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October 1: Luke 10:17-20
Key Verse: Luke 10:20
However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.
Devotion:
How often do you get carried away with celebrations when you lead a person to The Lord, or you manage to do something for others? We do like to be praised when we do something with a positive outcome, especially when that positive outcome is seen a good in Christ’s eyes or for the church… But we should never forget just who is behind the victory.
I used to have a T-Shirt which had a picture of a bass being hooked on it and the words “we catch them, God cleans them” written underneath. I bought that shirt because it reminded me of the fact I could show people the light, I could show them the Bible and I could do many things, but it was God who was the one behind the hope and victory these people had – not me!
I cringe when I hear people talking about how many people they led to The Lord or how many people they brought to God… Yes, that person may well be instrumental in those others getting to know Christ, but without Christ they have done nothing. Without those people submitting to Christ, their work was for nothing…
What we should be rejoicing about is simply the fact our names are written in heaven – without that fact, we have done nothing. I will not count how many people I have changed, because I don’t do the changing, I simply open people’s hearts and minds to the fact Christ has died for them and wants to save them; nothing more! I am a servant of God who is trying to do what God is asking of me, it’s that simple!
Points to Ponder:
Have you boasted about what you have done for God lately?
Is your greatest gift not just salvation?
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September 30: Psalm 139:6-11
Key Verse: Psalm 139:7
Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?
Devotion:
One of the things many of us struggle with in our lives is the sense of loneliness or abandonment. We struggle with being left alone or a feeling that nobody is there to help us out when things get tough. It is not something which is limited to people who struggle in life or people who have lost someone close to them, but to most of us at one stage or another in our lives.
When the psalmist was penning this psalm, it was a psalm of remembering how awesome God is in our lives. No matter what happens in our lives, no matter how far we think we have strayed away, no matter how much we think we do not deserve God to be in our lives, He is always there. Jesus made sure the Holy Spirit came back to mankind so we would never again feel like we have been left alone…
Unfortunately this does not cure everyone of their feelings of abandonment; for those people who struggle to have a relationship with God, they will continue to struggle with feeling alone or left out because they are struggling to have God in their lives. This is not something we have to try and manufacture because nothing we do will ensure the Spirit is with us – at least not in a physical way.
The Spirit stays with us when we invite Him into our lives. As soon as Christ recognises we are asking for help, He will ensure we have the help for everything we need. If we still have doubts, then we will still struggle with our feelings; but as long as we trust in Christ and depend on Him in our lives, we will find we always have the Spirit with us no matter what is happening.
Points to Ponder:
Do you struggle with being alone?
Will you invite Christ to be your partner?
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September 29: Genesis 28:10-15
Key Verse: Genesis 28:14
Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring.
Devotion:
How do you think God is going to talk to you when you lift up your prayers to Him? If we are honest we would all like to hear Him say something audibly so we can understand without question – but if we are also realistic, we will probably be so scared to hear Him speak we would think it was a ghost or something else instead of God!
Jacob was on his way to Harran after being in Beersheba mourning the loss of his father Isaac; he was obeying his father and getting out of Esau’s reach. When he stopped for a rest and sleep for the night he had a dream about a staircase reaching from earth up to Heaven. Angels were using the staircase to go to and from Heaven where the Lord God was. God reached out to Jacob in a dream to tell him his offspring would be more numerous than the dust of the earth covering all the land!
There was no audible voice this time, just a dream which was a bit strange! God tries to reach out to us in ways where we will know it is Him because of the circumstances; in this case a dream showing Jacob God was in Heaven above all the angels and speaking down to Jacob to tell Him of this blessing.
When God makes a promise to us, we can know it will come to pass because God will never go back on His word – no matter how impossible we think it may be! When we look back on the life and death of Jesus, we can think how impossible it all was, but still it all came true because this is what God promised would happen – not just to the first people on earth, but throughout the generations of mankind.
Points to Ponder:
Do you rely on God’s promises?
Will you trust His promises now you know they are true?
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September 28: Luke 9:57-62
Key Verse: Luke 9:62
Jesus replied, ‘No one who puts a hand to the plough and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.’
Devotion:
As Christians we should not take the task of following Jesus lightly; but we do so much of the time because we live in a very different world to what Jesus occupied during His life on earth in human form. This passage tells of the time when a couple of men came to Jesus and declared they would follow Him no matter what!
When Jesus turned and said “follow me” to another man, the man excused himself from following Jesus on the premise he had to go and bury his father. Jesus’ answer was to let the dead bury their own dead which sounds a bit strange! What Jesus was talking about was to let the unbelievers (the dead in Christ) bury the dead body because we have a task to go and tell people the gospel story.
When another man came and said he would follow Jesus but only after going and saying goodbye to the rest of the family, Jesus told him he would not be fit for the task if he was willing to turn his back on the task before it was started!
Both these stories should impress on us the importance of following through with what we say we will do for God. If we declare we are going to do something, we should be willing to go and do said task no matter what happens. Is this harsh? Well, no. Jesus did not turn His back on the task of going to face His death on the cross. When God told Him the time was right for Him to return to Jerusalem, Jesus went there without making excuses about what to do. Yes He did ask God if there was any other way, but His willingness to step forward no matter what is what counted!
Points to Ponder:
Has Christ asked you to step forward?
Are you going to stand firm on what He has asked you to do?
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September 27: Mark 11:12-26
Key Verse: Mark 11:22
‘Have faith in God,’ Jesus answered.
Devotion:
This story about Jesus cursing the fig tree may seem a bit bizarre or even cruel, but we should be focusing on the outcome of the story and not the physical aspects most of us see. The physical aspect is Jesus cursed the fig tree and a while later when they came back and saw the fig tree, it had withered from the roots and was good for nothing now!
We should not be looking at this and saying we are like the fig tree and we are being punished and we have nothing to live for… What we need to focus on is what God can do for and with us and not what the world can do and does to us! If we focus on what the world can do we are going to be despondent and hurting because all we can see is failure or hurting…
If we can separate our thoughts from the obvious earthly events and try to see what God could be doing with us, we are going to see a whole new way of living! God does not want any of us to be like the fig tree and good for nothing. He wants us all to be fruitful and beacons of light for Him. Do not forget that we have the choice as to what we want to do in our lives. If we choose to follow Christ and allow Him to guide us in the best path forward, we are going to see all manner of opening for us to move forward with.
These are the openings God creates so we can be fruitful and how we can do His will in our lives. God reminds the disciples here that prayer is very powerful because God is behind the answering of prayers. If we do honestly and openly work with God through praying to Him and listening out for answers to those prayers, we will see extraordinary results we thought not possible before!
Points to Ponder:
How often do you pray honestly and openly to God?
How often and long do you wait for answers to those prayers?
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September 26: Job 1:6-22
Key Verse: Job 1:12
The Lord said to Satan, ‘Very well, then, everything he has is in your power, but on the man himself do not lay a finger.’ Then Satan went out from the presence of the Lord.
Devotion:
How many times have you read through these verses and thought “how could God allow Satan to ruin Job’s life!” Well, let us look at the question you probably ask and split it into two parts: 1) God allows Satan free will 2) Satan chooses to ruin Job’s life!
This book is a book about how Satan has free choice to do what he wills. The same free choice each one of us has in our lives – the choice to do what we will. Most of us will choose to follow the law and will not do bad things, but there are a few who choose to do bad things. Satan chose to do bad things, but he did not just choose to go and steal something or tell lies, he chose to ruin Job’s life by killing his servants, his livestock and then his family! Most of us could not imagine the hatred in anyone's heart to be able to do that to another person!
God did not have one rule for the angels and one rule for mankind. Whilst the angels had power to do all manner of things, God still allowed them free choice to do things in their lives. This free choice does have consequences, just as the free choice in our lives has consequences. If we choose to go off and do bad things, then we should expect the consequences to be severe.
We brought nothing into this world apart from a built in knowledge of God. We have the choice as to whether we turn our backs on this knowledge and follow the ways of the world, or whether we turn toward this knowledge and invite God to be a bigger part of our lives just as Job did. If we choose to have God at the centre of our lives, we can still expect to have earthly things happen to us just as they do with the people around us; this is life. But we can also expect to have a fulfilled life with God after this earthly life – this is what we should aim for!
Points to Ponder:
Do you choose good or bad?
Are you ready to accept the consequences if you choose bad?
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September 25: Luke 16:19-31
Key Verse: Luke 16:29
Abraham replied, “They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.”
Devotion:
How many times have you heard someone say the Bible is too hard to understand or it is a book that is way out of date? I fear too many people are using excuses to put the Word of God aside so they will not have to be bound by it in any way; modern life has caught them up in a tale of their own, leaving God behind… There are some who will uphold the scriptures far more than their own societies or their own families, even when they have come up with their own ideas about what the scriptures should mean!
God has given us the Bible so we can understand what is required of us. He allowed Christ to come and live amongst us so we could see the old scriptures upheld by mankind has been warped and corrupted. The scriptures tell us of a God who does not want sacrifices of animals because mankind has used the sacrifices to cover up far too many misdemeanours.
What God requires of us is to open our hearts to His Word so we can get to know Him better. What He requires is not to cover up things by going through the motions of offering precious things in stead, but to offer up our own selves instead. He does not want to take our lives away from us; but when we show a willingness to offer up everything we have and turn away from our sins, then He is willing to show us forgiveness and mercy beyond our comprehension.
We have had the Bible for a very long time now, and if we choose to not follow it, we should not expect God to send us signs and wonders just to prove He is there or to prove the words to be true. We have a choice to believe the Bible and all of its contents – choose wisely!
Points to Ponder:
Do you believe the words of the Bible?
Will you place your trust in God’s Word?
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September 24: Acts 16:1-5
Key Verse: Acts 16:4
As they travelled from town to town, they delivered the decisions reached by the apostles and elders in Jerusalem for the people to obey.
Devotion:
I’m sure Paul had many revelations as he travelled around the Mediterranean countries. These verses retell what he encountered when he came to Lystra where Timothy lived. Timothy came from what was then seen as a mixed marriage where his father was Greek but his mother was a Jew. This was frowned upon at the time much like mixed marriages are frowned upon even in modern times. We think we are a bit more liberated and accept marriages between people from different countries, religions or other differences, but in reality there are still many people who hang on to the differences and refuse to accept them!
Paul could sense the tension around Timothy in the Jewish areas because people knew his father as being Greek. Paul tried to belay ill feelings by having Timothy circumcised to show he was following the ways taught by Jesus.
We know Jesus reached out to all people, but at the time the Jews saw Him as Jewish even if they did not all accept Him as their Jewish Messiah! People’s inward feelings and beliefs often go much further than we realise. The Jews around them at the time did not want to accept any half-breed, but once their eyes and hearts were open to the truth about Jesus, I’m sure their beliefs would be changed.
Sometimes we do not have the luxury of time to wait for everyone to accept change and we have to make a change in order for them to be able to see that change is possible. What we cannot do is make those changes by ourselves because we cannot fully trust our own emotions. Christ gives us the Holy Spirit so we can make more informed decisions. Our church will grow stronger in faith the more we rely on the Holy Spirit for guidance and less on our own emotions.
Points to Ponder:
Do you allow you emotions to could your judgement?
Will you entrust judgment to the Holy Spirit instead?
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September 23: Ecclesiastes 3:1-11
Key Verse: Ecclesiastes 3:1
There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens:
Devotion:
Life continues on, the earth continues revolving around the sun and the moon around the earth. Mankind sends up satellites and they continue buzzing around the earth or staying stationary in a place above the earth – seemingly forever. Whilst the earth may well continue on for longer than we can imagine, things like life, be it plant life or animal life, has an acceptable span after which things change!
We build buildings which we say will last forever, but they too have life-spans after which they crumble or collapse. Our happiness lasts for as long as we can make it. When we say we will continue doing something for as long as it will take, we only think of it as within our lifespan, and even then we eventually give up if we think it is not working out. We say promises which we promise forever, but they only last as long as we can keep them.
When we fall in love with another person we say it will never end – but we may well find ourselves in a tight spot after a few years and want to go back on what we said. We can only last as long as the life-span God has given us! We can only keep going within that life-span. We can try as best we can to fulfil our promises, but they too will come to pass at some stage because we will.
God has created everything around us for our enjoyment and our use; it is limited within our life-spans and sometimes a lot shorter – but God gave us control over them and wants us to do our best to make sure we do as much as we can. God knows we will fall short of our promises but He also knows we can give ourselves fully to what we set our minds to. This is what He expects of our love for Him, to give as much as we can for as long as we can!
Points to Ponder:
Do you get upset when you cannot do something for always?
Will you try to do your best for God?
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September 22: Ecclesiastes 1:2-11
Key Verse: Ecclesiastes 1:4
Generations come and generations go, but the earth remains for ever.
Devotion:
Even though I have watched all the news about Queen Elizabeth passing, been through the mourning process and watched the funeral, there is still a part of me which cannot believe she is gone – that part which has known her as queen for all of my life. I guess we will all get used to the idea of having a King after a short while but until then we just keep getting on with life.
None of us is destined to live forever on earth and we are reminded of this fact in many parts of the scriptures. Back in these days hundreds of years before Christ came to live amongst us, God was using prophets and kings to make sure people knew about the scriptures and knew what to expect from Him.
These verses remind us of the futility of amassing earthly riches because we cannot take any earthly riches with us when we die too! Generation after generation will pass on, but the earth will remain. We may pollute the world, kill off many species of animal and do all manner of damage, but the earth remains – even though it may be broken! We will continue to move around the sun and the moon to move around the earth. The earth will continue to have weather patterns which man will try to predict. They may change drastically because of how mankind has broken many things, but they will continue.
We continue to discover ‘new’ things but in reality they have been there for a long time already, we just haven’t seen them! The same can be said about our actions and the ways we live and the ways we sin. God has seen it all before in many forms. We don’t remember all the things the people did thousands of years ago, but God does. We don’t remember all the people who lived a few hundred years ago, never mind thousands – but God does. Which lifespan are you aiming for?
Points to Ponder:
Do you know God knows the exact date and time everything will happen?
Will you entrust more of your life to Him?