What I mean is this: One of you says, “I follow Paul”; another, “I follow Apollos”; another, “I follow Cephas”; still another, “I follow Christ.”
Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Were you baptised in the name of Paul?
TO PONDER
Pitting one group in the church against another pits people against Christ. Ultimate allegiance to human leaders produces a party-spirit. Divided loyalty to Christ minimizes His supremacy in the church. The importance lies in the Lord, not the leader. A divided church contravenes the believer’s nature. A church in conflict reflects badly on the Lord. It also takes the heart out of the church for evangelism or discipleship. That is why it is crucial to stop looking to our human leaders and instead look exclusively to Christ.
PRAYER: Today I pray for the unity of the church. Lord Jesus, when my eyes and heart are not fixed on you and the management and politics of the world and the church threaten to divide us, renew your spirit of unity within us and make us one. Amen
Today's devotion written by Francis Leung, LifeWay Epping
And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you.
TO PONDER
When the Spirit of God who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in us, then He most certainly is going to give life to our mortal bodies. God promises clearly that if His Spirit has taken up residence in our heart, then, even though our body dies, He will raise it from the dead like He did to the body of Jesus. The Spirit gives life, gives energy, like a wind that carries us along. The Spirit brings refreshment, like a new breath within us. We are motivated, dynamic, and filled with enthusiasm only by the Holy Spirit of Christ, not by our own striving or achievements.
PRAYER: Heavenly Father, may your life-giving Spirit, fill me with the abundant life of freedom in your Son Christ Jesus. Amen.
Today's devotion written by Francis Leung, LifeWay Epping
But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God’s grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many!
TO PONDER
When Adam, the first man sinned, sin entered the world. We are not immune to sin. As long as sin has control over me, I am quarantined from God. One sin messed it up for us all. In that reality we understand the cure that Jesus made possible. It took the death of Jesus to provide us the forgiveness of God. That’s why God sent Jesus Christ to be our Savior. God’s grace in Jesus trumps the infection of sin.
Prayer: Lord Jesus, what a gift of grace you give. Though we still live in an infected world, we thank you that we no longer have to live in the grip of sin. Help me to live accordingly for you. Amen
Today's devotion written by Francis Leung, LifeWay Epping
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.
TO PONDER
There is the fundamental truth about a Christian. The person I was in Adam is dead, and the risen Christ is now doing the living in my earthly body. When we, by faith, are united to Christ, we are first united to his death. Since our old rebellious, unbelieving selves died with Christ, in union with him in his death, we are made alive by the Spirit to walk in newness of life as Christ living through us so that all our life becomes a display of Christ.
PRAYER: Our Heavenly Father, I am presenting myself to you as one who has been brought from death to life, and my whole self to you as an instrument for righteousness so that my life may reflect a visible manifestation of the way Christ lives righteously in the world. Amen
Today's devotion written by Francis Leung, LifeWay Epping
For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile.
TO PONDER
Alright, it's time to talk about inclusive and exclusive. These words have taken on a life of their own in recent years and have come to be used in ways which I do not believe they were intended. In fact it seems at though they have almost come to replace each other.
Christianity has been labelled by many in the secular community as an exclusive religion - that it excludes people who do not fit a certain image, who do not live their lives in accordance with a certain set of prescribed rules and teachings. Where the opposite is in fact the case. Christianity, when understood and practiced in accordance with the gospel recognises that all of us are flawed and acknowledges that any person, regardless of gender, age, ethnicity, social or economic status can receive the gift of God's grace. Christianity is perhaps the most inclusive of all world religions.
On the flip side, generally speaking, many of those within our communities who consider themselves to be accepting and inclusive of those who have non traditional worldviews or self expressions, are often quick to silence or exclude from the discussion anyone who holds a different perspective from their own.
The one exclusive claim of Christianity, and it is not one we need to apologise for, is that accepting Jesus as your Lord and saviour and acknowledging his life, death and resurrection as the only way to a restored relationship with your creator is the only way to receive the grace and forgiveness of God. The gospel of Jesus is the exclusive way - in that it is the only way, there is no other to be restored to the Father, yet it is ultimately inclusive because Jesus makes that way open to all who wish to accept it.
PRAYER: Lord Jesus, please help me to remember that you made the way to the Father open to all; not just those who are like me, not just those who look, think, believe and sound like me, but all those who hear your voice and answer your call. Help me to live an inclusive faith where others recognise and feel your invitation and experience your love and grace in me. Amen
Today's devotion written by Mathew von Stanke, LifeWay Newcastle
Then I saw another angel flying in midair, and he had the eternal gospel to proclaim to those who live on the earth—to every nation, tribe, language and people.
TO PONDER
Angels, they are an interesting element of scripture. Certainly the Old Testament tells of Cherubim and Seraphim, different kinds of heavenly supernatural beings, but interestingly both the Hebrew word for angel (malach or malachim in the plural) and the Greek word angelos from which we get the word 'angel' mean to be sent or to carry a message.
Think now about Jesus last instruction to his disciples. Firstly is the command to 'go'. Jesus sends us out, we are sent ones, we are in the Hebrew, malachim. And what does Jesus send us out to do? We are sent with a message, we are send to bear witness to Christ with our words and actions and to teach people the things that Jesus imparted to his disciples and which have been passed onto us. We are sent messengers - if you take a literal translation, Jesus is asking us to be his angels to all the world. And just like the angel in John's vision in the book of Revelation, we have been given the eternal gospel to proclaim as our message.
We, the called and redeemed people of God are his called and sent messengers. We may not be angels in the classical sense of being winged, spiritual beings with supernatural abilities, however, our job description is the same - go and proclaim the message, go and tell the good news. What a wonderful thought that you may be the angel that God sends with his message of love and grace as an answer to someone's prayer!
PRAYER: Lord Jesus, sometimes carrying the gospel in this world is hard. In a world full of darkness, being a bearer of the light draws all sorts of attention - you know this better than I do. Please help and empower me to faithfully serve as your messenger to all the world. Help me not to hide the light of the gospel, but to display it boldly and confidently so that others may be called out of the darkness and into your marvellous light. Amen
Today's devotion written by Mathew von Stanke, LifeWay Newcastle
However, I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the good news of God’s grace.
TO PONDER
What is your greatest goal in life? Is it to leave a legacy to your children - to provide for them financially even after you have passed away? Is it to build a reputation, to be the best in your field, to be well regarded as an expert in whatever it is you do for a living? Perhaps it is to accrue enough wealth to be able to travel and see all of the wonders that this world has to offer?
I think those are probably some of the most common responses to that kind of question these days, although I am sure there are others. The specifics of how you might go about achieving those things may vary to a degree, but most people, Christian or otherwise, aspire to achieve something along those lines with their time here on earth. That's not the way the Apostle Paul saw things. After encountering Christ and being converted to faith in Him, Paul's only aim in life was to testify to the good news of God's grace which is expressed most clearly in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. That's it - no other goals or ambition. In fact, he considered His own life worth nothing to himself.
Can you imagine a more counter intuitive approach to life in our today than the one expressed by Paul? It seems that these days every one is focussed first and foremost about getting what they want. Even within many churches there are people who are more determined to ensure that pews do not get replaced with comfortable chairs, or that the liturgy or 'format' of worship is not tampered with than seeing that the message of the gospel is communicated to the world through their words and deeds.
Jesus said, a house divided against itself cannot stand. Is the focus and energy of your life split into many aims? What do you think could happen if it became focussed on the one goal of proclaiming the gospel of Jesus?
PRAYER: Lord Jesus, you know that life in this world can be hard and full of temptations that draw our attention and focus away from the things of the Father. Yet despite that, you were able to remain focussed on His will and went to the cross for me. Help me to remain focussed on the task you have given me, to tell others of your amazing love and to do my best to demonstrate that love so that they may come to faith in you. Amen
Today's devotion written by Mathew von Stanke, LifeWay Newcastle.
But when they believed Philip as he proclaimed the good news of the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptised, both men and women.
TO PONDER
The book of Acts is among one of my favourite books of the New Testament. It is full of incredible and miraculous stories of God at work through the early church. Healings, visions, jail breaks - it sounds like the faith of the early Christians was an exciting and expectant faith the kind of faith where people expected God to be at work through them.
And while all these miraculous signs and wonders were a part of the experience, here in chapter 8 verse 12, and in numerous other places in the book of Acts, what we see most of all is the apostles faithfully doing one thing - proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus. Peter, James, John and Philip; Paul, Silas, and Barnabas, these guys did not do miracles, God did miracles. These guys faithfully and prayerfully proclaimed the gospel and when they did that God affirmed what they were saying by demonstrating his power and many people came to Faith in Jesus and were baptised.
Since the ascension of the risen Jesus, God has continued to be at work in the world through his word and by his Spirit, both of which are alive in us, his people. If you want to see people being healed in the name of Jesus, if you want to see people being delivered from spiritual oppression and addictions in the name of Jesus, then get busy proclaiming the good news - that's our part. When we faithfully and prayerfully do this, as the first apostles did, God, by the Holy Spirit will affirm what we say in the hearts and minds of those he is calling to himself and work the miracle of faith.
Do not be ashamed of the Gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to all who believe, and to those who will believe as they hear it proclaimed by God's people across the world.
PRAYER: Lord God, Heavenly Father, the first apostles and the early Christians seemed to have such zeal and dedication to proclaiming the good news of Jesus. Please help me to develop that same kind of passion and zeal for sharing the good news with others. May my life also be one which is dedicated to proclaiming your good news so that others might come to faith in you and be baptised into your kingdom. Amen
Today's devotion written by Mathew von Stanke, LifeWay Newcastle
Day after day, in the temple courts and from house to house, they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Messiah.
TO PONDER
'Day after day', I don't know about you but for me that phrase has always had a sense of monotony and boredom associated with it. When something happens 'day after day' it tends to become boring or perhaps even a burden or an annoyance, but I do not think this is how the disciples felt as they went out to proclaim the gospel of Jesus every day.
When you read through the book of Acts, it becomes evident fairly quickly that these 12 disciples, now called apostles, were overcome with the joy of the gospel and could not help but share the good news with anyone who would listen. And why wouldn't they, when you hear the kind of things they saw God doing as they got busy proclaiming the good news just as he had commanded them. If you have never read through the entire book of Acts you really should, it is packed full of examples of how God worked through the apostles to bring the message of the gospel to 'all the known world'.
Even in the face of opposition, imprisonment, persecution and execution, these people were not ashamed of the gospel, they were so moved by it that many of them gave their lives for the message just as Jesus his life for them.
So 'day after day'? What does that mean for you? Is today just another dull day full of chores, obligations and burdens, or is it a gift full of opportunities to share the most incredible good news the world has ever received?
PRAYER: Heavenly Father, thank you that you have given my life a purpose by inviting me to share your good news with others every day. Help me never to lose sight of the joy of the gospel and to always be ready to give a reason for the joy you have placed within me. Amen
Today's devotion written by Mathew von Stanke, LifeWay Newcastle