Category: Devotions

Fear the Wrath

“He that believes on the Son has everlasting life: and he that believes not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God stays on him.” John 3:36

After the famous John 3:16 is written, and the extent of God’s love for us is revealed, we are told what awaits those that do not believe in Christ. Lately, I have heard many people say that you should be leery of demons and the wiles of the devil. I mean, I’m cautious but I have no reason to be afraid. Jesus gave believers the ability to cast out demons in Mark 16:17, so don’t fear the devil! Why, you say, because God’s wrath is much worse! Do you know what the eternal rest is for those outside of the body of Christ? As with those who accept the mark of the beast, “fire and brimstone”. (Revelation 14:10) You can realize some of the extent of God’s anger in His dealings with the Israelites and their wickedness. The books of Ezekiel and Jeremiah detail God’s plans—the Israelites were taken from their homeland by war, famine, plundering, death and disease, and pillaging all because of their disobedience to God’s will. Let’s backtrack, the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah were obliterated because of their disobedience, and the world was flooded, wiping out the entire population because of wickedness! What more will God do against those that do not believe or reject His word and His Son!

But God does not want us to have to endure that fate. 1 Thessalonians 5:9 says “For God has not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ,”. God freely gave Himself to free us from the curse, but by rejecting His word, we reject the redemption. There is no need to inherit this as your final recourse. God loves us, and gave of Himself as a sacrifice for our sins to set us free!

Everything is an Opportunity for Ministry

“There comes a woman of Samaria to draw water: Jesus said to her, Give me to drink.” John 4:7

In the story of the Samaritan Woman at the well, it is most notably known for Jesus’ ministry to a non-Jewish person, perhaps serving as basis for sharing the Good News of Christianity with the Gentiles. But I saw something else here. At this point, Jesus was heading back to Galilee. To get to Galilee, He had to go through Samaria to get there and chose to stop and rest. I mean, picture this, you are walking everywhere from town to town because I don’t think that they had buggies to get around, nor did they have water surrounding these places to go by boat. So I suspect they did a serious amount of walking to get everywhere. Everybody knows that the Jews looked down their noses at the Samaritans; from what I’ve read the Jews distanced themselves from Samaritans because they were not true Jews.

Yet back to the story! Jesus asks the woman to give Him something to drink. The woman asked Him how could He ask her to give Him something to drink, being that He is a Jew and she is a Samaritan. Jesus used that opportunity to speak of God, and the ‘living water’ that will remove all of her thirstiness. ‘Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”‘ John 4:13-14. Often times we are faced with situations with people we may not like, we may not know or have anything in common with. God often uses those times to challenge us into being better, and to test our faithfulness to Him. Have you ever been in one of those situations where you had to step outside of your personal indifference to a person and use that to minister to God? Sometimes God challenges us for our personal growth, so that we can overcome whatever issues we may have with that person. We have to recognize that every chance we get to glorify God in someone else’s life is a chance that we can say we were walking in the love of God. It could be as simple as listening to a complainer and changing their perspective of the situation, or as complex as preaching to a group of unbelievers. In my case I sometimes find myself testifying about my life to complete strangers or to these people I work with. Whatever it may be, trust that it is no coincidence that you are in that place at that moment in time and it was God’s will for you to be there all along so use that for God’s good!