MONDAY December 9th
Sometimes there are certain letters in our alphabet that help those of us who preach and teach to use alliteration in what we share. Very recently for me as I have gone especially through the Psalms as been the letter ‘P’. I have just spoken recently when the letter ‘S’ had been helpful, and it comes to aid again as I have been going through these devotions.
Jesus the very thought of thee with SWEETNESS fills my breast, and we have considered so far Jesus as our SAVIOUR and seen him also as our SHEPHERD, we have gone through the ‘I am’ STATEMENTS, and as I considered the next step, (yes I know STEP is another, but it doesn’t count) I began to think of Jesus in two more ways, that is from the use of John’s word ‘SIGNS’, but more as the miracle worker and then also from his parables as the STORY teller.
I have decided to consider the parables first seeing as I have been going through some of the signs / miracles over the last few months in the Bible studies.
Now, who doesn’t love a good story, I do, I have loved reading ever since I could understand the words in a book. I would read book after book, getting through a book such as an Enid Blyton story in one go, reading into the late hours. I can remember like it was yesterday my grandparents giving me a torch for my birthday which I would use once we had been told the light had to go off to continue reading till a book was finished. My poor mum would have to keep buying the big C batteries for me!
Well, I loved the Enid Blyton books, the Winnie the Pooh books, I loved another author called Malcolm Saville with his mystery books and the list could go on—even the Noddy books! but I also love the stories of Jesus! His stories are different, because as we have often been told they are stories that have a spiritual meaning. All the other books I read were just that stories, but the parables are stories that were given to grab our attention, to make us stop and think, to cause us to make decisions, to check our hearts and the responsiveness of our hearts to gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. After all, it was one of the parables as I mentioned recently that brought me to the place where I gave my life to the Lord Jesus Christ, the story of the lost sheep.
I haven’t added a scripture yet and I have come to the end of the devotion, so let’s have that story.
‘Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him. And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.” So he told them this parable: “What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbours, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’ Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.’ Luke 15:1–7.
And it is to some of these stories we will turn to for some of our next devotions.