Category: Devotions

There are times when we are more aware of our sin than our Saviour.
For vast periods of our lives we have been more aware of what is wrong with our lives than what is right.
We have learnt how to accommodate fears and sins, addictions and anxiety because these things have a deceiving comfort by focusing on ourselves rather than living our lives in freedom which causes us to think of other people’s problems.
We have left Egypt but Egypt hasn’t left us. We decided to let go of things but things would not let go of us.
We are told we are free so why do we still feel chained to the past, to our fears, to our feelings.
Romans 6
Let me ask you 3 questions if you understand what I am saying:
Do you know? Do you truly know the impact of the cross? V6
Have you made claim to the truth? Are you claiming this in the way you live? V11
Have you surrendered? Are you available to Him? V13

Is it true you can live free? YES!

Do you know what’s in the contract?
Romans 5
Peace with God, v1. Not a change of feelings or an inward peace but a change in God’s relationship to us. There is no need to question God’s views and thoughts about us. It’s okay. How good is that?!

Access to God, v2. Jesus has introduced us to God. God is never distant, we are. How good is that?!

A hope, v2. There is no doubt on heaven, it is not a prospect, it is a certainty. How good is that?!

Development of character, v3-4. The word character is too difficult a word to translate. Paul only uses it 7 times it means a quality by having stood the test. You will go through problems (the test) it is part of the contract. How good is that?!

Love, v5-8. What can I say? God really loves you! How good is that?!

No fear of God’s anger, v9-10. God will not vent His anger on you, ever. how good is that?!

Reconciliation with God, v11. The power of sin which creates a barrier between God and man is broken down by Christ’s work on the cross. How good is that?!

There is one who doesn’t want you to know the contract. But you do.

How good is that?!

Justification is an act of God where He declares the believing sinner righteous in Christ on the basis of the finished work of Christ on the cross!
Romans 4:25 He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.
Justification is not ‘just as if I had never sinned’
I was, am and will be a sinner but God declares me righteous because of Christ.
It is an Act not a process.
God does it, I cannot justify myself.
God does not make us righteous, He declares we are.
Yes it is true.
You are free.
You are free from every power that sin, flesh, the world will throw at you.
You are free from every addiction.
You are free from every fear and phobia.
You are free from all guilt and shame.
You are free from the past.
You are free in the present.
You are free tomorrow.
Do you feel it?
Can you experience it?
Maybe not.
But it is a legal matter.
It is a contract that is binding.
Whether you feel it, experience it or believe it, it is still true!
I am just reminding you!

Be reminded
Romans 3
You were once controlled by sin:
Your mind and heart were controlled, v11
Your will was controlled, v12
Your speech was controlled, v13-14
Your ways were controlled, v15-16
You had no peace, v17
You were arrogant, v18
This is the case for all, v23
But a day came when Christ set you free.
There was an eternal declaration made in heaven and hell, written in blood, “the sinner is officially set free,” v24-26.
No one else need ever live as a slave to sin, a victim of its power!
It’s good to be reminded don’t you think?!

10 things we need to be careful of if we want to become a moralist.
Romans 2
1. The moralist who points a finger have 4 pointing back at themselves, v2-3
2. The moralist tends to pre-judge based on a summary but God will judge in facts, the truth, v2
3. The moralist’s morals turn out to be not worth much, v3
4. The moralist wants to drive people to repentance, but God leads, v4
5. The moralist will also be examined, v6-10
6. The moralist is not God’s favourite, v11
7. The moralist focuses on the outward but God focuses on the conscience, v15
8. The moralist is a ‘big-head’, v17-20
9. The moralist can easily turn people away from God, v24
10. The moralist is often irrelevant, v25-29

We need moralists who practice morals
We need moralists who teach morals
We don’t need moralists who condemn the immoral.

It’s a draw!
Romans 1
To those who promote and practice homosexuality we have our verses … perhaps.
To those who carry judgment in their heart and slander on their lips to the above, we have our verses … perhaps.
It’s a draw!
Fair enough.

With all boldness and without hindrance
28:31
The end of the book of Acts says that no man was able to stop Paul.
No man can stop you either.
But where is Paul? He is under house arrest. He is not in the stadiums and open market places. He is held back. But the gospel isn’t!
Let the Acts of the Spirit carry on in every generation till Christ comes again.
Who is trying to stop you today?
You may be not where you want to be but the gospel message will never be stopped. The Acts can and will carry on!

Lessons from the sea
Acts 27

1. Life is not plain sailing, v4,7
Things do go against us at times, circumstantial winds beat against us.

2. Listen to experience
Trust those who have been through the worst, v10.
He was speaking from experience. In 2 Cor 11:25 he tells us that he had been shipwrecked 3 times and spent a night and a day perhaps clinging to some floating wood.
People who can be best described as walking with a limp because of life’s experiences can be trusted far more than those who have had perpetual victory.

3. Everything will change because of the storm.
You will lose what was important to you, v16, 18, 19, 20.
But one thing will never change: the position of God towards you.
v22 He still has a promise
v23 He still has a presence
v24 He still has a purpose.

Chains are not necessarily harmful.
Paul You are mad!
Acts 26:24
Festus is pointing out how pathetic Paul looked.
You may not have a crown or a gown, you may be in a plain prisoners clothing, there may be nothing special about you. In fact, you may even have a stigma of social disgrace, you can have chains and hindrances that mean you are contained and limited to be what other people take for granted. Yet you can stand and dominate the environment you find yourself in with Christlike dignity and confidence knowing the outward chains of your life are small in comparison to the chains that the people around you are facing.

These chains can open doors of opportunity.
When Paul lifted his hand like a great orator (v1) we can imagine his chains lifted too. He is about to preach to a king and queen, “I consider myself fortunate,” and “These chains have given me the greatest opportunity.”
Your disability, your suffering, your hindrances are tools in the hands of God.

It is who is with you in the chains not who is facing you that matters, v22, “God has stood by me (Msg).

Chains can be the best thing that ever happened to you.

The importance of empty hands.

Acts 25:1-22

God does more to shape us when we have not than when we have.

Paul experienced the empty hands of waiting, 24 v27
Waiting when there seems to be no reason. Two years spent waiting in jail. God had promised him he would be in Rome but here he was in Caesarea.
Little did Paul realise this was actually his greatest protection.

Paul experienced the empty hands of not being in control, v19-22
He has no control of the accuracy being given and has no say in the decisions being made about him.
Agrippa was from a line of Herods, one had murdered the babies at the time of Jesus’ birth and Agrippa’s father had executed James. Beatrice, his sister who had previously been married to her uncle was according to historians in an incestuous relationship with Agrippa. Paul had written earlier, “there is no authority except that which God has established.” (Romans 13)

Paul’s empty hands revealed Christlikeness.
v19 “a dead man named Jesus who Paul claimed was alive.” The issue was Jesus.
Jesus who stretched out his empty hands on a cross is your Lord and Saviour and is asking you for empty hands.