Daily Devotions 5th Aug 2017

Col 4: 6

Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.

Each believer has received a measure of the grace from Jesus Christ, here Paul reminds us that we have all received the measure of grace that has been meant for each one. When Christ came, He came full of grace and truth and His mission apart from granting salvation to all men, is also to bring grace to the believers.

This was in direct contrast with the law given to Moses. The law was a heavy burden to the people of Israel. There were lots of ‘you shall not do this or do that..’ It was very burdensome to live according to the law, in everywhere and everything there is judgement.

When Jesus came He fulfilled all the requirements of the law on our behalf and now Jesus Christ had put aside the law and in its place we have the grace of salvation which enables us to live our daily lives in Him.

Now that we have received His grace, Jesus commands us that we too in turn must release grace to those who are with us and also those who may not be with us. There are many times that our enemies will back stab us or slander against us, Jesus has taught us that we need to forgive them and also extend the same grace that we have received so that we can also win back the sinners for Christ.

Sometime in the flesh, we find this to be so difficult but all we need is to ask Jesus Christ for the grace to forgive and also to release them from their sins.

Psalm 66: 10

For you, O God tested us; you refined us like silver.

The psalmist enters into a time of reflection and began to confess of God’s goodness and mercies. He recollects the good times and the bad times that He had experienced with God. Earlier in the beginning of the psalm he described the goodness that God had shown to him.

Then he began to also reflect the chastisement of God to bring to mind the need to repent and be righteous before God. This the psalmist compares that when God chastises it is like the refining fire that burns away the dross and other impurities in precious metal like gold and silver.

This normally is a refinement that God uses to prepare us for greater abundance. Therefore when at times we are going through difficult times, when men are coming against us, it is a time for us to humble ourselves and to surrender to God who will take care of our situation and reward us when all the purification had ended.

In verse 12 the psalmist wrote; You let men ride over our heads, we went through fire and water, but you brought us to a place of abundance. The way that God works sometimes amazes us but even when things seem to go against us, it may be God who is preparing us for a time of great abundance of His blessings. 

John 14: 27

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.

Jesus is preparing His followers for the time when He will leave them and return back to heaven. He mentioned that there will be challenging times for them but He would be with them through the Holy Spirit whom He would send and the Holy Spirit will be our comforter, counselor and teacher among many things else.

The time of parting is always sad for everyone and now Jesus knew that the hearts of His followers were heavy and sad and Jesus continued to counsel them saying that He will leave with them a peace that non-believers would not experience and would not understand. This is the supernatural peace that only God can give to His children and the world cannot receive it.

This peace surpasses all understanding of the human mind and it is explainable but it can be experienced. Many believers have experienced this and they have been blessed and restored in their love.

There was a couple who were having a huge domestic fight. Both the husband and wife were deeply hurt and have even gone to see their respective divorce lawyers. We came to know about this and we went to counsel and pray for them, after prayers both felt that supernatural peace descend upon them and they did not have that anger which they had experience just days before.

Finally the peace of God flooded their hearts and they reconciled and their marriage and family was restored.

Another instant was when a servant of God lost his wife through a car accident and he was so broken with grief that he could not minister anymore. He went into worship and after a while the supernatural peace of God descends upon him and the grief that had gripped him and had him in bondage was removed and the joy of the Lord was upon him. After that he was able to pick himself up and returned back to his normal life.

This is what Jesus had promised; we must not let our hearts be troubled rather we must trust in Him and ask for His peace when we are in trouble. He will hear and answer us for we are His own.

1 John 3: 16
This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us.

Christianity is all about the saving grace of God through His Son who laid down His life for the sins of all men when He died on the cross. In the verses before this, John declared that we should not be surprised if the world would hate us. The world is ruled by hate but the Church is redeemed by love.

John here explains to us what this love is truly is? John said that anyone who hates his brother is a murderer and no murderer has eternal life in Jesus. This is a severe warning from John that we must all have love just as Jesus demonstrated God’s love to us. The true love as mentioned by John is that Jesus Christ lid down His life for us. There is no greater love than this and this is the love of God.

John continued to expound on love. It is not a word but it is an action. John said in verse 17 If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him. John continued to say that we should not just talk about love but we must walk in love, it is an act.

Therefore if God had demonstrated His love for His people, we too must demonstrate the love that God has put in us through our lives, we must live in love for one another and the whole body of Christ. For God knows everything and that includes what is in our hearts. We can easily deceive men by saying we have love when we do not but God sees our heart and He knows every thought and intent of our heart, He will judge us on this.

John continued to say that our conscience will condemn us if we are not true to what we profess, if we are hypocritical then our own conscience will condemn us.

2 Cor 4: 7

We have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all surpassing power is from God and not from us.

In this passage, Paul is writing to encourage the believers in Corinth that though they face daily persecution from the religious authorities for their faith, nevertheless they can rejoice in the mercies and grace of God that has been apportioned unto them.

Truly living as followers of Jesus Christ at the beginning of the Church history was not an easy thing. They had to stand for their beliefs in Christ Jesus and for that they are imprisoned unfairly, whipped and tortured but because they have witnessed the truth of the Gospel personally while Jesus was with them, they have the faith and boldness to defend their faith even when the persecution were great.

Paul is comparing that in their human bodies which are so fragile nevertheless we have received the power of the Holy Spirit through the baptism of the Holy Spirit which in turn has helped to sustain all the believers even through the greatest of suffering.

Truly walking in the steps of Jesus Christ has never been an easy task, church history has shown to us how difficult it has been for the believers in all the generations. Political and religious persecution had followed the believers throughout history and even to the present day, this same persecution is seen and it is spreading globally.

Today the daily news keeps reporting the conflict between the Antichrist followers and the believers in Jesus Christ. Unfortunately this persecution by the Antichrist followers are intensifying and all over the world, we read of more and more churches and Christians being attacked daily by these provocateurs.

The bible tells us clearing that as we enter into the last days, persecution and attack on the Church will increase and become even more severe and this will continue until the coming of our Lord Jesus. In fact the bible tells us that the persecution would become so severe that Jesus will have to come back to personally lead in the battle with the Antichrist forces.

Knowing this, we the Church must continue to prepare our loved ones for such times that are ahead, we need to build and strengthen their faith in Jesus so that when persecution hit them they will stand strong in their faith and not renounce it.

Col 1: 23

Continue in your faith, established and firm, and do not move from the hope held out in the gospel.

Paul in his apostolic writing to the church in Colossae which is in the present day Turkey encouraged them to continue in their faith. They are in the region of Asia Minor near to Constantinople the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire at that time. It lies at the cross road of trade routes and there was must wealth in the region as the traders ply to and fro on the trade routes.

There must have been much commercial activities in commerce and also that there would have been much distractions in social and economic activities. It is somewhat like the modern cities that we live in, full of life throughout the day and night and there are much activities and distractions.

Temptations of the flesh would be all rounds and every man or woman would be easily distracted. It was very easily for the believers living in that location of heighten activities to remain focused on Jesus Christ.

It is in such a context that Paul writes to the church, ‘Continue in your faith, established and firm, and do not move from the hope held out in the gospel.’ Paul exhorts the believer there to walk closely with Jesus and not be distracted with all that is happening there. He asked them to continue in their faith and be strong and established in their belief and not to turn away from the promises of the Gospel.

With all the distraction of sensual pleasure, it is indeed a challenge for the believers in Colossae to not stray away from Jesus and the gospel of salvation but to remain steadfast in it.

This also applies to us in our present lifestyle and locations. As we look around, we can see  all the different distractions around us and acknowledge that we can also be easily distracted and be sucked into the system of the world where we would comply with the norms of the world. When that happens, we would surely loose out salvation.

Psalm 145: 13

Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and your dominion endures through all generations.

The kingdom of God has endured through times and culture. It started off over 2000 years ago during the times of the Roman civilisation and it has evolved over these years and generations upon generations. Christianity has also been brought to the whole world to different nationalities, culture and languages.

The practices of worship do differ from place to place and culture to culture. We have seen how the people in different countries worship according to that their cultural practises. In the Middle East, the arabs have their own preferred style, in the continent of India, the believers also have their own culture and style incorporating the use of indigenous musical instruments and songs.

This is also true as Christianity and worship of our God is spread out even through the tropical jungles of the world. We see the traditional warriors in the world coming out of their respective past cultures of animistic religion and now having receiving Jesus Christ as their Saviour have developed their own form and style of worship.

We are familiar with these as we travel into the mission field of different countries and culture, we truly praise God that though they are all different and diverse but yet they have a common belief which is in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Each national and cultural group worship the one and only true God and they turn to Him only. In their diversity we see the unity in that they only worship Jesus and they ensure that they remain faithful even throughout many generations. In fact we can see that irrespective of their nationality, wealth or education every tribe and tongue and people worship Jesus Christ and God the Father as one. They are indeed united in this and have inculcated it into their culture which has been passed on from generation to generation.

Praise God that whenever we get the opportunity to meet, we are able to accept and receive each other as one in the universal family of Jesus Christ.