April 29: John 6:60-69
Key Verse: John 6:66
From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.
Devotion:
Not all things God asks of you are going to be easy or plain sailing; I would say most things are not going to be! There were a lot of people who were following Jesus around because of the things He was doing, the love He was showing and the general feeling of things being great when He was involved. But as soon as those happy feeling were put to the test, many people gave up and went on their own way again.
Jesus does not call us to do something and then go back to our old ways of life, He calls us to change our ways so others will be encouraged to do the same. When He started to tell the people He was the Son of God, many people were put off by this because of the teachings of the Sanhedrin and other governing bodies. I hesitate to use the word church because I like to think of church as being followers of Jesus.
The Holy Spirit will encourage you in many ways of your are willing to listen. What you hear may well challenge your ways or what you are used to. But if we can go back to our scriptures and see how the Spirit is guiding us toward Godly things, then we can be sure this is the Holy Spirit and not any other random spirit trying to get in on the action.
God will try to get our attention in many ways and if we are willing to listen and obey, we will be able to do many things for and with Him. But if we continue to shut ourselves off from the voice of the Spirit just because we think things should be done another way, then we may well miss out on the most important parts God has to say to us. God will always work through the Spirit, through Jesus and directly; they will always agree with what is to be done – God will not fight Himself...
Points to Ponder:
Have you got very strict rules in your life?
Are you willing to hear the Spirit?
April 28: Acts 9:10-20
Key Verse: Acts 9:20
At once he began to preach in the synagogues that Jesus is the Son of God.
Devotion:
Sometimes God chooses the most unimaginable people to do His work; and He chooses them for good reason. We may look at some people and judge them because of the people we see them to be but God is able to see what each of us is capable of doing and how it would turn out. That is what He looks at when He chooses someone, unlike us!
God had to wait for the right moment to come to Saul because he was so worked up with a rage against the church. Saul was going out of his way to get to Christians and to disrupt their work at every opportunity. So when he asked for letter to go to Damascus he had to make a journey which is where God chose to meet him. Not in a public place with everyone watching but when he would be alone with no rabble to support his actions.
God chose to confront him and then to send a man of God to meet with him and explain the truth. Up to this point nobody had been able to get Saul to listen to the truth because of his anger against the apostles and what they were doing. H e actually thought he was doing the right thing up until that point.
We need to take time to compare the things we do with what God asks us to do. We can find out what sort of people God used to spread the gospel and how they did it. Is what we are doing falling in line with that work? Sometimes we get too carried away with doing what people want instead of actually listening to God. We do what we think the institution needs instead of what God actually wishes.
Points to Ponder:
Do you count yourself a good person?
How well do you listen to God’s will in your life?
April 27: Acts 8:32-35
Key Verse: Acts 8:35
Then Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus.
Devotion:
When Philip was led by the Spirit to talk to the Ethiopian eunuch, it was not a chance meeting but a meeting set up by God. The eunuch may have been going about his duties in his normal way, but something different was happening. He was searching for meaning in something he had heard and witnessed – he was searching for God and God knew if he continued to search but stuck to his normal way of life, he would not get to hear the gospel!
The Holy Spirit led Philip to the right time and place to meet up with the eunuch at the time he was trying to make sense of a part of the scripture he was trying to read. Now the scripture was not available to everyone as it is today – it was not the top selling book of all time! God had already made a copy of that part of the scripture available to him and now he was sending someone who understood that scripture to him to explain it!
God is not limited by our normal ways of life, instead He is willing and able to make sure we can get to the thing in life which will allow us to make sense of the scriptures so we can have a closer relationship with Him. Even nowadays He continues to send the right people at the right time to meet up with people who are searching for the truth.
Sometimes people don’t know what they are searching for and they don’t even know where to go to ask the right questions. This is where God comes in because He has a whole army of people whom He can call on – and He does! If we are willing to listen to His prompting and obey His requests, we too can be used for a special moment in someone else’s life!
Points to Ponder:
Do you like helping others?
Are you willing to trust a prompt from God?
April 26: Acts 8:1-8
Key Verse: Acts 8:6
When the crowds heard Philip and saw the signs he performed, they all paid close attention to what he said.
Devotion:
It is hard to stop a crowd of people who have been worked up to do something; whether they are right or wrong, it is hard to stop them once they get going. The people of the Sanhedrin were doing their uttermost to stop the apostles from preaching about Jesus because it was seemingly undermining their power and control of the people. What they could not control, in the end, was the spreading of the truth!
A young man got involved with this and turned vigilante to work with the Sanhedrin to try and quash the work the apostles were doing. The followers of Jesus began to spread far and wide to avoid being caught up in the things which were happening so they could continue to tell people the truth and show them God was more powerful than the people in the Sanhedrin. No longer were the Sanhedrin acting in God’s interest!
Philip went to Samaria where he was able to tell people the gospel story and through prayer, faith and trust in God, he was able to do many things which caught people’s eyes. His prayers were being answered by God because of his faith in Christ. Through him God was able to do many things. He became a light in these dark times, a light which people could look to and be encouraged by. A light which was opening up the truth!
Jesus taught the disciples to go out and make disciples by showing them what God can do when people believe and trust in Him. It is hard to do this when you are being shouted down and persecuted – sometimes it is best to walk away from the persecution and try some place else. To find out where God wants us to be we need to be willing to make changes according to His will in our lives.
Points to Ponder:
Are you stuck trying to do what you think is right?
Are you listening to what God is telling you?