Daily Devotion
September 16, 2024
Colossians 2:9-10 “For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power”
Many people just will not believe the truth about salvation; That it is a gift of God and our only part is to receive it by faith. One of the devil’s tactics is to continually point out our past mistakes, our imperfect present, our lifelong list of failures, and our inadequacies. He attempts to plant seeds of doubt in us hoping we will conclude that we are not saved because our actions prove we are sinners. He reasons that we can’t be saved because we are not good enough and our lives prove it. Part of his words are true because we are not good enough and we can never earn a home in heaven by our good works. What he doesn’t want us to grasp and hold tight to is the truth that because we can’t earn it on our own, Jesus stepped in and earned it for us. And then, He gave it to us as a gift and proof of His love for us. Today’s verses tell us that all of God was in Christ and now we are complete in Him. Our Lord made His divinity clear in St John 14:9, “he that hath seen me hath seen the Father” and again in St John 10:30, “I and my Father are one.” When God says that we are complete in Christ, the word “complete” means something that is so finished, so crammed full, that nothing can be added to it. If we look back to our new birth, our day of personal salvation, there is a truth we should have nailed down early. The offering of Jesus as our sacrifice sealed the deal of God’s plan and purpose for us once and for all eternity. A part of our completeness is the filling of the Holy Spirit which fulfilled the prophecy of Immanuel, “God with us”. It meant Jesus not only walked among us as Jesus of Nazareth but every second of every day by the gift of our Lord, He is with us now, by being tabernacled in us. Our complete salvation means Christ’s suffering, including His stripes, His unthinkable agony on the cross, His willing surrender of His life, His precious fountain of blood, His burial, His descent into hell, and His glorious resurrection was all for us, and secured our total forgiveness of sin past, present, and future. It also imputed to us, complete righteousness and justification and made us heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ. We are complete in Him.
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September 15, 2024
John 18:4 “Jesus therefore, knowing all things that should come upon him, went forth, and said unto them, Whom seek ye?”
When Jesus and His disciples were in the Garden of Gethsemane the night of His betrayal and arrest, He spoke these words to the men who came to arrest Him. In the next verse, the Bible says, “They answered him, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus saith unto them, I am he.”. When our Lord spoke, “I am he”, the Bible says, “They went backward (backed away), and fell to the ground.” They thought they were looking for just a man, but the man they were looking for was God in the flesh. People seek Jesus for different reasons. The devil came looking for Him to tempt Him. Some sought Him on behalf of people they loved such as Jairus and the Syrophoenician woman. They both came on behalf of their children. Two blind men near Jericho cried out for Him to open their eyes. Mary and Martha sent for Jesus because their brother Lazarus was at the point of death. One person in Luke 12 came looking for the Lord to solve a question of a family inheritance. Some came with great faith like the woman with the issue of blood that touched the hem of His garment. Others came because they had burning questions like the rich young ruler. Then there were the multitudes that came looking for Him because they wanted another free meal. We might ask ourselves a similar question: “Who or what are you looking for?” God promises us in Jeremiah 29:13,” And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.” This verse is looking back to the promise in Deuteronomy 4:29, “But if from thence thou shalt seek the LORD thy God, thou shalt find him, if thou seek him with all thy heart and with all thy soul.” This is not about religion, church stuff, or some abstract spirituality. It’s about looking to God with a heart that wants to know Him, one that is not afraid to be open and vulnerable to His searching eyes. A part of seeking the Lord is praying the prayer of Psalms 139:23-24, “Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” We seek Jesus, not to betray Him like Judas but to know Him as Paul declares in Philippians 3:10, “That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection.”
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September 14, 2024
Psalms 134:2 “Lift up your hands in the sanctuary, and bless the LORD”
It’s encouraging to see people in church, especially young people, lifting their hands in worship. How we posture ourselves isn’t the issue because we can worship sitting with our hands folded in our laps but when we raise our hands towards heaven, we are physically testifying that the Lord is great and greatly to be praised. Ancient believers also raised their hands when they prayed, acknowledged in 1 Timothy 2:8, “I will therefore that men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting.” It is also a gesture of symbolically receiving something from heaven and is called by some, a wave offering. Why is it that for some people, the simple act of raising our hands in obedience to God’s Word becomes such a problem with our flesh? Some even wince at the very thought of such a thing. They might say they don’t feel like it or it’s not their custom. But it is an act of honoring the name of the Lord and it is done deliberately to physically declare His worthiness. This devotion isn’t to pressure us to do something against our will because that would contradict our liberty, our freedom to worship God as we choose. And it’s not saying we have to raise our hands every moment when we are praising God. But it is a conversation about the freedom to express our adoration of God by using our bodies to demonstrate praise to His Worthy Name. It may go against our traditions and it may mean we have to overcome some self-consciousness but the result is that when we engage physically in worship, our whole being, body, soul, and spirit are united to praise the Lord. One of my favorite verses in the Bible is Psalm 63:3-4,” Because thy lovingkindness is better than life, my lips shall praise thee. Thus will I bless thee while I live: I will lift up my hands in thy name.” Again, the picture is of a worshipper with raised hands, praising the Lord for His goodness. Worship leaders should encourage people to obey God’s Word and offer their praise with their words and their bodies. Let go of pride and self-consciousness and become Christ-conscious. We see Him, arms stretched out on the cross in the sight of all who were standing by and we know His actions were saying, “I’m doing this for you.” We respond to that grace and mercy by giving ourselves a living sacrifice, unashamed to reach heavenward and receive Him fully.
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September 13, 2024
Psalms 122:6-7 “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: they shall prosper that love thee. Peace be within thy walls, and prosperity within thy palaces”
Jerusalem, whose name means “The City of Peace”, has not been a place of peace through the ages. It has been fought over, destroyed, and rebuilt several times in its history. Today, after five thousand years of inhabited history, it is still a continual hotbed of conflict. But this verse isn’t just talking only about the city of Jerusalem, it is using the city, Israel’s capital, to represent the Jewish people and the nation of Israel. For the past year we have been watching an outpouring of anger and rage, hatred openly displayed, against the Jews and their nation. For all who love Israel and especially we who share a common heritage of faith with them through God’s covenant with Abraham, we know the battle lines that are drawn go far deeper than the disturbing politics. The Bible says in Psalms 132:13-14, “For the LORD hath chosen Zion (another name for Jerusalem); he hath desired it for his habitation. This is my rest for ever: here will I dwell; for I have desired it.” In another verse, Zechariah 3:2, the Bible says, “And the LORD said unto Satan, The LORD rebuke thee, O Satan; even the LORD that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee.” The struggle for the city and the nation is between God who chose it for Himself and His dwelling place on earth and Satan who opposes it because the scriptures call Jerusalem in Matthew 5:35, “The city of the great King.” When our Lord returns, He will not reign from America, Europe, or any other spot on this earth but from Israel and specifically, Jerusalem. In one sense, when we pray for Jerusalem we’re praying a part of the Lord’s prayer that fits the words, “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as in heaven.” While we must have compassion for those who are not descendants of Abraham through Isaac, we must stand in allegiance with the eternal Word of God in Galatians 4:29,” But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now. Nevertheless what saith the scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her son: for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman”. Although this is an allegory for believers concerning the natural man and the newborn spiritual nature, it is still a principle of the eternal covenant between God and Israel and its fulfillment will be centered in Jerusalem. Those who pray inspired by Psalm 122:6 are praying with the heart of God towards His chosen City and His chosen people.
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September 12, 2024
Psalms 63:1 “O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is”
Do you ever wake up early with your soul so thirsty for God’s presence that you begin to seek Him before you get out of bed? Do you ever lie there in the quiet darkness, before the sounds of the day begin, and reach up to Him like a child reaching for its Father? And, do you know that as you are reaching up to Him, He is already reaching down to you? That probably sounds naïve and silly to a lot of people but for those who know His presence, who long to be filled with His Spirit, it is an expression of today’s verse: “My flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land where no water is.” At 68, there’s not much on this earth I want besides my family and my precious wife. I have everything I need and God is taking care of all those needs day by day as He promised He would. What I want, is Him and for Him to have more of me. I understand the meaning of Psalms 16:11, “Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.” There are no words that can describe this phase of the journey with Him and the treasures of His grace. This is a dry and thirsty land where people scramble to find meaning and pleasure in the things this world offers. But when they hold in their hands the very things they thought would make them happy, they are still parched and thirsty within. Only the well that gushes with hope and peace can satisfy that thirst and that well is Christ. It brings us to Psalms 107:8-9, “Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men! For he satisfieth the longing soul, and filleth the hungry soul with goodness.” In the past few years, I’ve sold, given away, and thrown away most of the things I’d accumulated in my life, and praise God, my footprint on this earth keeps getting smaller. But my anchor, fastened securely to the Lord’s throne of grace is stronger than it’s ever been. My earnest prayer is that my family, my children, and my grandchildren will know the Lord from a deep personal place of faith and relationship with Him and that the Savior will be more to them than anything this world offers.
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September 11, 2024
The twenty-three years since America’s 9/11 terrorist attacks have gone by very quickly. Yet there are millions of young people out of school and in the workforce who have no memory of those events because they were either too young or hadn’t been born yet. Those of us who were raised during the Cold War and as children, lived under the shadow of possible enemy atomic bomb attacks, can remember how those terrorist attacks brought back the feelings of America’s vulnerability by enemies that were not invading our nation with waves of soldiers but by aiming at us from afar, plotting our destruction in secret and invisibility. And today, the heart and soul of our nation are at stake from turmoil within. The very foundations of families and communities have been shaken to their core and still, it all intensifies. Many of our rambling and fickle leaders, babbling doublespeak, meaningless slogans, promises, and political malarkey look brazenly into the cameras as if they carry some weight of believability. Yet, they continue to make decisions that push our nation further from God and further from our strong foundations. Yes, we’ve come a long way since that day when the towers fell but it hasn’t been an upward trajectory but a downward spiral with the average citizen loading up on guns and ammo, feeling the foreboding of evil days ahead. Then there are those, so removed from reality of where we are headed with their heads immersed in mindless entertainment. They are “influenced” and brainwashed by the pollyannish media and culture gurus who keep stammering we’re headed in a good direction because we’re finally erasing our history, casting off the chains of Puritanism, and embracing the diversity of anything goes, all that was good is now evil, and what was evil is desirable and chic. Meanwhile, we look back and remember that day when almost three thousand lost their lives suddenly and unexpectedly and our nation was changed. We can’t help but wonder will this country ever see days of hope, happiness, security, and faith again? Let’s pray that we will not forget that America is still on the hit list of people, organizations, and nations that hate us and our country and wish our total destruction. May God give us leaders with wisdom, courage, and faith in Him. Leaders that are not ashamed or afraid to stand up for America and the American people. May our churches have great revivals and may many people come to faith in Jesus Christ. Let’s proclaim Isaiah 59:19, “When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the LORD shall lift up a standard against him.”
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September 10, 2024
Psalms 27:13 “I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living”
Let’s look again at this wonderful verse and consider its message. It’s easy to look around us and see all that’s wrong in the world. And, it’s easy to look at our lives and the lives of others and see the wrongs. The sum of it all is that nothing is perfect in this world as it is. No community, no home, no school, no government institution, no spouse, and nothing else as far as the eye can see can live up to some people’s expectations. When we view life with an overly critical eye, expecting everything to measure to a mark of near perfection, we’re going to spend most of our days in disappointment. This verse says unless we see the world around us through the view of God’s goodness, we might give up hope. Some people laud themselves as “realists” as they call people out for their errors, condemn everything they don’t like, and approach almost everything with a critical comment. What they call a “reality” view is more probably their own reality of pride and arrogance. Despite all that the fallen creation entails, God’s goodness overrides it all. In this Psalm 27, David describes how our enemies will come against us and how sometimes even our own parents and families will forsake us. But in those times, he declares God will remain faithful to protect and deliver us. It’s God’s faithfulness to walk with us, provide for us, and show us mercy and favor that keeps us from fainting and losing hope. There is evidence of a fallen world all around us but none of it cancels out God’s goodness. I just had my six-month follow-up PET scan a few days ago and the test showed me cancer-free from head to toe. That’s after a 4-year ordeal of surgeries, chemo, and radiation. I declare God is good and I see His goodness everywhere. But if it wasn’t this way and I had been taken from this earth, I would still be declaring God is good because I would be in the presence of my Lord. We need a great change of perspective to transform us out of the “woe is me” and “the world has no hope” mindset to a new way of seeing that says no matter what is all around us, we will live, walk, and talk the goodness, mercy, and grace of God.
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September 9, 2024
Hebrews 4:12 “For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart”
The Word of God is described here as alive and powerfully working. Bible believers know that God’s Word is far more than just printed words on a page because it carries the very essence of God past our natural senses and human understanding. With the ability to pierce through us like a razor-sharp sword, the Word of God separates the natural from the spiritual and lays bare our thoughts and intentions. When we encounter God’s Word in its fullness, human reasoning and our stubborn unbelief are overpowered and God reveals us to ourselves the way He sees us. The battle called the “Good fight of faith”, is a war within us where our sinful nature tries to shout down God’s Word and block it from becoming effective. Some, like Jonah, try to stop the power of God’s Word by running away from it. The whole city of Nineveh needed to hear God’s Word and experience the power of its warnings and its offer of hope. Jonah tried to keep that from happening because He wanted Nineveh to be destroyed, not saved by God’s grace. Every day, in the battlefields of our minds, thoughts form that either propel us forward in faith or introduce and feed doubt and fear, distractions from the truth, and temptations that could open the door to our ruin. The Word of God, used by the Holy Spirit, is right there, encouraging us to turn away from everything that is not of God. Remember, we can’t usually control which thoughts pop into our minds but we can control how long we give them recognition. Whenever thoughts come that we know are not from the Lord, we withstand them by declaring the truth of God’s Word. We say, “Thank you God that I have the mind of Christ. I set my mind on things above and I bring my thoughts into captivity, to the obedience of Christ.” We cast down imaginations by purposefully directing our thoughts to the things of God. When we’re tempted to take revenge against someone, we proclaim, “I love everyone even my enemies and I overcome evil with good.” When we are tempted to sin, we declare, “Thank you God, that the blood of Christ has delivered me from sin and death.” When we are bombarded with thoughts of anxiety and worry, we stand against them with, “Thank You Lord that You are at work, working all things for my good.” As we learn to fight in faith, by God’s Word, the enemy can no longer use our thoughts and intentions as dumping grounds for unbelief. The sword of God’s Word fights on our behalf.
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September 8, 2024
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”.
In these days before the coming of Christ, when the world around us is beginning to shake, we have to band together, support each other, and live as the family of God. When we are told “to provoke unto love and to good works”, it means to keep each other excited and stirred up in our spirits to love each other and do what is right. Doing what is right before God in a world that’s doing so much wrong in His eyes is testimony that we represent Him. No infighting among ourselves and no finger-pointing and squabbling over trivial doctrines but allowing God’s love and peace to rule. When Covid came, it caused great disruption to churches. Our normal practice of assembling to worship the Lord was greatly affected and many people stopped going to church. But part of the way we support each other in the faith is by coming together, worshipping together, hearing God’s Word taught together, and taking the Lord’s Supper together as the body of Christ. The words, “exhorting one another” means we encourage each other in our walk of faith. We are encouragers, not discouragers. We have words to comfort others, words to bless, and words to show compassion and love. We have jobs to do that add our talents and abilities to the cause of Christ and we’re not afraid to volunteer our time and resources in the name of the Lord. It’s encouraging to assemble to worship and see others around us looking to the Lord and honoring Him. It’s encouraging to shake hands and have someone say, “It’s good to see you today.” It’s encouraging to pray together and reverence the Lord as a member of His church and sense His peace and presence as He moves among His people. It’s encouraging to see the children, full of energy and life running around the church grounds and we know that they are being taught the Bible stories that we all grew up hearing, that formed the foundation of our faith. There can be no mistake; The day of Christ is coming and we can be at our best when we always look for ways to love and encourage each other.
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September 7, 2024
1 Thessalonians 5:17 “Pray without ceasing”
Do you believe God hears and answers prayers? He does, and that’s one of the reasons it’s such a battle to maintain a consistent prayer life. The enemy knows that God’s ears are open to His people and he knows the Lord delights to answer our prayers. So, he wears us down, keeps us procrastinating, and substitutes religious activities attempting to keep us from praying. He knows what the Lord has promised and he understands the power of James 5:16, “The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.” A startling verse is found in 1 Samuel 12:23, “Moreover as for me, God forbid that I should sin against the LORD in ceasing to pray for you” and shows us we are responsible before the Lord to pray for people in our care. Examples are pastors who do not pray for the people they pastor and dads and moms who do not pray for their children are negligent before God. The Lord is not binding us with a commandment here to restrict our liberties but showing that prayer is so important that its practice should be who we are. When Saul was converted and, on his way, to meet with Ananias, the Lord described him to Ananias in Acts 9:11, “behold, he prayeth.” So, the three little words in today’s verse, “Pray without ceasing”, are an encouragement to us to keep praying. People who believe in the power of prayer are known to pray about everything. They take literally the words of Philippians 4:6, “Be careful (worried, anxious) for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.” This verse doesn’t mean we are to spend every waking hour on our knees, but that our thoughts and words are to always be directed to the Lord. When we get up, “Thank you Lord for another day”. When we’re driving to work, “Thank you God for my safety and that I have a job and the strength to do it.” Throughout the day, “Thank You Lord for your shield of favor that surrounds me. Show me open doors to be a blessing to someone.” This may not seem easy at first because our minds are conditioned by this world to save God for our Sunday mornings and spend the day operating in a mindset of worrying, complaining, and immersing ourselves in the things of the world. But as we follow the pattern, it becomes a natural way to live, always looking to the Lord and always praying and thanking God. These three words can be life-changing if you believe God hears and answers prayers.
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September 6, 2024
1 Thessalonians 5:16 “Rejoice evermore”
Here is one sentence with two words that are so important because they describe a pattern for believers that leads us to victory. In a dark, cynical, and discouraging world, they tell us to keep rejoicing. Having joy at all times might seem impossible but we have the mind of Christ and we know the truth about our situation and that of the world. It’s easy to get bogged down in the moment and lose sight of the fact that God has everything under control. The medical report looks bad, someone you trusted abandoned you, you didn’t get the job you applied for, and the children are going through hard times. And then, there’s the constant news of the world around us. Violence, threats of a world war, cultural upheavals, and the rising cost of living. But none of these things change who God is and nothing can change His plans for us. We have His promise that He will never leave us or fail us. In times like these, we turn our gaze away from the things of this world with its bad news and problems and look to the founder and perfecter of our faith. When we see Him high and lifted up, Lord of all, we can rejoice because He will never fail. Even when it seems hopeless and that there are no answers to our dilemmas, God always has an answer and He will always provide a way of escape. That’s why we can always rejoice because He has the final word. We walk by faith, trusting His promises even when we can’t see a way out. And, when we are tempted to complain about our problems, we know the Lord is working all things for our good and we praise the Lord anyway. Instead of a pattern where we always talk about our problems, how big they are, how groceries are too high, and how we never get any good breaks, let’s shift the pattern to talking about how great God is and how He will never let us down. Yes, the reality of the moment may seem overwhelming but we have eyes of faith that can see past the moment of trouble to the time when the Lord will deliver us. As the song says, we raise a Hallelujah in the presence of the enemy. When it seems all is lost, and when we can’t see an exit but we know there is one, we always rejoice.
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September 5, 2024
Jonah 3:1-2 “And the word of the LORD came unto Jonah the second time, saying, Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee”
When the Lord told Jonah to go to Nineveh and preach to them, Jonah tried every way he could to run from God’s call. We all know the story of how he ended up being swallowed by a whale. You’d think that after such a blatant act of disobedience, God would have said, “Alright big boy, since you won’t obey me, I’ll just call me another prophet that will.” But God’s grace to us isn’t cancelled out by our failures and His love for us is greater than all our sins. If God demanded strict obedience in all things and when we don’t obey, He casts us out, none of us would have a chance. Jonah may have thought, while he was in the whale’s belly, that he’d blown it and God was finished with him. The enemy may have whispered the same thing to him he does to us when we fall short of God’s will. “It’s over”, he says, “this time you’ve proven you’re not fit to serve God. You might as well quit and walk away.” Has that ever happened to you? Maybe you’ve made a blunder that you think is so big that the Lord will not open any more doors for you or give you any more opportunities. God knew you would fall short before He ever called you and He is ready to give you another chance. We don’t know what was going through the prodigal son’s mind as he made his way back home, but I’m not sure he was expecting the level of love, mercy, and grace he found when he arrived. Grace is not an excuse to sin and surely none of us who proclaim the message of God’s amazing grace implies that it is. But just as it was with Jonah, the Lord is a God of second chance. And not just second chances, but third, fourth, fifth, and so on. Jonah teaches us a lesson that when God calls us, the Bible says in Romans 11:29, “For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.” What a wonderful verse, “And the word of the LORD came unto Jonah the second time.” The second time, fresh from the whale’s belly, Jonah obeyed.
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September 4, 2024
2 Corinthians 4:8-9 “We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed”
The life of a believer is not just easy livin good times and anyone who pictures it that way is wrong. We are indeed more than conquerors but that phrase in itself implies there is an enemy and a battle. When the Lord tells us in Ephesians 6:11, “Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil”, we are pictured as a warrior armed for war. And yet, despite what we are up against, today’s verses tell us that even when we are facing the onslaught of this world, by the power and grace of God we rise above it and emerge in victory. We are troubled on every side. Everywhere we look, the enemy has a foothold in our culture but we are not distressed, a word that means hemmed in. The Son of God has set us free and given us power over all the power of the enemy (Luke 10:19). We are perplexed. That means not knowing which way to turn. But we are not in despair meaning we never give up even when it looks like there’s no way out. We are persecuted because the enemy is always trying to shut us and the message of Jesus down. That’s what the scripture is describing when it speaks of “the wiles of the devil”. But God never forsakes us. He goes in front of us, clearing the landmines the devil sets and He swings the sword of His Word. We are cast down meaning sometimes we get knocked to our knees. Sickness, heartaches, afflictions, and a host of other problems we call the storms of life come our way. But because we’re built on the solid rock foundation of Jesus Christ, we will never be defeated. Because we belong to the Lord, when we fight in Jesus’ name we can never be destroyed. We have to see ourselves as overcomers and victors. We are not victims, weak and helpless. We have the strength of Almighty God in front of us, over us, under us, and all around us. We have His promises of unfailing protection and the Bible declares in Ephesians 3:20, “Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us.”
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September 3, 2024
Acts 23:6 “But when Paul perceived that the one part were Sadducees, and the other Pharisees, he cried out in the council, Men and brethren, I am a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee: of the hope and resurrection of the dead I am called in question”
Paul was arrested for preaching the gospel and brought before the Sanhedrin, a religious court composed of leaders from both religious groups at that time, the Sadducees and the Pharisees. The Pharisees believed in life after death and that there would be a resurrection. The Sadducees were the extreme liberals of that day and denied an afterlife and resurrection. Paul introduced the subject of a resurrection at the beginning of his defense and divided his accusers against each other. The reality of a bodily resurrection is still at the heart of what people today believe about the future. Many believe in an afterlife but most of them believe only our spirits will live on after death. But just as Jesus rose from the dead in His body, we too will also rise from the dead in our bodies. Although, our bodies will be changed from what they are now into a glorified body like the Lord’s. Our blessed hope is that we will live eternally in a body that can see, feel, move, has substance, and in many ways, will be similar to the body we have now. When Jesus rose from the dead, He could be touched and felt, speak, hear, carry on a conversation, cook food, eat, wear clothes, and all this is given from the scriptures that describe Him after His resurrection. The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 15:52, “In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.” Paul wrote in Acts 24:15, “There shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust.” When Jesus rose from the dead the Bible tells us in Matthew 27:52-53, “And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, And came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many.” Our blessed hope is not only that we have eternal life, but that we also will have amazing, real bodies just like our Lord’s. Bodies in which we can enjoy the afterlife but bodies that have no pain and never grow old or wear out.
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September 2, 2024
Jeremiah 6:15 “Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush”
This could well have been written about our world today. No matter what they are doing and how wickedly they live, many people have no shame in their sins. It’s the opposite: They laugh, parade it, and celebrate it. The seriousness is that when the sense of shame is gone, so is the foundation for conviction. And when there is no conviction, there is no conversion. When people are not convicted, that is convinced, that they are doing wrong, they no longer see God as The Righteous Judge and they will not confess their sins. The next step is that they will call their sins “Ok” and “good”. They will excuse them away as a society becoming “progressive” and before long, the things that once were terrible wrongs become daily practices. Several years ago, Pastor Ken Klaus wrote: “Drug dealers are not ashamed of the profits they reap from the addiction of little children. The wads of cash they flash justifies their sin. Pornographers, hiding behind freedom of speech, are not ashamed of the smut and sexual sewage they spew forth across the internet. A politician convicted on receiving bribes admits that he may have made some improper choices. A gang member gives a gold-toothed smile to the cameras when he is arrested for having killed an innocent child in a drive-by shooting. He makes it clear that he is not at fault: “That kid is dead because he was at the wrong place at the wrong time.” We know the list goes on continually of people doing wrong and feeling no shame. Today’s verse appears twice in the Book of Jeremiah, in 6:15 and again in 8:12. In both places, God said when the people became unashamed for their sins, “therefore they shall fall among them that fall: at the time that I visit them they shall be cast down, saith the LORD.” It’s disturbing to live in a world where people call evil good and good evil but these abominations will not continue unchecked. We can call it a day of reckoning, the final accounting, or the day when the score is settled but it means that when we will no longer acknowledge our sins, even when the Holy Spirit strives with us, God will balance our books. It might take a while, but just as He is faithful to forgive sins that are confessed, He is faithful to judge those that aren’t.
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September 1, 2024
2 Samuel 7:29 “Therefore now let it please thee to bless the house of thy servant, that it may continue for ever before thee: for thou, O Lord GOD, hast spoken it: and with thy blessing let the house of thy servant be blessed for ever”
The word house here means family and we would generalize it to mean, our home. David is praying for God to bless his family and not just those who were living at that moment, but for all who would descend from him. Do you ever pray for the Lord to bless your home? There is so much confusion, so much strife in many homes today, and the very place that should be our refuge from the growing darkness of evil has become a battlefield. Almost 200 years ago, there was a popular song, “Home, Sweet Home” and one of the lines said, “There’s no place like home.” But today many parents and children come home to a place of abuse, sorrow, and loneliness. Instead of looking forward to coming home at the end of the work day and school day, many people wish they had somewhere else to go. When we say and pray, “God bless America”, we should start by praying, “God bless our homes”. David’s house was by no means a perfect place. There was strife and drama among his children and at one point when his son Absalom rebelled against David and attempted to take the throne, it seemed the House of David had lost all its blessing. But when we go to God in faith and believe in His goodness, He will restore all the enemy tried to destroy. Maybe you have division and strife right now in your home. Maybe the enemy has sown the seed of discord and it seems like there is no way your family can get back to a place of peace and blessing. Remember that God wants our home to be a place where He is honored and He wants to bless us. We can start by declaring again, Joshua 24:15, “But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.” And then, we can agree together to declare that Jesus is the Lord of our family and encourage each other to seek Him and His ways above all else. We can forgive each other, love each other, and unite. Let’s pray for each other and make an effort to have homes that give us and our children a refuge, a place of happiness and peace in a world of trouble.
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