Real Life – Devotions

 

Gal 1:15-17  But when he who had set me apart before I was born, and who called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son to me, in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult with anyone;  nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me, but I went away into Arabia, and returned again to Damascus. Believe it or not, God has a definite plan for your life. You might think that being a carpenter, loan officer, engineer, or accountant is the extent of your earthly calling. However, those daily activities are only a means of support and preparation for a greater work. If you’ve wondered what else God has in store for you or think there must be a more meaningful reason for your existence, I urge you to seek Him—and Him alone—for the answer.

You may be thinking, I don’t know if I’ve ever heard God speak. The best way to hear God speak is to get alone with Him. Open your Bible, begin to read, and let Him interrupt you as He wills. When the time is right, He will impress upon your heart a thought or desire—Maybe I should go in this direction, or Lord, I’d like to be involved in that ministry.

The apostle Paul understood the importance of hearing from God regarding the works he was called to accomplish. He refused to rely on flesh and blood for his commissioning because when it comes to doing God’s work, man is unable to give us the plan.

If someone can talk you into a ministry, then Satan can easily whisper you out of one. Be sure to get your direction from God. Then, when unforeseen difficulties threaten to throw you off course, you can take heart in the knowledge that they are God-ordained, and He who called you will be faithful.

Will Graham – Devotion

 

Luke 17:11-19  Now it happened as He went to Jerusalem that He passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee.  Then as He entered a certain village, there met Him ten men who were lepers, who stood afar off.  And they lifted up their voices and said, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” So when He saw them, He said to them, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” And so it was that as they went, they were cleansed. And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, returned, and with a loud voice glorified God,  and fell down on his face at His feet, giving Him thanks. And he was a Samaritan. So Jesus answered and said, “Were there not ten cleansed? But where are the nine?  Were there not any found who returned to give glory to God except this foreigner?”  And He said to him, “Arise, go your way. Your faith has made you well.”

As I ponder the amazing love of the Lord, it strikes me that there’s an ongoing risk of taking our salvation for granted. We have received this unbelievable gift, and rather than bursting with thankfulness and jumping with joy, we tuck it away.

Let’s take a moment to focus on the topic of thankfulness. Luke—the physician—recorded this event in the life of Jesus, showing why we ought to be thankful.

Found in Luke 17:11–19, this is the story of Jesus healing 10 lepers. Once they were healed, the 10 men ran off excited. But only one came back to praise God for what had happened.

Just as these men were physically healed of their leprosy, we receive salvation (or spiritual healing) from Jesus that warrants our gratitude.

First, we can be thankful that Jesus came to us (vv. 11–12). The text says that Jesus went through Samaria and Galilee, both of which were made up of people stigmatized by society.

Samaritans were considered unclean people. Galileans were misfits and rogues. Yet Jesus made the effort to go to them. They did not have to go to Jesus.

Similarly, Christ came down from Heaven in the form of man some 2,000 years ago in order to redeem us.

Second, we need to also be thankful because Jesus hears our cries (v. 13). The text says the men yelled out to Jesus because they were lepers, and the law required them to stay at a distance in order to prevent infecting others. But Jesus stopped and answered their cry for help.

This is significant.

These men realized their own situation—that they were very sick and they could not help themselves. If they could have, they would have already done so. They realized that only Jesus could help them and so they cried out to Him.

Likewise, when we cry out to Christ for our salvation, it is because we understand that we are unable to save ourselves. We are spiritual lepers in need of healing.

Finally, we need to be thankful that Jesus can cleanse us and make us whole (v. 14). Jesus told the men to go show themselves to the priests, and on the way, the men were healed.

They exercised faith in Jesus—they believed He could heal them—and showed obedience as they did exactly what Jesus commanded them to do.

Only Jesus has the ability to forgive sin and cleanse us spiritually, as He cleansed the lepers physically.

Take Time to Thank God

We should be thankful that we serve a God who can heal, cleanse, and save—physically and spiritually—and who comes to us and invites us into communion with Him. When we give thanks to God, He is honored and glorified (vv. 15-19).

The Bible says that only one man came back to thank Jesus, and when he did, he was honoring God.

I encourage you: Be sure that you aren’t like the other nine. Please take the time to come back to God and thank Him for what He has done for you. He came down, He heard your cry, and He answered it by healing your soul.

My friends, we have every reason to be thankful!

Pathway to Victory – Devotion

They delight in doing everything God wants them to, and day and night are always meditating on his laws and thinking about ways to follow him more closely.

–Psalm 1:2 TLB

Hold tightly to God’s Word: listen to the preached Word of God, read the Word of God, and study the Word of God. Two ways to allow God’s Word to dwell richly in you.

Memorize the Word of God. Psalm 119:11 says, “Your word I have treasured in my heart, that I may not sin against You.” Memorizing God’s Word is like depositing money in the bank. If you make regular deposits of Scripture in your heart, you’ll have something to draw on to say no to temptation. You might say, “Pastor, I can’t even remember where I put my keys. How am I going to memorize Scripture?” Let’s say I challenged you to memorize Colossians 3, and I promised that if you were able to do it, I’d give you a check for $100,000. Do you think you could learn Colossians 3? It’s not a question of ability; it’s a question of motivation. Think about the emotional, spiritual, and even financial cost of losing your family, losing your church, losing your reputation, or dishonoring the name of Jesus Christ. That ought to motivate you to make Scripture memorization a priority in your life.

Finally, you have to meditate on the Word of God. That doesn’t mean sitting around in a trance. The Hebrew word for “meditate” means to mutter. The picture is of somebody who is so saturated with Scripture that they’re continually muttering it under their breath. Psalm 1:2 says, “They delight in doing everything God wants them to, and day and night are always meditating on his laws and thinking about ways to follow him more closely” (TLB). What happens to a person who meditates on God’s Word? The psalmist continued, “They are like trees along a riverbank bearing luscious fruit each season without fail. Their leaves shall never wither, and all they do shall prosper” (v. 3 TLB). Picture a tree that’s green and blooming even in the middle of the desert–a tree so massive that it can’t be blown down by any storm. That’s the success that comes with meditating on God’s Word.

Do you desire stability in your life, no matter your circumstances? Do you desire productivity and meaningfulness in your day-to-day activities? Do you desire consistency in your relationship with God? Both Paul and the psalmist said the key to a life that is marked by stability, productivity, and consistency is allowing the word of Christ to dwell richly within you (Colossians 3:16).

Turning Point – Devotion

 

Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints.
Ephesians 6:18

Paul concludes his description of the armor of God with a mention of prayer. The explanation for the addition of prayer lies in Greek grammar. “Praying” is a participle, not a verbal imperative command like “take the helmet” and “[take] the sword” (Ephesians 6:17). In Paul’s mind, praying was a means to accomplishing the previous instructions: Put on the armor while praying.

For Paul, prayer was akin to breathing—a natural activity of communication with God. Just as we don’t need to be commanded to breathe, we shouldn’t need to be commanded to pray. And yet Paul does, as a reminder, in 1 Thessalonians 5:17: “Pray without ceasing.” Just as breathing is a continual exercise, so should prayer be: Pray all the time (“always”), with all prayer, with all perseverance, for all the saints—the four “alls” of prayer. Prayer is a critical component in being “strong in the Lord” (Ephesians 6:10). Coating our spiritual armor in prayer provides power and wisdom in spiritual battles.

How long can you live without breathing? And how long can you live fruitfully without praying?

Believing prayer takes its stand upon the faithfulness of God.

Enduring Word – Devotion

 

Then Jacob said, “O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, the LORD who said to me, ‘Return to your country and to your family, and I will deal well with you’: I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies and of all the truth which You have shown Your servant; for I crossed over this Jordan with my staff, and now I have become two companies. Deliver me, I pray, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau; for I fear him, lest he come and attack me and the mother with the children. For You said, ‘I will surely treat you well, and make your descendants as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude.’” (Genesis 32:9-12)

Someone once said, “you can’t go home again,” meaning that we can’t really return to our exact past. But Jacob tried to go home after being gone 20 years, remembering that brother Esau had vowed to kill him, so Jacob ran for his life. However, he could not stay away from the Promised Land forever, so in Genesis 32 Jacob came back to Canaan to face both his past and his future.

Jacob didn’t first respond well to the pressure of coming home. He reacted in fear and unbelief. Then Jacob did something right, going to the LORD and praying with faith, thanksgiving, and God’s word.

First, notice Jacob’s prayer had God’s word: the LORD who said to me, “Return to your country and to your kindred, and I will deal well with you” (what God said in Genesis 31:3); For You said, “I will surely treat you well…” (what God said in Genesis 28:13-15). Praying the words of God’s word is important, and many prayers fall short because God’s word is not in them. Often, there is often none of God’s word in our prayers because there is so little of God’s word in us. Jacob did well to remember what God said.

Second, Jacob’s prayer had thanksgiving. He said, I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies. Jacob understood he was not worthy of what God had done, or what he was asking God to do. Instead, he relied on what God promised.

Finally, Jacob’s prayer had faith. He prayed, deliver me, I pray. Jacob boldly asked God to do something based on God’s own promise.

No matter how great Jacob’s prayer seemed to be, the true quality of his prayer would be seen after he prayed. Real prayer, great prayer, changes us. We can leave our prayer and face our situation with a different mind. George Mueller, a great man of faith and prayer, once was asked, “What is the most important part of prayer?” He replied: “The fifteen minutes after I have said ‘Amen.’”

Today, pray according to God’s word, pray with thanksgiving, and pray with faith. Most of all, stay firm in faith after you’re done praying.

Various Quotes from Devotions, Sermons, & Books

 

There are times when we give in to temptation, but it’s not God’s fault, for he always provides us with an avenue of escape. We choose to given into the temptation rather than fight against it. 

If we’focus our hearts on Him and intentionally desire His Word and listen for His Spirit to speak, He will give us clear guidance.

“Oh yes, the heart is deceptive. And that calls for humility above all else, because my heart isn’t deceptive because it fools other people. It’s deceptive because it fools me.”

Jesus reminded the Jews of His day of the need for spiritual light in a spiritually dark world, calling Himself “the light of the world.” The darker the night, the more our need for light.

God has made us for Himself, and our hearts are restless until we find Him. We’re made to be satisfied by knowing God and accepting His Son, Jesus Christ. Some people try to fill the emptiness in their hearts with other things, but Jesus wants to be the very substance of who you are and what you are. 

The title I AM speaks of God’s self-existence and eternal being. There has never been a time when God was not. He’s the same through all the ages. There will never be a time when God ceases to be God. He is Jehovah, Yahweh, I AM. With our mouths we can say those words, but they are beyond our full comprehension—as it should be for an infinite God.

 “Quit judging other people about what they choose to eat and drink. The kingdom of God is not about eating and drinking; it’s about internal issues.” Frankly, it’s a lot easier to abstain from eating and drinking certain things than it is to abstain from gossip, lust, greed, covetousness, and pride.

Most men hope to go to heaven when they die; but few, it may be feared, take the trouble to consider whether they would enjoy heaven if they got there. Heaven is essentially a holy place; its inhabitants are all holy; its occupations are all holy. What could an unsanctified man do in heaven, if by any chance he got there? Let that question be fairly looked in the face and fairly answered. No man can possibly be happy in a place where he is not in his element and where all around him is not congenial to his tastes, habits and character.

If anything is certain about the future, it is certain that there will be a judgment; and if anything is certain about judgment, it is certain that men’s “works” and “doings” will be considered and examined in it

If there is any point on which God’s holiest saints agree, it is this: that they see more and know more and feel more and do more and repent more and believe more as they get on in spiritual life, and in proportion to the closeness of their walk with God. In short, they “grow in grace,”

Believers are eminently and peculiarly responsible and under a special obligation to live holy lives. They are not as others, dead and blind and unrenewed; they are alive unto God and have light and knowledge and a new principle within them. Whose fault is it, if they are not holy, but their own? On whom can they throw the blame, if they are not sanctified, but themselves? God, who has given them grace and a new heart and a new nature, has deprived them of all excuse if they do not live for His praise.

53.p. Joshua 3:9-17

 

Jos 3:9-17  And Joshua said to the people of Israel, “Come here and listen to the words of the LORD your God.” And Joshua said, “Here is how you shall know that the living God is among you and that he will without fail drive out from before you the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Hivites, the Perizzites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, and the Jebusites. Behold, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth is passing over before you into the Jordan. Now therefore take twelve men from the tribes of Israel, from each tribe a man. And when the soles of the feet of the priests bearing the ark of the LORD, the Lord of all the earth, shall rest in the waters of the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan shall be cut off from flowing, and the waters coming down from above shall stand in one heap.” So when the people set out from their tents to pass over the Jordan with the priests bearing the ark of the covenant before the people, and as soon as those bearing the ark had come as far as the Jordan, and the feet of the priests bearing the ark were dipped in the brink of the water (now the Jordan overflows all its banks throughout the time of harvest), the waters coming down from above stood and rose up in a heap very far away, at Adam, the city that is beside Zarethan, and those flowing down toward the Sea of the Arabah, the Salt Sea, were completely cut off. And the people passed over opposite Jericho. Now the priests bearing the ark of the covenant of the LORD stood firmly on dry ground in the midst of the Jordan, and all Israel was passing over on dry ground until all the nation finished passing over the Jordan.

“God extends the force of the miracle beyond their entrance into the land, and properly so, since the mere opening of a way into a hostile country from which there would be no retreat, would be nothing but exposure to death. For they would either easily fall, through being entangled in difficulties and in an unknown region, or they would perish through want. Joshua therefore foretold, that when God drove back the river it would be as if He had stretched out His hand to strike all the inhabitants of the land, and that the proof which He gave of His power in their crossing the Jordan would be a certain presage of victory, to be gained over all the tribes.” (Keil)

 God had apparently revealed to Joshua how the Jordan would become a dry bed and passable by Israel. The waters would not be divided, as they were at the Red Sea (Exodus 14:21-22). Instead, the waters of the Jordan would be cut off upstream, leaving a dry riverbed before Israel. This was not the time of year when the Jordan was reduced to a trickle. Because of the spring rains, the time of early harvest, the river was swollen and overflowing its banks.

“In some respects the passage of the Jordan was more strikingly miraculous than that even of the Red Sea. In the latter God was pleased to employ an agent; the sea went back by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea dry land, Exodus 14:21. Nothing of this kind appeared in the passage of the Jordan; a very rapid river (for so all travellers allow it to be) went back to its source without any kind of agency but the invisible hand of the invisible God.” As well, even with the flow of the river stopped, it was miraculous that the people could cross over on dry ground. God miraculously dried the riverbed so that they didn’t slog through marshy mud. 

In some sense, it took greater faith for Israel to cross the Jordan River than it took for them to cross the Red Sea. At the Red Sea, Israel was pursued by the Egyptian army (Exodus 14:8-28). Crossing the Red Sea was to travel away from danger, and to put a barrier between Israel and the danger pursuing them. In crossing the Jordan River, Israel travelled towards potential danger, the many Canaanites who would war against them. When Israel crossed the Jordan River, they cut off their path of retreat and could be “trapped” and slaughtered in Canaan. Crossing the Jordan River mean that Israel was completely committed to the task of conquering the land of Canaan; they were left with no other option. This was a demonstration of great faith. (Guzik)

53.o. Joshua 3:1-8

 

Jos 3:1-8  Then Joshua rose early in the morning and they set out from Shittim. And they came to the Jordan, he and all the people of Israel, and lodged there before they passed over.  At the end of three days the officers went through the camp and commanded the people, “As soon as you see the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God being carried by the Levitical priests, then you shall set out from your place and follow it. Yet there shall be a distance between you and it, about 2,000 cubits in length. Do not come near it, in order that you may know the way you shall go, for you have not passed this way before.” Then Joshua said to the people, “Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the LORD will do wonders among you.” And Joshua said to the priests, “Take up the ark of the covenant and pass on before the people.” So they took up the ark of the covenant and went before the people. The LORD said to Joshua, “Today I will begin to exalt you in the sight of all Israel, that they may know that, as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. And as for you, command the priests who bear the ark of the covenant, ‘When you come to the brink of the waters of the Jordan, you shall stand still in the Jordan.’”

God told Israel to prepare themselves for three days at the shore of the Jordan River (Joshua 1:11). All that time, the people of Israel lodged in view of a rushing river, swollen with the spring rains. They were faced with the impossibility of the crossing. The two spies had made their way across the Jordan River and back when they spied out Jericho (Joshua 2:1, 2:23). One could swim across the Jordan during flood season, but it was a heroic act (1 Chronicles 12:14-15). The whole nation with its women, children, and elderly, with all their livestock and possessions, could never be expected to cross the river that way. God gave Israel three days to consider the problem. “These events in Israel’s history describe a time of preparation for this new generation who would be called upon to occupy the land. Although Christians are not called to carry out the same physical acts, preparation is necessary for any life of ministry and service. As with Israel’s preparation, it involves hearing and believing God’s Word and the discipline of obedience to that word.”

The ark of the covenant had not yet been built when Israel crossed the Red Sea; there, God used other ways to manifest His presence to them. Here, God’s presence was mainly evident through the presence and the prominence of the ark of the covenant.

God required that His people keep some 1,000 yards (1km) behind the ark. This was for at least two reasons. First, to respect the holy nature of the ark of the covenant. Second, to make it possible for all Israel to see the ark. The ark of the covenant would show the way they must go, leading the way. Israel would accomplish this impossible task as they set their eyes upon God’s presence and followed the representation of His presence. They were to wash themselves and their garments, and abstain from every thing that might indispose their minds from a profitable attention to the miracle about to be wrought in their behalf.”

Joshua’s success depended on and grew out of the promise of God to him: This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success (Joshua 1:8). Joshua had the word of God on his lips, on his mind, and it guided his actions.The step of faith commanded by God and observed by Joshua was encouraged by the LORD Himself. This is the graciousness of God toward His people, giving them constant encouragement in the things which He commands them to do. (Guzik)

Various Quotes from Devotions, Sermons, & Books

 

All of heaven is interested in the Cross of Christ, all hell terribly afraid of it, while men are the only beings who more or less ignore its meaning.

This “enemy” thrives on the chaos, division and negativity perpetuated through social media platforms. It symbolizes the harmful outcomes of collective engagement in fear, misinformation and distraction, leading you on paths away from honoring and glorifying God.

Jesus explained what He meant by the days of Noah. It means life centered around the normal things: eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage. In other words, life will be business as usual; reprobate perhaps, but usual.

Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect: We must not escape the emphasis. We must be ready, because His coming for us is without warning. 

We should also remember that the days of Noah were also marked by violence and demonic oppression (Genesis 6:1-5).

Hiebert compares this trumpet of 1 Thessalonians 4 and the seventh trumpet of Revelation 11:15: “The subjects are different: here it is the church; there a wicked world. The results are different: here it is the glorious catching up of the church to be with the Lord; there it is further judgment upon a godless world. Here ‘the last trump’ signals the close of the life of the church on earth; there the ‘seventh’ trumpet marks a climax in a progressive series of apocalyptic judgments upon the living on earth.”

Why therefore do we not reject every care of earthly actions and prepare ourselves for the meeting of the Lord Christ, so that he may draw us from the confusion, which overwhelms all the world? (Written between 4th and 6th century)

Nothing discredits God more than when His children, who bear His name, disobey what is in His Book. 

Never doubt in the dark what God told you in the light.

The US Constitution is based on the words of men, and it can change. But the Bible is based on the Word of God, and it never changes. We are never to set aside God’s Word to follow human tradition.

Take courage. We walk in the wilderness today and in the Promised Land tomorrow.