- Details
- Written by: DJ Dave
- Hits: 1250
March 19: Psalms 16:5-8
Key Verse: Psalms 16:6
The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely I have a delightful inheritance.
Devotion:
I love God and I love it more when I am in a happy place and feeling like I am surrounded by love and care… but that does not always happen. We do have to face up to things which we may not like and face up to life in general – stuff happens! But through this all there are going to be those times when we feel absolutely great because everything seems to come together at that moment! Don’t stop praising God in these times; it is easy to forget about Him when you are so focused on the good things surrounding you…
The more good things happen the more we can look forward to how wonderful Heaven is going to be. The more we will be able to dream up the amazing things God has in store for us. But, even in the bad and sad times, we can look forward and know that things are going to get better. We can fall back on the many instances in our bibles which show us just how great God is and how much He cares for us. Take hold of those instances and know that God has done this before and will do it again!
When we live with God and continue to listen to His instructions, our hearts are filled with the knowledge He cares for us and we realise how much He does! It is through the good times we can lose focus and through the really rough times when it is hard to focus; but that should be our aim – to focus on Him daily. When we do we gain strength through our faith as we see so many things He is doing in our lives.
Let’s equate this to a race happening on the other side of the world – unless we link up to that race through the media or other means, we will lose focus on the race, the racers, its outcome and how it affected people. We don’t just delay the results… We need to constantly keep focus on God and in everything He is doing in our lives!
Points to Ponder:
Do you like ‘people watching’ where you sit and watch people go by?
How much do you watch God and listen to Him?
- Details
- Written by: DJ Dave
- Hits: 1252
March 18: 1 Peter 5:1-4
Key Verse: 1 Peter 5:2
Be shepherds of God’s flock that is under your care, watching over them - not because you must, but because you are willing, as God wants you to be; not pursuing dishonest gain, but eager to serve;
Devotion:
These words in this letter to Peter are words we should all be trying to live up to in times of global concern. As Christians we know what Christ went through on our behalf and know how much God has put in place for us – but what have we done in return? The bible reminds us what we do to the people around us is virtually the same as doing that to God – because we are all God’s children!
The news is so full of bad news and despair at the moment as the world faces the global pandemic of the coronavirus. We have seen some governments try to hide figures, some governments treat it as if it was not real and we see people doing all manner of things through sheer panic. So what can we do as Christians?
We are effectively the ‘elders’ of our communities and we need to take heed of these words in these verses. God has asked us to care for the people around us – whether we like it or not! We see people going against governmental advice just because they don’t trust the advice. What we need to do is to continue to uphold God’s Word and His ways, no matter what else happens around us. Don’t be tempted into panic buying like your neighbours just because they have done it. Don’t be tempted to break the law just because others are in this strange time!
We have been given so many people around us whom we can care for and who need our help in this time. We shouldn’t be doing this just because I say so, or because God says so or anyone else says so. We should be doing this because we want to make a difference – we want to care for others and we want them to be blessed!
Now is the time we can step forward and be the examples others can look to and through this God will be given the glory and His flock will expand...
Points to Ponder:
Do you like helping others?
Will you step up and help a few more people?
- Details
- Written by: DJ Dave
- Hits: 1247
March 17: James 5:13-18
Key Verse: James 5:17
Elijah was a human being, even as we are. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years.
Devotion:
One of the things we are taught to do as a Christian is to pray. This is not as a plea when everything else has failed, but as a daily and constant occurrence whereby you are taking your ideas, worries, needs and praise to God. No matter how many times it is said, we tend to allow our prayer life to fade as time goes by – because we get comfortable in the position we reach and in our relationship with God. Well, just like any relationship, you cannot just ignore your partner and expect them to carry on doing everything you want them to do without reciprocating the deeds!
Elijah showed the power of prayer by praying for a lack of rain (which lasted over three years) and then praying for rain to revive the crops. Both prayers were answered by God – not in the way which everyone wanted them to be answered, but in the way the man of God asked. Everyone else had allowed their prayer life to become cold and unresponsive.
It is at times like this when we have a global pandemic where people are going to wake up to the fact they have allowed their prayer life to go cold. It is times like this when new people are going to call out to God in desperation. God is listening to each and every prayer and is judging each of those prayers according to their sincerity – not according to the authority of the figure asking, but the sincerity of the person asking.
God wants us to be honest with Him. He wants us to be humble in our dealing with Him and the people around us. No matter what we have done in our lives and how far we think we have wandered away from God – He is listening to each one of your prayers and will answer them according to His pure and holy judgement. We can do wonderful and amazing things through prayer – I know they work because I have been on both the asking/pleading end and receiving answered prayers end. God can do immeasurably more than we can imagine – we need to ask in faith and expect the answer!
Points to Ponder:
What do you think happens to your prayers?
What is your attitude to prayer?
- Details
- Written by: DJ Dave
- Hits: 1301
March 16: Matthew 5:33-37
Key Verse: Matthew 5:37
All you need to say is simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.
Devotion:
How many times a week do you ‘swear an oath’ thinking that this will carry more weight than simply saying what you will do? I used to do this a lot until it was pointed out that we don’t have control over everything around us, so we should simply be saying what we know we can do – and if people are asking for more, then we say we will try to do that…
God made many promises to us, but He did not swear an oath. He always tells us the truth and when He says He will do something, we know it is true and we can depend on what He has said. Why is this not the same for all mankind? Because we are corrupt at the core! We have also learned not to trust people because what they have told us and what they do seem to be two different things! What we should be aiming at is bringing trust back into our relationships so we can depend on people once again.
As the world struggles to contain this current outbreak of coronavirus, people seem to have lost the will to trust in anything in many places and would rather build up their own ‘defence’ against anything by buying even more than they need to survive on. They are ignoring the needs of their neighbours and trying to go it alone – where has the trust gone in our societies?
We need to put aside our wants and desires and start thinking about the promises we made to God… “But I didn’t make any promises to God” may be your response, but I look at it differently. God simply says what is going to happen and we take that as a promise. He expects us to say what we are going to do and expects us to fulfil those words – taking it as a promise just as we take His word as a promise. That is the way we should all be living – simply saying what we can do and getting out and doing it! As an individual I promised to help people on the estate where I now live and I am trying to fulfil that as best I can – even within Governmental guidelines in the current crisis we face. We can still do this!
Points to Ponder:
Do you use excuses so you don’t have to do your work?
What excuses have you used with God?
- Details
- Written by: DJ Dave
- Hits: 1270
March 15: Matthew 5:13-16
Key Verse: Matthew 5:14
You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden.
Devotion:
Have you ever bought, or had given to you a sample of different salts? I had a present given to me which was a set of different salts from around the world: blue salt, grey salt, white salt and even pink salt. Each of the salts got their colours from the surrounding elements where they are found from volcanoes to waters. But what was common amongst all of those salts? They tasted of salt! Sounds a bit silly, but what use would any of them have been if they did not taste of salt? We expect things to taste like what we know they should taste of!
If we have salt which has lost all of it’s flavour, then the only good thing left for it would be to throw it on the ground to be used to melt ice… if it even did that any more! The same can be said of lights – we expect lights to shed light in places where we need to see after dark. We know they can do that and we expect them to do so when we flick the switch on! But what use would a light be in a closed box into which we could not see?
God looks at each one of us as salty or able to shed light. The saltiness may not be what we can do by ourselves; we may need God to enable us to be the salt which people want to taste. The light is probably not going to be us because we live in a world where we are constantly surrounded by dark and where many people try to hide in that darkness – but we are that light in many cases. The light may only be a reflection of God’s light, but it will seem to come from us at times.
The people around us are going to expect us to remain tasty and remain as a light source. We may not feel like it at times, but after we have show people a bit of God through us, they will continue to expect to see God in us when they look at us. To be of real use to these people around us we need to be filled with the salt and light which comes from God in the beginning. We need to continue allowing others to take away some salt and share the light. Don’t hide away just because you think they may not like it – it may be the one thing they have been waiting for in their lives!
Points to Ponder:
Have you ever been described as salty or full of light?
Are you ready to share that salt and light?
- Details
- Written by: DJ Dave
- Hits: 1222
March 14: Matthew 5:3-10
Key Verse: Matthew 5:5
Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
Devotion:
Over the years of reading these verses I think I have imagined myself to be in different places at different times in my life; but being meek is a little hard at times! We are not just called to be believers but to also reflect the different aspects of our awesome Saviour – and these verses do describe most aspects of Christ which we can hope to attain in our lives. We cannot be pure and holy as He is, but we can hope to be in a position where we can receive His blessings more often!
If we are willing to change our lives a bit each day and listen to what God would like in our lives, we will not just see ourselves drawing closer to Him but also see the blessings He sends our way. It may not seem like it at times when we fall into the category of the ‘persecuted’ people, but through everything in our lives we can always see the blessings. Yesterday in our staff meeting we had to write down a few reasons to be cheerful – and as the suggestions went round the room, it was clear we all had different things to be cheerful for! What an awesome God we serve!
When we fall short of the perfect life we probably wish we could have, God is standing by ready to give us the blessings we deserve. If we are going to do nothing but complain about our circumstances, then our blessings are going to fall very short of the ones we want in our lives. But when we lower our focus and accept our circumstances, we can then see more of the blessings we do receive and be more cheerful we do have something!
God does not want us to be inward focused but to be outward looking. If we are too inward focused, we will not see the world God has given for us and certainly not notice the blessings which come our way. It is not always about looking for the blessing you can get out of life or from God but also the blessing you can be to others around you. When we someone who is in need, we should be trying to fulfil their need in some way – this is what Jesus would do!
Points to Ponder:
Do you look out for your own blessings?
Do you help to bless others around you?
- Details
- Written by: DJ Dave
- Hits: 1249
March 13: Micah 6:6-8
Key Verse: Micah 6:8
He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.
Devotion:
I don’t know if I would have been able to cope with the sacrifices and ways people were called to live by thousands of years ago – but God wanted people to stop and think about what they were doing and what the implications of their actions could be. If we were faced with death because of the small things we do wrong, then we may well stop doing those little things wrong and fall in line with the law!
But was it the sacrifices and burnt offerings God wanted – I fear not. I believe He was trying to make a point for us to see what we are doing wrong and the only way He could do that was to be quite extreme with His dealings with mankind! We face the same sort of things in our lives – when we fall out of line and start getting carried away with ourselves, the people around us may well take a drastic step to try and make us realise what we are doing wrong. Sometimes it takes that big step for us to wake up!
I wonder what it would have smelt like when a king like David was making a very large sacrifice of hundreds of animals to dedicate things to God. When I was in high school I was able to visit a slaughter house where animals were being killed for food and the smell of that took a few days to wear off – I kept thinking I smelt the blood and the burning of various things… When the kings of old performed large sacrifices, they would have been in the open and the smell would have permeated everything!
This is not what God requires. He does not require us to do all the sacrificing and carry on trying to show we are sorry through horrible acts like that. He wants to see the change in our hearts where we want to be good and we want to act justly, the love mercy (both to us and to others) and to walk humbly with Him. That means just getting on and doing the stuff He wants you to do and not shouting and boasting about it – a fine line we often step over in our lives nowadays.
Points to Ponder:
Do you act justly?
Will you live with mercy?
- Details
- Written by: DJ Dave
- Hits: 1279
March 12: Luke 8:11-15
Key Verse: Luke 8:13
Those on the rocky ground are the ones who receive the word with joy when they hear it, but they have no root. They believe for a while, but in the time of testing they fall away.
Devotion:
Do you know someone who used to come to church but has either been struggling with things or just seems to have lost interest? I think we can all think of someone who falls into one of those categories – and, if you are like me, you long for them to be released from the thing which is trapping them so they can get back to a loving relationship with Christ!
That is where we come in… How consistent are you with your Christian life? I’m not talking about the religious content, the fact you always go to church or the way people know you as the local God person! I’m talking about your own relationship with Christ! How much do you live your relationship with Christ rather than just talking about it? It may seem like hard work to keep being a Christian in a community which does not follow God or in a friendship where others just don’t want to know – but we do need to keep going and keep that relationship alive and in good health.
In this instance we should look at our relationship as being the job of the farmer. No matter what the weather and the forecast, we need to do our best to keep our crops going, not just for ourselves, but all the people around us too. We need to keep sowing our seeds over all the land around us… yes, some of it may well fall on the path and get trodden on and not germinate at all, but what about the others? For those which fall amongst the rocks, the seeds may well germinate and grow for a season and then die off. If we give up sowing our seeds, those little gems will stop being given a tiny chance as well.
It may well be one of those seeds which is able to survive a short season now which will then be remembered and germinate into a full plant which will in itself bare much fruit. We are not given the task of deciding who or who should not be given the gospel – our task is to give the gospel out and allow God to work in their hearts. Stop trying to make sense of the world and the people around you and give them all the same chance at getting to know Christ!
Points to Ponder:
Do you pick and choose who you talk to about God?
Will you step forward and sow your seeds liberally?
- Details
- Written by: DJ Dave
- Hits: 1353
March 11: John 3:19-21
Key Verse: John 3:21
But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.
Devotion:
Back to these verses with a slightly different look on things based on a question I am asking: “What makes you do the things you do?”
I know that is a deep question, but I’m looking for the obvious answer and not some long philosophical discussion about how we do things based on the society we are in and our minds at the time we are faced with decisions! We do the things we do because, deep down, we believe in our hearts we can do those things – whether we are doing them for the right or wrong reason is then the next question to face…
If we do not have that belief in our hearts we can do the things we are about to embark on, we will be faced with indecision and delays all along the way because we have those doubts which make us falter in our decision making process. This is normal human behaviour – so lets extend this to your faith beliefs… If we do not have faith in the things we believe, then we are going to falter all through our spiritual lives. If we do not trust in that faith, we are faced with indecision every day which will weaken our resolve every day!
I know so many people who do struggle with their faith because they have a little doubt over some of the things they have heard , been taught or believe themselves. If we are not willing to follow up on those doubts and read the bible for ourselves to seek out the truth, then we are either jumping on the bandwagon of someone else's beliefs, or we are putting aside a decision which could well consolidate our faith!
Jesus wants us to have this firm relationship with Him – a relationship which is based on faith, the belief He came forward willingly to show His love for us through an extraordinary chain of events. He wants us to read our bibles and learn what has happened, what is happening and what will happen. He wants us to feel secure in our faith; a faith based on truths which have happened, but also a belief on what will happen because God has promised us it will!
Points to Ponder:
What makes you do what you do?
Have you backed up your faith in God’s Word?
- Details
- Written by: DJ Dave
- Hits: 1304
March 9: Romans 10:6-13
Key Verse: Romans 10:10
For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.
Devotion:
How often do you get frustrated with trying to get people to believe in God and to trust Christ as their Saviour? We may not have the task of looking after a whole congregation, but God still wants us to be able to share the gospel with the people He has given us in our lives – how we go about that may well do the exact opposite of what we are trying to do!
Paul was stuck between the rock (which was the Roman way) and a hard place (which was the Jewish way) and must have found it most frustrating trying to tell them the gospel, that is, both sides! That is why I find these words so fascinating and to me gives me hope that the Holy Spirit can give me the words to tell my friends and families which will make the biggest difference in their lives. If you are like me, you may well struggle with that sometimes…
The Romans wanted a clear set of rules which would show them who is going to Heaven and who is going to hell – their way of life was based around rules and everyone was expected to stick to those rules. The Jews were entrenched in their rules from the Torah which gave them an impossible task to live up to and one which they would have to continue sacrificing in order to hope that God would forgive them!
What Christ did was to bridge that gap by giving up His own sinless life in our stead. He was the ultimate sacrifice and covered all of our sins in a single act on our behalf. We don’t have to have Him go through all of that again, just in case! We don’t have to argue about who is getting to Heaven and who has failed to follow the right rules. It is a personal thing between each one of us and God where we step forward and ask Him, personally, for forgiveness for the things we have done wrong… Our belief (our trust or the faith we have) gives us the answer based on His promise to us all. We believe in our hearts and profess with our mouths. We have one God who has done this for us all!
Points to Ponder:
Do you find it hard to not judge people?
Will you give someone the gospel and allow them to come to Christ by themselves?