Saturday 9 February 2008

Saturday Reading: Isaiah 45 20-25
 
Key Verse: Isaiah 45 22
22  Turn to Me, and be saved, all the ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other.
 
Devotion:
How simple are the words of the prophet Isaiah. Yet how often they are ignored. The instruction is so simple: “Draw near together”, “take counsel together”, “Turn to Me, and be saved”. He has been promising from the beginning that He would do certain things, all of which do come to pass. In other words, He has always told the truth – so when He says that He is God and that we need to turn to Him to be saved, that is the absolute truth. It does not take too much reading to figure out just how true His Word is, yet people are not willing to pick it up and read it!
 
If we are willing to pick up our bibles and read them, then we will find out a wonderful truth. No only that, but if we are willing to be willing to be obedient before God, then we will find all the things of a normal Christian life just become part of our lives: the reading, the praying, the church attendance... and we will find that we are happy to do them because it does fulfil our lives. Every being will bow before Him when the time comes – there is no escaping that He is God and that He alone is all powerful. We will all face Him at one stage or another – I just hope that you will be able to face Him with a clean heart, one that has been cleaned by Christ.
 
There is no way that we can gain righteousness other than through Christ. There is no better way to gain strength that through Christ. There is no better place to be than in His arms. There is no way that God will turn His back on any of us that are willing to turn towards Him and accept Him back into our lives. He created us in the beginning. We have consistently shown that we cannot figure out where we came from. He has shown how He can control our world we live in. We have shown Him that we can break almost everything that we touch. But just like a loving parent, He is there to pick up the pieces – let Him be back in control of your life, don't try to run His life!
 
Points to Ponder:
Do you like telling people what to do?
 
Do you really think you can tell God what to do?

Friday 8 February 2008

Friday Reading: Romans 14 7-13
 
Key Verse: Romans 14 13
13  Let us not therefore judge one another any more: but judge this rather, that no man put a stumblingblock or an occasion to fall in his brother's way.
 
Devotion:
How easy it is to follow on from what someone else is doing – just to go with it rather than take a step back and so “no”. No matter what station in life we are from, we all have to agree not to live for ourselves and to rather live for Christ. Christians cannot be people who are “self seeking”, that just does not compute with God; you are either for Him or against Him. Our business is not to please ourselves in as many ways as we can, but to please God – we need to keep Him in everything that we do!
 
But then, on the other side of the coin, we start to judge others because they do things wrong. That is certainly not our place to judge them! We can help them to see what they are doing wrong by applying the right things in our lives and encouraging them, but we have no place in telling them how bad they are... show them what God says about it, not what you think about it. God's word has been given to us so that we can learn from it and pass on that knowledge – not that we can have ammunition to judge others by!
 
No matter whether we are Christian or non-Christian, God is still our same God. He is God of all and we must remember that one day every knee will bow and every tongue confess that He is Lord. The last thing we want to do is to put someone off because they don't want to be “uptight” or “self-righteous” like us. Can you imagine having to confess to God how you have prevented people from coming to heaven just because you have thought that you were in some way better than someone else and that put them off! If we remembered that alone, we would not do half of the things that we do!
 
Points to Ponder:
Do you like pointing out others mistakes?
 
How many mistakes of your do you hear God pointing out (and you know He knows)?

Thursday 7 February 2008

Thursday Reading: James 1 2-6
 
Key Verse: James 1 5
5  But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and with no reproach, and it shall be given to him.
 
Devotion:
One of the biggest questions that we all face in our Christian lives is “why does it happen to me”. When we become Christians we like to think that our life is going to change and that we will no longer be bothered by the bad things in this world. Well, truth be told, the opposite is more likely to happen – the difference being that we now have Christ on our side so we will no longer loose! We may give in to the minor skirmishes, but we will not loose the battle. We will still give way to some temptations along the way because we are still the same human and still living in the same word, but we can fight those temptations if we are willing to ask for help.
 
The more that we are willing to learn to fight against the temptations, the more that we will grow stronger against them. There is nothing like on the job training to gain the most experience. No matter how much reading you do, there will always be a time when you have to put that knowledge into action... but don't let me persuade you from the reading! You have to know how to handle a situation before you can handle it. We don't all like to loose hope by failing in situations before figuring out how to win!
 
God is willing and able to help you to understand how to get the most out of life. He is willing and able to help you avoid certain situations in life. He is willing and able to help you to grow stronger so that you can stand up to situations... but each time, you are the one that has to make the first move to start the ball rolling. You are the one that has to stand up to the world for the first time and ask God for help to keep you on your feet. Do not be afraid, He has promised us that He will never leave us! Never doubt His love for us, His power, His faith. Do not doubt your faith otherwise you will be tripping yourself up!
 
Points to Ponder:
Do you think someone else is in control of your life?
 
Have you ever realised that God is the one who is in control?

Wednesday 6 February 2008

Wednesday Reading: Matthew 22 1-14
 
Key Verse: Matthew 22 8
8  Then he said to his servants, The wedding is ready, but they who were invited were not worthy.
 
Devotion:
It is a beautiful analogy that Christ presented here to the Pharisees comparing the kingdom of heaven with a royal feast made by a king. The king has gone out of his way to present a feast that is worthy of the occasion and he wants his chosen people to be there, yet when he invites them, none of them want to come. Just like that, Christ sent out the invitation to a people who have rejected Him as well. But Christ has gone all out to present something far batter than the best feast available!
 
What He has presented is a feast that is more plentiful than the number of requested guests. His feat is laid out with enough to spare for anyone who is willing to come. But when we come to that feast, we have to make sure that we are coming for the right reason and to present ourselves in the right manner. I doubt that you would be able to attend a wedding party if you were dressed as a hobo... but there always seems to be one who is willing to push the dress code as far as they can.
 
Christ is the one who has control over who does get to go to heaven and He alone is the one that will ensure that only people that have accepted Him as Saviour will pass through the gates. There is no way that He will leave out any believer, no matter how bad their past was. He will make sure that they are presented faultless before God because He knows that He as already paid the price and has taken on our sins... before we even knew Him!
 
The reason why people will not get to heaven is not because the cannot, but because they will not. They are making the choice to reject the wedding feast of their lifetimes just to try and get that bit more out of their short lives...
 
Points to Ponder:
Would you accept an invitation to a royal wedding?
 
Have you accepted your invitation from Christ yet?

Tuesday 5 February 2008

Tuesday Reading: Romans 10 18-21
 
Key Verse: Romans 10 20
20  But Isaiah is very bold and says, "I was found by those who did not seek Me, I became known to those who did not ask after Me."
 
Devotion:
Faith comes by hearing and the only way that is going to happen is if people go out and take the gospel with them. This is a bit of a sore point with the Jews because they (generalising) did not believe that Jesus is the Messiah and would not take out the word to others. That is why Christ called upon His disciples to go forward into the gentiles to give them the truth. Indeed His word were to go out into all nations and preach the word.
 
It is little wonder then that some Jews do get upset with what has happened. They indeed are the chosen race, chosen by God; but they are amongst those that have rejected Him.
 
God continues to show His extraordinary grace and patience to all of us. Christ went to the cross to pay for our sin debt, but He continues to see people rejecting Him all around. People from all around the world have now come to know Christ as Saviour, but so many more still refuse to believe the simple truth. Man's disobedience seems to grow year after year with more people leading more sinful lives; but Christ continues to show His love to each and every one of us so that we can have that chance of getting to know Him.
 
Nothing we can do will ever overcome that patience that He has. Nothing will ever provoke Him. We continue to have the choice of believing in Him so that we can be saved from our own demise. We will always continue to wonder at God's grace when we continue to see man's evil ways taking over. It is only the fact that someone refuses to believe that will keep them from God's grace!
 
Points to Ponder:
Do you wonder if you have been too bad?
 
God grace is perfect and covers all of our sins!