April 17: 1 John 3:1-6
Key Verse: 1 John 3:1
See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.
Devotion:
The more you work and live as a Christian, the more you begin to realise there is a large gap between people who know Christ and those who don’t. I used to think there was a very large gap between the religious people and everyone else, but it goes a lot deeper than just religion!
To be able to be called a child of God is pretty amazing and something which I treasure deeply – but also something the world does not seem to comprehend! We may as well be talking a different language when we say things like this! This gap is the understanding Christ gives to us when we get to know Him. It is not something magical which we gain because of all the religious things we do or say, it is an understanding we get to know through knowing Christ personally.
There are some questions we get asked to which we don’t know the answers, questions for which the answers are known by God and not yet by mankind. When we get to be with Jesus on His return, we will get to know the answers. Until then, we should be content with knowing Christ and having faith He knows what is best for us. This is part of our faith in Christ – we don’t know the answers, but because we know He does, we can depend on Him!
For as long as we have this hope in Christ, and depend on it, we can live as forgiven children of God. We don’t have to wait until we get to heaven or until we die, we are now Children of God because of our faith in Him. We live with sin and we continue to sin, but because of our relationship with Christ, we can know we are forgiven and redeemed already!
Points to Ponder:
Do you know you are a child of God?
Will you depend on Him for your parental guidance?
April 16: Isaiah 59:9-11
Key Verse: Isaiah 59:11
We all growl like bears; we moan mournfully like doves. We look for justice, but find none; for deliverance, but it is far away.
Devotion:
Sometimes, when things go wrong we lose sight of the real things in life and all we see is what has, is and can go wrong! We assume there is no way out because we did something wrong and have to face up to what we think is the punishment. But, as is the case in so many things in life, there is always a life-line which can be reached out to.
These words describe the hopelessness we feel when we think the world around us is closing in on us. We are like blind people in a surrounding we don’t know. We have to feel our way round because we ‘see’ nothing; like we are lost in the world when others seem to be doing fine and we are not. In the middle of the day, when everyone else is seeing things just fine, we still cannot see anything – the hopelessness of it all!
We groan and moan because we are stuck in a position where we see no way out; we cannot keep quiet because it is overwhelming in every way. This is the hopelessness of the world! Christ has seen this and knows what we face. He came to change this for us so, despite everything we think is blocking us from a life of peace and joy, He opened the door so we can find our way to Him.
God send Jesus to make a difference, to switch on the lights, to open the locked doors, to remove the scales from our eyes which blind us. Christ took on the debt for all we have done wrong and frees us... but we must make the choice to open our eyes and see the truth He brings. To do this we only have to repent of our sins and Christ has promised to forgive us and give us a peace only He can give!
Points to Ponder:
Do you feel lost and bound up?
Will you turn to the truth and allow Christ to free you?
April 15: 1 Corinthians 4:1-5
Key Verse: 1 Corinthians 4:4
My conscience is clear, but that does not make me innocent. It is the Lord who judges me.
Devotion:
The more Paul went round teaching people about Jesus, the more he would have been exposed to the pride and deceit which was running through the religious organisations at the time. I hesitate to call it the church because Paul was trying to open their eyes to what was going on without judging them – they had become puffed up in their ways instead of the ways God had declared.
The more we get caught up in what we think God wants, the more we try to build it up and the more puffed up we will become. This takes us away from God’s word because we are now focusing on what we think God needs instead of what He has actually asked us to do, both through His word and through what He tells us.
Paul was very quick to respond to questions about judging others because he knew he was not innocent even though people may have looked at him as being innocent because of the work he was doing. Let us never forget that! We are just as guilty doing God’s Work as doing our earthly work. We are only forgiven by Christ because He has chosen to forgive us after we admit the truth...
Paul’s conscience was clear because he knew Christ had promised to forgive him for the things he had done wrong. He knew he could stand on those promises no matter how bad things had been in the past. He knew the only one who had the right to judge him was the One who stepped forward and took his debt!
Points to Ponder:
Do you still worry about what you have done wrong?
Will you remember Christ stepped forward and took on your debt?
April 14: Romans 1:14-17
Key Verse: Romans 1:16
For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile.
Devotion:
Ok, so now we know God wants us to go out and tell people the truth about Jesus and to help others to get to know Him better, what are we going to do about it? How many of you slipped lower into your seats as you read that line? Many of us are certainly not ready to tell the world about Jesus because we are not all disposed to being some sort of evangelist!
Paul had no issues with going out to tell others about Jesus because He knew that is what Jesus had told him to do – to go out and tell others about Jesus, not just the Jews. Each one of us are given someone to tell about Jesus – whether it is standing up in front of some people and talking about what you know about Jesus, or whether it is simply sitting and talking to a single friend... we have our tasks to do.
Paul knew he had to go out to all the people where he was before going on a round trip of the Mediterranean! He knew God was calling him to spread the Good News to many more people who had not been focused on by the disciples. The disciples themselves had been given the difficult task of talking to the Jews to try and bring them round to knowing the full truth about Jesus.
Paul had a fairly clean sheet of going out to other people to tell them of all the things which had been happening over the past few years in and around Jerusalem. There were many witnesses to what Jesus did and a whole lot of opposition from the Jews... But, the Gentiles, on the other hand did not have these pre-conceived ideas and they could listen to this fresh Good News and be encouraged by it. It’s always easier to learn from the mistakes of others rather than your own mistakes!
Points to Ponder:
Are you ready to talk to someone about Jesus?
How about just telling someone why you love Jesus?