October 25: Colossians 1:21-23
 
Key Verse: Colossian 1:21
Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behaviour.
 
Devotion:
I love the way the writer does not condemn people for what they have done, but reminds us all we are the perceived enemy, not because of what we have done, but because of what is going on in our minds... Once we can get passed the idea of being in conflict with God, we can quickly know how much God wants us to be with Him in everything.
 
God did not create us to work against Him or to be away from Him; He created us to be with Him! Christ came to earth to show us just how much God wants us to be with Him by giving His life so we can! Jesus’ body stands over us to cleanse us from all sin and present us before God in Heaven as if we had not sinned at all; this is the hope we have through our faith in what has happened and what has been promised.
 
The words in our bibles are those chosen for us to have; a source of knowledge and wisdom we need in order to have our faith supported enough for us to believe it and sustain it. As long as we continue to uphold this faith, we continue to hold fast to the hope we have in Christ Jesus.
 
Because of these words and this encouragement, we can share the hope and faith we have with those around us. We don’t have to memorise every single word in exact order but to be able to share what we have with others through the love we gain from Jesus. Enjoy reading and learning more each day and enjoy what God has in store for you!
 
Points to Ponder:
Do you feel alienated from God?
 
Have you read His Word lately?

October 24: 1 Corinthians 6:18-20
 
Key Verse: 1 Corinthians 6:19
Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own;
 
Devotion:
How honest do you think you are? How honest do you know you are? We have all done something wrong with our bodies at some stage in our lives, from the stuff which comes out of our mouths, the debatable things running through our minds, the greed and lust of our spirits – the list could be endless for each of us if we brought up every little thing we have done wrong!
 
God wants us to know He will forgive us for the things we bring to Him. He has promised this to us, and Jesus came to live out that promise. If we want to continue to try and hide stuff from God (which is impossible) then we are harming our own spirits as we fight against an unseen enemy. The harm is not toward God because He already knows what we have done, but toward ourselves as we build up false hope on a foundation which is just not there!
 
This part of scripture is highlighting sexual immorality because it is probably one of the biggest things which will break down our spiritual and mental health. When we consent to sexual immorality, which we know to be wrong, we are heaping up fuel in the fire which is burning away at our spiritual and mental health. We need to be honest with God and honest with ourselves – that way we may have a better chance at hearing when the Holy Spirit tries to guide us away from such menacing things in our lives.
 
Think of is as being like a huge bonfire. The more fuel we give the fire, the more we hear the fire and not the voices around us. We may not be being consumed by the actual fire, but the noise it produces consumes our thoughts and we are quickly lost in the noise of the flames instead of the communion with the people next to us. Don’t feed the fire...
 
Points to Ponder:
What do you throw into the fire every day?
 
Will you give it to God instead of feeding the fire?

October 23: Matthew 25:1-13
 
Key Verse: Matthew 25:10
But while they were on their way to buy the oil, the bridegroom arrived. The virgins who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet. And the door was shut.
 
Devotion:
This story has always fascinated me because it just seems so far from what I think of Heaven being like. It’s not about the fact these were virgins but half of them were described as being foolish, not because they did not come prepared, but because they were not fully prepared.
 
If we bring this into a more modern setting, we won’t talk of virgins coming to a bridegroom but of people coming to meet a long missing friend who is flying in to meet them; the problem being they are at an airport in the middle of Africa where there are no lights other than torches and battery lamps carried by people (we’ll ignore the fact there must be lights on the runway for the plane to land!)
 
Now each friend brought a torch with them which worked. But half of them did not have spare batteries. The plane was delayed... like really delayed... So they all took a nap while they waited. When they heard the plane arriving, the torches had run out of battery power. The half who had spare batteries simply swapped out the batteries and carried on. Now, we can’t share batteries between torches, so some had to run off to the local shop to try and buy a new set of batteries... but when they returned, they were too late to meet their friend...
 
God wants us to be prepared to try and cope with many circumstances we will encounter while we wait for Jesus to return. If we do not have the wherewithal to cope in some way with what we face, we may well to too tied up in the world to notice when Christ does return. God wants us to be ready – which means being prepared for as much as we can be.
 
Points to Ponder:
Do you wait till you run out of batteries before you get more?
 
Are you running short in spirit because you are not being charged by God’s Word?