March 23: Matthew 5:17-19
Key Verse: Matthew 5:19
Therefore anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practises and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
Devotion:
How do you feel about the Old and New Testaments? Do you regard them as opposites, different eras, ancient and new, the old laws and the new laws… Jesus reminds us here He did not come to replace the law, redo the laws, change the laws or anything else as drastic as that! He came to fulfil the scriptures. God gave the scriptures to the prophets and kings during those years so they would pass on those laws to each generation.
Jesus came to finish the scriptures – to make them come to life! He did not come to upturn the laws or to show them to be too old or ancient. He came to show us they are real and they need to be remembered and continue to be passed down from generation to generation. Even though we live in a modern world nowadays, does not mean any of the scriptures have run their course or have come to the end of their life!
Jesus came to show He was the fulfilment of the scriptures. He came to bring them to life by showing people He lived by them and He upheld them. He continues here in these verses to remind us we need to carry on upholding the scriptures. They don’t tell us of an age which should be forgotten, but an age where mankind tried his best to fulfil them, only to find out we can not do that by ourselves. We do need Jesus as the fulfilment of the laws so we can move forward instead of being caught up in laws we cannot hope to keep!
We are sinners and we need someone or something to be the sacrifice for our sins. God started telling us He did not want to continue having to accept innocent animals as the sacrifice because Jesus would be the perfect and permanent sacrifice for all of us. This is why we need to continue on and tell people about this good news. We need to try our best to keep and commandments and not just to try and remember them! This is what God wants!
Points to Ponder:
Do you break the rules now and again?
Do you accept Christ as the sacrifice for your sins?
March 22: Matthew 18:21-22
Key Verse: Matthew 18:21
Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, ‘Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?’
Devotion:
Do you take what your friends tell you as the absolute truth and do exactly what they say you should be doing? No, I don’t think any of us do; but that does not mean we don’t trust our friends or we don’t obey them… When Jesus was talking to Peter, He made a point of telling Peter to forgive many more times than he expected from Him. If Peter had taken that literally, he would have gone around telling people about this new measurement of mercy.
If Peter had done that he would be teaching others mercy can be measured and everyone would have been sidetracked into doing things in earthly ways instead of showing true mercy and forgiveness! Jesus does not want us to keep a measure of how many times we are willing to forgive. He does not want us to measure it at all because that would not be showing people love!
Jesus’ instruction was to show Peter there should not be a measure to love by; love should be a commitment to live with and forgive. The love I am talking about here is not the love two people have for each other in a relationship, but the love Jesus wants us to show everyone. If we try to measure the love, we are not focusing on the love but the measure of what we are calling love.
I do find it hard to stop showing people love nowadays because I experienced a whole new level of love when I was in hospital: the love the doctors and nurses had for me in trying to get me better. Yes it was their job to care for me, but in doing so they often went further than the requirements to try and give me hope and something to aim for in the future. This is the love we should be sharing with each other!
Points to Ponder:
Do you try to compare your love with others?
Will you break down the barriers and love without measure?
March 21: Psalm 42:1-3
Key Verse: Psalm 42:3
My tears have been my food day and night, while people say to me all day long, ‘Where is your God?’
Devotion:
Maybe you know the words of the first verse as a worship song from the late 80’s or early 90’s. I can recall worship leaders in the late 90’s singing these words and even singing it in youth clubs a few decades ago – but the words in the rest of this Psalm are just as important when we start to look at what they mean.
Whilst these words may make you think of beautiful scenes of deer drinking from the waters edge, I come from a country where the buck would have to walk a long way to reach water at a watering hole because the rivers were not much good or too far away. The animals would walk for miles to get to the water and then have to be on a constant look-out for the predators which would be waiting for them to come there!
In our lives we may well see the watering hole as being a church or other group where we can gather – what we don’t think about is the evil one who is lurking close by to try and trap us before we get the water we need. No matter how much safety we see and how much goodness and righteousness we see, there will always be evil lurking in the wings.
We need to constantly look to God for our protection so we will not be ambushed by the evil one as we try to draw close to God. It is no coincidence the evil one will be lurking just when you think you may be getting close to safety. But, God is always willing and able to protect us when we ask Him to stay close to us. When we are willing to draw close to God and stick with Him, He is able to protect us and to guide us so we don’t get ambushed! Don’t be discouraged by someone lurking in the shadows and trying to tell you God cannot protect you – they don’t know God!
Points to Ponder:
Do you listen too much to the worldly chatter?
Will you listen closer to God and obey His guidance?
March 20: Luke 13:1-9
Key Verse: Luke 13:4
Or those eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them – do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem?
Devotion:
When we see something bad happening to bad people, we probably think “they had it coming!” But, when we see bad things happening to good people we tend to think “how could something bad happen to them!” We allow our judgment of the people around us influence what we think should or should not happen to them. The truth is we all have a chance at bad things happening to us no matter where we are in life.
But when we stay close to God, we have a good chance of goods things happening… if we are willing to stop and listen to God. It does not matter what we have in our pasts, we all will end up in the same physical position to the people around us; how we view the circumstances will make us think about things in a different light than the person standing next to us!
When we don’t listen to God and go about things in our own selfish ways, we can expect the same things to happen to us as with people who don’t listen to their leaders. God allowed His Son to come and give us a way of having our sins forgiven once and for all; but if we are not willing to believe this or to accept it, then we should not expect our sins to be forgiven even if we are hanging out with Christians and going to church!
Jesus made sure the people knew how just God is; no matter how much we go to church, sacrifice for ourselves, do good things or any other acts, if we do not believe Jesus came to pay for our sin debt on the cross, then we should not expect anything more than the non-believers and sinners around us! And, just because things don’t go right the first time round, does not mean we should give up and do earthly things instead. God may be waiting for us to be patient and show our belief...
Points to Ponder:
Do you judge others by what they do?
Will you allow God to guide you in your choices?