April 12: 1 Corinthians 1:18-25
Key Verse: 1 Corinthians 1:21
For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe.
Devotion:
How many times have you tried to figure out the questions like “why do things go wrong?” or “why do we have death?” Those are the sort of questions which stop us from understanding God. The more we seek after the answers, the more we figure out we don’t know and the more confused we become about life. God is not asking us to figure out those sort of questions or their answers; He does not expect us to have to find the answers because He knows them already!
Back in the days of the prophets, God wanted us to know we would be confused by these questions and that they should best be left for Him to answer. God tried to get us to understand the more we sought those answers, the more confused we would become and the more frustrated we would be about them.
God wants us to allow Him to handle the difficult questions in our lives and to simply trust Him to do what is best for us. The more the teachers of the law tried to understand the laws, the more they would trip themselves up because the more they would be confused by life.
As time went by, different people sought after different goals because they each chose different answers to the questions they were asking – even though the questions might have been the same to start with! The Jews demanded signs from God so they could believe. The Greeks looked for wisdom and started trusting the philosophers in preference to the prophets.
Points to Ponder:
What are your beliefs based on?
Will you believe and trust in Christ?
April 11: Hebrews 9:11-15
Key Verse: Hebrews 9:13
The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean.
Devotion:
We live, work and worship in a very imperfect world, a world which continues to sin and breaks God’s laws time and time again. Is it the fault of the world? No! Is it the fault of God? No! It is because we listen to the evil one instead of listening to God. We may not realise we are doing so, but when we stop listening to God, we are listening to everything else around us, including the evil one!
The blood of goats and calves was used to make the people ceremonially clean so they would be able to continue moving forward with God instead of having to face their sins head-on and fail. The only problem with this is there are physical limitations to what signified a clean sacrifice; part of it being the hearts of the people offering the sacrifice as well as the hearts of the people carrying out the ceremonies!
When Jesus stepped forward to offer His own body and blood to be the sacrifice, He was doing this as a single step because He was offering a perfect Sacrifice without any blemishes; one God could never turn down! Because this was the perfect sacrifice, it went a lot further than the animal sacrifices previously offered because the hearts of the people who accept Christ to be their sacrifice know Jesus and are open to being cleansed of everything!
Jesus is the mediator of the new covenant, our advocate for the covenant being signed, sealed and delivered! The first covenant, the laws as described by Moses, and the sacrifices offered because of these laws, were always in a bit of a precarious position. However, Christ being the perfect sacrifice and conclusion of the new covenant, sets us free from any sins we have committed.
Points to Ponder:
How much are you willing to pay for a clean heart?
Will you accept Christ as your full payment for your clean heart?
April 10: Luke 22:14-20
Key Verse: Luke 22:20
In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.
Devotion:
When Jesus sat down at the last Passover meal He would have with the disciples, He instituted what we follow today in our Holy Communion services. Jesus knew this was going to be the last Passover and He wanted it to be special. He knew He was facing punishment, betrayal and finally crucifixion, not because He deserved it, but because we deserve it for all the sins we have done before God!
Jesus took the container of wine He had and told the disciples to share it out amongst them all. He wanted every person around the table to take part in this Passover, not just the feast side of things but the sharing of this wine and bread which would take on a new significance for all of us to come.
Jesus took the bread and He gave thank to God for allowing them to have it in the first place. But sharing a loaf of bread was something they had probably done before, so Jesus made it that much more special by saying they should think of it as His body which was going to be given to them as a sacrifice to cover all sin. Jesus was giving it freely just as He was giving the bread freely.
Then Jesus took the cup of wine He had and asked God’s blessing on it just as He had done with the bread. This was now going to be remembered as the new covenant in His blood… not His blood, but a reminder of the promise He was making which would end in the shedding of His blood in their stead; in our stead.
He did this all in preparation for what was to follow, demonstrating His absolute love for us!
Points to Ponder:
What do you do before you eat and drink?
Will you remember what Christ did for you in future?
April 9: John 11:45-48
Key Verse: John 11:48
If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and then the Romans will come and take away both our temple and our nation.
Devotion:
Many of the Jews who had listened to Jesus believed Him and they continued to want to hear more; but some when to the Pharisees and told them everything Jesus was doing. What did the Pharisees hear? They heard what they wanted to hear and immediately started blaming Jesus for what they thought would happen.
These verses tell of the power the Romans had over the country – they were not just ruling but were dictating what should be happening. Nowadays we would call this tyranny and call for justice to be had; but for the people caught up in the system, they could not see this. Those who were well off because of the Romans continued to want to be well off and obeyed what the Romans asked of them. This led to them doing what the Romans wanted instead of what God wanted!
When the Pharisees saw Jesus was doing some extraordinary things, they knew the Romans would be upset with them if they continued to allow Jesus to do “many signs!” Caiaphas had prophesied this Jesus would come and do many things but also that He would die for the people so the whole nation would not have to perish – Caiaphas knew the people were working against God and he knew something had to be done before it was too late!
Once again the same story was happening – the people were working against God and God was most likely to be upset by this which would lead to bad things happening which would lead to lots of sad people… then they would try calling on God for help and the cycle would continue. God knew something had to be done to break the cycle – this is what Jesus would do to break the cycle!
Points to Ponder:
Do you do what people desire?
Or do you try to do what God desires?