Friday, 23 December 2016

Devotions for 23.12.2016



Leaders Section

Esther 4: 12—14

When Esther’s words were reported to Mordecai, he sent back this answer: “Do not think that because you are in the king’s house you alone of all the Jews will escape. For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this?”


Leaders are all vulnerable and can fall if they do not hear the truth from truth-tellers. In a country that we are familiar with, the country’s leader is surrounded by cronies who are all his lackeys. Internationally he is already branded as the most corrupted national leader but because he is supported by his equally corrupted supporters, all the advice he is hearing and getting is that he is a strong and good leader.


Sad to say, because of his corrupt leadership he has brought the nation to near bankruptcy. The economy is weakened and national debts have skyrocketed to unmanageable levels. The people are suffering from job loss, businesses are failing, the currency has dropped so much that the cost of living has gone so high that it is causing great hardship to the people.
Yesterday I read a news item that a man was caught in the supermarket for stealing food to feed his family. This is only the peak of the iceberg; we can anticipate seeing even great problems in the days ahead.


The trouble with this leader is he does not listen to truth tellers, he does not take sound advice and he continues with his evil and corrupt ways and turn away from the despair of the people.


In today’s scriptures we see that Mordecai was a man of integrity and courage, he was prepared to stand up and speak the truth. Church leaders must surround themselves with such people like Mordecai and not like the example of the national leader.

Only the truth-tellers will help us to lead with integrity and honesty. God desires holy and righteous men to be in Church leadership.



Public Section

Psalm 103: 2

Praise the Lord, my soul, and forget not all his benefits.

We are in the season of Christmas and worldwide there are events that are taking place which promotes the season of Christmas. The world is focusing on giving; perhaps they think that it represents the love of God who gave His One and only begotten Son to come and save the world.

This is the love of God which is so incomprehensible that we cannot measure the depth of His love for us sinners. The coming of Jesus and His blood shed on the cross that symbolically washed away our sins and through His death defeated the eternal death that was the price for sin. Jesus defeated the devil and he defeated eternal death when he resurrected from the dead.

Because of this victory of Jesus, now we too will have eternal life. This is the greatest of all benefits from God and the psalmist tells us that we must praise the Lord with all our soul and not forget all His benefits.
At Christmas this is the greatest Christmas gift for us, let us give thanks to God for this precious gift.


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