Devotion Jeremiah 29:13 Nothing Greater
Jeremiah 29:13 – You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.
Proverbs 2:1-5 – My son, if you accept my words and store up my commands within you, 2 turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding—3 indeed, if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding, 4 and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure, 5 then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God.
James 1:5 – If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.
Proverbs 1:7 – The fear of know the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction.
Do we want eternal blessings, or temporary ones? The wisdom and knowledge of the world is lesser and temporary than the highest wisdom and greatest knowledge of God that comes from God. (1 Corinthians 2:10-16) Getting wisdom from yourself, not from God, is cheap, temporary and likely wrong. Again, true and lasting wisdom comes from God. What about knowledge that comes from the minds of men. That is silly to even begin to compare. It is foolish to want the treasures of men when God offers to all who would come and ask of Him the greatest and eternal treasures.
The beginning of true knowledge and true wisdom begin with understanding that God is, and has always been, and that He will always exist. Then to seek God daily. How do we seek God? We seek God through His Spirit and His Word. We call out to God to bless us with knowledge of Him, and then for increasing knowledge of Him. He has already given us His Word and it is through that the Holy Spirit unveils all the Truth that we can handle, and beyond. Anyone who thinks that there is truth and knowledge greater than the Holy Scriptures is deceived.
How do we receive this great wisdom and knowledge that comes from God? It is He Himself who freely gives it. (James 1:5) God purposely has made things simple for us because He wants to bless us. (Micah 6:8, Matthew 11:28-30) How does one get to know God? Simply by asking Him. How does one grow in knowledge? By continually asking His Spirit to reveal what His Word contains. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. (James 4:8) Though we should know that He always beside us calling to us. (John 6:44) God is always near to those who desire Him. (Psalm 145:18)
So for those who want to be wise, seek God. To those who know God ask Him to uncover His Word by His Spirit. It is not through working hard or striving by the strength of one’s own will that we know God, but by His mercy and grace. Be wise, know God. Be wiser, seek Him every day of our life. As we do, we will have His peace, joy and wisdom. He already loves us. Oh how great are the riches of God! Praise God!
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.
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Devotion Revelation 7:11 True And Growing Perpetuity
Revelation 7:11 – All the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures. They fell down on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, 12 saying: “Amen! Praise and glory and wisdom and thanks and honor and power and strength be to our God for ever and ever. Amen!”
Today, even now, stop and think of how many reasons we can be grateful to God. We all have many blessings in common. Make a personal list and add to it daily. Make opportunities to do so! Give it deep consideration. God blesses us every day and will continue to bless us when days (as we know them) no longer will exist. (Revelation 21:1, 22, 25, 22:5)
Those who know Him, that know who He is, absolutely live in trust of Him. We know that even the future destruction of the earth is all designed to bless us as it ushers us into an eternal state of being with Him. (Romans 8:28) Of course the ones who are blessed by the destruction of the earth are the ones who will live in the new and eternal heaven and earth. For the magnificence of this earth does not compare to the new one to come. The peace that can be found on this earth is only a foreshadowing of the eternal peace for those who are called to live eternally with God. We see with spiritual eyes the truth that God proclaims. Those who don’t know Jesus think us insane, but we know that insisting upon one’s own will is insanity. Even our breath is a gift of God. Only those that love and serve God (and all who love God serve Him) hope for everything that our God wills. We trust Him infinitely more than we trust our ability to understand. We trust the Lord God more than our own will. That we do because we know Him and those who do not trust God do not know and love Him. We love Him because He reveals Himself to us.
Thank God every day for everything. As we consider our unlimited blessings, God Himself will top the list. With Him at the top of the list we evermore perceive the infinite blessings that God pours on us. As we walk daily with our Lord, we understand Him more and more. As we understand Him more and more we thank Him more and more for the blessings that He gives. Even the blessing of our existence is a wonder too great to be fully understood. There is not enough time to be thankful to our God for every way in which He blesses us. Yet let’s thank God every day and as we do our faith will continue to grow and as it does, so will our peace and joy. As His blessings are endless, so should our thankfulness to Him also be.
Thank God not because He needs to hear us do it, as if we can add nothing to a perfect God. He desires our praise because it is good for us. Therefore endlessly praise God and grow stronger in faith and thereby receive the overabundance of peace and joy that only those who love and trust Him are able to know. All honor and glory to you Lord God! Thank you Jesus! Praise God! May we never stop praising and thanking God and by doing so, we will not fear, but live in peace! Praise God!
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.
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Devotion Proverbs 27:19 Mirror Mirror On The Wall
Proverbs 27:19 “As water reflects the face, so one’s life reflects the heart.”
Luke 6:45 “A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.”
I remember when I was a young child one of my cousins from my parents’ generation visited us a few times. He struggled with alcohol and heroin addiction. Still, he was a jolly, friendly and affectionate man. My parents loved him and enjoyed his company. He was a short man with a slight build. But oh his personality was big. I remember that he had, upon our first meeting, shocked me. Not by anything he did, but by his appearance. Though he was approximately my parent’s age he looked older by maybe a decade or two. I remember my parents speaking fondly of him but lamenting that his life of addictions had “aged him” beyond his years. Over fifty-five years later I have seen many who have lived a rough life and that rough life has always prematurely aged them. So sad.
Be assured what you do can be seen by who you are. It is as the saying goes “Stealing does not make a man a thief, a man steals because he is a thief.” Getting angry and then hurting is not because of the other person, but because of what is within us. What we do is because of what is in our hearts. I often see what is in a person’s heart. It flashes in their eyes.
Galatians 6:7 “Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows.” A person who does evil, who lives evil without repentance, shall not escape the ramifications of their deeds. We may not see their punishment, but eternity looms within the next breath. One who lives in rebellion to the ways of God will find that their evil is a living legacy that forever follow them. (Numbers 32:23)
Thank you Jesus for providing the escape clause. The escape clause has conditions that all, should they so desire, are able to fulfill. The most important condition is to call on the name of the Lord Jesus to be saved. (Acts 2:21) Romans 10:9-10 “ If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.” All who live in faith in the person and works of Jesus, and love Him, are saved from their sins. What about repentance? If we truly love Him, the Lord will sanctify our lives. The Good News is that salvation is available to all. If anyone has not repented, please do so right now, your peace with God is next to you to receive.
Remember that the life you live is not hidden, God sees it all. (Hebrews 4:13) And likely, your family and friends see the life you live. It shows on your face and certainly in your eyes through which your soul can be seen. (Matthew 6:22-23) Come to Jesus today, make peace with Him by your faith in Him. The benefits of loving Him are known only to those who do. Know Jesus, know peace! Love and peace with God to all. Praise God!
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.
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Devotion John 1:1-2 Preeminence
John 1:1-2 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning.”
“In the beginning” is what the Lord said to help us understand. The beginning He is speaking of is not the beginning of our lives, or of human life, or of the earth and all of creation. No it is much more grand, much more breath-taking and more mysteriously inscrutable. (Job 36:26, Isaiah 40:28) For the Lord God, He is the only God who ever was and ever will be has forever existed. He will have no end, but He also had no beginning. (Habakkuk 1:12) That is hard for us to understand. We understand the present, and can (in some measure) understand the concept that something that lives now will never perish, but to understand that God had no beginning is beyond our comprehension. We know that it is true, but to understand how it is true, is beyond our ability. To fully understand God, the essence of Him, one would have to be a God. But there are no other gods, least of all men (Whom we know are created beings). (Isaiah 44:6, 1 Kings 8:60) We have an eternity ahead to try to understand all that is God and in the eternity we are there always will there be more to know and more to be amazed at.
The “beginning” spoken of here is not a starting point. To us a beginning is a start, like the start of a race. Or even the beginning of an idea or concept. But to understand what God is here revealing about Himself (What, not how) we must think differently about what “beginning” here is relating to us. We must think of beginning not as a starting point, but as the one who pre-exists all starting points. We must know God as being preeminent before all. Here the beginning is the one who pre-existed the start of all creation because nothing could be unless someone began it. So this is God. He is the beginning of all beginnings and all things created were begat from Him who never began but always was. Therefore the beginning here was not the beginning of the Word, but the eternal preexistence of the Word.
So preexisting before all of creation was the Word. We know that only God is eternally preexisting so the Word is God. And the only one who preexisted with God is God Himself who is the triune God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. The Son of God is the Word of God in the flesh as is revealed in John 1:14 “The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”
How can the Word of God be fully eternal as God the Father is? It is because the three are one and the one is three. They are wholly one and wholly three and entirely inseparable. So the essence, the nature of the one is the essence and nature of all three. What one knows all three know. What one wills all three wills. Where one exists all three exist. Forever one and forever three. So we know that at the beginning of all beginnings was the one who had no beginning. And since only God is the fully eternal one, than the Word who was with God was God. Jesus, from the beginning beyond all beginnings, was our Savior and Lord, as was the Father and Spirit who all agreed with the divine plan of salvation and all were actively creator, and part of the plan and of its appearance and manifestation. Praise our eternal God who loves us so!
The Son of God who is, was and always will be God, was with God in the beginning and who will always be God, became flesh in the form of Jesus, was born to the virgin Mary, by the will of God. The will of God to save us came from the core of Him which is love. His plan was wholly from who He is. Yes He is love. But He is also wholly righteous the just payment for our sin had to be met. Since the evil of sin does not expire, only one who was eternal could pay the price. That eternal One was and is Jesus Christ, by the design of God.
Praise the Son of God for coming to fulfill the promises of God and save our lives, thus fulfilling the will of our triune God. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning” and that being so, we are eternally grateful. The spoken Word, the written Word, is the Word who became flesh and saved us. Oh let us rejoice at the love and goodness of God. Let us gaze upon Him and admire Him. How wonderful, how glorious, how majestic is our God! Behold our Savior and Lord Jesus who is the very manifestation God who is always with us and is ready to soon call us home. Thank you Jesus! Thank you Jesus! Thank you God!
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.
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Devotion Matthew 28:20b Better To Stay
Matthew 28:20b “And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
Psalm 145:18 “The LORD is near to all who call on Him, to all who call on Him in truth.”
Isaiah 41:10 “Do not fear, for I am with you; do not be afraid, for I your God. I will strengthen you, I will also help you, I will also uphold you with My righteous right hand.”
John 14:16-17 “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; the Helper is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him; but you know Him because He remains with you and will be in in you.”
A Facebook Post:
God: I know. Want to talk about it?
Me: Do we need to? I mean, you already know.
God: Let’s talk about it anyway… We’ve done this before.
Me: I know, I just feel like I should be bigger or stronger or something by now.
God: *waiting patiently, unhurried, undistracted, never annoyed.
Me: Okay. So, I’m afraid I’ll do everything I can to protect my family and it won’t be enough. I’m afraid of someone I love dying. I’m afraid the world won’t go back to what it was before. I’m afraid my life is always going to feel a little bit unsettled.
God: Anything else?
Me: EVERYTHING ELSE.
God: Remember how your son woke up the other night and came running down the hall to your bedroom?
Me: Yes.
God: You were still awake, so when you heard him running, you started calling out to him before he even got to you… remember? Do you remember what you called out to him?
Me: I said, “You’re okay! You’re okay! You’re okay! I’m here.”
God: Why did you call to him? Why didn’t you just wait for him to get to your room?
Me: Because I wanted him to know that I was awake, and I heard him, and he didn’t have to be afraid until he reached the end of the dark hallway.
God: Exactly. I hear you, my child. I hear your thoughts racing like feet down the dark hallway. There’s another side to all of this. I’m there already. I’ve seen the end of it. And I want you to know right here as you walk through it all, you’re okay. I haven’t gone to sleep, and I won’t.
Me: *crying. Can we sit together awhile? Can we just sit here a minute before I go back to facing it all?
A friend posted the above on FB. The author is unknown. It is so tender and loving and reveals a very real side of our Good and Gracious God. Also it reveals that the Lord is always with us. ALWAYS WITH US! Praise God! It is good that we can always run to Him, but even better we can know that we are always in His presence. We needn’t have to run down a hallway, let’s just stay in His room. After all, it’s not a matter of our strength of character, body or will. It’s just a matter of where we live and stay. Let’s not think that we will live in our own room and run to Him when we are frightened, but that we will live in His room and in His presence and comfort. Besides, in reality, all the rooms belong to Him. Oh our God is so good, why not stay safe and unafraid and just live next to Him? God is good and He loves us. How grand! Praise God!
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.
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Devotion Romans 14:22-23 What Are You Wearing?
Romans 14:22-23 “The faith which you have, have as your own conviction before God. Happy is the one who does not condemn himself in what he approves. 23 But the one who doubts is condemned if he eats, because his eating is not from faith; and whatever is not from faith is sin.”
Many moons ago I was standing in a circle with some great Brothers. The pastor was one of them. They were all looking terrific in some great suits. It was just after the Sunday morning service. The topic switched to how they wear their suits because they want to wear their best for God. All of them agreed. All these brothers (whom I still dearly love and respect) then focused their attention to what I thought about the subject. I kind of felt that, with their best attentions, I was set up. They were doing a type of intervention (Ha! I love them bless their souls.) You see I did not wear suits. In fact, I didn’t own a suit. It was not a matter of sartorial preference (though I am most comfortable in casual attire) but a matter of finances. Plainly said, I could not afford a suit.
When asked what I thought, I replied “Let me first ask a question. I knew these men were all solid men of God who read the Word and prayed. I asked “When you go ‘number 2,’ as you are sitting there, are you sometimes praying to God?” My question drew smiles and laughs but they replied “Sure, sometimes.” I then said to them “So do I. And I figure that if I can talk to God while doing that, I didn’t figure that He minds too much if I wear a suit or not.” They looked at me for a second, maybe trying to figure out if I was serious. Knowing that I was they nodded their heads showing that the understood what I had said.
Now I think that a person ought to attend church in a way that does not offend their own conscious. If you can afford a suit, and think you should wear one to church, then I think you should or you are sinning. Why, because “whatever is not from faith is sin.” (Romans 14:23) If one does thinks that something is a sin and does it anyway, then it is a sin. Essentially, for that person, it is rebellion. So if one thinks that they should honor God by wearing a suit to church, then that they must do. Even though there is nothing in His Word that says so. Romans 14:22 states that “The faith which you have, have as your own conviction before God. Happy is the one who does not condemn himself in what he approves.”
I do advise that however one dresses that modesty be a guide. We are our “Brother’s Keepers.” Here are a couple verses from the Word to use as a guideline. They are not guidance from men, but from God. If you disagree, you argue not with me but with God Himself. 1 Timothy 2:9 “Likewise also that women should adorn themselves in respectable apparel, with modesty and self-control, not with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly attire.” Deuteronomy 22:5 “A woman shall not wear a man’s garment, nor shall a man put on a woman’s cloak, for whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord your God.” Now I know that the first verse seem pointed at women, but men should follow the same principle just as Deuteronomy applies the principle to both. Following these principles, dress in the manner that you think you ought to. We are not slaves to do’s and don’ts but are slaves to Jesus who came to free us. (Galatians 5:1) And Jesus came to set us free, not to sin, but live a life of freedom as we live in the Spirit. And the Spirit does not lead us to sin. We are completely free to live as we desire as long as we live by the Spirit. Galatians 5:22-23 “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.” So live free, wear a suit or don’t wear a suit, just be sure to wear a spirit that loves and honors God. (Galatians 5:25) He is good and He loves us. Praise the Lord!
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.
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Devotion Isaiah 46:9-10 So You Want To Know The Future
Isaiah 46:9-10 “Remember the former things, those of long ago; I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me. 10 I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say, ‘My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please.”
Only God is omniscient. The devil is intelligent, though not wise or he wouldn’t have rebelled against God. But he is smart, and he is superhumanly experienced, and can somewhat figure out from Scripture what will be happening in the future. That is why Revelation 12:12b-c states “…But woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has gone down to you! He is filled with fury, because he knows that his time is short.” Jesus pointed out that many people, saved or not, can read weather indicators to know what weather is coming. From that Jesus has said that people, even those unsaved in His audience, should be able to read what was coming from what was predicted in scripture. (Luke 12:56) So the devil can know some of what is coming from knowing scripture and so should we be able to do that. After all, we have the Spirit of God within us teaching and instructing us. We should be better at understanding the prophecies from God than the devil. We need to be guided by the Spirit of God when studying the Word of God since the Holy Spirit is the one who opens the Scriptures up to us. (1 Corinthians 2:12-16)
Further proof that the devil is not omniscient is in Daniel 2:1-49 when King Nebuchadnezzar wanted his wise men of the world to not only interpret the dream he had but also to tell him what the dream was without the king telling them. They protested that no-man could do that. The King became irate and was going to kill all his seers. However, Daniel was notified and the Lord revealed to him not only what the dream had been but the interpretation of it. So these worldly magicians who are clearly noted as servants of the devil (Deuteronomy 18:9-13) and not God, could not know the future, but God did and told it to Daniel. I’d call that an advantage! An advantage that saved Daniel’s life and all the fake prophets. It’s good to be, like Daniel, a child of God.
Family, we can trust God who knows all and who calls things that are not yet as though they are. (Romans 4:17) He can do that because if God knows it, it will be because He is never wrong. We love and serve He who knows all the past, the present, and who knows the future with one hundred percent accuracy. For questions about the future we seek the Holy Spirit to reveal the Word. For questions about our ever present and changing now, we see the Holy Spirit to reveal the Word. After all, through the Holy Spirit and the Word, all answers are there. All answers. To know that to be true we need to walk consistently and persistently in fellowship with Him. Of course we won’t perfect that here, only Jesus did that. But He loves us and will teach and show us all that we need to know. And what about the rest? Don’t worry about it! Ha! If we need to know, God is with us to guide us. That is part of living in faith. No worries, just faith in a very known God. Is our God good or is He good! Praise God!
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.
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Devotion Proverbs 27:17 Be Careful What Enters Within
Scripture tells us to seek wise counsel.
Proverbs 13:20 “Whoever walk with the wise becomes wise, but the companion of fools will suffer harm.”
But not all counsel is wise to receive. The wisdom of the world concerning spiritual things is like a poison that tastes sweet but will kill. The world has many deceptive arguments. Colossians 2:4 “I say this so that no one will delude you with persuasive argument.” Something may seem to be wise and so some may call it good, but if the person who said it does not glorify God, beware.
1 Corinthians 3:19-20 “For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight. As it is written: “He catches the wise in their craftiness”, 20 and again, “The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile.” So things of the Spirit, of morality and of philosophy belong to those who know and serve the Lord.
Remember that the most effective lies are couched in truth. So a worldly person may tell a truth, but that does not mean that all they say is truth? Avoid nice sayings that don’t glorify God. Didn’t the devil tempt Eve with a seductive offer but end of what He said led to death? All the wisdom needed in this life is found in the Scriptures given to us by the Lord God Almighty. (2 Peter 1:3) Avoid all teachings that don’t glorify God. (1 Corinthians 10:31) For example we may see a meme that states something like “Peace rules, spread it generously.” And while we all want peace on earth we know that the peace of God and the peace of the world are not the same (John 14:27). A guru may preach love and peace but his teaching ultimately leads to hell. (Proverbs 16:25) Any teaching, any religion, and any philosophy that teaches anything that seems good, but does not point to Jesus is a tool of the enemy. (Galatians 1:10) It entices people to follow a way that leads to death. The enemy does not care what a person believes in, as long as it is not Jesus. Because only Jesus saves. (1 John 5:12)
Brothers and Sisters, love and counsel each other. That pleases the Lord. Seek spiritual counsel from those who walk in the Spirit and know the Word of God. Care not for the counsel of the ungodly, but rather seek the counsel of the Lord from His Word and from those who love and serve Him. Beware sayings of the world, a venomous snake may not bite the first time, but only a fool keeps close association. Seek God. (Deuteronomy 4:29) Only the wisdom of God keeps us safe and that He generously will give it to those who seek Him for it. (James 1:5) He is good like that. Praise God!
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.
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Waterfall 4 – I Still Look For You
I still look for you
In everything that I do
Though I know that it’s real
I look for you still
And when I can’t see,
My ears listen for what frees
My mind imagines that you’re here
Releasing all my fear
That I hear when you say
“I’ve come back, back to stay”
I still look for you
In everything that I do
Though I know that it’s real
I look for you still
When I’m all alone I see your face
I watch your beauty, absorb your grace
Looking in your eyes I see your soul
Keeping that view is my heartfelt goal.
I’m crazy to hope and still I do
That one day again I will see you
I still look for you
In everything that I do
Though I know that it’s real
I look for you still
Everywhere that I am I think I see
Oh beautiful you to set me free
Why should I live in the cell
Of not knowing you are well
I die every day, I long to know
That you have said don’t let go
I still look for you
In everything that I do
Though I know that it’s real
I look for you still
A way for different ends
Possibly lifelong friends
With shared talks dear
Being appropriately near
Dear One still set aside
Only on you can You Know abide
I look for you still
And I always will
by Bob with
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Devotion Judges 6:11-16 From A Seed To A Mighty Redwood
Jaylon Johnson comment “This tree is standing after the sand beneath it was washed out….Why? Because its roots are so deep. It reminds me of what our relationship with Jesus should look like. When the storms wash up against us, we will still stand because we are firmly planted in CHRIST. Father help us to keep growing our roots deep in Your Word, Your Truth, and Your Love.”
This tree is a reminder that our role in life can always change. At one time the work of the roots of this tree was not clearly visible, the work was all below ground. Then came the time that everything changed. The roots became the visible and actual support for the tree. The roots had to do what they figured they could not do and were not called to do, until they could and they did.
Looking at our lives we see that we are continuously called to change. From childhood to adulthood we must be ready for change as God decides. God called Abraham to move from the home of his family and go to an unknown land and be the father of a great nation (Genesis 12:1-3). Esther was called from a life of relative ease as the Queen to a place of danger as she bravely stepped forward. (Esther 4:12-16) Gideon was a common person struggling to get by. He was hiding from thieves as he was threshing his wheat in a winepress so that no-one would steal it from Him. When God sent the Angel of the Lord to call Gideon to do great things in the name of the Lord He said to this man who lived in fear “The Lord is with you, mighty warrior.” Gideon responded with a “Who me” story of his insignificance. Yet God called Him, He trusted God, and God did in fact use Him to dramatically rescue Israel. As God willed Gideon’s life was drastically changed. (Judges 6:12-16) Mary was an innocent child of God who was brought out of obscurity to give birth the Jesus, the Messiah. (Luke 1:26-38) Paul was a zealous persecutor of the church who after meeting Jesus changed to be the most used of Jesus’ Apostles. (Acts 9:1-9)
We must be willing and obedient and God will use us however and whenever. God used a simple American farm boy name Billy Graham to become one of the greatest evangelists of the twentieth century. Charles Haddon Spurgeon was nineteen years old when God changed him from a Sunday school teacher to one of the most prominent pastors whom some referred to as the “Prince of Pastors.” Born to a sharecropper Martin Luther King Jr. would become a civil rights lead who would change the world through Godly principles and peaceful protest, and who would win the Nobel Peace Prize. God chooses, God calls, God enables.
Family, our God created everything out of nothing. To God, all things are possible. Be we from a humble background, a criminal background, or a royal background, the Lord is able to use whomever He calls to do whatever He calls them to. That includes all of us. Yes, you and me. When God calls, just say yes and God will use us in things big and small. And truly, any time God uses us, it’s a big thing. Praise God!
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 withWarning: count(): Parameter must be an array or an object that implements Countable in /homepages/4/d182552187/htdocs/b4g/wp-includes/class-wp-comment-query.php on line 399
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