Pull Down Walls: Devotion for Tuesday August 4, 2020

MY DAILY COVENANT WITH GOD DEVOTIONAL

Devotion for Tuesday August 4, 2020

Topic: Pull Down Walls                                  

Text: Ephesians 2:14 – 22                              

Jesus Christ made peace between God and us by the sacrifice of Himself on the Cross of Calvary. In every sense, Christ is our Peace, the author, centre, and substance of our being at peace with God and of our union with the Jewish believers in one church.

In the process of dying for us, Christ has destroyed the barriers people build between themselves. Because these walls have been removed, we can have real unity with people who are not like us. This is true reconciliation.

Because of Christ’s death for our sins, we are all one (Ephesians 2:14); our hostility against each other has been put to death (Ephesians 2:16); we can all have access to the Father by the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 2:18); we are no longer strangers or foreigners to God (Ephesians 2:19); and we are all being built into a holy temple with Christ as our Chief Cornerstone (Ephesians 2:20, 21). What a privilege and honour!

The middle wall of separation alludes to the wall in the Jewish temple that separated the court of the Gentiles from the holy place occupied by the Jews. A Gentile who was caught going beyond this wall was killed (see Acts 21:28, 29).

Today most of us Christians are still building walls that Christ pulled down through segregation, despising others, feeling superior because we have one gift or another, etc. Can you mention some other ways we still build walls? Instead of building bridges to link one another, we are building wall and barriers. We should be like Christ in reconciling people to God (2 Corinthians 5:18) instead of sending them away with our quirk character and perceived spiritual birth.  

Food for Thought: In what ways are you building walls against fellow Christians and unbelievers?

Memory verse: Ephesians 2:14     

Prayer: Lord God, I repent of my actions which are barriers to people who want to repent and come to you.

Christianity Breaks Barriers

Devotion for Tuesday August 15, 2017

Topic: Christianity Breaks Barriers

Text: John 4:4 – 15

The ancestors of the Samaritans were introduced into the land of Israel by the King of Assyria, after he had led the ten tribes into captivity (2 Kings 17:24 – 41). When the Jews returned from captivity in Babylon and began to rebuild their temple, the Samaritans asked for permission to build with them, and when this was refused, an enmity arose between the two people which never died out (Ezra 4:1 – 5; Nehemiah 2:10; 4:1 – 3).

There was no familiarity nor friendship between Jews and Samaritans before Jesus came into the world. However, this may not affect business as the disciples of Jesus Christ had gone to buy food in the town. This woman of Samaria knew that Jesus was a Jew. The antipathy between the Jews and Samaritans was so bitter that they will never want to ask any hospitable rite. The woman’s reply is not a refusal of the Jesus’ request anyway, but an expression of astonishment that a Jew should ask a favour of a Samaritan. However, Jesus had come to set example for us that Christianity should break barriers, build bridges and not walls.

Jesus taught us to love our enemies (Matthew 5:24; Luke 6:27 and 35). Jesus did not want to follow the status quo maintained by His people. He was distinct and that is what He expects from us. A Christian shouldn’t join his/her family to maintain enmity with another family. Do you use your Christianity to break barriers and mend fences? Do you seek for avenues to reconcile people in enmity? This is what Christianity is all about; making peace and reconciling people, and people with God (2 Corinthians 5:17 – 19 and Matthew 5:9).

Food for Thought: 2 Corinthians 5:18

Memory verse: John 4:9

Prayer: Lord God, make me an instrument of peace in my generation in Jesus name.