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December 30: 1 John 2:12-17
Key Verse: 1 John 2:16
For everything in the world – the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life – comes not from the Father but from the world.
Devotion:
It is so interesting to me to find out the reasons for letters to be written. Often we try to understand what is going on in the writers head or what is going on in the life of the recipient; here we are given the clear reasons for this letter being written.
We do need to remember our sins are forgiven on account of the name of Jesus Christ. We have to remember the scriptures we have witness to and keep them in our hearts. We have to be reminded we have overcome evil by accepting Christ into our lives – that is the astonishing one to me! We have to remember God is eternal and has been here from the beginning and will be here forever – something we can struggle to get to grips with because we are bound by time here on earth.
God is our Father. He has invited us to be His children and has given us the method by which we can be His children – through Jesus Christ our Saviour! The more we remember these things, the more we will be able to read God’s Word and accept it into our hearts. The closer we get to God through His Word, the more He is able to explain the words through the Holy Spirit whom Christ sent to help us.
Our love for earthly things is hard to let go of, especially if we have many thing from this world in our lives. The more we cling to those things, the harder it is for us to draw close to God. These things are only in this world and will not be with us in heaven; our heavenly experience will be more than we can imagine. We will no longer be held back by simple earthly desires.
Points to Ponder:
What do you treasure in your life?
Have you tried to treasure Christ above all?
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December 29: 1 John 2:3-6
Key Verse: 1 John 3:6
whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did.
Devotion:
When I started to get to know Christ, I also started visiting various churches and seeing how people worshipped in various settings. I also started to see how different people thought things were different, to the extent some were against others because they were different! It was only when I got to study God’s Word and read what had been written down that I started to see something very different.
Christ came to show us the way to live because mankind had done all manner of things previously and had got mixed up and lost their way in many settings. We can see this in some churches or religions, or whatever you wish to call them. Each seems to have their own idea on what is important and what should be followed. We have some who insist on following the original scriptures from the Torah. We have some who follow their own re-written bibles. We have others who follow people instead of Christ.
If we genuinely want to call ourselves Christians, then we need to act like Christians and not like religious organisations! One of my pet hates is being called religious by people who do not know Christ. Jesus did follow various ways and rights of the Jewish people – after all, God chose these people and taught them what they should be doing. But He also made sure people were told they had no more reason to sacrifice on their own because He was the perfect sacrifice for all.
If we try to live as Christ lived, we will find out a whole lot of things are actually what God has wanted from us all along. We can start by loving God and our neighbours; Jesus elegantly demonstrated this throughout His life. We then need to remain in the truth – always taking God’s Word with us and making sure other people get to hear it too. God gave us commandments we should follow, not because He wanted to make life tough, but because He wanted us to be fully prepared for life with Him in Heaven.
Points to Ponder:
How many commandments do you follow?
How often do you discuss things with God?
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December 28: 1 Corinthians 1:26-29
Key Verse: 1 Corinthians 1:27
But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.
Devotion:
When a business wants to make a good impression, they go out and hire the best people for the jobs. For their advertising, they will get the company which makes the most impressionable adverts, so long as they can afford it. For their sales, they will hire salespeople who know how to do their job so they can get revenue back… It’s all about the money and encouraging people to spend money at their stores or businesses...
When it comes down to doing something which affects your life, then you would probably want to trust people who are close to you or who are not being paid large amounts of money to say things. This is why God chose the right people to work with Him. He did not choose the big merchants to go out and sell religion to the people. He did not pay people to spread His Word. God chose people from the local communities to reach the people in those communities.
Why? Because these are the people the local community trusts. They have probably grown up with these people and know them well. This people have a certain amount of trust which others can see and know. God wanted the people who were going to pass on the real truth to others and not some made up adverts which make things look better than they are.
God wants us to know and share the truth – this means He is very likely to choose you to reach out to others; not that we are all fools, but because we are willing to tell the truth as we see it and how it affects our own lives. We are willing to give real-world examples of how God works in our lives. God doesn’t want us to boast about being the biggest or best church, but to show others they can trust what we say because we are giving them God’s Word!
Points to Ponder:
How do others see your local church?
Are you showing others they can trust local people at the local church?
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December 27: Exodus 33:7-11
Key Verse: Exodus 33:10
Whenever the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance to the tent, they all stood and worshipped, each at the entrance to their tent.
Devotion:
As I was reading through this verse I kept thinking of what it was like for the people of Israel knowing it was God who was in the cloud they could see! Then I started thinking about the other words in these verse – what were the people doing? As they saw Moses go to the tent outside of the camp, they all stood at the entrances of their own tents, watching Moses. When the pillar of cloud descended to the tent Moses was in, the people would worship God and praise Him!
Moses was the key which unlocked a readiness to worship – people waited expectantly at their tent doors. Then the worship flowed freely when they saw God communing with Moses. Then I got thinking – what sort of example am I? Do I sneak out and go to church in secret, or do I allow people to see me openly walking to church? Does the church I go to ring out with worship and praise to encourage others to worship and praise too?
We do need to set and example for others! Maybe there is someone close by who is struggling – seeing you go out to church with a skip in your step and knowing you are going to worship God openly is a great thing. Seeing you come home from church with a big smile on your face and a renewed skip is going to do more as well!
We need to allow people to know God is with us. We need to show people we do commune with God all the time. We need to encourage others to come along and join in. This is not some sort of exclusive club we go to! Praise God openly and allow people to see you enjoying your life with Christ as often as you can!
Points to Ponder:
Do you show people you have an active relationship with Christ?
Or do you act like every other person?
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December 26: Acts 7:51-53
Key Verse: Acts 7:51
You stiff-necked people! Your hearts and ears are still uncircumcised. You are just like your ancestors: you always resist the Holy Spirit!
Devotion:
How many times have you been so stubborn you have gone ahead with something without much though for the consequences, only to find out it was deem to fail no matter what? Each one of us has a stubborn streak which makes us do things even when others are warning us against it. We think we know best and we go ahead...
These words were spoken against the Sanhedrin and against the Jews who refused to accept Jesus was their Messiah. They had been told the Messiah would come, how he would come, what he would do and many more things; but they refused to believe a mere human man could be their messiah because they wanted something more!
When we think we deserve more, we turn away from the obvious and turn away from good advice – because we think we deserve more. We have a long history of this sort of thing happening throughout history, and yet we continue to follow these false paths and seek our own teaching instead of what God has been trying to show us all along.
This Jesus, this baby boy, was born of a virgin and came to set us free from our continual debt, continual stubborn ways and continual failure. He came to set us free and allow us to live a closer life with God… But we wanted more. We wanted something spectacular which would overwhelm us and fill our desires. God did not send Jesus to fill our every desire, but to fill the need we have in our lives.
Points to Ponder:
Do you always seek more physical evidence?
Will you simply accept Jesus as your Saviour?
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December 25: Titus 2:11-14
Key Verse: Titus 2:11
For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people.
Devotion:
In the Old Testament we hear of the many ways in which God tried to teach people about salvation, to teach people about righteousness and to ask for forgiveness when it is due. We also hear of the many ways which sacrifices were to be made in order to appease God’s anger for the things mankind was doing wrong. Yet we also see how mankind continued to do the wrong thing and continued to get deeper into trouble no matter what!
God came up with a plan – that plan included allowing His Son to come to our Salvation by living with us and a sinless manner and then taking on the sin debt we owe by giving His own life on the cross instead of ours! In order for this to happen, a baby had to be born in a manner not seen before and one which would stand out in every way.
Jesus Christ came to be born of a virgin, without sin, so He could embark on a journey which would end in Him bringing salvation within the grasp of ever person on earth, not just those alive then but for every person in the past, present and future. All we would have to do is to believe this is what God has done for us and accept Him into our lives. He would offer Himself as the perfect sacrifice in the end so we would not have to!
With this Christ came to be part of us and encourage us to be eager to do all that is good, lifting Him up in praise and worship because He is the Son of God.
I would like to wish each one of you a very Happy, Joyful and blessed Christmas as we celebrate the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ; remembering all He has done for us and the peace He brings for us.
Points to Ponder:
Do you realise Christ did this for you?
Will you thank Him personally today?
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December 24: 2 Samuel 7:8-16
Key Verse: 2 Samuel 7:14
I will be his father, and he shall be my son. When he does wrong, I will punish him with a rod wielded by men, with floggings inflicted by human hands.
Devotion:
King David was taken out of the fields to become king; from being a shepherd to being king over all Israel! Up until this point the spirit of God dwelt in the tabernacle, a huge tent. David was now wanting to build a proper house or palace for God, something befitting the King of Kings rather than a tent.
God’s reply through Nathan the prophet may have been a bit of a surprise for many. God did not want a huge palace built for Him. He did not want to be in the biggest castle, palace, mansion or anything else; He wanted to live close to the people where He could protect them most and guide them openly.
God wanted the people of Israel to get their own home first. He wanted Israel to know how special they were to Him. Already God was being the caretaker, the servant, the Shepherd and leader of all who were willing to listen and obey. God wanted David to know He was not just going to look after him, but over all his descendants and his people.
But the warning was also there. Too many times they had turned their backs on God because they wanted something physical to look at. Too many time they had turned away from God’s ways and lived out their own desires instead. The warning was stark. God would come down on them heavily if they walked their own path again. Even though God may allow punishment through other men, He would never stop loving David and his descendants. This house would stand forever!
Points to Ponder:
Do you blame things on God?
Do you know how much God loves you?
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December 23: Psalm 25:6-7
Key Verse: Psalm 25:7
Do not remember the sins of my youth and my rebellious ways; according to your love remember me, for you, Lord, are good.
Devotion:
What are the things you ask from God? Do you ask for riches, blessings and various other physical conditions, or are you asking God to take it easy on you? If we are all honest, we do tend to ask for the physical things more than we should; we also tend to forget about admitting to our shortcomings while asking God to forgive us!
Here the Psalmist reminds us we have to admit our sins to God, but we can also depend on Him for the forgiveness and trust His mercy will outshine the issues we have had in our pasts. Never forget the debt Christ paid for us all and always remember it is more than enough to cover anything and everything we have done in our pasts.
We sometimes wonder whether God is going to forgive us because we have been caught up in many things in our past; this is why the Psalmist asks God to not dwell on the things we have done in our youth. These are typically the times when we have done things wrong because we have been tempted and carried away by peer pressure. God is not going to hold any of that against you if you are willing to ask Him to forgive you.
God would love to put it all behind us – so bring on the prayers and trust God is going to forget about the things we have done wrong in the past. We should not be asking this because we think we have done enough righteous things, but because we know Christ’s love for us goes way beyond any faults we may have!
Points to Ponder:
Do you carry your sins with you?
Will you try to set them aside knowing Christ totally forgives?
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December 22: Matthew 19:16-22
Key Verse: Matthew 19:21
Jesus answered, ‘If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.’
Devotion:
Some people take these verses and twist them to make others believe rich people will not be able to enter into heaven. This is not what Jesus was getting at here. This was the answer Jesus gave for a particular man who came to get an answer from Him. This man may have been wealthy by some people’s measure and yet may have been ‘normal’ according to others people’s wealth – we shall not know unless we are able to question him ourselves.
This man was looking for a way to get into heaven and he came to ask Jesus directly for the answer. Jesus knew him and answered him according to how well he was known by Jesus. First, Jesus took some of the commandments and recounted them to the man. These are the ones which this man had been able to keep. Jesus wanted to show him how well he knew him.
Next, the man asked for a deeper answer because he knew he had kept these already listed. What came next was not what the man expected. Jesus told the man to sell up everything and give it all to the poor. Why did this upset the man so much? Because the man held high regard for wealth. He had worked hard for what he had and did not want to give that up. This was the only thing holding him back from getting to heaven!
If we ask God what we should be doing, we had better be ready for an answer which may cause us to have a bit of a crisis with how we live. Jesus wants us to have God as number one in our lives. This means leaving everything else behind and keeping God as number one. Yes, it is difficult to do; but when Jesus gave the commandment to love the Lord our God with all out heart and soul, He was referring to everything in our lives.
Points to Ponder:
What do you think is the most important thing in your life?
Are you willing to make that second to God?
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December 21: Matthew 19:13-15
Key Verse: Matthew 19:14
Jesus said, ‘Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.’
Devotion:
I love this passage because of how much it reminds me of my childhood. I grew up in a time when people used to say things like “children should be seen and not heard!” Yes, people did use to say things like that, and it wasn’t that long ago. Of course I objected to that saying back then, and I still do now; after having children of my own and allowing them to have a voice, I do believe children should be able to speak out of turn – and given the right teaching, they can learn when it is appropriate to say things, not by being denied, but by being encouraged at the right time.
God does not scold us for every little thing we do wrong, instead He allows us to come forward and learn. He does this by positive teaching too. The more we get to see how much God cares for us and how much He is able to support us, the more willing we are to come forward at the right time and gain from His teaching.
He does not want to have ‘slave children’ but rather to have children who are willing to come to Him at any time and feel comfortable about doing so. He also wants us to know we can get support from Him at all times; sometimes we can gain from doing things ourselves whilst other times we need to stop and ask for help. As long as we are willing to listen, we will learn what is the right approach to make.
The disciples immediately went on the offensive and tried to prevent the children from approaching Jesus – but he wanted them and the disciples to know He was there for us all. Jesus wanted to show the disciples His love extended beyond the harsh teaching of the adults and into a realm where they could learn more by getting involved. God is encouraging us to get involved more too!
Points to Ponder:
Do you encourage people or discourage them?
Will you try to encourage people to know God more intimately?