November 30, 2022
Psalms 116:1-2 “I love the LORD, because he hath heard my voice and my supplications. Because he hath inclined his ear unto me, therefore will I call upon him as long as I live”
What a friend we have in Jesus! As we grow in grace and the knowledge of the Lord, we can’t help but be filled with joy, knowing our God cares for us and loves us unconditionally. We have much more than just a religion or system of beliefs, we have a personal relationship with the One true and living God. This is one of the many facets that sets followers of Christ apart from proponents of other religions. They may bow to their idols, align themselves with codes and rules, and chant mantras or fill their minds with their leader’s jargon but we walk hand in hand with the Creator of all things and are literally His children. God in The Holy Spirit lives within us and we are never separated from Him. David looked at what the Lord had done for him and his heart expressed his grateful love. This is the message of today’s verse, that we do not serve the Lord in terror or in a sense of obligation to obtain salvation but in a new and living way, rooted in the eternal love of our Lord. People need a living, loving relationship with God to satisfy their souls and bring them into a state of completeness with their maker. All that we search for, all that we strive to obtain, and all we hope will bring us happiness and contentment is satisfied when we enter into that close, personal relationship with the Lord. He is listening to our voice and our supplication, our earnest prayers, and pleas for mercy. The enemy says God is not listening to us, that He isn’t going to answer our prayers, and that we’re not qualified to get the help and answers we need. He tries to brainwash the world with the lies that God doesn’t exist and if he does, He is an impartial observer, detached from His creation. But the Lord turns His face towards us and we have His immediate attention. These scriptures tell us he has inclined his ear to us, a picture of someone leaning in close to catch every word we say. The conclusion of these two verses, “therefore will I call upon him as long as I live” is a statement of our steadfastness, like a house built upon a rock. No matter the circumstance, no matter whether it’s sunshine or storm, we love the Lord and to Christ alone will forever be our allegiance.
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November 29, 2022
Matthew 27:3-4 “Then Judas, which had betrayed him, when he saw that he was condemned, repented himself, and brought again the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, Saying, I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood. And they said, What is that to us? see thou to that”
There has always been speculation about these verses concerning Judas’ eternal soul. Did he truly turn from his unbelief and find mercy because the Bible says here that he “repented himself” or was it just that he was sorry for the mess he was in? It’s also tempting to read different meanings into the reference to Judas in Acts 1:25, “That he may take part of this ministry and apostleship, from which Judas by transgression fell, that he might go to his own place” with questions surrounding the phrase “that he might go to his own place”. We’ve all heard ministers preach that Judas is, at this very moment, burning in the fires of hell but may the Lord help us to never pass such condemnation on anyone because only God has the final say for the eternal destination of souls. We can compare Judas’s transgression and betrayal of Jesus with Peter’s thrice, vehement, and profane denial of the Lord and as far as sin is concerned, there’s not much difference. Maybe we can see Peter as hot-tempered and impetuous, acting on a whim while Judas was sneaky, unscrupulous, and acting on a premeditated plan. The scriptures tell us that when the rooster crowed in Matthew 26:75, “And Peter remembered the word of Jesus, which said unto him, Before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice. And he went out, and wept bitterly” giving us a glimpse into the sorrow Peter had for his actions. We read here that when Judas understood that Jesus had been delivered to Pilate to be judged for the death penalty, he was sorry for his part in it. Here, the word “repented” from the Greek “metamelomai”, means to change one’s mind about something and regret a previous decision or action. Peter’s regret led him to turn away from his denial of the Lord and he became what the Lord had purposed for him: the Apostle that had the keys to open the door of grace to the Jews and the Gentiles. He left behind a great legacy of restoration and faithfulness to the Lord, ending in his martyrdom. Judas’s regret caused him to commit suicide and he left behind a testimony as a greedy, calloused betrayer. People sometimes say that it’s wrong to have regrets but regret can move us to turn away from behaviors and patterns that are not God’s best and cause us to follow Christ more faithfully. Or, like Judas, regret can become a cancer that boxes us in, shuts down our hope for the future, and can lead us away from God’s plan for us. God used Judas just as He used Pharoah and other enemies of the truth to fulfill His purpose. But may He find us willing and ready to follow our Lord and when regret closes in for times we have wandered from His will, may we, like Peter, turn regret into victory.
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November 28, 2022
Revelation 3:20 “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me”
This verse with its imagery has long been called “The great invitation” and carries a wonderful mystery of how the Lord reaches out to us. From our childhood, many of us remember seeing paintings and drawings of the Savior, standing at a door with His hand poised as if knocking and we remember this verse mentioned during invitations as ministers encouraged people to receive Christ into their hearts. In some theologies, the Lord doesn’t stand outside our doors, He knocks the door down whether we want Him to or not and forces His way in because that’s how He carries out His purpose. Yet God incarnate, humbling Himself as a servant and a friend of sinners, stands ready to join us where we are and promises that if and when we open our faith door, He will enter. In the verse’s context here, it was spoken to the lukewarm church of Laodicea and pictures Jesus outside the church. The Lord told the church of Philadelphia in verse 8 that He had given them an “open door” but the final church of Laodicea has shut the door, locking the Savior on the outside because by their own testimony, they don’t need Him (v.17). So, we believe it is not a misinterpretation of scripture to say this great invitation applies to us personally, that the Lord, by the Holy Spirit and His Word knocks on our hearts in times when we are drawn to Christ and that it also speaks to churches that are operating with Jesus excluded from their fellowship. They like to see themselves as “inclusive” but what they’ve included is everything but the Lord. Christ stands patiently waiting, knocking, and extending His invitation that if they will open the door, He will come in. It doesn’t matter whether they mention His name or not for the Bible says many will come in His name but they are deceivers. The Lord says, “if any man hear my voice” and that is the key to those inside as to whether or not they will listen to what the Lord says. He is calling by His Word, His Holy Spirit, His drawing power in their hearts, and the evidence all around them, and their response will determine their future. The lukewarm church of Laodicea, sliding quickly into apostasy, is told to be serious, respondent, and repent. They have a lot of words but no substance. A lot of empty promises of love and compassion but no reality. They have their slogans, banners, and programs but have denied the power of God. It is comforting to know our Lord is patient and kind, that His mercy reaches to the heavens, and that He is ready to forgive, restore, and eternally save all who open the door to His invitation. A closed door need not remain closed and may our prayer be that God will send the wind of awakening and revival in these times to draw us to Himself and rescue our churches from their lukewarm, powerless state.
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November 27, 2022
Genesis 50:20 “But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive”
The Bible says in Genesis 37:4-8 that Joseph’s brothers hated him. Jealousy and envy filled their hearts and the day came when they got the opportunity to get rid of him by selling him as a slave. They did so and we can be sure that “good riddance!” was their parting words to him. People, even our families, can be mean and unloving to us. They can treat us unfairly and use our abilities and talents to their own advantage and when we’re not what they want us to be or when they can no longer get from us what they want, they will casually toss us away with the same “good riddance” of Joseph’s brothers. What can be even more hurtful, is when it’s people we go to church with, that we have worshipped together with as David related in Psalms 55:12-14, “For it was not an enemy that reproached me; then I could have borne it: neither was it he that hated me that did magnify himself against me; then I would have hid myself from him: But it was thou, a man mine equal, my guide, and mine acquaintance. We took sweet counsel together, and walked unto the house of God in company”. Joseph must have felt that way at some point when everyone around him didn’t want him, didn’t want him to succeed, and treated him maliciously. But the Lord gave him the wisdom to understand that when God is working in our lives, the trials we go through that seem like they were set by the enemy to destroy us are being used by God to push us forward into His perfect will. When the Lord finally brought Joseph into a place of victory and his brothers were afraid he would seek revenge against them for the evil they had done to him, Joseph met them with the words in today’s verse, telling them the Lord used their evil for His purpose. God will never allow our enemies to triumph over us but will always perform his purpose in our lives for our good and His glory. Our part is to trust Him during times of adversity as well as times of blessing, and when people treat us unfairly, snub us, or fail to appreciate what we’ve done, God never forgets and He is our vindicator. Joseph’s brothers probably felt like they were better off when he was out of their lives and may have said something like, “finally, we can live without that boy irritating us”. But the day came when the Lord turned the tables on them and Joseph became the means of their survival. God used the jealousy, envy, and hatred of Joseph’s brothers to bring good and in the process, the Lord greatly honored Joseph and made him ruler over the men who sought his demise. May the Lord help us remain faithful in our trials, especially those where we are being reproached by others, and may He help us to be patient until the day He shows it was His gracious hand that was working behind the scenes on our behalf.
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November 26, 2022
Psalms 62:5 “My soul, wait thou only upon God; for my expectation is from him.”
What is your expectation for your life? The answer to that question often changes depending on our age or the season of life we’re in. Childhood phases bring expectations of birthdays, Christmas, becoming an adult, and such but after a while, our expectations will depend greatly on our life experiences and our successes or failures. The Hebrew word translated as “expectation” here is “tiqvâh” and while it is often rendered “hope”, its literal meaning is a line or rope made of fibers twisted together to make a strong cord. For us believers, the depth and beauty of its meaning can be seen in Joshua 2:18, “Behold, when we come into the land, thou shalt bind this line (tiqvâh) of scarlet thread in the window which thou didst let us down by: and thou shalt bring thy father, and thy mother, and thy brethren, and all thy father’s household, home unto thee. Unlike the image we may have gotten in the past that Rahab hung a small scarlet sewing thread in the window, she actually hung a scarlet rope, one that was strong enough to allow the men of God to rappel to safety out of the window of her home and down the wall of the city. We need the expectation that God will always do good for us, that He is working all things together for our benefit, and that He is listening to our prayers and answering them by His mercy, grace, and power. If we do not have that expectation, all we are left with is the expectation of the world and that is always sorrow, sickness, disease, uncertainty, sin, and universal death. People might amass great fortunes and have enough money to buy the largest plot in the cemetery with the grandest tombstone or a gold-plated mausoleum but what’s the point? All the expectation of the world ends in the same place. Christians must declare Isaiah 3:10, “Say ye to the righteous, that it shall be well with him” and teach that with God, our path is a shining light where our needs are met, our hope is secure, and Jesus has paid the price for our eternal life. The Psalmist speaks to his soul, telling it to be patient and wait only upon God. Our desires either to have something, see something come to pass, or have quick deliverance are bound up in the expectation that we belong to the Lord and He is directing our steps. We expect to win because He always causes us to triumph. We expect to have all we need because He promised to supply them. We expect to be filled with joy, have peace that passes understanding, be filled with the Holy Spirit, and have the mind of Christ because God has purposed those things for us in Christ. We expect to prosper because He said whatsoever we do will prosper. Our expectation, like the rope that saved the spies and then saved Rahab and her family, is strong and filled with the greatest hope.
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November 25, 2022
Psalms 20:7 “Some trust in chariots, and some in horses: but we will remember the name of the LORD our God”
In ancient times, horses and chariots were a nation’s military might, the elite troops of their armed forces. They were a symbol to people of protection from their enemies and the more horses and chariots, the more the sense of security. When kings assembled their armies and marched them in military parades, the thundering of the horses’ hooves gave the impression of power and confidence much like when the roars of F/A-18 Hornets shake the ground as they fly over parades and special occasions today. It’s tempting to measure our strength and safety by our abilities and technologies to keep ourselves free from harm. But above all power, above all human might is the strongest fortress, the most insurmountable defense imaginable: the name of the Lord. The Bible says in Proverbs 18:10, “The name of the LORD is a strong tower: the righteous runneth into it, and is safe” and in Psalms 124:8, “Our help is in the name of the LORD, who made heaven and earth”. Each time, as the name of the Lord is continually revealed and expounded in the scriptures, in their variations attributes of God are revealed, attributes that show that the Lord is mindful of us and working for our good while vindicating His people against their enemies. This knowledge of God answers the old question, “what’s in a name?” because, concerning the Lord, everything is in His name. His name is the expressed sum of who He is. It is more than a title or an identification of His person, His name is the declaration and power of His greatness and limitless abilities. But all the names and titles of the Lord are now expressed in the name that’s above all names, Jesus. The Bible speaks of our Lord in Philippians 2:9-11, “Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father”. The world and the enemy want to defame the name of Jesus by placing it alongside the names of religious leaders that the world has honored to be saviors. But soon, like the Philistine idol of Dagon which fell down on its face, its head and hands broken off before the ark of God, all the images, idols, and false prophets of this world will bow before Jesus Christ, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. We will remember that the name of our Lord Jesus is the eternal protection of the saints. In the words of the hymn that is a sort of anthem for believers worldwide: “All hail the power of Jesus’ name! Let angels prostrate fall. Bring forth the royal diadem, and crown him Lord of all. Bring forth the royal diadem, and crown him Lord of all!”.
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November 24, 2022
Colossians 3:15 “And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful”
Here, peace and thankfulness are connected and they form the perfect pair. Where there is a spirit of thankfulness, there is peace with God and with others. When peace rules in our hearts, it is part of that wonderful trinity of love, joy, and peace and those three unite as one and honor the Lord. On this Thanksgiving Day, we have a heritage in this nation to give thanks to God for His great blessings. According to History.com, in November 1621, the pilgrim’s Governor William Bradford, organized a feast and invited a group of the colony’s Native American allies that had befriended them. We think of it as America’s first Thanksgiving and it lasted three days. In 1789, George Washington issued a proclamation of Thanksgiving for America’s success in the war of independence and the adoption of a constitution. Then Abraham Lincoln, in 1863, called on America’s to look to God for help and healing in our nation that was torn by Civil War and set the day for such on the last Thursday in November. Sadly, in many households Thanksgiving no longer has the connection to the Lord as a time to look to Him as the provider of all good things and has become just another holiday of eating and drinking. It’s difficult for an unthankful world, one that’s intent on banishing God from every area of society, to acknowledge the Lord even on just one occasion and remember that without Him, there would be no earth, no life, and no provisions for it. May our prayer be that our hearts will always be filled with praise and thankfulness to the only true God and may we teach our children and grandchildren that our faith and our heritage is one that looks to Jesus Christ as our life and hope. If no other prayer comes to mind, we can always pray the one given to us by our Lord:
Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil:
For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever.
Amen.
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November 23, 2022
Psalms 100:4 “Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name”
This beautiful Psalm is only five verses but it is so incredible perhaps we should commit it to memory and use it in times of worship. In all the commotion and racket of the world around us, it is calling for us to “make a joyful noise unto the Lord”. As we approach tomorrow, the Thanksgiving Holiday, it’s good to set our hearts and minds early on the things of the Lord and take an inventory of how blessed we are and how much we have to be thankful for. Maybe our tendency is to every day look at the condition of the world and all the things that are in a confused mess and ignore that the Lord has been good to us here in the USA. All we have or hope to have we can attribute it to the gracious hand of God. In verse 1, this Psalm is calling “all ye lands” that is, the whole earth to acknowledge and reverence the Lord God. Let’s stop for a moment, shut out the chatter of the news, talk-radio, political pundits, and the like and lift our hearts and hands to the Almighty King and give praise to Him with thankful hearts. It may be that one of the great sins of this country is ingratitude towards God, the giver of all good things as expressed in Romans 1:21,” they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful”. But when the Holy Spirit gives us eyes to see, ears to hear, and hearts to understand we cannot help but praise the Lord, be thankful unto Him and reverence His name, the word “bless” meaning to kneel as in reverence of His sovereignty. As a prelude to our day of Thanksgiving, let’s read this entire Psalm as an offering of praise to the Lord:
Psalms 100:1-5
A Psalm of praise. Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all ye lands.
Serve the LORD with gladness: come before his presence with singing.
Know ye that the LORD he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.
Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name.
For the LORD is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations.
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November 22, 2022
1 John 2:20 “But ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things”
This section of 1 John speaks of the deception of the antichrist and declares that besides the ominous tribulation period antichrist, there are many antichrists among us now, an indication that we are in the last days. The “spirit” of these many antichrists seems to be a movement akin to the nature of satan’s man of sin in that it reeks of religion. We might be tempted to think that those called antichrists are a devil-worshipping crowd with diabolical churches and such but the enemy’s purpose is not to shock the world with a religion of demonism but to deceive people with a counterfeit faith. Let’s remember that the antichrist will set himself up in the temple of God claiming to be the Messiah and the Jews, along with the entire world for that matter, will be tricked into believing he is the promised one. But today’s verse tells us born-again believers, the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, have an unction, a word that means an anointing that gives us insight into truth and we will not follow a false shepherd. Jesus said in John 10:27, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me” and tells us in verse 5, “And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him: for they know not the voice of strangers”. The truth of the anointing here coupled with the phrase, “and ye know all things”, does not mean that we have some super knowledge of everything but it comes from a word that means we have a spiritual instinct to recognize the truth and turn away from a lie. It is connected to the next verse, “I have not written unto you because ye know not the truth, but because ye know it, and that no lie is of the truth”. This anointing is not some mystical power or spiritual fog that descends on us but is the work of the Holy Spirit who is in every believer and unites us on the common ground of the truth of God’s Word. A wonderful explanation of what happens when people who claim to follow Christ and then walk away in an antichrist spirit as if they don’t know Him is given in verse 19: “They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us”. This truth is again referenced in Hebrews 10:39, “But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul”. The Holy Spirit makes the difference and the Bible says in Romans 8:9, “Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his”. The departure from the faith was prophesied in 1 Timothy 4:1, “Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils”. It is also given to us as an indicator of when the appearance of the antichrist is close in 2 Thessalonians 2:3, “Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition”. But thank God for the promise of John 8:32, “And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free”.
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November 21, 2022
Proverbs 1:24-26 “Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded; But ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof”
God has been reaching out to a lost world from the beginning and people’s response is to ignore Him. Today’s verse tells us He reaches to us and we refuse to listen, we stop our ears to His instruction, and turn away from His warnings. From the first man Adam to the average Joe today the proof of our utter depravity is pictured by Romans 1:28, “And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge”. People would rather make themselves a God or create their own fables of what they sometimes refer to as a “higher power” than acknowledge the only true Eternal and Almighty God. But the good news is that even though we continually push God away, ignore Him, and live as if He doesn’t exist, He still loves us and offers us salvation. It brings to mind the patience and faithfulness of the Lord, to hold back His anger and demonstrate His love for the very creatures that shake their fist in His face, declaring they don’t need Him, they don’t believe in Him, and they’ll be better off without Him. All humanity marches in a line from their cradle to their grave, all of them determined to live out their lives with as little or no knowledge of God as they can foolishly avoid and all the while, they carry the staggering load of their sin every step they take. What people cannot or will not see is the big picture of the reality of human life on this earth and that it has all been purposed and planned by our creator to allow generations of His creations to decide whether or not they want to live with Him forever and that there is an appointed time when God will bring it all to a screeching conclusion. As the Lord’s parable of the final harvest in Matthew 13:30 explains, the wheat will be gathered into the barn and the tares will be burned with fire. For all who have trusted Jesus Christ for salvation, praise God for that wonderful day when we heard the gospel and were drawn to its message of forgiveness. The Lord was reaching to us and we believed what He said. The great mystery of why God loves us and why He chose to send His only begotten Son to die in our place will forever be our joy. We pray for those who have not come to faith in Christ that they would believe the Lord loves them, that He has made a way of salvation for anyone who will believe in Jesus, and that the door of heaven is wide open the instant they call on Him.
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November 20, 2022
2 Timothy 3:16 “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness”
The Bible is more than a book. It is a gift from God and in this verse, it says it was written by “inspiration of God” where those words mean “God-breathed”. When we look into the scriptures, we can approach them as if we are reading a collection of manuscripts, much the same as any other compilation of religious writings, and attempt to understand them from a human perspective. After all, they are given to us in sentences and paragraphs and contain history, poetry, philosophy, and so on. Or we can receive them reverently as if they are supernatural and the words are more than words: they are divine communications. The way we perceive them and whether or not we come to them with faith that they are God speaking to us will determine their impact on us. To most people, the Bible does not speak to their souls because they have not settled the matter of their divine inspiration. The scriptures say in 1 Corinthians 2:14, “But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned” and when the Bible is read without the connection with the Holy Spirit, its words are just words like any other book. But the Bible says in 1 John 5:7, “For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one” and Jesus said in John 6:63, “It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life”. The Word of God, which is declared in today’s verse to be “God-breathed” is a book of Divine authorship and carries the essence of God from cover to cover. Words and volumes have been written discussing the eternal truth that this means the Bible is alive, it is an entity of its own and transcends human reason and human interpretation. God spoke it and only by the Holy Spirit’s aid do we have the keys to unlock its content. For sure we might read some stories and discuss their historical aspects but the real characteristic of scripture is alluded to in Hebrews 4:12, “For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart”. God’s Word is called the “seed” in Luke 8:11 and we know that all creation exists because God spoke it into existence and according to Hebrews 1:3, the Lord holds all creation together “by the word of his power”. May those of us who believe the Bible is the infallible, inspired, and eternal Word of God, be renewed in our faith that we hold in our hands and hide in our hearts that which emanated directly from our creator. And may the Holy Spirit open the hearts and understanding of all who have not yet believed the scriptures are God’s Word so they too can know Him by what He has spoken.
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November 19, 2022
Psalms 56:3 “What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee”
There is no doubt these are fearful times and there is not one place on earth, not one nation where there is tranquility, the assurance of safety, and confidence for a prosperous future. Uncertainty hangs like a foreboding cloud over communities and cities with an explosion of crime and violent offenses. We’ve seen our children and grandchildren fall prey to the epidemic of drugs and watched helplessly as they are pulled into the dark underworld of substance slavery with its wicked, ruthless suppliers and murderous criminal organizations. This is besides the big pharm opioid companies that have supplied the world with narcotics like a river of dope for decades. And now, truckloads of fentanyl, which is killing people like the black plague, just pour across our borders, unchecked by an administration that has apparently set its goal as the destruction of America as we know it. And the security for our current generation? Working men and women that were saving monthly for their retirement by building their 401k’s and other plans just saw much of their nest egg destroyed by a failing economy, tanking because of market fear spawned by the slipshod economic policies and actions of inept leaders. Many are trying to explain it away by blaming it all on Russia’s war against Ukraine but you know exactly who is sitting in the driver’s seat of this impending train wreck. In a time of great fear and uncertainty we have weak, senseless leaders that are confused, stumbling, and bumbling through the motions of blurting out a few deranged lines of rhetoric every now and then as if they have some clue as to how they’re going to lead us in our crisis’s. We need a Savior, someone who knows how to help us. Someone who understands why we’re at such a crossroad, and who knows which way to lead us to safety. We need a rescue, a leader that we can fully trust to work for us, and one who is not influenced by anything or anyone except by what is for our good. Today’s little verse of 10 words carries the hope of eternity to us straight from our Lord’s throne: “What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee”. There will be times we are afraid, times we dread what may come. Times of bleakness, overshadowed with doubt and discouragement will fall on us and there will be no hope or answers in anything we can see around us. In such fearful times, times like these nowadays, we can hold fast to the anchor of the Lord’s unfailing promises and find refuge in our God. He is our hiding place and even though we may still tremble in His arms, we know we are safe there and that He will shield us as David spoke in Psalms 57:1, “Be merciful unto me, O God, be merciful unto me: for my soul trusteth in thee: yea, in the shadow of thy wings will I make my refuge, until these calamities be overpast”. He is our light in the darkness, our bread and water in life’s famine, our protector and shield from the enemy, and our hope for tomorrow.
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November 18, 2022
James 1:8 “A double minded man is unstable in all his ways”
The scriptures tell us the only way to approach God is by faith. This is clear by Hebrews 11:6, “But without faith it is impossible to please him” and in Romans 14:23, “for whatsoever is not of faith is sin”. And it is not just faith in anything religious or what the world likes to refer to as things “spiritual”, but it is faith in the Word of God. False teaching says to rely on miracles, emotion, signs, or something visible or able to be felt to assure ourselves of God’s presence or power. But today’s verse is a continuance of verses 6-7 which speak of coming to God to ask Him for something: “But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord”. When we are double minded, the words mean we are looking in two directions, that we are uncertain, distracted, and unfocused. It doesn’t mean we are deceitful like our common meaning for “two-faced” but that we are like Peter in Matthew 14 who was walking on the water but trying to look at Jesus and at the winds and waves around him at the same time. It diminished his faith to the point Jesus called him, “thou of little faith”. Whenever we try to mingle our reasoning, our view of the world, and our plans to figure things out with faith in God’s promises, it makes us unstable where the word means unsteady, fickle, staggering, distracted, and the Bible assures us when we waver as such, we will not receive anything from the Lord. We’re often encouraged to keep our eyes on Jesus, to look to Him who is the author and finisher of our faith because when we fasten our gaze on Him and refuse to look around us for answers, it helps block the negativity and unbelief of our flesh and the patter of the world’s false advice. This is the reason for us to fill our minds and hearts with the Word of God, to think upon it, to memorize it, to meditate on it, and to use it as our source of hope, truth, and the solution to our circumstances. The Holy Spirit is ready to help us speak the Word of God into our problems, relationships, prayers, requests to God, and everything we face because the Word of God is the power of our faith. We approach God on the grounds of what He has promised us and what He has declared and when that is our pattern, we are in the place to get answers and find grace to help us. We can waste our time arguing from our point of view or begging Him from human reasoning or we can bypass all that and go directly by what we know He has said. Single-minded, diligent to remain allied with His Word, and confident that because He said it, it cannot fail.
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November 17, 2022
2 Corinthians 7:10 “For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death”
Repentance is not the basis for salvation but it is a part of salvation’s miracle. When we hear the truth of our sinfulness and admit that we are sinners, that frame of mind stirs within us what many refer to as conviction. In St John 8, The Lord told the men who accused the woman of sin, “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her”. The Bible says, “And they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last”. The Word of the Lord brought an awareness of their sin where the Greek word for “convicted” means laid bare, brought to light, exposed, and carries the connotation of shame. Notice here these men were convicted by their consciences but the Bible does not say they repented. When godly sorrow happens, that is conviction from the truth that God is Holy and we have come short of His glory, the pathway to faith in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of our sin is opened. When we are then willing to turn away from sin and trust the Savior for salvation the instantaneous miracle of the new birth occurs. So, today’s verse tells us that “godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation”. What can be confusing here is the phrase “not to be repented of” where the source of the word for “repented” is entirely different than the one for “repentance” 6 words before. Here, an adjective, means to be without regret and implies a state without sorrow. People who face the misery of conviction and turn from their sin to the Savior, once they are saved, they have no regret or sorrow any more. The joy of being forgiven and the peace of God rules in the place of their sorrow for sin. The foolish preaching of today never holds people accountable for sin and offers heaven to them as a prize that they are somehow entitled to because they’re just good people. The itching ears teaching might give an invitation to “receive Christ” but never lays the foundation of what He died to save us from and certainly tiptoes around or avoids altogether what they consider to be the controversial doctrines of depravity, the punishment for sin, and the need for repentance. People don’t like acknowledging their sin because it offends them and makes them uncomfortable and churches are determined to avoid any language or teaching that might make them look out of touch, perhaps losing members in the process. They are neither hot nor cold. If there is no joy of salvation, there is still the sorrow of the world because whether we teach it or not, people are lost, miserable without God, and daily face their sin from a twisted view, trying to solve its effects on their own. Sin produces death and produces consequences of sorrow. Without repentance unto salvation, we are left dealing with the fallout of our sin with the world’s methods. Alcohol, drugs, addictions, emotional upheavals, and disorders are ways we deal with sin’s painful reality except we keep refusing to call it sin, explaining it all away by exchanging the truth for lies. Rather than being sorry for our sin, repenting, and then becoming free from sin by Christ’s salvation, we endure the sorrow of the consequences of our sin throughout our lives. The joy unspeakable and full of glory Christians have is because they are forgiven of their sin not because they are an entitled bunch that can’t believe they’ve ever done anything really bad.
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November 16, 2022
Matthew 9:21 “For she said within herself, If I may but touch his garment, I shall be whole”
Matthew, Mark, and Luke all give the account of the woman who had a disease for twelve years that caused her to bleed freely. The Bible says she had paid all her money to a lot of doctors, hoping to get healed but instead, she got worse. Then she heard about Jesus and faith swelled up within her that the Lord could help her. And even though the Savior was thronged about with a great crowd of people the woman, as weak and sickly as she was, pressed her way through the crowd until she was within touching distance of Jesus, reached out and touched the hem of His garment (v.20). Immediately, the scriptures say, the flow of blood stopped and she was healed. The miracle reveals a lot of truth about what it takes to get help from God and puts aside all the thoughts that we have to pray long prayers, begging and pleading for help, or that God has to answer us with a kaboom from heaven. Nothing is said of the woman’s worthiness for none of us are worthy in ourselves. There was no great stage display of a “healing service” that day with people being slain unconscious or the Lord striking people in their foreheads while commanding healing upon them. It was a poor, common, and unnamed woman who came up behind Jesus, either stooping low or on her hands and knees from her suffering because she was low enough to reach the bottom of the Lord’s robe which was near the ground. He wasn’t even looking at her when she touched Him because he asked in Luke 8:45, “Who touched me?”. The disciples responded that so many people were crowded in on them how could the Lord be asking who touched Him. But Jesus was referring to a touch driven by faith because He said that kind of touch caused virtue, a word that means miraculous healing power, to flow out of Him. That power moved from the Lord to the woman because of her faith. The Lord told her in Luke 8:48, “Daughter, be of good comfort: thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace”. He has all power to help us, to heal us, to bless us, to provide for us, and to be our all-in-all but the power is released when we believe He is able. In Matthew 9:28, two blind men came to Jesus to be healed and He asked them, “Believe ye that I am able to do this?”. When they answered yes, the Lord said,” According to your faith be it unto you”, touched their eyes, and they were healed. Again, believing the Lord is able and coming to Him on that ground of faith opens the door for the power of God to grant us our desire. Sometimes it’s not that we don’t believe God is able, it’s that we don’t believe He will do it for us. This is where our faith must be founded in the truth, that we are children of God, his heirs, that we are robed in Christ’s righteousness, and That He has promised us in Mark 11:24, “Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them”. Some people, even as they read this, are already doubting that God means what He says but that is the nature of our unbelieving, skeptical, flesh. Sadly, those thoughts have been reinforced by a church world that spins the simple promises of God by implying there are other conditions that might keep us from having our miracle. But may we grow in grace and faith and may we learn to trust Him more and more until we believe with all our hearts that nothing is impossible with Him. Let’s reach out and touch the hem of His garment.
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November 15, 2022
Acts 16:29-30 “Then he called for a light, and sprang in, and came trembling, and fell down before Paul and Silas, And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”
Paul and Silas had been preaching in the city of Philippi. They cast an evil spirit out of a woman and this angered the men she worked for because they used her like a fortuneteller and once the evil spirit was gone, she couldn’t continue to make them money. These men had Paul and Silas arrested, severely beaten, and locked up in jail with their feet clamped in stocks. But the men of God began to pray and sing praises to the Lord and God caused an earthquake to shake the prison to its foundation. The jail doors swung open, the chains fell off the prisoners, and the jailer was about to commit suicide because he was going to be held responsible for any escaped prisoners. The Bible says in verse 28, “But Paul cried with a loud voice, saying, Do thyself no harm: for we are all here” and the jailer fell to his knees and asked one of the greatest questions in the Bible: “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”. Don’t you wish that people today would see the situation they’re in with eternity looming right before them and ask the same question? Don’t you wish that instead of concerning themselves about this life and its temporary pleasures they would realize that where they will be in eternity is infinitely more important than anything else? May our prayers be that our families, our loved ones, and even our enemies will come to their senses and ask, “what must I do to be saved?”. Paul and Silas answered the Philippian jailor with a simple answer: “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house”. It’s most important to recognize they didn’t say “be a good person and follow some of the 10 commandments”, or “join a church and obey its rules “. They didn’t give him advice from their perspective on straightening out his life or tell him to sow monetary seed into their ministry. The Word of salvation is so simple, so clear that it seems almost too good to be true and we can take that word to heart for ourselves and our families. In a paraphrase, it means to believe that Jesus will save us if we trust Him. For us who believe the truth of Jesus, this devotion may seem like we’re continuing to repeat something that should have already been settled long ago. But the problem remains that the enemy with his army of false teachers and perverted theologies along with man-made doctrines, church systems, and denominations has distorted the simple truth of salvation until it seems like an obstacle course. The Bible again makes it plain in Romans 10:9, a book that was written 6 or 7 years after the account in Acts, “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved”. The message of salvation is still the same today and the door of heaven is wide open to anyone who will believe it.
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November 14, 2022
1 Corinthians 15:58 “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord”
We need a firm, strong foundation in times like these. The things we have witnessed in the past few years including the pandemic, lockdown, vaccine and mask controversies, and the political mess we’re in have created great uncertainty. Families are under immense pressure, assaulted by gender confusion and an all-out war against morality and decency. Children today are confused as to what it means to be a man or a woman and how to assume the roles God has given them in a world that’s deranged and demanding them to abandon all reason and convictions of Godliness. Homes that are founded on Biblical principles where dads and moms raise children according to the scriptures are seen as dangerous to progress by those stoking the fires of radical cultural upheaval. It’s hard to hold the course and follow the ways of God when it looks like one step forward and two steps back is the best that we can do against such a tide of iniquity. But today’s verse encourages us to remain stedfast and unmovable, terms that remind us that although the roof is blowing off the world around us and the hope of the nations is crumbling, our God never changes. He is the Rock, the immutable fortress that the righteous run to and are safe. When the Apostle Paul wrote to Timothy in 2 Timothy 2, he tells him about false teachers that had infiltrated the church, spread false doctrine, and were causing many people to abandon their faith. Things looked bleak. But then in verse 19 he wrote, “Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his. And, let everyone that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity”. The ancient foundation that says Christ alone can save, His blood is the only cover for sin, and all those that belong to Him should follow only Him is the single foundation that can withstand the storm of destruction around us. Let’s take our stand with God, turn our back on the world’s deception, and look only unto Jesus, the author, and finisher of our faith. Let’s lay aside every weight and the sin that doth so easily beset us (Hebrews 12:1) and keep doing what’s right in God’s eyes. He assures us that our labor will not be in vain for the Lord. The words of Hebrews 10:23, “Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;)” remind us that we belong to Him and that He is unfailingly faithful to us. And when we are in the storms of the changing culture, the apostasy of this church age, and the ever-shifting scenarios of the world, we can stand firm as the Bible says in Acts 20:24, “But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God”.
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November 13, 2022
Luke 3:10 “And the people asked him, saying, What shall we do then?”
John the Baptist was warning Israel that things were about to change and that the wrath of God was coming. He used a metaphor about trees and said that every tree without fruit would be chopped down and burned. His message caused people from different social strata to ask the question, “What shall we do then?”. His responses to that question can be summarized by the answer: do what is right. All Bible believers know we are at the door of the Lord’s appearing and what lies in the future is good for the church for we will be with Him, but what is coming on the world is unlike anything since the beginning of time. Even though there was a universal flood that destroyed the first civilizations of mankind, this time the destruction will be prolonged and involve all creation, angels, demons, satan, glorified saints, and mortal beings. There will be wars, disease, famine, supernatural cataclysms, and the breakdown of all nations and their infrastructures. And all that is just a scarce hint of what’s coming. We seem to be moving more swiftly than ever toward the fulfillment of the events that have been purposed to complete the mystery of God’s creation. And maybe you are one of those who believe God’s Word is infallible and that He means precisely what He said. If so, you might be urgently sensing the need to do something as the curtain on the church age closes rather than slip into the stupor of apathy. Like those who heard the message of John and took it to heart, we are asking, “What shall we do then?”. The Holy Spirit is ready to guide us in these darkening times and give us open doors to offer the hope of Jesus to a world about to get hit with something they don’t see coming. But above all, we can pray. Every believer faces the battle of prayerlessness even though we proclaim that the Lord hears and answers prayers. The enemy fights against us to keep us from praying and often we are defeated in the very thing that has the potential to affect great change. But may we purpose that in these days, we will pray more often, more fervently, and in more faith, believing the Lord is hearing and answering. We will pray for the lost, pray for our families, pray for ourselves, pray for other believers, pray for our nation and its leaders, and pray the Lord’s prayer. We will pray kneeling, standing, sitting, while driving, and pray when we are going to sleep. And when we are awakened in the night or when we rise in the morning, we will pray. Prayer changes things. May the Holy Spirit remind us to go boldly to the throne of grace in these times of need and plead the precious blood of Jesus for our children, grandchildren, neighbors, and friends. May our cry for help to our Father be on our lips so often that it becomes the normal pattern for our speech. People need our prayers and we need to pray. Our Lord Jesus is our example as He often separated Himself from His daily life to pray to His Father, sometimes praying all night. Let’s encourage each other to seek the Lord in these last days, to awaken from spiritual sleep, and recognize we are at the midnight hour.
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November 12, 2022
Psalms 143:4 “Therefore is my spirit overwhelmed within me; my heart within me is desolate”
We all know what it is like to be overwhelmed. No matter how long we’ve been saved, how strong our faith is, or how many trials we’ve been delivered from, life sometimes brings storms against us that batter us to our core. The English word “overwhelmed”, means to submerge completely, turn upside down, drown, knockdown, and so on. We use it to describe our state of mind when life’s stress is so great and problems seem so insurmountable that happiness and hope can’t be found. The disciples were overwhelmed, fearing for their lives when they were caught in a raging storm on the sea of Galilee. Elijah was overwhelmed, wishing he was dead when Jezebel sent him word that she was going to kill him. Job was overwhelmed when satan attacked him and he was stripped of every precious thing he owned. Daniel was overwhelmed, fainted, and was sick several days after he saw the vision of the unfolding of the ages ending with the antichrist. In David’s case, he describes the circumstances that overwhelmed him in verse 3, “For the enemy hath persecuted my soul; he hath smitten my life down to the ground; he hath made me to dwell in darkness, as those that have been long dead”. The death of a loved one, devastation and anguish caused by illness, the loss of a job, or other life-changing circumstances can make us feel like there’s no answer and no path forward. But the Lord is faithful to us even in times we’re overwhelmed. David sees his way forward as this Psalm continues when he says in verse 5, “I remember the days of old; I meditate on all thy works; I muse on the work of thy hands” telling us that he begins to remember how the Lord has always been with him in past troubles. He prays to the Lord, “I stretch forth my hands unto thee: my soul thirsteth after thee, as a thirsty land. Hear me speedily, O LORD: my spirit faileth: hide not thy face from me”. Then he prays, “Cause me to hear thy lovingkindness in the morning; for in thee do I trust: cause me to know the way wherein I should walk; for I lift up my soul unto thee”. He finishes his prayer with, “Teach me to do thy will; for thou art my God: thy spirit is good; lead me into the land of uprightness. Quicken me, O LORD, for thy name’s sake: for thy righteousness’ sake bring my soul out of trouble”. If we follow the course given to us here, it is a plan of faith and action that defines us not as victims to be swallowed up in despair and lying in a helpless heap, but as victors in Jesus’ name, confident that God will deliver us from the overwhelming plight we’re in. The pattern is: To remember how God has always worked for us. Reach out to Him in faith. Ask Him to open our understanding to His kindness and power. Trust that He will show us the steps to take while we are uncertain. And then look to Him with the assurance that He will deliver. Praise the Lord! God is unfailing in His promises to His children.
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November 11, 2022
2 Timothy 4:3-4 “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables”
This last and final church age of Laodicea with its lukewarm theology has produced a following that is largely unable to rightly divide the word of truth. They cannot reconcile their view of John 3:16 that God loves everyone with Psalms 7:11 which tells us God is angry with the wicked every day. Whenever sin is called out and the truth that God is against it and will always judge it with death, they run apprehensively for cover to the “let’s not judge anyone” shelter of apathy. For some, they have no real knowledge of God’s Word, it’s just a general defense they’ve picked up somewhere to combat the scathing light of truth. They feel safe there as if finally, they have a handle on what it means to be a correctly positioned, socially adjusted Christian. And as far as the storm of God’s wrath that’s increasing in velocity, looming on the world’s horizon, and will soon bring the devastation of billions of people and the earth itself, they are not able to process that thought and make it mesh with their mantra that everything is all about kindness, compassion, and grace. No one has ever taught them about the thousands of His own people that God slew for their rebellion and unbelief at the giving of the Law. And the many times throughout Jewish history when the Lord used the enemies of Israel to wreak the death and destruction of the people He called by His name. Then in the years after the time of Christ, they have never been instructed about the bloody destruction of Jerusalem that Jesus foretold when God allowed countless men, women, and children to be annihilated, slaughtered by Titus and the Roman army. And then there’s the sobering thought that the Lord has allowed at least 70 million of His followers to be horribly martyred for His glory since Jesus’ day, a thought that makes languid Laodiceans, who will never, ever take a stand against sin, shudder in incredulity. They stop their ears and refuse to consider the whole truth. Laodicea’s followers with their “itching ears” a word that means anything that makes them feel better about themselves, something that delights them and soothes them as one would a fussy child, have been religiously brainwashed by their fable-speaking hirelings. God spoke of these charlatans and their distortions of truth in 1 Timothy 6:5, “Perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds, and destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness”. This tepid church age, like Sampson who slipped off to sleep with his head in Delilah’s lap, is about to get spewed out of God’s mouth according to His promise in Revelation 3:16. Again, their inability to discern truth versus fables, a word that means narratives of speech that weave together fragments of stories and ideas both truth and fiction, means that when the light of truth shines towards them, they quickly dismiss it as error. They are in the quandary of Isaiah 5:20, “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight!”. This church age and its followers need the impetus and stark reality of Ezekiel 33:8, “When I say unto the wicked, O wicked man, thou shalt surely die; if thou dost not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand”. We can’t just speak love; we must speak the truth in love (Ephesians 4:15).
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November 10, 2022
Romans 1:21-22 “Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools”
Most of the time when we hear the words, “according to the experts” or the news brings in someone who they say is experienced in a matter to discuss an event, we can pretty much be sure we’re going to be snowed. And it’s an indication of where we’re headed globally where people who will not acknowledge the Lord claim to have the wisdom to help navigate the current world chaos. When this verse points out that those who knew God do not honor Him as God, it is not talking about the idea of there being some higher power we might refer to as God, but to the truth that the one and only Almighty God, creator of all things exists eternally and is sovereign over His creation and that there was a time people at least honored His existence. We are told in verse 20, “For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse”. Humankind is responsible to respond to the truth that the Lord God Almighty exists and that He is to be glorified. But the depravity of man moves him to dishonor the Lord that made him and turn away from God’s Word, the source of eternal truth. This departure from the Lord is stated by the prophet Jeremiah when he was preaching to Israel in Jeremiah 2:12-13, “Be astonished, O ye heavens, at this, and be horribly afraid, be ye very desolate, saith the LORD. For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water”. When the Lord is forsaken, His favor is removed from us and that is exactly what we see unfolding in this country and around the world. We can say that when America, as one nation under God, falls away from the truth the world falls with us because God has blessed the world through us. The morons who deny the history of the past three centuries and that the world’s prosperity is linked to America’s greatness are those referred to in the phrase, “Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools”. Europe is what it is because it was rebuilt twice with American dollars after WW1 and WW2 after having been destroyed each time. And let’s not forget that America also paid for the rebuilding of Japan after WW2. God blessed us and we have been a blessing. But our departure from the truth, our embracing the things God hates, and our refusal to acknowledge the Lord will see us slipping deeper into the cesspool of sin we’re in. As the favor of God is lifted from us, there’s no political ideology, no acts of congress or presidential prowess, and no false narratives that will restore what once was ours. God gave it to us and He alone was responsible for our greatness.
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November 9, 2022
Mark 12:41-44 “And Jesus sat over against the treasury, and beheld how the people cast money into the treasury: and many that were rich cast in much. And there came a certain poor widow, and she threw in two mites, which make a farthing. And he called unto him his disciples, and saith unto them, Verily I say unto you, That this poor widow hath cast more in, than all they which have cast into the treasury: For all they did cast in of their abundance; but she of her want did cast in all that she had, even all her living”
There were 13 offering boxes set up in the temple’s court of women to receive the gifts from those worshipping there. The eyes of the Lord were upon those passing by and He saw this woman putting in two small copper coins, amounting to less than a cent. We know she was a widow, struggling by herself in a world and culture where a widow without a husband to provide for her was a very hard, difficult situation. We also know she was poor where the Greek word for poor here means destitute of money, influence, honor, and powerless to accomplish anything significant. The word also is synonymous with those who are beggarly and socially contemptuous. But the Lord knows and understands what’s within us and He saw this poor widow woman and her gift from a different perspective than anyone else who may have been watching. He saw those who gave large amounts because they had resources allowing them to give without any impact on what they owned. But the poor widow gave all she had where the phrase “even all her living” means she had absolutely nothing left after she dropped in her tiny offering. It’s an astounding account considering during the Lord’s time the religious system of Israel was corrupt and we might think anyone conscientious about what their offerings were supporting would be reluctant to give offerings to a religious mess that was anything but Godly. But the poor widow was giving as unto the Lord and her offering was to honor God and nothing else. It was an offering of faith and it was an offering that exceeded any other offerings no matter how large the calculated sum. She walked away from the temple without a penny to her name while the high priest and officers of the temple lived in luxury yet her focus was simply on giving her offering for the glory of God. There are great lessons for us here besides the obvious that little is much if God is in it. Lessons of what it means to have great faith, give sacrificially, have a single-eyed view of honoring the Lord despite the corruptness around us, and of laying no personal claim on that which belongs to the Lord. It is a lesson about loving God and choosing to give in faith even though it makes our situation appear more despairing. It is about acting in faith and trusting the Lord with all we have. The poor widow woman is still teaching us today about what it means to give our all to the Lord.
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November 8, 2022
1 Peter 3:8-9 “Finally, be ye all of one mind, having compassion one of another, love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous: Not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing: but contrariwise blessing; knowing that ye are thereunto called, that ye should inherit a blessing
We are called to receive blessings and to be a blessing and if there was ever a time to put that into practice every day, it’s now. Everywhere we look people are discouraged and hurting. There is a sense of confusion on every corner and uncertainty has replaced confidence and assurance that things are going to get better. People struggle with anxiety and some are physically ill, their bodies suffering under various illnesses and stress. And it’s not confined to a group or two or a particular age range but many children are in duress and teens are miserable. The news continually carries stories of children being abandoned, abused, and abducted. People need encouragement, they need unconditional love and compassion. They need to be treated kindly and with respect and the body of Christ, the church, is summoned to rise above our differences of opinions and join ranks to be a blessing to others. The “be ye all of one mind” points us to harmony and unity and while the Lord has made us different just as He made the natural body’s hands different from the feet, He has called us to cooperate in our mission to a world that is hurting and discouraged. People need to know the Lord loves them and they need to experience God’s love being manifested through His people. We have the message of hope, the message that gives light in these dark days, and while the world is lashing out in anger, cursing, and abuse, we bring the mind of Christ and the power of blessing. The will of the flesh is to meet the evil and hatefulness of the world in the same they are dishing out but the Lord calls us to rise above the spirit of the age and overcome evil with good. We sow the seeds of blessings as follows in verses 10-11, “For he that will love life, and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile: Let him eschew evil, and do good; let him seek peace, and ensue (follow) it”. This message can not be repeated too much because the forces of this world are determined to drown out the hope that is in Jesus Christ. Believers are under pressure to cave in to the flood of negativity and despair that’s sweeping the globe and surrender the message that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. But may the Lord help us to arm ourselves with the truth of God’s Word and the determination to stand firm with Ephesians 3:10-12, “To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God, According to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord: In whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him”.
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November 7, 2022
Revelation 12:10 “And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night”
Charges are being brought against us before God continually day and night and many of them are true. Satan is the accuser and he works incessantly finding fault with the people of God and hurling those flaws and sins before God to discredit us and as an attempt to bring shame to the One that created and loves us. It brings to mind the fellow who lived up the street from us when I was a child who was always tattle-tailing on us kids to our parents whenever he saw us doing something he didn’t like. And when the devil scrutinizes us, he sees lots of things that are material for accusations. We fail and come short of the glory of God. We make mistakes that we shouldn’t. Our human nature takes over sometimes and we say and do things that are not in God’s will. And we live far beneath God’s standards of perfection. It’s good to point out here that the enemy is not only accusing us before God, but he’s also throwing our imperfections and failures back in our faces, telling us what a mess we are and that we are unworthy of God’s love. But praise the Lord, we have someone who represents us before God, someone who stands up for us and counters all the accusations of Satan on our behalf. The Bible says in 1 John 2:1, “And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous”. An advocate is a legal representative, a defense lawyer, that comes before the judge to represent someone who has been accused of being guilty and the advocate speaks to wipe out the charges of guilt. Another verse that gives light on this matter is Hebrews 7:25, “Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them”. We are told here that Jesus is making intercession, talking to God on our behalf, and pointing out that His blood covers all our transgressions. Hallelujah! While the devil is making charges against us, Jesus is blocking the accusations with His defense, speaking in our favor. Today’s verse tells us there is coming a day when Satan will no longer be able to make any charges against God’s people, that glorious day when our enemy will be cast down, no longer the prince and power of the air, to await his destruction. Our wonderful hope and our position with Christ are declared in Romans 8:33-34, “Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us”.
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November 6, 2022
Numbers 13:33 “And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight”
How we see ourselves and our abilities is directly related to how we see God and His abilities. The Israelites were standing at the border of their promised land, listening to the reports of the twelve spies they had sent in to check out the place. Ten of the spies came back and gave the report in the above verse and notice that they saw the size of the inhabitants and described them as giants and in comparison, they saw themselves as grasshoppers. What was missing from their report, was the testimony that no matter how impossible it might seem to go forward and take control of the land, the Almighty God that called them to be His people cannot be defeated, and by His power, they could overcome. Although Joshua and Caleb assured the people that they would see victory if they trusted in the Lord, the people believed the report of the other ten and saw themselves as puny, insignificant grasshoppers, unable to win against the inhabitants of Canaan. From our human perspective, we can see ourselves as powerful in our own abilities, puffed up in pride, or as weak and helpless victims, at the mercy of life’s forces and circumstances. Or we can see ourselves with eyes of faith, covered in the armor of God and standing firm with the One who has given us great and precious promises. In the Lord, Israel was undefeatable because God is the God of the impossible. But that fateful day, the Bible says in Hebrews 3:19, “So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief”. It’s possible to quote Philippians 4:13, “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me” and declare it like a standard yet not live it out. Again, how we see ourselves is the key, and the more we yield to the Holy Spirit’s revelation of who we are in Christ and the less we listen to our own reasoning and arguments and the patter of the naysayers around us, the more we will trust God’s abilities and that He is unfailingly working on our behalf. If we see ourselves as poor beggars, barely able to succeed, weak and wobbly against life’s storms, and uncertain if the Lord means what He has spoken to us, we are just like the Israelites at the crossroad of the promised land versus a return to a life of confusion in the wilderness. But we can confess the truth of our sonship, declare we will always triumph in Christ, and move ever forward in victory. The difference between the failure of unbelief and the victory of faith can be seen by comparing the Israelite’s failure at the border of Canaan to David’s victory over Goliath. The enemy in both accounts were giants but unlike the Israelites who saw themselves as pitiful grasshoppers, David saw himself as a child of God and, in the name of the Lord, was invincible.
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November 5, 2022
Proverbs 27:20 “so the eyes of man are never satisfied”
It didn’t take Adam and Eve long to prove they couldn’t remain contented with what they had. They lived in a perfect paradise with everything they needed freely supplied to them. Their surroundings were breathtakingly beautiful and they had no suffering, pain, disease, depression, stress, or trouble of any sort. They had it all. Well, almost, except for one thing the Lord told them they couldn’t have and that was enough to create a desire in them to be discontented with what they had and want something else, in their case, the thing that was forbidden to them. It’s hard to understand our Adamic nature in that people can never say, “it is enough. I have all I want and need” and then stop grasping for more but that is the point of today’s verse. Our hope and rescue from this trap are given in Psalms 107:9, “For he satisfieth the longing soul, and filleth the hungry soul with goodness”. Jesus said in Matthew 5:6, “Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled” teaching us that when we direct our wants and desires towards the things of God, it fills our need, our craving to have what we do not have. In the Lord’s encounter with the woman at the well in John 4, an amazing discourse on this matter runs as a thread in His teaching about salvation. She was looking for water but it only symbolized her greatest need which was to find inner satisfaction. Jesus promised her a well of water that would spring up within her to satisfy her thirst. And the thirst for what we do not have is really a desire to be satisfied and there is nothing on this earth or in the universe that can fill that emptiness except for a relationship with God. Sadly, we can spend our lives addicted to having more stuff and cram our homes, land, storage buildings, and rental storage buildings full of everything from trinkets to junk and still want more. And will fight other people over it all if we think we have to. Yet there is a free gift from God, a personal friendship with Him that when we pursue it wholeheartedly, brings contentment. No wonder the scripture says in 1 Timothy 6:6-8, “But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and raiment let us be therewith content”. The Holy Spirit gives us the vision to see that everything this life offers passes away and when we set our desires on the stuff on earth we’re just living for temporary things. The Lord asks us in Isaiah 55:2, “Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread (not real food, not nourishing)? and your labour for that which satisfieth not?”. In Psalms 34:10, we have His promise that “they that seek the LORD shall not want (lack) any good thing” and is the wonderful assurance of Psalm 23:1, “The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want”.
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November 4, 2022
Romans 12:1 “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service”
There seems to be a paradox in the scriptures concerning our bodies. On one hand, the Bible says in Romans 7:18, “For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing” and because of this, we’ve come to understand that the nature of our flesh can’t be trusted. But the flesh referred to here and our bodies are two different things. Our flesh speaks of our nature, the part of us that thinks, feels, imagines, acts and reacts, interprets reality, and so on. Our bodies are our heads, arms, legs, and the like which the Lord says in 1Corinthians 6:19, “know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?”. The Bible goes on to say in the next verse, “For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s”. Our bodies take us where we want to go. They feed us, carry out our actions, and are what others see when they look at us. We can say that our bodies are controlled by either our fleshly nature and its desires or the Holy Spirit and the will of God. This is summarized in Romans 6:12-13, “Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. Neither yield ye your members (mouths, hands, feet, and such) as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God”. Today’s verse speaks of us being “living sacrifices”, a picture vastly different from the way we normally think of sacrifices which are slain and burned. As a sacrifice is set apart and offered for a specific purpose like in a religious ceremonial sense, we offer ourselves to the Lord in His services as stated in the above verse, “yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God”. Our mouths praise the Lord and give thanks. Our hands reach out to others in compassion and benevolence. Our feet take us where we can be used by the Lord and away from places that dishonor Him. Our minds are filled with the Word of God and learn to think about the ways of the Lord. The patterns of our lives become a testimony to those around us that God is alive in us and that we belong to Him. When they look at our outward appearance, they see the fulfillment of Matthew 5:16,” Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven”. May we not view our bodies as something evil, confusing the body with the flesh, but as suitable offerings to the Lord as living sacrifices, ready and able to bring honor to Him.
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November 3, 2022
Hebrews 4:16 “Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need”
This verse gets mentioned frequently in our devotions because it is one of the greatest verses to give us confidence that we are completely and eternally wanted and welcome in the very presence of God. It is a personal invitation from the Creator of all that exists to approach Him as a child would a loving father. There should be no hesitation on our part to enter into the very throne room of Almighty God and know we are unconditionally loved and accepted. When believers have this kind of assurance, it changes the way they perceive God and the way they see themselves. Because of the offering of Jesus Christ, there are no barriers that separate us from God because the only barrier that ever did separate us, sin, has been forever abolished. So that is the sense of today’s verse, the open-door access to God and it gives us a better understanding of Ephesians 2:6, “And He has raised us up together and has caused us to sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus”. But a deeper dive into this verse reveals some parallel truth in its words. The Greek for “boldly”, meta parrēsias, means much more than just a feeling of confidence. Its primary meaning is the freedom to tell the unvarnished truth, the freedom to speak openly, without ambiguity, without holding back, and without using figures of speech. Our invitation is not just to come before God for help in our time of need, although that is part of the meaning, it is an invitation to say whatever we want to say, to empty out our hearts to Him with everything we’re thinking and feeling and know He is wanting us to do that. No thinking that we better not say what’s on our minds for fear He might reject us or think we’re being too brash, uncouth, or foolish. It means we can tell the Lord all our shortcomings and failures without reservation and be relieved to know He will listen in mercy and kindness. Most of us do not have many, if any, persons on earth that we can go to day or night, regardless of the time or circumstance, and tell them anything no matter how self-revealing or startling and they will hear us graciously and in love. Yet that is the essence of our relationship with our Lord and the wonderful certainty is that He knows in advance what we’re bringing before Him. He is forever ready to cover us with mercy and help us in our times of need. We can sing, “What a Friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear! What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer! O what peace we often forfeit, O what needless pain we bear, all because we do not carry everything to God in prayer!”.
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November 2, 2022
Psalms 91:1 “He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty”
People who live in areas known as tornado alley, states that are the most prone to tornados, often have storm shelters they run into when a tornado is spotted coming. Even here in upper East Tennessee where now and then we get a horrendous storm, we keep in mind our safer spots where we can find shelter when a storm is bearing down on us. But the secret place with the Lord is not just a refuge from life’s storms and troubles, it’s a relationship with God, a resting place of trust and comfort that He has made available to all His children. Some have taught there is a mystical level we can aspire to that’s ultra-spiritual for Christians that follow lists of rigorous rules like fasting, praying, sacrificial giving, criteria for holiness, and such. But the Lord has provided a way for us to come into His presence and remain there through the imputed righteousness of Christ. We have been invited and welcomed to rest before Him at the throne of grace and it is there, we live under His shadow. Many believers, although they are saved, live far beneath their privileges as children of God. We can picture a child that is part of a blessed and joyous family choosing to scarf down a piece of stale, half-moldy bread with tepid water in a cold and dusty tool shed when there’s a table spread with plenty of food in the family home with his happy family gathered all around. The Lord wants us to live closely to Him, full of faith, full of joy, full of hope, and full of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit-filled life is described in Eph 5:18-20, “And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit; speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord; Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ”. This life is available to everyone not just a few spiritually elite. When we stand in someone’s shadow, it means we are close to them like a child hovering near a parent, close enough to reach out and touch. Living under the shadow of the Almighty is a place of intimacy and security, a place of privilege and favor. The Lord encourages us in Hebrews 10:22 to come close to Him and this invitation to come into the secret place of fellowship with God is astounding because of who He is. Never do the richest, most powerful people in the world say to people like you and me, “come close to me and stay in my presence” yet the One that created all things and reigns over it all welcomes us to remain near Him.
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November 1, 2022
Ezekiel 36:26 “A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh”
This chapter in Ezekiel looks forward in time to the miracle of Israel’s salvation. The New Testament makes it clear in Romans 11:26-27, “And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins”. It seems to be nonsense to an unbelieving world and apostate Christianity but we’re standing very close to the day when the dispensation of the grace of God that has covered the mostly gentile church ages for almost 2,000 years will end. Then God’s purpose, which He declared before the world began and revealed to Abraham and his descendants, will bring to pass the exaltation of Israel to power and glory, reflecting the longsuffering mercy and everlasting promises of Almighty God. Hallelujah to the King of Kings! It is no accident or result of human plans that all nations of the world including America, are slowly weakening, slipping into chaos, their governments in disarray, their leaders becoming powerless and weak, and morality and decency worldwide giving way to perversion and lawlessness. God’s decrees are right on track as He tightens the noose around an unbelieving world, to eventually bring all nations to the place where He will subdue them and break their power as related in Joel 3:2, “I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land”. Bible believers may have differing opinions about how many battles will be fought in the end times, which nations will participate, and the timeline and chronology of the events, but all true Bible believers are agreed that when the dust of war settles the nations of the world and their armies will be utterly defeated by the Lord Jesus Christ. The salvation of Israel will be as it has been to the church age and today’s verse tells of a new heart and the indwelling Holy Spirit transforming the Jewish people into new creations as we have been transformed, new creations in the image of Jesus. Stony hearts, rebellious and stubborn against God and His Word, will be exchanged for hearts that reach out to the Lord and are filled with joy and gladness. From Britain’s Balfour Declaration in 1917 to May 14, 1948, when Israel was declared a new nation, and then to today as we see a powerful democracy and American ally in the land given by promise to Abraham, God is at work restoring His people. The best is yet to come for them and for us!
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