Thursday 21 Sep 2023

DJ

September 21: 2 Corinthians 4:1-6

Key Verse: 2 Corinthians 4:6
For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ.

Devotion:
Have you ever tried to wash in dirty water? As long as you are more dirty than the water you are going to have some sort of success but you will not be able to get as clean as you might want to. Now we don’t have that problem with Christ covering our sins because He was the perfect sacrifice and is able to cover all of our sins; which means we get washed cleaner than anything!

Does this mean we can go out and ‘play in the mud’ as much as we like because we know we will get washed clean of our sins? Certainly not! God wants us to live a changed life with Christ at the centre and that life should be seen as cleaner than the lives of everyone around us – how will we be able to persuade people to change if we are not different!

The more we play around with sins in our lives the more we get used to being in a sinful way and the less we think about how God wants us to be. We don’t have to worry about being able to be clean before God because our sins are covered by Christ’s blood, but we should not go out seeking sins just because we know we will be forgiven.

People of this world will not see the need to be different because they would rather fit in with everyone else – that does not make what they are doing right! God has allowed us to see the difference between our old sinful selves and the new children of God we are now. We must embrace this difference and allow it to be a beacon whereby others may be encouraged to find out why!

Points to Ponder:
How often do you need to ask God to forgive you?

Will you try to live a different life for Christ?

Wednesday 20 Sep 2023

DJ

September 20: Luke 7:31-35

Key Verse: Luke 7:35
But wisdom is proved right by all her children.

Devotion:
I do like the way Jesus would use all the little things He saw around Him to show people how God can be seen through everything in life. He took the example of the children in the market where they would argue with each other for the silliest of things just because they wanted some attention or didn’t know how to complain about being bored!

Jesus then turned this on the people and showed them how their arguments were equally as childish as the children in the market. First they would complain about John having a demon when he was not doing anything wrong and kept himself separated from the people in town. Then they would complain about Jesus eating, drinking and mixing with sinners.

But what they were missing is that the truth always comes out. With children arguing over inane things, the truth comes out and they go about their day a bit disgruntled but wiser for learning. With the people finding fault in everything; gossip spreads the fastest and ruins lives quicker than any truth builds up people. Again, the truth comes out in the end and people should admit their mistakes.

Our problem is we don’t like to admit to mistakes so we continue trying to place the blame on anyone around us with those closest to us getting the brunt of the arguments. God wants us to love each other past the gossip and past the arguments, focusing on the truth and allowing the truth to win before it gets rough for everyone!

Points to Ponder:
How often do you spread a bit of harmless gossip?

How often have you been hurt by gossip?

Tuesday 19 Sep 2023

DJ

September 19: Luke 7:11-15

Key Verse: Luke 7:13
When the Lord saw her, his heart went out to her and he said, ‘Don’t cry.’

Devotion:
Jesus continued to show His love and compassion for all people as He walked amongst us. Here a widow was mourning for her only son who had died, going to bury him to make sure he was well kept up until the end. Jesus saw the love this woman had for her son and saw through her heart she had lost everything she loved, both her husband and now her only son.

His compassion for this family made Him stop and touch the bier they were carrying the dead body out on. The people carrying the bier stopped and Jesus told the young man to get up. He chose His words carefully by saying “I say to you, ‘get up’” This was Jesus expressing the power of God, being the Son of God, telling the laws of nature to turn around and let this man live!

This happened after He had cured the centurion’s servant but before He met John. Jesus was loving the people around Him. This is the example He gives us to show the people around us. We must have compassion on the people we see around us and not walk on the other side of the road. How is God’s love going to continue spreading without people showing compassion.

We may not be able to bring people back from the dead but we can and should comfort people and care for our neighbours. We are the church, we are the legacy Jesus came to build on and strengthen. We must continue to do what we can to build up this wonderful church of God’s people and we do that by starting to show love, mercy and compassion!

Points to Ponder:
Do you sometimes shy away from helping people?

Why not give someone a hand today?

Monday 18 Sep 2023

DJ

September 18: Luke 7:1-10

Key Verse: Luke 7:9
When Jesus heard this, he was amazed at him, and turning to the crowd following him, he said, ‘I tell you, I have not found such great faith even in Israel.’

Devotion:
I love reading the words slowly through this telling of the healing of the centurion’s servant because it show the centurion had faith in what Jesus could do. The centurion had made friends with the Jews by constructing a synagogue for them and he seemed to take care of them. He called a few of the Jewish elders and asked them to go to Jesus and ask for healing of this servant whom he valued greatly.

Why didn’t he go himself? As a centurion the local people would have come to respect him and the authority he stood for. If he had approached Jesus he would have an armed escort (because that is what they did) and that could have panicked the local people; so he chose to send some Jews in his stead.

I’m sure Jesus was intrigued by what He heard and wanted to go and see this centurion himself. So He started on the walk to go and find the centurion; which I’m sure must have gathered a bit of a crowd too. The centurion’s reaction was to send others from his household to tell Jesus He did not need to come to the house but just to say the words and his servant would be healed.

Jesus’ reaction was to tell the people around Him this centurion had greater faith than anyone else He had met, throughout Israel! Why did Jesus believe these words from the people? I think because the centurion, being of great stature amongst the people, humbled himself before Jesus saying he was not worthy for Jesus to come to him...

Points to Ponder:
Do you expect Jesus to answer your prayers?

Do you humble yourself before Christ during your prayers?