August 31, 2021
Genesis 24:4 “But thou shalt go unto my country, and to my kindred, and take a wife unto my son Isaac”
For the last few devotions, we’ve looked at Abraham and Lot but we will finish by considering how Abraham set about to arrange a marriage for his beloved son Isaac. In this chapter Abraham told his most trusted servant to travel back to the home country of Mesopotamia to find a wife for Isaac, a distance of about 800 miles round trip and riding a camel, that would take about 45 days. The story is intriguing because of several factors: first, Isaac had no choice in who he would marry, it was a result of God’s grace. Second, all the responsibility for the success of finding a bride was placed upon a trusted servant. Third, the venture depended upon the prospective bride’s willingness to marry Isaac, whom she had never met. And fourth, Abraham’s kin in Mesopotamia were not holy followers of God but they were a far better choice for a wife for Isaac than any of the Canaanites. When we read to account of how the servant placed all his trust in God when he arrived looking for a potential wife (vs 12-14), it’s a blessing to know that not only was Abraham a man of faith but his faithfulness had influenced his household so that even his servants feared the Lord. When he saw Rebecca, conversed with her at the well, and thought she might be the one the Lord had appointed, the Bible says Genesis 24:26-27 “And the man bowed down his head, and worshipped the LORD”. For believers, this also gives us understanding of God’s will in marriages, that He has a plan for us in all matters of our lives including the person that is God’s best for us in marriage and when we trust God, waiting on Him to direct us in finding a spouse, He is not only willing to lead us, He has foreseen and purposed a marriage that will bring us happiness and give honor to Him.
Looking at this account as typology, as pictures of grace revealed in these Old Testament scriptures, we can see that Abraham is a picture of God the Father, Isaac of His Son Jesus, the servant of the Holy Spirit, and Rebecca the church, the bride of Christ. The work of the Holy Spirit in drawing sinners to Christ is seldom mentioned but a most important and integral part of how we are saved. Jesus spoke these words in St John 6:44 “No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day” and we see this pictured when Abraham’s servant inquired of Rebecca as to whether she would accept the invitation to be married to Isaac in Genesis 24:58 “And they (her family) called Rebekah, and said unto her, Wilt thou go with this man? And she said, I will go”. This reminds us of the day we were drawn by the Holy Spirit to receive Jesus as our Savior and in our hearts, we responded with a resounding “yes”. The foolishness of our religious world that cheapens salvation to that it is some effort on our part or a casual acknowledging in our minds that it’s something about believing in the existence of God, has dismissed away the intricate work of the call of God, the seeking, wooing of the Holy Spirit, the conviction of the lost soul as to their sinfulness, then the repentance and miracle of the new birth. The warning against removing the work of God in salvation was given by our Lord in Matthew 7:21-23 “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? (Meaning they did religious things) And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity”. The religious systems are filled with people who have never yielded to the Holy Spirit’s call to repentance and salvation and they, like the Pharisees and Sadducees of Jesus’ day, are religious but lost. But just as surely as Abraham’s servant found Rebecca and she became the bride of Isaac, the Holy Spirit is still seeking and saving those who are lost and they are joined to Christ Jesus eternally.
August 30, 2021
Genesis 12:4 “So Abram departed, as the LORD had spoken unto him; and Lot went with him: and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran”
Sometimes we look past the facts of Abraham’s circumstances not realizing Abraham was 75 years old, an old man by our standards, when God spoke to him and he began his journey of faith. He had already traveled from Ur to Haran, about 600 miles, when the Lord called him and then he began a trek traveling from Haran to Shechem, about 400 miles then to Bethel, about 20 miles, then to Egypt and back to Bethel, a total of about 450 miles, then to Mamre (Hebron), about 35 miles, and then to Hobah, about 160 miles. Over 1600 miles with his wife, (and nephew for much of the trip), animals, and personal belongings through incredibly rugged country hauling everything they owned. This is quite the eye-opener from the usual rhetoric of “so Abraham left Haran and traveled to the promised land”. Also, the picture of Abraham camped out in his luxurious tent on the big piece of property the Lord gave him and enjoying his immense wealth doesn’t line up with the facts that he was a wanderer, indicated in Hebrews 11:8-10 “By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went. By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise: For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God” where the word “sojourned” means “to be a stranger, to reside as a foreigner”. This is a type of the children of God as they live in the world but are not a part of the world also shown in 1Peter 2:11 “Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul” and identified with saints of the past in Hebrews 11:13-14 “These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country”.
Believers who adopt the view that this life is just a temporary place learn to see materialism and earthly wealth as resources the Lord has provided for us only while we are in this body and they do not make such stuff a priority. Paul said he didn’t even hold onto his earthly life as something of great value when he fixed his eyes on the things that have real value 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”. Lot moved his family into the city of Sodom and made his home there while Abraham kept moving and looking for a city built by the Lord. Likewise, there are many that build their lives on the stuff of this earth and they eat, drink, breathe, and enslave themselves to things that rust, rot, and disappear yet they will obsess and fight over it as if it has real, lasting value and the things of this world become their crown of significance. It’s sad when Christians get caught up in this craziness and break loose from their anchors of faith, lose their eternal vision, and live submitted to and serving a system created by the enemy, the prince and power of the air. In a closing note, God waited 75 years before He called Abraham to walk in faith and then took only 25 years to fulfill the promise of Isaac’s birth. For any of us who think our best years are behind us, let’s read this story again and have faith that the Lord is not handicapped by our age nor is He limited in His ability to use us within any timeframe. Psalm 145:3 “Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised; and his greatness is unsearchable”.
August 29, 2021
Genesis 13:8-11 And Abram said unto Lot, Let there be no strife, I pray thee, between me and thee, and between my herdmen and thy herdmen; for we be brethren. Is not the whole land before thee? separate thyself, I pray thee, from me: if thou wilt take the left hand, then I will go to the right; or if thou depart to the right hand, then I will go to the left. And Lot lifted up his eyes, and beheld all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered every where, before the LORD destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, even as the garden of the LORD, like the land of Egypt, as thou comest unto Zoar. Then Lot chose him all the plain of Jordan; and Lot journeyed east: and they separated themselves the one from the other.
The details of how Abraham and Lot separated give us an understanding of the hearts of these two men. Abraham made the proposal and gave Lot freewill to choose for himself the land he wanted and Abraham conceded to take what was left. The greatness of a believer is not in their ability to muscle their way into the best positions of life, but in their determination to trust God in everything even if it looks like a posture of submission to God and others means they’re getting a raw deal. It clearly looked this way here because Lot looked over the plains of the Jordan River and saw a land fertile, lush, and beautiful and he seemed to have no qualms or shame in choosing for himself what was the best of the best. What Abraham was left with then, was land that much of it was a scrub bush, half-desert, rocky, and arid semi-grassless mess. The lust of the eyes is connected to a deceived and faithless heart and when we see what appears desirable to our flesh, we justify it in our unbelief and grab it without considering God’s will for us. Lot’s choice led him away from a life of shepherding and freedom and in his next move the Bible says he “pitched his tent towards Sodom”. After that, he moved his family from their tent into a house in Sodom, of which the Bible says in Genesis 13:13 “But the men of Sodom were wicked and sinners before the LORD exceedingly”. We know from the Biblical account Lot and his wife were blessed with several young daughters and it makes us question, why would anyone in their right mind make choices that put their precious family in the middle of a sewer like Sodom? When Lot moved into Sodom, here is what the Bible says in 2Peter 2:8 “For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds” and the end of Lot’s story is a horrible failure where he lost his wife, his married daughters perished in Sodom’s fire, and his two younger daughters were so poisoned in their minds and hearts they committed unspeakable atrocities.
Abraham is our example of faith over natural reasoning, fleshly desires, and compromise because he knew he was in the land because he followed the voice of the Lord, and had it not been for God, he’d still have been back in Mesopotamia where he was born. The eye of faith, as opposed to the natural vision exhibited by Lot, sees by the light of truth and not by the bling of this world. It is compelled by the confidence that God is our all-in-all, our source, our reward, our sustainer, and our life’s goal. When we see ourselves and the world around us by this faith sight, we see things as they really are and not how they appear. For Abraham, I’m sure the plains of Jordan looked good but the hope of God looked brighter and better for He had the promise of God imbedded in His being knowing God had said Genesis 12:2-3 “And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed”. How do we apply that practically in our lives? When we choose to do what is right even if it seems other ways will be more profitable, more fun, more socially accepted, easier, cheaper, more satisfying, and better suited to us and our family, we do so believing God’s ways, the ways that are right in His eyes, are fail-proof and will bring victory even if for the moment it seems we are giving up what we’d like to have as Abraham gave up the beautiful Jordan river valley. Lot left the land he chose in disgrace but Abraham was blessed beyond comprehension, became the father of faith, and died in such honor he is revered to this day.
August 28, 2021
Genesis 13:11 “Then Lot chose him all the plain of Jordan; and Lot journeyed east: and they separated themselves the one from the other”
This verse marks the day Abraham finally separated from his nephew Lot who represented the last fragment of Abraham’s old life in Haran. When Abraham began His journey of faith it was given here in Genesis 12:1 “Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee” but Abraham only partially obeyed because we are told in verse 4, “So Abram departed, as the LORD had spoken unto him; and Lot went with him: and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran”. Lot, his kin, was supposed to be left behind and when we follow the story of Lot, it had a miserable ending. Partial obedience is still disobedience and we can not fully rest in God’s best for us when we do not completely yield to His word. It was during this time of half-obedience that Abraham didn’t fully trust God for sustenance during a famine and chose to move to Egypt and there stumbled in his faith, lied about his wife to save his own skin, and was sidetracked from God’s purpose for him for a while. Yet even while living outside the perfect will of God, the Lord blessed and continued to bless Abraham and even greatly blessed Lot also, and there came a time when the providence of God began to do what Abraham would not do on his own. The Bible says that because both men’s possessions of flocks of animals and their households grew so much, they could no longer live together Genesis 13:6 “And the land was not able to bear them, that they might dwell together: for their substance was great, so that they could not dwell together”. Abraham spoke to Lot, telling him to choose where he wanted to live and Abraham would move in the opposite direction and so Abraham was finally living as God had appointed for him.
Immediately after Lot went his way, look at what the scripture says in Genesis 13:14-17 “And the LORD said unto Abram, after that Lot was separated from him, Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place where thou art northward, and southward, and eastward, and westward: For all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed for ever. And I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth: so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, then shall thy seed also be numbered. Arise, walk through the land in the length of it and in the breadth of it; for I will give it unto thee”. It was then, finally in obedience to God’s call to separate himself from all his kindred, that the Lord spoke the covenant in detail to Abraham, building on the original promise of Genesis 12:1-3 and leading Abraham to walk the length and breadth of the land, what we call now the “promised land” because it was given to Abraham and his descendants by a promise of God. The point is that the Lord will bless us because we belong to Him but when we walk in subjection to Him, in full obedience, we open up ourselves and our lives to great blessings and favor. In Old Testament terminology, it is stated in 1Samuel 15:22 “And Samuel said, Hath the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams”. As we walk in the Spirit, the Lord reveals His will to us by His Word and leads us away from the world while drawing us to Himself, often by Holy Spirit convictions in our hearts. The more completely we yield ourselves to Him and His ways, the more completely He manifests Himself to us.
August 27, 2021
Psalm 116:12 “What shall I render unto the LORD for all his benefits toward me?”
What do we have to offer a God who needs nothing, created all things, and has given us all we have? Of Him, it is said in Isaiah 66:1, “Thus saith the LORD, The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool: where is the house that ye build unto me? and where is the place of my rest?” A tidbit of their income, a pious prayer, some legalistic behavior, a few verses of the Bible read, or some other stuff associated with God or religion and people think they’ve given something to Him. But this is the dilemma of the writer of this verse after the list of things and blessings God has done for him in the first nine verses of this Psalm and it is a question asked from a heart of gratitude. The enemy, as he did in the garden with Adam and Eve, constantly fights us to diminish the Lord’s goodness and His provisions while pointing out what we do not have and in our lust for things and our stubbornness to get our own way, we side with this ungrateful vein of thought. Suddenly all God’s benefits to us are taken for granted and we are bored with what we have, discontent with where we are, and wishing for a change in accordance with Proverbs 27:20, “so the eyes of man are never satisfied”. But when we think about and remember what the Lord has given us and done for us, much of which sadly leaves our minds almost immediately after He provides it, and we begin to confess the truth of Psalm 126:3,” The LORD hath done great things for us; whereof we are glad” and it’s not just good things He has done, it’s great things then thankfulness swells up in our hearts and we begin to consider what we can offer the Lord as a token of our gratitude.
The first thing mentioned is in verse 13, “I will take the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the LORD”. This is what God wants, for people to reach for the gift of salvation by calling on the name of the Lord, and is quite the paradox because God is extending this gift to us and foolish mankind is stiff-arming His offer and will only reluctantly take what He offers. Yet when we receive it, it pleases our heavenly Father, and while the dynamics of it all is still His eternal design, when we call Him our Savior and He calls us His beloved children all heaven rejoices before the throne. The second thing mentioned is in verse 14, “I will pay my vows unto the LORD now in the presence of all his people”, something that is rarely mentioned in Christian circles and has to do with us doing what we say we will do. Even though this has nothing to do with obtaining salvation, it pictures something very central to God’s heart and that is honesty and integrity in His children. The Bible says one of the things the Lord hates is a lying tongue but one of the things He loves is given in Psalm 15:2 “He that walketh uprightly, and worketh righteousness, and speaketh the truth in his heart”. Some try to spin the doctrine of grace as if since our righteousness is of Christ, then God isn’t mindful of our actions but this is false teaching and contradicts Titus 2:11-12 which says “For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world”. Keeping our word and doing what we said we would do is well-pleasing to our Father. And then in verse 17, it says “I will offer to thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving” which is more than just having a thankful heart, it means to express our thanks as the Hebrew word for thanksgiving, “towdah”, implies: to extend the hand, to adore, and pictures a choir of worshippers. It’s more than just an occasional “thank you” it’s a state of the heart, the way we live, the way we see our lives, the way we remember the past, and the way we approach our future. Hebrews 13:20-21 “Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, Make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is wellpleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen”.
August 26, 2021
Hebrews “11:6 But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him”
God gives some things freely, no strings attached with the primary gift being life itself. It’s strange how you can live for years and suddenly one day it hits you that being born as a unique, one-of-a-kind person with an eternal soul and then having the opportunity to live forever with the creator of all things is something too wonderful for words and is beyond understanding. It gives a new meaning to the verse Psalm 139:14 “I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well”. Some people and even nations, care little to nothing for the value of human life, never seeing it as a most wonderful gift. Then there is the gift of eternal salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. The same God that freely gave us life then purposed a plan to give everlasting life to anyone who will receive it and does so without any effort on our part but by simply believing in Jesus. All this belongs to the Lord as He said in Ezekiel 18:4 “Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine” and contemplating this simple statement, makes us look at others with renewed respect and awe for they belong to the Lord their creator and are not ours to use, abuse, condemn, scorn, control, or disrespect in any way.
Yet this verse isn’t about the freely given gifts, it’s about rewards for those who fasten their eyes and hearts upon the Lord and desire Him above anything and everything, and in our case, it is through the Word of God and reflected in this verse in Job 23:12 “I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food”. The phrase “them that diligently seek him” is not just seeks, as has been translated in some Bibles but is from the Greek word “ekzeteo” meaning to investigate, crave, demand, and worship, and has its roots in two words: the word “ex” as a prefix meaning utterly, entirely, completely, and fully and “zeteo” meaning seek, desire, require, and worship. This indicates a steadfast affinity for God that causes the seeker to throw themselves into their determination to fully know the Lord as Paul said in Philippians 3:10 “That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection”. For many, a casual knowledge of the Lord is what they have and all they want, and they are truly saved, but they pray a prayer every now and then, sometimes remember where they last saw their Bible in the house, say a few words about the Lord if someone brings up the subject, and know all the appropriate religious words, handshakes, and expressions. Then there are those that hunger after God, that sense their personal emptiness without the fullness of the Holy Spirit, that see this world and what it offers as the garbage can it is, and like the saints of which it is said in Hebrews 11:13 “These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth”. The law of sowing and reaping holds true for both saints and sinners and those who live their lives sowing to their flesh and this world will reap a harvest but it will be things that have no real value and will pass away. But those that diligently seek the Lord, sowing to the Spirit, will see rewards from their Eternal Father that are blessings here and now and treasures in heaven.
August 25, 2021
Revelation 13:8 “And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world”
Every generation of believers has hoped for the appearing of the Lord and they have seen certain things in their time that seemed to point them to His return. Various wars, plagues, leaders like Hitler, and natural disasters among many others seemed so intense at the time they were happening, people thought surely it was evidence Jesus would crack the skies at any moment. In my parent’s generation, World War II with its unspeakable atrocities including the advent of the atomic bomb along with the establishment of Israel at the close of the war, seemed absolute proof that everything was in order for the Day of the Lord. Then came the assassination of Kennedy, the threat of communism, the rise of the counter culture with its hippies, free love, and drugs, and all the preaching, song content, and focus of fundamental Bible believers was that at any moment Christ would come. Now with Covid, shifts in the definitions of gender, turmoil in world governments, fear that America is slipping into socialism, and a myriad of other things that look like certain signs, all we Bible believers are listening for the trumpet, seeing possible signs of the antichrist, the mark of the beast, and the onslaught of global calamities. And while we seem to sense it in our spirit as I have written in previous devotions, the truth still remains that Jesus may come today or He might not come for some time. Things seem bad, but they could get a whole lot worse before the Savior appears. We know what the Bible says and we know that for the world, there’s a storm of trouble coming the likes of which have never before been seen since the flood of Noah but God is in no hurry to execute His plan and will follow what He has purposed without deviating.
This verse in Revelation tells us that all people on the earth, except those whose names are in the Lamb’s book of life, will worship the antichrist. That shouldn’t come as a great surprise because people worship anything and everything every day including sports teams and players, money, possessions, other people, entertainment and entertainers, and anything else you can name, except for the Lord. But two things stick out in this verse and one is that people who belong to God and are “registered” in His book, will not worship the man of sin. There will be many saved during the time of the antichrist’s reign and the Bible describes them in Revelation 7:9 “After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands” and tells who they are in Revelation 7:13-14 “And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes? and whence came they? And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb”. The second thing is that Jesus, who is the Lamb mentioned here, is said to have been slain from the foundation of the world. How is that possible since we know there was a specific time and place in Jerusalem when our Lord was crucified? This is a reference to God’s plan of the mystery of grace which He purposed before time began and the death of His Son was planned and executed at that time as certainly as if it had already taken place in earth time and nothing could have changed God’s decrees. We might have the sense that events on this earth are contributing to God’s decision as to when Jesus will return but that’s utter nonsense because the Bible says in Acts 17:31 “Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead”. So, the Lord isn’t watching things unfolding and setting His timing and plans by what’s happening on this earth. He set the day of the end of all things before He made the first day of earth time and the covenant of grace was established through Jesus, the Lamb of God, before the world began. Isaiah 46:9-10 “for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me, Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure”.
August 24, 2021
1Thessalonians 4:13 “But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope”
If you asked people, “what happens after death?”, it opens a subject very few people think about or know about. For most, there is a general cloudy thought that people don’t cease to exist and go to an afterlife but as to its substance, they don’t have a clue, and a lot of people, influenced by the fiction of movies, YouTube, and television, believe the dead are with the living just in another realm. Remember the movie “the sixth sense and its famous line “I see dead people”? For most that’s the shadowy, mysterious, unknowable, and ethereal state of the departed. As for hell, people tell others to go there but they don’t really believe it exists as the Bible teaches. The problem is that people’s views of what happens after death have been shaped by everything except the Bible and while they may believe their departed loved ones are somewhere, it’s not a concrete place but more of a ghost-like existence where their spirits roam eternally without purpose. That’s why even believers when they read Paul’s statement in Philippians 1:23 “For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better” they think it’s only the case when this life becomes unbearable due to pain, suffering, or being too old to function. From that perspective, life after death is quite undesirable, boring, purposeless, and something to dread compared to the “life is good” existence we try to create here. Just imagine, some may think, an eternal semi-solid state of being with no sports, recreation, or excitement.
God doesn’t want us to be ignorant, the word meaning without understanding, of what happens to people who are asleep, a term the ancients used to describe death (sometimes they referred to it as the “eternal sleep”. (Wouldn’t that be a depressing thought?). The Bible says when our soul leaves our body, we will be with Jesus 2Corinthians 5:8 “We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord” and we will be like Him Philippians 3:21 “Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself”. The scriptures tell us when Jesus resurrected in His glorified body, He appeared as human John 20:14 “And when she had thus said, she turned herself back, and saw Jesus standing, and knew not that it was Jesus. Jesus saith unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? whom seekest thou? She, supposing him to be the gardener, saith unto him, Sir, if thou have borne him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away”. In His glorified body, such as we will receive, He ate food Luke 24:42-43 “And they gave him a piece of a broiled fish, and of an honeycomb. And he took it, and did eat before them”. He walked and talked with people Luke 24:15-17 “And it came to pass, that, while they communed together and reasoned, Jesus himself drew near, and went with them. But their eyes were holden that they should not know him. And he said unto them, What manner of communications are these that ye have one to another, as ye walk, and are sad?”. But He also had supernatural abilities Luke 24:30-31 “And it came to pass, as he sat at meat with them, he took bread, and blessed it, and brake, and gave to them. And their eyes were opened, and they knew him; and he vanished out of their sight”. God’s Word gives us a wonderful picture of how, in our glorified bodies, we will be at peace, free from any sorrow or pain, able to move around, eat, talk with friends, and whatever else the Lord has for us as described in 1Corinthians 2:9 “But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him”. We can be sure our loved ones who have already made the crossing are alive, happy, and waiting for us, and thank God we have the same promise that when it is our time, our eternal life will be glorious.
August 23, 2021
Daniel 6:10 “Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went into his house; and his windows being open in his chamber toward Jerusalem, he kneeled upon his knees three times a day, and prayed, and gave thanks before his God, as he did aforetime”
Some valuable lessons for believers can be learned from this chapter of Daniel which are especially pertinent to our current age. Daniel was one of the thousands of Jews that were carried away to Babylon as captives when King Nebuchadnezzar and his armies destroyed Jerusalem. Daniel lived in a foreign country and was almost 900 miles from the temple (which had been destroyed), and by the time of this chapter, was serving Darius, the ruler of the Medes and Persian empire that had conquered the Babylonians during the 70 years the Jews were being held captive. Yet the Bible tells us Daniel chose to always do what was right no matter his environment and circumstances and lived his life in subjection to the Lord, placing his allegiance to God above all else. One of his habits of life was to kneel in his room, facing a window towards Jerusalem, and pray three times a day. The Lord blessed him and caused him to prosper in his pagan world and soon he was promoted by the King as the primary president over all the provinces as the Bible says, Daniel 6:3,” Then this Daniel was preferred above the presidents and princes, because an excellent spirit was in him; and the king thought to set him over the whole realm”. Because of his success, this man of God was hated by others in the kingdom and they set about to destroy him except they couldn’t find any faults in him to exploit so they hatched a devious plan behind his back that played on the ruler’s ego to pass a law that if anyone was caught praying to any other God besides King Darius, that person would be thrown into a den of lions. But as our verse for today tells us when Daniel heard about the new law, he did not alter his pattern of worship and as we know from the beloved story, he spent the night in the lion hotel.
This has insight for us into the command of 1Peter 2:13-14,” Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake: whether it be to the king, as supreme; unto governors, as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers, and for the praise of them that do well” and causes us to question: when is it right for a believer to disobey the law? In Daniel’s case, it was only when the law made him choose between his allegiance to Jehovah as his Sovern Lord or conceding that highest of homage to King Darius. It’s important to note that in everything, Daniel was subject to Darius insomuch that when his life was carefully examined by his enemies, they could find no fault in him. Another good example of this matter of living in obedience to God even when it contradicts human law is when the Apostles were forbidden to preach in Jesus’ name and the Bible says Acts 5:27,” And when they had brought them, they set them before the council: and the high priest asked them, Saying, Did not we straitly command you that ye should not teach in this name? and, behold, ye have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine, and intend to bring this man’s blood upon us. Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than men”. We need God’s wisdom and the Holy Spirit’s direction in these changing times where it appears liberties are in jeopardy for we do not want to dishonor the Lord either by rebelling against what He has told us to be in submission to nor do we want to dishonor Him by conceding allegiance that belongs only to him to this world. Daniel, a man of the highest integrity, made his choice for God’s honor and the Lord delivered him from what should have been a horrible death and this same God will honor us when we make our choices for His glory in these apostate times.
August 22, 2021
John 14:27” Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid”
Jesus spoke these words to His disciples shortly before He was crucified and for His band of men who had seen some unbelievably wonderful times for three years, things were about to change. Despite listening to all His teaching and being with Him constantly, the disciples still hadn’t grasped the purpose of the Lord’s appearing and His mission of salvation and as they watched the events of the arrest and death of their Master unfold, the joys of the miracles, fellowship, food, excitement of the crowds, and traveling the countryside vanished away and they were left needing peace about the present and the future. We wonder just what they had expected their future with Jesus to be while they were with Him but one thing is always a surety, when we belong to the Lord, His peace will be with us no matter the circumstances. Growing in grace is also growing in peace as the two are inseparably connected and appear attached at least seventeen times in the Epistles such as 1Corinthians 1:3,” Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ”. We can believe it is God’s will for us to be at peace because it is the third fruit of the Holy Spirit in Galatians 5:22, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace” and fulfills one of the gifts of our Lord as we saw in our verse for today, “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you”. We read about Him calming the storm in Mark 4:39,” And he arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm” and the light of His Word shines in our hearts to teach us there’s no reason to fear anything because the Lord is with us just as He told His disciples, “Why are ye so fearful? how is it that ye have no faith?”.
I keep writing devotions about peace because the Lord keeps directing my mind there as so many people have everything except peace right now. We are loaded with creature comforts and most of us can’t think of a thing we need materialistically yet there is a gnawing need within for comfort and security that never quite dissipates. For some, it’s outright fear because there’s not a single answer this world can offer that will fix the turmoil and mess around us. All the certainty has been taken away and the old landmarks of tradition and trust that once held us like anchors have been replaced with a constant flux of profane nonsense and our world around us is left with no sure foundations for the future. But God is bigger than all this and in His infinite wisdom, foresaw where we are and He will never fail in the lives of His people to perform for them exactly what He promised. Peace comes when we remember how the Lord stood for us in the past and He will not fail us now. When David faced Goliath, he remembered how God delivered him from a lion and a bear and that gave him confidence God would deliver him from the giant. Peace comes when we stop listening to the rabble-rousing of the world and turn our ears and heart to the truth of God’s Word. Peace comes when we seek the fullness of the Holy Spirit completely convinced it’s the Lord’s will for us to be filled with His presence. Peace comes when we make our home a sanctuary for the glory of God and work with our family to create a place where peace reigns. Peace comes when we worship our way out of the prisons of doubt, fear, uncertainty, and unbelief which are traps our flesh and our enemy set to keep us away from the Lord’s river of peace. God has called us to peace, given us peace, wants to fill us with peace, and has made it readily available to all His children. He said, “seek peace and pursue it”.
August 21, 2021
Mark 2:27-28,” And he said unto them, The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath: Therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the sabbath”
The principle of the Sabbath Day, goes back to the very beginning in Genesis when God finished all creation in six days and the Bible says Genesis 2:1-3,” Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made”. The root meaning of the Sabbath can be found in the Hebrew word for “rest”, shabath, which means to cease from exertion. God ended what He was doing and while we know He was not exhausted, He blessed the seventh day and declared it clean (sanctified) showing His work of creating was finished and this set a pattern for man, marking the beginning and end of weeks. This principle of the Sabbath Day figured prominently in the Levitical law and again, was a time marker for the Jews to arrange their lives and families around. The ordinance of the Sabbath was given to man as a gift of repose for all, including servants and animals, to enjoy and look forward to a day of rest, time for family, time for contemplating the things of God, and if seen as such, it constituted on the Jewish calendar, 50 vacation days a year. The Lord was so determined about man observing the Sabbaths, knowing man’s tendency to abuse himself and others by working seven days a week, He enforced the keeping of the Sabbath with severe penalties. We might look at the law of the Sabbath as a restriction of man’s freedoms but the reality is, God was giving a gift of rest and as the first Sabbath was blessed and declared sanctified, so also was all subsequent Sabbaths hence the words of our Lord Jesus, “the sabbath was made for man”.
When the Bible declares Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath, it’s saying He is in authority over the Sabbath just as He is over all creation. When the Pharisees condemned the Lord for healing on the Sabbath, Jesus answered, “I will ask you one thing; Is it lawful on the sabbath days to do good, or to do evil? to save life, or to destroy it?” and they would not answer him because they had made the Sabbath into a day of bondage with their traditions. As we stand now justified by faith through the grace of God, we are delivered from the law of Moses including the law of the Levitical Sabbath. Some people want to honor Sunday (Saturday is actually the Sabbath) as a “Christian Sabbath” but God does not demand it and the scripture makes this clear in Romans 14:5,” One man esteemeth one day above another: another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind” and then the Bible says in Colossians 2:16-17,” Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days: Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ”. If someone wants to choose a day and dedicate it especially to the Lord, that’s their business and the Lord says not to judge them for it. However, those who choose such a day are also not to judge those who believe every day is the same. Yet the principle of the Sabbath is one every Christian should consider, taking a day and setting it aside to relax, be with their family, and giving themselves a work-free day to enjoy what God has given them. In Bible times, families lived in a tent or a small house and every person didn’t have their own room, separate bath, and 1200 square feet to themselves so the principle of the Sabbath isn’t the same if our family segregates to different quarters with headphones on. God created families, He instituted the Sabbath on people’s behalf, and He did so to bring order and intimacy to couples and their children. While we may spurn the idea of a Christian Sabbath, it sure would strengthen us to follow some of the principles of God’s Day of rest.
August 20, 2021
Joel 1:4,” That which the palmerworm hath left hath the locust eaten; and that which the locust hath left hath the cankerworm eaten; and that which the cankerworm hath left hath the caterpillar eaten”
Joel prophesied to Israel, specifically the southern kingdom of Judah, saying that what they see before their eyes, the destruction caused by a devastating army of insects completely destroying their food supply, is a result of their transgressions. He says Joel 2:2,” A Day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness, as the morning spread upon the mountains” describing the scenario unleashed like a fire that destroys all in its path. Here, the Lord didn’t use a great army of enemy soldiers to accomplish His will, but hordes of insects that couldn’t be defeated and as they chewed their path, one species after another, through the land nothing was left standing, and Israel was plunged into famine and financial ruin. This rebellious course of life people follow, when they turn away from the truth thinking they can continue on, sticking their finger in the eye of the One who created them and that He will never call them to account for their sin, is a path to certain judgment unless the call to repentance is heard. Joel’s day was another time in the repeated cycles of sin and revival Israel visited until finally, the Lord used the Babylonians to execute His chastisement. All of us, at some time, have encountered God’s chastisement yet when it is carried out on a nationwide scale, it’s only done so when the Lord has repeatedly called for repentance but people spurned the call. When this particular scenario was playing out, it was a time of confusion and great unrest in 865 B.C. as the reign of terror of Queen Mother Athaliah ended and seven-year-old King Joash came to the throne. It bears remembering that the Lord allows earthly kings (and presidents for that matter) to ascend their thrones and then judges nations and people based on everyone’s actions. When we forget Romans 13:1,” Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God”, we are liable to rebel against God’s provisions as if such installments of power are our doing and as such disregard the truth that God does not always give a leader to be a blessing but some are the payment for a nation’s transgressions.
But just as Joel tells of the massive destruction caused by God’s army of insects, He called for the nation to turn to the Lord Joel 1:14, “Sanctify ye a fast, call a solemn assembly, gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land into the house of the LORD your God, and cry unto the LORD”. Those who follow the Lord Jesus during these perilous times of Covid, angry people with strong opinions, pathetic governing by our elected leaders, and uncertainty on every hand, would love to hear a call to repentance by our spiritual leaders. Joel told of God’s judgment but countered it with a message of hope Joel 2:12-13, “Therefore also now, saith the LORD, turn ye even to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning: And rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the LORD your God: for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil”. There is always hope and even in the time of tribulation on this earth, the message of hope will still be preached as described in Revelation 14:6-7 And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters. Let’s pray during this time of pending destruction and sorrow that people will begin to call on the Lord and cry out words of repentance and pleading for themselves and our nation and the same God that promised Israel He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness may turn away from this systematic turmoil and send revival.
August 19, 2021
Galatians 4:15,” Where is then the blessedness ye spake of? for I bear you record, that, if it had been possible, ye would have plucked out your own eyes, and have given them to me. Am I therefore become your enemy, because I tell you the truth?”
When Paul first went to Galatia and began ministering, he was well received even though he had some malady he called an “infirmity of the flesh” in verse 13. It’s not certain what this was but some have guessed he was referring to his poor eyesight perhaps alluded to in Galatians 6:11,” Ye see how large a letter I have written unto you with mine own hand” although he possibly wrote in large letters for emphasis such as we would use underlining. But the phrase “you would have plucked out your own eyes and given them to me” seems to support the idea he had eye problems and the Galatians were so moved that Paul says in verse 14 they “received me as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus”. The initial preaching of the gospel of grace sat well with them and so it is when the milk of the Word is presented perhaps because people like new things and soft, chewable, tasty, and easy to swallow words. Among those who profess faith in the Lord, as long as the message stays close to what Hebrews 6:1 refers to as the principles of the doctrine of Christ, which is salvation through faith in Jesus, there are many who will rejoice in this simple truth and want to hang around the area of the cross, the empty tomb, and the Jordan river, so to speak, all their Christian lives. But we are called away from the cross and the basics as the Bible declares Hebrews 6:1-2, “Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God, Of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment.” Notice here God said we should leave these principles and “go on to perfection (maturity)” with the phrase “go on” being a verb carrying the sense of being driven, rushing, enduring, and reaching towards.
But this time Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, was writing to correct things that were going wrong in the churches in Galatia and when he began this letter, he did not have words of praise for them as he did to the church of Colosse where he wrote Colossians 1:4,” Since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and of the love which ye have to all the saints”. To the churches of Galatia, he wrote Galatians 1:6-7,” I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ” and went on to call them foolish in Galatians 3:1,” O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you?”. The Galatians were not growing in grace, they were retreating back to legalism and when Paul confronted them with the message of grace, they detested his words and he even asked, “have I become your enemy because I tell you the truth?”. They had moved from a place where they loved and appreciated Paul to where they even argued he wasn’t really an apostle and certainly didn’t want to hear the message that the winds of false doctrine had blown them off course. It’s tough and painful when people that once called you a friend and stood by your side, turn away and even posture themselves as your enemy or give you the cold shoulder. But when you follow on to make Christ your goal and refuse to be swayed, looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith, don’t be alarmed if you end up in a predicament like Paul where you have to move on and leave the haters stuck in their own rut. Apostle Paul concluded his letter with these words, Galatians 6:17,” From henceforth let no man trouble me: for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus” meaning “So don’t give me any more trouble. I have scars on my body that show I belong to Jesus”.
August 18, 2021
Romans 4:18 “Who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations”
We’ve all listened to sermons and slogans telling us to stop walking by sight and walk by faith usually accompanied with Proverbs 3:5, “Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding”. Everyone can talk this kind of faith when life is good and there seems to be clear answers and fixes for the bumps in our road or the storm we’re in isn’t trying to blow us off the map. Abraham was 75 years old when God appeared to him and promised him a son which, at that age seemed a miracle in itself had he and Sarah had that child immediately. But God, moving at the speed He often does when He is stretching our faith and building our relationship with Him, waited 25 years before He brought the promise to pass. Someone said we live on microwave time but God moves at a crockpot pace and for 25 years Abraham waited, waited, and waited and was aware that for him and Sarah, as time ticked by, what seemed unlikely at 75 then seemed absurdly impossible at 100. Sometimes this waiting while believing wears us down and we can think that at first when the Lord gave the promise to Abraham, he and Sarah expected their son to be conceived at any time and for a while, their faith must have been running high but when things take longer than we expect, faith comes under attack by our fleshly reason and the enemy whispers louder and louder that it’s just not going to happen. So at 100 years old in the natural realm, all hope of bearing a child was taken away but Abraham knew what God had promised and by faith in what God said laid hold on hope that didn’t even exist to the natural reasoning of man and stopped listening to the voice of hopelessness as the Bible says, Rom 4:19-21. “And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sara’s womb: He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform”.
Abraham didn’t just believe in God, he believed what God said and his faith was such that God’s Word to him was the basis of his hope. Every Word the Lord spoke to Abraham was truer than anything he could see, think, or imagine and now that we have the Bible, the complete and final Words of God to us, we have more to stand on in faith than Abraham. It’s hard to wait even though we have seen the answer to our circumstance in His Word and resolved, by faith, to receive it. When the enemy can’t move us away from the promise, his next attempt is to offer us a “workable solution” we can use to bring the answer, whispering it’s probably the way God wants us to get our answer. It was the same with Abraham, he and Sarah waited on the fulfillment of the promise for 11 years and saw no answer so they concocted their own plan, to have a surrogate child with Hagar, which made sense to them but man’s ways are not God’s ways. Abraham and Sarah had to wait 14 more years until the Lord gave them the miracle child Isaac. When we believe God, taking Him at His Word, the battle of faith begins James 1:3-4,” Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing”. Sometimes the Lord brings the answer right away and sometimes He allows all hope to falter except only the hope that endures through faith in His Word.
August 17, 2021
1Corinthians 13:13,” And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity”
Most of the time when this verse is mentioned, it’s in declaring the greatness of love because it closes chapter 13 which gives a detailed explanation of love. But it is speaking of three things that abide, the word meaning to exist permanently, to endure, namely faith, hope, and love. Together, these are the foundation of the essence of Christianity and the summary of what it means to be a follower of Jesus. They are the source of good works and the fruit of the Holy Spirit as each attribute is what we pursue when we are empowered by the Spirit and while there has been much emphasis placed on spiritual gifts, doctrines, organizations, and such, but all those things constantly change and unless our heart is settled on the big three, we can not keep a steady course. For example, the Bible says without faith, we can’t please God (Heb 11:6) so if all we do is directed by our own understanding and reason apart from faith, we are operating in the flesh and those in the flesh can’t please God (Rom 8:8) and again, Romans 14:23, “for whatsoever is not of faith is sin”. It is the peril of humanity that the awareness of faith in the Sovern God as Creator and sustainer of all creation and faith in Jesus Christ as the only door to heaven, is almost completely gone from the minds and hearts of men and was prophesied in what at the time seemed to be a rhetorical question by our Lord in Luke 18:8, “Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?” As the first of the three abiding things, faith in God and His Son is the substance of all that is eternally real until faith carries us into our blessed eternity where we shall see God face to face and be forever in His presence in the place our Lord prepared for us. The casting aside of faith has left humanity with no hope and an imitation love, mainly self-love and lust which has quickly deteriorated downward into depravity as per Romans 1:18-32.
Both in and out of the church, people now are filled with depression, discouragement, despair, sadness, and anxiety. This has to be a result of a world without faith and without hope added to the soul’s trauma of dysfunctional, broken families with no peace and stability. An epidemic of addictions, unsatisfying materialism, lives constantly in a mad rush, rebellion against God’s natural order, willingness to accept the murder of innocents, and the scourge of living in a world where lying, deceit, and falsification is the norm have pushed people to alcohol, drugs, and misery. Like the prophets of baal in 1 Kings 18 who cut themselves bloody trying to get an answer from their false god, people continue to destroy themselves and their children, refusing to repent from their wickedness and turn to the Lord but claw their way deeper into their painful pit of despair. The evidence is that in the USA alone, in 2020 antianxiety medication costs reached almost 4 billion dollars and, without antianxiety meds, self-medicating, or coping mechanisms, the current ever-present darkness would suck much of today’s population into a deadly depression. Annual alcohol sales in the usa, are over 270 billion dollars and marijuana sales, illicit and legal combined, were over 117 billion in 2020. No faith, no hope, and no real God-based love is the recipe for emotional and spiritual suffering on a gargantuan scale and all because we don’t want to follow the ways of the Lord and will fight against the very things that will bring us victory and peace. Job 15:16,” How much more abominable and filthy is man, which drinketh iniquity like water?”
August 16, 2021
Nehemiah “4:14 And I looked, and rose up, and said unto the nobles, and to the rulers, and to the rest of the people, Be not ye afraid of them: remember the Lord, which is great and terrible, and fight for your brethren, your sons, and your daughters, your wives, and your houses”
After the Jews had their 70 years of captivity, God called Nehemiah to travel from Babylon back to Jerusalem and rebuild the wall around the city. This raises a good question, why did Jerusalem even need a wall? After all, it was the city of God, the Jews were God’s people and God could have put a sort of spiritual dome over the whole area and provided such a magnificent defense of angels and providence that would have protected His people much better than a wall. Yet not only did the Lord want them to rebuild the wall, He told them in this verse to fight for their families and their homes. Here again, we can look back to all the wars Israel fought, all the sieges laid against Jerusalem, and all the times the Lord told them to fight and He would be with them but we know the omnipotence of the Lord and that with just a word He could have defeated all their enemies and they wouldn’t even have had to even lift a finger to defend themselves. On a personal level, we are children of God and we know He is omnipresent with us and has promised all things work for our good so why do we lock our doors, carry insurance, have weapons for protection, and take medicines? Why do we concern about our children’s safety, throw away food that’s a couple of days old, or any of the other numerous things we do in caution? If we’re sticklers for saying we believe God will protect us it sure sounds like we’re a bunch of hypocrites. Nehemiah could have said, “you know, let’s all just trust God, forget about these walls, repurpose our weapons into art or tools of agriculture, try to make friends with all our enemies, and chant God is good”.
The answers to all this are multifold and begin with God’s determination to balance the free will He has given us with His purpose and design for eternity. Man, made in the image of God, has been blessed with ability, intellect, creativity, purpose, and skills to survive. Some people summarize it by saying, “God wants us to use our heads”, but it’s more than that, He designed us to work, to organize, to assist and depend upon one another, to face the reality of a sin-cursed world, and use all He has given us within the bounds of our freewill to enrich our lives and protect our families. There is coming a time of peace, tranquility, and prosperity where the curse will be obliterated by the reign of our Lord but until then we must function in a world that is still under the curse of God as He declared in Genesis 3:14-19. Even though we have our trust in the Lord, we must build walls of convictions and standards against the wickedness of this world, making our homes a place of peace and security for our families. We must fight for our families, children, and grandchildren by holding to the Word of God without wavering and teach its truths to our generation as a dam against the tide of wicked poison spewing from all that is around us. And we must pray for wisdom to be the leaders and soldiers God has called us to be believing we have the mind of Christ, the power of the Holy Spirit, and the freedom to act according to His will. The mystery is that suffering and hardship draws us closer to the Lord, brings God-centered families closer to each other, and has something to do with our sinful selfishness and pride that if allowed to run its course unchecked by adversity, will always choose a path away from God rather than one submitted to His will. Believers who endure hardships yet remain steadfast are witnesses for trust in the Lord to a lost world that otherwise would dismiss fair-weather faith. There were many conversions during the Roman era of people who saw Christians persecuted to their death yet they would not renounce the Lord and the unbelieving world began turning to a faith in the Lord worth dying for. So when it seems God could make our way easier but He chooses not, He has an unfailing purpose for us that gives an answer to the hope that lies within us in ways nothing else can.
August 15, 2021
James 4:7-8 “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you”
The enemy knows he can’t separate us from the love of God for the Word of God has already declared that’s an impossibility. He knows he can’t doom our souls because we are eternally safe, hidden with Christ in God. He knows all things are working for good in our life because God purposed that for us from the foundation of the world. What he can do is roar at us like a roaring lion, accuse us, tempt us, aggravate us, and keep after us with his same old bag of tricks to discourage us and sidetrack us from the fulness God has promised. When Daniel prayed a prayer of faith in Daniel 10, the devil fought against the answer to his prayers for 21 days until the angels of the Lord defeated the enemy. This account gives us information to help us better understand Ephesians 6:12, “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places”. It’s an uncanny thought that while we live our daily lives, in the unseen realm, the angels of God and the angels of darkness are all around us and in that respect, the devil and his kingdom are fighting to keep us from fulfilling God’s will. Praise the Lord for Psalm 34:7,” The angel of the LORD encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivereth them”. This certainly aligns with the mention of angels in Hebrews 1:14, “Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?”. So, even though we can’t see them unless God allows it, their presence is real and sometimes we have encountered them and didn’t know it as given in Hebrews 13:2,” Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares”.
James gives us the handbook for dealing with the devil on our part and it begins with our submitting ourselves to God. The word submit means to put ourselves in order under God, giving up our rights to Him as the sovereign King. Ours is such a time of arrogance, stubbornness, and rebellion against any authority, it has become increasingly against people’s will to submit to anyone or anything including God, evidenced by how we have tossed aside His Word unless it suits our purposes and we’ve twisted its meanings to fit our own demands. Nevertheless, it is the first step in victory over the wicked one. Then the Bible says to resist the devil, a verb of action meaning to take a stand in opposition to, to make a covenant or a decision to refuse to have any part of what we are opposing. This is the basis of genuine convictions, a heartfelt decision that determines one’s course of actions in any situation even if it should mean dying for the cause, summed by Psalm 97:10 Ye that love the LORD, hate evil”. Once we are in this place of submission to God and defiance to the enemy, the Bible says the devil will flee, run away, vanish. The attacks of the enemy are ones he uses over and over and the Bible says in 2Corinthians 2:11,” Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices”. Temptations for our flesh, whispers of discouragement, lies, and deception about anything and everything, and people who just happen to show up in our path of life to cause misery and strife are a few of his often-used methods but we are more than conquerors through Jesus Christ and we stand on the promise that for now, obeying James 4:7-8 will put him to flight and then the ultimate promise in Romans 16:20,” And the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly”.
August 14, 2021
Luke 21:28 “And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh”
This chapter of Luke is where Jesus was teaching about the destruction of Jerusalem and what would happen afterward and the disciples asked in verse 7, “Master, but when shall these things be? and what sign will there be when these things shall come to pass?”. When the Lord then revealed the calamities and destruction which would come on the world, He gave verse 28 as a consolation of hope. Remember that He is first speaking to Israel because there can be no clear understanding of the scriptures from the beginning to end unless Israel is placed centrally in the interpretation. Yet the verse spans more than just the deliverance and redemption of Israel for the children of God through faith in Jesus, are part of the culmination of God’s creation and just as there is transition and overlapping of the old covenant and the new and in the seven church ages, there will be overlapping and transitions in the closing of the church ages, the rise of the antichrist, the tribulation, and the return of the Lord Jesus as King of Kings. Sitting on the back porch looking west, I can be sitting in the sunshine but notice a storm coming far off in the distance. It may take a long time before it hits our porch but one by one the signs of the approaching storm will become evident. There is a gradual darkening, the wind begins and then increases in velocity, leaves on the trees turn over indicating a change in wind direction, birds start looking for shelter, then the sound of thunder at first faint but becoming increasingly louder, a few sprinkles of rain, and then the onslaught begins. This is the picture Jesus was revealing and the storm of God’s judgment has been brewing for some time now but we are starting to experience the increase of the winds and the pelting of the rain. There are many many naysayers from all walks of life, some with a great education, some claiming God-connections, some offering alternate explanations, and some in outright denial but we are seeing the Words of our Lord coming to pass before our very eyes.
The Lord said when the things He foretold begin to come to pass, to first “look up”. If we continue to look around us, all we will see is a continual worsening of the evil, the terror, the confusion, and the destruction but the Lord said to “look up” and it reminds us of the words of the Psalmist when he said in Psalm 121:1-2,” I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. My help cometh from the LORD, which made heaven and earth”. In his case, he was referring to Jerusalem, built on seven hills and was the center of worship for the nation of Israel but in our case, it is upward to the throne of grace where Christ sits at the right hand of God. But not only did He say to lift our eyes, He said to lift our heads giving the impression of one who is bowed down with troubles, worries, discouragement, and hopelessness and suddenly there is hope, there is an answer, there is help, and there is victory and the head that was hanging in defeat is lifted in confidence, faith, courage, and power. Redemption, deliverance is close for the church and the restoration of Israel. It is a bitter/sweet time because we know those left to face the tribulation may be people we know, people in our families, people we love who will not put their trust in Jesus for salvation and though we will leave, escaping the wrath coming upon the world, those left behind will suffer as no people ever before. But it is the blessed hope, the comfort for believers that God promised and we see it unfolding every day so let’s witness to the lost, look up, raise our heads, and know when He appears, we will forever be with our Lord.
August 13, 2021
Titus 2:7-8 “In all things shewing thyself a pattern of good works: in doctrine shewing uncorruptness, gravity, sincerity, Sound speech, that cannot be condemned; that he that is of the contrary part may be ashamed, having no evil thing to say of you”
Can you think of someone you know or have known that has been a good example of Christ to you? Most Christians have had someone, a parent, grandparent, another family member, a coworker, or someone in their church that has set the example of a life lived for the Lord. They didn’t have to be perfect but there was a consistency in their faith and accompanying works that had an influence as someone you could look to and learn from. In the case of Apostle Paul, we hear him addressing the young preacher Timothy In 1Timothy 1:2, “Unto Timothy, my own son in the faith: Grace, mercy, and peace, from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord” and although Timothy isn’t his natural son, in the faith, Paul is a spiritual parent to him and whenever he writes about this young man, he is often sharing experiences and giving him Godly advice. In the Old Testament, Elisha looked to Elijah as a mentor and when it came time for Elijah to leave this world for heaven, Elisha asked that a double portion of the Spirit that was with Elijah might be upon him and the Lord granted his request. It would be a wonderful thing if children could look to their parents and grandparents as examples of Christians carrying out the cause of Christ in a way that speaks clearly of a steadfast faith. My dad was one such example to us when we were growing up. His faith in the Lord was unwavering and while we could see his flaws, they were all overshadowed by his love for the Lord, his allegiance to the Bible, and his faithfulness to the things of God including the ministry to which God had called him. As I have gotten older, I realize how much I learned from dad’s patterns of faith and how much I wish I could have seen him in that light when I was growing up and if someone asked me today, “who was the best example of integrity and faithfulness to the Lord when you were a child?”, I would have to answer,” my dad”.
But the verse today isn’t about who has been a good example for us, it’s about our being a good example to others when it says in everything, show yourself a pattern, an example of good works. Maybe we don’t see ourselves as having the responsibility of not just mentioning Christ Jesus to those around us but actually demonstrating who He is by acting out His goodness and grace. As we’ve said before in these daily devotions, God’s will for us is to make consistent, conscientious choices to do what’s right no matter the circumstances, consequences, opinions of those around us, or any other factor pushing us to do otherwise. These patterns of good works speak loudly in a time when people can’t decide what and who to trust, believe, or follow. When this world sees those spoken of in Titus 1:16,” They profess that they know God; but in works they deny him, being abominable, and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate”, they will assume all that say they are Christians are just a hypocritical lot. The verse doesn’t end with the encouragement to practice good works, it also says the words we say should be pure, honest, clear, and accurate so the mouths of those who would defame us will be silenced. This world, this generation, our families, our children, and grandchildren need Godly examples and it’s not someone else’s job it’s ours.
August 12, 2021
Lamentations 5:15-16 “The joy of our heart is ceased; our dance is turned into mourning. The crown is fallen from our head: woe unto us, that we have sinned!”
The rallying cry today is, “it’s my life, my body, my choices, and my business so stop trying to tell me what to do and stop judging me”. This is human rights philosophy taken to the maximum and is fulfilling the prophecy of Revelation 3 for the church age of Laodicea, the final stage of the church before the appearing of our Lord. The word Laodicea is a combination of two Greek words: “laos”, meaning “of the people”, and “dike”, meaning “rights”. As a compound word, it means the rights of the people or as we like to call it, civil rights. While there is nothing wrong with our nation setting in order things that in our past were atrocious considering the value of human life, underlying this current force are the seeds of rebellion, anarchy, and defiance of the truth of God. It is the spirit of Babylon that had its beginning with the wicked leader Nimrod in Genesis 10 who led the world in defiance of God and brought confusion to the human race as they rebuilt the earth after the destruction by the flood. Believers, although they have the peace of the Lord and hold fast to His promises, still are aware of the rapid changes in the very demeanor and persona of the people of this nation and it carries the aura of uncertainty, untrustworthiness, turmoil, and outright malevolence. It is a world of security cameras, identity theft, the unspeakable evil of human trafficking, violence against little children, lies from the mouths of almost all government leaders, widespread addiction to pornography, unprecedented drug abuse, a 70% increase of alcohol consumption globally, the destruction of the family, and such an onslaught of deviant lifestyles and practices there’s only one destination for it all: the courtroom of God’s judgment. It makes us wonder how much longer God will hold back His wrath as daily He watches what fallen, depraved people are doing, He hears their words against His Name, and He knows the sorrow of those crying out in pain from the abuse.
It’s appalling a large part of the church is either embracing all this as normal under the banner of “follow us, all is well” or it’s cowering in indecisiveness and trepidation fearing that telling the truth will run people away from an already lukewarm sludge of compromise. Concerning fundamentalists, their cry is not a call to repentance but the echo and regurgitating of whatever conservative talk show they are addicted to as if the current political climate mess is a result of liberal ideologies. When Jesus ministered in person, Israel was under the thumb of the Roman empire but Jesus didn’t blame Rome for Israel’s plight. His words were not against the political system of Rome but against the godless religious structures of His day because sin had caused the Almighty God to remove the hedge of protection around His people. Likewise in this country, the crown of honor has fallen from our head because we have followed the same path declared by Jeremiah 2:13,” 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”. The current political mess is a result of our sin and fixing the politics will not fix a system that has fallen away from God. Shame on pastors and ministers who are cheerleaders for conservative politics, or any political view for that matter, and not Holy Spirit-filled voices for the soon returning King of Kings and Lord of Lords. As Jeremiah lamented over the collapse of the Israel he loved, we lament over a country that was once a bright and shining star for the world but is slowly crumbling under the weight of its own transgressions.
August 11, 2021
Haggai 1:6-7 Ye have sown much, and bring in little; ye eat, but ye have not enough; ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink; ye clothe you, but there is none warm; and he that earneth wages earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes. Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Consider your ways.
The prophet Haggai ministered to the Jewish people that had returned to their land after 70 years of captivity in Babylon and specifically, he spoke to them about their failure to finish rebuilding the temple of God. Instead, they busied themselves working on their own projects and making their own homes more elaborate. As a consequence, for their mixed-up priorities, God was not only withholding blessings from them He was also causing their lives to become hard to get their attention. No matter how much grain they sowed, they harvested only small crops and they never could be satisfied with their food. Also, any money they earned, was like putting it into a bag with holes, it just didn’t go far enough to pay their bills and get ahead. The lesson for them was that people who belong to the Lord, get their blessings, contentment, prosperity, and comfort from God and when He isn’t in first place, our lives are out of order. This is when He said to them, “consider your ways” calling them to examine their lives, take an inventory of what they are doing, and put the Lord first. He tells them to go get building supplies, take them to the place where the temple was to be rebuilt, and get to work and then He will bless them. Then He reminds them again in Haggai 1:9,” Ye looked for much, and, lo, it came to little; and when ye brought it home, I did blow upon it. Why? saith the LORD of hosts. Because of mine house that is waste, and ye run every man unto his own house”. While today we live in different times and do not have a temple as the focal point of our worship of God as did the Jews, the principle here remains the same: God is to have first place in our lives and anything else is a life with messed up priorities.
When the Lord said, Matthew 6:33, “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you” He was reiterating the truth that we need to consider our ways and place the Lord and the things of the Lord at the top of our “to do” list. God will not sit on the backseat of our personal dog and pony show of life and shower down blessings and favor from the rear. Just as Israel discovered that when they chose all else above the things of God it took them down a difficult path, so we too will find ourselves missing God’s best for us and even running the gauntlet of chastisement when we push the Lord further and further down our list of priorities. God told the church at Ephesus in Revelation 2:4,” Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love” reminding them that He was no longer in first place and He said in verse 5, “Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent”. Like the Jews Haggai was preaching to, maybe we should stop what we’re doing and allow the Holy Spirit to help us look carefully at the way we are living, take an inventory, and if Christ is not in first place in every area, rearrange everything until He is where He is supposed to be: our Savior and our Lord.
August 10, 2021
John 13:3-5 “Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he was come from God, and went to God; He riseth from supper, and laid aside his garments; and took a towel, and girded himself. After that he poureth water into a bason, and began to wash the disciples’ feet, and to wipe them with the towel wherewith he was girded”
In Bible times, long before shoes, socks, and daily showers, when someone entered the house, a servant would remove their sandals and wash the dirt and grime off their feet. Not just any servant but one of the lowest ranks. That evening in the upper room there was no servant to wash their feet but our Lord knelt before the men He had chosen as disciples and washed their feet, drying them with a towel. If you’ve ever meditated on this account, imagining yourself with dirty feet and Jesus, kneeling before you cleaning off the sweat-caked dirt, you can get a sense of Peter’s response when he said “are you going to wash my feet?” then adding “you will never wash my feet”. It may have been humiliating for the disciples and was at least confusing at the moment but it was a picture of God’s willingness to stoop down to where we are and demonstrate His love and compassion for us in a way that should cause us to be filled with wonder and awe at His determination to fully redeem His fallen creatures. What do you say to the God of heaven and earth while He is washing your feet? “Thanks a bunch?” No, at such a display of grace, words are insufficient to cover up our tongue-tied state of amazement and fumbling attempts of gratitude, or at least should be. For us, the decrepit and underserving, are recipients of such a gift that even the angels of glory must look upon it all slack-jawed. Humans are a proud, boastful, and self-absorbed lot, and not only do we think we don’t need the Lord except in times of emergencies, we obviously don’t want Him touching our feet because we can do that ourselves.
In this account, when Jesus took off His outer robes and humbly began the role of a servant, He is acting out His love for us and it takes our minds to the verses that tell how He took off heaven’s robes of splendor and became a man to suffer and die in our place. It says in Philippians 2:7-8,” But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross”. If we are going to grow in our love for the Lord, it can only be from the place where we see clearly who we were before He washed us from our sin in His own blood and completely forgave all our sin. In these times, the complete sinfulness of man is not a truth that’s mentioned and we nonchalantly go about our lives with no sense of our depravity. From this mindset where we don’t see ourselves as hopeless, wretched sinners, then we don’t see Jesus as forgiving us very much to which He said, “but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little”. Those who worship and adore the Savior from a vantage point of being forgiven a debt that demanded death as payment do so from a loving relationship that counts Jesus as our priceless all-in-all and our redemption as an unspeakable gift (2Corinthians 9:15).
August 9, 2021
John 3:1-2 “There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews: The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him”
It’s easy to look at a man like Nicodemus, who came to Jesus under cover of darkness and criticize him as being afraid to identify with Christ but maybe that is based on the assumption that all followers of the Lord should step out into the middle of town square wherever they are, and loudly proclaim their allegiance to Jesus. I think I have thought that very thing at times and felt anything else is cowardice. But if it is true, all Christians in China and other places that persecute, imprison, and even kill believers would have to openly reveal themselves and the churches there would disappear. God does call people to boldly proclaim His message and sometimes they become martyrs for His cause, as declared in Revelation 2:13,” I know thy works, and where thou dwellest, even where Satan’s seat is: and thou holdest fast my name, and hast not denied my faith, even in those days wherein Antipas was my faithful martyr, who was slain among you, where Satan dwelleth”. Stephen likewise in Acts 7, took a fearless stand for our Lord and was stoned to death by the enemies of Christ. But while there have been many such martyrs through the ages, they do not constitute the majority of believers and God has called His church from all aspects of life, innumerable circumstances, and to various placings among the people of this world. For all the bold ones with high visibility, there are those like Nicodemus that live quiet, peaceable lives and bear witness to the Lord’s Name by simply doing what is right day after day.
When the Lord gave the parable of the seed and the sower, He concluded with these words in Mark 4:20,” And these are they which are sown on good ground; such as hear the word, and receive it, and bring forth fruit, some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some an hundred” revealing people that believe the Word of God do not all produce the same crops. Billy Graham traveled the world for over 60 years and won untold thousands to the Lord but there are pastors, just as passionate about the gospel and just as dedicated to the Lord that serves in small country churches that preach to a handful of people every Sunday for 60 years and only see a few conversions under the ministry. Who is most important in god’s kingdom? Both share equally in the work. In the same frame of mind, some people are bold in their faith and all those around them are well aware of their faith, the church they attend, and their opinions on things. But some, like Nicodemus, believe just as strongly (for remember that after his encounter with Jesus in John 3, he appeared after Jesus’ crucifixion asking for the Lord’s body for burial) but their purpose in God’s Kingdom is more behind the scenes and less apparent to those around them. Maybe that’s who you are and the enemy has tried to make you feel insignificant because you are not a headliner in your church, on your job, or in some ministry. God used Nicodemus just as He did Peter and Paul even though Nicodemus lived his faith and did his work for the Lord on a quieter, more subdued scale and God is still using people just like that and in that way today.
August 8, 2021
Genesis 7:15-16” And they went in unto Noah into the ark, two and two of all flesh, wherein is the breath of life. And they that went in, went in male and female of all flesh, as God had commanded him: and the LORD shut him in”
When Noah finished building the ark the Bible says Genesis 7:1,” And the LORD said unto Noah, Come thou and all thy house into the ark; for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation”. The words of God signifies the Lord was already inside the ark else God would have said “go into the ark” which would have been a command that would separate Noah from God. But “come” is an invitation and the word appears over five hundred times in the Bible but this is the first time it is recorded and it is significant in that it foreshadows the invitation of our Lord Jesus when He said, “come unto me”. We can also find a parallel in Revelation 4:1 where John saw a door opened in heaven and heard a voice say “Come up hither” which, being at the close of the church ages in Revelation 3, is a picture of the rapture of the church at the return of our Lord for believers. It fulfills His promise in St John 14:3,” And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also” which give us the sense of an invitation to leave where we are and go where He is. It is also a wonderful truth that the Lord said “come thou and all thy house into the ark” revealing the heart and purpose of God that we see in Acts 16:31,” And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house”. Oh, how the enemy hates that verse because it gives us hope for our children and grandchildren just as Noah had hope in the Lord for the salvation of his children and in them, his posterity. Whenever you are concerned about the state of your family’s faith, call that verse out as part of your prayers and worship and lay claim on their souls because the Word of God says it.
But one of the great verses in the Bible is Genesis 7:16 which says that after Noah, his wife, his sons, their wives, and all the animals were on the ark, “the LORD shut him in”. There was no need for Noah to question “wonder if I shut the door tightly enough?” or “should I have made the latches stronger?” because when God shut the door the action spoke to several things. First, the God-shut door separated all those inside from those outside. Jesus, the door as declared in St John 10:9, is a divider of men in that once in Christ through the new birth, we are set apart from the unbelieving world as belonging to the Lord. Then God shut the door meaning there was a point when all choices had been made and God took full responsibility for the salvation of those inside the ark and the destruction of those outside. One day time will be up for those who have rejected Christ and their fate will be entirely in God’s hands. The God-shut door meant all those inside the ark were completely safe from God’s judgment and draws our attention to 1Peter 1:5,” Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time” and Colossians 3:3, “your life is hid with Christ in God”. Noah and his family didn’t have to fiddle with the door to keep themselves safe from the destructive water, they were sealed in, a type of Ephesians 4:30, “And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption”. In Jesus, we are invited, we are welcome, we are shut in, we are secure, and God is with us. In this time of worldwide confusion, uncertainty, and the coming judgment, it is blessed comfort to know we are safe.
August 7, 2021
Isaiah 28:12 “To whom he said, This is the rest wherewith ye may cause the weary to rest; and this is the refreshing: yet they would not hear”
In Luke 10 when Jesus visited the home of Martha and Mary, the two sisters had different responses to the Lord’s presence. Martha, the Bible says, was scurrying, troubled and anxious trying to make sure all the guests and the Lord were being served properly and was attending to the details of hospitality. Mary, on the other hand, just sat down at Jesus’ feet and listened to His teaching. When Martha went to the Lord and complained she was having to do everything and wanted Jesus to tell Mary to come and help her, Jesus said, “Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things: But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her”. Simply put, He was telling her she was too busy attending to details that don’t matter all that much but the most important thing was choosing to listen to His Words, like Mary because they have the power of eternal life. Many people live lives like Martha, spending their days running frantically in circles all stressed out and frustrated and robbed of peace and joy by the trap of believing they are doing what’s necessary. This is not saying we should ignore our responsibilities but when we become enslaved to what Jesus sets aside as unneedful while missing the opportunity to choose the good part like Mary, the choice that gives eternal blessings, we miss out on the rest the Lord promised when He said: “Come unto me and I will give you rest”. Today’s verse from Isaiah tells the Lord had a plan for His people to give them a place of rest and a refreshing but the Bible says they turned their ears away. Just this week, a dear lady made a post on social media where she was defending her particular denomination stating one had to believe in Jesus, keep the 10 commandments, and be a good person to go to heaven. It left me wondering, how many people believe, like Martha, the way to make God happy enough to win eternal life is to fret over whether or not they are doing all the right things and feel the personal responsibility that the assurance of salvation is all on them? It sure isn’t the rest the Lord has promised and provided.
When Jesus set people free from the Levitical Law, that in itself was rest considering obedience to the Law was a continual work of obedience from the time they woke until they went back to sleep and it never ended until the day they died. It was like an oxen yoke around their necks tied to all the commandments and they lugged it all around with them every hour of every day. But in Christ we are at rest, bound no longer to the law and this rest is complete and eternal for as the Sabbath day of rest offered hope to weary workers, Jesus has become our everlasting Sabbath. Hebrews 4:9-10, “There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his”. But look at the warning in Hebrews 4:1,” Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it”. There is now a place of rest in Christ but many who profess to follow Him will not, as the Jews of old-time, enter into that rest. Even though Jesus has set us free, they refuse to believe in His free gift and continue to walk in the bondage of good works, the false promises of religion apart from the grace of the Lord, and the impossible attempts to gain God’s favor on their own merits. I know if you read these devotions, you might think I repeat these truths too frequently but the Lord called me to minister the gospel of grace and despite the loads of evidence in the Bible that salvation is not by our works, there are so many people still ensnared in the false doctrines that teach otherwise and have their part with those in Isaiah 28:12 that were offered the rest of grace, “yet they would not hear”.
August 6, 2021
Psalm 37:4 “Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart”
What do you desire? And not just what you might think is the most appropriate answer, but honestly without reservation. The problem with answering that question is that our desires change depending on our age, level of maturity, situation, influences, and many other factors. In respect to the above verse, it seems to be talking about more than just a casual desire but something deeper, something we long for and even then, it’s hard to know the truth about that kind of desire because the Bible says in Jeremiah 17:9, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?”. Fulfilling the desire to have what we want at any cost is the source of such anguish in lives and homes that everywhere we look we see the fallout that started out with desire gone amok but ended in tragedy, suffering, heartbreak, and misery. And in our age of entitlement minded people with endless opportunity to have what they want combined with the lack of self-control, it’s easy for believers to be pulled into the trap that makes God out to be the supplier of our excesses. If we think Psalm 37:4 is a blank check from God to give us whatever desire comes to us, either good or bad, we are grossly misunderstanding God’s promise. Even when He does give us what we think we want, when we desire it outside of His will, there is still no pleasure in it as when Israel desired a king against God’s will for them. The Lord gave them their desire but their story from then on is king after king that promoted idolatry, caused them to suffer God’s judgment and led them into destruction and captivity. Those teachers today that use this verse and others like it to persuade people the Lord’s plan for them is to give them all the material wealth and whatever else they, like spoiled brats, ask Him for, are false prophets as declared in 1Timothy 6:5,” Perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds, and destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness: from such withdraw thyself”.
Before the promise is given that the Lord will give us the desires of our hearts, comes the prerequisite: delight thyself also in the Lord. The words “delight thyself” have their roots of meaning in a word that means to be pliable, soft and also carries the idea of being at a place of contentment. People who take delight in certain things, be they sinful or not, immerse themselves in those things and usually surround themselves with all the trappings of that particular pleasure. Christians who love the Lord and find their pleasure in Him have more than just a token allegiance of their God and it shows in their lives. These are they that love His Word, desire His presence, worship His holiness, and live submitted to His will. To delight oneself in the Lord doesn’t mean a Sunday morning relationship with Christ or seeking Him during an imminent crisis, but involves living expecting all our happiness, the supply of all our needs, and the very essence of our being in Christ alone. Then with our hearts laid bare before our Maker, our desires in tune with His will, trusting Him for whatever is best for us, and fully convinced His ways for us are perfect, He will give us the desires of our heart. It may well be He will provide things that make our lives more comfortable and it may also be that He will surprise us with alternatives to what we think we desire and those alternatives bring us great joy and happiness but those who delight themselves in the Lord will find His Word to be true as in Psalm 84:11. “no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly”.
August 5, 2021
Philippians 3:13-14 “Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus”
Some people live their lives always looking in their rear-view mirror. Either they are discouraged because they believe they were happier in their past and their circumstances were better then or they allow the baggage of errors and pain of their past to dominate their present and rob them of their joy and hope for the future. Then there are those that achieved some measure of success at some time and they rest on that achievement as if that’s the best they will ever do and they try to glow in their ancient glory. But we know the past, for better or worse, is gone and this passage in Philippians is the Word of God on the matter, to forget the things which are behind. In Paul’s case, it’s all the ambitions of climbing the Pharisee’s ladder of achievements and prestige and all the horrible acts he committed against Christians in the name of God. He was a successful Pharisee by their standards and a horrible person by God’s law of love but by the power and wisdom of the Holy Spirit, he walked away from it all and refused to allow it to characterize him or keep him from his God-called destiny. If the verses here are using running a race as a metaphor for the Christian life, then the past is a heavyweight that holds us back and cripples our strength and endurance as alluded to in Hebrews 12:1,” let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us”. But it’s not just forgetting the past, there’s a fluid movement pictured here of someone that is “reaching forth” to the things ahead of them with the words reaching forth meaning stretching out, extending like a runner that’s pushing his torso towards the finish line. Then combined with the motion of pressing towards the mark, we see this fellow with the intent of pursuit, the meaning here, of pressing, and signifying someone who isn’t just taking a casual jaunt but one who is focused on the goal ahead and the words carry the idea of digging in one’s heels for better traction. This is quite the opposite of the fellow that’s sitting slumped over mourning and beating himself over a past that can’t be changed.
The prize is not salvation, but rather the high calling of God. For someone like Paul, the calling, the prize, differed so greatly from the path he walked before his conversion even though that path was marked with the recognition of others and was a prize of honor and esteem. When he mentioned it in contrast to the prize of the high calling in Christ, he said Philippians 3:7-8,” But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ”. If we would but fasten our eyes only on Christ and press towards Him knowing He is our high calling, not anything this world offers, confers, or promises, then our lives would reflect His glory, and the more we stretch, move, and press towards Him the more separated from this world we will become and therein lies the victory of faith that eludes so many because they will not choose that course. The enemy would have us stuck concerning over the past, worried faithless over the future, and missing out on the greatest life possible: to live is Christ.
August 4, 2021
Romans 10:17 “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God”
We read and study the Bible for different reasons such as curiosity, pleasure, understanding, duty, and wisdom. But one important reason is to establish and build our faith and that is the theme of today’s verse showing that faith comes by hearing the word of God. The Greek for “word” here is “Rhema” used in 67 places in the New Testament and differs from “logos” which is also translated as “word” in 316 places. Though the differences in the two are not the subject of today’s devotion, it can be summarized like this: Logos is the written Word of God as something God said and, in that sense, the Bible is the logos. Rhema is something particularly spoken and is defined in Vine’s Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words as “Rhema, the individual scripture which the Spirit brings to our remembrance for use in time of need, a prerequisite being the regular storing of the mind with (Logos) scripture “. In a practical sense, when we read and commit the Word of God, the Logos, to our minds, accepting it as the eternal truth, the Holy Spirit will cause certain passages to come alive, to quicken within us, Rhema, when we need them in situations or at times when God chooses to bless us personally in His Word. This is the miracle of the Bible, the living Word of God, and how it becomes light and bread to us, and how great people of faith like George Muller received promises of God to do mighty deeds in their service for the Lord. They would search their hearts and the Bible when seeking God’s will in particular circumstances, praying for the Lord’s direction, and wait until the Holy Spirit quickened the Word to them. Then they would stand on the promise believing God gave them the answer they needed. We can scoff at it if we dare, but until the Word of God becomes more than just a book, more than just words on a page and becomes alive in us, we know nothing of the power of the Word to work mightily in us.
If there is a famine, a dearth of the Word of God, there are reasons for it and they can be connected to the thinking that we can minister without the Word of God being made alive. The enemy quoted the word, the logos, to Jesus in the temptation but without power unlike when Jesus quoted it back to him, rightly divided and with authority. Likewise, many handle the Word of God and their ministries as if by their own words and abilities they are accomplishing spiritual deeds. Sometimes my wife and I try to listen to preaching on YouTube or ministry websites and have found that so many times after fifteen minutes into the sermon, preachers are still talking about themselves and rambling about what they’ve done, their past accomplishments, and all their introspective thinking so we just click out of it because there’s no food there, no power, no living Word, and no Jesus: just too much self. It is the Holy Spirit that quickens 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”. When the Word stirs us either when we hear it preached or we encounter it while reading the Bible, the opportunity of faith arises and we have an open door to take God at His Word and stand in faith believing for mountains to be moved because God is who He says He is and His Word is quick and powerful as a sharp two-edged sword (Heb 4:12). May we approach the Word of God, not just trying to see what It says, but what It is saying personally to us.
August 3, 2021
Psalm 101:3 “I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes”
A couple hundred years ago in most of America, there were very few wicked things for people to see or watch but it sure isn’t so now. If ancient Greece was the poster child for lewdness and moral abandon, we have replaced their level of depravity on a scale that’s off the charts and our exposure to such things has desensitized our society until we are no longer convicted or blush. In disgrace, we are allowing our children to be exposed to this garbage as if there’s no harm, and parents and grandparents are the ones introducing the innocent ones to a diet of perversion. Our Lord said in Matthew 6:22-23,” The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!” and though in its main sense this is speaking about the way believers guard against covetousness and material wealth, the point is that the lust of the eyes is a sin embedded in this world’s trappings and it is darkness for the whole person’s being. The verse “I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes” is speaking of a deliberate choice made by a believer to guard what enters their eyes to protect the heart from contamination and poison. When we know we are called to holiness, shown in such verses as 1Peter 1:15-16,” But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy” and we know that our flesh is desperate for sin and will always choose sin over the things of God, then we must stand convicted that the only way to walk in holiness is to deprive the flesh of fuel for its hellish fire.
A good test for us is to ask “if Jesus were here by my side, would what I’m watching or looking be acceptable to him?”, then always be mindful He IS right with us. The Holy Spirit is grieved daily in the lives of believers who will not follow the Word of God’s direction as in 1Thessalonians 5:22,” Abstain from all appearance of evil” and the result is a weak, anemic spiritual condition that spills over into our homes and churches. One of the greatest paralyzing addictions today that enters through the eyes, is pornography and its use is widespread even in the Christian community with pastors, deacons, youth leaders, family men, teenagers, and even women addicted to the point they can not stop viewing satan’s wickedness. The mobile phone has become a pornography pipeline even now to children who are not even teenagers. No wonder pulpits are powerless and churches have resorted to fleshly measures in an attempt to mimic the work of the Holy Spirit in His absence with leaders that have given themselves over to this sin. We need the awakening as declared in 1Corinthians 15:34, “Awake to righteousness, and sin not” and ask the Lord to convict us of the things we set before our eyes that are deplorable to Him. We CAN live a life of practiced holiness and even if we stumble or wobble sometimes, the grace of our Lord will give us the victory to get up, dust ourselves off, and walk on looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith (Hebrews 12:2).
August 2, 2021
Hebrews 10:24-25,” And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works: Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching”
The name and theme of this website is The Common Salvation and carries the thought that God’s people are one people, united as the Bible says in Ephesians 4:4-6,” There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; One Lord, one faith, one baptism, One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all”. The unity, the oneness, of the body of Christ is so fundamental to the desire of the Lord that the Holy Spirit inspired these words in Romans 16:17,” Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them”. Troublemakers who bring discord are in the list of seven types of people that are an abomination to the Lord in Proverbs 6:19,” A false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren” and for this reason, God says for us to avoid them, the word avoid meaning shun, to go out of the way from. Sometimes believers are trapped in situations with people who are a constant source of turmoil and they may feel guilty about disassociating themselves as though they are not showing love. But the Word of God is clear on this and not only gives an open door to get away from troublemakers but commands it for the good of the individual and the body of Christ. It is in this light we have the need to encourage each other as the scripture here says to provoke (stir up, motivate) and exhort (encourage) one another towards love and doing what is right and even more so as we see the return of our Lord getting closer.
Are you an encourager? Do you actively look for ways and words to help others especially in these times of uncertainty and discouragement? And surely no one can deny this age is one of great discouragement where we’ve found ourselves in the middle of the Covid pandemic with churches trying to find a path through it all. People both believers and not, are having great anxiety, many families are in disarray, addictions of all sorts are the norm, people are lonely, afraid, uncertain, and confused, and the need for people who are encouragers in the faith, peacemakers, and bold witnesses of the hope that is in Christ is everywhere. We have the mind of Christ, we have the peace of God, we have the message of hope, we are filled with the Holy Spirit, God has given us wisdom and will give more when we ask, and there are open doors of opportunity to be the salt and light the Lord has called us to be. We don’t have to preach people sermons, just words fitly spoken to the occasion, words of truth spoken in sincerity, words that lift people up and offer something unavailable from the world of chaos: God is still on the throne, He is working all things for good in the lives of His people, and He is more than enough and because of that, we are not victims with no hope, we are children of the King. The best is yet to come because the Eternal God has already declared the end from the beginning.
August 1, 2021
Psalm 138:8,” The LORD will perfect that which concerneth me: thy mercy, O LORD, endureth for ever: forsake not the works of thine own hands”
Compared to the scope of eternity, we have a small, limited view of ourselves and everything else. After a while, we forget the details, and sometimes the entirety of most everything we’ve experienced and even the memories of our most blessed occasions dim as time goes by. We grasp a few facts in life, enough to navigate a little path from the cradle to the grave and spend our days living in a paltry circle from home, to the job, to the store, and back home again with an occasional diminutive trip to take a vacation or road trip then back to the routine. We dote on our personal significance and in our pride we sometimes speak great things as if we have immense knowledge with wisdom and power to set everything and everyone in order yet the truth speaks in James 4:14,” Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away”. In our humanness, we are vulnerable to even the tiniest germs and viruses, invisible to the eyes yet deadly to our bodies as we have seen with the Covid pandemic and from that perspective, it appears we are pretty insignificant, just a speck of matter with a very few number of days to exist in a universe with measureless dimensions. Yet the Creator of all things knows us intimately and has focused His eternal purpose on us down to the infinitesimal details of our being and our lives are precious to Him so much that He has poured out His love on us. The above verse that says “The Lord will perfect that which concerneth me” is at once both humbling and exalting because in eight words God dispels all the negativeness of our human condition and places us in the center of His plan like a diamond affixed in an exquisite setting. When this verse is aligned with others like Psalm 37:23,” The steps of a good man are ordered by the LORD” and Philippians 1:6,” Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ”, we see the Lord has laid a foundation for our faith in that He has carefully constructed a fail-proof plan for us and nothing can thwart Him from accomplishing in us what He purposed.
Within this plan, we are given free will with boundaries, and depending on our decisions, there are options as to how closely we walk in God’s perfect will as opposed to alternate paths but our God has foreseen which way we choose and has, within that set of choices, provided for our needs and directed our path to completion within His will which is the meaning of the word “perfected” in our target verse. When Job expounded his cause, he said in Job 23:10,” But he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold” and the Lord knows everything we have done, are doing, and will do even before we make the choices for even our thoughts are known to Him before we think them (Ps 139:2). The hand of God’s providence is guiding us every step of our way Psalm 139:5 Thou hast beset me behind and before, and laid thine hand upon me where the word beset means to enclose, confine, hem in and gives us a clue that even in the middle of a bad decision, God is still working for our ultimate benefit. As David said, Psalm 139:8-10,” If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me”. Foolish choices do have their consequences and keep us sidetracked from God’s permissible and perfect will but The Lord is far greater than anything that could be against us and when our story is told, we will say 2Corinthians 2:14,” Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ”.