November 14: Numbers 21 4-9
Key Verse: Numbers 21 5
they spoke against God and against Moses, and said, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? There is no bread! There is no water! And we detest this miserable food!”
Devotion:
Can you imagine only having one source of food for most of your life. Let’s pick potatoes for an example. Pretty soon we would be a bit sick of potatoes even though they can be cooked in so many different ways and make so many different things. We would also find we would become deficient in many vitamins and minerals so would not last beyond several weeks before we craved something nutritional. But what God was giving to the children of Israel as they journey round Edom was totally sustaining in every way. How else could they survive for so many years... But still they grew weary of having the same food day in day out. We look at that now and say, but that's only human...
That is the problem, it's the human way of looking at it. If we looked at it from God's point of view, He was providing a perfect meal, every meal, without charge for years! God just wanted them to realise that they could and should rely on Him for everything, always. But Israel showed they were “human” and spoke out against the very hand which was sustaining them because of their desire to have other things in their lives.
The serpents which came into the camp are a perfect picture of how we let sin into our lives. We let it destroy us. We try to fight it ourselves and find we cannot because of our own weaknesses. We need God to help us defeat our own weaknesses. The bronze serpent held up on a pole was a perfect example of what Jesus would become many years later. All they had to do was to look up at the serpent... just look at it! We have an equally simple solution in our lives. All we have to do is believe on one simple thing, that Jesus is the Son of God, and we will be saved from our sins. Yet so many of us just don't make that choice.
What do we have to lose? Nothing... But, we do have everything to gain!
Points to Ponder:
What “serpents” do you allow into your life?
How often do you turn to God for help?
November 13: Proverbs 27 7
Key Verse: Proverbs 27 7
One who is full loathes honey from the comb, but to the hungry even what is bitter tastes sweet.
Devotion:
Have you noticed the more you have of a good thing the more you get used to it. Pretty soon that good thing becomes the norm for you and you expect more. When you then get less or something different, you wonder what has gone wrong. But give a thought to those who would actually love to get the least of which you get because that is more than they normally get. Just like the poor will hunger and thirst after food and drink, we need to hunger and thirst after the gospel.
We like to think we will never get sick of having our favourite food day in and day out, but if we were pressed to eat it for every meal, we may well get sick of it after a while. This is going to be true for almost every food we have, but surprisingly, not for the gospel. God has given us a desire to learn more about Him. He has given us a desire to seek out the truth. That desire to find the truth may well be partially satisfied when we give our lives back to God, but the hunger for more knowledge will never cease. The more we learn, the more we want to find out...
If only it was that simple! We have so many distractions and temptations in our lives that we find any time to spend in God's Word seems to be short at hand! We think we don't have time to spend looking into the gospel and finding out a bit more because we get busy with things. Pretty soon we get used to not having His Word with us all the time and we start to turn away seeking out earthly pleasures rather than the truth. The more earthly pleasures we have, the fuller we become with them and the less we seek after God. If we were to spend our whole life eating junk food, we may not live too long because of the excess fats. We need to make sure we get good food as well so we can survive. Why then should we starve our souls of the good food it requires! We need a regular and steady supply of the gospel to keep ourselves close to Christ!
Points to Ponder:
How much junk food do you eat?
How much junk do you let into your life?
November 12: Proverbs 27 5-6
Key Verse: Proverbs 27 6
Wounds from a friend can be trusted, but an enemy multiplies kisses.
Devotion:
If we are going to be bold enough to be able to face up to friends and neighbours, then we have to be bold enough to accept criticism from them and even face up to being told off by them too. How else are we going to learn other than through having our errors corrected? Can you imagine what it would be like if none of our errors were corrected – we would simply continue in sin... Equally, we should be able to tell our friends when they are doing something wrong and expect them to be able to accept the truth as well.
If we do not get the small things off of our chests then they will build up and corrupt our spirits. Secretly hating what others are doing is not only going to cause us grief, but will ultimately cause us to lash out at our friends when we get to the point where we cannot take any more. If we are to say we love our friends and neighbours, then we must show them we do by standing up and telling them when things are not right. Ignoring things and trying to brush over them is just going to cause grief in the long run. When we ourselves get told of our wrong-doings, we need to remember that our friends will be doing this out of love and not out of spite... Just as a doctor is there to help a patient by doing what is required and not to simply say nice things to make them happy, we need to be there for others.
But just as we accept things from our friends, we do have to watch out what we accept from our enemies. Our enemies may well be the ones who tell us the nice things to try and make us happy whilst not doing the right things. We may find our friends tell us off whilst our enemies don't. We need to know what is wrong so we can identify who is telling the truth. Most of the time we will already know what is right and wrong and we will already know who is telling the truth – but we will not always accept it because we may just want to “feel nice”! Being able to stand on God's Word and allow Him to help and direct us through His word will help us to know who our true friends are – the ones that are telling us the truth...
Points to Ponder:
Do you help to cover up friends wrong-doings?
Would you openly help Satan to get his own way?
November 11: John 13 12-17
Key Verse: John 13 14
Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet.
Devotion:
How special do you feel when someone important does something for you? We seem to play our parts in society whereby we do things for people whom we think are more important than us and yet we pass over doing things for people we think are beneath us. We impose a class society even though we may think there should not be one. We stick to that class society because this seems to be the way we think the world works. When someone is willing to bend the rules and do something out of the ordinary for someone who is perceived to be lower than them, it gets recognised! If a member of government or royalty goes out of their way to help the poor our needy, it makes news headlines! Why? Why can't we just take that as being normal and do things like this whenever we can? This is exactly what Jesus was teaching here!
Jesus reminded them there will always be a class society but that we should break the trend and do things across the classes. How else are we going to stand out as the people who live more like Jesus if we are not willing to do the same? This is not the only case of this happening because we hear how Jesus would heal the lepers, the lowest of the low. We hear how He talked to single ladies living in sin, something a Jew should never even think about. He bucked the trend because He knew what people needed.
It is not that hard to spot when someone needs a helping hand. It is not that difficult to help them out. The difficult part comes when you are the one who has to step forward over the boundary to do something – because we have these things burned into us by society. We need to get out there and make a difference to everyone's lives, not just the people we live with. We need to remember more than just our friends and neighbours. We need to remember the people in society who may not normally get noticed because Jesus has told us to do exactly that!
Points to Ponder:
Do you feel good when you help others?
How often do you help?
November 10: Luke 11 27-28
Key Verse: Luke 11 28
He replied, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it.”
Devotion:
There are so many small things in the bible which we often read straight over without giving them another thought, but I would like you to give this one some thought. When Jesus was here as a human He had to face all manner of people; from the people who loved and worshipped Him, through to the people who despised Him for what He stood for and for what they did not. On this occasion He was faced with the scribes and Pharisees as they tried to say He was of the devil. His reaction was not to rain fire down from heaven but to point out why they were wrong in the simplest of ways.
This one woman lifted up her voice from the crowd and shouted out “Blessed is the womb that bore you and nursed you.” Ordinarily each of us may be pleased to accept this sort of praise. We would be happy for anyone who would stand up and shout our praises or praise our parents. But Christ turned it back on the very people who were around Him. He said that those who hear His Word and keep it would be the ones who are blessed. Christ was not one to “pump himself up” in front of the crowd or to do so about His earthly mother. He wants us to know He will bless us when we are willing to read His Word and to keep it!
There is a big difference between reading the bible and keeping it. Many people have bibles and I would guess most of the people who do have them do not read them regularly. Many simply use them to bring to church because that is where they think they should read them. But God wants us to be able to access His Word at all times. He wants us to be able to rely on it at all times. He wants us to carry it with us so we can be prepared. If we are willing to read our bibles, we will learn more. The more we learn, the more we carry round with us. The more we are able to carry round, the more we can be used by Him to help others! Keeping His Word is just one of those ways...
Points to Ponder:
How many bibles are in your household?
How often do you sit down and read any one of them?