December 29: 1 John 2:3-6
Key Verse: 1 John 3:6
whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did.
Devotion:
When I started to get to know Christ, I also started visiting various churches and seeing how people worshipped in various settings. I also started to see how different people thought things were different, to the extent some were against others because they were different! It was only when I got to study God’s Word and read what had been written down that I started to see something very different.
Christ came to show us the way to live because mankind had done all manner of things previously and had got mixed up and lost their way in many settings. We can see this in some churches or religions, or whatever you wish to call them. Each seems to have their own idea on what is important and what should be followed. We have some who insist on following the original scriptures from the Torah. We have some who follow their own re-written bibles. We have others who follow people instead of Christ.
If we genuinely want to call ourselves Christians, then we need to act like Christians and not like religious organisations! One of my pet hates is being called religious by people who do not know Christ. Jesus did follow various ways and rights of the Jewish people – after all, God chose these people and taught them what they should be doing. But He also made sure people were told they had no more reason to sacrifice on their own because He was the perfect sacrifice for all.
If we try to live as Christ lived, we will find out a whole lot of things are actually what God has wanted from us all along. We can start by loving God and our neighbours; Jesus elegantly demonstrated this throughout His life. We then need to remain in the truth – always taking God’s Word with us and making sure other people get to hear it too. God gave us commandments we should follow, not because He wanted to make life tough, but because He wanted us to be fully prepared for life with Him in Heaven.
Points to Ponder:
How many commandments do you follow?
How often do you discuss things with God?
December 28: 1 Corinthians 1:26-29
Key Verse: 1 Corinthians 1:27
But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.
Devotion:
When a business wants to make a good impression, they go out and hire the best people for the jobs. For their advertising, they will get the company which makes the most impressionable adverts, so long as they can afford it. For their sales, they will hire salespeople who know how to do their job so they can get revenue back… It’s all about the money and encouraging people to spend money at their stores or businesses...
When it comes down to doing something which affects your life, then you would probably want to trust people who are close to you or who are not being paid large amounts of money to say things. This is why God chose the right people to work with Him. He did not choose the big merchants to go out and sell religion to the people. He did not pay people to spread His Word. God chose people from the local communities to reach the people in those communities.
Why? Because these are the people the local community trusts. They have probably grown up with these people and know them well. This people have a certain amount of trust which others can see and know. God wanted the people who were going to pass on the real truth to others and not some made up adverts which make things look better than they are.
God wants us to know and share the truth – this means He is very likely to choose you to reach out to others; not that we are all fools, but because we are willing to tell the truth as we see it and how it affects our own lives. We are willing to give real-world examples of how God works in our lives. God doesn’t want us to boast about being the biggest or best church, but to show others they can trust what we say because we are giving them God’s Word!
Points to Ponder:
How do others see your local church?
Are you showing others they can trust local people at the local church?
December 27: Exodus 33:7-11
Key Verse: Exodus 33:10
Whenever the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance to the tent, they all stood and worshipped, each at the entrance to their tent.
Devotion:
As I was reading through this verse I kept thinking of what it was like for the people of Israel knowing it was God who was in the cloud they could see! Then I started thinking about the other words in these verse – what were the people doing? As they saw Moses go to the tent outside of the camp, they all stood at the entrances of their own tents, watching Moses. When the pillar of cloud descended to the tent Moses was in, the people would worship God and praise Him!
Moses was the key which unlocked a readiness to worship – people waited expectantly at their tent doors. Then the worship flowed freely when they saw God communing with Moses. Then I got thinking – what sort of example am I? Do I sneak out and go to church in secret, or do I allow people to see me openly walking to church? Does the church I go to ring out with worship and praise to encourage others to worship and praise too?
We do need to set and example for others! Maybe there is someone close by who is struggling – seeing you go out to church with a skip in your step and knowing you are going to worship God openly is a great thing. Seeing you come home from church with a big smile on your face and a renewed skip is going to do more as well!
We need to allow people to know God is with us. We need to show people we do commune with God all the time. We need to encourage others to come along and join in. This is not some sort of exclusive club we go to! Praise God openly and allow people to see you enjoying your life with Christ as often as you can!
Points to Ponder:
Do you show people you have an active relationship with Christ?
Or do you act like every other person?
December 26: Acts 7:51-53
Key Verse: Acts 7:51
You stiff-necked people! Your hearts and ears are still uncircumcised. You are just like your ancestors: you always resist the Holy Spirit!
Devotion:
How many times have you been so stubborn you have gone ahead with something without much though for the consequences, only to find out it was deem to fail no matter what? Each one of us has a stubborn streak which makes us do things even when others are warning us against it. We think we know best and we go ahead...
These words were spoken against the Sanhedrin and against the Jews who refused to accept Jesus was their Messiah. They had been told the Messiah would come, how he would come, what he would do and many more things; but they refused to believe a mere human man could be their messiah because they wanted something more!
When we think we deserve more, we turn away from the obvious and turn away from good advice – because we think we deserve more. We have a long history of this sort of thing happening throughout history, and yet we continue to follow these false paths and seek our own teaching instead of what God has been trying to show us all along.
This Jesus, this baby boy, was born of a virgin and came to set us free from our continual debt, continual stubborn ways and continual failure. He came to set us free and allow us to live a closer life with God… But we wanted more. We wanted something spectacular which would overwhelm us and fill our desires. God did not send Jesus to fill our every desire, but to fill the need we have in our lives.
Points to Ponder:
Do you always seek more physical evidence?
Will you simply accept Jesus as your Saviour?