2020-09-15
1 Peter 4:10 NIV
It’s not enough to just believe that we have been given gifts and skills from God. We then need to put them into practice so that we glorify Him and advance His kingdom. It’s our responsibility to discover the gifts He has given us, and to develop them so that we can use them well. The Bible says: ‘Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.’ Our gifts are not to advance ourselves and make us look good. They’re to bring God glory and bring people closer to Him. There are many reasons why we might not use our gifts. Firstly, we can let fear stop us. Using our gifts might mean stepping out of our comfort zone, and that can be scary. Secondly, we can doubt our abilities. We might think we’re not good enough to use the gift right now. Thirdly, we can be too busy to develop or use them. Life can get overwhelming, and we can often feel like we can’t fit another thing in. But we need to stop making excuses, and start using our gifts. God didn’t give us gifts just to make us interesting people, He wanted us to use them for Him. We shouldn’t let fear, doubt, or busyness get in the way of doing what He has called us to do. In the Bible, Paul told Timothy: ‘Do not neglect your gift, which was given you through prophecy when the body of elders laid their hands on you’ (1 Timothy 4:14 NIV). Paul goes on to tell Timothy to be diligent and whole-hearted in his development and use of his gifts. And that’s what we need to be too.
Eze 37:1-40:9; Luke 22:14-23; Ps 78:65-72; Prov 20:26-30
2020-09-14
Romans 12:6 NCV
The Bible tells us that God has given each of us gifts. Sometimes we can think that we’re not good at anything, that we have nothing to offer. But if God’s given each of us gifts then that can’t be true. These gifts give us a purpose and a role in God’s kingdom. We don’t all have the same gifts. For example, some people are gifted musically, others are gifted at speaking and teaching. Some people are gifted in hospitality, others are gifted in art. 1 Corinthians 12 uses the analogy of a human body to explain this. ‘A person’s body is one thing, but it has many parts. Though there are many parts to a body, all those parts make only one body. Christ is like that also’ (v.12 NCV). If we’re being honest, we can probably all admit to times when we’ve been jealous of other people’s gifting. Maybe they can do something better than we can, or maybe their gift gets them more public attention than ours. When we’re feeling like that, it’s important to remember that all our gifts are from God and for God. It’s not about us. Using our gifts is all about glorifying Him, not ourselves. Paul goes on to say: ‘If each part of the body were the same part, there would be no body. But truly God put all the parts, each one of them, in the body as he wanted them’ (vv.18-19 NCV). We can’t compare ourselves to other people because we’ve all been made to be unique and have different purposes to fulfil. We need to focus on discovering the gifts He has given us. Let’s celebrate how He has made us, and the fact that He has a unique purpose for us.
Eze 34-36; Luke 22:1-13; Ps 78:56-64; Prov 20:25
2020-09-13
Genesis 41:42 NIV
The third coat Joseph wore was: The coat of destiny. Because Joseph honoured God, even in the most difficult circumstances, he ended up on the throne of Egypt, wearing the coat of rulership and fulfilling his destiny. The psalmist said God ‘sent a man before them – Joseph, sold as a slave. They bruised his feet with shackles, his neck was put in irons, till what he foretold came to pass, till the word of the Lord proved him true. The king sent and released him, the ruler of peoples set him free. He made him master of his household, ruler over all he possessed’ (Psalm 105:17-21 NIV). The tests and temptations we’re facing are preparing us for our future. All of our life can be training for one season, for one assignment. And the greater the assignment, the greater the attack that will come against us. Five times in Genesis 39 the Bible says, ‘The Lord was with Joseph.’ But that did not exempt him from betrayal by his family; or repeated temptation at the hands of his boss’s wife; or accusations and false imprisonment; or disappointment at the hands of the butler he befriended in prison. Looking back, however, Joseph realised that all of these experiences were ‘training for reigning’. When Joseph was faced with his brothers again, after they sold him into slavery, he said: ‘You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives’ (Genesis 50:20 NIV). Things that we go through, and the things that come against us, can all be used by God to shape us for the future He has for us.
Luke 10:38-42; John 11:1-44; John 12:1-8
2020-09-12
Genesis 39:12 NKJV
The second coat Joseph wore was: The coat of temptation. One day Joseph was tempted by his boss’ wife. The Bible says: ‘She caught him by his cloak and said, “Come to bed with me!” But he left his cloak in her hand and ran out of the house’ (v.12 NIV). Joseph was young, handsome, lonely, far from home, and facing repeated temptation at the hands of his boss’s wife. Yet he resisted her advances and said, ‘How then could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God?’ (v.9 NIV). His first concern was not that he couldn’t get away with it, but that he couldn’t live with himself if he said yes. Remembering how God had loved, preserved, and blessed him stopped him from giving in to the temptation in front of him. David was a different story. After his affair with Bathsheba, he wrote these words in his prayer of Psalm 51: ‘Against You, You only, have I sinned, and done this evil in Your sight’ (v. 4 NKJV). When we sin, we’re sinning against God. He is the One observing what we’re doing. God forgave David, and He’ll forgive us too. But David’s story proves that sometimes we have to live with the consequences of our actions, and they can devastate not only us but those around us. Paul, the greatest of the apostles, acknowledged this truth: ‘I treat my body hard and make it my slave so that I myself will not be disqualified after I have preached to others’ (1 Corinthians 9:27 NKJV). We have to discipline ourselves, and strengthen ourselves, so that we can stand against temptation and keep ourselves effective in God’s kingdom.
Eze 31-33; Luke 21:25-38; Ps 78:40-55; Prov 20:22-24
2020-09-11
Genesis 37:3 NIV
Let’s look at the three different coats Joseph wore, as they present a picture of our lives as Christians. The first coat is the coat of salvation. It was a ‘gift’ from his father; Joseph never paid a penny for it, or sewed a stitch, or provided an inch of fabric. And that sounds a lot like the story of our salvation. The Bible says, ‘For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast’ (Ephesians 2:8-9 NIV). Motivated by jealousy and resentment, Joseph’s brothers threw him into a pit and dipped his coat in the blood of a goat in order to convince their father that he had been killed by a wild animal. The Bible says: ‘The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin’ (1 John 1:7 NKJV). In Old Testament times, when someone sinned they brought a sacrificial lamb to the altar and the priest shed its blood as payment for their sins. But the priest did not examine the person, he examined the lamb. If the lamb was ‘worthy’, the person was accepted and their sins were atoned for. So the moment we acknowledge our sin and pray, ‘Father, I come in the name of Jesus, the Lamb of God,’ we’re totally forgiven and accepted. ‘Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need’ (Hebrews 4:16 NKJV).
Eze 27:25-30:26; Luke 21:12-24; Ps 78:32-39; Prov 20:20-21
2020-09-10
Luke 9:23 NLT
God is not looking for wishy-washy commitment. In Revelation 3:16 He says ‘So, because you are lukewarm – neither hot nor cold – I am about to spit you out of my mouth’ (NIV). These words are strong, but paint a very clear picture that God wants more from us than mild, half-hearted interest. He is the God of the universe, who put the stars in space, then stepped down to our level to save us. We owe more to Him than some of our life, some of the time. He will always meet us where we are, but He expects us to give everything that we can in that moment. In Luke 9:23, Jesus told the crowd: ‘If any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross daily, and follow me’ (NLT). That means that we no longer follow our own thoughts and wants, we follow Jesus and what He wants for our lives. That is the most intense form of commitment, giving ourselves up completely for someone else, and we are called to it. Paul sums this commitment up in Galatians 2:20, saying ‘I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me’ (NIV). That’s what it comes down to. Jesus loves us so much that He was willing to give everything up to follow that love to His life’s end. He deserves the same level of fully-committed love in return.
Eze 24:1-27:24; Luke 21:1-11; Ps 78:17-31; Prov 20:15-19
