Monday 10 March 2008

Monday Reading: Proverbs 30 11-14
 
Key Verse: Proverbs 30 13
13  There is a generation, O how lofty are their eyes! And their eyelids are lifted up.
 
Devotion:
I think it is pretty amazing that this type of statement can be made at any time during history and will continue to be able to be made in the future too. It is very sad that this is so, but there is always, in every age, people who think more of themselves than they are. We are not to point fingers and bring people up, but rather to try and spread the Gospel so that all people will be able to find this out for themselves. We may not be fit to judge ourselves, but God’s Word will certainly allow us to see our own faults (so long as we read it) – that is why the Gospel has got to be spread near and far!
 
Too many people no longer show respect to those that deserve it, be it the local authorities or even their own parents; they no longer care about who is in charge and think that they should be allowed to do anything. Unfortunately this is something that spreads through society by example, faster than God’s Word can. People are more willing to take on the mantle of rebel than they are to listen to the truth! People continue to think that they know it all and that they cannot be wrong because they like what they are doing. They think they are OK in what they are doing never stopping to figure out just how corrupt they have become within themselves. I’m sure we can all admit to being there at some stage in our lives too!
 
There are always people whose pride has taken over in their lives and they then can no longer see their own faults. Even when they do see their faults, they refuse to admit to them because that would mean that people would see the truth about them. Pride is something that will always stop us from seeing Christ. Pride is something that will not allow us to change our hearts because of the fear of having to admit to our faults in front of others. Christ has already taken on all of our faults in front of the whole world! If we admit to that now, we will not have to spend a life running away from the truth!
 
Points to Ponder:
How often do you get caught up in yourself?
 
How often do you find yourself having to go back to Christ?

Sunday 9 March 2008

Sunday Reading: Psalm 109:21-31
 
Key Verse: Psalms 109 21
21  But You, Lord Jehovah, deal kindly with me for Your name's sake; because Your mercy is good, deliver me.
 
Devotion:
One of the hardest things to do in life is to humble yourself before anyone. It takes a surprising amount of courage to step forward and say that you got it all wrong. It takes a lot of humiliation to admit to others that you did things wrong. But that is the step that you have to take before you can hope for true forgiveness from others. You need to be willing to come forward and admit to the things that you have done wrong as well as to be willing to take any retaliation that they may take on the chin. That is often our worst fear, just how much they are going to do to us if we come to them in humbleness. The surprising thing is that most of the time, we will be forgiven and no retaliation will take place.
 
We know that God will not retaliate. He has promised to forgive us for our sins as long as we are willing to come to him in the right way. We cannot pretend that we are humble with Him because He will see right through that. We cannot do all the right actions and hope that that is enough, because He is looking inside our hearts. We cannot hope to gain is forgiveness unless we are telling and showing Him that we are indeed sorry for what we have done. At that stage we will then see His wonderful grace and mercy spring into action as He sweeps aside our sins and invites us back into His fold.
 
Once we know that God is able and willing to bless us, then we need not fear just who is going to try and curse us. Once we know we have the strongest on our side, we know we don’t have to worry about anything else. Once we have God’s forgiveness, we know we don’t need any other. Once we are able to humble ourselves before God, humbling ourselves before anyone else is a piece of cake because we know that we have already been forgiven!
 
Points to Ponder:
Do you have to apologise a lot?
 
Have you truly apologised to God?

Saturday 8 March 2008

Saturday Reading: James 2 1-4
 
Key Verse: James 2 4
4  Did you not make a difference among yourselves and became judges with evil thoughts?
 
Devotion:
If we are going to profess to be Christians, then we have to act Christ-like. This means that we must be focusing on the soul and not on the outward appearance of each person we meet. We are all guilty of this at one stage or another, choosing between people just because of the way that they are dressed. We are all guilty of giving more attention to people who are dressed in a more proper way than those who are not. Why else do we get dressed up smartly in order to go for a job interview even though the job will not entail any customer contact?
 
When we take on that sort of mantel, we are becoming judges of others – or at least that is the way that we are acting. Christ alone is able to judge us and not ourselves. We are not even fit to judge ourselves, let alone other people. We can identify where we go wrong, and where other people go wrong, but we are not fit to blame them for doing wrong because of the amount of things we do wrong. We may like to think that we are always dressed properly and that we give a good impression, but unless that goes right through to our souls, then we are not dressed properly before God. That is where we all fall down.
 
We need to be able to look at people for what they are and not what we identify them as by simply looking at them. Christ does not give regard to the outward appearance and will not choose one man over another just because they are dressed in a suit! We will choose people over others because of the way that we see them acting. Christ will choose people by the way they are thinking. It is the thought that bring out the action and not the other way round. That does not mean that we have the right to judge others because we see them do something wrong – because we have already thought about doing things wrong before we have got that far.
 
Points to Ponder:
How often do you turn away people because they don’t look right?
 
What would you do if God turned you away because you did not wear the right clothes?

Friday 7 March 2008

Friday Reading: James 1 9-11
 
Key Verse: James 1 10
10  But the rich, in that he is made low: because as the flower of the grass he shall pass away.
 
Devotion:
If ever anyone thought that there may be a socialist statement in the bible, then this would be it. But what people read into God’s Word instead of trying to understand it merely leads them into difficult situations were they find themselves doubting things where there is no doubt. This is not about lifting the poor up to the same level as the rich, this is about attitude. Socialist forces similarities upon people whereas Christianity changes the attitude so that people from all walks of life do not recognise themselves as being better than others.
 
We need to pay the same attention to those that have little in life to those that are rich and in important positions within their society. We have to look at things from God’s perspective where He does not have any regard for the person, but total regard for the soul. It is not what we get up to on earth that is going to count for anything, but what we get up to in our hearts and minds that is going to count with God. We need to have the right attitude and act on that attitude rather than simply saying that this is what we should be doing!
 
We should be willing to give our earthly riches up in preference to Christ’s way. If we put such high esteem towards those earthly riches, then we should be willing to let them be taken away from us so that we can learn more about Christ and Christianity. Our life on earth is so short when compared with the life of our souls – so why should put so much into living here on earth and not caring about the afterlife? We certainly should be caring about how we are going to spend our eternity, be it in heaven or in hell! Don’t let the fickle things in life rule your world when you can do so much more with Christ in your life!
 
Points to Ponder:
How much do you keep up with fashion?
 
How much do you keep up with God’s Word?

Thursday 6 March 2008

Thursday Reading: Proverbs 27 23-27
 
Key Verse: Proverbs 27 24
24  For riches are not forever; nor the crown from generation to generation.
 
Devotion:
Just because we are Christians, does not mean that we have to separate ourselves from the rest of the world and live a life of solitude. We need something to do, just like the rest of the world. How we go about that business should be a whole lot different! Just about anywhere you go, you will get advice about how to run a business and how to be ruthless so that you can succeed… but just who do you impress when you do that?
 
We like to think that we would be able to run a business and to be able to make it profitable. We like to think that we would be able to support ourselves and the rest of our families. We like to think that we would be able to live a life in comfort. But in order to do that, we have to make sure that we are successful and that we have something to fall back on. No matter how much money you make in a short space of time, you can do absolutely nothing with that money when you die. If you have not set up the right sort of facilities to take care of that wealth, then nobody else is going to get out of it what you wanted them to.
 
If you run a business without being honest, you will find that when the truth comes out, that business either comes to a complete stop, or worse still, the lawyers and other people take their fair share, leaving you with even less that you had to start with! Yet if you are willing to do an honest business and allow your family to come into that business too, you will find that security will follow – not just for you, but for them too.
 
Our lives with Christ have to be open, truthful and honest too. We will never be able to get anything past Him because He will see straight through us to start with. But when we are open and honest with Him and keep Him in our lives, our friends and families will come together and all profit from their true relationships with Him too.
 
Points to Ponder:
What would be your ideal business?
 
Would you continue to keep Christ as close as that business?