July 30

 “…the king… made a covenant before the LORD…” 2 Kings 23:3

King Josiah was responsible for a major revival in Israel. He meticulously removed the idolatrous places of worship, overthrew their temples and destroyed the priests of the heathen religions which had grown populous in the nation. His cleansing work included the removal of sodomite houses, and of those practicing occult arts. The Bible reports him as doing right in the sight of the Lord, walking in all the ways of His forefather David, and not being influenced by pressures around him, but staying on course spiritually. This is a sterling testimony and a rarity among the usually poor performances of kings who either did outright evil in rebellion against Yahwah, or walked righteously but only in part and without consistency throughout their lives. Josiah stands out from among the rest as being a righteous man and a godly king in Israel. He stood by the pillar - this was understood to be a special place in the temple set aside for the king, from where he would make his orations to the people and offer prayer and worship unto God. It was from this prominent and public place and in front of all the people that Josiah made a promise to God. His heartfelt pledge to God included that He and the people would walk close to God, keep His laws with all their heart and all their soul, and uphold the words of God’s covenant with them as written in the book of the law. Wonderfully all the people took a stand with him in total support and commitment to that promise. How precious it is to have leaders who are sensitive to the Spirit of God, in tune with His will and obeying His word wholeheartedly! God will perform good and great things through such men! The task of all believers is to be obedient and aligned with Jesus and His word. This is much easier to achieve when the individuals who lead us, give us a consistent example of loving God and honouring His word. When such men by their example and teaching remind us of all that is holy and righteous, we should take notice and with all our hearts make our stand with them! May God raise many leaders like Josiah among us, to help guide us in the path of righteousness and encourage us to a life of holiness before the Lord!  

http://www.pentecostalfamilychurch.com.au/devotion

July 19

“And I will write on the tables the words that were in the first tables…” Deuteronomy 10:2

God had supplied the first set of stone tables, and written on them by His own hand the commandments He wanted His people to live by. When Moses had returned from his encounter with God on the mountain to the Israelite camp, he found they had broken the very laws he was bringing to them! In anger and disgust at their idolatry and short lived faithfulness to Yahwah, who had delivered them from Egypt, he threw down and broke the tables of stone, and judgment was visited upon the people. The scripture tells of three thousand who were killed on that day, and plagues which came upon the Israelites because of their sin. The second set of tables were carved out of stone by Moses, but again written upon by God Himself. The accuracy and veracity of the original text, was in this way preserved by the Lord. God has always been interested in keeping His revelation to man, free of mistakes or tampering. All subsequent scripture was therefore given by inspiration of God, so that the writer was merely the hand on the pen, but the Author was still Yahwah. This process of full verbal inspiration lifts the Bible above any other book ever written, and on a plane unique and superior to any work of man. The accuracy and veracity of the scriptures have been challenged and verified many times, in various spheres of science and observation. Personal experience also confirms the content of the Holy Writ and provides further evidence of its truth! People from all walks of life, from all cultures and of all levels of education, have found God’s Word to be true, trustworthy and a reliable source of guidance, light and learning. God wrote then, and wrote again while here on earth, resulting in the forgiveness of a woman who had been caught in sin. His writing was and is a letter of love, direction and instruction. Today He still writes -this time not on tables of stone, but the fleshly tables of our hearts. There He lodges the truth and conviction of His principles and inscribes the reality of His love and grace. In our hearts He engraves the knowledge of His will, and stores the confidence of our salvation! Praise God for all that He writes and communicates with us, for without Him and His Word, we would have no knowledge of right, no understanding of our purpose, no love for one another and hope for the future!

http://www.pentecostalfamilychurch.com.au/devotion

June 19

“…ye shall throw down their altars…” Judges 2:2

The great conquest of Canaan land had taken place and it should have marked the beginning of a golden age for Israel. The second chapter of Judges however, records some very sad events, at a time when the greatest rejoicing would have been in order. The death of Joshua, the Lord’s faithful servant is mentioned, but sadder than this is the message which the angel of the Lord brought to Israel. His message from God can be summed up in the question he asks them “why have you done this?” He was referring to their disobedience in following God’s commands regarding the clearing out of the heathen nations which occupied the land they were given. Part of the covenant which God had set up with them, included their need to stand against any association with these heathen nations, and to destroy their altars of worship to heathen gods. They had disobeyed the word of the Lord, and the result would be that these same people would eventually enslave them, and their gods would become a hindrance and a trap for the generations to come, separating them from Yahwah. God had wanted to protect them from evil influences, but they had not regarded His love, wisdom and plan. The people that heard this wept openly, and had good reason to! They could have had the unique and amazing opportunity to live in a country which was totally dedicated to the worship of the One true God, free from any evil and corrupt influence; they could have raised families without fear of loss or persecution; they could have had the blessing of continued fellowship with the Lord and the joys that brings! Instead their disobedience allowed for the cancer of idolatry to take root early in the history of their nation. By the end of this same brief chapter, marking the time directly after the death of Joshua and his generation, the people of Israel are already described as doing evil in the sight of the Lord, forsaking the Lord and the ways of their fathers, and taking up the worship and service of the heathen gods of the nations which surrounded them, reaping early judgement from the Lord God, for their actions and wickedness! What great blessings we miss out on, because we choose to do things our way and disregard the commands of God! What great quality of life we lose because we hold on to our thinking, and fear man rather than to fear God! What damage we do to ourselves and our families because we are weak in our obedience to the word of God and compromise instead of standing constant and strong! Why do we do this? God’s people have always been “in this world, but not of it”. Unlike Israel the Christian Church, has never had the opportunity to live in a country where the influence of the world and its sin is banned and wickedness considered illegal! The opposite is true, like pilgrims we are to travel through this life and to the Promised Land of heaven, surrounded and constantly tempted with all the enemy offers, without ever really belonging to this world and the things of it. Our task is still to stay true to God, throw down the altars of idolatry in our own lives and not sell out to the devil, the enemy of our souls. God’s requirement of faithfulness and obedience are still the same, and His promises and rewards are ever true! There will finally come a time when we will rest from all the turmoil and strife, from the temptation and affliction, in a place of permanent peace, joy and glory. There will be no sin there, no sorrow and no evil influence any longer, and the struggle of our flesh against the Spirit will forever be gone! Let us be faithful that we may rejoice eternally and be blessed with all the Saviour desires to bestow on those who overcome!

http://www.pentecostalfamilychurch.com.au/devotion

June 7

“For he built again the high places…” 2 Chronicles 33:3

The epitaph, by which Manasseh’s life is remembered, is that ‘he did evil in the sight of the LORD’! How tragic that men choose to do evil, when they have the power to do good! He was a king, the son of a godly king. He had the power to influence Israel positively, but instead chose to turn against the God of Heaven, in offensive, purposeful and abominable idolatry. Manasseh didn’t just ‘slip’ into a sin after yielding to its temptation, he actively rebelled against Yahwah and rebuilt the idolatrous places of worship which his father had torn down and destroyed! He turned his worship and service to Baal, Ashtoreth, the sun, moon and stars. He fulfilled the foolishness of worshipping the created nature, whilst denying, offending and rejecting the Creator! Idolatry, occult practices, blasphemies and witchcraft, all became common place with Manasseh, and symptomatic of his disregard, disobedience and rebellion against God. It may be hard to comprehend that someone who grew up with a godly father, was no doubt exposed to the truth of God from a young age, and would have seen the blessing, healing and power of the One True God in his dad’s life, could turn so thoroughly and completely against the Almighty! Sadly this is not all that uncommon, highlighting the fact that each man must ultimately make his own personal choice in regards to the Lord. Whatever personal experience and relationship with God, his father had, this was not the case with Manasseh. It should strengthen the determination of all Christian parents to ensure that from a young age and as they are growing up, their children develop a personal and intimate knowledge and relationship with Jesus. It is clearly not enough to assume that just ‘taking them to church’ or having them saying prayers, is enough to help them become true believers in God. As parents we can encourage our children to know God personally, developing for themselves strong personal convictions, and experiencing God’s love and presence in their own lives. Doing this throughout their growing years, gives them the best opportunity to continue in a true faith and bond with God when they grow older. Ultimately we have to accept that it does come down to personal choice. There is evidence of children who grew to live godly lives, obedient to God and His ways, even though their parents were ungodly and without respect for the Holy One, or as we see in the life of Manasseh, the direct opposite of those circumstances. The best possible scenario and outcome is for us to imitate the example of those men and women of God who lived consistently righteous and godly lives, were influential in helping their children develop a personal relationship with the Lord and continued to pray and uphold them and their grandchildren, strengthening the testimony of God through their lives, to the second generation! May the Lord help every Christian parent to be so minded and consistent in their walk!

http://www.pentecostalfamilychurch.com.au/devotion

June 2

“…Israel did evil…and forgat the LORD their God, and served Baalim… ” Judges 3:7

The Israelites became apostates, traitors of the true God and His ways. This is a pattern which was repeated time and again among the people of God, bringing the Lord’s displeasure and judgment upon them. Their backsliding was largely due to the comforts they had found and made for themselves in the Promised Land, along with their choice of subscribing to the ways of the heathen nations which surrounded them. Their alliance with neighbouring nations was often strengthened by intermarrying with them, thus becoming ‘family’ and further weakening their stand in God. They had been warned by the Lord not to marry with unbelievers, and means of proselytising a foreign person to the faith of Yahwah were in place, but clearly for the most, they were either ignored or forgotten. The natural progression of human nature, when unrestrained by the laws and directives of God, is to the lowest point on the moral scale. Like water naturally finding and flowing to the lowest level, even so the sinful nature of man will lead an individual, or a nation to forget and forsake the high place and standing of God’s values and commands, and settle for the ‘lowlands’ of sin and degradation. Of interest is the fact which always accompanies such deterioration – the object of worship is altered and exchanged, this results in idolatry. The people who knew the Only True God, turned their eyes and hearts from Him, forgot His ways, repudiated His laws and served Baal and the idols of the groves in worship and practices! This was the condition the Israelites found themselves in, and often returned to, even after judgment, repentance and forgiveness. It was in keeping themselves from idolatry, that God’s people failed the test of faithfulness and incurred His wrath. We might sometimes wonder how this could ever take place, with people who were so blessed and provided for by the Lord, but sadly it is also a pattern which all too often emerges among believers today. In spite of the clear knowledge and teaching imparted us by God’s Word, and impressed upon us by His Spirit, there are many who live a double life. In name, they profess to know God and be followers of Christ, but in practice they idolise the world and the things of it. Their lives differ nothing from the unsaved, unchristian people of the world around them. This has earned them the reputation of being nominal (in name only) Christians, people who justify following the trends and sinful practices of the society they live in, but also claim membership in the Christian church. Jesus faced similar religiousness in His day, and called such professors hypocrites, showing them the same firmness of love, with which Yahwah dealt with backsliding Israel. It should be our pleasure and desire to serve God with all our minds, hearts and souls, at all times and in all places. For this He has saved us, called us and established us, that we may live a holy life and faithfully show His grace, love and righteousness to the world around us!

http://www.pentecostalfamilychurch.com.au/devotion

May 19

“And when he had broken down the altars and the groves…” 2 Chronicles 34:7

Josiah was but a young boy eight years of age, when he began his reign as king over Israel. In spite of his youth, he did righteousness in the sight of God and walked according to the precepts of God’s law, in imitation of his forefather, the great king David. Josiah brought reform to Israel by thoroughly destroying all the places where idols were being worshipped. He journeyed throughout the land and wherever he found altars or groves dedicated to any heathen idol, he not only tore them down, but eradicated them, destroying them so completely that they could not be rebuilt again from the same materials! Revival broke out in Israel as a result of this ‘boy king’ and his actions of faithfulness to God. Josiah is a bright star shining in the dark sky of Israel’s history of backsliding. He reminds us to be faithful and to take a stand for God and His Word. We learn that when we stand for the Lord we must do so, totally and without compromise. God’s people must be faithful people and cannot stray from the truth of His ways. They cannot espouse means of worship and religion which are not acceptable to God. It is a mistake to think that we can imitate and adopt the ways of unconverted people around us, as suitable means or expressions for the worship of Yahwah, the true God. The message of Josiah’s life, is that there is no room for compromise in the life of the believer; that we must stand for God, His ways and His righteousness at all times and in all places; and that we must do so thoroughly and completely without giving place, not for a moment, to the enemy of our souls. Removing any contamination of the world from our lives, should be thorough. The systematic, methodical and comprehensive analysis of our minds, hearts and lives in the sight of God, and the removal of anything that may be offensive to God and contravening His Word, is a good practice for retaining a healthy spiritual life in Christ.

http://www.pentecostalfamilychurch.com.au/devotion

Apr 25

 “And the LORD sold them into the hand of Jabin king of Canaan…” Judges 4:2

The circular pattern of disobedience, punishment, repentance and restoration became typical of Israel. It was displeasing to the Lord, and clearly not only ‘circular’ but also descending, deteriorating and more frequent. The basis of God’s relationship with Israel was His holiness and His law. They were to be a people holy unto Yahwah, who kept His commands and lived by His law. Whenever Israel transgressed and abandoned this God-determined pattern, and followed the ways of the heathen nations around them, they became idolatrous, and lost their status with God. The correction from the Lord was always administered in love and with a view to their restoration, but the frequency and consistency of their disobedience to His directives, demanded stern measures. In this instance God allowed them to become enslaved under the authority of the Canaanite king Jabin. Israel had chosen to follow the Canaanite practices in favour to God’s law, and in righteous and telling judgment, God delivered them into the bondage and oppression of the very people they had chosen to imitate!  Sadly the pattern present with the Israelite nation, can be observed among the people of God today. In many ways like them, we too can be guilty of ignoring God’s law, His love, His warnings and finally reap in our lives, families, churches and society, the results of our apathy towards God, and of our misplaced desire for the things of the ‘heathen’ world around us! It is interesting but not surprising to note, just how much control, oppression and influence the heathen society wields against the church! Largely instead of a repentance and return to the holiness and purity of service unto God, most Christians simply re-adjust the measure of consecration required, re-interpret the meaning of God’s directives and re-structure their practices to be more in tune with contemporary thinking. These manipulations become more prevalent and frequent with each generation, and succeed only in changing the level of tolerance believers should have towards sin and the sinful practices readily accepted by the surrounding ungodly society. Things thought totally unacceptable by Christians and seen as against God’s law in the past, are now more palatable and so commonplace among believers that hardly anyone even takes notice anymore! In fact it is the consecrated person who may in concern speak up, that is marginalised as ‘legalistic’ and ‘sectarian’, one given to divisive doctrine! Should we be surprised if in due course we reap God’s judgment? Would it be too unreasonable to believe that a righteous, holy and just God, who still wants His people to be holy, would judge the present church as He did His people of old? We may not be able to turn the unbiblical, God-dishonouring tide of present Christendom, but we can determine to learn from the lessons of the past and apply them to our personal lives, while we still can! 

http://www.pentecostalfamilychurch.com.au/devotion

Apr 16

 “…I gave them into your hand…” Joshua 24:8

Israel had been granted victory by the Lord. He had delivered their enemies into their hands and caused His people to triumph. The conquest of the land of Canaan, was a significant step in the establishment of the people of Israel as a nation. In order to be settled, however, they had to dislodge the inhabitants of the land, and in doing so, remove and cleanse the country of their heathen and idolatrous practices. In obeying God to conquer the ‘enemies’ which are in our lives, there may be times when we have to be fierce and forceful. Cleansing of certain ingrained habits and sins often cannot happen in any other way, but to be sincerely brutal with ourselves. Should we treat sin with anything less than the hatred God has for it, we would do our Saviour a gross injustice. Should we justify and be soft on the iniquities for which God has delivered victory into our hands, through Calvary, we would bring shame and dishonour to the cross. God cannot live with sin. God’s holy people should not either! In an age, when so many are blinded by cultural acceptance of sinful conduct; when church and pulpits are silent on the topic of sin; when compromise reigns and fear of man is greater than the fear of God, we are directed to wage war against the enemy of our souls! With courage and determination, let us remember that God has given us the victory, if we go in His strength and in His name, and that “we are more than conquerors, through him that loved us”! 

http://www.pentecostalfamilychurch.com.au/devotion

Feb 20

“…Solomon clave unto these in love” 1 Kings 11:2

Though many have emphasised the number of Solomon’s wives, as being the cause of his heart becoming less than perfect in his old age, this does not appear to be the emphasis of scripture. The stress of the text highlights the fact that the women he ‘loved’ were ‘strange’ women. In context with the listing of the various nations from which God warned Israelites regarding intermarriage, this must be taken to mean ‘foreign’ women, but more importantly, foreign women which had not become proselytes to the Hebrew faith! God does not rebuke Solomon for the many wives and concubines he loved, but for loving and cleaving to them, to the detriment and loss of his love for God! Evidence would show that this is just as possible with one wife as with many, or with one sole possession as easily as with much wealth! Should Solomon not have had as many wives? As a king, this man was indeed ‘excessive’ in many ways; with his wealth, his horses and with his wives, yet nowhere do we find God reprimanding him for any of those things. Should Solomon not have loved his wives? Clearly both loving and cleaving to one’s wife, or as in this case, wives, is not against God, but rather encouraged and even commanded by the Lord! The simple fact and truth we are presented with in these verses, is that Solomon failed when it came to the comparative love he gave his wives, as against the quality of love He had and lost for his God! He failed to ensure the conversion of his foreign wives; then tolerated his foreign wives’ idols; then facilitated their idolatry by building temples and shrines to them; and lastly ended up himself influenced by them to enter into their idolatry! This was the cause of the deterioration of his relationship with God. It was descent by degree, born from the misplaced consent of his heart. The prime reason this happened, appears to be because he loved and clave to unconverted women, more so than he loved and clave to God! Could not this have happened just as easily with loving and cleaving to just one unconverted wife, and displacing the love he had for God, if a man’s heart was so inclined? The lesson we learn from his life, in the context of these verses, is that we must be extremely careful not to yield the love and passion we owe to God, to anything or anyone else, at any time! Interestingly, this was the very righteous and godly example, Solomon had seen from his father David, a man who also had been much blessed of God, allowed a great deal of wealth, position, influence and a large family with multiple wives. David was the standard of upright and ‘perfect’ heart by whom, the Lord compared and judged Solomon’s heart! Seeking God and His will, loving and pleasing Him, must take priority, remain first, and be in importance, above all other people, pursuits or purposes in our lives! 

http://www.pentecostalfamilychurch.com.au/devotion

Jan 24

“So I bought her to me…” Hosea 3:2

In yet another remarkable object lesson for the benefit of a backslidden and idolatrous Israel, God again directs the prophet to marry a wife. This woman too is compromised, this time by adulterous behaviour and as such is under penalty of death and the dowry which is paid for her, is but the half the price of a servant! Yet he is to love her and see her restored rather than destroyed by her sin. In this powerful object lesson, is the story not only of Israel and God’s dealings with His people, but also a fitting simile of our lives before we knew the merciful Lord and Saviour of our souls! We, as that woman, had given ourselves over to all kinds of iniquity and idolatry. Following the ways of the world and adulterating our souls with the filth and degradation of sin, we, like dumb sheep going to the slaughter, were doomed to eternal damnation in retribution for our rebellion, disobedience and loose living. We rendered ourselves worthless and miserable, without hope or future, and became the inheritors of death. That was until the Lord in His inimitable love, reached out to us, and while we were yet sinners, in our darkest spiritual fog, Jesus died for us! He paid the price for our sins, but not merely what we were worth, for that was precious little, even less than the price of a servant! No! He paid the highest price – He yielded the one ingredient which alone could cleanse sin and make repair for it. He submitted the one substance which all of heaven and earth could not replace or equate in value – His precious, sinless blood! How blessed are we to have this loving Benefactor and gracious Saviour, who willingly condescended to reach down and lift us up from the depths and miry clay of sure death and destruction, to heavenly places with Him!

http://www.pentecostalfamilychurch.com.au/devotion