I have wondered at how upset Christ must have been to see so many people turned towards sinful lives and putting His Word aside. I have wondered at Christ’s feelings and spent many a time wondering how I would have felt if everyone that I knew turned against me (I know it was not everyone for Christ, but I don’t know that many people!). But today, after doing my daily reading, I discovered a passage of ultimate compassion.

What would you have done if you saw a place that was designed for praising God being turned into a den of iniquity where people were doing everything but being truthful, doing everything to anyone but leaving God out of everything they did? Would you have cast everyone out and locked up the place to make sure they could not get back in? What did Christ do? He threw them out and then started preaching. He rebuked them for what they were doing wrong and then started to try and build them up in the truth again. He did not punish them and let they stew on that; but stopped them doing wrong and taught them what was right.

How could anyone looking upon Jesus and seeing His reaction to what was about to happen, not believe Him when He showed them compassion – even in the sight of what they were about to do to Him! How can we then make rules and regulations that would condemn people rather than teaching them the truth? When we know God’s truth, we know what lies ahead for those who reject Him. We must not condemn people but try to let them see His truth so that they too can avoid what would ordinarily lie ahead of them too. Christ wept because of the pain and suffering He saw for the people in front of Him and not for any pain or suffering He knew He was about to face. We need to allow the Holy Spirit into our daily lives to help and guide us away from our sins so that we too can have our hearts cleansed so we too can follow the path of peace.

Points to Ponder:
What happens to others when you get angry?
 
Do you deserve Christ’s compassion?

Friday Reading: Psalm 77:1-10

Key Verse: Psalms 77 1
1  I cried to God with my voice, to God is my voice; and He gave ear to me.

Devotion:
As Christians, the days that we find trouble us the most should be the days that we spend the most in prayer to our God. If God seems to have left us, then we need to seek Him and find Him because we are the ones that have got lost and not He. There will be times when we can look back in our lives and think of the times when we have had troubles and to bring to remembrance the comforts that we found back then, but there will also be times when we will not find previous comforts that will again comfort us. In those times it is God who will supply us the comfort that we seek – so long as we do seek them from Him.

We do have so many examples of how people have found comfort and strength in God in our bibles and in our lives too. These are the things that we have to bring to mind to encourage us to seek out that same comfort from Him. At times when we feel overwhelmed, we need to bring our feeling to God and allow Him to lighten our burden. What we should never dwell on is the thought that God would be punishing us for not following Him. He allows us to bring our own punishment upon ourselves when we walk away from Him; He has no need to bring anything on us. He is the one waiting for us to ask for help so that He can help. He is the one waiting for us to ask for forgiveness so that He can forgive.

Never should we give in to the fears that will eat away at our dependence on God because He is always faithful and true to His Word. We need to demonstrate our faith in His faithfulness by turning to Him in all our times of need; He wants us to turn to Him. When we start to feel weak, we need to drawn on His strength and allow Him to build us up again so that we can face our adversities with Him by our side. He has shown us time and time again throughout history how we can depend on Him in the direst of circumstances, we just need to depend on the fact that He is here for us, always. It is only our weakness that allows us to think otherwise!

Points to Ponder:
What gets you down the most?
 
What are you not bringing before God?

Thursday Reading: Psalm 73:3-17
 
Key Verse: Psalms 73 17
17  until I went into the sanctuary of God; then I understood their end.

Devotion:
One of the biggest questions that are asked of Christians is “if there is a God then why does He not care about Christians” or some other variation of that question. People look at non-Christians and Christians and see that more non-Christians seem to be successful and live a “better” life than most Christians. They then make the assumption that non-Christians are better off because of the pleasures that surround them. That is how we judge people, we look at their physical wealth and their social positions and judge their success based on how they compare with others in the same fields.

The Psalmist listed many ways in which he was tempted to envy the prosperity of the wicked; seeing how they were seemingly at ease with life and wanted for very little. This is something we face all the time because we are thrust into a world where physical wealth and well-being means so much. But as he looks through the things that they have he sees the ungodly vices that go along with their lives. He sees the pride which surrounds them and traps them further into their lifestyles. He sees their ungodly ways which are normal living to them. He sees the covetousness that entraps them too and how they want for more and more as they get more.

He sees how they speak against God because they cannot see any need for Him in their lives. He sees how they ignore God’s Word and His will and plough on through their lives as if they are in charge. He sees how they question whether God is real and whether He does know what is going on. He sees how they seem to be at ease in this world of theirs... Should we question whether God is real? Should we doubt His omniscience? All it takes is a good long look at God’s will and His Word before we too can see just how far short of the mark we are all. When we see how far short we are, we can only imagine how far short others may be who question God...

Points to Ponder:
What do you think of your life?

Is it anything like that which God would like you to have?

Wednesday Reading: Hebrews 3 1-6
 
Key Verse: Hebrews 3 4
4  For every house is built by someone, but He who built all things is God.

Devotion:
Much of our bible is written by Moses and of him. He was the one that got the instruction from God and had to then make sure that the children of Israel heard all that God would have them to hear. He was the one that made sure that they kept God’s Word and made sure that they all knew God’s Word. Such a task would seemingly be impossible nowadays because of the diversity and distribution of the populous of the earth. We now have our bibles which are faithful reproductions of God Word from the days of Moses right through to the days of the apostles – the Word of God as exposed to each faithful servant during those times.

Once Moses was elected to his position he remained faithful to the children of Israel, being the advocate between God and them. When they faltered, he stepped forward for them to beg for forgiveness. When they were following God, he was there encouraging them to do it correctly. We now have an Advocate who is faithful to do exactly that for all men. Moses was the one that maintained the house of Israel, but Christ is the one who created and maintains His house. God is the creator of all things, including Moses. Moses was an excellent example of a faithful servant who carried out the will of God. Jesus Christ is a perfect example of a faithful servant carrying out the will of God, His will.

We need to take a leaf out of Moses book and do our best to uphold God’s house against adversity. We will face all manner of things that may discourage us, but as long as we are willing to keep our faith in Christ, He will ensure that we are able to withstand those adversities. We need to make sure that we do not try to uphold things by ourselves, but god back to the Creator and Finisher of the church, Jesus Christ. With Him, all things are possible. Moses was steadfast in his faith; he persevered right up until the end. That is how we need to aim our lives, with steadfastness and perseverance to uphold God’s will to the end.

Points to Ponder:
Are you determined?
 
How much do you rely on The Truth?