Category Archives: Uncategorized

September 11, 2015 · 5:30 AM

Words Of Comfort

Life can be very unpredictable. Things can be going well and then the rug gets pulled out from under us. I heard someone say, “All people are in one of three places: in a trial, coming out of a trial or heading for one.” Life is a series of ups and downs. No one gets to stay on top of the mountain forever, no matter what they say on social media.

In my own trials and tests, these scriptures have brought me comfort; I hope they do the same for you.
  
1. From the ends of the earth, I cry to you for help when my heart is overwhelmed. Lead me to the towering rock of safety, for you are my safe refuge, a fortress where my enemies cannot reach me. 

Psalm 61:2-3 NLT

2. May the Lord himself, who is our source of peace, give you peace at all times and in every way. The Lord be with you all.

II Thessalonians 3:16

3. When I walk into the thick of trouble, keep me alive in the angry turmoil. With one hand strike my foes, With your other hand save me. Finish what you started in me, GOD. Your love is eternal—don’t quit on me now. 

Psalm 138:7-8 MSG

4. When the righteous cry for help, the Lord hears, and delivers them out of all their distress and troubles. 

Psalm 34:17 AMP

5. Be brave. Be strong. Don’t give up. Expect GOD to get here soon. 

Psalm 31:24 MSG

6. God is our refuge and strength, A very present help in trouble. 

Psalm 46:1 NASB

7. I sought (inquired of) the Lord and required Him [of necessity and on the authority of His Word], and He heard me, and delivered me from all my fears. 

Psalm 34:4 AMP

8. The righteous person faces many troubles, but the LORD comes to the rescue each time. 

Psalm 34:19 NLT

9. Call to me when trouble comes; I will save you, and you will praise me. 

Psalm 50:15 GNB

10. My mind and my body may grow weak, but God is my strength; he is all I ever need. 

Psalm 73:26 GNB

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September 10, 2015 · 5:30 AM

God’s Faith In You

One of the many reasons I love the book of Job is that it gives us a behind-the-scenes peek into what goes on in the spiritual realm. In the first chapter, verses 6-12, we read how the angels presented themselves before God. As they were assembling, the accuser, Satan, came to join them. The Lord quickly noticed him and asked him what he’d been doing. Satan replied, “I’ve been patrolling the earth, watching everything that’s going on.” The Lord then asked, “Have you noticed my servant Job?” Satan said that he had.

Satan started his accusations against Job by saying that he was only faithful because of the blessings God had given him. He wanted God to turn on Job so that Job would turn on God. The Lord knows that Satan tries to put a wedge between God and us. He accuses us of things we’ve been forgiven of, and tells God our faith will fail if bad things happen in our lives. God knows the levels of lies and deceit the enemy will go to try to separate us from His love for us. He also knows the level and strength of your faith.

What I see in this story is how God often has more faith in us than we do in Him or ourselves. He trusts us to hold on to Him when our world seems to be crashing down. He knows that testing proves how deep our faith is, and it also strengthens it. An easy road doesn’t produce a strong Christian. If anyone should have been crushed by their problems it was Job, and his faith endured because of his faith inside.

You are stronger than you think you are. I John 4:4 says, “Greater is He who is in you, than he who is in the world” (NASB). You are not left to pass the test alone. God is with you every step of the way. He watches over you and limits what the enemy can do to you as His child. Just like Job, if we will keep our faith in the hard times, God will bless us more after them than He had before them. God will not let the enemy push you beyond your ability to trust in Him. He knows your limits and has given you inner strength to overcome by filling you with the Holy Spirit. Don’t give up on God or your test. God believes you will pass. Prove Him right to the one who accuses you.

Here are some other devotions I’ve written on this topic:

“Why Bad Things Happen To Good People”

“God’s Blueprints”

“Peace In Uncertainty“

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September 9, 2015 · 5:30 AM

Developing Endurance (Video)

We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance.

Romans 5:3

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September 8, 2015 · 5:30 AM

Valuing The Imperishable 

I recently went with our church’s youth group to serve an inner city mission. This ministry doesn’t just serve the needs of those who live on premises, but they also serve the community around them. We were there to help them organize, clean, do yard work, and to serve lunch. About an hour and a half before lunch, people began arriving in the lobby to wait for the food to be served. Some were individuals and some were families who needed a little help. They come each day for a meal that won’t cost them anything.

In John 6, Jesus fed 5,000 with only five loaves of bread and two fish. The people were ecstatic about the free meal, but also realized they were a part of a miracle. The next day, they went looking for Jesus, who had gone to the other side after walking on water to the boat. When they got there, Jesus called them out. In verse 26, Jesus said, “You’ve come looking for me not because you saw God in my actions but because I fed you, filled your stomachs—and for free” (MSG). People were looking for a free meal, but Jesus was wanting them to be hungry for spiritual food.

In verse 27, He said, “Don’t waste your energy striving for perishable food like that. Work for the food that sticks with you, food that nourishes your lasting life, food the Son of Man provides. He and what he does are guaranteed by God the Father to last” (MSG). The people at the mission waited a couple of hours for food that would only satisfy their hunger for a few hours. Don’t get me wrong, they needed the food and there was lots of ministry going on during the lunch, but the people went for the physical food rather than the spiritual food.

Our human nature seems to crave the perishable things of this world instead of the imperishable. You and I have to teach our minds to expend our energy and time on the things that matter for eternity. We have to re-teach our minds to value the things of God. You’ll know that you’re valuing the imperishable when you make time for things like spending time in prayer, reading God’s Word, and serving your neighbor. That’s the food that satisfies more than a few hours, and that’s worth waiting for.   

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September 7, 2015 · 5:30 AM

Loving Your Neighbor

Recently, the news has been covering stories of people who have devalued the lives of others. I’ve watched as people have cheered when another human was murdered because of the color of their skin or for their profession, and I’m heartbroken. Whether a person is guilty of a crime or work in a profession that others don’t like, they have a soul that will spend eternity somewhere. In the end, we are all guilty of breaking God’s laws, and we are all in need of grace. Please don’t misunderstand me, I believe people should receive justice for their wrongdoings, but I won’t cheer when a life is taken, whether deserved or not.

These recent stories in the news remind me of the parable of the Good Samaritan. A man, who was looking for a loophole in the second greatest commandment, which is to love your neighbor as yourself, asked Jesus, “Who is my neighbor?” He was looking for Jesus to cut out certain people groups that he didn’t like. He was trying to get Jesus to say that some races or lives mattered more than others, but Jesus didn’t take the bait.

Jesus told him the story of a Jewish man who was robbed and beaten while traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho. Luckily, a fellow Jew who was also a priest came walking down the road where he was. When the priest saw the hurt man lying there, he crossed the street to walk past him from a distance. He didn’t want to get involved and run the risk of getting hurt. After he passed, a Levite scholar came by who was also Jewish. He avoided the hurt man as well.

Then Jesus added a twist to the story. He said a Samaritan came by. The Jews didn’t value the lives of the Samaritans so they expected him to walk by, but Jesus used him to help the injured Jew. He was driving home the point that our neighbor isn’t just someone with our nationality, heritage, or with the same political persuasion. Our neighbor is any other human and God expects us to love them as much as we love ourselves because He created us all as His children.

If you believe that Jesus died for our sins, then you must believe that His grace is strong enough to save even the worst among us. Instead of putting down those we don’t agree with or calling for their death, we should be showing them love, caring for their wounds, and being a neighbor. If our neighbor, according to Jesus, includes those we have a deep conflict with, then it’s time to stop tearing them down, avoiding them, and to start loving them like we love ourselves. It’s time to value the lives of others as much as we value our own life.

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September 4, 2015 · 5:30 AM

Labor Day Verses

Since Labor Day is coming up, I thought it would be good to explore what the Bible says about work. I believe work means something different to each one of us. I want you to think of what you do or consider as your work as you read each of these verses. Think of them in a personal light and let God speak directly to you through them.

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1.  I have glorified You down here on the earth by completing the work that You gave Me to do.

John 17:4 AMP

2.   Work with enthusiasm, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people.

Ephesians 6:7 NLT

3.   The diligent find freedom in their work; the lazy are oppressed by work.

Proverbs 12:24 MSG

4.   Work willingly at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people.

Colossians 3:23 NLT

5.   Do all your work in love.

1 Corinthians 16:14 GNB

6.   Even while we were with you, we gave you this command: “Those unwilling to work will not get to eat.”

2 Thessalonians 3:10 NLT

7.   You have six days in which to do your work, but the seventh day is a day of rest dedicated to me. On that day no one is to work — neither you, your children, your slaves, your animals, nor the foreigners who live in your country.

Exodus 20:9-10 GNB

8.   Put GOD in charge of your work, then what you’ve planned will take place.

Proverbs 16:3 MSG

9.   Slack habits and sloppy work are as bad as vandalism.

Proverbs 18:9 MSG

10.   So I saw that there is nothing better for people than to be happy in their work. That is our lot in life. And no one can bring us back to see what happens after we die.

Ecclesiastes 3:22 NLT

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September 3, 2015 · 5:30 AM

Getting God’s Attention

From my earliest childhood, I remember hearing the story of Elijah and the prophets of Baal on Mt. Carmel from I Kings 18. If you’re unfamiliar with it, Elijah was the sole prophet of God in the land, and the people were following false gods. He called out the prophets of Baal and challenged them to a public duel on top of the mountain. They each prepared a sacrifice and would pray to their god to see whose was real. The god who was real would answer by fire and burn the sacrifice up.

The prophets of Baal prayed hard for fire. When there was no answer, they started jumping around and stomping as they prayed. When there still wasn’t an answer, they prayed louder and then began to cut themselves to get their god’s attention. Verse 29 sums it up, “This went on until well past noon. They used every religious trick and strategy they knew to make something happen on the altar, but nothing happened—not so much as a whisper, not a flicker of response” (MSG). For hours they tried to earn their god’s attention and failed.

I always thought very poorly of those prophets and even laughed at the way Elijah mocked them. But now I wonder if we are any different than they were. We may serve the God who won that duel, but we have resorted to their tactics to get His attention. We seem to believe that there is something you and I can do to earn His favor or to get an answer to prayer. We pray loudly, we stomp, we circle and even put ourselves in danger to test God to get Him to answer. But God isn’t looking for that from us.

What He’s looking for is found in verse 37. In Elijah’s prayer, he said, “Answer me, Lord, answer me, so that this people will know that you, the Lord, are God, and that you are bringing them back to yourself” (GNB). The prayers God responds to are ones that bring Him glory and allow Him to do the work. They have nothing to do with bringing attention to ourselves. Religion is all about working to get a god’s attention to come to us, but Christianity is about letting God draw us to Him. It’s not about what we do; it’s about what He does.

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September 2, 2015 · 5:30 AM

When God Says No

For just as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so my ways are higher than your ways
and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.
Isaiah 55:9 (NLT)

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September 1, 2015 · 5:30 AM

Reaping In Joy

One of my favorite quotes is, “I don’t measure my day by the harvest I bring in, but by the seeds that I plant. For in planting seeds, I ensure a future harvest.” So many people measure their success by what they bring in each day, but their future is not guaranteed. Only by planting seeds can we make sure we will receive something in the future. In order to have seeds to plant, we have to save seeds from our current harvest. We can’t use everything we have now if we are going to be able to reap later.

Psalm 126:5-6 really stands out to me when I think about this principle. It says, “They who sow in tears shall reap in joy and singing. He who goes forth bearing seed and weeping [at needing his precious supply of grain for sowing] shall doubtless come again with rejoicing , bringing his sheaves with him” (AMP). It’s a verse we’ve heard all our lives, but in this version it really hits home. They’re weeping because they’re having to go hungry now in order to be able to eat later.

It reminds me of when the Pilgrims first arrived. Their corn ration was a few kernels a day. They needed to plant the rest so they could survive later. They sacrificed in the now in order to have abundance later. This concept is so opposite of our world today. We want abundance without the sacrifice. We want to reap when we haven’t planted, and that’s not the system God set up for us. I like how Dave Ramsey says, “Live like no one else now so you can live like no one else later.”

I believe many of us don’t see the harvest we expect because we don’t sacrifice in the sowing. Abundance will cost you. If you aren’t willing to give up your current desires for your future successes, there’s no guarantee you’ll be bringing in sheaves. God has always asked us to sacrifice now for a future blessing. The more you are willing to sacrifice, the more of God’s blessing you can count on in the future. The choice is yours, but you have to act today for tomorrow’s gain.  

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August 31, 2015 · 5:30 AM

The Power Of Words

When I was a kid and someone said something ugly to me, the appropriate reaction was to say, “Sticks and stones can break my bones, but words can never hurt me.” It wasn’t until later in life that I realized what a lie that was. Broken bones heal, but the wounds from words rarely do. They cut deep into the subconscious of people and alter their self-image which changes the future they could have had.

When we hear words about ourselves that are negative, we often use those to replace the thoughts about ourselves that God gave us. We become insecure and self-conscious about everything we do and how we look. Words spoken in a moment can create damage for a lifetime. Some people never get over the words we use to describe them or to hurt them. I’m always amazed to hear stories from people about how a simple phrase changed their identity. That’s why it’s so important to speak life into others.

Proverbs 16:24 says, “Pleasant words are as a honeycomb, sweet to the mind and healing to the body” (AMP). Some translations say, “Kind words are like honey.” An interesting thing about honey is that it never goes bad. There’s no expiration date on it just like there’s no expiration on kind or pleasant words. They’re not only sweet, but they’re long lasting in someone’s life. You can change someone’s mindset for the better by choosing your words wisely.

This verse says that pleasant words are sweet to the mind. What I’ve learned is whatever you put into your mind is what comes out in your actions. If you put anger in there, you tend to have violent actions. If you put bitterness in there, you tend to have sarcastic actions. But if you put sweetness in your mind, it will produce actions that are pleasant to others. So when you speak pleasant words, you’re actually creating a ripple effect in the lives of others.

I like how the verse ends. It says kind words are healing to the body. At first thought, I wondered what that meant. Then I started thinking of all the psychosomatic illnesses people have because of hurtful words spoken to them. When your mind is negative, it produces stress and illness in your body. Conversely, kind words bring health to people. It gives them a positive mindset that keeps the body in balance thereby, bringing health. Proverbs 18:21 says the power of life and death are in the tongue. So choose your words wisely today and speak life.

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