Devotional Thought 6-10-2015

The Light shines in the darkness and the darkness did not comprehend it. John 1:5 NASB

I received news yesterday that one of my friends from church passed away. So when this text popped up for me on my bible app, it brought some joy to my heart but it also made me think, just as my friend made me think. Are we shining in the darkness? We all know Christ is the light but is His light in us? When we come around does the darkness understand us or are we operating on a level that the darkness cannot understand? Honestly we need to have The Light in our lives.  Where Light is darkness cannot be there and that should be who we are as a people. When we come around everyone’s lives should be better. Everyone should be able to see Christ in us.  But far too many of us love darkness. We think that the darkness is cool and mysterious. The darkness only leads to one place and that place is death.  So let’s step out of the darkness and into the Light that is Christ Jesus.

Devotional thought 6-8-2015

Yet I will exult in the Lord , I will rejoice in the God of my salvation. Habakkuk 3:18

I was reading from the prophet this am and chapter 3 is amazing! We have to remember that it is God who allows the trials to come for us. That when the sea roars and work is hard and you are not harvesting what you have sown, that it is God who allows this.

So when the prophet says yet I will exult the Lord…he is sharing with us to praise Him anyhow. Don’t just give God glory in good times, thank Him in the rough times, in the bad times as well.

So will you exult the Lord in your situation? (I’m speaking to myself right now) May He grant us the strength to do so.

Devotional thought 5-28-2015

Fight the good fight of faith; take hold of the eternal life to which you were called, and you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. 1 Timothy 6:12

Have you ever fought well for something you didnt believe in? Probably not. You may fight for it but you don’t fight for it. For some of us that can be our fight with faith.  After all you have to believe in what you are fighting for. And if you haven’t or won’t take hold of eternal life, that is if you won’t or haven’t taken hold of Christ, then you fight in vain. Now each of us has a choice to make, do we fight and claim eternal life as we did in front of people or was it all for show?

So what are you fighting for?

Devotional thought 5-24-2015

but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.” Acts 1:8

Often times we as Christians wonder why we don’t have power. We see all these miracles in scripture and say well how come we don’t see that today? Well if we are being honest it is because we haven’t received the Holy Spirit who in turn provides the power to do these things. Think about it, the disciples waited together, prayed together, confessed their sins to each other for days and then received the power Jesus had promised. And you think we are going to be good just showing up every Sabbath for a couple of hours, singing some hymns and leaving?  It just doesn’t work that way.

If we want power we have to be ready to receive it and we have to be ready to use it to be His witnesses in all the world. May He help us to be ready.

Devotional Thought 5-23-2015

Romans 3:23,24   23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus;

ALL. That word should end any grandstanding from everyone who reads this passage. ALL. As in you. As in me. As in the mass murderer and enemy of the state. As in your praying mother and father. ALL have sinned. And its not just that we have sinned, we have ALSO fallen short of the glory of God.

That is why being justified is a gift by His grace. The redemption found in Christ Jesus is available to ALL. So its high time we get off the high horse and realize that we are all the same. That we all have need of salvation and that salvation is available in Christ Jesus.

Devotional thought 5-22-2015

Galatians 5:13 NASB

For you were called to freedom, brethren; only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.

“I’m not under the law but under grace.” Everyone knows someone who is a Christian and has used this quote. And people say it not knowing what it means. They think that it means the commandments are no longer binding. But really when people say this they are using it as an excuse to serve God on their terms instead of His terms.

This is why I love what Paul says here. Do not take your freedom as a license to do what you want to do, rather take it as a license to love one another freely. The freedom you have is not so you can be selfish. It is so that love, that agape love, can flow freely among the body of Christ. So let’s not use our freedom to make slaves of ourselves to sin again but rather to free others through the power of love.

Devotional thought 5-20-2015

1 Peter 2:24 NASB

and He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed.

Many people wonder if there is life after death. After all we all fear death.  Death is not natural and anything that is not natural we fear. But what if you had to die in order to live?

The only way we can truly experience life is to die to sin. And the only way to die to sin is to accept that Christ bore your sins on Calvary. That He paid the penalty for you so that you may live. But in order to live you have to die to sin.

Devotional thought 5-5-2015

Luke 7:50 NASB

And He said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”

We hear the words all the time. “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.” We have even more evidence of that statements validity in this passage. This woman who came and washed Jesus Christ feet with her tears BELIEVED in Him. She had faith that He was whom God had promised long ago. And although she came in at His feet, she was able to leave validated and vindicated because of ger faith. She was able to walk with her head held high because the Master had forgiven her sins.

This is why  it is so important that we exercise our faith. For what use is believing if you never put it into action?

Devotional thought 5-9-2015

As a child I had this terrible habit of breaking toys. I’d be recklessly playing with it and then bam…its broken. And of course then came the tears because I realized what I had done and had no way to fix it.  So I would bring it to my dad. And he would either fix it or help me get something better.

As I thought about that this morning I said that is exactly what God does for us. We are reckless with what we have and then bam our lives are flipped over and we are left broken and in tears. But if you bring it to your heavenly Father…….

Devotional thought 5-8-2015

John 16:31 NASB

Jesus answered them, “Do you now believe?

Right up until the time of His betrayal,  Christ was pleading with His disciples almost begging them to believe. I think He does the same with us. How many anserrs to prayer, how many miracles, how many healings must we receive before we will believe?

His question is valid for us today, do you now believe?