Weekly Devotion

I read the part in the Bible again of how Jesus stood trial before Pilate the Roman Governor and I realized again how many chances he had to release Jesus and not give in to the pressure put on him.

Historical records indicate that the Jews had already threatened to lodge a complaint against Pilate for his stubborn infringement of their traditions, even before they brought Jesus to him. Such a complaint could lead to his recall to Rome. He also had to maintain peace in the region and if a riot was to erupt he could lose his job. So at the stage when they brought Jesus to him, his job was already in a shaky position.

Now Pilate immediately realized that Jesus was innocent and that the Jewish leaders were only jealous of Him. Not only did he realize it, his wife also warned him not to crucify Jesus as she had a dream that He was innocent. So Pilate knew that the right thing to do was to let Jesus go. There was no question about that.

But the Jewish leaders had incited the crowd to ask that Jesus be crucified. Now Pilate tried a couple of things to release Him. First he had Jesus flogged, as he thought that that would appease the crowd and they would be happy that He was punished. But that didn't work, they yelled even louder that He should be crucified. Next he asked them to choose between Barabbas and Jesus to be released hoping that they would say that Jesus should be released, but that didn't work either. Then he took Jesus back into the headquarters and tried to talk to Him and also tried to release Him. But this failed too. Then he tried to argue with the Jewish leaders and reason with them, but it was then that they threatened to report him to Caesar. This frightened him, as his job was more important to him than his conscience. He finally relented, but he washed his hands in water declaring that Jesus' blood was in their hands and not on his. But that was just to make himself feel better, the fact of the matter was that Jesus' blood was also on his hands.

Pilate compromised on what he knew was right. He buckled under pressure. His job was more important to him than his integrity. It was more important to him than having peace in his heart that he did the right thing. He would go down in history as the one who couldn't take a stand for what was right.

And it is the same with us. Do not compromise when everyone is doing something that you know is not right. Do not compromise when you are pressured to make a decision at work you know is not the right thing to do. Do not compromise when everyone is watching a movie that is questionable. Do not wash your hands and walk away from a situation where you could have made a difference. Do not take the easy way out, stand for what is right regardless of the cost. Even just being inactive in a situation you know is not right, is sin.

James 4:17 "Remember, it is sin to know what you ought to do and then not do it."

God will be proud of you if you take a stand and bless you accordingly. You will have peace in your heart that surpasses all understanding and you will be in right standing with God. Is that not the most important thing?

Lord help us to be strong, help us to stand up for what is right. We want to please You more than anyone else, You are our God and Savior and we love You. Amen

When I studied the book of Amos, the prophet, there was one thing that stood out for me. But before I tell you, I would just quickly tell you who Amos was.

He was a shepherd from the town of Tekoa in Judah (the southern kingdom). But God had other plans for him. He gave Amos two visions depicting what was going to happen to the northern kingdom (Israel) if they didn't repent. He had to declare God's judgment upon them for deserting Him, for practicing idolatry and for oppressing the poor. He had to denounce the social and religious corruption that was taking place. A southerner had to go and tell the northerners that their time was up.

Now the interesting verse that I would like to share with you is the following:

Amos 8:11, 12 "The time is surely coming," says the Sovereign Lord, "when I will send a famine on the land - not a famine of bread or water, but of hearing the words of the Lord. People will stagger everywhere from sea to sea, searching for the word of the Lord, running here and going there, but they will not find it."

Wow, there will be a famine of the words of the Lord. It did happen that way for Israel. Merely 35 years later Assyria destroyed the capital city, Samaria, and conquered Israel. The words of the Lord disappeared. He had warned them several times, but they would not listen. They had no appetite for the word of the Lord when the prophets brought it to them, so God took away even the opportunity to hear His Word.

I think I would rather die than be cut off from God's words. That for me, would be the worst thing that can happen to me, as I speak to Him every day.

But I think there are a whole lot of people today who search for life's problems everywhere except in God Word. God's Word is freely available (in Western Countries at least), but people ignore it. They don't run there to find their answers. They make fun of the Word of God.  But we have a duty to gently guide them back to the true answers in life. We should gently help them to find the way, because just maybe there will come a day when God will send a famine of His Words, and not provide the opportunity to hear His Words anymore.

We as Christians also need to be careful to search for answers in other places than God's Word. The horoscopes, the reading of the stars, running from one modern day prophet to another trying to find answers/predictions for the future etc. We have God's Word and we need to use it. It is more than adequate and will provide all the answers that we need.

Thank you God that Your Word has the answers to all our questions. Thank you that You gave it to us and for providing us with this life source. Please help us to understand it better and to apply it to our lives. In Jesus' Name. Amen

I was reading through the Psalms this morning and something struck me very hard. It was Psalm 127:2:

"It is useless for you to work so hard from early morning until late at night, anxiously working for food to eat; for God gives rest to His loved ones."

This verse was in contrast to what I have learned in the corporate environment. They were saying exactly the opposite. They imply that if you don't work hard and long hours you won't get anywhere. They honor those who stay the latest and those that come in on weekends as well. Those were the ones receiving recognition. They honor long hours (no matter how effective you are, but that is another story). But God is saying the opposite. He wants us to work hard, yes, He wants us to give our best, He wants us to excel, in fact He loathes laziness:

Proverbs 18:9 "A lazy person is as bad as someone who destroys things."

But He wants us to rather put our trust in Him and not neglect what is truly important in life. We need to get our priorities right. We need to put God first, then our spouses, then our children and only then our work. But we tend to get our priorities all mixed up. We stress so much that we are not going to 'make it' in this world that we rather put our trust in the amount of hours we work, the amount of effort we put in, rather than the Lord. We are so busy anxiously scrambling to get ahead, that we forget all about the Lord and the good plans He has for us.

We need to trust God. I love the explanation in my Bible: "Work while trusting God, and also rest and spend time with your loved ones while trusting Him." He should be the centre point, not your work.

Now I am not saying that you should spend all your time with the Lord and neglect your responsibilities at work. No, I am saying what Paul is saying in his letter to the Ephesians:

Ephesians 6:7 "Work with enthusiasm, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people."

Put Him in the centre, He is a good boss. He will allow you time with your family and with Him and He will give you the promotion and the job you dream of. Take the chance and trust in Him. At the end of the day it is only His opinion that will matter the most.

We are so glad that You are part of our lives. You are amazing and we trust in You as we know that You know best. Thank you Lord, be the centre of our lives. In Jesus' Name. Amen

I read a very interesting thing the other day and it made me so grateful once again that Jesus came to save us. You all know about the events surrounding Jesus' crucifixion. But one detail caught my eye today. I never thought about it before now. When Pilate presented Jesus to the crowd, he also presented Barabbas to them and he asked them which one he should release. In one voice the crowd demanded that Barabbas be released.

Now who was Barabbas? He was a political insurgent who had been part of a rebellion against the Roman government ruling over them. He was no doubt a hero amongst some of the Jews. But what was interesting was that Jewish men had names that identified themselves with their fathers. For example Simon Peter was called Simon, son of John, and James and John were called the Sons of Zebedee. But Barabbas is never mentioned by his father's name. The name Barabbas means 'Son of Abba' and I think this was how God planned it to be. He was the son of the Father and he committed a crime for which he should have been punished. But instead of being punished, he is set free, because Jesus takes his place. Jesus is charged with the exact crime that Barabbas actually committed and that is treason against the government. A trade off took place and Jesus took the punishment for his crime.

And that is just the point, at the cross Jesus was charged with every single sin that you have ever committed. He was charged with every single one them and by His blood all your sins are swept away, gone forever. His blood cleans you and allows you to be part of the heavenly family. We can now be called 'Sons of Abba', 'Daughters of Abba'. We don't need to have status and we don't need to be important here on earth, because in God's eyes we are His Sons and Daughters. What a wonderful privilege to be part of His family and to live each day for His Glory.

Galatians 4:4-6 "But when the right time came, God sent His Son, born of a woman, subject to the law. God sent Him to buy freedom for us who were slaves to the law, so that He could adopt us as His very own children. And because you Gentiles have become His children, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, and now you can call God your dear Father."

We are part of His Kingdom and we need to start acting like His children. We should keep our heads held high and realize the amazing potential we have inside of us. We have God on our side and not only that, He is our Father who cares for us and wants the best for us. He is the One that will be with us forever and ever. Don't you think we should live a life that pleases Him and not the world? I think so. He should be our everything.

Lord You are awesome. You are our everything in this life, there is none like You. No one else can touch my heart like You do. I can search for all eternity long and find there is none like You. We love You. Amen

The more I read the Bible, the more I realize that we can truly trust God. He alone knows the future and He alone knows what is best for us. I would like to share one of those 'stories' in the Bible where Jeremiah had to trust God explicitly.

As I am sure you all know, there was a time when the Israelites didn't seek the Lord. One prophet after the other was sent to them to warn them that if they didn't return to God, they would be driven off their land and exiled into a foreign one. They didn't listen of course and in the days of Jeremiah it was dire straits. King Nebuchadnezzar had laid siege to Jerusalem with his mighty Babylonian army. The time had come for God to discipline them. Now Jeremiah kept on warning the people that the city would fall into Babylonian hands and that they shouldn't even try to fight it, but the King and the people would hear none of it. In fact they imprisoned Jeremiah for saying that. Now it was in these terrible circumstances that the Lord told Jeremiah that he should buy the field of his cousin Hanamel. He told Jeremiah to buy it publicly as a declaration that despite the fact that the Babylonians would soon take over Jerusalem and devastate the land, they would one day return and own property again in this land, buying and selling land.

Now imagine you were in his shoes. Let's maybe put it in modern day terms. Imagine you lived in Zimbabwe where the government takes anyone's private property as they please. They don't see your property as your own. If they like it they will definitely take it. Imagine you lived there and God tells you to buy a farm and not only that, you have to pay a very good price for it, the last of your savings. Imagine the uncertainty and the fear you would have. It will be a very stressful situation, because you will never know when they will come and take it away.

I mean here Jeremiah was, he already had nothing, he was imprisoned and now the Lord tells him to buy a piece of land with the little bit of money he still had and to top it off he knew that the land will be worthless as soon as the Babylonians entered Jerusalem. His deed of purchase would be a useless piece of paper, except for one thing. The Lord promised him that it will be valuable again one day. It was the only thing he had to hold on to. A promise from God. And what he did really amazed me, without arguing, without any sour attitude, he simply went ahead and did what the Lord told him. He bought the land and even took the deed of purchase and put it into a pottery jar to preserve it for a long time until the promise was fulfilled. Amazing.

I think if it happened to me I would argue first and tell the Lord that it definitely did not make any sense to buy the land. I think I would seriously consider bargaining with the Lord and try to get out of the deal. Or at best pay a way below market price for the land if I really have to. But not Jeremiah, no, he obeyed and acted without any hesitation.

We need to be like Jeremiah, we need to trust God completely. I know it isn't easy to believe that the 'impossible' promises that God made to you will ever come to pass, but nothing in life worth waiting for is easy. Nothing worthwhile just falls on your lap. It requires obedience to God's Voice. Sometimes you need to wait a long time for the promises to be fulfilled and sometimes you need to be obedient when He speaks to you. But know this, you can trust in Him. Everything will work out for the good of those who love and trust in Him. May God bless you abundantly as you walk in His ways and follow His Voice.

Father God, please help us to obey You. It isn't always easy, and it requires faith from our side, but please help us to follow Your Voice and not our own. You know best and we are thankful for it. In Jesus' Name. Amen

Last week I talked about the prophecy Noah made over his three sons. You will remember that I said that he cursed Canaan, the son of Ham and said that he will become the lowest of servants to the descendants of Shem and Japheth. And this did indeed happen. I don't think I even need to tell you, but the Canaanites settled in Canaan and lived there for several years, until their wickedness had become so awful that it was time for the Lord to punish them. And you all know the story of how the Israelites invaded Canaan after their exodus from Egypt. They eliminated most of the Canaanites and used those that were left as their slaves.

Also in later years the Canaanites were dominated by the Greeks and later totally demolished by the Romans in the Punic wars. So that prophecy was fulfilled.

And what did Noah say about his other two sons?

Genesis 9:26 "Then Noah said: May Shem be blessed by the Lord my God; and may Canaan be his servant."

And Shem was indeed blessed. Amongst other nations, the Jews were descendants of Shem. And this blessing on them was repeated to Abraham in Genesis 12. They were God's special nation and they were His Witness to the world that He is a loving God. They were and are indeed until today a very blessed nation.

And what did Noah say about Japheth?

Genesis 9:27 "May God enlarge the territory of Japheth, and may he share the prosperity of Shem; and let Canaan be his servant."

Did this happen? Yes it did. The descendants of Japheth settled for the most part in Europe and Asia Minor. And God did indeed help them to enlarge their territory. The Europeans were largely the ones who ventured out and discovered new continents and new lands. Today the descendants of Japheth are evident in every continent.

Plus Japheth today shares in the blessing of Shem. Why? Because when the Jews rejected Jesus, God rose up a new witness for Him on this earth and it was the Church. The Church at the start was predominantly Jewish, but as time passed on more and more Gentiles started to fill the church and today the Church is predominantly non-Jewish believers. And predominantly descendants of Japheth. God therefore allowed Japheth's descendant into a covenant with Him and allowed them to share the blessings He intended to bestow on the Jewish nation.

Of course today the members of the church consist of every nation and tribe, but it is just interesting to see how this prophecy of Noah largely came to pass. I think it will make a very interesting study to look at all the nations of the world through God's perspective. We tend to look at our world around us and we don't understand certain things, but maybe once in a while we should look at the bigger picture, not just concerning Noah's prophecy, but how God sees the world. He is working with a plan and it will all come to pass and one day when we are with Him we will understand everything and marvel in His goodness. He is so good and He works for the good of every believer. We need to trust in Him.

Thank you Father that You are working with a plan in this world. Thank you that we can trust in You. We will never understand everything here, but one day we will and we will marvel at Your everlasting goodness. In Jesus' Name. Amen

I learned about the amazing prophecy that Noah made this week from the teachings of Roger Price and I thought that you will find it as interesting as I did. And seeing that I am discussing Noah, this might be a good time to share it with you.

I am sure you all know the story of Noah, how he and his family survived the flood with which God judged the earth. Only Noah, his wife, three sons and three daughter in-laws survived. These eight people repopulated the earth and from these eight people came all the nations of the world. And yes, you also descended from one of them. They must have been a mixture of all the genes in the world, as all races came from them.

Now after they came out of the boat they started to repopulate the earth and also to cultivate the land. It was not long before Noah planted a vineyard and made his beloved drink, wine. One day he got drunk with the wine and lay naked in his tent. One of his sons, Ham came and saw his father in his drunken stupor. Now in those days they had the right to privacy when they were in their tents, but Ham didn't respect that. He didn't have reverence for his father, but betrayed his father by going over to tell his two brothers what he saw. They had more respect for their father and revered him enough to cover him and not let him lie there in shame. When Noah awoke, he learned what had happened and spoke the most fascinating prophecy over his three sons. And seeing that all the nations of the world came from these three, this prophecy still affects all the nations even today. The first part of the prophecy was:

Genesis 9:25 "Then he cursed the descendants of Canaan, the son of Ham: 'A curse on the Canaanites! May they be the lowest of servants to the descendants of Shem and Japheth."

Now what is very interesting is that Noah didn't curse Ham, while the Bible clearly states that it was Ham that betrayed his father. Noah cursed one of Ham's sons Canaan. Why? I don't know. We can only make guesses. Maybe Canaan was with his father when he saw Noah, and maybe he laughed at his grandfather and maybe even made fun of him in his drunken state. We will never know. But what we do know is that Canaan's descendants were one of the most wicked nations the world has ever seen. Amongst other cities, Sodom and Gomorrah were full of Canaanites and we know how wicked they were. Archeologists are still stunned today as they uncover some of the horrific things that the Canaanites had done. So it is a reasonable guess to say that their great great grandfather, Canaan was inherently wicked too.

Now did this prophecy come true? I think most of you know the answer, but I will elaborate further next week, including the prophecies of Shem and Japheth.

But for now I would just like to leave you with one thought. The Bible is full of prophecies and it is such an amazing study to do to see how all of them came to pass. Of course some will still come true and relates to future events, but those that have come to pass, have come to pass to the letter. In short what I would like to say is this, if you have time, go and study some of the prophecies and if anyone ever asks you for proof that there is a God, you can tell them some of these prophecies. He is the only One who can predict the future and can predict it so accurately. Some Bible critics even say that some of the events predicted must have been written after it happened so accurate in detail is it. We can therefore trust in Him implicitly and know that the prophecies He made about the future will also come true and that should give us assurance that the promises He made that we will be with Him for all eternity one day will most definitely come to pass! Hallelujah!

Lord You are amazing. You are the only One who knows the beginning from the end. Our future is in Your Hands and we are so grateful for it. In Jesus Name. Amen

Why was Noah safe in the ark?

We have looked at three reasons in answer to our question:

1. God shut him in.
2. God designed the ark in such a way to withstand all the pressure and
3. The whole ark was covered with pitch. No water could come in.

Today we will look at the last reason why he was safe. He was safe because God was there with him.

Genesis 7:1 "And the LORD said unto Noah, Come thou and all thy house into the ark; for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation."

God was inside the ark with Noah. This is illustrated by the word 'Come'. If He wasn't there with them He would have said 'Go in', but no, He said 'Come in'. One only says 'come in' if you are already inside. We typically tell visitors to come in when they arrive at our house. We open the door, step back and let them inside with us. Or we tell people to 'Come', we summon them and walk with them. Jesus Himself told his disciples to come and follow Him. And here God tells Noah to come in. He was therefore with him inside.

The same goes for Jesus today. He is always with us. No trouble can come to us, because Jesus is there with us. Don't even bother with the problems on the outside. Jesus is mightier than anything we can ever encounter. Nothing can separate us from Him or draw us away from His Presence. He is there with us and will always be there for us, no matter what happens!

Jesus shuts us in, He covers us and He is always with us. The plan of salvation is so perfect, that we can weather any storm, nothing can take our salvation from us. It is safe in God's Hands. We are safe and we will be with God forever and ever due to the gift of salvation we received.

Romans 8:1 - 4 "So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. For the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you through Christ Jesus from the power of sin that leads to death. The law of Moses could not save us, because of our sinful nature. But God put into effect a different plan to save us. He sent His own Son in a human body like ours, except that ours are sinful. God destroyed sin's control over us by giving his Son as a sacrifice for our sins. He did this so that the requirement of the law would be fully accomplished for us who no longer follow our sinful nature, but instead follow the Spirit."

Yes, follow the Spirit. He knows best and will guide you where you need to be. But know always, your salvation is safe, Jesus covers you.

Thank you God that we can look forward to spending eternity with You. We cannot wait. Thank you that we can experience a part of You here on earth already. In Jesus Name. Amen

Why was Noah safe in the ark? We have been pondering this question over the past two weeks and have come up with the following two answers:

1. Because God shut him in and
2. Because God designed the ark to withstand all the pressure.

Today we will look at the third reason why Noah was safe. He was safe because the ark was covered with pitch.

We have briefly looked at it, but basically the whole ark was covered with pitch. It was a total covering. No drop of water could enter through it. You have most probably seen water that has fallen on a tar road? It doesn't go through the tar, like it would through ground. No, it stays there until the sun causes the water to evaporate, or it flows off the tar into the ground. It never goes through tar. There is therefore no way that the water could have entered the ark, it was totally covered with pitch.

And so we are too. Jesus covers us completely. All of us are covered with His blood. There is not a single part of you that were not atoned for. He did it once and for all. We don't have to atone for our sins every time we sin like the Israelites had to do with all their offerings they had to bring. No, we don't have to bring offerings. We have absolute liberty and freedom.

However we sometimes still think we do need to bring some sort of offering. I have heard Christians speak that way. They feel that they have to help someone to obtain favor from God, or they have to give their money to obtain their salvation or they feel that they have to attend church to be able to be reconciled with God or they have to be part of the churches' activities otherwise God might be angry with them. The list of modern day offerings can go on and on. And though all these things are good things to do, at the end of the day you would most probably want to do them because of your love for God, but you don't have to. Christ's blood is enough. His blood is enough to obtain salvation and reconciliation with God. There is nothing you can do to earn it, He covers you completely. Nothing you can do will ever be good enough.

Incidentally, when the Israelites brought their offerings to the priests, the priests examined the offering to make sure that it was according to the requirement, perfect and without blemish or fault. The priests didn't examine the people and asked what they did and examined their hearts. No, they examined the offering. And today the offering, the perfect offering was Jesus Himself. He was faultless, sinless and without any blemish. And today when God 'examines' the Blood Offering, He finds that it is perfect, He doesn't look to us and examines us, because we are covered with Christ's blood. He doesn't see us, but He sees Christ, because we are totally covered by Him.

What a wonderful plan of salvation You designed Lord. Thank you for covering us with the blood of Jesus. We are grateful for it and accept it in our lives. We will never be good enough on our own, but thank you that we can be good enough with Jesus covering us. In Jesus Name. Amen

We are continuing with the theme of drawing parallels between Christ's atonement for us and Noah's ark. We have asked the question last week: Why was Noah safe in the ark? We discussed the first reason why he was safe and it was because God shut him in.

Today we will continue with the second reason. Noah was safe because God designed the ark. Noah didn't get an architect to design it or tried to design it himself. No. No one would have been able to design it anyway, because there had never been a flood like that ever in the history of the world. If they had designed it I am sure that the ark would not have been able to endure 40 days of torrential rain and basically a year out on the open water. The ark would most probably have sank within the first couple of hours.

No, God designed the ark. He gave very specific details of how big the ark should be and how they should build it. He knew exactly how much rain was going to pour down, He knew exactly how strong the water pressure was going to be, He knew exactly the weather conditions that was going to attack the ark and He knew exactly for how long they were going to be inside the ark. He knew everything and He designed the ark to be perfect. And to Noah's credit, he followed the specifications to the letter and because he did, he was safe along with his family.

In much the same way God designed the plan of salvation. He designed the plan in such a manner that you would be able to withstand the pressure that the world is going to put on it. God knew of every force that would come against you, He knew of every sin that would try and come to lure you away, He knew exactly who you were going to be and He designed salvation in such a way that nothing can separate us from Him ever again. If we accept Christ in our lives, we would be able to weather the storm raging. We would be safe in the knowledge that we are saved and that nothing can come between us.

Thank you God for designing Your plan of salvation in such a way that we are safe. Thank you that we can relax in Your strong arms and know that we will be with You forever and ever. Amen