April 10: Mark 16:9-15
Key Verse: Mark 16:15
He said to them, ‘Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.
Devotion:
When you read of all the occurrences of Jesus being seen by people and interacting with them after His death and resurrection, we see a common theme developing. The people who got to know Jesus wanted to talk about Him and tell others about Him. This is exactly what Christ wants us to do – not to keep it quiet, but to tell more people so they too can believe in what has happened.
The Apostles knew Him well and knew what they had to do – to go out into the rest of the world and preach the gospel... to tell people the truth. The Apostles were confronted by priests and scribes who told them not to go round speaking of Jesus as being anything more than a man; but they could not hold back the truth and told the people in charge this is what they would continue to do – because they had witnessed the truth and had to tell people the truth!
When we get to know Jesus nowadays, we get to know the love and mercy He has for each of us. This is a very tangible truth we get to know! It is something we could just say, but people would be sceptical of what we say. But when they too get to know Christ personally, they too want to share this love, peace and mercy with others.
We will all have our doubts about what has happened and even why it happened, but the more we open our hearts and minds to the truth, the more we will recognise it as the truth and the more we will want to share this truth as well. God wants us to share this love, not just with our friends and families, but with everyone we meet, and everything we see too. God is the God of everything, not just people!
Points to Ponder:
What do you do with good news?
Will you share God’s Good News with everything?
April 9: Acts 4:1-4
Key Verse: Acts 4:3
They seized Peter and John and, because it was evening, they put them in jail until the next day.
Devotion:
There are so many accounts of what we may look at as being rough justice for the disciples as they spread the gospel message to everyone they came into contact with. This sort of history can be off-putting for us – why should we have to go through rough justice just to tell people about Jesus? Well, have a think about how much Jesus did for you...
Every instance of the Apostles being attacked, imprisoned, hunted down or otherwise persecuted, has a persecutor behind it. And behind that persecutor is a feeling or emotion – normally pride or greed! The Apostles were persecuted because of the pride and greed of other people, not because they were telling the truth. This is going to be the case no matter what truth we are telling in our lives. If you stand up and tell the truth, there will probably be someone who wants that truth hidden and will do anything to hide it...
Jesus sees directly into our hearts and knows why we do the things we do. He knew what would happen when He stood up and told the truth. He could see the corruption of the people in charge of the country or religion at the time, just as He sees into our hearts right now. What He is asking us to do, and has been asking mankind forever, is to try and tell the truth and share the truth about God... What could be better than a world where we all know about God, about Jesus and work with the Holy Spirit at all times? Alas, sin is always going to be in our lives until we get to Heaven; so we need to be ready to put up with the consequences of sin...
Points to Ponder:
Are you afraid to tell the truth?
What would happen if people found out you were telling lies?
April 8: Luke 24:36-43
Key Verse: Luke 24:41
And while they still did not believe it because of joy and amazement, he asked them, ‘Do you have anything here to eat?’
Devotion:
I wonder how much joy Jesus got out of appearing in amongst the disciples after His resurrection! From this account we can see how the disciples could still not believe Jesus was back from the dead – they are the ones who had witnessed all Christ went through, the death and the burial! Jesus wanted them to know He was fully raised from the dead and was once again in human form; He asked them for something to eat and joined them in eating some fish.
We are brought up to know the gift of life is very special and the closer we get to death, be it our own or friends and family around us, we begin to know how final it may seem. Yet Christ was giving the disciples, and us, hope there is something more after our physical death – even life eternal!
Here Jesus was asking the disciples to extend their faith from what He had told them during their ministry together, to the reality of what God can and will do. This was the physical proof they needed to have absolute faith in everything Jesus had taught them. This is now all written down for us to read and digest over time so we too can bolster our faith in Christ.
In everything we read about the life of Jesus whilst here on earth in human form, we read a set of deliberate events all to achieve the ultimate goal of being our Saviour because of His great love for us. The more we read, the more we should realise this was all deliberate and aimed at saving us from ourselves. This is the basis of our faith.
Points to Ponder:
How often do you meditate over what Christ has done for you?
Will you accept what Christ has done and share it with others?
April 7: Acts 3:1-10
Key Verse: Acts 3:6
Then Peter said, ‘Silver or gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.’
Devotion:
When I read this story, I always think of the modern professional beggars who are always in prominent places around cities, where they know they either have a captive audience, or they know the people are kind. This man had learned of the kindness of the people who came to the temple, but I’m sure he was not expecting a gift of this magnitude when he was there this day!
I also think of the saying my grandmother used to say to me when I was young - “If you don’t ask, you don’t get.” This man had learned to ask for help and in those times, it was looked at as a humiliating act which he had been forced to do every day for as long as he had been lame. There was no other way he could make a living...
Peter and John stopped when the man asked them for a bit of spare change. Peter admitted to the man he did not have any money because they had learned it was not good to save up their money when it could be used for greater good. But just because they did not have any money on them this time, did not stop them from doing the greater good!
This time they relied on what Jesus had taught them and what Jesus had blessed them with because of their faith. Peter told the man to get up and walk in Jesus' name! He did not tell him to get up and walk because he was now a healer but relied on what Christ could do when he said something in Christ’s name. And Christ made sure the man was healed and was able to spread the good news to more people!
Points to Ponder:
Have you ever tried to do something and failed?
Will you invite Christ to do it with you next time?