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November 25: Matthew 10:34-42
Key Verse: Matthew 10:38
Whoever does not take up their cross and follow me is not worthy of me.
Devotion:
When you read through these verses you may well be worried about the words used here; especially when it talks about being rejected for loving our families more than we love God! Let’s take a bit of time to think about what is being said and not jump to conclusions… When we talk about our faith, our belief in God, how far are we willing to go to say we do love God?
As long as we don’t come from a very broken family, we may well say we love our families more than anything and also say we are willing to do anything for our families. When push comes to shove we actually do go far to ensure our families are safe and protected. How far are we willing to go to ensure God’s Word is trusted, or God’s name is not abused?
This is what is being said here… If we say we love God and believe in Him, then we should be willing to put our faith to the test. We should be willing to uphold God’s word when others mock or ridicule it. We should be willing to stand up for God and show others we are proud to be called Christians. These are all the things we probably take for granted in our families. God invited us into His family and calls us His children. We should be willing to say He is our Father!
When Jesus said He was not bringing peace, but a sword, it was a statement meant to shake up the people around Him. It was His way of saying we need to stand up for the gospel, the word He was proclaiming, and we need to defend it just as we defend our families. If we are willing to do this, then He is willing to make sure we are never rejected and never left alone. He is willing to support us!
Points to Ponder:
Do you uphold God’s Word?
Will you demonstrate your love for God without fear?
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November 24: Luke 21:17-19
Key Verse: Luke 21:19
Stand firm, and you will win life.
Devotion:
Jesus does not promise us we are going to have a great life, nor does He promise everyone will love us because we are Christians – after all why shouldn’t everyone love us when we say we love everyone!
Jesus commands us to love one another as much as we love ourselves – which assumes we do love ourselves, after all, what would be the point of loving others the way we love ourselves if we don’t love ourselves! To do that we must accept who we are and begin to realise no matter what, Christ is going to love us and has promised to be here for us. What He does say is the world will probably hate us because we are Christians and dare to tell the truth when the world around us is spreading lies!
He does say we will survive though. But, because there is evil in this world, the evil may well overflow and reach us in physical ways; like we will be affected by a virus in the same way as others are affected by it, we will face the same dangers from volcanoes and earthquakes as the people around us do; but we will survive. We may think of death as not surviving, but life goes on a lot further than our physical lives because our souls are not bound by this life we live physically.
What is going to be sure is the life Christ gives us because we choose to believe in Him. Nothing on earth will be able to take that away from us and nothing can put a chink in that life our souls are looking forward to. Because we chose to believe, He chose to save us from the physical realm and get ready a fantastic life in the spiritual realm with Him! This is the life we win!
Points to Ponder:
Are you working on loving yourself more?
Are you working on looking forward to your spiritual life with Christ?
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November 23: Luke 21:5-11
Key Verse: Luke 21:9
When you hear of wars and uprisings, do not be frightened. These things must happen first, but the end will not come right away.
Devotion:
When we look at the splendour of the temples, statues and various other things built as some sort of offering to God, we need to remember they are man-made and nothing more. No matter how much time we spend building something and dedicating it to God, it is still a man-made object. Over time these buildings and objects are going to break down and fall – but our God will continue to stand firm as our God throughout time!
I love going into churches and seeing what people have done to dedicate those places to God; how much time and effort they have put in to remember how much God means to them… but sometimes we forget who we are doing things for and we start to look for recognition from people instead of from God. When that happens, we will see our objects of self praise brought down, ignored and forgotten over time; maybe not in our life-time, but over time it happens.
We lose our way and follow the ways of the world as we get more and more tied up with gaining praise and recognition for ourselves instead of bringing all the glory to God. We lose focus on the object of our praise. Over time we get caught up in arguments which escalate to wars and eventually some end up nation fighting nation. Jesus was reminding us here that these things will happen over time because of the wicked ways we have in our hearts.
These things need to happen at time so we can refocus on God. But if we get too tied up in the wicked ways, we lose focus on God altogether – this is when He no longer gets the glory and we seek it ourselves instead. Who can we blame for the evil we let in but ourselves!
Points to Ponder:
Do you fear the end times are coming because of all the wars?
Will you simply turn back to worshipping God instead of mankind?
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November 22: Daniel 1:8-20
Key Verse: Daniel 1:17
To these four young men God gave knowledge and understanding of all kinds of literature and learning. And Daniel could understand visions and dreams of all kinds.
Devotion:
We can look at this passage in various lights: as the resolve for Daniel to ensure they followed God’s guidance, as the guidance of God over people who do not yet know Him, or as the rewards God gives us when we do listen. It is not about how vegetarians are following God better than meat eaters!
Daniel wanted to make sure they followed God’s advice. He listened to where God was guiding him and he stood up to anyone who tried to lead them away from God. The food which was being dished up by the king was not good in Daniels eyes; it may well have been gained through ill-gotten ways and so Daniel refused to eat it. He knew God provided for him and by eating plain food he was ensuring he continued to rely on God and not man.
Even though the guard looking after them did not yet believe in God, God persuaded him to have have compassion on Daniel and the others. God does not need you to believe in Him before He can do things through you – He can work with anyone. If this were not so, many Christians today would not have become Christians because they did not start out believing!
When we do listen to God and obey His requests and guidance, we will find doors being opened for us in many ways. When Daniel and the others listened to God, they found their health was better (probably because of less unhealthy food stuffs) and they began to learn quicker than normal – not because the food was doing it, but because God was doing it! They because much more learned than the kings magicians and enchanters.
Points to Ponder:
Do you listen to God or take the easiest ways?
Will you try to obey God even when things get a bit tougher?
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November 21: John 18:33-37
Key Verse: John 18:35
“Am I a Jew?” Pilate replied. “Your own people and chief priests handed you over to me. What is it you have done?”
Devotion:
When Jesus faced Pilate after the Jewish leaders had convinced him Jesus was some sort of criminal who was after the throne, Pilate wanted a face to face conversation with Him to find out the truth. Jesus was a bit vague with His answers knowing what He would still have to go through for our sakes; knowing the task at hand was not yet complete!
This showed the vast difference between the kingdom of Heaven and the kingdom on earth! On earth people were encouraged or even forced to bow down before a leader who would treat everyone according to their own wishes and not really according to the law. This is because the kingdoms on earth are ruled by people who have lost sight of God and now are following their own desires and wants instead of the needs of the kingdom as a whole.
Jesus, on the other hand, was facing whatever came His way knowing He had to stand up for the kingdom of God instead of bowing down to earthly leaders. Jesus told Pilate His kingdom was not of this earth – in other words, He was talking about the kingdom of heaven and not on earth. He knew He must go through with the arrest, with the jailing, with all the beatings and eventually with the crucifixion on the cross.
Jesus knew the price He had to pay for the whole kingdom – for each one of us. Jesus knew He had to go through with it no matter what the cost, for it was the only way we would get to enter the kingdom of heaven! Jesus even told Pilate His job was to tell the truth before everyone. He also opened up to say the people who did believe the truth were always going to follow Jesus.
Points to Ponder:
Do you believe everything politicians tell you?
Who are the politicians serving; who should they be serving?
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November 20: Luke 20:28-38
Key Verse: Luke 20:38
He is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive.”
Devotion:
This is just one of the occasions when the Sadducees (or others) tried to trick Jesus by asking impossible questions. Each time He was asked awkward questions, Jesus would answer them according to what God’s Word said – and in this case answering them by showing the question itself was based on an invalid assumption!
It is safe to say the rules in Heaven are not going to be the same as the rules here on earth. We will be different – Jesus has already told us we will face the resurrection which means we will be brought back to life but in a different form. Why should we be limited by earthly rules and laws when we are no longer going to be on earth? Why should we be limited to living our lives in relationships, jobs and different families?
Jesus reminds us here we are born into the family of God – all as one family – so we will not have to choose things which pertain to being in different families. We will not have to get married or have children; all that is for our lives on earth and to expand our families so we can keep the human race going generation after generation. In Heaven we will no longer face getting old or having to die again – that will all be behind us!
So if someone asks you whether you can get remarried or whatever – answer them by pointing out they are looking at this all wrong. While we are here on earth we live under rules for our earthly lives. When we get to heaven we will all be as brothers and sisters in one family with God as our parent(s)
Points to Ponder:
Do you try view Heaven by earthly concepts?
Will you try to open your mind to a new way of living with God?
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November 19: Revelation 10:8-11
Key Verse: Revelation 10:9
So I went to the angel and asked him to give me the little scroll. He said to me, “Take it and eat it. It will turn your stomach sour, but ‘in your mouth it will be as sweet as honey.’”
Devotion:
Have you ever eaten or drank something which tasted fine, but really made you feel quite ill after a short while? This is what some people have to put up with all the time when they have food allergies! But this was not real food or drink being talked about here, and I don’t think it was literally taking a scroll and eating it – I don’t think we are meant to eat books!
God wants us to know everything we hear is not always going to agree with us. We have lived our life from the beginning and we continue to live our lives even when we have been born in the spirit; what some people term as being born again is us starting a new life with Christ in it. But, because we have lived our lives as humans and have made choices as we are, some of those choices may well ‘repeat’ on us, or disagree with the way we think we should live!
Jesus wants us to continue living our lives, but with a different view; one which includes Him in everything we do. When we do this, we may find some of the choices we have made to live by in the past do not agree with us in our new way of living with Christ. Or we may find a choice we make with Christ brings up horrible feeling about things we have done in the past.
God wants us to know we have been forgiven for everything we have done – but we do need to acknowledge we have done things wrong. When this happens, we get upset and may even cry about what has happened. That’s fine! As long as we also acknowledge what Jesus did by giving His life on the cross. He has set in motion the forgiveness for everything so we can be happy and content in our life with Him hence-forth.
Points to Ponder:
Do you get upset about things you have done wrong in the past?
Will you allow Christ to forgive you fully?
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November 18: Isaiah 10:33-34
Key Verse: Isaiah 10:34
He will cut down the forest thickets with an axe; Lebanon will fall before the Mighty One.
Devotion:
If you read these verses by themselves, what would your conclusion be? Would you be thinking God was going to level the people like lumberjacks would level a forest? Would you be thinking God had given the people a death sentence? Or would you be comparing people and trees and come to the conclusion God was going to cut down all the people who had grown up to big for their boots?
If we read the verses before these and the verses after these we begin to get a better picture of what’s going on. The prophet is trying to convey a whole history to the people instead of just what we read here. God wanted the people to think about their history and to see where they were currently headed. He wanted them to compare that with how a forest takes many years to grow, but can be cut down in a matter of days!
But He also wanted the people to know why! God wanted the people to know just how wide spread the problem was… When we allow things to go too far in our lives, it takes a long time to recover and a lot of hard work to bring things back in line. When some people turned away from God, other would follow because they heard things and they did not see God punishing them… God was waiting for them to help the others back in line…
We need to take note of what people are doing around us and to try to help people when we see things going wrong. This may take us out of our comfort zones, may take us away from our ‘successful lives’ and may take us toward our enemies… But, unless we are willing to listen to God and hear what He wants in full, then we are not getting the whole picture!
Points to Ponder:
How often do you make your mind up before the results come in?
Are you making your mind up for your own life before God’s results come in?
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November 17: Psalm 102:1-2
Key Verse: Psalm 102:1
Hear my prayer, Lord; let my cry for help come to you.
Devotion:
One year ago today our Dad passed away after a few years of fighting cancer; one thing he tried to constantly remind me of is to ask for help when you need it. We live in a very proud society where asking for help is seen as being weak and working hard and long is seen as being normal. However, if we go back a few years to when I was a child, our parents would always make time to be with us...
Yes, they would have to work hard and sometimes long hours, but they did not sit us in front of a TV or some other distraction to have some time for themselves. Today parents are even encouraged to give in to technology to take care of their children! We are losing the personal touch with our children!
Here the writer of this Psalm reminds us God is always here with us and always looking out for us; but we don’t always see it. We get too caught up in the situations and fear God has not seen us get into trouble. We then fear He is not going to help us so we try to get the world to fic our problems instead of taking them to God.
Jesus promised to ensure we always have a part of God looking after us. He promised a comforter to look after us and promised to always listen out for our prayers. That means God is always with us and always listening to us! We get too tied up in the world and its distractions to see how much He cares for us. How long have you spent talking to God today? How much help have you asked from Him?
Points to Ponder:
Do you need help or comfort in your life?
Will you ask God to be your aid and your comforter now?
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November 16: Psalm 11:1-6
Key Verse: Psalm 11:2
For look, the wicked bend their bows; they set their arrows against the strings to shoot from the shadows at the upright in heart.
Devotion:
O how the world doubts! If we allow the doubts of the world to invade our faith, we will begin to have doubts too. The psalmist here starts off by reminding us the Lord is our refuge and our point of strength. If we continue to draw close to Him and depend on Him for comfort and protection where the world only sees doubts, then we will recognise the strength of the Lord as we work with Him in our lives.
We hear the world say we cannot possibly have strength and protection from an unseen God because He cannot be seen. We hear the world tell us how disasters and man’s ways will break us and our world... In reality, man can break anything he puts his mind to and also everything he ignores or puts aside to work on it another day!
We see climate change taking hold because mankind has turned his back on the things which we know cause trouble. We see the Coronavirus taking hold because man thinks he can side-step it, but the natural ways of the virus continue to take hold. We hear man say God is not real because it is taking hold; in reality it is because man has ignored the threat!
God sees everything from Heaven; there is nothing which He cannot see and nothing which He cannot do. But He has promised to give us free choice to do what we will and we have to live with the consequences of choosing the wrong things at the wrong time; He can only watch over us and try to steer us from danger...
Points to Ponder:
Do you rely on God?
Will you stay in His place of refuge?