Wednesday 23 Jul 2008

Wednesday Reading: Luke 9 43-48
 
Key Verse: Luke 9 45
45  But they did not understand this, and it was hidden from them so that they did not perceive it. And they feared to ask Him of this word.
 
Devotion:
We can look back on this passage and see exactly what Christ was talking about and understand it. John, when he wrote this, then understood it too; but whilst they were there at the time, they did not understand what was going to happen to Christ. We can look back and think thoughts like “if they only had asked the right questions, things may have been different”; but then that is thinking on our level and thinking as a human. Whilst we are way above any other creature in terms of intellect, we still have a whole lot to learn about our own lives.
 
Christ would continually say how we should approach Him as a child because it is a child that comes with open arms, ears and mind. When we have spent a long time in this world we can become cynical about the world and about the people that surround us, blocking out many good things simply because of the amount of garbage we have had to put up with in our lives so far. As we grow older we tend to turn things down as sounding too good to be true and put them to one side. On the other hand, a child would gladly accept things that sound good. As a child we probably grabbed everything that came our way and learned from each thing. Sometimes the learning was a good experience and others not so good, but each step gave us more of an idea about what we can expect in the future. But if we continue to be faced with bad experiences, our outlook will become decidedly one-sided!
 
Christ wants each of us to put aside our pre-conceived ideas that we may already hold and come to Him with open arms and an open mind. Without that we may well reject the truth before we actually hear it all. It is a wise person who is willing to pick up God’s Word and read it to find out more. God is the one that wants all of us to find out the truth. Satan is the one that wants each of us to be polluted with so much that we ignore the truth when we are faced with it… The best way of finding out the truth is by asking the one who created the truth in the beginning – don’t be afraid to ask!
 
Points to Ponder:
How biased would you say your life is?
 
Do you accept God’s Word or continue to question it?

Tuesday 22 Jul 2008

Tuesday Reading: Psalm 139:1-6
 
Key Verse: Psalms 139 2
2  Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off.
 
Devotion:
Too many times we forget just who God is. We forget just what He is. We forget that He is with us. Sometimes we have to have something happen in our lives to make us remember that He is our comforter and our Friend. Everything we see should remind us of our Eternal and precious Saviour who has created everything for us, maintains things for us and continues to patiently wait for each of us to remember Him.
 
He never forgets. He never misses anything. He never turns away. Yet we do; we forget, we miss things and we do turn away. He continues to watch over us and continues to try and guide and comfort us; we must be willing to allow Him to guide and comfort us if we are to enjoy His love. He does know everything about us despite what we may like to keep away from Him. He does know how our minds work – even when we cannot figure that out. He continues to watch our hearts when we loose them in the world around us. He continues to shine as a bright steady light whilst we blink and shy away from that light.
 
There is no way that we can know enough to be anything like our God. All He wants us to do is to know Him so that we can listen to His voice as He patiently guides us through our lives. If there is one thing we need to do to become more like Him, it is to listen a bit more like He listens to us – through our ears, eyes, thoughts and hearts. When we start to listen, we will begin to hear. When we begin to hear, we begin to learn. Once we begin to learn we will never forget His love for us because it is a love that is greater than all we can do.
 
Points to Ponder:
In the words of Sir John Betjeman:
“Thou knowest my down sitting and mine uprising”
Here where the white light burns with stead glow
Safe from the vain world’s silly sympathising,
Safe with the love I was born to know,
Safe from the surging of the lonely sea
My heart finds rest, my heart finds rest in Thee.

Monday 21 Jul 2008

Monday Reading: Titus 2 11-15
 
Key Verse: Titus 2 14
14  who gave Himself for us that He might redeem us from all iniquity and purify to Himself a special people, zealous of good works.
 
Devotion:
At one stage or another we have all been exposed to the gospel (even if this is your first time!) We may well not have listened to many of the things that have been told to us from God’s Word. We have all gone against those things that we have heard – we still do. Yet the grace of God has been shown to all of mankind because Christ went to that cross to die for everyone and not just the people that were around Him at the time. God continues to show His grace through what He does for us and through His love He shows us even though we may not return it in like manner.
 
Our bibles are a source of knowledge and wisdom that teach us how we should live for Christ. We are warned against the evils of lust and pride and shown how we can gain strength to oppose them in our lives. We are shown the truth so that we have a wonderful hope upon which we can rest assured. We are told about Christ so that we can believe that truth and see how wonderful and awesome His love is for us. He gave Himself freely so that we would not have to. He gave Himself totally so that we would never have to face our sin debt after we accept Him as our Saviour and King.
 
We could try to shove the gospel down people’s throats. We could try to indoctrinate people through various means. We could try to separate people from the world so that they would never know anything else. God did not. Christ came to live with man so that He could show us the difference between a life with Him and a life without. Christ came to encourage us to seek that truth, use it, uplift it and then encourage others to do the same. He never forced the truth upon anyone, giving us all a free choice. Even when faced with the man-made authority of the land, Christ did not provoke. Let us go forward in His example and allow our own bodies to be an example whereby others can be encouraged to follow Christ.
 
Points to Ponder:
Can you easily spot the Christians around you?
 
Do you think others see a true Christian in you?

Sunday 20 Jul 2008

Sunday Reading: 2 Corinthians 6 1-10
 
Key Verse: 2 Corinthians 6 1
1  But working together, we also call on you not to receive the grace of God in vain.
 
Devotion:
How often do you make sure that you are clean by having a bath or shower and then put on the same clothes that you have done for some time? I think not… When we clean ourselves, we hope to be able to put on clean clothes too so that we may stay clean as well. So why should we treat our spiritual lives any different? If we are going to go out of our way to beg for forgiveness from God for the things that we have done, why should we then continue to subject ourselves to those same things after we have gained that forgiveness?
 
We do not have to wait for that forgiveness because Christ has already paid the price; we can accept that forgiveness as soon as we ask for it knowing that it is there. The Word of God gives us the knowledge by which we can be saved and through which we can learn to live for Christ. If we are going to use it to clean ourselves, then we must surely use it to clean our lives too. Whilst we do receive immediate forgiveness from Christ, we cannot expect the world to let us go easily… We still do live in the same world, the same world that gives in to Satan and all things that he throws at us. We can still expect to have to put up with all that he can throw at us but within a newfound confidence that Christ is protecting us and will deliver us!
 
God’s Word cannot be blamed for anything that does go wrong through not following Christ. God’s Word is not a stumbling block that will trip us up. Instead we need to remain confident and sure that we can depend on it and on Christ for all of our troubles. We can know that Christ is with us through all of our troubles of all kinds and that nothing will ever separate us from Him. We need to stand fast in His Word through all of our lives and not just the times we like to pick! Through troubles, we learn. Through blessings, we provide. Through sorrow, we mourn. Through joy, we bless. Through kindness, we love. Through Him, we live!
 
Points to Ponder:
Do you try to live a different life on Sundays?
 
Are you depending on Christ through all your times?

Saturday 19 Jul 2008

Saturday Reading: Psalm 19:12-14
 
Key Verse: Psalms 19 14
14  Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in Your sight, O Jehovah, my Rock and my Redeemer.
 
Devotion:
I think one of the biggest reasons why people do not read their bibles is the fact that it will highlight the things that are wrong in your lives. None of us like to be told that we are doing things wrong because we have a certain pride within ourselves that refuses to believe that we can be wrong. Once the truth is exposed, there is no turning back on it. It is out in the open and nothing will change that truth. There is nothing different about our lives either; once we find the truth about what we do wrong, we will always know that we do do wrong unless we change our ways.
 
King David prayed for forgiveness, not just for those things that he had begun to see were wrong from learning through the Scriptures, but for those things that he had yet to find out about too. Once we find that we are human and that we do have faults, we have a desire to find out more so that we can ‘fix ourselves’ – our conviction. It is all very well being able to fix some of the things that we have done wrong to ourselves, but what about those that have affected others. That is where we need to seek forgiveness.
 
That forgiveness may initially need to come from the people we have wronged, but ultimately the sins that are exposed against God need to be brought before Him. He allowed His only Son to come to the cross on our behalf so that our sin debt would be paid for; through that He showed us His amazing love for us. Christ raised Himself up to show that sin had truly been defeated; such is His conviction towards our cause. He waits patiently for us to admit our sins to Him so that He can show His forgiveness; such is His dedication to us.
 
We can know all this from reading His Word. We can know about His love because of all that has been written by so many people over the years. All we need do is read all about it so that we can apply it to our lives too.
 
Points to Ponder:
How does it feel when others refuse to admit to their mistakes against you?
 
How do you think God feels when we refuse to admit we are wrong?