June 25: John 4:1-9
Key Verse: John 4:1
Now Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that he was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John
Devotion:
One of the things I have tried to stay away from is the ‘numbers game’ where church leaders or missionaries try to measure their success by the number of people the reach or gain into their ‘flock.’ I try to fool myself into believing I have never lead anyone to the Lord because I feel better for what I do if I think in that manner! Jesus went about His daily life in teaching mode when with the church leaders, in loving mode when with disciples, in exploring mode when with people asking questions and in merciful mode when meeting with sinners.
He did not treat people all the same. He treated them differently, but loved them all the same. When He heard the Pharisees were trying to take count of how many people were being added to the Christians following, He went off to do something different. It was the disciples who were doing the evangelising even though they did not see it that way. It was the disciples doing the baptising most of the time, but Jesus welcomed every one of them into the church, no matter what circumstance surrounded them.
When they came to the town called Sychar, Jesus sat down at the well and waited, not for the crowds to develop or for the number to increase, but for the lone person who was about to come to the well hoping they would not be noticed! It was not all about gathering as many people together to try and convert them, but reaching out to a single person at the right time with an open heart.
We need to stop our race to make a big church and reach out to the single people who come through our lives, the ones who are slipping through the cracks because they don’t want to be ridiculed by the righteous people. The ones who Jesus loves because they are hurting and missing out on the love He wants them to have just because of their circumstances.
Points to Ponder:
Who do you think your church is aiming to reach?
Will you step off the beaten track today to reach out to a very lost soul?
June 24: Mark 8:14-21
Key Verse: Mark 8:18
Do you have eyes but fail to see, and ears but fail to hear? And don’t you remember?
Devotion:
How quickly do you forget when things happen your way? I’m sure we can all recall a time when things went wrong or they did not happen in the way we expected them to, but how many times do you remember when things happened the right way? If you are like me, then you tend to forget the good things because we are expected them to happen and they happened; but those bad things I remember!
Jesus pointed this out to the disciples because He could sense they were only picking up on the bad things. We are very much like the disciples in the way we remember things too. If we want to try and see the amount of times God is actually doing things in our lives, then we have to make a big change in how we remember things. I could say we should all write down each good or bad thing, but I know I keep forgetting to write down the good times.
Our attitude needs to change, not so we can try to overcome the bad things but so we can focus on the good things and start to expect the good things every day of our lives. The more we expect God to do things, the more we will ask Him to intercede because we are expecting something good to come out of it! But so long as we focus on the bad times, we expect to not get our prayers answered – whether we use the excuse that we are asking the wrong things or at the wrong time, or whether we say “God doesn’t want me to have that yet” is not really the question…
We should be looking back in our lives and picking up on the things God has done so we will be encouraged to ask for more. We should be asking and expecting positive responses all the time. This is what God has promised and what we should expect! Is it time for us to make a change? Yes! Expect better things and start loving the people God has brought into your lives!
Points to Ponder:
Do you focus on the bad times like me?
Will you join me in trying to focus on what God has done?
June 23: Mark 7:14-15
Key Verse: Mark 7:15
Nothing outside a person can defile them by going into them. Rather, it is what comes out of a person that defiles them.
Devotion:
What is it which makes you afraid of going out into the world and showing people you are a Christian? I know we all still have fears during this time when the virus is still hanging round our necks, but what I am aiming at here is the choice we have to go into a different surrounding to our normal lives and try to make a difference. I used to be very scared of allowing myself to be ‘corrupted’ by people whom I thought not to be Christians, but God has taught me we have to do what Jesus did!
Jesus did not just limit His journey to a few converts and teach them all they needed to preach to others. He went into the most deprived places, the places where criminals kept company and to the places where one would not normally invite yourself into. This is what He wants us to do as well – as scary as it does sound and feel!
The thing which opened my eyes was to go onto a travellers camp and open up the bible to the young children. I have never felt so comforted by God and, as it happened, so protected by the people I was sharing God’s Word with! When God wants you to go somewhere, He is going to make sure you make the right impression and are comforted and cared for as long as you are doing what He is asking. It is very easy to go in with your guns blazing and try to do things by yourself and how you think things should be done. This is not what God is asking. He is asking us to continue listening to His instructions!
So how do we know the difference between what we want and what God wants? There-in lies the issue for us. We have to ask Him and wait for instructions. Not just a couple of seconds after we pray as our minds fill up with good ideas, but wait for as long as it takes for Him to give us a definitive answer – that is always the hard part!
Points to Ponder:
Do you think you are doing the right things for God?
Are you doing what God is actually asking?
June 22: Mark 7:1-8
Key Verse: Mark 7:7
They worship me in vain; their teachings are merely human rules.
Devotion:
It is very easy to get caught up in the feelings of a mass gathering and do things without really meaning them. It is very easy to get caught up in the heat of the moment and do something which you would otherwise not think of doing. This is part of our human nature; a part we need to watch out for when we come to worship God.
God is not caught up in the moment and will not accept a repetitive task being done as a substitute for a relationship with Him! We may be able to fool people by doing something over and over again to pretend we are doing it for the right reasons, but we cannot pull the wool over God’s eyes – He sees everything, including what is in your heart.
The prophet Isaiah had been given warnings from God that the people would ‘turn cold’ because they would get caught up in doing things out of habit instead of doing them because of their love for God. He wrote those things down for us to remember and people do remember these things; but we still get carried away with doing things out of habit instead of doing it for God. Christ came to give His life for us so we could draw near to God. He gave everything so we could come closer to God with open hearts and minds. The least we can do is come forward with open hearts…
Jesus berated the Pharisees and the teachers for doing things out of habit or because that was the way the other people were doing things. God does not teach us to follow human rules but to follow His rules. He does not want us all to be people who gather round and do things together just because our parents or our grandparents did so. He wants us to do things because we love Him and want to honour Him with our actions and our thoughts.
Points to Ponder:
What do you do to honour God?
Will you do something different today to honour God?