December 17: Luke 7:18-23
Key Verse: Luke 7:22
So he replied to the messengers, ‘Go back and report to John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor.
Devotion:
Yesterday we had this passage at the beginning of our estates meeting. What is the first thing you get out of this passage? Is it the importance of John and Jesus getting introduced? Is it the miracles Jesus was performing: healing the sick, releasing people from evil spirits, giving the blind sight, allowing the lame to walk, giving hearing to the deaf, even raising the dead! Or is it the giving of the good news to the poor?
Jesus was doing so many things which were catching the attention of the priests, the scribe and the pharisees. It wasn’t as if He was going out of His way to upset them, but what He was doing was certainly getting their attention. The people were getting used to a hierarchy of religion which was becoming more important than the telling of the gospel. It seemed like people did not want to upset others and keeping to this hierarchical structure helped them to do that!
But, in amongst all the miracles Jesus was listing for the two disciples to go back to John with, was the giving of the good news to the poor. Those people who maybe did not feel worthy to be able to enter the temple. Those people who had been marginalised and missed out of the religious circles. These are the people Jesus was reaching out to because they were the people who needed to hear the gospel most of all!
We have seen people rebelling against hierarchical structures in society lately, what with the Black Lives Matter movement, equal rights and pay structures between sexes and races – we are beginning to see people take notice of the age-old structures in society which were placed there by the privileged few. Let us take the gospel, the good news, and tell it to the people who have been left out of society just because they don’t fit the normal!
Points to Ponder:
Who did you get to hear the gospel from?
Why did they pick you to give the good news to?
December 16: Luke 1:26-38
Key Verse: Luke 1:35
The angel answered, ‘The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.
Devotion:
Here we have a young Mary who is probably just getting used to the idea she is going to be married soon, when the angel Gabriel appears to her and tells her she is going to have a baby! Before she has even been with Joseph! And Joseph is not even going to be the father! Let's start to get that round our heads...
But Mary accepts what Gabriel says and starts to prepare herself for the road ahead. What are the people going to say? What is Joseph going to say? We can’t really begin to wonder what she was getting ready to face – other than she knew God was in it and God was going to take care of her!
Gabriel did not say everything was going to be fine and dandy, he did not say it would be smooth sailing from here on in. He did not say they would be placed in danger as soon as Jesus was born. And I don’t think Mary would have foreseen that either. But she was willing to say ‘yes!’ and to go with whatever God deemed necessary.
Her faith was going to make it all ok in the end – that is what she was clinging to and what we should be focusing on in our lives. We need to have faith God is going to tell us where and when we need to be in order to fulfil His will in our lives. We need to listen to that will and say, “here am I, send me!”
Points to Ponder:
Are you ready to listen to God?
Will you say “here I am, send me” today?
December 15: Luke 1:11-20
Key Verse: Luke 1:17
And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the parents to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous – to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.’
Devotion:
You’ve got to feel sorry for Zechariah! Here is a man doing what any one of us would do – questioning someone when they say God is going to do something great in your life! We all have doubts and because we are accustomed to those doubts controlling much of our lives, we give in to them all the time and don’t quite believe things people tell us anymore...
But Gabriel was quite strict on Zechariah because he held a position of great respect in the church at the time. Zechariah had probably given up hope in having a son because both he and Elizabeth were getting on in age (I know the feeling.) God does not give up on us, no matter how long it has been since we asked for His help and no matter how much we grow weary of our prayers being answered.
We must never give up hope in God. We must always trust in His faithfulness and in His power over everything. Jesus came to earth and demonstrated just a little bit of what God can do when we have absolute faith and trust in Him for everything. God wants us to be more like Jesus and have that faith. He wants us to remember all the things which happened because Jesus asked them of God. He wants us to remember and have hope in what He can continue to do in our lives.
Points to Ponder:
How is your hope holding up this year?
Will you give God a bit more time to answer your prayers?
December 14: Isaiah 61:1-3
Key Verse: Isaiah 61:1
The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners
Devotion:
When you read verses like these, you know the author was sent by God to do His will; it is little wonder then Jesus used these same words, read from the scriptures, to apply to His own life – He was sent by God!
God wants people to know the truth in all things. Some of it is hard to hear because we want to be able to go and do our own things which sometimes clash with God’s ways. Sometimes the words are encouraging and make us want to go and do more for God – but in all of this, we should never forget we must do what God bids us to do. We are His messengers who are being sent out into the world to tell the world about a God who brings hope to them.
We are sent. We do not run off and start something new to try and get as many followers as possible and hope they will get to know God through what we do... we must take what God is giving us and share it with others to allow them to see God is with us and God is for us.
God wants us all to be set free from the trappings of the world – to be set free from the pits of despair we dig for ourselves and our friends. God wants to share the hope we have, not because we can do great things, but because He has accomplished it all already and is waiting for us to pick up the banner and allow others to se what He has done.
Points to Ponder:
Do you like telling others about God?
Do you do it for your own pride or for God’s glory?