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February 18: James 2:14-17
Key Verse: James 2:16
If one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,’ but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it?
Devotion:
What sort of person are you? Are you the type who will step forward and help out without thinking about yourself? Are you the type who will trust others and believe what they say? Do you keep to yourself so as not to get hurt by people who don’t stick to their word? We are all very different people and yet we all are required in order for society to exist in a balanced manner.
Just as we all need each other to live with others, we also have to have lots of different parts to ourselves in order to live with ourselves. If we focus everything on studies, we lose track of real life and we end up going into a world unprepared for reality. If we focus everything on the world, we may well miss out on finding out enough to succeed in life.
Just as we are physically, so are we spiritually. We each have our different needs and desires in our spiritual lives. If we focus everything on the laws given to the people of Israel through Moses, we may end up living a life full of laws and devoid of the real love God wants us to know and share. If we focus everything on Christ we will miss out on the relevance of the law written in the ancient scriptures and wonder why Jesus did what he did.
God wants us to live a balanced life with Him, not just believing what Christ did, what God did in our past or what the Holy Spirit does now. We need to exercise our faith and live out the law given to us. This means reaching out to others and allowing the love Christ shared with us to overflow in our lives for others to see. This means not just believing but obeying and stepping forward as disciples, willing to do what Christ commands and not just hear it and tell it...
Points to Ponder:
Do you read and believe your bible?
Do you do what the bible says?
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February 17: James 2:1-4
Key Verse: James 2:1
My brothers and sisters, believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ must not show favouritism.
Devotion:
If you are like me, then you struggle with these verses on a regular occasion! We all are swayed at some stage by riches of this world and we tend to judge people according to those riches whether we like it or not. We know it is not right, yet we do still treat people differently just by the way they look or by their family backgrounds! The sooner we recognise the faults we have, the sooner we can work with them instead of allowing them to dictate your life without you thinking about it.
Jesus came into this world as King of Kings, Lord of Lords; yet He chose to be born into a family where controversy was there to start with and where He would have to start His life as a carpenter to make ends meet for the family. He chose this because this is how God planned things and needed things to happen.
We do not know God’s plans, but we do know what He has asked of us and we should be taking special note of those commands. We have many examples of the way people have acted in our bibles and the things which have gone wrong because of the way they acted. We have been told about the amazing things Jesus was able to do because of His open love to all of us, a love which did not show favouritism!
This does not mean it is easy to follow that example set by Him. It is hard and we are warned by the apostles we need to take care not to be swayed by our favouritism toward people who do not match up with our ideals in life. Jesus was able to show His love toward us even though we have done so many things wrong and worked against Him. He has shown us the way to love openly!
Points to Ponder:
Do you find it hard to be friends with people you don’t like?
Is Jesus asking you to be friends, or just to love them?
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February 16: James 1:19-27
Key Verse: James 1:22
Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.
Devotion:
One of the biggest problems many of us seem to have is to speak before thinking about what we are going to say! Whether it is out of anger, distress, or some other feeling, we tend to say things we know we ought not to because we are not thinking about it first! Jesus warned the disciples many times to not gossip and say things which will upset others just because we want to say something or in retaliation to something said by someone else.
We should try to follow the example set by Jesus who did not make a habit of getting angry about what others did or said. Yes, it can be very hard when we are upset by what others do or say, but if we take the time to form a proper response we are going to get a lot further with our response than shouting out of turn! This does not mean Jesus never got angry! He did. But He got angry for the right reasons and the response was always righteous.
All these things are written down and given to us in our bibles. These are the words and sayings of God and of Jesus and of the righteous people God chose to write them down. They are there so we can take notice of them – not just to listen to them and go off to do what we like, but to listen and obey them… to do what the bible says!
Sometimes it is easy to forget words, but much harder to forget things we see. God wants us to take notice of the words He has given us. God wants us to learn them and not to forget them. He wants us to live by them and to follow what He has commanded and said. These are the words we should think about before we go off to gossip or retaliate. Allow God to guide your responses.
Points to Ponder:
How often do you keep God in your response?
Will you try to include Him more in your life?
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February 15: Mark 8:14-21
Key Verse: Mark 8:18
Do you have eyes but fail to see, and ears but fail to hear? And don’t you remember?
Devotion:
Sometimes we go through life and we pick things up quickly, often having great success with things. Other times we seem to struggle at every step along the way, never getting anything right! That’s just life! But, the more we are willing to listen and learn, the more we will be able to pick up and the more we may be able to succeed.
Jesus had fed huge crowds of people with what would normally pass as one meal for a person or two; we can be forgiven for thinking they had not learned anything because they only had a single loaf of bread with them in the boat here. What were they going to eat? Shouldn’t they had been more prepared for the journey?
Or you could think along the lines of complacency and say the disciples should have totally relied on Jesus to feed them on this journey… But Jesus was preparing them for what lay ahead, not the amount of food they had or did not have, but where their food came from and what it was. But Jesus was not talking about physical food here – Jesus wanted to prepare them for their spiritual journey more than anything!
We can go through life watching others and copying what they do. We can pick up how others live their spiritual lives and do the same as them… but whom do we put our trust in? Jesus wanted them to see the religious leaders at the time were not spreading the gospel truth but were telling people how they wanted them to behave instead of how God wanted them to behave!
Jesus wants us to be aware of the people who will spread false stories which sound good and look good on paper, but take us away from the spiritual lives God wants us to lead...
Points to Ponder:
Where do you get your spiritual input from?
Are you willing to spend more time in our bible learning what God wants you to know?
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February 14: Mark 8:11-13
Key Verse: Mark 8:12
He sighed deeply and said, ‘Why does this generation ask for a sign? Truly I tell you, no sign will be given to it.’
Devotion:
How many times have you asked God for a sign so you know it is Him who is asking you to do something? I’m sure we have all been there, where we are quite sure God is asking us to do something… only to falter when we find out how hard it is going to be… so we try to make double sure by asking God for a sign so we know it was Him to start with!
Don’t worry, we are not alone with this. We can see how people have asked God for a sign time and time again. Gideon doubted God and asked for sign after sign and ended up having to face a whole army with a mere three hundred men. When God asks us to do something we should be willing to display our faith in God and step forward to do what He asks without having to have proof it is Him asking!
Even so, these people who doubted God in the bible did not have to fight alone because God never gave up on them. No matter how much we doubt, God will try to accomplish what He wants not matter what. We can make things a whole lot easier if we listen to Him and obey!
When Jesus came to be amongst us, we could say they did not have to doubt because there were so many miracles happening and people being turned away from their wicked lifestyles – yet we still see people having doubt. The Pharisees, it could be said, had doubts; but Jesus knew their hearts and knew it was more than doubts like we have. This was unbelief Jesus was facing and this is why He declared there would not be any sign for them. God is faithful and just. Trust and obey! He loves you!
Points to Ponder:
How often do you have doubts?
How often do you admit those doubts to Christ?
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February 13: Luke 6:20-22
Key Verse: Luke 6:20
Looking at his disciples, he said: ‘Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.
Devotion:
Can you imagine the scene, Jesus and His disciples trying to do something with a huge crowd of people… Many of them would have been behaving because they came to see and hear Jesus, but there would have been some who were desperate and pushing forward to try and get healed. There would have been some who had not eaten for a while because they were following Jesus, and there would have been some who had lost everything and were now coming to see some sort of justice or hope at the very least.
The disciples had learned to trust Jesus and to allow people to come to Him. They had seen the miracles and they believed Jesus could continue to do many more; but they were probably wary of the fact Jesus was doing so much, probably scared He would wear Himself out and not be able to cope… That is where Jesus was different! He continued to rely on God the Father throughout everything and continued to ask God to allow Him to do more because of His love for the people.
When Jesus turned to the disciples, His words were very poignant : These people around Him were the ones coming forward to ask for help. Who were they? The poor, the hungry, the desperate, the hated and the rejected. These are the people Jesus wanted to be around because these are the people who would depend on Him and not on the world.
Jesus wants us to be more like these people and leave the riches and ways of the world in preference for His ways and follow God in our lives. God is the one who wants to reach out to us and give us the comfort we need and deserve, not because we have done things right, but because He loves us!
Points to Ponder:
Do you try to get comfort from the world?
Do you ask God for comfort in your time of need?
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February 12: 1 Kings 12:26-32
Key Verse: 1 Kings 12:28
After seeking advice, the king made two golden calves. He said to the people, ‘It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem. Here are your gods, Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.’
Devotion:
I used to wonder how people could be persuaded to worship statues of animals… but then you see people worshipping statues of people, and then you see people worshipping animals… it all seems to come down to who has the best, easiest or most unique things going!
Jeroboam did not want the people to go back to following the king of Judah which was Rehoboam. He took counsel from others to see what the people were most likely to follow or believe – probably the only wise thing he did! The advice he got back seems to make me think the people he asked had no real grasp of what people were like! The same can be said for our modern world too; we have some people in government who have no idea how others live because they are from such a privileged society they believe everyone must be like they are!
So, Jeroboam went overboard and built shrines on high places. The builders of these shrines were not the Levites as God had ordered; they were ordinary people. They were not building something to worship God through or with but shrines dedicated to the golden calves he had made and placed in recognised places. They even had a big feast and sacrificed to these so called gods. This is when I question what the people must have been thinking…
But when you look at the society at those times, they had been brought up to follow and trust their kings because it was God who had first instituted them having kings, not because He wanted them but because the people had demanded them as a way of having something tangible to follow. They had trusted God and now were trusting their kings without question… When Jesus came, He informed the people they should question things and make sure what they were being asked to do followed the scriptures – which is what we need to do with everything we are asked to do in our lives!
Points to Ponder:
Do you simply obey your leaders?
Do you see if they are following God’s examples and requests?
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February 11: Mark 7:31-37
Key Verse: Mark 7:33
After he took him aside, away from the crowd, Jesus put his fingers into the man’s ears. Then he spat and touched the man’s tongue.
Devotion:
This is one of those stories which has been taken every which way by us, but it still is remembered by many because of what Jesus did; similarly when Jesus healed the blind man by spitting to make mud and putting it in his eyes! These are not stories to make you comfortable but to make you stop and think! Jesus did not stick to the way normal people acted and He certainly would not stop because things got a bit uncomfortable!
Many of the miracles of Jesus are remembered because they stood out from the other stories. As the apostle said, the things Jesus did are far too numerous to be written down in a single book! The ones we remember are the ones which were different and the ones which were written about – not the many many more Jesus did all the time!
We may not be comfortable with the way Jesus worked, and we certainly will get uncomfortable when He asks us to do something for Him. We may not like it because it is different from the normal, but Jesus asks us to do things He knows we can do (not that we want to do)
God tried giving us all the comforts we could want, but each time we (mankind) went too far and left God out of everything; each time God had to stop the times of comfort before we corrupted things too much. Jesus came to show us God’s love for us has never stopped, no matter what we have done, but He also showed us things can get uncomfortable. Mankind has a habit of corrupting things after which we have to put up with the consequences – but God’s love continues throughout and forever!
Points to Ponder:
Do you get uncomfortable with what God asks of you?
Will you trust Him fully and obey Him knowing He does know what is best?
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February 10: Mark 7:24-30
Key Verse: Mark 7:27
‘First let the children eat all they want,’ he told her, ‘for it is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.’
Devotion:
This sounds like a strange story when you hear it the first time, and I must admit it confused me the first time I heard it. But, if we take the time to learn what Jesus meant in the stories and parables, we get to learn about a new side of Jesus which was not ‘advertised’ too much during this time.
Jesus came to be amongst the children of Israel because God chose them as the favoured people at that time. God continued to watch over the people of Israel for many years and continues today; but He does not turn His back on anyone who is willing to have faith in Him.
This woman had a daughter who was possessed by an impure spirit – it must have been causing her a lot of anguish and torment seeing her daughter caught up by this wicked spirit. She came to Jesus and begged Him to cleanse her daughter but Jesus told her He was here to serve the people of Israel, God’s chosen race. Her response was to remind Jesus that even the dogs under the table scramble for any crumbs of food which should fall from the table.
She was saying her and her daughter may not be from the chosen people, they may even be classed as dogs in comparison, but they were faithfully sticking with the people of Israel because they knew their God was greater than anything or anyone in their own world. The Greeks, after all, had many gods who were supposed to look out for them! That faith struck a chord with Jesus and He released her daughter from the spirit there and then!
Points to Ponder:
Do you ever think you are not worthy of God’s love?
Are you willing to show God your faith?
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February 9: Mark 7:14-23
Key Verse: Mark 7:15
Nothing outside a person can defile them by going into them. Rather, it is what comes out of a person that defiles them.
Devotion:
I wonder how many things mankind has not understood about God and how many times we have gone off and done the wrong thing because we thought it was right rather than actually hearing correctly! When Jesus was faced with people trying to tell Him what His disciples or Him could or couldn’t eat, He told them a truth...
We get annoyed when people eat things we don’t agree with, or when they drink things they should not – because we expect people to act in a certain way and when they don’t we get upset because they are different. I know there are a few foods I will not eat because I either don’t like the thought of eating them, or I don’t like the taste or smell; but I also know there are others out there who think those foods are delicacies or they actually like them… Who am I to judge!
Some people may use this verse as an excuse to drink too much or eat things they know will upset others. What Jesus is reminding us of here is we are not defiled by what we eat or drink but by what we say or do! If we drink too much we are very likely to say or do something which will upset others. If we eat certain foods on purpose in front of others, we are intentionally upsetting them by doing so!
God wants us to love our neighbours. This means watching out for other people’s likes and dislikes and not going against them on purpose; even if we only do so because we are drunk! We have gone out of our way to do so and when we upset others we have already used the drink as an excuse to do wrong to others...
Points to Ponder:
Do you eat or drink things you know others don’t like you doing?
Have you ever thought about their feelings instead of your own?