October 13: Luke 11:52-54
Key Verse: Luke 11:52
‘Woe to you experts in the law, because you have taken away the key to knowledge. You yourselves have not entered, and you have hindered those who were entering.’
Devotion:
When Jesus was talking to the scholars and teachers of the law He berated them for their way of having a strangle-hold on the people. He wants everyone to have free access to His Word so anyone and everyone can learn the truth. The teachers of the law placed high burdens on the people by reminding them of the law as often as they could, making them feel guilty and inadequate!
God does not want us to come away from the bible with that sort of feeling because Jesus has done so much more for us than the teachers of the law were doing with the scriptures. Jesus came to fulfil the law and in doing so opened up the truth so everyone could understand. For those who struggle He brings the Holy Spirit to intervene so they can understand just how caring and merciful He can be.
This does not mean He turn a blind eye to everything we do wrong – that is the whole point of the law, so we can identify what we do wrong. But He also wants us to know He has take the burden for our sins upon His own shoulders so we do not have to be under its pressure all the time.
God wants us to know the law and to try and obey the law; but He understand we do get things wrong and that is why He allowed Jesus to come and lift the debt we owe. Those people who take control or charge over others by using the bible are doing so for their own good and not for Gods glory. They want to have some sort of control over others whereas Jesus hands us control and wants us to come to Him for help instead.
Points to Ponder:
Do you abuse the bible?
Will you allow the Holy Spirit to guide you today?
October 12: Galatians 5:16-18
Key Verse: Galatians 5:18
But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.
Devotion:
This single statement must have upset the Pharisees and other teachers of the law; they had promoted the law as being everything for so long that they had forgotten the true meaning of the law. God set down the law, not as a punishment or noose around anyone’s neck, but as a guidance for people to sort their lives out by. No, I don’t mean they were given it as something they had a choice as to whether they obeyed it or not, but more of a set of rules to show their bad sides so they could aim for something better!
God wants us to live better lives than we are used to. We do not have to live according to what everyone else says we should. We don’t have to live by doing whatever we like because we only live once! God wants us to draw closer to Him by identifying what we are doing wrong and trying to do better. This way we will not be so distracted by the evil in our lives and we should be able to draw closer to Him.
If we do listen to Him through the Spirit, we will be able to strengthen our relationship with Him because we will be able to hear Him more often and better – because we are not so distracted by the sin in our lives and the temptations which surround us.
By living according to the guidance from The Spirit we will be able to continue drawing closer to Him each day. We will be able to shun the things which go against God and against His ways. We will be able to stay away from everything which is contrary to His ways. Does this mean we can ignore the law? Certainly not! But we don’t have to have that as the be all and end all in our lives – we can listen to God and live better lives instead because those lives will be lived according to the law – His law!
Points to Ponder:
Do you live according to the world or God?
Will you try to stay away from earthly ways and live a more Godly life?
October 11: Luke 11:37-41
Key Verse: Luke 11:41
But now as for what is inside you – be generous to the poor, and everything will be clean for you.
Devotion:
Jesus was not afraid of going to have meals and drinks with people who were not what we call Christians nowadays. He went to a house of a Pharisee in this story and sat down at a table to have food with them. The Pharisee was surprised Jesus did not wash before the meal – but He did have ulterior motives (both of them did!)
The Pharisee was trying to trip Jesus up for not cleansing as the scriptures had taught them to do before a meal. Jesus was going to show them the true meaning of cleansing before a meal! When the Pharisee indicated their surprise, Jesus reminded them of the difference between cleansing the outside and being clean on the inside. If you wanted to clean your cup before having a cup of coffee, you would not just clean the outside of the cup but the inside too – the inside being more important than the outside because that is what will be in contact with the coffee being made!
Too many times we show people we are clean on the outside by doing the right things according to the law and showing people we are doing the right things. But we also keep on doing things wrong in private or we neglect to do things for others when we should be. What good is allowing people to think you are good when you are not really!
God wants us to not just think about ourselves when we try to follow the scriptures, but also to think of others and what we should be doing to and for them according to the scriptures. God gave us clear commands about loving our neighbours – which means making sure we love and support others and not just say we are going to!
Points to Ponder:
How many good things do you say you will do?
How many good things do you end up doing in reality?
October 10: Luke 11:29-32
Key Verse: Luke 11:29
As the crowds increased, Jesus said, ‘This is a wicked generation. It asks for a sign, but none will be given it except the sign of Jonah.
Devotion:
How many times do you have to be told to not do something before you stop doing it, and how many times do you ignore advice and carry on doing what you want? If we always did everything we were told to do, we may not be able to learn from mistakes. If we always ignored advice, we would be plain stupid!
God continues to try and offer us sound advice either through His Word or via the people around us. He wants us to be able to succeed, and wants us to be able to make informed and sound choices in our lives. Not all advice we get will be good advice, so we have to have some way of being able to filter out the bad advice and listen to the good advice.
This is when second opinions come in very handy. If we get one person who offers us advice which differs from all the other advice we get, then chances are that advice was probably wrong to start with. Our bibles are made up of the words written down from many people, words which agree with each other. God has gathered all these people together to give us the advice from many angles so we can made an educated guess in many walks of life.
When it comes to advice from God, if we continue to ignore it, then we are going to fall foul and many things in life. When we then turn round and blame God, we will not be able to get any comfort because we will see all the advice He had been trying to tell us all along, and we then remember the good advice we were give but chose to ignore!
Points to Ponder:
Do you like getting good advice?
Will you listen to the best advice – that from your bible?