Matthew 16:24-28 “Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 25 For whoever would save his life[g] will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. 26 For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul? 27 For the Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay each person according to what he has done.”
When my sons were young children, even as toddlers, I used to stress to them that nothing is more important for their lives then Jesus. I, pretty much daily, told them that loving and serving Jesus is by far the most important things in their lives. They were taught that with Jesus they have everything and without Him they have nothing. I would often quiz them asking them what was most important in their lives and they would respond “Jesus.” Now they are men and they remember the lesson that the Holy Spirit grew within them. I thank the Lord that they would still tell you the same. Praise God! Teach our children and grandchildren, as often as possible about Jesus. They must know from the beginning His great love for us and what He has done for us. Jesus Himself is who we must know, love and serve and teach them when they’re young and it’ll be bedrock for the rest of their lives. Glory to God!
Proverbs 22:6 “Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it.”
by Bob withPsalm 69:1–3 “Save me, O God! For the waters have come up to my neck. 2 I sink in deep mire, where there is no foothold; I have come into deep waters, and the flood sweeps over me. 3 I am weary with my crying out; my throat is parched. My eyes grow dim with waiting for my God.”
I confess that at times I have blown it…bad. But I also gladly also confess that in spite of what I have deserved the Lord has always given me better. His love and mercy has been visibly seen by me and His loving touch has been felt through some unexpected people, and by my brothers and sisters in the Spirit and by blood. When persons drive themselves into trouble, and become entirely mired, the Lord still loves us and it is His hand that pulls us free.
Oh, remember the kindness, mercy and goodness of the Lord God.
He has rescued before and is able to rescue again.
So why despair oh my silly soul?
I will call upon He who loves me.
As I call out to be saved,
He saves me,
Not because I deserve it.
But because He is pure love
And pure love will save.
I cry out “I’m unworthy Lord”
Yet you come to save me because of your great love.
The depth of your love Lord God cannot be sounded.
Yet we know that the sounding is correct when it is too deep
And it is called out ‘by the mark!” For His love is beyond understanding and is deep beyond measurement. Oh God, How wonderful and fearful you are. Lord God, may I never find the sounding of your love.
My eyes may grow useless as I wait for your answer,
but still they will search for your response.
He has called remembrance of His great works,
And to celebrate them.
It is for our benefit we must remember what He has done.
What He has done reveals who He is.
As we remember who He is,
Our hope grows, our hope in Him, grows.
Praise God who saves because He loves and He is good,
All the time. Without end, without limitations.
Thank you Lord that we have no rope long enough
To sound the depths of your love for us and goodness to us.
Thank you Lord. In you we trust. We praise you Lord God Almighty!
Titus 3:4-7 “4 But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, 5 he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, 6 whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, 7 so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.”
Ephesians 2:8-9 “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”
1 John 1:9 “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
by Bob with
Luke 14:27 “And whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.”
In the television series “The Chosen” in the season 3 trailer, Jesus had this exchange with one of His Apostles.
Jesus: “There will come a time when things will get very difficult. Are you ready to do hard things.”
The Apostle replied “Yes.”
Smiling at the Apostle Jesus said “Well, we will see.”
I felt like i was being asked if I was ready to hard things. My heart raced and I gulped. I don’t think Jesus would have wanted me to respond “I hope so.”
Jesus responded to the Apostle “Well, we will see.”
Jesus wants a firm commitment. He wants us to live for Him at all times and at all costs. Am I ready? Like the Apostle said to Jesus I would likewise respond “Yes” and hopefully not with any hesitancy, but with a sure commitment. If Jesus appeared to you, right now, and asked the same of you, how would you react, what would you say and how would you say it? Let’s be ready, we don’t know what’s ahead. Let’s make sure our commitment to Jesus is strong and sure. He deserves that.
Psalm 150:6 – Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord!
Micah 7:7 – But as for me, I watch in hope for the Lord, I wait for God my Savior; my God will Hear me.
Micah 6:8 – He has shown you, Oh man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you, but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.
Numbers 6:24-26 – The Lord bless you and keep you; 25 The Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you; 26 The Lord turn His face toward you and give you peace.
by Bob withPsalm Ezra 1:5 “Then God gave a great desire to the leaders of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, and to the priests and Levites, to return to Jerusalem at once to rebuild the Temple.”
God gives us tasks to do for Him. It can be revealed in many different ways, but one way is that a great desire will be birthed in our hearts and minds and will be within us something, like child birth, that cannot be denied. We will know that the desire was given to us. When God gives us the desire He blesses us with the ability and the help we need. In Ezra 1:6 we see that God moved the hearts of others to help these who decided to go to build the Temple. Not all are called to go, but all are called to contribute as they are led by God. In V7 we see that even the King donated to the mission. All people are under God, whether they know it or not. As the Lord gives us a mission to do, He will inspire us and bless us.
Pastor Chuck Smith used to say “Where God guides, God provides.” I absolutely believe that. God enables those who serve Him. Even the reluctant servants are enabled. Moses said he was not able, but he went to serve the Lord and the Lord knew, before he did, that he would. Just as the Lord knows who will obey Him He also knows who will not. He knows our hearts and minds and so He knows what to ask of them to accomplish His will. Jeremiah 17:10 “I the Lord search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds.” I know I am a common vessel and more importantly the Lord knows exactly who and what I am and so uses me as He wills. I joyfully submit to His will for my life. It is in His will that abundant blessings are found and joy remains. You can be told of the beauty, majesty and peace of an ocean, but you must see it and experience it to truly understand. To know the joy of the Lord we must walk with Him and obey Him. Obedience to a cruel taskmaster may be very harsh but obedience to God will be found to be peaceful and joyful. So we ought to trust the Lord’s will for our life as He knows us best and loves us most. He is good and has only good plans for our life and we should remember that He alone knows what is truly good or bad. As we go through trials are we to determine if the trial is good or bad. Our knowledge of what is happening is so limited, but the Lord sees all and knows all, He is the ultimate and true decider of good and bad. What God allows in our life we must thank Him for and remember that He knows best, definitely better than we know. Be careful what we call good or bad or evil. And those who walk with Him know this to be true because they are witnesses of God’s faithful love and kindness to us.
God gives us all desires to do His will, the question is whether or not we will listen and obey. Lord, please give me hearing ears and a receiving mind and heart. When the Apostle John was given what is in Revelation he immediately wrote everything down that He had seen and heard. (Revelation 1:1-2. May we see and hear, and we can and do. If God wants us to hear and see then we can be sure He will enable us to do so. Surely we know God well enough to believe that. Right?
Pray that the Lord will give you the joy of serving Him in whichever way He decides and listen and watch, and even allow your heart and mind to receive so that you will be blessed by our good and loving God. God inspiring us is one of the highest blessings on this world. Matthew 7:7 is aptly applied here. “Ask, and you will be given what you ask for. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and the door will be opened.” Yes, the Lord has good plans for all of us. Yes, all of us! Praise our Good and Loving God! Seek and find!
Micah 7:7 – But as for me, I watch in hope for the Lord, I wait for God my Savior; my God will Hear me.
Psalm 150:6 – Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord!
Micah 6:8 – He has shown you, Oh man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you, but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.
Numbers 6:24-26 – The Lord bless you and keep you; 25 The Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you; 26 The Lord turn His face toward you and give you peace.
by Bob with
Psalm 34:8 “Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in him.”
Well known and much loved people and pastors have said to remove feelings from our faith and walk only on what is written in the Word of God. I would say something different, yes, we base our faith and verify our beliefs on the Word but it is silly to think that we ought to leave our “feelings” out of it. God teaches us and establishes our relationship with Him also using our experiences and our emotions, which must be verified by the Word of God. John Calvin wrote “Now we shall possess a right definition of faith if we call it a firm and certain knowledge of God’s benevolence toward us, founded upon the truth of the freely given promise in Christ, both revealed in our mind and sealed upon our hearts though the Holy Spirit.” Something that is revealed to us is something we experience as a gift from God. The things of God are only revealed by the Lord Himself. (1 Corinthians 2:9-10) Often, what we learn best is learned through our experience and our feelings and we get a proper view of the experience through the Word of God. My heart may be hurt by one I love but I gain the true perspective and right thoughts of the experience from God. I read it in His Word, better is to have read it in His Word, and then God the Holy Spirit reminds me of the verse and gives it application to my experience. John 14:26 “But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.” It is silly to think that the Lord who gave us the ability to have feelings (joy, anger, sorrow, empathy, etc.) would tell us that we, who are made in His image, and then reborn into that image, should not use the abilities that He gave to us to benefit us. The Lord has always called upon man to remember what He has done, for us and for others. He tells His people to remember the great, loving and caring things that He has done and in that way, along with His Word, which is something He did in giving us Himself. After all Jesus was the incarnate Word. Family and Friends, the verse from Psalm 34:8 is telling us to experience God in all the ways that we can. We can see a person who seems to be quite fine, but we will not know that until we invest time and effort to know them. For example, a man may see a woman who catches his attention, he may become infatuated by her appearance, mannerisms and laugh, but love will only grow from the time and energy spent to know the person, spending time with them. So a person may see that only God is God and find God quite attractive and desirable for one’s life, but it is not until one reads His Word, and spends time with Him, that one will truly know God and then, inevitably love Him.
If we know someone, but don’t love the person deeply, it is unlikely that we will stick with them through sickness and health, poverty and wealth, and life’s many disappointments. We must experience life with them, we must support them and they must support us, or we will be unlikely to stick with a person through the rough or hard times. We must walk with God and experience the majesty, the beauty, the kindness and love He has for us. I know that the Lord God has loved me not because of me, but in spite of who I am. When I have failed His name He has beautified it to me. Praise God. I have experienced Him never leaving or forsaking me but always been good to me. I’m like a rescued pound dog, I appreciate being saved and loved. I have tasted and seen (experienced) that God is good! He has always richly blessed me much more than I deserve, and the same is true for all of you. Praise God! (Hebrews 13:5)
Read His Word and walk daily with Jesus. Go through the good and the tough times together. Then you will not only have heard of Him and about Him, but will have worked your way through the crowd to know Him. No one who knows Him can help but love Him. Those who have pressed into Him and walked with Him, will know Him and love him. It is God’s gift to us, through Jesus our Savior and Lord. I’m thankful that God invites us to do that. Oh how wonderful He is! God welcomes us as we come to Him. John 3:16-17 “ For God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son so that anyone who believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 God did not send his Son into the world to condemn it, but to save it.” God has invited us to come and live with Him. Let us be wise and grab the nail scarred hand that He extends to us. Lord, please keep us close to you.
Psalm 150:6 – Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord!
Micah 7:7 – But as for me, I watch in hope for the Lord, I wait for God my Savior; my God will Hear me.
Micah 6:8 – He has shown you, Oh man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you, but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.
Numbers 6:24-26 – The Lord bless you and keep you; 25 The Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you; 26 The Lord turn His face toward you and give you peace.
by Bob with
Galatians 1:2 “ Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”
What a great blessing to give to people. What a wonderful hope and prayer for them. In a world where so many do not know what grace is, especially God’s grace, or why every person needs it, it is the greatest gift we can bring to a person, to lead them to the living Savior and Lord Jesus Christ. It is an active grace and persistent unbeatable peace straight from heaven. It conquers the evil in this world and transforms our lives with finite life to eternal life in Jesus. Praying God’s grace and blessing to a person is showing true love for them. Whether they appreciate it or not, keep praying it for them. God is good and is happy to give it to them through our lovely Jesus, His Son. Let’s keep praying and hoping that hard hearts will soften and unknowing minds will learn. How wonderful to see them transformed by the Holy Spirit. It’s enough to make us cry in joy! Praise God!
by Bob withHebrews 11:6 “And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek him.” Who is so disrespectful as to approach the Lord God without the respect that He deserves. Such a person denies all who He is and seeks to at one moment despise God (by unbelief) and rise up against Him and then in the next moment to act is if God doesn’t know all things. To not know God because of one’s own spite and then to disrespect Him by thinking that God can be made a fool of, that person shall reap the fruit of his foolishness.
Belief of God is apparent in one’s belief which is on display by the fruit of one’s actions. Man cannot make a fool of God, only of oneself. It is impossible to pretend to honor God with honor that one does not have. Galatians 6:7-10 “Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. 8 Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh (ego. Pride) will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. 9 Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. 10 Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.” Know God, serve God and please Him, that is the person of a right heart who shows Himself to be a child of God. That is faith that comes by learning from His lap and honoring Him. True faith in God, pleases Him. Dishonest flatterery to Him does not please Him. Know God and love God and thereby please Him as one’s love is shown in respect for Him. Loving God shines forth by how a person lives and seeks to honor Him. No one who knows God will defame God or His character. All who know God know that He is beyond reproach? A true preacher of God does not challenge His character. And that is true under any circumstance. Anyone who truly knows God will not believe in any teaching or doctrine that challenges the love and goodness of God. Whoever teaches otherwise promotes doubt and challenges the love and goodness of God. The thought “You can’t say that about my God will rise up. All who love and know God cannot countenance anyone who slanders God. The person who slanders God cannot love Him and cannot know Him. And no one who slanders God will be believed by Children of God because the slanderer’s words are known to be untrue to those who personally love and treasure Him. Thereby leave flattery behind. Let the love of God and knowledge of Him shine. Let us hold simple truth that God reveals. To those who love Him and desire His Truth. He pours His love out to. Romans 3:4 “Not at all! Let God be true, and every human being a liar. As it is written; “So that you may be proved and every man a liar. As it is written: “So that you may be proved right when you speak and prevail when you judge.” Praise God always! Never side with anyone who says otherwise.
by Bob withDevotion Psalm 27:4-5 Always Ever Closer to You Lord. I see and hear you as you keep me near
Psalm 27:4-5 “One thing I ask from the Lord,
this only do I seek:
that I may dwell in the house of the Lord
all the days of my life,
to gaze on the beauty of the Lord
and to seek him in his temple.”
For in the day of trouble
he will keep me safe in his dwelling;
he will hide me in the shelter of his sacred tent
and set me high upon a rock.”
Because I see Your wondrous hand is with me, I am confident in all things concerning me and life. Indeed I see the attacks of the enemy fall impotent beside me and before me. Haven’t I called out to You Lord and therefore Your answer is known to me when I see it. I confidently look for what I asked Him for. When a child asks His father for a red bicycle and then He sees one in his room, He knows who gave him the bike. The child remembers his request to his father and expectantly looks for it and recognizes it. He lives with his father and knows that his father desires good things for him. When I see the enemy’s shackle laying unused upon the ground, I know the reason. Did I not call out to You Lord about my need and You Lord has not let the evil plans of the enemy succeed. The inefficacy of the enemy’s plans is manifest and I rejoice in the hand of God upon me and before me. So I seek to live my life in the house of the Lord. As my eyes behold You I am aware of your love and good will to me and to all who love You. I will not be afraid because I know You are near, You are with me. Because I dwell with You and see Your ways I know You. Because I live with You my Lord my God, my eyes and ears study you so I am certain of who You are. I am certain of your love and goodness to me. I know You Lord God and how You speak to me. You whom I live with I know Your voice and Your manner of speaking to me. Lord God please keep me close and give me residence in Your home. Living with You my God I know You Lord God. In Your presence, my heart is warm and is safe and calm. Lord God, my father who loves me, I see you and so I know you. I have followed your call to me which led me to You, and so I have found and know you. I know who You are. You keep me close that I may know you and be blessed by you. I am not an orphan that does not know His Father, I know you my Lord, my God, my Father. Yes, I seek to always dwell in Your house that I might know you every day in increasing measure. Lord I seek you because you first sought me. The glory of you is a light and comfort to me. Praise you Lord God. I come to you and behold the perfection of your ways. Father, I behold you and love the beauty of you! To know You Lord God is to love you and have confidence in all my ways because I know that You love me. Thank you my Savior and Lord, may I always dwell with You! I am unafraid only because you are with me! I am weak but you are strong. I will not be afraid my protector and lover of my soul.
by Bob with2 Corinthians 11:3 “But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ.”
Dear Family, Let us remember and give attention to the high cause of the name of Jesus Christ our Savior and Lord. Notice that I do not say Lord and Savior but Savior and Lord. Because unless He is our Savior, He is not our Lord. We must first accept His person and ministry to then live in submission to Him. And unless we live with Him as our Lord, He is no our Savior. His ministry is God ordained. Praise, lift up Jesus our Savior and Lord!