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May 5: Acts 13:26-33
Key Verse: Acts 13:33
he has fulfilled for us, their children, by raising up Jesus. As it is written in the second Psalm: “You are my son; today I have become your father.”
Devotion:
As Paul continued to speak to them in Antioch, reminding them of their history and their scriptures, he now links them to what has happened to Jesus. Everything which they have written in their scriptures has come to pass without them realising it. This man Jesus who they had derided and crucified, had been raised up from the dead, witnessed by so many people as being alive again, had completed what God had the prophets write down in preparation for this.
Paul knew the scriptures because he had turned them against Christians before God confronted him. He was the one now standing up and telling people how true the scriptures were and how Jesus was the one who fulfilled them. How could this not be their Messiah! Paul had turned from being a persecutor to a witness.
When you go out into the world and see the things which people do against God, what do you do? As I see it, we have two choices. We can either ignore what our Bibles say and join in with the rest of the world doing whatever it is they are doing, or we can make a stand and we can be a witness for God.
We don’t have to be excellent public speakers. I can remember standing up in front of others for the first time in school and then in university and being terrified because I thought I did not know enough! It only takes a single piece of knowledge which you have and others don’t have to turn you into a teacher. If you are willing to trust God and allow Him to guide you in your words, then you will be like Paul and be able to tell them of your experiences – that is what being a witness is all about!
Points to Ponder:
Do you have a good relationship with God?
Have you told anyone about your relationship?
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May 4: John 13:12-17
Key Verse: John 13:17
Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.
Devotion:
One of the biggest problems we have in our societies is the class system we apply to life! We are always taught to try and reach higher in life and to become better; but many choices we make along the way to get better alienate us from others simply because we think we are somehow better than them. Yes we may well be better at doing our job, better at problem finding, better at communication or any other thing in life – but saying we are a better human being is not our choice to make!
God wants us to be able to talk to anyone from any walk in life. Jesus chose to meet with all manner of people during His ministry on earth. He chose to meet with people from all walks in life, all positions and all beliefs. He did not chose to only walk with those who believed in God, or followed the rules of the church, but everyone.
This display of washing of feet was to demonstrate to the disciples they should not place themselves above anyone just because of the position they hold in society or church. Every one of us is called a child of God – which means we need to treat each other as siblings and not as people from a different world!
It is sometimes hard to reach out to people whom you know are working against you and against God; but God is going to open doors for us to reach out to unexpected people in our lives so they too can have a different view of life than what they may be forced into enduring. The choices we make in our lives often govern what lifestyles are open to us which often exclude us from righteous connections and deeds. We need to be willing to be open to what God has in store instead of what we think we should have!
Points to Ponder:
Do you limit your social meetings to people you think are good?
Will you try listening to God?
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May 3: Psalm 67-1-7
Key Verse: Psalm 67:3
May the peoples praise you, God; may all the peoples praise you.
Devotion:
The reason why I call the relationship between God and us a relationship is because it has to be two ways – we cannot sit idly by and expect God to do everything for us just because we want Him to. We cannot expect God to do anything for us just because we do things for the church. Just as, I hope, you know there has to be a continuous dialogue between two people to keep them in a relationship, so too has there got to be a communion between us and God!
The first thing which jumped out at me when I read this Psalm today was this fact about things going both ways. We like saying things like the grace, saying “bless you” when someone sneezes and lots of other things which we sometimes take for granted. I’m not talking about those things here but the true, meaningful relationship you need to have with God.
Any relationship we have with another person demands some sort of communication, not just sitting down and talking about stuff when it has already gone wrong, but talking about ideas when they first form and not waiting to see what happens before we do anything.
God would love for us to be proactive and get going with ideas and discipleship in its many forms, but talking to Him in the beginning about what forms that could take and asking for guidance will go a long way to making sure your discipling experience is not short-lived. We only have to look at all the things in nature which God has provided for us to know He continues to work with us all the way!
Points to Ponder:
How often do you ask for God’s blessing?
How often do you bless God?
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May 2: John 10:22-30
Key Verse: John 10:24
The Jews who were there gathered round him, saying, ‘How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.’
Devotion:
How many times have you asked God to reveal Himself in some physical form because you still have doubts? It is only human to have doubts but those doubts do not come from God not telling you something or Christ not giving you a cue or The Holy Spirit not talking to you audibly; these doubts come from the things around you which have been placed there by the evil one to try and make you stumble!
Despite the Jews being the chosen race and despite all the things God had done for and with them over the many years they had been together, they still had doubts because of the many things they were doing wrong. They had grown more used to listening to the world than listening to God and it was harder for them to hear Jesus when He did come to fulfil the role of Messiah.
Jesus’ rebuke to them was to say they were not His sheep, effectively saying they were not of the fold of the church. He did this because they were seemingly refusing to listen to Him; they were fighting a battle between the earthly rules they had built up and the scriptures they had been given thousands of years previously. God does not change the words He gives us but our perception changes as we begin to realise what He actually was saying to us.
We have to be willing to change when we hear the truth, and the longer we stay in the world the harder it is going to be for us to listen to those truthful sayings when all we hear is the temptations of the world. Just as God will not change His word, He will never let go of the people who are in His charge!
Points to Ponder:
Do you have doubts about church?
Are you listening to the world or to God?
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May 1: Isaiah 30:15-21
Key Verse: Isaiah 30:16
You said, “No, we will flee on horses.” Therefore you will flee! You said, “We will ride off on swift horses.” Therefore your pursuers will be swift!
Devotion:
When you do something wrong the temptation is to try cover it up or to run away from the problem… And then you find out the bridges you build to run away are the same bridges which will land you in trouble; the faster you try to run the harder the fall. Whilst this does apply to most things in life, the application I want to raise is on our spiritual lives.
When we do something wrong against God and His will in our lives, we try to build earthly bridges upon which we can run away. No matter how quickly we build the bridges we find The Lord is already there with us and already knows what we have done. If we try to make a scene over things to cover up our misgivings, the same scene we make will draw attention to the things we have done wrong rather than hide them – nothing we can do will hide the truth from God.
When we try to rebel against God we think we are going to get a lot of support because we call on earthly things and people for our support. Unfortunately God will reveal the truth and all our earthly support will vanish! As the prophet puts it, we will be left like a single flagpole stood on a mountaintop. There will be no support for us from the world, but everyone will be able to see us!
But, despite all our wrongdoings, God is merciful and gracious to us; His compassion goes far beyond anything we can do wrong, and His justice will reign over everything. What we need to do is to not try and run with the world to hide from God, but to admit we have wronged Him and wait patiently for His loving Grace to cover our sins.
Points to Ponder:
How far can you run?
Do you know God is already there?
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April 30: John 10:1-10
Key Verse: John 10:5
But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognise a stranger’s voice.
Devotion:
One of the difficult questions in life we always have to face is “are they telling me the truth?” Sometimes it is all too easy to go along with what others are saying because it is easier to do that rather than to find out what should be happening; and when we find we have gone far down that road, it is very difficult to leave that path and go back to the truth. This happens in all walks of life and is certainly not limited to people who are following – sometimes it is the leaders who get it wrong!
Jesus was talking to the Pharisees here because He knew where they were headed if they continued on with the ways they were living. He did not want them to be left out of the kingdom of heaven just because they got something wrong a long time ago. When Jesus went to the cross it was not just for the things people were doing wrong there and then, it was for all mankind's sins!
It does take time to get back to the truth when you wander away from it, and it is not always a clear path. But the one thing we do have now is our bibles to guide and direct us. Imagine wandering off into a jungle and getting lost. It is going to be very hard to see where you are going and find out which direction you are going because there is so much undergrowth around you. But if you had a still small voice inside (like a compass) telling you which direction to go it would be a lot easier – even when you do not know exactly where you are!
Our bibles may seem a bit like a compass with no indications as to which way is north and which is south, but it does not take too long to figure out the truth from them when we start reading. It is not because we have to blindly follow it, but because it will open up more truths for us to follow...
Points to Ponder:
Do you feel lost at times?
Will you listen to God’s voice through your bible?
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April 29: John 6:60-69
Key Verse: John 6:66
From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.
Devotion:
Not all things God asks of you are going to be easy or plain sailing; I would say most things are not going to be! There were a lot of people who were following Jesus around because of the things He was doing, the love He was showing and the general feeling of things being great when He was involved. But as soon as those happy feeling were put to the test, many people gave up and went on their own way again.
Jesus does not call us to do something and then go back to our old ways of life, He calls us to change our ways so others will be encouraged to do the same. When He started to tell the people He was the Son of God, many people were put off by this because of the teachings of the Sanhedrin and other governing bodies. I hesitate to use the word church because I like to think of church as being followers of Jesus.
The Holy Spirit will encourage you in many ways of your are willing to listen. What you hear may well challenge your ways or what you are used to. But if we can go back to our scriptures and see how the Spirit is guiding us toward Godly things, then we can be sure this is the Holy Spirit and not any other random spirit trying to get in on the action.
God will try to get our attention in many ways and if we are willing to listen and obey, we will be able to do many things for and with Him. But if we continue to shut ourselves off from the voice of the Spirit just because we think things should be done another way, then we may well miss out on the most important parts God has to say to us. God will always work through the Spirit, through Jesus and directly; they will always agree with what is to be done – God will not fight Himself...
Points to Ponder:
Have you got very strict rules in your life?
Are you willing to hear the Spirit?
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April 28: Acts 9:10-20
Key Verse: Acts 9:20
At once he began to preach in the synagogues that Jesus is the Son of God.
Devotion:
Sometimes God chooses the most unimaginable people to do His work; and He chooses them for good reason. We may look at some people and judge them because of the people we see them to be but God is able to see what each of us is capable of doing and how it would turn out. That is what He looks at when He chooses someone, unlike us!
God had to wait for the right moment to come to Saul because he was so worked up with a rage against the church. Saul was going out of his way to get to Christians and to disrupt their work at every opportunity. So when he asked for letter to go to Damascus he had to make a journey which is where God chose to meet him. Not in a public place with everyone watching but when he would be alone with no rabble to support his actions.
God chose to confront him and then to send a man of God to meet with him and explain the truth. Up to this point nobody had been able to get Saul to listen to the truth because of his anger against the apostles and what they were doing. H e actually thought he was doing the right thing up until that point.
We need to take time to compare the things we do with what God asks us to do. We can find out what sort of people God used to spread the gospel and how they did it. Is what we are doing falling in line with that work? Sometimes we get too carried away with doing what people want instead of actually listening to God. We do what we think the institution needs instead of what God actually wishes.
Points to Ponder:
Do you count yourself a good person?
How well do you listen to God’s will in your life?
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April 27: Acts 8:32-35
Key Verse: Acts 8:35
Then Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus.
Devotion:
When Philip was led by the Spirit to talk to the Ethiopian eunuch, it was not a chance meeting but a meeting set up by God. The eunuch may have been going about his duties in his normal way, but something different was happening. He was searching for meaning in something he had heard and witnessed – he was searching for God and God knew if he continued to search but stuck to his normal way of life, he would not get to hear the gospel!
The Holy Spirit led Philip to the right time and place to meet up with the eunuch at the time he was trying to make sense of a part of the scripture he was trying to read. Now the scripture was not available to everyone as it is today – it was not the top selling book of all time! God had already made a copy of that part of the scripture available to him and now he was sending someone who understood that scripture to him to explain it!
God is not limited by our normal ways of life, instead He is willing and able to make sure we can get to the thing in life which will allow us to make sense of the scriptures so we can have a closer relationship with Him. Even nowadays He continues to send the right people at the right time to meet up with people who are searching for the truth.
Sometimes people don’t know what they are searching for and they don’t even know where to go to ask the right questions. This is where God comes in because He has a whole army of people whom He can call on – and He does! If we are willing to listen to His prompting and obey His requests, we too can be used for a special moment in someone else’s life!
Points to Ponder:
Do you like helping others?
Are you willing to trust a prompt from God?
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April 26: Acts 8:1-8
Key Verse: Acts 8:6
When the crowds heard Philip and saw the signs he performed, they all paid close attention to what he said.
Devotion:
It is hard to stop a crowd of people who have been worked up to do something; whether they are right or wrong, it is hard to stop them once they get going. The people of the Sanhedrin were doing their uttermost to stop the apostles from preaching about Jesus because it was seemingly undermining their power and control of the people. What they could not control, in the end, was the spreading of the truth!
A young man got involved with this and turned vigilante to work with the Sanhedrin to try and quash the work the apostles were doing. The followers of Jesus began to spread far and wide to avoid being caught up in the things which were happening so they could continue to tell people the truth and show them God was more powerful than the people in the Sanhedrin. No longer were the Sanhedrin acting in God’s interest!
Philip went to Samaria where he was able to tell people the gospel story and through prayer, faith and trust in God, he was able to do many things which caught people’s eyes. His prayers were being answered by God because of his faith in Christ. Through him God was able to do many things. He became a light in these dark times, a light which people could look to and be encouraged by. A light which was opening up the truth!
Jesus taught the disciples to go out and make disciples by showing them what God can do when people believe and trust in Him. It is hard to do this when you are being shouted down and persecuted – sometimes it is best to walk away from the persecution and try some place else. To find out where God wants us to be we need to be willing to make changes according to His will in our lives.
Points to Ponder:
Are you stuck trying to do what you think is right?
Are you listening to what God is telling you?