January 23: Hebrews 9:24-28
Key Verse: Hebrews 9:28
so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.
Devotion:
When I look back at the history of Israel in the Old Testament I wonder how people could make sacrifices like they did and think that was normal in any way; yet that is what life was like back then. As history goes by societies change and people make new rule and laws to live by. The more mankind lives on, the more we should be making life better for all – at least that should be our collective goal.
Unfortunately life does not always go that simply because we have bad things in our history. A couple of the things which continue to be in the news are racism and sexism; both of which segregate people from others based on their physical differences. This is not how God wants us to live. He wants us to love our neighbours and that means living together in harmony and not fighting each other.
What these verses boil down to are the things which separate us from God, our sins. God cannot abide sin and so we cannot take it with us when we want to be with Him. He wants us to leave it behind and to come before Him and people who have not sinned. This makes our lives a bit difficult because we have so much sin behind us.
So, God gave us a way we can come to Him as if we have never sinned before. The only way was for someone who has not sinned to take out place when it comes to receiving the punishment. Jesus willingly stepped forward to be in our place because He loves us so much. He does not have to do this over and over again for each person or for each of the things we do wrong, He did it once and for all as a perfect way of cancelling all of our sins.
Points to Ponder:
Do you carry the burden of sin around with you?
Will you ask Jesus to take your sin debt away?
January 22: 1 Corinthians 1:10-18
Key Verse: 1 Corinthians 1:12
What I mean is this: one of you says, ‘I follow Paul’; another, ‘I follow Apollos’; another, ‘I follow Cephas’; still another, ‘I follow Christ.’
Devotion:
How do you define your position in church? Which church do you go to? Who do you most relate to in church? How did you get to know Christ? Are you baptised, christened, confirmed, saved, and any other terms you may describe yourself by...
Modern Christians seem to try and defined themselves by some of the things listed above by saying the belong to a particular church or religion. We like to say we go to a church which is popular, big or exciting in some way… but how many of us will simply say we have a relationship with Christ and not care about any of the other details. I know I have been entrapped in some of those arguments before and even had arguments with family members about what made me different…
God does not want us to be separated by definitions which do not include Him in the middle. He does not want us to be separated from the rest of the church body just because we relate to a particular religion as defined by the populace at large! God wants us to be close to Christ and that is all. Why should we allow the world to dictate our relationship with Him when the world at large doesn’t want to know Him to begin with!
Arguments can be said about christening, baptising, confirmation and other religious rights both for and against – but I think it should be something between the person who is going through the right and Christ Himself. If someone wants to be able to demonstrate their love for Christ by doing something about it, then they should be able to do so. If someone wants a quite and personal relationship with Christ and nothing more, then let them do it… Don’t be defined by the world; allow Christ to define who you are!
Points to Ponder:
Who do you follow?
Not on social media… who do you follow with your heart and soul?
January 21: Mark 3:20-21
Key Verse: Mark 3:20
Then Jesus entered a house, and again a crowd gathered, so that he and his disciples were not even able to eat.
Devotion:
How far do you go to allow people to commune with God? How far are you willing to change so that the people around you can be closer to God?
When we go through the New Testament, especially the Gospels, we find a whole new way of allowing people to meet with God. Jesus allowed people to get closer to God even when the authorities would frown at what He was doing. The teachers of the law would get very upset with Him because He was allowing some very strange people to get close to God; they, on the other hand, ran a very closed society in which they did not want anyone who did not fit in their description to get close to God! How are we supposed to get people to know God unless we open our doors to them!
In this passage, the crowd was essentially trapping them in the house they entered. They could not get out and did not even have enough room to have a meal. I don’t like crowds at the best of time nowadays – I didn’t mind them in my university days, but not now. I prefer to have some room to do my own thing… but in doing that I will inadvertently exclude some people from getting to know God, so I have to continually think about what I am doing…
The more we act like a disciple, the more we are going to face the wrath of the world! There are people out there who will be upset because we dare to tell them God exists. There are people out there who will be upset because we dare to invite sinners into our lives. We will not be able to please man and God at the same time – so stick with trying to please God and allow Him to work things out for you in other ways!
Points to Ponder:
Do you aim to please others?
Do you aim to please God?
January 20: Mark 3:13-19
Key Verse: Mark 3:19
and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.
Devotion:
What sprung to mind when I thought about these words was the picking of teams when I was a youngster in junior school. I was never one of the first ones to be picked for some games because I was certainly not good with some sports or games! So being picked as one of the “best of the worst” came as normal sometimes. We could look at this point in our bibles and wonder if Jesus ended up picking the “best of the worst” but this was not the case.
God had already made up His mind about who should be picked and who was going to betray Jesus in the end. This all needed to happen according to God’s plan in order for His love to be shown to us all; and that included picking someone who was going to betray His only Son!
When God asks us to do something for Him, it may not always sound like the best plan in our minds or even a good plan at all, but we should be willing to listen and obey at all times. I know I have answered His call on some occasions when I was quite sure I would not be able to handle the situation or whether it was a good idea at all – but when we look back on all the things which happened at that time and see why He asked us to do things, we will always be able to see the good which came out of it in the end.
God knows what is best for us all and He alone has to make the difficult decisions to pick the best team to do the job. This may not seem like the best team from our point of view and it may not seem like it is right sometimes, but we must listen carefully to God and obey Him when He asks!
Points to Ponder:
Do you find it difficult to obey God?
Have you tried simply listening to Him?