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April 26: 2 Timothy 2:8-13
Key Verse: 2 Timothy 2:11
Here is a trustworthy saying: If we died with him, we will also live with him;
Devotion:
When we see how much the disciples went through, we begin to see why Jesus taught them about suffering. People are bad! People do things wrong! Christ was the one who stood up to tell people the truth. He knew it was going to upset a lot of people because He could see they had been following worldly ways for a while now instead of continuing to listen to and be guided by God.
It only takes one person to turn away and many may follow them because it looks like they are doing the right thing. But when someone turn and gets into trouble because they have turned, we don’t like to follow, believe or trust them because they had got themselves in deep water! We follow human emotions and human ways just because it looks right – after all it must be if someone else is doing it, right?
Jesus had to go through so much suffering we cannot grasp how He was able to continue going on! Some people are chained up by their situations – they cannot let go and they cannot do what is right without getting into trouble themselves… so they back off and allow bad things to happen. When we see bad things happen, we shy away unless we can see they are reaping the benefits in major ways!
Unfortunately we do like to follow the path of least resistance and least punishment. We like to have an easy life, because we can see how that benefits us. We don’t normally get to see how bad things benefit us because we don’t stick around long enough to see the benefits which come at the end! Christ did!
Points to Ponder:
We must be willing to follow Jesus!
Are you willing to put up with the consequences of following Christ?
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April 25: Acts 15:35-41
Key Verse: Acts 15:39
They had such a sharp disagreement that they parted company. Barnabas took Mark and sailed for Cyprus
Devotion:
Have you ever wondered why churches split up or people leave one church to go to another? It is all part of being human and having our own faults. We try to hide our feeling at times because we are afraid we may hurt someone or we may be hurt ourselves. We try to go along with what other people are saying even though we think it is wrong. We make mistakes; not just us, but all of us, everyone, church leaders included!
We see many references to how the chief priests and religious leaders at the time went against what the disciples were learning as the truth. We may even wonder why they could not see the truth. If we place ourselves in their shoes, then maybe we would not see how the disciples were trying to do what is right – we may only see them as troublemakers.
It takes context and more knowledge than we have to see what really happens – too much of the time what we see as being right and wrong are jaded by our surroundings and by the people around us. Because we are all human and because we all make mistakes, we should be more aware of others and more aware of what can go wrong, both in our lives and in others lives!
Paul and Barnabas had a major disagreement because they had their own ideas about what should be done. Barnabas wanted to give Mark another chance to prove himself. Paul was in no mood to let that happen. Something so little caused a major argument which ended up in them parting company! This is life and we have to learn how to cope with circumstances like this so we can move forward. What we need to do is to put aside our own feeling and allow the Holy Spirit to guide us… and that is hard!
Points to Ponder:
Do you have strong ideas about what should happen in your church?
Are you willing to allow the Holy Spirit to guide you even when others will not?
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April 24: Acts 5:27-32
Key Verse: Acts 5:30
The God of our ancestors raised Jesus from the dead – whom you killed by hanging him on a cross.
Devotion:
What do you do after you have been punished for doing something? Do you stop doing whatever it was, or do you carry on doing it? We seem to face this in our lives a lot; maybe because some rules don’t seem to make sense to us, or maybe the rules are unjust! If we lived under the rule of a tyrant we may well think many of the rules are unjust but we would probably be scared to break them because of the punishment we would face if we did.
The apostles continue to preach about Jesus and His death and resurrection. The Sanhedrin council called them in to question them and to warn them once again about preaching about Jesus. They were now at the stage where they were taking it personally and saw this preaching as a direct assault on their names! No longer were they thinking about who Jesus was or whether He was the Messiah – they were focused on their own tarnished reputations!
The apostles words were harsh and hard hitting. We must obey God and not human beings… something we should be thinking of in our lives, but something we find hard to do because of the peer pressure! Then they reminded the Sanhedrin it was their words and actions which directly resulted in Jesus being crucified and being killed on the cross. They also reminded the Sanhedrin it was God who raised Jesus from the dead – the same God they were teaching about and the same God who they wanted people to obey (as long as it went along with their rules too!)
We need to tell people the truth. We have just celebrated Easter and now we should be reminding others and ourselves what Easter meant. This was the time Jesus stepped forward and took on the sin of the whole world, gave His life in our stead and was raised from the dead to defeat Satan and evil once and for all.
Points to Ponder:
Do you remind people what Easter really is about?
Are you going to be brave and teach people the truth?
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April 23: Psalm 118:14-21
Key Verse: Psalm 118:18
The Lord has chastened me severely, but he has not given me over to death.
Devotion:
What happens when you give someone control who is more than capable of doing the job in hand – normally things work out pretty well and a successful time is had by all. But if we rebel against the person in charge and continue to want to do things our way instead of the right way, we get into all manner of problems!
This is what it is like when we try to do things our own way in our lives instead of giving control to God when He needs control! He is the one who does know what is best for us and what needs to happen at the selected times – we are the one running round in circles thinking we are doing it right! We should not be surprised to see we have a hard time when we try to take control from God!
When you look around you and see the results of what happens to others when they get the right help at the right time, you may be discouraged because things are not going your way when you try! Stop and think “why are they having great success when I am not?” Is it because they are doing the right things and allowing God to have control of the situation?
God is not going to run us ragged and make us have a bad time when we listen to Him. He is trying to do what is best for us and is trying to make sure we do get to enjoy ourselves along the way. He loves us! He wants what is best for us! His love for us will not end! If we are going through hard times, just maybe it is because we are not following God, or the people around us are not following God – we still get affected when others don’t follow God too!
Points to Ponder:
Do you think you are good at following God?
Do you encourage others to follow God too?
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April 22: Acts 4:1-12
Key Verse: Acts 4:10
then know this, you and all the people of Israel: It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed.
Devotion:
How brave do you think you are when it comes to telling people the truth about Jesus? We may think we are very brave and willing to tell the truth no matter what – much like being asked “are you willing to die for your beliefs.” When asked, we like to think we would be willing to die, but when push comes to shove and we are faced with death, we often choose the easier route out!
Peter shows us how much the Holy Spirit can and will do for us. Despite being thrown in jail overnight because he was telling people about Jesus, he stands in front of the high priest and the local rulers and declares this has all happened because they dared to crucify Jesus who was their Messiah! If he was thrown in jail for talking about Jesus, calling the priests and rulers out for killing Jesus was a step further!
Peter had previously denied Jesus three times before His crucifixion and now he is standing up to people from the highest positions in the country to declare Jesus as King of Kings! He did not get this power and strength from “inside;” he had proved himself to be weak beforehand. Now he was getting strength and courage from the Holy Spirit who was also giving him the right words to say to the right people to get the maximum impact!
I have learned to make sure I ask for God’s help in everything I do. I have learned the hard way I don’t know enough by myself. I know I am not brave enough by myself. But I also know that as long as I am depending on God, I will prevail in the right way. My way may not be the right way because I see things as people on earth do; I need to listen to God to make sure I do things His way!
Points to Ponder:
How brave are you?
Do you give God control in your life?
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April 21: Acts 3:11-16
Key Verse: Acts 3:16
By faith in the name of Jesus, this man whom you see and know was made strong. It is Jesus’ name and the faith that comes through him that has completely healed him, as you can all see.
Devotion:
I do love the way Peter reacts to the crowd which started forming around them after the man was healed. Peter did not take the praise or build himself up in any way; what he did instead was to remind the people of the events which had happened because of the people’s lack of faith or ignorance.
The Jews had seen what they wanted to see. A human who had dared to call themselves equal to God. They had seen this because they were not ready for the Messiah to come to them; maybe they were fearful of the consequences of their own sins or just a lack of understanding of the scriptures. They could not see what was happening before their eyes.
Peter tried to lay it out before them. He reminded them it was the power of God which allowed this man to walk again. He reminded them God had glorified this man Jesus in front of them. He reminded them they had handed Jesus over to the authorities. They had disowned Jesus in front of the state ruler, Pilate. They had asked for a murderer to be release in stead of Jesus. They had effectively killed Jesus…
But God had stepped in again and raised Jesus from the dead in front of many witnesses – something many people refuse to believe because it did not happen in front of them. But this man, by his own faith in God, was able to receive healing in walk again. This is a touch of the faith Jesus showed us by trusting in His Father all the time.
Points to Ponder:
How much faith do you have?
Will you try to trust Christ a little more this week?
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April 20: Luke 24:13-35
Key Verse: Luke 24:25
He said to them, ‘How foolish you are, and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken!
Devotion:
Just like Mary did not recognise Jesus when she came out of the empty tomb, so too these two did not recognise Jesus. This is one of those things where we cannot bring ourselves to believe what we are looking at because we cannot conceive it as being possible, so we make up something else in our minds which we can believe. Mary assumed the role of a gardener on Jesus, whilst these two assumed the role of someone who had not heard anything which had happened over the past three days!
Jesus did not berate them for not recognising Him, but He did remind them of everything the prophets of old had said would happen when the Messiah came on the scene. He reminded them of the parallels with what He had been through and how this was all as it should have happened… Still they did not conceive it as possible so they continued to make up things in their own minds instead!
It was only when Jesus broke bread with them to have a meal they finally recognised Him for who He was! Sometimes it does take something physical to remind us of what Jesus is all about and to remind us He is with us all the time – even when we cannot think of it as possible because we are going through so much!
Christ wants us to know He is going to be with us all the time. Just as He promised the Holy Spirit would be in us, He promised us He would never leave us or forsake us. This is a promise and not just something He said idly whilst doing other things! God’s promises given to us from the beginning of time still hold true and we should expect all of them to come to pass!
Points to Ponder:
Do you struggle when things get uncomfortable in life?
Will you hand those things over to Christ and trust Him?
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April 19: Acts 2:36-41
Key Verse: Acts 2:39
The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call.
Devotion:
You can see the difference in how the disciples, now apostles, taught others about Jesus. When Jesus was with them in human form, they were not so forthright and willing to pass on every bit of knowledge they had. But now Jesus had shown them everything and had demonstrated the ultimate love for us all, they wanted everyone to know about this love.
No longer was it a love which was behind sacrifices and what seemed to be a long lesson through the desert, no longer did they have to demonstrate their love for God by being willing to give up what they had on this earth to be able to obtain animals which were fit for sacrifice. They knew why Jesus had come to die on the cross. They knew why Jesus was willing to do this all for them; because it was the ultimate demonstration of His love for us.
This love was not limited to the disciples, or to the Jews, or to good people or to those who were willing to sacrifice; this was open to every person who was willing to believe in what Jesus had done. As a demonstration of that belief, we repent of our sins and even get baptised. When we put aside our doubts and truly believe Jesus dies for us, we are able to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit; this being what Jesus had said would happen!
We do need to step back from the corrupt ways of this world and be willing to accept Christ’s ways. We must be willing to admit to our sins and turn away from them. We must be willing to try and change our lives, not because we can do it by ourselves, but because God wants to help us do it! Christ took the first step to show us the Love God has for us and through Him we now have access to eternal life and the strength to turn away from evil!
Points to Ponder:
Do you accept what Jesus has done for you?
Will you trust what Jesus has promised for you?
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April 18: Matthew 28:8-15
Key Verse: Matthew 28:13
telling them, ‘You are to say, “His disciples came during the night and stole him away while we were asleep.”
Devotion:
This is where we see the true colours of the people who were in charge of things during these times many years ago. We now see this echoing during our modern times as we witness politicians making extraordinarily terrible choices for human beings. The chief priests made choices they believed were right to make, but everyone around them saw the choices in the true light of day – terrible and long lasting pain and misery for the people they think they are protecting.
We see people in power making choices we cannot believe they are doing; we see the truth and wonder how they cannot see the truth because it is seemingly right in front of them! But, just as there are people in charge who will make terrible choices, there are also peers who will go along with those choices! How do I know? Because I have gone along with some horrible choices others have made, choices I am not proud of, but choices I have learned from.
I pray the leaders in our countries can take note of this story from the bible and realise just how pertinent it is to their choices they make. I pray we, as leaders of various sorts, take not of this story and make it pertinent to the choices we make in our lives which are going to affect others.
Each choice we make will not just affect us and our lives, but all the people around us and their lives too. The more we follow Christ’s words to love our neighbours, the more we will begin to think about these choices we make which affect so many more people that we first realise.
Points to Ponder:
Are you following bad examples given to you by others?
Will you try to stand up with the truth and change peoples lives for the better?
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April 17: Luke 24:1-12
Key Verse: Luke 24:3
but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.
Devotion:
Have you ever lost anything? How about something which was precious and irreplaceable? I know that feeling all too well – and this moment when the women say Jesus’ body was no longer there must have been a tad worse! They came early in the morning to try and make sure Jesus’ body was best prepared for His final resting place – or so they thought!
God did not leave them wondering either; instead He sent two angels to tell the women what had happened, to give them comfort. These angels already knew what had happened and they did not give a long explanation as to what had happened… shouldn’t people have already known because they had been told!
Sometimes we do lose track of the directions God gives us and we step out of line because we turn back to what we think the world can do instead of relying on what God can do. We turn back to our earthly ways because that is what we can see, touch and smell. God is not limited by our senses or what the world can do. If we truly trust and believe in Him, our benefits and direction are guaranteed and we should always know the answers.
But we are human and we get trapped by the world and the limitations of our minds. We allow ourselves to be convinced by the people around us and what we can touch, smell, hear and see. We allow our world to be limited to what we can imagine. Yes it is difficulty to allow our imaginations to accept everything God can do, but we also need to trust Him and believe nothing is impossible for Him.
Points to Ponder:
How often are you limited by your thoughts?
He is risen! Hallelujah!