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November 20: Luke 20:28-38
Key Verse: Luke 20:38
He is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive.”
Devotion:
This is just one of the occasions when the Sadducees (or others) tried to trick Jesus by asking impossible questions. Each time He was asked awkward questions, Jesus would answer them according to what God’s Word said – and in this case answering them by showing the question itself was based on an invalid assumption!
It is safe to say the rules in Heaven are not going to be the same as the rules here on earth. We will be different – Jesus has already told us we will face the resurrection which means we will be brought back to life but in a different form. Why should we be limited by earthly rules and laws when we are no longer going to be on earth? Why should we be limited to living our lives in relationships, jobs and different families?
Jesus reminds us here we are born into the family of God – all as one family – so we will not have to choose things which pertain to being in different families. We will not have to get married or have children; all that is for our lives on earth and to expand our families so we can keep the human race going generation after generation. In Heaven we will no longer face getting old or having to die again – that will all be behind us!
So if someone asks you whether you can get remarried or whatever – answer them by pointing out they are looking at this all wrong. While we are here on earth we live under rules for our earthly lives. When we get to heaven we will all be as brothers and sisters in one family with God as our parent(s)
Points to Ponder:
Do you try view Heaven by earthly concepts?
Will you try to open your mind to a new way of living with God?
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November 19: Revelation 10:8-11
Key Verse: Revelation 10:9
So I went to the angel and asked him to give me the little scroll. He said to me, “Take it and eat it. It will turn your stomach sour, but ‘in your mouth it will be as sweet as honey.’”
Devotion:
Have you ever eaten or drank something which tasted fine, but really made you feel quite ill after a short while? This is what some people have to put up with all the time when they have food allergies! But this was not real food or drink being talked about here, and I don’t think it was literally taking a scroll and eating it – I don’t think we are meant to eat books!
God wants us to know everything we hear is not always going to agree with us. We have lived our life from the beginning and we continue to live our lives even when we have been born in the spirit; what some people term as being born again is us starting a new life with Christ in it. But, because we have lived our lives as humans and have made choices as we are, some of those choices may well ‘repeat’ on us, or disagree with the way we think we should live!
Jesus wants us to continue living our lives, but with a different view; one which includes Him in everything we do. When we do this, we may find some of the choices we have made to live by in the past do not agree with us in our new way of living with Christ. Or we may find a choice we make with Christ brings up horrible feeling about things we have done in the past.
God wants us to know we have been forgiven for everything we have done – but we do need to acknowledge we have done things wrong. When this happens, we get upset and may even cry about what has happened. That’s fine! As long as we also acknowledge what Jesus did by giving His life on the cross. He has set in motion the forgiveness for everything so we can be happy and content in our life with Him hence-forth.
Points to Ponder:
Do you get upset about things you have done wrong in the past?
Will you allow Christ to forgive you fully?
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November 18: Isaiah 10:33-34
Key Verse: Isaiah 10:34
He will cut down the forest thickets with an axe; Lebanon will fall before the Mighty One.
Devotion:
If you read these verses by themselves, what would your conclusion be? Would you be thinking God was going to level the people like lumberjacks would level a forest? Would you be thinking God had given the people a death sentence? Or would you be comparing people and trees and come to the conclusion God was going to cut down all the people who had grown up to big for their boots?
If we read the verses before these and the verses after these we begin to get a better picture of what’s going on. The prophet is trying to convey a whole history to the people instead of just what we read here. God wanted the people to think about their history and to see where they were currently headed. He wanted them to compare that with how a forest takes many years to grow, but can be cut down in a matter of days!
But He also wanted the people to know why! God wanted the people to know just how wide spread the problem was… When we allow things to go too far in our lives, it takes a long time to recover and a lot of hard work to bring things back in line. When some people turned away from God, other would follow because they heard things and they did not see God punishing them… God was waiting for them to help the others back in line…
We need to take note of what people are doing around us and to try to help people when we see things going wrong. This may take us out of our comfort zones, may take us away from our ‘successful lives’ and may take us toward our enemies… But, unless we are willing to listen to God and hear what He wants in full, then we are not getting the whole picture!
Points to Ponder:
How often do you make your mind up before the results come in?
Are you making your mind up for your own life before God’s results come in?
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November 17: Psalm 102:1-2
Key Verse: Psalm 102:1
Hear my prayer, Lord; let my cry for help come to you.
Devotion:
One year ago today our Dad passed away after a few years of fighting cancer; one thing he tried to constantly remind me of is to ask for help when you need it. We live in a very proud society where asking for help is seen as being weak and working hard and long is seen as being normal. However, if we go back a few years to when I was a child, our parents would always make time to be with us...
Yes, they would have to work hard and sometimes long hours, but they did not sit us in front of a TV or some other distraction to have some time for themselves. Today parents are even encouraged to give in to technology to take care of their children! We are losing the personal touch with our children!
Here the writer of this Psalm reminds us God is always here with us and always looking out for us; but we don’t always see it. We get too caught up in the situations and fear God has not seen us get into trouble. We then fear He is not going to help us so we try to get the world to fic our problems instead of taking them to God.
Jesus promised to ensure we always have a part of God looking after us. He promised a comforter to look after us and promised to always listen out for our prayers. That means God is always with us and always listening to us! We get too tied up in the world and its distractions to see how much He cares for us. How long have you spent talking to God today? How much help have you asked from Him?
Points to Ponder:
Do you need help or comfort in your life?
Will you ask God to be your aid and your comforter now?
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November 16: Psalm 11:1-6
Key Verse: Psalm 11:2
For look, the wicked bend their bows; they set their arrows against the strings to shoot from the shadows at the upright in heart.
Devotion:
O how the world doubts! If we allow the doubts of the world to invade our faith, we will begin to have doubts too. The psalmist here starts off by reminding us the Lord is our refuge and our point of strength. If we continue to draw close to Him and depend on Him for comfort and protection where the world only sees doubts, then we will recognise the strength of the Lord as we work with Him in our lives.
We hear the world say we cannot possibly have strength and protection from an unseen God because He cannot be seen. We hear the world tell us how disasters and man’s ways will break us and our world... In reality, man can break anything he puts his mind to and also everything he ignores or puts aside to work on it another day!
We see climate change taking hold because mankind has turned his back on the things which we know cause trouble. We see the Coronavirus taking hold because man thinks he can side-step it, but the natural ways of the virus continue to take hold. We hear man say God is not real because it is taking hold; in reality it is because man has ignored the threat!
God sees everything from Heaven; there is nothing which He cannot see and nothing which He cannot do. But He has promised to give us free choice to do what we will and we have to live with the consequences of choosing the wrong things at the wrong time; He can only watch over us and try to steer us from danger...
Points to Ponder:
Do you rely on God?
Will you stay in His place of refuge?
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November 15: Psalm 1:1-3
Key Verse: Psalm 1:3
That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither - whatever they do prospers.
Devotion:
As we have just had a week of various Remembrance services around the UK, and around the world, I thought it apt to have a reminder of choosing to follow Christ in amongst all of this terror going on in the world. The people who choose to follow Christ and try to separate themselves from the evil in this world will ultimately have a very different life to those who choose otherwise.
If we choose to follow the evil and do what evil people do, then we should fully expect our lives to be filled with evil and whatever form we are following. God has warned us enough time about evil and has warned us enough time to turn away from evil; we have been faithfully warned enough times! We cannot plead ignorance in sight of all the warnings we have received – it is our active choice!
When we follow Christ and His teachings, we will turn toward the good and righteous ways of Him instead of the evil ways of mankind. When we do turn toward Christ we will receive blessings in many ways which we may not be able to quantify without experiencing them first hand. The psalmist describes those blessings as being like the goodness and nutrients a tree receives from the earth when it is planted close to a stream – and endless supply of nutrients!
Let us continue to cling together as communities working against evil and asking God constantly for His protection as we do. God wants us to be at peace and full of joy – something we can only get from being close to Him; like being a tree planted close to a running stream. Allow God to supply you with rich blessings – stay close to Him so He can bless you!
Points to Ponder:
How close do you try to stay to God?
Are you working at staying close to Him?
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November 14: Hebrews 10:11-14
Key Verse: Hebrews 10:11
Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins.
Devotion:
Have you ever had to work out a punishment you were dealt with? I’m not talking about getting shouted at or grounded or others things our parent may have done, but something like hard labour or some other hard repetitive task! At boarding school we often used to get punished by having to do something horrible like cleaning out the showers – and no matter how long you had to do it or how many times you had to do it, nothing changed!
Once again, after the punishment had been served, we were back in our own little worlds where we were tempted to do something wrong... and get caught again... and so on! This is the futile environment God was trying to open our eyes to. When we break the rules and sin against Him, we have to face the consequences. Back in the days of the Old Testament, people had to offer sacrifices to cover their sins.
These sacrifices were not easy “I’m sorry, please forgive me” but having to find a suitable animal for the sins to be covered and then making sure it was taken to the temple at the right time and offered as a sacrifice in the right way. This would have cost a fair wage back then and would not be something you would want to do every week!
But Christ offered Himself to be the perfect sacrifice for all of our sins – to be offered once and on our behalf. We did not have to try and find the ultimate sacrifice because He found us. We did not have to pay for anything. We simply have to accept the truth He is our perfect sacrifice and ask Him to forgive us once and for all!
Points to Ponder:
How often did you repeat offend after being punished?
Have you accepted that Christ has paid fully for your sins?
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November 13: Psalm 33:10-11
Key Verse: Psalm 33:11
But the plans of the Lord stand firm forever, the purposes of his heart through all generations.
Devotion:
As Christians we often talk about how the word of God endures, or how it remains the same – but how often do we link that fact with the promises God has made to us? He has given us many promises and they remain promises – still the same as they were many years ago and will remain the same! This is the immutable Word of God!
When people plot against God, there will always be someone He calls upon to make a difference so His Word can continue to be upheld and His ways remain in people’s minds. This does not mean He is going to stop all wars or remove all illness – many of these things are because of what man continues to do and how he continues to not just break rules, but try to uphold them in the face of the truth!
God wants the truth to be upheld and for people to get to know His Word so they too will recognise the promises He has made to us – those promises which we can rely on and know will come true. We often get things mixed up and say they are not true because we have twisted the truth to our own wants and desires, or we have taken what God has said and used it against Him instead of trying to find out exactly what He has said!
No matter how much planning we get into, no matter how much effort we put into things – if we leave God out of it, then we should not expect to succeed! God has a way of turning things against us when we leave Him out of it. God wants us to keep Him close at all times and also to rely on Him to help us. This means asking Him and including Him in everything!
Points to Ponder:
Do you include God in your life?
Will you bring Him closer so you know what He wants in your life?
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November 12: 2 John 1:4-6
Key Verse: 2 John 1:5
And now, dear lady, I am not writing you a new command but one we have had from the beginning. I ask that we love one another.
Devotion:
The writer addresses an elder in the church, a lady whom they knew well and knew they stood for the truth and followed Christ and His gospel. But, in amongst all this, they choose to include the commandment Jesus gave the disciples, the one which was said to be above all others, to love one another. This is not one of the commandments they would have learned from the old scriptures, but one which Jesus Himself had told the disciples.
Why did they expound on this commandment? Was it because there was something in her life where love should have been abounding? Was it because one of her children was not following the command to love others? We don’t know, but it should be a passage which makes us stop and think!
Jesus would always make sure people stopped and thought about what He was saying. He would encourage people to meditate on what they were hearing – not to just believe everything, but to study things and see if they agreed with what was the truth. Jesus made a point of highlighting this as a commandment, but in truth, it was nothing new.
If we stop and spend the time to go over the Old Testament, we will see how much of it points to us loving one another. Often, we see the Old Testament as full of wars killing many people and laws which were too hard to follow. But when we spend the time to study what it is about, we find it is God trying to teach us how to love each other without condition. If we really want to obey God, then we need to learn how to love each other without question.
Points to Ponder:
How many grudges do you hold?
Will you take them to God and try to love instead?
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November 11: Luke 17:20-25
Key Verse: Luke 17:21
nor will people say, ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is,’ because the kingdom of God is in your midst.”
Devotion:
We all like to think we can see things coming and how prepared we are for the unseen things which may happen in life. But, in reality, many of those things happen in a split second and we don’t see them. Take an accident, for example. We think we can avoid accidents and keep out of trouble – but by its very name, it is an accident!
We don’t always see everything happen in slow motion or watch things unfold; sometimes a volcano will simply explode. Sometimes a crash happens before we even have time to react. Jesus was warning the people His coming would not happen in slow motion. It would not be announced in the papers. There would not be a ‘breaking news’ event on TV!
We don’t have to go searching for God. We don’t have to go to university to learn of the love of God. All these things are with us now and Christianity lives all around us. What we do need is to accept it as it is and accept it when it is, here and now. If we miss out on the acceptance, then we will have missed out completely when it comes like a bolt of lightning! The sound will only come after the event!
There are going to be people who will announce His coming and those who will say they know the secret time and place. Don’t be fooled by them because Jesus has already told us, He did not even know the time and place when He was here with us. Jesus has warned us to be ready all the time; just as a thief comes unannounced and probably while you are away doing something else or asleep in bed...
Points to Ponder:
Do you know when the next person is going to knock on your door?
Are you ready for Jesus’ return?