Monday Reading: Deuteronomy 32 1-6
 
Key Verse: Deuteronomy 32 4
4  He is the Rock; His work is perfect. For all His ways are just, a God of faithfulness, and without evil; just and upright is He.
 
Devotion:
Moses was given the task of proclaiming the gospel to everyone who would listen. At this time it was focused on the Children of Israel, but his words go out to the entire world just as God had ordained it. These same words continue to go into all countries and to all people. It is the people’s choice as to whether they are going to listen or not.

This is the first time that God is referred to as a Rock in the bible and along with that Moses described the perfection that is His Word, God’s Word. We can marvel at all the things that happened in the past as we look back and see the miracles that God did to try and encourage Israel to listen to His Word. He showed them love more than any earthly father can. He showed them justness and faithfulness beyond that expected from any family as we know it. Why did He do this all? Just for us; so that we may know that He is our God who loves us no matter what we have done wrong in the past!

There is no way that we can repay Him for the things that He has done. He does not expect us to repay Him; if that were so then He would have given us the way in which we can repay Him. Instead, He wants us to depend on Him just as a child depends on their father. He wants us to go to Him in all times whether they be times of joy or times of sorrow, times of abundance or times of leanness; He just wants us to want Him.

Everything that He has done, everything that He has created, everything that He continue to do is all aimed at us seeing what a loving Father we do have and how much we can depend on Him.  When we start to think that we can do thing for ourselves, we always reach our limit after which we are stumped. When we depend on Him, however, we can see the endless power of His might as He continues to show us that everything is possible through Him. He gave us His Son so that we would not have to pay for our sins. He continues to wait patiently as we find our way back to Him.

Points to Ponder:
What is the best thing that has happened in your life?

Do you think that would have been possible without God?
 

Sunday Reading: Matthew 23 37-39
 
Key Verse: Matthew 23 37
37  O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one killing the prophets and stoning those who are sent to her, how often would I have gathered your children together, even as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you would not!

Devotion:
Have you ever noticed that Christ would not dwell on the sufferings that He was about to go through but rather dwelt on the rejection of the people. He did not lay down a “guilt trip” about how much He would have to go through just because we are the sinners. He just gave them a reminder of all the things that the people of Jerusalem had done, would do and then reminded them of His love.

Just like a hen, He is willing to lift up His wings and cover us when we scramble back to Him for help and shelter. But just like a hen, He will sit and cover those that do scramble back, but cannot do anything about the others who refuse to come back to Him. He calls us and He encourages us, but if we are not willing to listen to His instruction, then we will not be able to get the help and protection that He is offering. We are the ones that have to make the choice to go to Him.

Christ knew what would happen to the Jews and He knew that He would not be able to protect them unless they came to Him. As soon as they turned their backs on Him, they were on their own again. When they try to get shelter from others, that is all they get; but if they are willing to come back to Him they then get the full benefit of His protection with eternal life in Christ Jesus. It is sad to see so many people who refuse to make that simple step of coming back into Christ’s protective arms by just admitting that He is our Saviour and asking for that protection. There is no way that He will reject anyone who calls out for His help when they believe that He will help them.

The young chicks would scurry back to the hen knowing that they would get protection. We need to scurry back to Christ and know that He is going to protect us. We need to make sure that our faith is strong enough to believe that His helping, loving arms will cover us as soon as we declare Him as our Saviour because He IS waiting...

Points to Ponder:
Who do you call out to for help?
 
Do you know the power of God?
 

Saturday Reading: Romans 12 14-16
 
Key Verse: Romans 12 16
16  minding the same thing toward one another, not minding high things, but yielding to the lowly. Do not be wise within yourselves.

Devotion:
How many times do we pick our friends because of their stature in society? How many times do we shy away from certain people because they do not fit into the same circle of society as us? Are we doing the right thing? No! If Christ had stuck to His circle of people (the Jews) then none but the Jews would have been able to go to heaven because they would have been the only ones whose sins would have been forgiven. Instead, Christ opened His heart for all of mankind.

Whilst it will still be hard for us to allow our enemies into our lives as friends, we can make a start by not just sticking to our own circle of friends but taking a look at other people in society. What about the people that cannot live as we can simply because they do not have the same opportunities? What about the people who cannot mix with others as we can simply because they do not know the right people? You see, just as we think that we have problems in our own little world, there are others who have problems in theirs. We do not hold the exclusive rights to being left out of something!

Yes, our first place is to start by showing everyone that they have the right to be able to like us because we will not turn others away; but we have to remember that we are not the only ones that live the way we do nor are we the example by which all others should live. We can try to be that example, but there will always be someone who cannot. We need to open our eyes to other people’s situations so that we can find out why they cannot do what we can. Understanding someone may be the first step towards being able to show them that we love them and that they can love us. Christ had a head start there because He already knew us – but that did not stop Him from loving us and showing us His awesome love and care for us even though we are nothing like Him!

Points to Ponder:
What is your first step towards selecting friends?
 
Are you giving others a sample of Christ’s love?
 

Friday Reading: Matthew 5 43-48

Key Verse: Mathew 5:46
46  For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax-collectors do the same?

Devotion:
How many people have told you to love your enemies? I bet not too many! We tend to follow the edict to love our friends because they are our friends and hate our enemies because they hate us. But how would we ever get out of that circle of hate if nobody wanted to make the first move? Someone somewhere has to make the first move so that the distrust or bad feelings may be broken.

What do you think life would be like if God had not made the first move to show us His love? Who would have had to pay for our sins? Who would be the one standing up and admitting that they did something wrong? Without some sort of goal to look forward to, nobody is going to want to make the first move. If we present ourselves as people who nobody can trust or like, then nobody is going to want to trust or like us. Yet if we present ourselves as likeable people that can be trusted, we are making that first move.

You see, it does not have to be a case of going out and buying an enemy a new car to show them that you love them. We can demonstrate love in so many ways and we need to because the world is full of very different people. If we are able to at least show the people that do not like us that there is a side to us that they will like, then they may want to look for that good side. Yes, there are going to be those who just refuse to even look for that good side, but that should not stop us from showing it.

God continues to show us His love every day by continuing to make sure that the world continues to exist and support us! He does have the power to destroy the world in just the same way as He made the world, yet He chose to promise us that He would continue to make sure this world “works” so that we can continue to live in hope even when we do not show it.

Points to Ponder:
Do you show others you can be liked?
 
Do you see just how much Christ loves us?