September 3: Acts 8:18-24
Key Verse: Acts 8:20
Peter answered: ‘May your money perish with you, because you thought you could buy the gift of God with money!’
Devotion:
There are many people around the world who make money out of religion! Some of those people are very well known and continue to say things which many believe and after which many follow them. But when we compare those lives with what Christ teaches us, we find gaps and even polar opposites!
This Simon was a man who practices sorcery in the city and was well known for the things he did. When people said ‘this man is rightly called the Great Power of God,’ he did not disagree with them nor tell them they were wrong. Instead he continued to be content with the notoriety he was receiving and continued to practice his sorcery!
When Philip came and told them all the gospel, people started to believe him because they saw it was the truth. Even Simon believed and ended up being baptised, following Philip and being astonished by the great signs and miracles he saw – this was the true power of God working in the people. When the disciples heard about this they sent Peter and John to come and bring Christ and the Holy Spirit into their lives.
Simon offered them money to receive the Holy Spirit! None of us can do this! Christ does not give out the Holy Spirit to the highest bidder. The Holy Spirit is shared with people who truly believe Christ in their hearts. When people do believe in their hearts, God allows them to receive the Holy Spirit as their continued guide and strengthener. Simon, on realising his mistake, asked for forgiveness right away knowing this was the real truth!
Points to Ponder:
Have you tried to gain Salvation or Godly support through earthly means?
Will you simply trust in Christ and receive His full attention?
September 2: Luke 5:36-39
Key Verse: Luke 5:37
And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the new wine will burst the skins; the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined.
Devotion:
This is one of those answers Jesus gave which causes more questions than answers to many people – it is only after trying to get to the bottom of what He is saying we begin to understand… but what does this relate to in our lives, after all we live in a throw-away society where old clothes are thrown away and new ones bought, and wine comes in screw-top bottles!
I believe Jesus was saying these things to make the people stop and think about why they were doing what they were doing! Much of the time we do things out of habit or because of tradition; after all isn’t it the way it has always been done! Jesus wanted the people to stop blindly following tradition and think about the real reason they did what they did!
Often we don’t think through the whole story and end up doing what others do or what is traditional to do. This is not what Jesus wants because that is doing things because of our worldly ways. Jesus wants us to think about the personal reasons for doing what we do. If we want to do something for God, then we should be making our work give glory to God and not just doing it because we think it’s what He wants!
When we do things because of tradition, we often end up messing up what we try to do and then we blame something or someone else because it “should have worked” like it always used to! Equally, when we often will not try something new in fear of it all going wrong. I think Jesus wants us to try new things to keep our lives with Him more interesting and to allow younger people to feel like they can get involved especially when they don’t like traditions!
Points to Ponder:
Are you traditional or contemporary?
Will you simply make room for God instead of worrying about traditions?
September 1: 1 Corinthians 3:18-23
Key Verse: 1 Corinthians 3:20
and again, ‘The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile.’
Devotion:
I used to think of myself as being very intelligent and quite practical; I even compared myself to others to see how well I was doing. It was only when I started walking close to God I realised how futile my endeavours were to be the clever one! When I was in junior school I used to slack off work because it seemed too simple for me to do – when it came to tests at the end of the year I failed in parts because I had not learned what I should have done!
In high school I only wanted to focus on the subjects I enjoyed, and to that end I got prizes for Engineering Drawing and mathematics; but failed in many other subjects because they just did not interest me! When I started work I taught other people how program before I was sent on the programming course – it just seemed natural to me at the time. Looking back I now think of so much of that time as foolish because I was trying to conform to a rigid world which had no lea way for people who were above average!
Coming to know Christ better set my playing field level once again as I started to see the many facets of life which I had missed out on because of the privileges I had as a youngster. When I went to work in the mission field in London my world was brought down to meet with the people who were nothing like me and needed help and direction in so many ways – things I had taken for granted as a youngster!
God wants us to focus on the people around us and not on the world around us. If we focus on the world we will compare everyone to the world and find so much wanting we may well get scared and run off to a place we feel more comfortable at. Christ wants us to reach out to the people around us and allow them to draw closer to Him where He will be able to do the protecting we cannot hope to do!
Points to Ponder:
Do you really want to help others?
Will you introduce them to your God?
August 31: Luke 4:38-44
Key Verse: Luke 4:39
So he bent over her and rebuked the fever, and it left her. She got up at once and began to wait on them.
Devotion:
After spending time in the synagogue, Jesus went to Simon’s house where he found Simon’s mother-in-law suffering from a high fever. Now the writer could have just said He healed the woman, but instead says He rebuked the fever! This, to me, shows the amazing power of Christ over everything in life! When we say there is nothing impossible for Christ, we don’t often think about things like Him talking to fevers!
Jesus had more of an understanding on everything in life than our scientists will ever have. Our scientists may be able to work out many amazing things and be able to do amazing things, but Jesus was able to understand what the underlying issue was and do something directly with that.
Quite often when we go to see our doctors we go through a barrage of questions so they can narrow the scope down a bit before trying things out. If they could see inside of us they may well be able to get to the root cause much quicker and be able to try and start treating the issue, but they cannot do that and have to go on experience and knowledge to give a best diagnosis – most often than not getting it right and helping us out!
Jesus got word directly from God to know what the issue was and work with that to start with; but not in the same way as our doctors and nurses do nowadays – He dealt with the issue in ways we cannot understand. This is the awesome God we have in our lives and this is how we can have greater peace and comfort than with any practitioner of any kind… even if we do need the practitioners to help us to fix the problems we have!
Points to Ponder:
Do you see Christ as your everything?
Will you ask Christ to guide you more today?