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November 10: Luke 17:11-19
Key Verse: Luke 17:17
Jesus asked, “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine?”
Devotion:
At first glance when you read through this passage, you may be think about the lack of thankfulness of the nine lepers who did not come to Jesus’ feet and praise Him for what He had done. But the laws in those days were quite strict and the people upholding the laws very strict!
We could imagine the other nine to be strict Jews because they were not explicitly listed as foreigners like this Samaritan. If they were, then the laws strictly forbade them to approach anyone until they had been given the go-ahead by the chief priest or whomever was presiding over the lepers at that time.
If they were Jews, then they may well have tried to avoid Jesus because the priests were saying Jesus was not the Messiah. How could they go and tell the chief priest they were healed by the man pretending to be the Messiah. How could they admit to Jesus being all powerful?
This is the type of quandary we are caught up in our lives. We get so tied up in laws and rules we lose sight of what is real. We focus too much on the rules we have made up because we think they make sense. After all, why should we admit to being weak and in need of a Saviour! Jesus just wants us to be honest and open with Him. This may well mean coming to bow at His feet and acknowledging Him as Saviour in front of other people!
Points to Ponder:
Do you hide your relationship with Christ?
Will you be more open about your love for Christ?
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November 9: Isaiah 5:22-25
Key Verse: Isaiah 5:22
Woe to those who are heroes at drinking wine and champions at mixing drinks,
Devotion:
These are a few of the warnings which go out to people who are depending on their own strengths and powers and using them against others in one way or another. I’m sure we can all relate to this through mankind's recent history where we can see how the smoking of cigarettes is now frowned upon as opposed to being the latest fad during the sixties and seventies.
The people in charge of those commodities knew the risks but chose to ignore them because so many people were buying into their products. We are now facing the dangers of over-drinking once again; long gone the days of prohibition! People choose to ignore the dangers because of the profit they were gaining even though it was at the expense of other people's lives.
The same can be said about the things which take us away from God. Too many things are much greater temptations to us and many are ignoring the dangers of these temptations simply because they can gain from the supply chain in one way or another. I like the way the prophet likens this to the flames of a bush fire.
If you have seen a bush fire roaring away in real life, then you will know how easily everything surrounding it gets consumed by the flames in seconds. This is like the temptations which take us away from the gospel and separate us from God. They do spread quickly and uncontrollably because they are temptations! God sees every step of this happening and it upsets Him to know people are being carried away by things outside of their control.
Points to Ponder:
Do you stoke the fires against God?
Will you try to reverse the course of the temptations surrounding you?
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November 8: Titus 1:5-9
Key Verse: Titus 1:5
The reason I left you in Crete was that you might put in order what was left unfinished and appoint elders in every town, as I directed you.
Devotion:
Have you ever wondered why God has not done as you asked? Just maybe He is trying to get you to do something which you have either been rejecting or putting off just because it does not fit in with your timeline! When we get our minds set on something, it is hard to let go of the goal we have set. What we should be doing is making sure the goals we set are the goals asked of us by God and not those we think He should have!
If we continue to read through the rest of this passage, we see a list of attributes we should have. But, I hear you say, these are for leaders... Well, they may have been written down as being for leaders at this time, but if we think about it, God selects each one of us to be a leader in some form or another. We should be willing to do what God requires – which is often leading other people towards Him.
We can’t run off and do as we want because we think God should be doing something new in our lives or the lives of those around us – sometimes we just need to stop and listen to what God is saying. In Isaiah 45 we read of how He is doing a new thing. This is not us doing something new in our community, but God doing something new in our community.
If we listen closely to Him, we may end up doing something new to serve Him; but always remember it is God who is doing something new – something we may not expect and something we may think is going to take far too long! God is the one who knows our futures and knows what the best approach is for us to take to make the biggest impact.
Points to Ponder:
Do you work for God?
Are you really ready to submit to Him?
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November 7: Jonah 3:1-10
Key Verse: Jonah 3:10
When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he relented and did not bring on them the destruction he had threatened.
Devotion:
To me, the Old Testament contains so many stories about how people were so quick to forget about God, this chapter is almost a summary of what we are like! When things are good and we are enjoying our lives, we can get carried away with our lives and the content therein rather than where it all came from and who we have to thank for our lives.
We sometimes think of the Old Testament as being irrelevant because of the time which has passed between this period in history and now. We think we have changed too much and it does not reflect how we live today. But when we look at this we should be able to relate to it as the way we live in our modern world.
If we wanted to walk from one end of a modern-day city to the other, we would take a long time to do so. Our cities themselves may officially be big, but if we take into account the suburbs and surrounding towns and villages which have been encompassed by the cities, we can imagine the size of Nineveh. We can also know what goes on in our cities – some being places which have forgotten about God because they are too focused on being cities instead of being communities.
Jonah had the thankless task of going from one end of the city to the other telling them they had forgotten about God and because of this, the city would be destroyed before long. Thankfully, the people remembered where they had come from and how much God had done for them to get to where they were then. They turned back to God who was more than willing to forgive them!
Points to Ponder:
Do you have a good life?
Do you thank God continually for what you have?
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November 6: Romans 16:25-27
Key Verse: Romans 16:26
but now revealed and made known through the prophetic writings by the command of the eternal God, so that all the Gentiles might come to the obedience that comes from faith
Devotion:
Paul closes this letter to the Romans off by listing many people who have faithfully told others about Jesus, not because they had to under the law, but because they wanted to share their knowledge of Jesus Christ so others could get to know Him too.
This is what Christ has encouraged each one of us to do too – He has asked us to tell people of our own experience with Him so they can be encouraged by the love, joy and peace we find in our relationship with Christ. It is not an onerous task to tell someone of the great things Christ has done for you, and should never be looked upon as being that.
I continue to be surprised by how much God does for me and how much I can share with others. It could just be a little word here and there, or it could be standing up in front of others and sharing what you have learned from your bible... or it could be showing them through what you do rather than what you say.
Quite often our actions do speak louder than our words, not because we don’t know what to say, but because people do react to actions more than they react to words. Quite often we can be thinking of something else, be distracted or just stop listening to others – but when we see them doing something, or not doing something, we remember that more than the words.
Points to Ponder:
How do you tell others about Jesus?
Will you show someone Jesus by the way you act today?
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November 5: Romans 15:14-21
Key Verse: Romans 15:18
I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me in leading the Gentiles to obey God by what I have said and done
Devotion:
I wonder how much opposition Paul got for going to teach the gentiles about Jesus after all the disciples went to teach their own people, the Jews, instead. No matter what Paul faced, he would continue to teach the gentiles as much as he could, recounting how he used to be before he got to know Jesus and comparing it to how much he had changed and how much he could teach now.
It is not because of the opposition he kept going but because he got a lot of support! He probably would not have been able to continue if all he got was opposition. He needed the support of those who came to know Jesus to keep him going – just as we do. But it is not the be all and end all to have hundreds of followers or hundreds of people you have taught Jesus to.
Paul sums it up quite nicely by saying he was convinced the gentiles he had come into contact with were full of goodness and they had learned enough to start teaching each other more about Jesus. This should be our goal – to get people to understand who Jesus is and give them the love and support to be able to go out there and teach others what they have learned. This is discipleship!
But Paul knew this was not his doing, but Christ working through Him. He knew it was because he was able to obey God. He knew the healing and miracles which did happen were because God granted them and not his own power. No matter what, he stood by the promised God gave that the whole world would get to hear the gospel and many would get to believe it and have faith in Christ.
Points to Ponder:
Have you told anyone about Christ?
Will you keep spreading the gospel with me?
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November 4: Luke 15:8-10
Key Verse: Luke 15:8
Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Doesn’t she light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it?
Devotion:
This parable has always puzzled me a bit – why did Jesus use a parable about a person who would go searching for a coin. I know silver coins back then were worth a bit more than our coins nowadays, but we could look at it as being a tenth of a week's wages or something like that. Let's expand on that a bit more – what happens when you are in a bit of a bind? You probably tell someone about it in the hope of getting some sort of help, or sympathy!
We would then go about searching high and low for the money we have lost so we can at least get by for the week like we would normally do. If we do find the money, we may well tell the people we told about losing it in the first place. If those people knew how much we depended on that money, they would be sad and happy when we lost and found the money.
Sometimes we have to put things in the light of some worldly example or possession so we can begin to understand how much we mean to God. Each time one of us wanders off or is lost, God becomes upset and goes on the ‘hunt’ for us. The hunt is going to be a bit different that looking for lost money because we are the ones who have to do the turn-around. God does indeed search for us, but we are the ones who need to respond to the calling so we can be found.
Just think how much easier life would be if the possessions we lost called out to us to be found! Just think how wonderful it is for God when we do call out to Him to be found!
Points to Ponder:
Would you like your possession to call out to you when you go looking for them?
Will you call out to God when you have an issue?
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November 3: Romans 13:8-10
Key Verse: Romans 13:10
Love does no harm to a neighbour. Therefore love is the fulfilment of the law.
Devotion:
As the apostle continues to expand on how Christians should behave to the Romans, he also explains the evolution of love. Jesus taught the disciples how important love was, not just toward God and your friends and family, but toward those we do not think of loving in our normal discourse of life.
After explaining how the Romans should continue to obey the law and the governing authorities (something we do second guess when we don’t agree with the governing bodies) he explains the only debt people should owe is to return the love Christ has showed us by loving others because this is what Jesus commanded!
A reminder of the commandments from the Old Testament is talked about because the Jews would have taught these commandments as being the centre of their lives. Jesus did not come to overturn these laws, but to expand on them in ways which we like to think makes sense nowadays, but which did not come naturally to the Jews. Because of their differing lifestyles from the more liberal Romans, the Jews could keep their private lives because they could blame the Romans for their liberal lives.
What Christ teaches us, however, is to uphold the love for one another as being the logical conclusion of the law of the Torah (The Old Testament scriptures) If we love each other as Christ commanded, then we will live up to the Torah as well as going a bit further like Jesus did during His mission on earth. He came to show us how important love is in our lives; to love God with everything and to love the people around us just as much as we love ourselves.
Points to Ponder:
How many Old Testament commandments do you remember?
How many of those are a logical conclusion of loving others?
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November 2: Romans 12:4-8
Key Verse: Romans 12:7
if it is serving, then serve; if it is teaching, then teach;
Devotion:
Before I went to school, I can remember wanting to be a train driver when I grew up. In primary school, that changed to a pilot – because my Dad was a pilot. As I went through high school it changed to wanting to design aeroplanes which probably came from me designing, building and flying my own model planes; but it was the things like designing a new aerofoil (the shape of the wing) so my gliders could glide further than others. When I got to university and went through all the training to be a plane designer, I could not get a job after qualifying – so I looked elsewhere for work.
That is how I ended up programming computers for a living, which led me back to church and finally into youth work for church and charities. If I had listened to some people as I grew up, I would have gone into teaching and been in youth work a whole lot earlier than I did – but it is often the whole journey in life which prepares us for the work God wants us to do and not just being in the right place at the right time!
God has created us all differently. Each of us has different ways of thinking, behaving and living which makes for a more complete community. If we were all the same, our communities would suffer and probably fall apart; but because we are very different, we can work with others or for others and become a better and stronger community.
God just wants us to do what we do well. He wants us to love our neighbours and Him and be able to do whatever we end up doing well. If we can share God with those around us as we do our jobs, all the better. If others can see we love God through the way we work, even better still! Encourage others to find God in everything they do...
Points to Ponder:
What do you do, or want to do, for a living?
Do the people around you know you are a Christian through the way you work?
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November 1: John 11:32-37
Key Verse: John 11:33
When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled.
Devotion:
What goes through your mind when you read this story? What went through your mind when you read it for the first time? Did you wonder why Jesus had not hurried and saved Mary’s brother if He knew what would happen? Do you wonder why Mary got so upset? This story should provoke emotions deep within you!
Mary had had to say goodbye to her brother even though she had already called for Jesus – messengers had probably already been back to her to report Jesus was delayed – not because He had some other urgent thing to do, but because He simply said so!
What was going through Jesus' mind when He got there – what was He feeling? The only thing we know is He was upset enough to cry openly. People saw how upset He was... But what was He upset about. We can speculate and we can come up with stories based on what we know about Jesus, but we cannot know exactly why!
I like to think He was upset at what was unfolding around Him. He could see how upset others were. He could see how upset Mary was with Him. He could see people beginning to doubt. All of these things are valid and all would upset Jesus, maybe even enough to cry out loud. But put them all together and we begin to understand why Jesus was upset.
Points to Ponder:
Do you always try to not upset God?
Are you doing something little which may add to upsetting God a little?