January 31, 2025
Revelation 3:7 “And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write; These things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth, and no man shutteth; and shutteth, and no man openeth”
We like it when God opens doors for us. Today’s verse declares He opens and no one can shut them. Like when He answers prayers in the affirmative, when He works things out the way we hoped He would, and when He rockets us forward in times we seem stuck in our circumstances. We thank Him, praise Him, and talk about His goodness and blessings. It makes us feel good and relieved. But there is another way God works and that is He shuts doors and no one can open them. It’s more difficult to praise Him when things don’t work out the way we hoped, when we can see several ways that it seems God could act on our behalf and He chooses none of them. Maybe someone else gets the promotion you prayed for or, you prayed long and hard about something and out of the blue, God took things in a different direction. We’ve all had it happen and it takes a mature faith to hold on to the promises of God’s Word that no matter how it looks or feels, the Lord knows best and is doing what is right for us. The scriptures are filled with promises that tell us God is for us, has His eyes on us, is answering our prayers, and working all things for our good. He has ordered our steps, commanded His angels to accompany us, and is going before us, making crooked places straight. That kind of faith says that when a door is shut, there is a good reason for it. God could be protecting us from what He can see ahead but we can’t. Maybe it’s because He has a better plan, a better answer than what we wanted. No matter the case, His ways are perfect and He will do right by His children. There have been many times I thanked God for not answering prayers the way I wanted because if He had, I would have been in a mess and miserable. Let’s learn to thank God and praise Him for the times he shuts doors because Faith tells us He has something better, something that He’s working out to bless us and move us closer to Him.
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January 30, 2025
Jeremiah 21:8 “And unto this people thou shalt say, Thus saith the LORD; Behold, I set before you the way of life, and the way of death”
There are always just two ultimate choices for us: We can choose to do what is right and pleasing to God or what is wrong. The scriptures here and in several other places, call them the way of life and the way of death. The enemy tries to confuse this reality with the spin of relativism. That is, he brings the lie on the side of wrong and evil that it’s not a matter of things being wrong but the level at which they are wrong determines whether we should call them wrong or not. Sound familiar? This is the first step towards calling good evil and evil good. For example, there was a time when the killing of babies was considered evil. Now, we’ve seen the shift that people who oppose the slaughter of the unborn are labeled as fanatics and threats to society. They’re seen as the evil ones. The inauguration of a new administration is giving America a pause, a time to step back for a season and consider which direction we want this country to go moving forward. We’ve all seen the path we were headed for the past few years. We watched gangs of people riot in our streets, burn buildings, and violently attack innocent people. We saw them build makeshift camps, blocking traffic, and calling for our police to be defunded while government officials did nothing to stop them. We heard the hate-filled preaching of college professors and others shouting against American history as if we should be ashamed of our country and our flag. And, our government continued to fund and support these people as if their words were the truth. Television, the entertainment world, and the fringes of our culture paraded their perversions in our faces as if what they practice should be considered normal and right. And they demanded all the rest of us to shut up and swallow their garbage. All the above and more of the same have temporarily halted in this time of pause and reflection while we are at the crossroads of the two paths that lie before us. The Bible says in Isaiah 1:18-20, “Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land: But if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it”. May our nation, our collective souls, choose the way of life, the way that honors truth, God, and all that is right in His eyes.
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January 29, 2025
Genesis 12:3 “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”
God gave Abraham this promise and made it applicable to all his descendants through the ages. Whoever is a friend to the Jews and supports them will receive God’s blessings. Whoever dishonors them, God will curse and it’s a strong word meaning “bitterly curse”. This is one of the reasons America has been so greatly blessed: We have stood beside Israel and supported them. On May 14, 1948, just eleven minutes after Israel had been declared an independent nation by the United Nations, President Harry Truman officially recognized their nationhood making America the first country to do so. Since then, we’ve seen Israel battle many battles and defend itself and its people from a host of enemies who hate Israel, the Jews, and any other nation that stands with them. And, it’s not just a hatred, but an evil will to see them annihilated. What we have seen in the past few years, the growing hatred and violence towards Jews around the world, reminds us that what we are watching is more than a battle of ideologies. The enemy of God and all that belongs to God has filled the hearts of people who have rejected the truth of God’s Word with such hatred for Jews that they are happy when God’s people suffer and die. It is wicked spirits and demonic power directed towards those God said whoever curses them will be cursed. And it’s just beginning in this generation as it did in generations past when people tried to completely destroy all Jews. Thank God for those of our leaders who stand steadfast with Israel and represent all of us who believe that when we bless the Jews, God will bless us. Those in our government and other places of influence and all who are proud to show the world that they are aligned with the ideologies that hate and target Israel and the Jews will face the Almighty Sovereign Creator. He has not changed His promises in today’s verse. Let’s pray that America remains faithful in our allegiance with Israel and that we stand shoulder to shoulder against those who oppose the Jewish people and would do them harm. Let’s pray that our leaders remember and emulate the words and actions of President Harry Truman who wasted no time in declaring Israel’s right to exist and our determination to be their ally.
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January 28, 2025
Psalms 23:6 “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever”
The Lord is not chasing us with a whip to beat the daylights out of us. But we can count on His goodness and mercy every day of our lives. There’s a popular worship song that says His goodness is running after us and that’s a comforting thought in these perilous times. It’s one of the countless acts of God’s grace we receive from Him, gifts from God that prove His love for us. And, considering all He does for us, there’s unmistakable proof that God loves us. We freely receive from God but do we offer Him anything as a token of our love in return? Not attempting to pay Him back because that’s not what His grace is about. But things on our part that express our love and appreciation for His goodness, mercy, and indescribable grace. The Bible says in Psalms 29:2, “Give unto the LORD the glory due unto his name; worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness”. The word “give” here means to ascribe or declare how wonderful and glorious He is. Instead of talking about how big our problems are or how bad things are, we talk about how great God is and how He will never fail. We give glory to the Lord and worship Him. We declare how His goodness and mercy are forever following us. The scriptures tell us in 1 Chronicles 16:8, “Give thanks unto the LORD, call upon his name, make known his deeds among the people”. When we give thanks to God, thanks for who He is, what He has done, and what He’s going to do and we testify that to others, we’re giving an offering to God, glorifying His name. When we bow our heads and thank Him for the food we’re about to eat or when we thank Him that the wild-driving car we just passed didn’t hit us head-on or sideswipe us, we’re giving honor to Him. And, how about the words of Jesus in Matthew 25:40, “Verily I say unto you, inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me”? When we do good for others, in the name of Jesus, our Lord says He counts it as if we’re doing good to Him. May the Holy Spirit help us every day to honor the Lord and others in ways that express our love for Him.
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January 27, 2025
Lamentations 1:16 “For these things I weep; mine eye, mine eye runneth down with water, because the comforter that should relieve my soul is far from me: my children are desolate, because the enemy prevailed”
In his day, Jeremiah looked around at the nation of Israel and the mess they were in and began crying. Jerusalem, God’s capital city, that had once been blessed, beautiful, and filled with honor above all nations had been conquered. Maybe the saddest part is that Jeremiah felt as if God and His comfort were far away. The whole disaster was because of Israel’s sins and the nation’s refusal to acknowledge their transgressions and repent. The destruction and misery of Israel that the book of Lamentations records reminds us of the scripture’s warning in Psalms 9:17, that all nations that forget God will be turned into hell. Like what Jeremiah experienced, the downward spiral of America into the mess we’re in speaks of a nation that has been immersed into sins too many and too horrible to list here. Yet unlike Jeremiah of Old Testament times, in this day of grace, the comforter is with us, in the hearts of all believers. We have the hope that if we will repent, God will restore us. The recent election seems to show that people are worried about the direction of our country and want changes. I sincerely hope there is an open door for a revival in our lives and churches and that people will turn to the Lord. Our problem is the same as Jeremiah’s time: The enemy has prevailed. We can blame the economy, failed government policies, and poor leadership and while all those and more are certainly factors, the main culprit is described in Proverbs 14:34, “Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people”. While we are hoping for a return to normalcy and common sense in the political and social world, let’s pray for a spiritual revival. One that changes hearts, draws unsaved people to the Lord, and refreshes believers. Let’s pray that people will repent and do what is right before God. Let’s pray that God’s anointing will rain down on our ministers, teachers, and worshippers and that we will all surrender completely to God’s will. Let’s pray for and receive the filling of the Holy Spirit so that we can walk in the Spirit and have the mind of Christ. It may seem the enemy has prevailed but our God is greater and stronger, and nothing is impossible with Him. Revival can save us. Revival can restore what the enemy thought to destroy. We pray Psalms 85:6, “Wilt thou not revive us again: that thy people may rejoice in thee?”.
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January 26, 2025
Hebrews 12:11 “Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby”
All believers have two desires: A desire to do what we want, to please ourselves, and the Holy Spirit-driven desire to please God and do His will. The desire to please ourselves, often referred to in the Scripture as the flesh, is fueled by our sinful nature. The Bible declares in Romans 7:18, “For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing”. But our lives and the journey we take are in the hands of God. And, like a loving, caring Father, He has purposed and planned that all things will work for our good. The question for me is, do I believe that? Do I believe that He knows every detail about me, every situation I get in, and has foreseen it all and is working things for my good? If I believe those things and know that my will, my flesh is flawed and sinful then I also know that the Lord has a better plan for me, a better path and way of living than I can determine on my own. To follow His ways and become what He has purposed for me requires that He guide me and educate me and that means sometimes I need correction. That’s the meaning of the word ”chastisement” in today’s verse and when God corrects me, and educates me by disciplining me, it’s usually not something that makes me want to say, “Thank You, I needed that”. But the key words here are, “nevertheless afterward”. God’s ways are not harsh and angry and He has a plan for us, a place of rest and the means to get us there. His chastening has a purpose to set us free from our fallen will and put us on a path to victory. That’s the “nevertheless afterwards”. it’s a wonderful thing because the end result is that we come to a place of peace, the result of doing what is right. The wisdom of the Word of God is that when the Lord corrects our steps, we are thankful because He is moving us away from the false, sin-centered world and drawing us closer to Him. The big lie from the enemy, the one that started with Adam and Eve, is that we can be happy and fulfilled in disobedience and rebellion. But it is only when we walk hand-in-hand with Jesus that we find the love, joy, and peace we crave. Blessed be the Lord who corrects our steps and draws us to Himself.
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January 25, 2025
1 Peter 1:22 “Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently”
If we are believers, we are called and led by the Holy Spirit to love God and love others. Those two things are the foundation of God’s will for all people on earth. They form the basis of the Levitical Law (Law of Moses) and are the primary standards by which we show we belong to God. It doesn’t get any clearer than 1 John 4:7-8, “Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love”. Our unfeigned, or sincere love for each other comes as part of our salvation’s new-birth gift from God. Our part is to be aware that the Holy Spirit is in us, moving and encouraging us to put that love into practice. But today’s verse goes a step further and tells us to love each other with a pure heart meaning sincere, genuine, and free from every mixture of what is false. God’s love doesn’t play mind games. It isn’t offered in exchange for something else, it isn’t used as a reward to manipulate, and it isn’t just words we say without doing the deeds. We are to love “fervently”. A word study of the Greek word used here, ”ektenōs”, means intensely, without ceasing and points us back to a form of the word in Luke 22:44, “And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground”. Jesus prayed “more earnestly” or fervently. It’s a picture of how powerfully He prayed and gives us a clue of how we are to reach out to others in sincere love, stretch out as the root meaning of this word teaches, and love with unfailing intensity. Jesus told us in Luke 6:32-33, “For if ye love them which love you, what thank have ye? for sinners also love those that love them. And if ye do good to them which do good to you, what thank have ye? For sinners also do even the same”. We follow the way of Jesus Christ and find our example of His fervent love for us all, when He loved us intensely even when we didn’t love Him.
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January 24, 2025
Luke 18:10-13 “Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess. And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner”
The Bible tells us why Jesus gave this parable in verse 9: “And he spake this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others”. It’s good to read it and think about it often as a reminder to look within ourselves and see what we find. Both men in the parable went into the house of God to pray but their views of themselves were greatly different. The first, a Pharisee, was a religious man and by the nature of Pharisee’s beliefs and practices, he would have been considered a devout, strict, and outwardly righteous fellow. When it came to their beliefs and conduct, the Pharisees considered themselves, and were considered by the community, to be the most holy and righteous people around. They considered themselves to be so righteous that they looked down their Pharisaical noses at everyone else. The publican was a tax collector and considered by the community to be a traitor to the Jews because publicans collected taxes for the Roman government which had conquered and controlled Israel at that time. They were not just considered to be unrighteous but were thought of as criminals and thieves because they profited greatly from taking excess taxes from people. But the parable tells us while the Pharisee prayed, comparing himself to others that he thought were spiritually beneath him, the publican humbled his heart before the Lord, admitted his unworthiness, and asked God for mercy. The Bible tells us the publican returned home with a heart that was right before God. God wants us to be honest and aware of our need for Him. We need His mercy and cleansing power. We are not better than others because we are saved, we are only saved because Jesus covers us with His grace. Let’s look inside our hearts and declare that all we are or ever hope to be is because the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from our sins. Our righteousness is only because of Him.
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January 23, 2025
1 Corinthians 4:20 “For the kingdom of God is not in word, but in power”
Years ago, in his song, “The Final Word”, Michael Card wrote: “You and me we use so very many clumsy words. The noise of what we often say is not worth being heard”. If we believers could get that truth into our spirit, it’s not the quantity or amazingness of what we say about God, the Bible, and the Christian way that impacts people. It’s the anointing power of the Holy Spirit, aligned with the Word of God, that matters. God’s Word, powered by the Holy Spirit, is a different matter altogether than our words. The Bible says in Romans 1:16, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek”. The word “Power” used here and also in today’s verse and many other places in the Bible when it is speaking of the power of God and His kingdom, is the Greek word “dunamis” from which we get our word, “Dynamite”. Some people have their own words and that’s what they attempt to palm off as a “message from God”. That was the case of some people in the church at Corinth that Paul was referring to in today’s verse. But Paul is telling us that what makes the difference is not what religious words people spit out or their oratory skills, but it’s the dynamite anointing of power. If you’ve ever experienced that fresh bread from heaven, served up by the Holy Spirit you’ll never be satisfied with the imitations offered in its place. I don’t want religion or a form of godliness that denies God’s dynamite power, I want and NEED life-changing, sin-killing, Jesus-honoring, and devil-trouncing power that draws me to God, makes me want to live holy, and inspires me to run the Christian race like a madman. Much of the end times church-world is described in 2 Timothy 3:5, “Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away”. We sinners saved by grace need the pure Word of God, gun barrel straight, and hammered into our hearts with that dynamite power of the Holy Spirit. Makes me want to shout, “Halleluiah!” and take on hell with a squirt gun. This dying, Christ-rejecting world doesn’t need another pathetic, powerless, apologizing, religious muttering, it needs resurrection power. Power that slays the old man and snatches people out of the fire. Jude 1:23, “And others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire”. Let’s bring out the dynamite.
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January 22, 2025
Titus 3:8 “This is a faithful saying, and these things I will that thou affirm constantly, that they which have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works. These things are good and profitable unto men”
Sometimes when believers stand firmly against false teachings that we are saved by our good works, it might sound like they are promoting the freedom to live in any way we choose. But that is not true because the Bible tells us that the doctrine of grace calls us to a higher level. Titus 2:11-12, “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”. The life we live for the Lord isn’t so much about only focusing on attending church and getting involved in church activities as it is about doing what is right in all areas of our lives. We should attend and support our local church and get involved in its ministries. But our main mission field lies outside the church walls and it is in the world around us where our good works have their greatest impact. Jesus taught in Matthew 5:16, “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven”. No matter how great our faith is, it is invisible to an unbelieving world without the testimony of the good works our faith produces. Digging deeper, the Bible says in James 2:26, “For as the body without the spirit (life-force) is dead, so faith without works is dead also”. Today’s verse tells us to “Be careful to maintain good works” meaning to concentrate and give our full attention to doing good. Every day we live we have the opportunity to do good. Some days, we have open doors and opportunities to touch the lives of others in ways that are meaningful and full of blessings. An act of kindness, humble generosity, words of respect and honor, and a heart willing to show compassion are foundations for faith in action. Today’s verse tells us that faith-driven good works, “Are good and profitable unto men”. The world is used to seeing deception, selfishness, greed, and shallowness. When we show love out of a true heart and are willing to set ourselves aside to do good for others, it testifies to the goodness of the God we serve.
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January 21, 2025
Romans 15:13 “Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost”
We’ve all been in situations and seasons of our lives when it seemed all hope was gone. It might have been an illness, a time of family problems, a period of financial stress, or any number of other things. But we remember the feeling of powerlessness, of being trapped by our circumstances with no solution in sight. We need hope to keep our balance, to move forward, and to give life to our dreams and aspirations. In Hebrews 6:19, the Bible tells us that our hope in Jesus Christ is an anchor for our soul, sure and steadfast. Just as an anchor holds a ship in place against the tides and storm-tossed water, hope holds us firm no matter our circumstances. Knowing that the Lord is with us and working on our behalf to cause all things to work together for good, gives us the confidence we need to escape the prison of despair and fear. Today’s verse tells us that it’s God’s will for us to have so much hope that it abounds, a word meaning having more than enough with a great quantity in excess. The pattern given here is like this: God is the source of hope and by our faith in Him, He fills us with joy and peace. This faith, joy, and peace, then produce an abundance of hope by the power of the Holy Spirit within us. It all starts with God and we put our trust in Him. Then He causes our faith in Him to produce joy, peace, and great hope. Hope is contagious. When people are filled with hope, their confidence in God is evident and it’s a completely different thing from what the world is accustomed to hearing and seeing. Faith, hope, and love are the abiding forces of God’s people (1 Corinthians 13:13) and those testify of Jesus Christ more loudly than our verbal declarations of Him. I want to live abounding in hope. I don’t want every storm or trial I go through to toss me around. I do not want my reactions to my circumstances to contradict my faith. Romans 5:3-5, “We glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; And patience, experience; and experience, hope: And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us”.
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January 20, 2025
Luke 1:79 “To give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace”
“To guide our feet into the way of peace”. Words so beautiful, so comforting that they breathe hope into our hearts because they speak of our Savior, leading us as our Good Shepherd. Christmas celebrations are long over and some of us are already looking forward to the warmer days of Spring but the message of Christ is still just as fresh as it was when the angels declared He brought peace on earth to all who know Him. Those of us who know Jesus Christ and follow Him, know He has the power to change us and fill us with the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Peace. Yet Jesus said in Matthew 10:34, “Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword”. Today’s verse is not a promise to an unbelieving world that steadfastly rejects Christ and the ways of God but to people who will honor Christ and follow Him. For those who follow wickedness, the Bible says in Isaiah 48:22, “There is no peace, saith the LORD, unto the wicked”. It is false hope to think this world can know peace without Jesus, the Prince of Peace. The scriptures describe a world that will not honor God in Romans 3:16-18, “Destruction and misery are in their ways: And the way of peace have they not known: There is no fear of God before their eyes”. Around the world, we’ve seen no peace but war, riots, and mayhem are everywhere. Today, our Presidential Inauguration Day in America, many hope the incoming President and his administration will be a catalyst for peace in America and in other nations. Our hopes and prayers are that America will turn away from all that is not right and true, and return to common sense. But our guide into the way of peace is through the Power of Jesus Christ and that comes from a born-again encounter with the Almighty God. Presidents and politicians do not bring us revival. Revival, spiritual awakening, and repentance towards God come when people are drawn to the Lord, not to political movements. Maybe the conservative shift in what’s happening in our nation is a result of people who are humbling themselves and crying out to God for help. People who are turning from their wicked ways and seeking the Lord. I prayerfully hope that’s the case. If the shift is because people will not honor God but are only worried about the economy or afraid of terrorists who have slipped into our country, we’re still in trouble. Jeremiah 14:19, “We looked for peace, and there is no good; and for the time of healing, and behold trouble!”
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January 19, 2025
Hebrews 10:16-17 “This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them; And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more”
One of the lies of the enemy that he uses to discourage us is that God always holds our past against us. Whenever we have some troubles, get sick, or don’t see a prayer answered as quickly or in the way we hoped, he tells us it’s because God is punishing us for our past sins and spiritual failures. If we believe his lies, we are tempted to give up faith that God is with us and working good for us. We need to battle back with God’s truth and today’s verses are a strong defense against the lies of the enemy. First, we are not under the Old Covenant. In fact, if you are not Jewish, neither you nor your ancestors back to 1446 B.C. when the Law of Moses was given, had any part in the Old Testament Covenant. By our faith in Jesus Christ, we are following God under the New Covenant, a Covenant declared by Almighty God where He shows mercy and gives forgiveness to anyone, Jew or Gentile, who will believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and trust in Jesus as their Savior. Unlike the Old Covenant which had 10 commandments and hundreds of rules expanded from those 10 commandments, the New Covenant comes alive within us in the person of the Holy Spirit. He brings the consciousness of the will of God, referred to here as the laws of God, into our hearts and minds so that we have God’s directions as to how to live and do right. And then, as a part of the New Covenant, our sins are so completely forgiven that God never remembers them again. We are forever free of them because they are forgiven, removed, and eternally forgotten. Oh, how believers need to make this truth one of their foundations of faith! Guilt, anguish, and embarrassment about our past sins that God forgave and forgot can hold us in bondage when we are in reality, free. Not only have the chains of sin fallen off, our sentence of punishment and death abolished, and our records wiped clean by Christ’s blood, but the prison house that was once our home has been obliterated. In its place, we have complete freedom in this life and in the life to come, a home in heaven that will never pass away. His words here again: “Their sins and iniquities will I remember no more”.
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January 18, 2025
2 Kings 4:39-41 “And one went out into the field to gather herbs, and found a wild vine, and gathered thereof wild gourds his lap full, and came and shred them into the pot of pottage: for they knew them not. So they poured out for the men to eat. And it came to pass, as they were eating of the pottage, that they cried out, and said, O thou man of God, there is death in the pot. And they could not eat thereof. But he said, Then bring meal. And he cast it into the pot; and he said, Pour out for the people, that they may eat. And there was no harm in the pot”
This miracle of Elisha took place in a time of famine and one of the disciples of Elisha went scavenging for anything he could find to make a pot of soup. He found some wild gourds, brought them back, and cut them up into the stew. But when the men began to eat, they discovered the gourds were poison and they cried out to Elisha for healing. He took some meal, put it in the pot, and the poisonous pot was purified. This miracle can serve as a metaphor for us today. There is so much poison of unbelief and sin that has seeped into our culture, churches, and the minds and lives of our families that it might seem impossible to remove it just as it was impossible to separate the chopped-up poisonous gourds from the prophet’s soup. But the soup was purified by pouring in meal flour which in its type represents Jesus Christ, the bread of life. He is the healer, the One who can take what the enemy has introduced into our lives to harm and destroy us and heal us, removing the poison and contamination of the world. Certainly, we should be vigilant to stop all the influx of sin we can into our lives by making good, Godly choices but we are no match for the tsunami of wickedness in the world around us. But Jesus is more than a match for evil and declared in John 16:33, “In the world ye shall have tribulation (trouble): but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world”. Our antidote against the world’s poison? More of Jesus in our thoughts, speech, and lifestyles. The more we look to Him, pray to Him, and speak His Word and His name, the greater His power works in us to combat the world, our flesh, and the devil. We can speak Jesus Christ over our families, our careers, our trials, and our choices. We can look to Him, talk to Him, and recommend Him to others. If meal flour can decontaminate the poisoned pot, then don’t hold back: dump a bunch of it in! If Jesus is who He says He is, then more of Him! Lift Him up continuously, unashamedly, and wholeheartedly! We don’t want the world’s poison, we want deliverance, freedom, wholeness, and healing. We want to identify with Christ the Bread of Life; The only hope for our families and this fallen world.
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January 17, 2025
Romans 8:26 “Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered”
In the more than 60 years I have attended churches and heard thousands of sermons and Bible studies, I can’t remember ever hearing a sermon or teaching on this verse. In a past devotion, I alluded to it and say that if you have experienced it, you know exactly what it’s speaking about. Our normal prayers usually follow some pattern that is common to us. We might use the Lord’s prayer as a model or pray about the same things daily such as praising God, asking for grace and wisdom to have a victorious day, praying for our families, our nation, the sick and suffering, and so on. We pray using our words to talk to the Lord as if He is right there with us and He is. I believe this is what the Bible refers to in 1 Corinthians 14:15, as praying with understanding. We know what we’re saying and if we’re praying aloud, anyone around us who speaks our language understands what we are saying. But there are times when our ability to express what is within us, be it some kind of struggle or pain we or someone we know are in, fails us and something heavenly happens. Our soul begins heaving up urgent and powerful unspoken thoughts, desires, and pleadings that are so intense they are not speakable. The Holy Spirit is praying for us, interceding in a way that humbles us and cleanses us like rain washing away the humanness of our hearts while He utters our deepest, unspoken needs to our Heavenly Father. It’s not emotions although we might cry while it’s happening but it’s the Spirit overcoming our weaknesses and limited, flawed ways of praying and helping us enter into the presence of Jesus, to the throne of grace. In my experience, this doesn’t happen every day but often at times when I least expect it. An example is a few days ago when I woke up at 3 am with an uncommon, overwhelming desire to pray. As I began praying, words failed me and it was as if the Holy Spirit opened a door to the presence of the Lord. It was so intense I found myself clenching my teeth, physically shaking, and feeling like a fire was burning inside me. I knew I was wordlessly crying out for my family, looking for a place of complete surrender for myself to God’s will, and trusting His power and providence for what lies ahead. When it was over, I was praising God and filled with joy. I’m writing this to encourage us all to pray and pray more than ever. To seek God with all our hearts more than anything else and desire the fullness of His presence. Don’t be afraid or ashamed of the mighty power of the Holy Spirit. We have His promise in Matthew 5:6, “Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled”.
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January 16, 2025
Proverbs 27:17 “Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend”
If you want to sharpen your kitchen knives, you don’t use a stick of butter or a bar of soap. You reach for the steel sharpening stick or something like a ceramic sharpening tool; something that is at least as hardened as the metal of the knife you want to sharpen. This verse speaks to us about building our character, our minds, and the ability to become the best we can be. And, it tells us that the friends we choose, the people we hang out with are a big factor in whether or not we become better people. I heard someone say that if you want to predict what kind of person you’re becoming, then take a good look at the people you closely associate with. Because whoever and whatever they are, in terms of character, motivation, and for believers, Godliness, that’s where you are headed. Or, as the old proverb teaches, if you have some good apples you want to store, don’t put them in with some that are rotten because the goodness of the good apples will not reverse the decay of the bad but rather the opposite. The people to whom we join ourselves, matter. If they do not challenge us to become better, stronger, and more like Christ, we should consider where our relationships are headed. If they are people who compromise, who do not live by integrity, if their words do not testify of faith and allegiance to the Lord, then maybe we should start looking to befriend people who will help us get to higher standards. It’s tempting to think that our faith will rub off on them but God plainly tells us in Ephesians 5:11, “And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them”. Spiritual darkness and light have no common ground and when people live in ways that do not honor the Lord and their words and deeds are contrary to truth, we grieve the Holy Spirit when we align with them. Just as Lot grieved his soul by living in Sodom (2 Peter 2:8). The Bible says, speaking of unbelief and apostasy in 2 Corinthians 6:17-18, “Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you”. It is not an act of self-righteousness because our righteousness is imputed to us by faith. But it’s a matter of identity and desire to live in truth, to become the best we can be, and to honor the Lord. The apostate, Laodicean church age identifies with the world and immerses itself in the anti-God culture as if it has the power to be morally influential and make a difference in the world’s lechery. It’s like trying to sharpen ourselves with a handful of refuse.
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January 15, 2025
Philippians 3:10 “That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death”
When Paul penned these words, he had been a believer for about 30 years. He had experienced a remarkable conversion, and the Lord had filled him with great wisdom and power. He had witnessed many miracles, performed miracles, preached many sermons, and testified before high-ranking officials about the gospel and his faith. But in today’s verse, he says he wants to know Jesus Christ as if he wasn’t acquainted with the Lord. The Apostle is saying that his relationship with God is an ongoing, constantly growing understanding of Jesus Christ, and no matter how much he knew, there was infinite more that could be learned and experienced. This is the truth of the life and faith of a believer. We never get to the place where we can say, “Now I completely understand, now I’ve finally matured to the highest level”. Our Christian life is described in the Bible as beginning as newborn babies and then progressing from there. The Scriptures say in 1 Peter 2:2, “As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby” and in 2 Peter 3:18. “But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever”. Every day, the Holy Spirit wants to reveal Jesus Christ and the ways of God to us fresh and new. Our knowledge of the things of the Holy grows and remains alive in us which some have called the personal progressive revelation of God. Religion is static and stale and if all we have is church stuff and religious activities, we remain stuck where we are. If your relationship with Jesus Christ isn’t growing and if you are stuck where you were in the past, maybe it’s time to ask God to open new doors, bring a fresh anointing, and fill you with His power to move forward into a deeper, more fulfilling relationship with Him. For Israel, the mana fell fresh every day and Jesus is our bread of life, our miracle mana from heaven. The Christian life is not one of stale, years-old bread where we only testify of what God did for us in the past. Christ wants us to know Him in a growing, maturing, dynamic, and powerful experience. The Holy Spirit will reveal our Lord like a refreshing well of water, springing up and running over in our lives. Cast aside stale, moldy religion and embrace Christ, The Way, The Truth, and The Life.
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January 14, 2025
Romans 7:18 “For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not”
This verse speaks to the battle within us to do what is right and is set in the context of the Levitical Law. The law made demands but did not offer the power to help us follow through in obedience. The problem is stated here that in our flesh, is no good thing. The scripture says in verse 19, “For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do”. Just as people in the Old Testament could not keep the law, neither can we in this dispensation because we are predisposed to sin. We are sinners by nature and choice and do not have the power to cast off our sins on our own and become righteous. Our sinful nature and our inability to rise above it means the law cannot be a path to salvation. This is why Christ, who kept the law perfectly in our place, died for us and the Bible says in Galatians 2:21, “If righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain”. But when we are born again, the Holy Spirit lives within us and He becomes the power that enables us to do good. The battle to do right is still there but we have a helper, the supernatural power of the third part of the Trinity who leads us, urges us, and works powerfully on our behalf to follow the ways of God and do what is right in His eyes. When we allow the Holy Spirit to lead us, when we have the fullness of His presence, the Bible says in Romans 8:11, “But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you”. Our flesh, with our human will, comes alive and responsive to God and we have the power to do what is right. And, by the power of the Holy Spirit, all that the law taught, distilled into two commandments to love God and love each other, is fulfilled in us. The Bible says in Romans 8:4, “That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit”. Our daily prayer is that God will fill us with the Holy Spirit and that we will surrender our will to His will. We can overcome because Jesus has overcome and He now lives in us.
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January 13, 2025
Genesis 22:11-12 “And the angel of the LORD called unto him out of heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham: and he said, Here am I. And he said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou anything unto him: for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me”
These verses are from the account of Abraham’s final and greatest test of faith which some have called, the test of the supremacy of his faith. The test was that when God spoke to him and told him to offer his son Isaac, the promised, miracle son, as a sacrifice, would Abraham obey? To us, it seems like a strange test because we know the Lord doesn’t want, demand, or receive human sacrifice, the only exception being His Son Jesus Christ. But that day, God was not going to allow Abraham to actually sacrifice Isaac and today’s verses give the moment the Lord intervened and ended the test. God knew that in Abraham’s heart, his faith was such that he would fully obey the Lord believing that God would raise Isaac from the dead. Commenting on this, David Guzik says, “God often takes the will for the deed with his people. When He finds them truly willing to make the sacrifice He demands, He often does not require it”. Let’s look carefully at Hebrews 11:17-19, “By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac: and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, Of whom it was said, That in Isaac shall thy seed be called: Accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure”. The Word of God declares that Abraham actually offered up Isaac. That’s how God saw it because He knew Abraham’s will to obey God was so great He would actually follow through and kill his son. Abraham believed more strongly in God’s power to resurrect Isaac, the child of promise, than he feared Isaac’s death. It’s no wonder that Abraham is called, “The father of faith”. The Lord is looking at our willingness and I urge us all to surrender our will completely to God’s will. Let’s bow before our God and pray prayers like: “I give myself completely to You Lord. All I am, all I have, and all I hope to be. Take my life and everything I have and use me for Your glory. Help me to surrender completely to You and hold nothing back. In Jesus’ name, amen”.
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January 12, 2025
Mark 6:49-50 “But when they saw him walking upon the sea, they supposed it had been a spirit, and cried out: For they all saw him, and were troubled. And immediately he talked with them, and saith unto them, Be of good cheer: it is I; be not afraid”
The disciples had just watched Jesus feed thousands of people with a boy’s small lunch. Then they got into a boat and headed across the lake. But as they sailed, the wind began to blow strongly and they were working hard at rowing the boat. Matthew’s account of this incident tells us their boat was tossed with waves meaning they were being thrown around by the force of the wind and water. That’s when they saw Jesus walking on the water but they didn’t know who He was, thinking they were seeing a ghost. Sometimes when the Lord is working on our behalf, when He is involved in our circumstances, we don’t recognize Him. People may say it’s good luck or just think that things just worked out for good on their own. In today’s verse, the disciples forgot all about the power of Christ to perform an incredible miracle and let their minds wander into confusion and unbelief. Instead of saying, “This storm is strong but our Lord is stronger”, they were filled with fear and mistook the presence of the Lord for an apparition or phantom. All of us can look back on our lives and see times when we were delivered, spared, and blessed in ways that have no other explanation except that the Lord was with us. If we could only see the world around us through the eyes of faith, we’d know it’s all about Jesus. God is always with us and He is continually working things for our good. When we start to recognize that and give Him thanks and praise due to His name, it’s a testimony on our behalf that He is our God and our deliverer. Jesus told His disciples to “Be of good cheer” which means, “Have courage”. He is in control and He directs our steps. The planets and stars are not determining our destiny as the astrologers foolishly teach. We are not “Born under a sign” that determines our personality and future. It’s not some unknown power of the universe that’s working for or against us, it’s Jesus coming to rescue us and deliver us. All of the astrology, fortune-telling, and star charts are garbage, tools of the devil to distract people from faith in the Son of God who has us in the palm of His hand. We are who He says we are: Children of the Almighty God and only He controls our destiny.
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January 11, 2025
2 Peter 3:15 “And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you”
One of the attributes of God that should endear us to Him, is His patience. Many of us did not respond to the Lord’s initial invitation of salvation but we ran away just as Adam and Eve ran and hid from the presence of God after their sin. But God was patient and continued to draw us to Himself with kindness and mercy. The word for longsuffering here is a strong word that means endurance, constancy, steadfastness, and perseverance. God is not only patient, but He is persistent in His will to reach us, stubborn against our resistance, and unshakable in His resolve to forgive us and show us mercy. It is because of God’s longsuffering that we have salvation because He could write us off at our first, second, third, and so on refusals and would be completely just in doing so. But He isn’t like that. In the world before the flood, the Bible says in 1 Peter 3:20, “The longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water”. When humanity had become totally corrupt, fell into the deepest of sins, and would not return to the Lord, He still waited another 120 years while Noah built an ark, all the while preaching through Noah for them to repent and turn back to God. For us, we have God’s Word in Ephesians 4:2-3, “With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love; Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace”. Longsuffering is paired with forbearance and means to put up with, to endure, and to restrain oneself from taking action, in this case, of revenge or demand for justice”. It’s an impatient age and we all feel rushed to act, go, move, and finish and we expect the same from others. When the light turns green, we want the car in front of us to step on it. We don’t want to wait in line, and fast food isn’t fast enough. But God moves at His own timing and He will not be hurried by our impatience. He is patient, and kind, and gives people lots of opportunities to do right. Praise God He is patient with our families and those who have not yet turned to Him, He is waiting and calling to them. His longsuffering will be their salvation.
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January 10, 2025
Ezra 7:9-10 “For upon the first day of the first month began he to go up from Babylon, and on the first day of the fifth month came he to Jerusalem, according to the good hand of his God upon him. For Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the law of the LORD, and to do it, and to teach in Israel statutes and judgments”
In 537 B.C. after 70 years of Babylonian captivity, God orchestrated the return of His people to the land of Israel. There were three prominent leaders that began the process of rebuilding what had been destroyed. Nehemiah oversaw the rebuilding of the walls around Jerusalem, Zerubbabel oversaw the rebuilding of the temple, and Ezra organized the reinstatement of temple worship with all the priests and religious ceremonies. But most importantly, Ezra was instrumental in turning the people’s hearts back to God and His Word. For 70 years, they’d had no temple and no way to observe the teachings of their Law and God chose Ezra to bring them revival, to help them turn their faces back to the Lord and the things of God. Revival isn’t our routines of bringing in an evangelist once or twice a year so people can hear someone different from their pastor and gain new perspectives. It isn’t changing our music, redecorating the stage, and installing a fog machine. If most pastors and music directors actually knew how ridiculously silly they look, emerging onstage from a haze of fog as if they are superstars, they’d be more than thankful that their audience can’t clearly see or recognize them in the pitch-dark pits they call churches nowadays. Revival is the result of a movement of the Lord by the Holy Spirit when He draws people back to Himself; People who have drifted from their first love and perhaps have tried to substitute worshiptainment for the glory of God. Maybe much like Adam and Eve tried to use fig leaves as a substitute for the Shekinah glory of God that had surrounded them before they departed from the Lord. In the book of Ezra, the phrase and others similar to it, “According to the good hand of his God upon him” is a reminder that the power behind the return of God’s people, was God Himself. He used Ezra just as He still uses called, anointed people to represent Him. But it was the Almighty Himself, moving and guiding all things according to His will. Our prayer can be that the good hand of God will be upon us and draw us back to Himself, to a place where revival fire burns away the poison and contamination of this world. A place where we are fully surrendered to His will and consumed with the desire to walk in His ways.
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January 9, 2025
Psalms 34:18 “The LORD is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit”
Brokenhearted, discouraged, and crushed. People who have given up hope. That’s the description in today’s verse and perhaps you, or someone near you, may be in that condition right now. A few weeks ago, my wife and I prayed for a dear lady who had just been diagnosed with throat cancer. She was trying to have courage and spoke about the doctor she was seeing and the hospital where she was going for treatment. But we knew from her demeanor, the look in her eyes, and the uncertainty in her voice, she was brokenhearted and crushed in spirit. That’s how it is when we’re hit with unexpected news that overwhelms us or we find ourselves in circumstances that make us afraid. When the normal course of our lives is completely changed and we’re forced to deal with things that we didn’t even know were coming. I know how she felt because I’ve been exactly where she was twice in the past four years. Twice I heard the doctor say, “It’s cancer”. We can talk about faith, sing about having the victory, and know we belong to the Lord but it still rocks our boat when the storm seems too strong. The uncertainty is like a heavy chain around our neck. But believers, because they trust in God, don’t stay in that fearful, uncertain mindset. Faith reaches up to the throne of grace and we know that no matter what happens, we belong to Jesus Christ and He is in control. The verse here says that He is near us when we are brokenhearted and He rescues us when we are crushed down. We can’t explain how He does it but by His Holy Spirit and the power of His Word, He cuts through the anxiety, doubt, and gloom of uncertainty and shines the light of hope into the darkest corners of our being. The Holy Spirit is our comforter. When we look to the Lord in our troubles like a helpless child looks to the safety of its loving parents’ arms, we have a refuge, a shelter, and a rock to stand on: Our God. Our God. The One who promised to always be with us and will never fail. The sweet lady we prayed with has good doctors and a good hospital but that’s not enough. She needs the comfort and confidence that the Lord hears her cries, knows her sorrow, and is a very present help in her time of trouble. Let’s turn our eyes upon Jesus. Let’s look into His wonderful face and know He is not a God that’s distant, far away in heaven somewhere but He is with us, for us, and working all things for our good.
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January 8, 2025
Matthew 3:13-15 “Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John, to be baptized of him. But John forbad him, saying, I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me? And Jesus answering said unto him, Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness. Then he suffered him”
When Jesus went to John the Baptist and asked him to baptize Him, it was not for the purpose God sent John to baptize people. The Bible says in Acts 19:4, “Then said Paul, John verily baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying unto the people, that they should believe on him which should come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus”. This is why John was confused at Jesus’ request: He knew the Lord did not need repentance. He saw the roles should be reversed and he, needed Jesus, to baptize him. But Christ’s ministry began here and by being baptized by John, our Lord was identifying with us. The human Jesus Christ stepped into the water like all the other people that John was baptizing. His baptism was also when God presented Him to the world in His mission. The Holy Spirit descended upon Him and the Father’s voice declared, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased”. When we are baptized, it is different because we are identifying with Christ. He identified with us and when we receive Him as our Savior, we identify with Him in baptism that symbolically pictures His death, burial, and resurrection. Some teach that baptism is one of the steps to salvation but we are not saved in increments or by obeying a religious formula that includes baptism. We are instantly saved when we trust Christ alone to save us. Baptism is the step we take after we trust Christ to testify that we are now His followers, His disciples. Bible preaching, rightly dividing the Word of truth, helps people understand that they cannot trust their baptism to save them but they must trust Jesus Christ and what He did on the cross for them. He saves us when we trust Him because He knows when we believe. He knows every detail of our hearts. The baptism of Jesus is an amazing account as, by faith, we see Him coming out of the water, dripping wet, and presenting Himself to us as if to say, “I am like you. I know how you feel, I understand your sorrow, and I know your needs. Trust me as your Savior and friend”.
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January 7, 2025
2 Corinthians 9:8 “And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work”
I started working on a project today and even though I have a little tool shed full of many kinds of tools, parts, and pieces of repair stuff, I still didn’t have all I needed to finish. So, another trip to the store to get a few more things. No matter what it is, it almost always seems I don’t have exactly what I need to do what I want to do. But today’s verse tells us that when it comes to the things of God, God’s grace makes sure we always have all sufficiency in all things to do His work. That means we will always have enough of everything we need to do every good work for God. We are fully equipped. We might not feel like it and we might doubt our abilities or wonder how we’re going to get it done. But God is our source and He has foreseen our situations and made sure we lack nothing. Look at Psalm 34:10, “The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger: but they that seek the LORD shall not want any good thing (we have everything we need). It’s like having a pantry filled with every ingredient imaginable so you can cook and bake any recipe without having to go anywhere else for supplies. Or having your own Snap-on Tool truck parked permanently in your driveway so that anything you need to fix anything, is right there. God is perfect in all His ways and He will not call people to serve Him and then fail to provide what they need. His grace is alive and at work in us, through us, and blessing our efforts for His glory. By His grace, we are fully sufficient, completely capable, and divinely qualified. Those are not statements of arrogance or self-sufficiency because, without Him, we can do nothing. All we are or ever hope to be and all we do or hope to do is because Jesus lives in us. But because of Him, we have no excuse to turn away from the Lord’s work as if we are lacking in some capacity. If our job is to clean the church’s bathrooms and sweep the floors, let’s do an awesome job. Or, if we are called to teach and preach the Word of God, let’s do our very best. If our mission is to be encouragers to others, the Lord has equipped us to be the best encouragers we can be. Praise God, we will always have all sufficiency in all things. By God’s grace, we can do it.
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January 6, 2025
Proverbs 24:17 “Rejoice not when thine enemy falleth, and let not thine heart be glad when he stumbleth”
Personally, I don’t know if I currently have any enemies. I’m not aware of any. I like to think that most people I know like me, or at least, are willing to tolerate me. A life lived filled with peace is a wonderful thing. The Bible says in Romans 12:18, “If it be possible, as much as lieth in you (as best you can), live peaceably with all men”. A key part of that verse are the words, “If it is possible”, and “as best you can”. But sometimes even with our best efforts and mustering all the kindness and peace-making we can to defuse situations, we’re in a cauldron of strife. When people do us wrong and when they throw us under the bus. It’s on. When they push all our buttons, get on our last nerve, and wound us, we want revenge. We don’t want to hear Romans 12:14, “Bless them which persecute you: bless, and curse not”. We want to hurt ‘em, curse ‘em, and cuss ‘em. But when we belong to Christ, we do not own ourselves. We do not carry a bag of weapons and words to defend ourselves and set things straight. When we became children of God, we came under His protection. Now, anything that harms or hurts us, harms and hurts Him just as any offense or harm against your precious little children becomes an offense against you. God has our backs and He will always vindicate us when we are wronged. Our business in those matters is now His business. Today’s verse tells us to stop finding joy when our enemies faceplant and stop swelling with gladness when their world falls apart. Whether they’re reaping what they’ve sown or if God is turning the tables on them on our behalf, it doesn’t matter because our desire should be that they surrender themselves to the Lord and learn to walk in His ways. Instead of wanting them to feel pain for causing us pain, we embrace Proverbs 16:7, “When a man’s ways please the LORD, he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him”. That’s what God did for us. We were estranged from Him and in our sins, we were His enemies. But He made peace by the blood of His cross and made us, His enemies, His friends. And even more than friends, He made us His chosen, His children.
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January 5, 2025
Matthew 6:6 “But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly”
Our God, the One who created all things and has all power in heaven and earth, wants us to talk with Him. It’s good to pause and think about the implications of that. He loves us and He is unlimited in what He can do. He understands and knows everything, and He delights in taking care of us. Listen again to His words in Hebrews 4:16, “Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need”. That’s a picture of an open, welcoming door into the presence of our Almighty Father who treasures us. It’s no wonder that our enemy and the enemy of God, wants to keep us from praying. He wants to interfere with our relationship with our loving and good Father. He wants us to struggle, live in want, and stay separated from the source of our peace, life, and power: our Heavenly Father. Jesus wants us to have a special place to pray called here a closet. In the Greek, it means a private place, often secret where valuables are kept and has the sense that when we get alone with God and talk with Him, we are in our treasure room. The idea of shutting the door is placing ourselves where we are private, closed off and undistracted from the world around us, and focused on what we are doing: communicating with God. Our cellphones are off and put aside, we are away from the TV, and we are purposed to come into the presence of the Magnificent King. It’s not a dreaded routine done out of obligation, but the highest privilege imaginable. The open door was purchased for by the suffering and blood of our Savior who paid the price because of God’s love for us. We certainly can pray in many other ways and we do so. But this speaks of alone time with God, in our treasure spot, our secret place where it’s only us and Him. And, our God who wants to meet with us in that secret place, will strengthen our bond with Him, answer our prayers, and open the windows of heaven for us in the sight of this world. He will reward us with His great favor. Let us pray.
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January 4, 2025
Hebrews 13:16 “But to do good and to communicate forget not: for with such sacrifices God is well pleased”
Growing up, my dad was a pastor and our family attended church a lot. And when I say that, I mean several times a week, every week, and without fail. We didn’t just attend the church my dad pastored, we went everywhere to revivals, tent meetings, prayer meetings, and outdoor services. We had church in people’s homes, listened to radio preachers like Oliver B. Greene, and our family had daily devotions and prayer. One of the themes I remember repeated often was that people talked about how hard it is to live a Christian life. They’d usually then say that even though it was hard, it’ll be worth it one day when we get to heaven. Looking back now, I believe all that was because many of them were hardcore legalists who were trying to become righteous and please God by keeping a huge list of rules and regulations along with some of the Levitical Law. They worried about men with long hair and women with short. They had rules about clothing and debated whether or not coffee was immoral. Movies were forbidden and praying knees were never on the same leg with dancing feet. Sundays, they decided, was the Sabbath and besides going to church, everyone sat around doing nothing (Except the women who were still expected to feed everyone and clean up the mess). And the list goes on. I know they loved the Lord but they just didn’t understand the Biblical principle of liberty: Jesus set us free from all our efforts to become righteous enough to be saved. Today’s verse tells us clearly what makes God happy. When we do good and fellowship with each other. It’s simple; just do what is right and we have the Holy Spirit within us to guide us in that path of truth. It’s not so we can get saved or be saved, it’s because we are saved. In every situation and with every choice we have the opportunity to do the right thing, the good thing. If we lack the wisdom, we have the Holy Spirit and God’s Word to guide us. It might be hard sometimes to sacrifice what we want to do and choose what’s right but we can do it. And, when we do, God is well pleased and we are blessed. When we mess it up, and we do and will, God stands ready to forgive us and help us start again. That’s who He is. He’s not judging us because we like a good cup of hot (or iced) coffee.
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January 3, 2025
1 Thessalonians 5:9 “For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ”
It is not God’s desire or purpose to punish us or that we receive His wrath but rather that we receive His salvation. The Bible says in 2 Peter 3:9, that he is, “Not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance”. Look at it from our human perspective. If you are a good parent, you hate having to correct your children, and if you are loving and kind, it grieves you to have to punish them for their wrongdoings. They might make us angry and frustrated but our desire is not to cause them pain but to love and guide them to be better children and good adults when they mature. God immediately started His plan to bring us salvation when Adam failed. The mystery of it all is that the Lord foresaw man’s fall into sin and had a salvation plan before creation. Titus 1:2, “In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began”. Unlike us, God is not acting in reaction to what He sees happening on the earth but is carrying out His plan of salvation. Nothing surprises Him because He sees all and knows all before it happens. We start 2025 with the assurance that this year is fully under God’s control just as every year has been since creation. What might seem an unsolvable mess is not like that to God. Does the Lord know about China, Russia, and North Korea and what their leaders are thinking and planning? Yes, every detail and His Word tells us about His plan for those nations in the near future. Does God have foreknowledge of what the terrorists are doing and does He have a plan to protect His people? Yes, He knows and has a plan to bring salvation to Israel and will never fail to keep His promises to those who belong to Him by faith in Jesus Christ. In 2025, let’s determine more than ever to follow Colossians 3:1-2, “If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on (think about, focus on, keep your mind fixed on) things above, not on things on the earth”. Our destiny is not to experience God’s wrath, Jesus has already done that in our place. Our destiny is eternal salvation.
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January 2, 2025
Psalms 51:10 “Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me”
After David’s horrible sins, he was convicted when the prophet Nathan confronted him about his wrongs. The words of this Psalm are David’s prayer to God, asking for forgiveness and restoration. In the first nine verses, he owns his sins and takes full accountability for them, asking God to wash them away and wash him in the process. Then we come to today’s verse where he asks God for a clean heart. Part of owning our sins is admitting where they came from. Our Lord taught us in Mark 7:21-23, “For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: All these evil things come from within, and defile the man”. I’ve heard people teach about David’s sins and try to at least partially blame Bathsheba but David recognized that what he did came from actions fueled by his own fallen, depraved heart. In this dispensation of grace, we know we receive imputed sanctification by what Jesus did for us. Hebrews 10:10, “By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all”. But because we are not yet glorified and still battle with our old nature, we pursue daily sanctification. John 13:10 is a wonderful explanation of this: “Jesus saith to him, He that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet”. In Bible times, with no running water in homes, people went to the bathhouse or stream to bathe. After they were clean, they returned home. But on the way home, their sandaled feet got dirty from the walk so they washed only their feet. The blood of Jesus has cleansed us but we are still in contact with a fallen world. We still acknowledge our sins, ask for forgiveness, and pursue a life of holiness. To live a life of honor, we ask the Holy Spirit to search us, to reveal anything in our hearts that needs to be changed. We want hearts that are clean and pure, hearts that show God’s goodness and grace. David’s prayer becomes our prayer as we fight the good fight of faith, a fight against all that is within us that is against God. I believe 2025 is going to be a year of greater victory where we purpose to follow God’s good ways and turn away from all that defiles us. “Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me”!
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January 1, 2025
Exodus 5:2 “And Pharaoh said, Who is the LORD, that I should obey his voice to let Israel go? I know not the LORD, neither will I let Israel go”
It isn’t clear if Pharoah spoke these words in arrogance since he was proclaimed to be a god worshipped by the people along with all the other Egyptian gods or if he was questioning the existence of another god unknown to him. Maybe it was a mixture of both. Whatever the case, he did not intend to recognize or answer to the Lord God Almighty. There are people all over the world who might respond the same way. Some of them worship other gods and material things or they follow religions and depend on their obedience to those religions for salvation. As we start this New Year, may the Lord impress upon our hearts to remember and pray for all the people who might be saying in themselves, “Who is the Lord?”. God sends out His Word and His witnesses even in places where the gospel is forbidden. North Korea is one such place where people are often tortured and imprisoned because of their faith in Jesus Christ. But in 1992, Billy Graham preached in North Korea, and in 1998, Arthur Blessitt, one of my heroes of the faith, carried the witness of the cross in North Korea. In 2007 and 2009, the Christian music group, Casting Crowns was invited to sing in North Korea at the Spring Friendship Arts Festival in Pyongyang. Day and night a powerful 250,000-watt Christian radio station off the coast of South Korea shoots its signal directly into North Korea. God wants the world to know who He is. Sadly, Pharoah never learned his lesson and even after he saw the power of God manifested in the ten plagues and experienced the heartache of the tenth plague of the death of the firstborn, he reneged on his promise to let the Israelites go. Pharoah and his army were drowned in the Red Sea, trying to capture the Israelites. In 2025, we pray the Holy Spirit brings us a great revival. May we return to our roots of evangelism, of sharing the gospel of Christ both by the way we live and the way we speak about Jesus. May ministers return to the practice of giving invitations to anyone who needs the Lord. And may all of us who know that the answer to,” Who is the Lord?”, is Jesus Christ, not be ashamed or hesitant to speak His name!
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