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December 3: Mark 13:32-37
Key Verse: Mark 13:36
If he comes suddenly, do not let him find you sleeping.
Devotion:
Have you ever been baby sitting for someone and not knowing when they are coming home? You tend to be on your very best behaviour all the time to make sure if they come home early you will be ready! This is the idea Jesus was trying to get over for the disciples; to make sure they were always going to be ready for when Jesus will return.
I like the way Jesus made sure they knew He did not know the time when He would return because it was entirely dependant on the Father. Jesus was walking into a nightmare where He would be taking on the sins of the world and having to be separated from His Father for a time while He took on the sins of the whole world.
Jesus sees how we have the face the world and knows what it is like. He has been through it all, the only difference being He was able to avoid sin for the whole time right up until the moment He had to take the sin of the world on His shoulders. He was our perfect sacrifice to ensure we would be able to spend eternity with Him and His Father in Heaven.
Jesus did not know when He would return because the Father had kept that from Him to ensure He was totally prepared as a perfect sacrifice for us. As we move into December and start thinking of all the worldly celebrations and family gatherings we will have, spare time this year to think about what Jesus had to do for His short life on earth just because He loves us so much!
Points to Ponder:
Do you know when you will die?
Are you ready right now in case?
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December 2: Luke 21:34-36
Key Verse: Luke 21:34
Be careful, or your hearts will be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness and the anxieties of life, and that day will close on you suddenly like a trap.
Devotion:
One of the things which always seems to pop up at this time of year is some sort of depression: the nights are drawing in, it’s getting dark far too early, it’s cold and icy and lots of people come down with colds. But one of the things which affects us most is staying indoors for longer periods because the weather is just not hospitable outside – or at least that is the excuse we give.
Scientists and phycologists will tell you there are reasons for us all feeling down and for people taking up drinking and allowing the anxieties of life to take hold – they say it is because of the lack of sun and being outside. But it is more than that. That may be the physical reason why people to feel down, but when we do allow those feelings of anxiety in its many forms to take hold we are allowing the world to take over our lives.
God has warned us for a very long time we should not allow the ways of the world to grab hold of us and lead us away from Him. Sadly, anxiety and depression are just some of those things which take us away from God. We can call out as much as we like and tell people they only have to read the bible, but unless they have some sort of relationship with Christ, reading the bible may not help because they may not understand it!
God wants us to be in a relationship wit Him so He can guide us through the dark times; physically, mentally and spiritually. These worldly feeling can pounce on us like a trap and we will feel helpless against them; but with God’s help and encouragement we can weather them!
Points to Ponder:
Do you allow worldly feeling to take hold?
Have you tried depending more on Christ to stay those feelings?
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December 1: Psalm 139:13-18
Key Verse: Psalm 139:13
For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
Devotion:
How often do you look at the biology of the human form? I was never any good at biology because I could not remember all the names of the parts of the body and how they worked together; I could remember some parts of various others things like plants, but human anatomy just went over my head. I can, however, get my head round most engineering things, mathematics and technical drawings…
So when it comes to the bible talking about how God knows everything about me, I look at it as an engineering problem instead; even then the logistics of how we exist in this work are far beyond my computational thinking! So going through these verses makes me think of a designer who has thought long and hard about the design to make it the best possible knowing all the pitfalls and problems it is going to face for years to come.
So many things in our lives don’t seem to be designed to last. Instead people seem to design for a limited lifespan so they can make things obsolete and not have to worry about them in the future. Not what God has done! God has made us to live forever with Him, having a spell down on earth while we make the choices we need to make first.
God was there, doing things, planning and waiting patiently until you finally came together inside your mother’s womb and started the greatest journey on earth in preparation for the greatest life in eternity with Him and all who believe in what He has done for us all!
Points to Ponder:
Do you know when you started life on earth?
Are you ready for when your life will end on earth?
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November 30: Romans 10:12-18
Key Verse: Romans 10:13
Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.
Devotion:
This is one of the verses the pastor of the church I went to continued to remind people of and it was a verse which would often go unnoticed by the people who came to visit to see what church was all about. But as we go through the verses in this section of the letter to the Romans we find another side of this verse which always has to go hand in hand with it.
How can people call on the name of the Lord unless they have heard of Him and heard what it means to call on His name. We could say to people they should visit a certain web page to get details, but if they have not heard of the Internet or have not been exposed to it, they will not know what you are talking about!
We take so much for granted in life and assume people know what we know. We give them directions from what we know and hope they will follow the directions; but they do need to know what the base is before they can build on that base. This is why we need to continue spreading the gospel from the roots up.
We cannot assume people have heard the gospel and know how to respond because there are still many who have not heard the Good News about God, Christ and the Holy Spirit. Don’t just tell people to believe, give them something to hope in so they can build their belief on firmer standings.
Points to Ponder:
How often do you tell people they need to believe in God?
How often do you tell them about God first?
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November 29: Daniel 5:1-6
Key Verse: Daniel 5:6
His face turned pale and he was so frightened that his legs became weak and his knees were knocking.
Devotion:
When was the last time you were faced with the truth after trying to hide it for a long time? How did that feel. Now imagine something a bit more horrifying as King Belshazzar sat there and the finger of a human hand appear before him and start writing something on the wall! We may joke about seeing things and write books and films about strange happenings, but seeing something write text on the wall by itself would be on my top list of things I don’t wish to see!
After this happened the king called in all his enchanters, astrologers and diviners to see what this writing meant; but it was only when Daniel was called in could the writing be deciphered. God had made this writing appear and had placed Daniel at this time and place to decipher the writing and warn the king about what he was doing!
We may not like the places God puts us sometimes because we don’t like to be placed anywhere where we are in danger or uncomfortable. But Daniel stopped and listened to God to find out what was happening and what God wanted the king to hear.
If we stop from our busy lives and spend time with God we too will get to know what it could be we are doing wrong or where He wants us to be. Daniel trusted God would look after Him and his faith in God was not let down. God delivered and made sure he would be well looked after while the king decided how he was to live his life.
Points to Ponder:
Do you get scared God may put you in a difficult position?
How will your faith grow without depending more on God?
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November 28: Jeremiah 33:1-5
Key Verse: Jeremiah 33:3
“Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.”
Devotion:
One of the hardest things to accept sometimes is bad news. When someone tells us bad news we don’t want to believe it because it is not what we think of as good or helpful. But, sometimes we do have to face the bad news so we can figure out what we are doing wrong and move forward. But, sometimes that bad news is not what we have done wrong, it’s just life; but in every thing which goes wrong, we can learn and move forward.
What is God telling the people here? The Babylonians are going to wreck havoc and many people are going to lose their lives. God does not sugar coat things but tells you the truth. This means we should be willing to hear and accept the truth when He tells us of things.
But also notice God is saying we should always spend time in prayer to Him, asking for the things we need no matter how difficult they seem to be for us. He is willing and able to answer prayers not matter how difficult or impossible things are in our view. But if we are asking for things and not listening to God, then how are we ever going to learn what is good and valuable for us?
God expects us to listen for the answers and to obey His answers and His will in our lives. Why? Because He is trying to tell us the best way forward!
Points to Ponder:
How often do you ask things of God?
How often do you listen to and obey God?
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November 27: Luke 21:1-4
Key Verse: Luke 21:2
He also saw a poor widow put in two very small copper coins.
Devotion:
One of the things I have learned by living in all the places I have lived is that money can do many things amongst the rich and arrogant, but love will always win through with friends and family. As a child I was in a privileged position and had access to many things others did not have access to; but that did not stop me from hankering after some things my friends had, because some of them had things which I didn’t have access to.
As I go through life I continue to see the importance of being honest with what you have and helping those who have less than you. I continue to want certain things in life, but if a friend or our family need things, I start there and put my wants and desires on hold for a while.
Here the poor widow was putting in what she had access to, not to show others how much she could come up with, but to show God she was not holding anything back. Jesus saw this and was impressed with her actions, but not so much the people who were putting in large stakes because they wanted others to see how much they could afford. Their reward was seeing the expressions on others faces. The widow’s reward was the admiration of Jesus and God!
If you want to impress someone, be honest with God and give what you can to help others get to know Him like you do. God may like a cheerful giver, but one who gives no matter what others think or say so the gospel can be advanced is the one God watches over!
Points to Ponder:
Do you like to have things just to show others?
What do you do to help spread the gospel?
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November 26: Ezekiel 34:11-16
Key Verse: Ezekiel 34:15
I myself will tend my sheep and make them lie down, declares the Sovereign Lord.
Devotion:
Ezekiel was sent by God to talk to various people; here being sent to talk to the shepherds of Israel. They were warned they should be looking after their sheep better so they would grow up being well fed. The shepherds had seemingly been a bit slack in making sure the sheep were fed but did not slack in making sure they were fed properly themselves.
The parallels drawn here with the leaders of Israel really stands out when we read about this later, but at the time God was trying to get the leaders to listen by other means because they did not listen to the Prophets at the time! The Lord is declaring the people of Israel to be His and to show people He is still looking our for them.
But if the sheep do not listen they are not going to come to the shepherd. In the day time this is not too much of a problem because the shepherd can see the sheep from far off. But when it grows dark their eyes are not as good as the animals which sought to kill them for food; thus the sheep would be in danger!
This is what it is like for us. If we stay close to God and stay in His light we will be a lot safer because we shall be seen. But when we wander off into the darkness and follow sinful ways, others do not see what we get up to and cannot help us back to God. He will have to come looking for us in all the dark and sinful places!
Points to Ponder:
Would you rather God found you in a good place?
Or would you be ok if He found you in a dark and sinful place?
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November 25: 2 Samuel 6:12-19
Key Verse: 2 Samuel 6:14
Wearing a linen ephod, David was dancing before the Lord with all his might
Devotion:
When king David had commanded the Ark of God to be brought into Jerusalem, there was an incident where Uzzah reached out to stead the Ark as it began the oxen drawing it stumbled. Uzzah was struck dead because God had already told them nobody should ever touch the Ark with their hands; it had to be kept pure for God.
David then ‘parked’ it at Obed-Edom’s house and God blessed the household! David then knew God had not abandoned the Ark and called for it to be brought into Jerusalem. There was a lot of pomp and ceremony as they brought the Ark in with sacrifices of a bull and a fattened calf being made as they entered. David even dances with all his might in front of the procession only wearing an ephod. Whilst people debate at to what the ephod actually was, we can think of it somewhat like a hospital gown which leaves little to the imagination!
Now, would you be on the side of Michal who was horrified of the fact that is all he was wearing, or would you be on the side of people who cheered because David was opening himself before God?
When you go to praise God, do you hide your emotions and sing like a chorister, or do you sing and dance with true abandon before your God? I’m not saying we all need to rush around half naked before God, but having the confidence God is look well on you for doing what you are doing is a step in the right direction. We need to not just love people more, but allow them to see we want God to see how we really are!
Points to Ponder:
How to you worship God?
Will you also try to give others gifts as part of your worship?
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November 24: 1 Chronicles 16:8-14
Key Verse: 1 Chronicles 16:11
Look to the Lord and his strength; seek his face always.
Devotion:
When we look for prayer or how to pray, we often focus on the New Testament because that is where Jesus taught us to pray and we have many things He and the disciples prayed for as examples. But when we look into the Old Testament we find many examples of the prophets and kings praying to God and pleading with Him for many things.
The people in the Old Testament show us how God answered their prayers in many way. The writings may not be as explicit because these scriptures have been passed down through generations of scribes and we have those retold stories and songs to give us the hope which bring faith and ultimately God into our lives.
This book gives us the history of the people of Israel and, in this case, King David giving Asaph the position of chief priest to minister before the Ark of the Lord. The prayer starts out like Jesus taught us by giving praise to God our Father, not just through prayers but in song and stories and acts done to show others of God’s provision for us.
But the part which strikes me the most of looking to the Lord for His strength every day and always. We can remember all the stories of how much He has done for us from the beginning through the scriptures of the Old Testament. We can remember what He requires of us through the commands, judgments and miracles He alone has done for us all!
Points to Ponder:
How often do you start by recognising God for who He is?
How often do you seek Him each day?