August 8: Matthew 15:10-14
Key Verse: Matthew 15:11
What goes into someone’s mouth does not defile them, but what comes out of their mouth, that is what defiles them.
Devotion:
There are times when I read about what is happening in some churches and I see people leaving churches, splitting churches or even closing churches, and these things make me sad. No, I do not have a perfect church to go to and there are problems we have to face each day; if only we were able to curb our outbursts!
If there are things which you face in your local church which you do not agree with, then you should be going to them and talking to them to find out why things are being done the way they are. As a congregation which is part of the Church of England we have to abide by some rather archaic rules and regulations which make many people sad and even confused, but how we react to them could make waves in our congregations.
When Jesus talked about loving our neighbours it really did mean loving people around us. When someone does something wrong or says something wrong, we should approach them and give them time to see what they have done or said wrong; we could be the ones who have made the error in judgement! But if we broadcast the error to everyone we are alienating that person from everyone who hears the broadcast. We are driving a wedge into our congregation!
What we say and do can be used to build up a congregation or break it apart. We need to think about what we are saying to others so we can, hopefully, build up our congregations instead of breaking them down. God has called us to spread the gospel and not spread gossip. God has called us together not apart. He chose us and will look after us just as a loving Father does; but He may well chastise us if we are the cause of arguments between others!
Points to Ponder:
How often do you replicate gossip?
How often do you replicate the gospel?
August 7: Matthew 14:22-33
Key Verse: Matthew 14:31
Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. ‘You of little faith,’ he said, ‘why did you doubt?’
Devotion:
One of our biggest problems seems to be keeping faith when the world around us is raging. We have many accounts of this happening all throughout the bible, and it will continue to be displayed time and time again. Most of this comes from broken promises; we get so used to broken promises from other people we no longer have faith they will keep their promises – even when it is a friend making a promise to us.
Jesus always makes sure all of what He says will come to pass – He always keeps His promises. We can see this, also, throughout the bible and so we should be able to know what he has said will happen. Yet we continue to doubt because of the broken promises around us. The way to change this is to try to make sure all the promises we make are kept because that will go a long way to making sure people see promises can be kept.
The more people keep their promises and tell the truth, the more others will have faith in those promises and trust the truth. This will go a long way to encourage people to trust in the promises of God and believe the truth in our bibles. The only real way to convince people to trust in something is to give them reason to trust in what you say!
Jesus wanted the disciples to see He could be trusted, even in the wildest storms and the seemingly impossible feats. He now wants us to go out into the world and give people reason to trust in the truth and believe the promises God has made. This is the task of a disciple: to go out into the world and share the faith we have in the truth so others can have faith and go out to share their faith...
Points to Ponder:
Who are the people you always believe?
Will you try to keep your word more?
August 6: Luke 9:28-36
Key Verse: Luke 9:35
A voice came from the cloud, saying, ‘This is my Son, whom I have chosen; listen to him.’
Devotion:
When we look through our bibles we find differing descriptions of God and of Christ and you may ask yourself how they can be different or not consistent. I would put it to you that each of us will describe something differently because of the way we handle thoughts and sights and so it was to all who were able to see something of Christ or God; their descriptions are what they felt and saw whilst trying to make sense of something they had never dreamed they would see!
This description from Luke gives an added insight about the apostles who accompanied Jesus whilst He went to pray. They must have been tired because the writer describes them as being very sleepy, probably dozing off during the prayer time. But when they saw other people there they struggled to become fully awake with Peter asking Jesus whether they should be building shelters for the others. Peter knew they were important in some manner and even called them by name assuming them to be who he called them!
I can imagine them being shocked awake when a cloud appeared and covered them with a voice telling them “this is my Son, whom I have chosen!” Obviously not in English, but the words are similarly described by others. This was God Himself telling these people present Jesus was His Son. What other words could have meant more to the disciples!
When we bring all the stories of encounters with God together, we see a common thread where God tells people He sent His Son to come to us. These words come from ancient scriptures and more recent scripture from the disciples; I say recent being a couple of thousand years instead of thousands of years before then as the people of Israel trekked through the desert.
Points to Ponder:
How many times do you have to hear a story before you trust it?
Will you trust the scriptures and trust in Christ?
August 5: Leviticus 25:14-17
Key Verse: Leviticus 25:17
Do not take advantage of each other, but fear your God. I am the Lord your God.
Devotion:
When I came out of university there was a bit of a financial slump going on and finding work, even as a graduate, was difficult. Needless to say I did try various jobs to get money in which is where I found out about the greed some people and companies have; something I could not live with.
God has tried to educate people time and time again about living together as community, sharing what we have and supporting each other. This has prompted some to give up on things and live some pretty radical ways of life. But God also taught about buying and selling, supporting ourselves, having businesses and much more. This points to a very varied society where people look out for each other a live by fair rules and fair trade.
What we have in modern society is very far from that in many cases. We have a few people making big businesses out of supplying what people want and extorting what they can from the supply chain in order to turn a profit, not caring for the individual but rather the corporate profit margin instead. This sees the workers who make products or farmers who grow produce getting offered lessor wages whilst the people buying the goods being forced to pay more.
God wants us to love our neighbours. This means putting aside greed and profit margins to make sure our neighbours get what they need and not what you want them to have. Each of us does have to make a living, but we do not need to extort others in order to get what we desire.
Points to Ponder:
Do you try to earn as much as you can?
Do you help others as much as you can?