July 7

“Jerusalem hath grievously sinned; therefore she is removed:…” Lamentations 1:8

The city of Jerusalem which by its very name was meant to make known to the world the nature and character of God’s kingdom, has been labelled the ‘Holy city’, the place of righteousness, wholeness and peace! At least this is what God had always intended this city and its inhabitants to stand for and represent. Sadly time and again the people of Israel as a nation, both in Jerusalem and in the surrounding cities, turned away from God and committed grievous sin before Yahwah, totally disregarding His commands and disobeying His will. This text describes the persistence of their sin, and it emphasizes the fact that they ‘sinned sinfully’, an expression which communicates the magnitude of their wickedness. Their greatest failure in the eyes of Yahwah, was usually their penchant for idolatry and their fondness of copying the ways of the heathen, in practice, manner of life and worship. This was never tolerated by the Lord and the judgment poured on His people, after much warning and patient instruction, was severe. The description in this chapter is another sad re-run of what can be read many times as various prophets were sent to God’s people, with dire messages and ominous warnings. Jerusalem, instead of being God’s exemplary pattern of righteousness, had become an abomination to Yahwah because of the sin that bound its people. Spoken of in the terms of a woman, ‘she’ is vilified by the heathen people and idols she pursued, and as a result removed, from the land of promise, in which the Lord had established her. Quite often we are reminded in the scriptures of the conditional nature of our salvation and relationship with God. Our right standing in the Lord, which has been purchased by Christ’s sacrifice at Calvary, needs then to be maintained by true faithfulness and a walk of holiness in His sight. Anything less, grooms us for failure in our closeness to the Lord and unless we quickly repent, places us in danger of losing our right standing and provisions of blessing. Contrary to what some people believe and teach, there comes a time, if we persist in disobedience and disrespect God’s loving warnings, that God may cease to strive with us and allow us to have what we so clearly desire and insist on, to our own detriment, discomfort and ultimate judgment. Even in this God’s love is evident, for it is His desire that by feeling the ‘pain’ of our choices, we may repent, return to Him and make things right, before it is too late!   

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

June 27

“…Nineveh is laid waste: who will bemoan her?...” Nahum 3:7

Nineveh again becomes the centre of God’s attention and the recipient of His judgment, because of its gross immorality and wickedness. Once before, God had sent the reluctant prophet Jonah to this same city, with a message of impending doom. In those days, this great city was so large that it took three days to walk it from one side to the other. It has been estimated that it had a population of around one million inhabitants, a particularly large city for those days. Only upon their swift repentance with sackcloth and ashes, did God avert the judgment which was about to be poured upon it. Now again under the ministry of the prophet Nahum, Nineveh’s sin, idolatry, witchcraft and immorality is brought into focus and its destruction is prophesied. With the accuracy of detail that can come only from the Omniscient Yahwah, Nahum tells of how its ruin will happen, and the manner of its fall. History shows the events took place in this very way, to the last minute detail! Nineveh had become such a scourge and pollution of many nations, and where in the past God’s mercy had covered, the time had come, where no such healing could be promoted any longer. Nineveh would be destroyed, laid waste and there would be no one to weep over her! No one that would not agree, this was a just and correct judgment upon her! The patience and longsuffering of God is remarkable and sets us in awe of His greatness, when we consider how much room He allows, and how long He deals with the human family, in an effort to bring us to repentance. There is however in God’s economy an end to His striving with man. There comes a time when for God to continue striving, would mean having to bend man’s will, or allow him to violate His holiness - and the Lord will not do either. He has allowed man a free will by which he can make his own choices, for or against God. Yet the Lord will also tenaciously defend His holiness and protect it from allowing man to go beyond his allowed scope. There is therefore a time limit which God sets for all men, nations and people. That time is known of the Lord alone, and when it comes, there is no holding back on the judgment of God! It is a time of reckoning, a time of judgment, destruction, cleansing and restoration of righteousness. Time then will have run out, it will be time ‘no more’, in regards to possible repentance and change. Nineveh and all the civilizations that have gone before, teach us the great lesson that there is a limit and boundary to the longsuffering and mercy of God. It is wise for us to repent quickly while there is yet time, and while God is near and calling. If we insist on remaining in sin, violating God’s law and repudiating His love, the time will come when the opportunity to make it right will no longer be available. Wise are the words of the prophet Isaiah when he exhorted the people saying “seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near:”! 

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

June 10

“Who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world…” Galatians 1:4

What an amazing thought! Jesus who as the Eternal God needs nothing, and is Supreme above all His created work, didn’t merely spend out of His treasury to rescue our lost human race. He didn’t just trade some other property in exchange for our freedom, but rather gave Himself! This is the loftiest and most incomprehensible view of God’s love for mankind! We who had nothing, were without hope of ever be free from the slavery of our sin, and were enemies of God, would even merit the least of His attention, never mind His personal sacrifice! It is truth sublime and without parallel! This is the love of God, which He has freely shown to each of us, and which merits our hearts’ greatest gratitude and praise. Our best response to such love is to live the life for which He made such sacrifice. He did it so that we could be delivered, saved, rescued and made free from ‘this present evil world’. Creation itself, the physical world God made is not evil, but the sin which is perpetrated by the human race in this world, makes this present world wicked and evil beyond imagination! It is out of this spiritual darkness that Jesus desires to save and deliver us. Even the casual observer would agree that the condition of our world is becoming more desperately wicked and increasingly vacuous of the values and morals of God. Sin reigns in our world’s societies, and all efforts made by human government to police and curb, malicious and evil behaviour, overall fail, and are met with progressively less manageable challenges. There seems to be no end to the wickedness, and no answer to the sin problem, except in Christ! Jesus gave Himself for just such purpose. He Who had no sin, gave Himself for our sins! He made this deliverance open to all who will receive it and available to people of all ages, background or nationality. There may be many things that we cannot do as individuals, but we can all learn to love Jesus! To love God, means to believe in Him, partake of the salvation He has provided, and obey His commands and words so that we may live the kind of life He has always intended us to live! A life that testifies of His goodness and reflects His love to others; a life blessed and fulfilled by His purposes and lived for His glory! Like all things made and conceived for a specific purpose, we too function best and are happiest when we live the kind of life He created us for and made us capable of. Jesus gave Himself for us, it is only fitting we should give ourselves to Him!

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

Apr 11

“…O king…break off thy sins by righteousness…” Daniel 4:27

Pride will destroy a man, regardless of his position. It becomes a millstone tied around his neck that causes him to sink to his ruin! Nebuchadnezzar was not exempt because he was king. God warned him in a dream which Daniel interpreted. The king’s pride and wickedness would cause him to be removed from among society and normal human life, and he would become demented, live outdoors and eat grass like cattle! The warning allowed for him to repent quickly of his sins and begin doing righteousness. He had probably been indifferent to the poor and tyrannical to his subjects. Ambition and selfishness ruled the ruler, and in spite of some semblance of religiousness, he was nevertheless morally decayed. King Nebuchadnezzar is typical of much of humanity. Right doing begins with acknowledging the Lord God is the Almighty, the Creator, that His law is to be obeyed, and that we are accountable to Him! When as humans we forget and forsake God and His laws, and become filled with our own selves and our achievement, we lose perspective on the reality of life. In a sense it could be said, we lose our ‘right minds’ and become as brutes, filling our bellies with all the things of the world, which are inappropriate for us and do not satisfy. When we behave in ways contrary to the plan and will of God, we lose our God-given position as proper rulers over God’s creation. Filled with our own pride and self-driven ambitions, we forget the needs of others and become guilty of the same wickedness and sins which have condemned so many before us. Here is wise advice, to be followed before it is too late – break off thy sins by righteousness! It is not until we recognise that Yahwah rules above all, that we are his subjects and willingly do His righteous works, that we return to a ‘right mind’, and life becomes what He intended it to be, enriched, blessed and filled with hope eternal!

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