March 23: John 8:27-30
Key Verse: John 8:28
So Jesus said, ‘When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he and that I do nothing on my own but speak just what the Father has taught me.
Devotion:
How many times have you not believed something until it was too late? I know I have been in that boat many times before and so, now, I tend to believe my friends and family and I have not missed out in so much anymore; but it also means I have to spend more time supporting friends and family too. That has made me a much better person!
I believe this is one of the main reasons why Jesus wants us to love and support our neighbours so much. If we can all draw closer and spend more time together, Covid depending, then I believe our communities will grow into much better places to live. When I first moved onto an estate in London, I was very surprised by the amount of people who were willing to take a chance and make a difference. Don’t be put off by the look of a problem or by the statistics the government or other authorities put on different places – God knows what is in people’s hearts much more than we do. Trust Him.
Jesus knew what lay ahead for Him and He knew how much He was going to have to do in order for us to know Him as the Son of God. He was willing to do this all despite the horror which lay ahead. If He was willing to do this for us even before we knew Him, then how much more should we be willing to do this for the people we are getting to know in our communities!
God has spent a lot of time preparing the ground – we need to come in and tend to the ground so His long-standing work is not in vain! Just as you love and support your God, love and support your community because God has put the people into your community for a reason!
Points to Ponder:
How many opportunities do you see in your community?
What are you going to do about it?
March 22: John 8:2-11
Key Verse: John 8:11
‘No one, sir,’ she said. ‘Then neither do I condemn you,’ Jesus declared. ‘Go now and leave your life of sin.’
Devotion:
How quick are you to blame someone for doing something wrong? Do you talk about people and say how many bad things they have done? Do you use the law of the land or ‘righteousness’ to say how some people are bad people? We all do this to a certain extent because we live in a land where we have to uphold the law.
When the teachers of the law had Jesus in front of them, they brought in a person who had been caught in the act of adultery. Now, according to the laws handed down via Moses, someone who was caught in the act of adultery should be stoned to death! Not nice, but those were the laws to try and prevent people from causing so much pain and hurt in other peoples’ lives.
When they confronted Jesus, He asked which one of them had not done something wrong in their lives... and none of them could answer because, just like you and I, they had done something wrong. Let’s face facts – we are all guilty of something or other and because of that, we don’t really have the right to bring judgement upon others!
God has taught us we need to have witnesses and trials to make sure people who are accused of doing wrong get what they deserve – but when it comes to taking a life, do we really have the right if we have done things wrong in our lives which can be just as damaging as what they have done wrong. This is a debatable topic and one which has caused many countries to stop the death penalty all together. Jesus is willing to forgive anything we have done is we are willing to try and change after admitting what we have done is wrong in God’s eyes.
Points to Ponder:
Do you blame others for what is wrong in your community?
Have you tried changing your community through love?
March 21: Jeremiah 31:31-34
Key Verse: Jeremiah 31:31
‘The days are coming,’ declares the Lord, ‘when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah.
Devotion:
Who would have thought the Son of God would come down to live amongst us, die for us and be raised from death to show us the way forward which God promises here! Who would have thought these words would mean Jesus would come to live with us – we can look back on them now and realise what God meant, but often we find we hear things we don’t fully understand... not because we are not listening properly, but because we cannot comprehend the marvellous things God can do and does do for us!
When we hear from God, we almost always think back of the things we have done before and try to make sense of things from what we know already. Too many times we don’t hear the words “I am doing a new thing” when God say so.
One day, when we are with God in Heaven, we will understand some of the things He has said to us in the bible. Some of the things written down for us still don’t make sense to us – because we are limiting God’s ability to our own thinking instead of allowing Him to expand our minds and hearts.
When I first went to work in deprived areas, I was worried whether I would be able to cope with this new work; but once you allow God to take control and allow Him to really guide you instead of trying to steer Him, then you can get to grips with what God wants in your life! It is not easy at first because it is often uncomfortable because we feel like we are not in control – that is exactly what God wants! He wants to be in control!
Points to Ponder:
Do you try to do your best for God?
Will you allow Him to change you?
March 20: John 7:37-44
Key Verse: John 7:43
Thus the people were divided because of Jesus.
Devotion:
Have you noticed how you always get opposition from people who don’t want to believe in what you believe in? No matter how much we expect things, we always seem to be surprised when we get opposition from people who say they believe or are part of a church or even say they are Christians. And there is nothing new about these conflicts!
What Jesus wants for us is to come to Him with an open heart, to listen to His teaching and to obey it. Only when we start to reflect our Saviour can we pass on this teaching to the people around us. If we try to do things our own way, we will falter and stumble because we cannot see the pitfalls like Christ can. God has seen it all before as mankind has tried and failed so many times before. So why do we insist on giving it another go by ourselves if we have failed so many times before?
The answer to that is probably because we do not listen to Christ enough, and we certainly do not listen to the Holy Spirit enough! Jesus tried to tell people how much better things would be if they listened to the Holy Spirit because they would be able to share so much more with others. And this is where we seem to differ from others – some want a quiet life just doing what the old church did, others want to just be good people whilst some want to jump up and down and shout to the world about God!
We are going to have differing opinions as we move forward because not all people have been taught by the same teachers. God saw this and knew people would always be in conflict because of the differences in what has gone before. This is why He wanted people to listen more to the Holy Spirit because that teaching is coming straight from God!
Points to Ponder:
Do you have arguments with others in church?
Will you try to listen to the Holy Spirit more today?