Tuesday Reading: Acts 5 12-16
 
Key Verse: Acts 5 15
15  So as to carry out the sick into the streets and place them on cots and mattresses, so that at least the shadow of Peter passing by might overshadow some of them.

 

Devotion:
What would you do if you were able to heal people? Would you hide yourself away for fear of being discovered, would you heal a few people at a time or would you devote your life to healing people constantly? I know that that is an unfair question but we need to think about what we are doing with our lives. We have a life because God has allowed us to have it. We know that God wants us to be able to enjoy our lives so that we are happy. We know that God wants us to serve Him and promote the Gospel. It is a matter of sorting out our priorities and doing things whereby God will get the glory.

 

The apostles were here for one reason and that was to preach about Jesus and to make the people understand just what a wonderful Saviour we do have. They were up against all sorts of people who did not want them to preach about Christ because that would undermine their authority. Indeed, a few verses further on we see how the apostles were thrown in jail because they were preaching. But we also see how God got them out and back into the temple that same night. When we are focused on making sure that people hear about God, then we will continue to have His support. When we are focused on making sure that He gets the glory for everything in our lives, then He will continue to make sure that we can show people!

 

The apostles were given wonderful powers of healing and so many people came to town just to be healed. But instead of just healing people, they continued to teach everyone about Jesus and made sure that people knew that it was the Holy Spirit within them doing God’s work. Nobody dared to even think themselves as good as the apostles (unlike many today who take on that title for their own gain) because they knew that this power was God given. This means that the apostles were doing it right – making sure that God got all of the glory for their work!

 

Points to Ponder:
How often are you praised for things you do?

 

How often do you acknowledge that it is through God that you can do those things?

Monday Reading: Acts 2 1-4
 
Key Verse: Acts 2 4
4  And they were all filled of the Holy Spirit, and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them utterance.
 
Devotion:
Can you imagine being able to speak a different language, fluently? I know that most of us go through school and do learn another language. Some of us are even brought up in homes where we do have two languages. But each of these instances requires a long period of learning and some period of applying what has been learned too. Here in the book of Acts we hear about the day of Pentecost (actually yesterday) when the disciples were given the gift to be able to speak in different languages. I know many people take this as being speaking in tongues, but as far as I can make out from the original languages it infers being able to speak in a language without first learning that language.

 

Can you imagine that? Being able to suddenly speak fluently in another language whereby other people can actually understand what you are saying! What a joy that would be when you go on holiday to another place! When my brother and I went to France some time ago, we slept on the beach and had a few things stolen whilst we slept. We then had to go to the local police to tell them what had happened. Unfortunately we were in a smallish town where they could not speak English and I had to use my very broken French I had learned in school! Eventually someone came in and overheard us and offered to translate. It was then I found out that I was apparently telling them we had slept on the beach and our stuff had flown away in the night! Boy, talk about a red face!

 

There are so many things in our lives that we will be faced with where we will not be able to cope by ourselves. We need to remember that wherever we are and whatever we are doing, God is going to be with us and is willing to be our aide. We need to exercise that by allowing Him to control the situation rather than through us trying to make the most of what we can do. It is only when we break things that we realise we cannot do everything… but if we are willing to allow Him to help us from the start, then we will find things can go a lot more smoothly!

 

Points to Ponder:
Do you always try and ‘go it alone’?

 

How often do you really give it over to God?

Sunday Reading: Matthew 5 33-37
 
Key Verse: Matthew 5 37
37  But let your word be, Yes, yes; No, no. For whatever is more than these comes from evil.

 

Devotion:
How many times have you broken a promise? How many times have you sworn to do something but found out that you could not? How many times have you agreed to do something but could not? We have all been there at some stage or another where we have for all intents and purposes given our word that we will do something but have found for some reason or another that we could not possibly achieve it – even though we tries our very best. What it boils down to is that we have told a lie, even though we have tried our very best not to. Yes, the situation was outside of your control, but it still boils down to you breaking a promise – a lie.

 

Jesus here was trying to make sure that people would stop having to lie because of situations outside of their control. We have come to realise that we cannot fully trust some people because we know what they are capable of (or not) and we know that what they promise is going to be outside of their control. And yet we are still willing to allow ourselves to get into those situations as well. A simple “yes I will try my very best to…” would be the best way out… So long as you do try your very best!

 

If you are absolutely sure that you will be able to carry out your task, then promising to do so is legitimate. But making absolutely sure that you do not break that promise should then be paramount. One of the Ten Commandments is that we should not lie (Exodus 20 16 You shall not bear false witness against your neighbour). It is there is the “top ten” for a reason – we need to be able to depend totally upon one another and upon what is said between us. How else can people learn about the truth unless we tell the truth in everything we say? If we base our faith on the truth, people need to know that we are going to live up to that truth as well!

 

Points to Ponder:
How often have you been ‘forced’ to lie?
 
Aren’t you glad Christ has never lied?

Saturday Reading: Matthew 5 27-32
 
Key Verse: Matthew 5 28
28  But I say to you that whoever looks on a woman to lust after her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

 

Devotion:
I think it is sad that we live in a world where advertisements can depict adultery as being part of life. The very thing that we would hate to happen to us is being let freely into our lives through the media. It has, to all intents and purposes, become part of our lives; and yet the warning is as clear now as it has always been – lusting after someone is as good as committing adultery with that person. How quickly people forget the simple instructions from God’s Word when those instructions will stop them from having what they consider to be fun!

 

Christ did not go to the cross so that we can wallow in our sins but rather that He can save us from our sins. He does not want us to forget the simple instructions in His Word but to remember them and keep them in our hearts. Those simple words may well take huge effort on our part to make sure that we can uphold them – but the longer that we are able to uphold them, the stronger we will become and the easier it will be. If we are all willing to sit down and think about those things in our lives that allow us to fall into transgression, then we should all be able to avoid those things thus allowing us to avoid those transgressions as well. But the truth is that those things are some of the things that we may well hold dear in our lives.

 

On the other hand, it may be that we do things, say things or dress in particular ways that will lead some into sin – we then become the guilty party because it is us that have lead them to fall. We may be the ones being lazy, idle and leading ourselves to fall. Whichever way we look at it, we do need to try to strengthen our resolve by asking Christ to be there with us in battle against those sins. Adultery is not the only sin that will eat at our souls. It is not the only sin that will break us down spiritually. But, like many others, we allow those sins into our lives because we think it is easier to do so than to try and fight the flood!

 

Points to Ponder:
Do you find it hard to live against the tide?
 
How often do you request strength from The Almighty?