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February 3: Hebrews 13:1-9
Key Verse: Hebrews 13:2
Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it.
Devotion:
I do have to laugh at some who say we should all be like brothers and sisters because I know of too many brothers and sisters who have fought tooth and nail for a long time! What people do tend to miss out is to say we should be like brothers and sisters IN CHRIST! There is a big difference between worldly people and Christians!
We don’t know everyone around us because we do meet strangers from time to time. We don’t know if God has brought them to us for a reason or whether we are supposed to show them something which God needs them to see… but if we do spend a bit more time listen to God and waiting for answers, just maybe we will be able to do what He wants us to do with those around us instead of treating them like the world does.
God really does want us to be examples for the world to see and think about – what use are we if we look like everyone else? We need to stand out from others so people ask themselves why we are different; that will give us the opportunity to tell people why we are different and allow them to discover a life with Christ. That is what the author is talking about here in these verses – being the example people look up to!
God has always been the perfect example for us to look up to, but sometimes we struggle with looking up to Him because He is so perfect; sometimes we think too lowly of ourselves to realise others can look up to us. God has set us aside as Christians for for a reason. Don’t take you life lightly!
Points to Ponder:
What makes you different?
Do you think anyone can see a bit of Christ in you?
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February 2: Hebrews 12:18-21
Key Verse: Hebrews 12:21
The sight was so terrifying that Moses said, ‘I am trembling with fear.’
Devotion:
When Moses got to see the real power of God, he was very afraid of what God could do to the people of Israel if they made Him angry. He went out of his way to try and make sure the people of Israel followed God and kept His commandments; but he also knew they would not be able to fully keep all of the commandments which made him seek the truth even more than he would have done so.
This is what seeing the true power of God should do. It should not make us quake in our boots and fear every step in case we do something wrong, it should make us seek Him more to find out the truth. The more I read the bible and find out what God wants from us, the more I want to know and the more I seek to try and convince people they should be doing the same.
God does not want us to be so afraid we are too scared to come to Him. He does not want to be a tyrant whom nobody wants to get to know. He wants us to seek Him and to draw closer to Him every day. He wants to show us the righteous path and to make our lives a bit better for knowing Him.
When we get too scared of someone we try to avoid them and stay out of their way. This is not what God wants in a relationship between Him and you. He wants you to draw closer to Him all the time so He can protect you and guide you. God wants us to be His children who are willing to go to Him for guidance and protection...
Points to Ponder:
Who do you fear in your life?
Will you draw a bit closer to God to belay that fear?
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February 1: Psalm 103:13-18
Key Verse: Psalm 103:17
But from everlasting to everlasting the Lord’s love is with those who fear him, and his righteousness with their children’s children
Devotion:
One of the things about being a parent is you get to know your children a whole lot better than they think you do! Of course there are always exceptions where a parent does not love and nurture their child or children and so do not get to know them very well, but they are normally the exception. The more we draw closer to God, the more He can love and nurture us… He does not need to love and nurture us to get to know us any better but He does!
For us to get to know our children we have to spend time with them and learn the hard way. The better the relationship with our children the more we get to know about them and the closer we are to them. The same can be said for us toward God. We could just sit back and accept He loves us, but the more we get to know Him and the more we love Him, the closer our ties become and the better the relationship with Him.
We can get to the end of our tether and get mad at our children. We can get so mad we draw away from them and lose touch with them, but God’s love cannot be measured in any earthly terms. He never steps back from us because we are the ones who step away from Him. The way we can stay closer to Him is through following His will in our lives and obeying whatever He asks of us. The closer we are the more likely we are to follow His will and the more likely we will be able to hear Him when He tries to tell us something...
Points to Ponder:
How close are you with your family?
How close are you to God?
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January 31: Hebrews 12:1-4
Key Verse: Hebrews 12:2
fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy that was set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Devotion:
What do you do when you are faced with the truth? Do you turn your back on it and continue down the path of deceit and lies, or do you turn away from the deceit and lies and face the truth no matter what happens? It sounds such a simple choice to make, but when we are faced with a choice like this, many of us will take the line of telling a lie so we don’t have to face the consequences of the lie…
Jesus tried to show the disciples the truth was always the best choice, even when it meant they would have to face dire consequences; if you build lies upon lies, the consequences get graver and graver until it all collapses around you like a house of cards! When I was in school, in my final year of high school, I had some time between classes and I sat by myself in the common room with a deck of cards and built a house with the whole deck. Within a few minutes of me finishing a bus trundled down the road outside the school and that was enough to shake the table a tiny bit and the whole house crumbled!
If we try to build our lives on nothing more than a bit of friction and cardboard, then we will have to face being knocked down just as easily as my house fell down. It will only take a single moment of truth for our whole lives to change in an instant. If we are lucky we will not be hurt too much… but it’s not worth the worry!
God will always stand for the truth and He wants us to do the same as His children, as His disciples. He wants us to be the example which will encourage others to stand for the truth at all times as well.
Points to Ponder:
Do you hold back on the truth sometimes?
Will you try to uphold the truth today?
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January 30: Mark 5:1-13
Key Verse: Mark 5:13
He gave them permission, and the impure spirits came out and went into the pigs. The herd, about two thousand in number, rushed down the steep bank into the lake and were drowned.
Devotion:
This is one of those stories from the bible which makes me feel uncomfortable in many ways. We do face many things in our lives which can make us feel very uncomfortable but when we know they are the truth we need to accept them and move on by trying to understand them. My heart goes out to the man because he had not been in control of his own life for a long time now; the spirits or demons had controlled his life and made it quite miserable.
When Jesus saw the state the man was in, He had compassion over him and did what was right. The first things was to tell the impure spirit to leave the man alone. That, I actually find comforting. No matter what state we are in and no matter how far we seem to be away from God, He is always willing to come and meet with us in the state we are in.
When Jesus confronted the spirit He found there was not one spirit but many spirit who were controlling the man; they were probably fighting amongst themselves all of his life and making him do all manner of things. That is the first an most upsetting thing which bothers me. How can anything or anyone be so mean as to take over a persons life and not allow them to live it. God gives us a free choice to live the life we want to, even if it goes against what He knows is best!
After that, the spirits knew they were in a spot of bother because they had been found out. The last thing they wanted was to be tortured like they were torturing the man… in this modern age we would probably find a lot of people who would be willing to place the blame on the spirits and condemn them to a life of torture – that is what gets me the most… that is the age in which we live!
Points to Ponder:
Are you quick to judge others and blame them for things going wrong?
Would you be willing to allow Jesus to have control in your life?
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January 29: John 2:1-11
Key Verse: John 2:11
What Jesus did here in Cana of Galilee was the first of the signs through which he revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him.
Devotion:
I think this is one of the miracles which does not get enough attention – probably because Jesus did not want attention drawn to it at the time. The wedding feast He was attending did not go to plan because someone had not accounted for the amount the guests would drink – I’ve been to a few parties like that where the guests have drank a whole lot more than they should have!
But Jesus was not there to point fingers, judge people or anything like that. He was there to talk to people and try to get them to seek the truth in their hearts; but when His mother heard of the shortage of wine, she stepped up and got Jesus to make all the difference…
Jesus chose the simplest of things to turn into the most complex of things. Water is about as simple as it gets. Wine is more complex, but a fine wine is so much more complex because of the chemical reactions and releases of the sugars and tannin which makes a fine wine taste like it does. Nothing is impossible for God to achieve, and He was not about to show anything different here.
This was the first miracle the disciples recorded and so is know as Jesus’ first miracle. But the fact Mary was willing to tell the servants to do exactly what Jesus said suggests she knew what he could do already. Now it was the disciples turn to believe because of the miracle. When we have our prayers answered by God, we become believers with a reason for believing...
Points to Ponder:
Have you had prayers answered?
Do you have a reason to believe?
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January 28: Hebrews 11:13-16
Key Verse: Hebrews 11:16
Instead, they were longing for a better country – a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.
Devotion:
How do you feel about “get togethers” where a group of people get together to reminisce about old times when they used to be together, be it from school days or work days or camp days? We like to get together with people who are alike in some manner so we can reminisce about what happened… however, why we get together could be in question...
Do we get together because we genuinely miss the people we used to see? Do we get together to find out all the gossip? Do we get together to make sure we are not missing out on something? And then when we get together, what do we get up to?
All pressing questions which some would not like to be confronted about – but it brings up a point about our lives with Christ; well, a couple of points… Are we willing to sit down with Christ and talk about what we got up to and answer why we did what we did? Are we willing to look Him in the face when He asks us? Are we coming to Christ to find out the gossip or are we coming to Him because we want to be with Him?
God already knows the answers to these questions and He would like us to know the answers before it is too late too. If we have not admitted to ourselves what we get up to, then how are we going to admit to Christ what we have been up to? If we are not willing to come together with Him and discuss all the things we should or should not have done, then are we really ready to face Him. Now is the time to come to Him and admit to all we are...
Points to Ponder:
Do you know what you would say to Jesus face to face?
Are you ready to anything?
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January 27: Hebrews 10:32-39
Key Verse: Hebrews 10:35
So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded.
Devotion:
How long do you tend to hold on to something before you get weary and give in to the world around you? I’m not talking about hanging onto the end of a tug-of-war rope to see how long you can last, but the the spiritual and mental tug-of-war we have to endure every day.
Life is not just about physical labour and seeing how fit you are to keep on going; we have to face all manner of things which are spiritually and mentally challenging – those are often the hardest things to overcome because you cannot see and end to any of them. For something physical you can see and end and you can prepare yourself for how long it will take. Not so for mental and spiritual battles.
Here the disciple reminds the Hebrew people they are going to face battle and they have already done so on some fronts. They have managed to get through some of those battles already, so the disciple reminds them they have managed to get through and if they persist in a similar manner, they will be able to get through more.
God does not want us to give up but rather to persist in our battles because He is standing by our sides and He will give us the strength to endure what we will face. If you are in a battle of tug-of-war, you trust the people behind you are not going to let go and you concentrate on what is immediately in front of you. Why not try to do something similar to the internal challenges you face – just concentrate on what is immediately in front of you and trust God is backing you up all the way!
Points to Ponder:
Do you rely on God as your back-stop?
Will you give Him a bit more credit?
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January 26: Hebrews 10:19-25
Key Verse: Hebrews 10:23
Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.
Devotion:
What are the things which give you hope in your life? Do you base your hopes on dreams and wishes, or is your hope bound by a deep seated truth? If we go about setting our hopes on dreams which are intangible, or on what other people say, then we may just find out those are nothing more than dreams. But if we base our hopes on a truth, no matter how deep and buried that truth is, we can be sure our hope has a foundation!
Christ came into this world to allow mankind to realise the dream of being with God in heaven. He made the firm foundation which we can base all of our hopes on. He continues to uphold the truth upon which this was all built and wants us to know our hope can be held firmly in His grip.
What does He ask of us? He does not demand money or sacrifices or any other worldly position or possession. He simply asks we have faith in this truth which He has opened up for us. He asks we place our trust in His hands. He asks us to do this with our hearts and souls and not just to say we will do it one day! We don’t have to feel guilty about accepting this hope. We don’t have to feel guilty about what he has done for us. He did this out of love and wants us to love Him too.
The best way forward is to continue encouraging one another to seek out the truth, to base our hopes and dreams on this truth and to trust Him for whatever is ahead of us. This is not an onerous task to do – but the world may well make it feel onerous because the world does not want to allow us to have a firm foundation for our faith; but we have!
Points to Ponder:
Do you have dreams?
Will you allow your dreams to be based of Christ’s promises?
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January 25: Galatians 1:11-16
Key Verse: Galatians 1:12
I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ.
Devotion:
The more we get to know God’s Word the more we are able to understand just how special it is. All the books I have read (not many though) have all had their faults in them. I have never been very good at reading or English language and literature; instead I have muddled my way through by understanding the world around me instead of the language. I can understand drawings and pictures, shapes, mechanics and electrics, but languages mess with my brain...
But when I read the Bible I am always pleasantly surprised to be able to understand it, not through being taught what I should think about it, but by revelation through Christ and the Holy Spirit. I enjoy finding out what God has in store for me each day and I read through passages to find out what he wants me to pass on to others. I enjoy the journey travelling with you all.
I grew up in a Christian family, but one which did not always go to church and did not always get things right. I was horrified at some of the things I faced; but we went through those times as a family who loved each other. My school days were always short of the mark as I got into trouble much of the time for the most mundane things (at least I thought they were mundane!)
But when I spent time to sit down with God and go through His Word with Him, my life changed in many ways. I was challenged in new ways, got to do things I never dreamed of doing and because a disciples of Christ. My task now is to stretch out and invite others to do the same as I did and get to know what living with God is all about – and it’s not about going to the right church or living in the right place… it’s loving people like Jesus wants us to!
Points to Ponder:
Do you spend time with God in the Bible?
How has He shaped your life?