June 8: Isaiah 11 1-5
Key Verse: Isaiah 11 3
and he will delight in the fear of the Lord. He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes, or decide by what he hears with his ears;
Devotion:
Far too often we use what we see or what we hear against other people just because we have made a judgment based on those things. Unfortunately what we see and what we hear are not always the truth because we see and hear from other people who may well be showing us or telling us a lie. But Jesus came to this earth as a human and was able to step aside from the judgmental attitude of human beings and uphold God’s righteousness!
How was He able to do this when we fall so far short of the mark? How was Jesus, born as a human, able to step out of the judgmental life we all lead? He did so by always focusing on what God wanted and always listening to God before others!
If we are able to just sit still and listen out for God’s instruction and His teaching for one minute each day, I’m sure we will start to walk forward in God’s light and not in the darkness of this world! We need to switch on the light that is Christ in our lives and allow Him to convert us. We need to listen out for the Holy Spirit and allow Him to teach us and to guide us in everything. We need to focus on God almighty and make sure we have a life with Him set as our goal in this life!
We have so many people around us who are in desperate need. We have so many people who we don’t hear about in the news who are simply trying to stay alive in this so-called caring world we live in. The problem is too many people are focusing on the false media drowning our societies instead of upholding what is righteous in God’s eyes. If God wanted to, He could wipe us out in one breath, but He chooses to love us and to try and encourage us to live in His righteous ways instead of being consumed by the worldly ways. Do what is right!
Points to Ponder:
How often do we turn a blind eye to something just because it is hard?
Will you say ‘Here I am, use me’ to God today?
June 7: John 7 45-52
Key Verse: John 7 51
“Does our law condemn a man without first hearing him to find out what he has been doing?”
Devotion:
To me this just sounds like a set from a movie depicting a country which has lost it’s way and the leadership has become an unspoken about tyranny! But that is what Jesus was fighting again – people who had risen into power and were now taking on more power than God was giving them; people who had lost their way and greed had taken over without some of them realising just how far they had gone! Isn’t that always the case though – we allow the power to go to our heads and we just don’t see what damage we are doing until it has gone too far!
Jesus wants each of us to step back from time to time and double check what we are doing is what God has asked of us. We all get carried away with our jobs and lose focus on the goal; we need that gentle reminder time and time again to keep us on track. This is our Bible. We have all the important stuff written down to allow us to stop and compare what we are doing with God’s ways – but how often do we actually stop?
The Jewish Leaders were so convinced Jesus could not be their Messiah simply because He came from Galilee! They had not bothered to find out the truth behind the story and spread that truth! Oooo, that sounds a bit like the world’s media at the moment where people shout out about the things they want to hear and not the truth behind the scenes.
Jesus was crucified and died because of the lack of due diligence of the Jewish Leaders at that time. I see this sort of thing happening in so many places in churches, charities and other organisation where people would rather stick to what they want to her rather than digging a bit deeper and finding out the actual truth...
Points to Ponder:
Do you ever stop and think?
Are you going to try stopping and thinking for today?
June 6: John 7 21-24
Key Verse: John 7 24
Stop judging by mere appearances, but instead judge correctly.
Devotion:
Don’t you just love and hate the press for all they do!?!? It is good to be able to hear about what is going on, but it is also disastrous when lies are spread instead of the truth! Each one of us has a responsibility to give out the truth – but it is so easy to latch onto something you hear and spread that instead.
There is nothing new about this because it has been going on for years where people talk of the things they want to be true instead of what is actually true. Unfortunately we have people now who’s job it is to spread the news and when they spread things which are not true, the whole society has to suffer. Jesus came to try and open people’s eyes to the depths they had sunk to in the spreading of things which did not line up with God’s wishes.
We like to think we are allowed to say things because that is what the law says, but if they do not line up with God’s law, then are we actually upholding any laws or are we introducing lies into our society – those lies which make the whole community suffer? God had said the Jews should be circumcised, not as something which was required for them to enter Heaven but as a mark of their complete obedience to God. When they turned round and tried to blame Jesus for doing something physical on the Sabbath when they would circumcise their children on the Sabbath, Jesus pulled them up on their actions.
As Children of God, we need to stop the spread of white lies, occasional truths and half-baked ‘christians!’ We need to show others we are committed to doing what God has asked of us and to do it according to His wishes and not according to our wants! We need to stop blaming people just because it looks wrong and find out the truth behind what is happening before we open our mouths. Unfortunately our world has grown up into being a blame place instead of a God Glorifying place.
Points to Ponder:
How often do you blame people just because you don’t agree with things?
How often do you pull yourself up for bending the rules?
June 5: John 4 21-26
Key Verse: John 4 24
God is spirit, and his worshippers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.
Devotion:
Can you imagine the sort of conversations Jesus had whilst He was here on earth, something like this one with a woman who knew the law but did not quite get how the Messiah would come to the people. She was a Samaritan and had her own way of worshipping what she thought was God, but she could not quite connect with God in the way we love and know. Why? Probably because nobody had explained it to her, but she knew the Messiah would be able to explain everything!
Can you imagine what went through her mind when she realised she was talking to the Messiah! Here she was seeking God and not knowing where to look, but she did know someone would be able to explain it to her. That is our task as Children of God. We need to be able to explain God to people in such a way as to invite them in to seek God more in their own lives.
Our task is not to try and convert people but to invite them into a meeting with God where He can change their hearts and allow them to enter into their own relationship with Him. Forcing someone to do something is one way of making them rebel against the very thing you are trying to convince them of. Some will give in a go with the flow, but many will have questions in their heart for which they need answers.
We need to open the Word of God to these people and allow them to see the truth for themselves so God can work in their lives. This is how we worship our God; not just be singing our hearts out to Him, but by doing what He asks of us to bring them in. When we want to worship God fully, we need to be willing to listen to Him and do His bidding in our lives.
Points to Ponder:
Do you find it hard to share the Gospel?
Have you tried just showing people how much you love God?
June 4: John 20 30-31
Key Verse: John 20 31
But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.
Devotion:
What is the right level of getting out there and letting others know about Christ? How far do you go before you lose people in the abundance of words… Let’s face it, there is so much to tell people about Jesus and so much we still have to learn. There just does not seem to be enough time to sit down and talk about it! If we were to sit down and tell people everything we know about Jesus, it may well take us the rest of our lifetime to say the words out loud...
So how much is too little and how much is too much? The disciples wrote down things which they thought were important for us to hear about. They did not have time to write everything down so they had to get others to write it down while they talked or told others who then wrote it down… But they did this because they knew it as the truth and they knew it would count for something. They also spoke out loud to many people around the area, trying to get more people involved so more could learn the truth.
Let’s look at it another way… the disciples still had to face the Jewish authorities who insisted Jesus was not the Messiah and would do anything to stop people from spreading this gospel message. They could not simply walk down the street and preach to everyone at any time, just as we are not allowed to do that either because there are rules about not interfering with other people’s lives… even though we know it as the truth!
It is a fine balance each of us has to find in order to keep people informed without prejudicing our case and without upsetting people who just don’t want to know. To them we have to show them what we are and what we stand for; words will not suffice and words may even land us in trouble. We are the disciples of this world now. We need to allow other people to know the truth, but we have to do it without using worldly ways otherwise we will just be seen as being worldly!
Points to Ponder:
What do you do to allow other to see you are Christian?
Will you allow the Holy Spirit to guide you next?