Monday 4 February 2008

Monday Reading: Proverbs 29 11
 
Key Verse: Proverbs 29 11
11  A fool speaks all his mind; but a wise one keeps it in until afterwards.
 
Devotion:
Have you ever wished that you had not said something out of the heat of the moment? I am sure that we have all done or said something stupid just because we were angered by someone or something and then regretted what we had done. People talk about having self control and being able to avoid those problems, but it truth be told, it is not self control. What happens to all of us when we get pushed too far is probably going to be much the same. The difference comes in what we have been exposed to in our lives beforehand and also how much we are willing to have God in control.
 
If we have been exposed to all manner of violence in our lives, then we will be more willing to allow violence to become part of our solution. Whatever has been a major part of our life, whether we have agreed with it or not, is most likely to come out at the time when we are least in control – when we are angry, tired or frustrated. If we are going to purely rely on our own emotions and past, you can see that what we do is not going to be in our best interests. All you have to do is to look back into your own past and come up with some pretty wild ideas of what could happen!
 
However, if we are willing to allow God into our lives, then we should also be willing to allow Him in in those times of angst. When we do allow Him in, we will find that our anger will no longer be raised to the levels that we previously allowed it to go. We will find that we are no longer quite as frustrated as we used to be. We will never get rid of those feelings because we are still human, but by listening to God in time, we will learn how to side step many issues to start with. When it gets time to face up to those frustrations, we will also have Him in front of us guiding us through the mess to a solutions where He will still be able to be glorified rather than us putting our feet in out mouths!
 
Points to Ponder:
How often does anger get the better of you?
 
How often do you actually allow God to be in control?

Sunday 3 February 2008

Sunday Reading: Jude 1 24-25
 
Key Verse: Jude 1 24
24  Now to Him being able to keep you without stumbling, and to set you before His glory without blemish, with unspeakable joy;
 
Devotion:
God (in three persons) alone is willing and able to keeps us from falling into sin. No matter how hard we try ourselves, we will always give in to some temptation somewhere along the line – bet it in thought or deed. If we are willing to believe in Christ, then He, through the Holy Spirit, will be with us from that point on. As long as we are willing to depend on Him, He will help us to avoid sin – so long as we listen. But just like we do not listen to our parents and others in positions of responsibility, we will not always listen to Him. That is when we fall for those temptations.
 
Christ alone is willing and able to present us faultless before God. Because of what He has done by taking on our sins at the cross, He will be able to present us to God The Father knowing that we are no longer guilty... but only if we are willing to ask Christ to forgive us of those sins in the beginning. Without His grace, we should have been condemned a long time ago. But God gave all sincere believers to Christ so that He would be able to be our Redeemer. Our faults may well fill us with fear, doubts, anger, sorrow and a multitude of other feelings – but when Christ presents us faultless before God, we no longer have any reason for any other feeling but unspeakable joy!
 
We need to constantly look to Him, our Redeemer, our Saviour, our Joy, our Christ and lift Him up high exulting His name before all others for what He has been willing to do for us. Allow Him to keep us, maintain us, guide us and teach us so that heaven may be full of joy when we get there. He is the Might upon which we stand. He is the Majesty upon which we trust. He is the Authority by which we must live. May it always be that way as it has always been with Him!
 
Points to Ponder:
Do your rebellions get you down?
 
How much do you depend on Christ?

Saturday 2 February 2008

Saturday Reading: Romans 8 35-39
 
Key Verse: Romans 8 37
37  Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
 
Devotion:
Do you ever get a bit discouraged in your walk with Christ? Do you ever feel like so many bad things are happening that God cannot be with you? Do you feel like you are doing what you can to stick with Christ but you still feel dejected? Well, just maybe you are one of the lucky ones... Lucky!?! How can it be lucky to be suffer?
 
Throughout the old testament we were warned that people would suffer in the name of Christ. Many different passages declare that we would be at worst killed just for believing in Christ. We are told that we will be persecuted. Whilst we will not look upon it as being lucky because of the physical and mental distress we face, people are actually lifting us up and showing that God is real because of our belief. Non-believers do not like to admit that there could be a God otherwise it would make them look bad – but by distressing us in any way, they are proving that we do believe in their eyes and any who see what is happening.
 
The one thing we have to remember, like Job did, is that we are more than just sheep being led to slaughter. We are like conquerors laying siege to evil because of our love for Christ and His love for us. No matter what will happen to us, we will be with Him. We may loose our physical bodies, our wealth, our freedom, but nothing will ever be able to make us loose our salvation. That is God given and is protected by His promise to us. Christ has shown His love for us through what He has done and that is sufficient!
 
When we are in heaven, we will not have to look back and worry about what we had to face because we will be at peace with our God where nothing will ever touch us again. We must stand firm in our belief and allow others to see just how much we will depend on Christ now so that they can see He is the Rock on which we stand.
 
Points to Ponder:
Do you ever feel alone because nobody else wants to believe?
 
Do you really think God would break a promise?

Friday 1 February 2008

Friday Reading: Isaiah 26 1-4
 
Key Verse: Isaiah 26 3
3  You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You; because he trusts in You.
 
Devotion:
During any stormy weather it is good to be able to be inside, protected from the elements by your walls and roof. It is good to have the comfort of heaters or a fire whilst inside too. But when the weather gets really bad, there is always that chance that the wind will blow a bit too hard and break something! No matter how safe we think we are, we are not as safe as we could be – but then we would probably be living underground in a concrete bunker with no windows! Imagine the safety you would feel of living in a huge castle – one that has spent the last few hundred years standing against the elements, rock solid.
 
There is one safety that we will never be able to reach the heights of in our worldly lives and that is the safety of salvation that Christ has promised us. Nothing in our physical world will ever be compared to that safety.  The unchangeable promise made by God because of His love for us – that the walls of the church will be our fortress. That our salvation will be forever and nothing will ever be able to change that fact! No matter what happens on the outside, nothing will ever be able to change it!
 
But the gates to that fortress need to be opened so that we can encourage others to come in. Wait, isn't that a weakness – like leaving the castle gate open and the drawbridge down? No. We have Christ standing at that gate. All powerful, all seeing Christ; willing to stand there as our guard so that nothing can break through. But anyone that is willing to believe in Him and ask for His forgiveness is able to come walking through those gates and will then know the peace that passeth all understanding! The safety that is Salvation!
 
Points to Ponder:
Do you long for a safe place to live?
 
Have you considered how safe Salvation is?

Thursday 31 January 2008

Thursday Reading: 2 Corinthians 11 1-4
 
Key Verse: 2 Corinthians 11 3
3  But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.
 
Devotion:
How much do you care about people close to you? Do you go out of your way to help them when they need it, or maybe you like giving them gifts, or just like being with them so you can talk... All of those feeling are to do with the here and now – how we live, how we act, how we think we love. But what about their souls. When we think of love, we limit our thinking to this life where we have a physical presence that we can relate to – but never forget that our souls are going to live on forever. Where our souls live on is going to be dependant on what we accept as the truth while we are here in our physical bodies, whilst we have a finite lifespan.
 
Imagine how horrible it would be to spend much of your life with a person, only to see them die unexpectedly. Depending on how close they were to you, it may well tear your life apart. What could be worse is knowing that that person would not be spending eternity in heaven because they never got to hear about the One True God from you. We need to tell others that we are Christians and that we do have a wonderful God who looks after us. Let them see how happy and content we are with our lives so that they will want to find out more about Christ.
 
If they have been introduced to a false god or a false prophet, then challenging their views with God's Word will eventually allow them to see that there is only One True God and that they need to get to know Him before it is too late. Loving someone means that you care for them. If you want them to be happy in their lives too, then they need to be able to find the truth about God as well. They need to know and feel what you do. It will not be easy, but love will certainly help you to help them.
 
Points to Ponder:
Do you like caring for others?
 
How long do you think Christ has cared for us all?