Day 7
Devotional Point 4 today: God is bigger than your doubts…
Scripture 4 today: “The disciples did not understand any of this. Its meaning was hidden from them, and they did not know what he was talking about.” Luke 18:34 NIV
Reflection 4 today: A couple of very interesting things at play here. The first is that their view of the reason for Jesus being there was to militarily conquer the Romans and establish a new governmental kingdom, totally wrong. No matter what he did to try to explain it to them, they never got it. What Jesus told them was actually pretty clearly spelled out in the old Testament, but like us, they read the parts they wanted to read and focused on those. And lastly, they needed the Holy Spirit to give them some insight into what was really going on.
Question for the day: How can we better really listen and understand what the Holy Spirit is saying to us?
Other Notes: This has been a very interesting 7 days looking at some of the things we sort of wonder why about… For the next 7 days we will be in a plan about the Good News and why we should be encouraged… Invites out later today…
Day 6
Day 6 is where we see the reality of what makes our relationships with God and people possible: God is love, it is just what He is, He makes no special effort at it, He just is…
Devotional Point 4 today: God’s love is not dependent on us
Scripture 4 today: “And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.”
1 John 4:16 NIV
Reflection 4 today: One of the ways that Satan has obscured the notion of “love“ is to infuse that with emotion. Basically if I have enough emotion, then that will propel sufficient action that will translate back into what Love really is. This is a profound and subtle way to confuse us about what God’s love really is. God loves because he is love, not because he makes any special effort at it. And that, interestingly, is what He wants for us. We love because that is what we are now, it doesn’t require any special effort.
Question for the day: what is your favourite verse to remind yourself of God’s love for us? This one, 1 John 4:16
Day 5
Day 5 gives us something that most of us have walked right by. Jesus act was not just for salvation, it is for the stuff of every-day life…
Devotional Point 4 today: If God were to remove the consequences of choice—spending eternity with Him or spending eternity without Him—He’d also remove the validity of choice.
Scripture 4 today: “Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” John 14:6 NIV
Reflection 4 today: historically, this verse has been thrown at us thousands of times to show that this is the way to salvation. Whilst that is true, we seem to have left off the second and third parts of it which are all about truth and life. So, once you become a Christian, you have two things that you need to struggle with: truth and life. In the world we live in, the only possible way to deal with the issue of what is true and what is not is in the intimate relationship with Jesus, the same goes for all the rest of the nuances of life.
Question for the day: How does knowing about the reality of hell inform your perception of the good news? It validate the fact that there is choice and there are consequences.
Day 4
Day 4 brings us to the truth of our relationships with God, He is not fair, life is not fair…
Devotional Point 4 today: God isn’t fair. He’s just, but He’s not fair.
Scripture 4 today: “But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.” 1 John 1:7 NIV
Reflection 4 today: One of the most significant impacts of the Holy Spirit in our lives comes through other people. Them influencing us and us influencing them. The more we walk in the light, the more opportunity there is for significant impact of other people on us, and also them as well. So, the more you walk in the light, the more you are able to emotionally defuse the feelings of unfairness that come on all of us in regard to what God is doing in our lives.
Question for the day: How might God be calling you to bring justice to those areas of unfairness in our community? I have always taken a leadership position in the community, especially in the UK as an elected politician.
Day 3
Day 3 serves up one of the most famous Psalms ever, number 23 where we see the secret to maintaining perspective…
Devotional Point 4 today: No matter what your situation looks like, know that God sees you, and He cares for you.
Scripture 4 today: “Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” Psalms 23:6 NIV
Reflection 4 today: One of the great difficulties for us humans is our belief that we know what is good for us. Quite a bit of the time we actually do know what is good for us, however God knows exactly what is best for us, not just good for us. As our father, he wants the very best for us and the problem is that we are so shortsighted that we often don’t “get it“. Usually after all the dust settles I am able to see why God has put me through some of the things that have happened, and life is much better for it…
Question for the day: what is He putting you through today that certainly didn’t look like the best at the beginning? For me: it is the conclusion of the property business in the UK…
Day 2
Day 2 gets into the core of hand why we have confidence in our relationship with Jesus, regardless of how we feel…
Devotional Point 4 today: you’ve likely experienced varying levels of connection with Him…
Scripture 4 today: “‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’”Acts 17:28 NIV
Reflection 4 today: these three statements about “in him“ or core what makes the Christian life work. Because of the work on the cross we are “in him“, however, we need to live out the life that he’s called us to. And that happens in all parts of the concept of “live“ as well as all parts of the concept of “move“, and then moves onto the idea of having our being. we have our “being“ deep in our souls, something that is being transformed, especially by the renewing of our minds…
Question for the day: where do you see His goodness is at work today? The renewing of my mind has changed everything…
Day 1
Day 1 of our new series is here to challenge our faith on the concept of faith, going to be a good one…
Devotional Point 4 today: the enemy of faith is pretending we have everything all figured out…
Scripture 4 today: “Faith shows the reality of what we hope for; it is the evidence of things we cannot see.” Hebrews 11:1 NLT
Reflection 4 today: We have been taught to think and believe according to what our 5 senses tell us. All modern science and technology is an extension of these. Problem, as Jesus told Nicodemus in John 3, is that the Holy Spirit is like the wind, no explanation possible in the natural. So, if you start with the premise that because you can’t explain it doesn’t mean that it doesn’t exist, you can move to faith pretty quickly, but it takes a definite act of the will…
Question for the day: How could you bring those before Him?
