Devotions this week based on the Message: “BELIEVE: Week 1: Believe in God!”
(NOTE: This sermon series and devotional series is based on a book by Randy Frazee entitled, “BELIEVE.”
You may choose to download or purchase the book as a supplement to your worship and devotional emails.)
“We all believe in the same God and call him by different names.”
“There are many paths to heaven.”
Ever heard these phrases? Thought them?
Are they true?
Is every person named “Mike” the same? Is every restaurant the same?
The answer is no.
Ask Burger King if they are happy when someone says, “You’re just like McDonalds”
Ask Ruth Chris Steakhouse if they find a review that says, “The steaks taste just like one from Ponderosa.”
Just like not all people are the same, not all restaurants are the same, not all gods are the same.
If one just looks at similarities we create with our knowledge of nature, our conscience or the feelings of the soul, perhaps we see similarities, but the true God, the Lord stands out as different. One of many examples, the Lord was not “OK” with people saying “Baal and the Lord are the same thing.”
21 Elijah went before the people and said, “How long will you waver between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal is God, follow him.”
But the people said nothing.
22 Then Elijah said to them, “I am the only one of the Lord’s prophets left, but Baal has four hundred and fifty prophets. 23 Get two bulls for us. Let Baal’s prophets choose one for themselves, and let them cut it into pieces and put it on the wood but not set fire to it. I will prepare the other bull and put it on the wood but not set fire to it. 24 Then you call on the name of your god, and I will call on the name of the Lord. The god who answers by fire—he is God.”
Then all the people said, “What you say is good.”
At the end of the challenge, while Baal remained silent, the Lord consumed the sacrifice with fire and power.
It makes a difference to believe in the God of the Bible.
Because he is the ONLY true God!
Baal won’t get you to heaven. Allah won’t get you to heaven. Buddha won’t get you to heaven. NO OTHER God has invested IN you as the God of the Bible has. No other god LOVES you like the Father. No other God gave himself FOR you like the Son. No other God lives IN you like the Spirit.
5 I am the Lord, and there is no other;
apart from me there is no God.
I will strengthen you,
though you have not acknowledged me,
6 so that from the rising of the sun
to the place of its setting
people may know there is none besides me.
I am the Lord, and there is no other. (Isaiah 45:5-6)
It matters to believe not just in a god, but the true God of the Bible. Your eternity in heaven depends on it!
John 17:3 “Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.”
Apply: Take time to investigate another “god” – how are they similar or different than the true God. What does the true God do for you that this other god can’t?
Prayer: Lord God, thank you for revealing yourself as the true, loving and saving God. Apart from you there is no other and we are blessed to know you and believe in you! AMEN.