- Details
- Written by: DJ Dave
- Hits: 690
March 21: Ezekiel 47:1-9
Key Verse: Ezekiel 47:7
When I arrived there, I saw a great number of trees on each side of the river.
Devotion:
The dimensions of the city, the temple and everything talked about in this description given to Ezekiel in his visions are quite staggering in many ways considering this was so many years ago. But the most important part to me is the depiction of this life giving water which is going to flow freely through the city, temple and out into the sea. The amount of water is staggering.
We know the the Jordan River area as a fertile place nowadays and it would have been quite a different place from the desert area Israel had been living through during the exodus times. I can’t help but see the hand of God reaching out and giving the people of Israel bucket-loads of water in a time when they needed Him most of all. But the real Living Water came from God and not from the rains or rivers…
Jesus proclaimed Himself as the Living Water to the Samaritan woman at the well showing her there was more to life than the water she could get with a bucket from the well. No matter how much we see the fertile lands which are around rivers, we should always remember the real goodness we get from Jesus which means more to us than any amount of water in the desert!
Nature will always allow plants to grow where there is water, be it on a mountain side or running through a desert, water always gives life to the earth. The same applies to the living water we gain from Jesus – no matter how bad the people are, no matter how far they are from God, all it takes is one person to know Jesus and the place begins to change, as long as they are willing to allow others to see the difference...
Points to Ponder:
What are you doing with Christ’s Living Water?
Are you sharing your living water, or hiding it from people?
- Details
- Written by: DJ Dave
- Hits: 635
March 20: Psalm 89:26-36
Key Verse: Psalm 89:28
I will maintain my love to him for ever, and my covenant with him will never fail.
Devotion:
One of the biggest put-offs in life is a lie. When we place our trust in someone and they lie to us it is hard to accept things they tell us as the truth again. But we have a God who has never lied and who will always uphold the truth at all times!
I despair at the news most of the time as we continue to hear governments and world leaders fabricating the truth, telling lies and covering up misdoings just so they can remain in power or have power over someone else. It is not our task to judge those who do lie to us, but we can tell them we know the truth. Christ has asked us to try and forgive people time and time again – but in order to do that, they have to know we know the truth…
God has given us a promise He will never turn His back on any person who calls Him their father – not just mumbling the words or saying them out loud, but meaning then in their hearts. When we do so, He reciprocates with a promise to love and cherish us forever as a child of His! This is a very personal thing between God and you, not between God and your vicar or church leader, but between you and God with nobody else between!
It does not matter your brother or sister has rejected God. It does not matter your children do not see God as Father. It does not matter if your parents do not acknowledge God as Father – it is just you and God. Having said that I think I am lucky to know most of my family continues to love and cherish God; which makes all the difference in the world!
Points to Ponder:
Do you acknowledge God as Father?
How do you show Him and others?
- Details
- Written by: DJ Dave
- Hits: 642
March 19: Exodus 2:1-10
Key Verse: Exodus 2:8
‘Yes, go,’ she answered. So the girl went and got the baby’s mother.
Devotion:
One of the things which still surprises me is the amount of stories I hear about how God is looking after people in extraordinary ways. The story of Moses birth is just one of those moments where God used the soft heart of the Pharaoh’s daughter to make sure Moses would survive even when the Egyptian king was trying everything to make sure no baby boys were born to the Hebrew people.
If this were in more modern times the king would have an arrest warrant out on them for crimes against humanity; but this was a very different time back then. The people ruled with iron fists and would make sure they did everything and anything to ensure their survival. But, like always, there was a chink in his armour, the soft heart of his own daughter who felt sorry for the child crying in the basket.
As if that was not enough, God continues to make sure things get even more extraordinary. The servants of Pharaoh's daughter went to find a woman suitable for nursing the child and they chose the child’s real mother! And then… she gets paid for raising her own child, a child which should never have survived according to the law of the land!
God continues to do many miraculous things in our world today, just as He did back then. We may not get to hear of many of them because people are afraid to talk out when something has happened which just doesn’t seem to make sense! The press and peer pressure has made sure people do not step out of line and cause doubt within the system! But God continues to work! And He uses extraordinary mothers to do that every day!
Points to Ponder:
Do you know how extraordinary your mother is/was?
A blessed Happy Mothering Sunday to all God’s wonderful daughters!
- Details
- Written by: DJ Dave
- Hits: 673
March 18: Luke 18:9-14
Key Verse: Luke 18:12
I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.
Devotion:
There is a fine line between being a proud Christian and being proud… I have always tried to play down my role in any church and have tried to live a low profile life, both in church and outside of church. I know there are many out there who will tell me how I need to be more assertive, take pride in my work, and advertise myself more, but none of those sit right with me in my heart.
I do enjoy doing what I do and do take pride in what I do; I will always try to do my best and don’t back down until I know I have done what I can. I believe God does watch over me and He knows what is in my heart and knows what I do – that is more than good enough for me. I really do know God watches over me because of all the answered prayers and the protection He gives me in everything I do.
To all those who say we should take more pride etc I ask: “who is the target or recipient of your pride?” I don’t know if that makes for good English, but I hope you get where I am coming from. If we are looking for recognition from the world, then the only rewards we get are going to be from this world. But if we look for recognition from God, then surely we will be rewarded by God. The problem comes with knowing how much pride to take and how much to give…
If we limit our giving to just get enough recognition, then we are not loving the Lord our God with our whole soul and heart. If we do things so other people will notice us doing things, then we are not working for God but for the people of this world. As a disciples of Christ we should be giving all we can and knowing God is going to reward us for what we give without the world having to get involved with our rewards at all!
Points to Ponder:
Who do you seek recognition from?
Will you give your all to Christ?
- Details
- Written by: DJ Dave
- Hits: 710
March 17: Hosea 14:1-9
Key Verse: Hosea 14:1
Return, Israel, to the Lord your God. Your sins have been your downfall!
Devotion:
Have you ever noticed once you do something you are more willing to do it again – the same goes for good and bad things. Sometimes we have to muster up the courage to do something, like climb a mountain, and after we have done it once we realise it was not as bad as we thought. Or maybe we are tempted to do something wrong and we keep on putting it off until nobody is watching and then we give it a try, find it was not as bad as we thought and carry on doing it!
The good part is that when we do good things we are more likely to continue doing good things. The bad part is when we do bad things we are more likely to do bad things! The more bad things we do and get involved with, the more we drift away from God because we walk off in the other direction. He has been trying to tell us all along it is bad, but we ignored Him and we did it anyway!
We can see this pattern all throughout history where someone tries something bad and gets away with it at first so they continue one. Countries have been brought down. Governments have fallen, just because someone stepped out of line…
God continues to watch us and continues to try and convince us we are doing wrong. He uses the people around us, events and all manner of things to try and get us to see the righteous ways, but we are still given free choice and we continue to chhose what we like...
Points to Ponder:
How often do you try something new?
Will you try something new today which is good?
- Details
- Written by: DJ Dave
- Hits: 638
March 16: Luke 11:14-23
Key Verse: Luke 11:18
If Satan is divided against himself, how can his kingdom stand? I say this because you claim that I drive out demons by Beelzebul.
Devotion:
I love the way Jesus was free to talk about many things and not just what sounded nice in a Christian environment… When you go off to do some sort of manual labour, do you expect to stay clean and not get tired, or do you expect to get dirty and be tired after the work? The same is going to happen with any work we do for Christ.
We could stay in a nice comfortable, clean and friendly environment where only Christians are and only good things happen, but how are we ever going to be able to reach out to people who are not yet Christians! If we stayed at home and ‘worked from home’ when we should be doing manual labour, we wouldn’t be much good! We have to go out into the world and get involved with things and people – some of that is going to be dirty work too!
This does not mean we should go and ‘play in the mud’ and bring all the mud home into our lives. We should be able to come home and freshen up in a clean place so we are ready for work on another day. This does not mean we are sinners just because we get dirty; if getting dirty is part of the job, would Christ have asked you to do it in the first place if He knew you would stay dirty?
Jesus made sure people knew He was not acting on behalf of anyone else other than God. Nothing He could do against all the evil could be anything other than God’s work. When we go with God to do our work in the world we will face people who accuse us because we dare to do things differently… remind them you are working for and with God!
Points to Ponder:
Do you shy away from work because it is not Christian?
Will you take Christ with you to work today?
- Details
- Written by: DJ Dave
- Hits: 695
March 15: Deuteronomy 4:5-9
Key Verse: Deuteronomy 4:6
Observe them carefully, for this will show your wisdom and understanding to the nations, who will hear about all these decrees and say, ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.’
Devotion:
When God told the people of Israel to go and possess the land, it was not just an off-hand remark to go and take over whatever they wanted. God wanted them to listen very carefully to the instructions He would give them so the local people would understand a bigger and greater power than mere humans was controlling this!
When we go ahead and do things for ourselves, we can make great strides in moving forward and doing amazing things when we put our minds to it – but if we are doing things for our own validation or our own profit, then all we will get out of it is some local acknowledgement and that is all. People will begin to see the real reason we did things and we will be known as the people who were greedy and wanted earthly things more than the needs of the people.
But when we go ahead and do things according to how God wants us to, then we will see much greater things happen than when we do things in our own strength. It is God who does the miracles and not us. It is God who performs the impossible and not us. It is God who has the wisdom to know the best way forward and not us! I know I have upset people in my past simply because I did things I knew I could do – but if I had listened to God I may well have come out with a very different outcome!
God wants us to listen – and to do that we need to stop what we are rushing forward for and to listen for His instructions. Yes that can be very difficult, especially when we see a way forward and when we think we know what is best. But God alone knows the very best way forward, and He does want what is best for everyone, not just you!
Points to Ponder:
How often do you listen to instructions?
How often do you wait on God?
- Details
- Written by: DJ Dave
- Hits: 728
March 14: Daniel 2:19-23
Key Verse: Daniel 2:23
I thank and praise you, God of my ancestors: you have given me wisdom and power, you have made known to me what we asked of you, you have made known to us the dream of the king.
Devotion:
One of the biggest hurdles we have to get over in life is how we are not in charge! If you listen to influencers and business people all around the world who have made their fortunes they will tell you about how you have to be in charge and take control; but that must all happen within the confines of the world and laws of the countries we live in. Every country around the world is only here because of our Creator God who made it possible in the beginning!
As much as we try to make sure countries stick to various humanitarian rules and as a world community we try to encourage each other to follow similar rules, we are all different and have been for a very long time. God did not make us all the same where by we had no choice as to what sort of world we live in – He gave us freedom of choice and allowed us to make or break things!
We have some very intelligent people who take care of financial matters. We have very caring people who take care of health matters. We have have forward thinking people who try and plan for the future. But unless we all try to work together, we are only going to get as far as ourselves…
God wants us to understand it is He who has the wisdom and He who gives this wisdom to people to use in communities. If we all listened to the great and fair wisdom He gives out, we would all be able to work together and have a better life for all – instead of the select few who try to control everything. As disciples we should be working together to glorify God for sharing this wisdom for us who are willing to listen and learn. The greed for money and power will corrupt everyone; but God’s love will release everyone!
Points to Ponder:
Do you strive to be the best?
Will you allow God to guide you in the best way forward?
- Details
- Written by: DJ Dave
- Hits: 724
March 13: 2 Kings 5:3-7
Key Verse: 2 Kings 5:5
‘By all means, go,’ the king of Aram replied. ‘I will send a letter to the king of Israel.’ So Naaman left, taking with him ten talents of silver, six thousand shekels of gold and ten sets of clothing.
Devotion:
In amongst all of this conflict, God chose to use a young girl to reach an influential person in the king of Aram’s army: the commander! This young girl was taken captive and she was set to work serving the kings wife. When she heard Naaman had leprosy her faith sprang into action and she told the commanders wife he should get to see the prophet who was in Samaria and he alone would be able to cure Naaman. You can imagine the conflict here, she was serving the wife of the commander against which her people were fighting! And yet she chose to listen to her heart, a heart God had filled with love for all His people, including her enemies!
This is the strength of her faith – that God would sort out the other details when she gave some information to the wife. She could not imagine the steps which happened next. First Naaman went to the king and asked if he could have time off to go and get healed by this prophet. The king was so indebted to Naaman for all he had accomplished for the army, he agreed to let him go and see the prophet in amongst his enemies!
Naaman didn’t quite get it! He took with him all manner of riches to try and pay for something God was going to do. He didn’t have a clue who was the power behind Israel! He got a letter from his king and he took that letter to the king of Israel! The girl had clearly told him to see the prophet, but he took his position and riches and went directly to the king instead.
If we don’t listen to God and take notice of what people are saying when they are telling us something from God, then we are going to miss the big picture and focus on the things we can think of. Not what God does! Nothing is impossible with God, but it takes a human to really mess things up before God!
Points to Ponder:
Are you listening to God?
Or are you listening to what you think God should tell you?
- Details
- Written by: DJ Dave
- Hits: 634
March 12: John 4:27
Key Verse: John 4:27
Just then his disciples returned and were surprised to find him talking with a woman. But no one asked, ‘What do you want?’ or ‘Why are you talking with her?’
Devotion:
This verse comes from the passage where Jesus had just been speaking with the Samaritan woman; something to be frowned upon in those days, not just because He dared to speak openly to a strange woman, but on top of that it was a Samaritan woman and not an Israelite! Boy wouldn’t the feminists and anti-racists have a field day with this one!
Jesus was doing what any human should be doing, not excluding others just because they are different. He was doing what God wanted Him to do; to invite people to get to know Him more and to form a relationship between the person and God! I do love pointing this story out when people get upset about someone who is different coming into their group!
Jesus was very different, and yet He chose to come and live amongst sinful mankind! He dared to befriend anyone who was seeking the truth and anyone who wanted to get to know God in their hearts. This is what He meant when He said we should love our neighbours – not build big walls to exclude them or make laws to prevent them crossing an ocean!
Yes there has to be laws and people need to follow them, but many of our laws are making rifts between us instead of bringing us together. Many laws exclude people just because they are different. Why can’t we take a leaf out of Jesus’ book and show mercy and love to anyone who is seeking companionship and communion!
Points to Ponder:
Who do you inadvertently exclude?
Will you try to be more inclusive like Christ?