Psalm 122:4 That is where the tribes go up – the tribes of the Lord – to praise the name of the Lord according to the statute given to Israel.
Where do you go to praise the name of Jesus and to worship God?
If you answer is the local church building or the local temple, then think about what you are?
Christ declared us as temples for the Living God. Just do it!
Psalm 129:8 May those who pass by not say to them, ‘The blessing of the Lord be on you; we bless you in the name of the Lord.’
What would make you stop and congratulate or praise someone doing something?
What does your life look like to others who are passing by?
What does your life look like to God as He is watching you?
Psalm 116:12 What shall I return to the Lord for all his goodness to me?
What are you going to do for Christ in return for all He has done for you?
Yes it’s a loaded question because we can never repay all Christ has done for us…
But we can do things which will show others we are truly blessed by what He has done for us!
November 21: Luke 19:1-10
Key Verse: Luke 19:10
For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.
Devotion:
One of the biggest things I cannot abide is people talking down about others because they dare to do things differently or simply because they are lost. I know I have ventured there as well and so am guilty like all of us, but I still hate it when I hear Christians talking down others! Here we have the story of how Zacchaeus came to know Christ!
Zacchaeus was s short man and could not see over the crowd of people who were bustling around Jesus. He was a chief tax collector and was wealthy because of the things he used t get up to in order to extract taxes from the people. It was well known that tax collectors would extract more out of people than they needed and would pocket some of the money they claimed from people; this is probably why we think lowly of tax collectors nowadays too!
Zacchaeus wanted to see Jesus so he had to climb a tree to see over the heads of the people. He planned ahead and chose a tree which was in the expected path Jesus would be taking, just so he could get a closer look. When Jesus called him out he must have gone through all sorts of emotions resulting in him realising how much he had done wrong against God’s people!
This is the power of Christ. We are not the ones who should be calling out people for doing things wrong when we often do things wrong too. Jesus is the one who is innocent and has the authority to call us out. Allow Jesus to do the convicting – we just need to make sure all people do get to hear Christ’s side of the story – the truth!
Points to Ponder:
How often do you all out others for doing wrong?
How often do we hide the fact we are doing wrong?