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October 18: Hebrew 5:1-4
Key Verse: Hebrew 5:4
And no one takes this honour on himself, but he receives it when called by God, just as Aaron was.
Devotion:
How many times do you go over the readings you heard in church and get a very different idea from the passage than what was talked about in church? Well, this is not entirely different because the words are still the same, but I want to focus on something different which struck me when re-reading the passage (yes, I sometimes get a bit side-tracked doing the sound desk and miss things in church, so re-reading is a good idea!)
When I was doing in-depth studying of the bible I would do a lot of reading and listening to what other people thought about the passages; sometimes I would agree with what was being said, but sometimes I just got a very strong feeling they may be barking up the wrong tree... You see, this is what happens when two different people read the same piece of text. Because we have lived very different lives, we focus on different things in the text.
That being said, the Word of God does not change, we change. God chooses people whom He knows will be diligent with the studying and will be able to impart what they learn to others. A lot of people came to ask me questions because I like to try and explain things in plain English rather than 'Christian talk' or 'Christianese' as I like to call it! God will call you into the right place at the right time in order ti help other people understand His Word.
Priests and normal people! Yes, normal people! They are tempted just as we are and they make mistakes like we do. I am no different. I like to rattle on about God's Word and how it affects me, but I am still human and still do stupid things at times! This is why I try to do what I say and not do what I say not to. Living your life in the open will do more to convince people God is real than trying to hide from everyone. Be honest and open and share what you love about God!
Points to Ponder:
Do you try to live by God's Word?
Will you try to share by example instead of by words today?
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October 17: Isaiah 53:4-6
Key Verse: Isaiah 53:6
We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
Devotion:
How many times have you stopped to think about why Jesus went to the cross? And who made Him do it? Well, as these verses state, we sometimes think it was God who put Jesus on the cross and God who was punishing Jesus because of our sins... but that is just the way we think and is not what happened!
Despite what we think, Jesus went to the cross because He wanted to be able to be our sacrifice. He wanted to take on the burden of our sins. Before He was taken to be on the cross, He pleaded with God His Father, not to let Him off, but to see if there was any other way. Does this mean God said it had to be done? I believe Jesus was pleading with God because He knew the pain and anguish we would feel when we realised the truth!
I believe Jesus knew exactly what He was doing when He took Himself to the cross and gave up His own life for our sakes. I believe He knew what was going to happen to Him, but He also continued to step forward, knowing the pain and anguish He would go through so we would not have to! He did this so we could have peace in our hearts!
We are the ones who have done silly things. We are the ones who have sinned against God, against His people and against ourselves. We are the ones who should be facing the desperate things Jesus went through on the cross – but Jesus made the choice to take on the punishment for everything we are going to do. Because He loves us!
Points to Ponder:
Have you asked Christ to forgive you today?
Will you step forward to help someone else out today?
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October 16: Proverbs 4:23-27
Key Verse: Proverbs 4:25
Let your eyes look straight ahead; fix your gaze directly before you.
Devotion:
Have you ever been told to look straight ahead in order to accomplish a difficult task? I can remember being told to not look down when I was abseiling from a high bridge in Zimbabwe as we were completing task for an outward-bound course. I have always had a fear of looking over a precipice, not so much a fear of heights because I love flying and looking out from tall buildings... but looking over the edge of something where there is no guard rail does my head in!
God knows we will not always be able to cope with life and with what the world will throw at us, so He tried to warn us through the prophets and through His word – we need to focus on what is real and not be side-tracked by the world!
Our hearts can be deceived by people who pretend to be what we want in our lives. Our mouths let out all manner of strange things when we get upset. Our eyes tend to look at things we should not be looking at because we are tempted. We often choose the wrong things in life because we don't know all the facts or we don't think of others. God wants to keep us safe and keep us sane – but we have to listen to Him in order to get it right!
Jesus came and showed us it is possible to rely on God for everything in our lives. He showed us we can depend on Him for everything and He will answer our prayers when we ask. Jesus showed us it is ok to be scared and to fear what we do not know; but placing those situations in God's hands allows us to go forward and accomplish what has to be done!
Points to Ponder:
Do you trust God?
Will you listen to His instructions?
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October 15: Proverbs 4:20-22
Key Verse: Proverbs 4:22
for they are life to those who find them and health to one’s whole body.
Devotion:
Too many times we set our eyes on the things of the world instead on the things of God. We like to think we are doing the right thing because this is what the world says or because lots of other people do them... just because lots of other people do things does not make them right! We can go back just a few decades and find out many things were done which we frown at today because we now know they are wrong – but everyone did them back then...
God set about giving us a whole lot of rules to live by, rules which, at that time were looked at as being right and correct. A few generations later and mankind begins to think they are too hard to follow. A few hundred years later and we put our own rules in place so we would not have to follow those rules. A few thousand years later people are beginning to try and fix things because we seem to have lost our way.
God tried to remind us of those rules, not as things which break humanity, but as things which bring us all together as a community. Nothing has changed in those rules, but we have changed and we try to make sense of things according to how we live today. What we should be doing is trying to make sense of our lives according to what God said and not what people say God said!
Jesus came to remind us of those rules and to remind us God set them for a reason; we just got things wrong and made up our own versions of those rules. If we gave time to studying what God said and why He said things, we would understand more of how He wants us to live and we would be able to live a better life!
Points to Ponder:
Do you blindly follow the rules?
Will you spend time to understand why God gave us His rules?
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October 14: Matthew 13:31-32
Key Verse: Matthew 13:32
Though it is the smallest of all seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds come and perch in its branches.’
Devotion:
Whenever I hear these verses, my mind goes back to our home in Zimbabwe where we had a pepper-corn tree in our yard next to the house. This was one of the tallest trees in the neighbourhood, yet it produced something so small and full of flavour: red pepper corns. They were bright red to start with, but after picking them the red coating would crumble away leaving black pepper corns which you could put directly into your pepper mills and use them.
This tree was at some stage, been a single seed smaller than a pea, but bigger than mustard seeds. This seed was planted and had grown for many years to be a huge tree standing far above the house roof. I loved climbing as high as I could to look out and see the whole neighbourhood from my vantage point. Unfortunately, the higher I climbed, the less steady the branches were, so I could never actually get to the top!
Now, after studying God's Word and living my life with Jesus, I can draw parallels with many aspects of Christ. We climb as high as we can, but we can never reach the top because we are too weighed down by this world – we long to be able to reach the top; the realm of God. The tree was not nice to climb because out of the bark would seek sticky sap as you tried to climb, but after climbing you would not worry about the 'worldly sap' but would focus on the amazing view.
As we live our lives with Christ, we don't have an easy ride but meet challenges all the way. What we find after living with Christ is a life worth living and 'out of this world!' What Jesus gives us along the way is something special which gives our world a new flavour which is sought after by many, yet given abundantly to us!
Points to Ponder:
Are you beaten back by the things in this world you don't like?
What if you could rise above those things and be closer to God?
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October 13: Jeremiah 29:10-14
Key Verse: Jeremiah 29:11
For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.
Devotion:
Can you imagine God answering your prayer but saying you have to wait 70 years before it will come true? To understand this we have to look at how God sees us and not how we see ourselves. When we look at ourselves and the world around us, we think of the short active lifespans we have and how we can cram as much of life into a short a period as possible so we still have time to do what we want!
God sees the human race. He sees generation upon generation of people and understands which generations are going to seek Him and which will not. He understands there are going to be times when most people seem to reject Him and times when more will be worshipping Him; He sees the whole picture and not just the little bit of our life in the middle we think we own!
I love to think the devotions I write will be available long after I have gone and read by many more people than I have met in real life. I don't do this to get likes and shares, I do this because I want to understand God's Word a bit better each day, and in doing so I share what I learn with whomever wants to read about it.
I saw these words shared by Nicky Gumbel on Facebook and it brought back memories for me, not just of times I have heard him say these words, but of a time when a group of people prophesied over me with these words to remind me to carry on doing what I started many years ago because one day there will be a time when someone is encouraged by the words. We all have our time on earth – use it to worship God and share your love for Him with others.
Points to Ponder:
Have you tried sharing something lately about God?
Do you get upset if someone does not listen? Maybe it's not time yet...
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October 12: Mark 10:17-22
Key Verse: Mark 10:21
Jesus looked at him and loved him. ‘One thing you lack,’ he said. ‘Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.’
Devotion:
How many things do you collect? I know there are a lot of people out there who collect things like stamps, coins and the like, but there are also people who collect other strange things... When we see people collecting strange things, we may think of them as eccentric or just plain weird! Maybe Jesus saw this man as just plain weird!
Jesus tried to impress the value of a relationship with God over and above everything else in life upon the disciples; something they did not always see and something this man did not see. When we go overboard with collecting something, be it stamps, cars or whatever else, we lose focus on God and tend to concentrate too much on our collections instead. When people get to do this with money, we either look at them as entrepreneurs or greedy – we don't seem to have much of a middle ground when it comes to money!
When this man asked Jesus what he needed to do to get to heaven, Jesus tried to allow him to see what he was doing with his life. This man had been too focused on making sure he gained money in everything he did, he lost focus on the people around him and on the needs of those people.
What Jesus wanted him to do was to step back from this unhealthy focus on money and to refocus on God. This mean giving up this love for money he had and to start to focus on God's people instead. We often lose the ability to see the needs of others when we focus too much on ourselves or our own wants...
Points to Ponder:
Are you focusing too much on something in your life?
Will you stop and look at the needs of those around you today?
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October 11: Hebrew 4:14-16
Key Verse: Hebrews 4:16
Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.
Devotion:
Why did Jesus talk to the disciples about praying in this manner? Because they were asking Him how they should pray – they would see Jesus go off and pray and the prayers would be answered. They would see Him ask God for anything and it would be granted. When they tried their best in the face of dire evil threats, they would not always succeed... Think of it like you trying to see if you can walk on water!
We know Jesus did walk on water and we know Peter did too for a while – but as soon as he lost his focus on Christ, he began to sink because his focus was on the world around him and not on Christ. Think about your prayers and those which you don't see get answered yet. Is it because you are far too focused on the world and what the world may be able to fix or do instead?
Christ wanted the disciples prepared for what they would be able to do – but first they had to take their eyes off the world and put them firmly on Christ. Jessu is our great high priest and He has gone to be with God in Heaven, not because He can't cope or anything like that, but because that is His rightful place! We need to remember the words of the prayers Christ taught us all to ensure we continue to keep our eyes on Jesus the Son of God who has promised us to be our advocate who will take each of our prayer directly to God – just as He has promised!
Be confidence in asking your prayers and ask Jesus to take them to God and He will do exactly that. When we are in need, Jesus is there waiting for us to lift up our prayers so He can get God to answer them!
Points to Ponder:
Do you ask with confidence?
Will you focus more on Christ and less on the world?
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October 10: Matthew 6:9-13
Key Verse: Matthew 6:13
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.
Devotion:
How many things have you given into over the past 24 hours? I had to own up yesterday for giving in to my laziness and not getting round to posting the devotion... I do tend to leave things to the last minute sometimes and more often than not get caught out when I do! Are you doing the same with your life with God?
It is so easy to coast along when things are going well and to not worry about the prayers we should be praying or to read our bibles... because we are in a comfortable position and not a lot to worry about! But these are the times when we should be praising God we have the time to do nothing. These are the times we must thank Him for giving us this life to live. If we don't continue to keep Him in our hearts and in our minds, we may well give in to peer pressure and go do something we should not be doing!
The evil one is waiting for every opportunity to trip you up and watch you fall. If he does that enough, we get tired of fighting and we give in to even more stuff. This is how he continues to take control of so many people's lives... not by tempting them with a good life, but by bashing them into submission so they give in to worldly things to try and dig themselves out of holes!
Allow God to guide you daily, not just when you think you need help – but even when things are all wonderful! Give God more control of your life so you will spend it more in worship to Him and be able to live a much closer life with Him... this is how we stay safe!
Points to Ponder:
How many times have things been really good in your life?
Did you give in to the temptation of doing nothing?
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October 9: Matthew 6:9-13
Key Verse: Matthew 6:12
And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
Devotion:
As we continue on in our quest to look deeper into the Lord's Prayer, we come to the part none of us like doing... admitting we are wrong! And, yes, I know this is coming to you late because I neglected to post this on the internet yesterday for publishing this morning. But this is talking about taking this admission of guilt to another level!
If we are not good at admitting to our own faults, then we should expect others are the same – in other words, when someone does something wrong against you, or which affects you, we should be big enough to realise they could have made a mistake and they probably do not want to own up to it – just like we don't!
We all sin and others even sin against us as well as against God. We should be willing to forgive and move on just as Jesus was willing to forgive and move on. He even gave up His own life so we would not have to pay the debt we owe because of the sin we do. This is how He wants us to be toward others – which is very hard at times because we are so 'human!'
God changed this all by allowing Jesus to come and give His own life to pay for the things we do wrong. This does not mean we can go an do anything we like without fear of consequences! There are still consequences for us doing things wrong, but if we are brave enough to admit to them, others may well be merciful enough to show us mercy... so we should do the same!
Points to Ponder:
How many things did you do or say wrong yesterday?
Were you brave enough to admit them?