Pastor Brad’s Notebook

05 May Devotional Thought – When Christ Is In All

"He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he shall go out no more..." Revelation 3:12 That seems like a rather odd reward for overcoming - captivity? Is there no longer any liberty for those who overcome? Is that to be the penalty for my victory? Imprisonment within the very gate that my conquest has opened? Absolutely not. In that day I will be able to go wherever I wish, for the entire world will be mine.  "So why," you ask "does Jesus say that the one who overcomes will go out no more?"  The answer is simply this -

02 May Devotional Thought – My Prayer For My Enemies

"Put them in fear, O Lord, That the nations may know themselves to be but men. Selah." Psalm 9:20 That's really an unexpected prayer, "Put them in fear..."  In fact, that's not at all the kind of prayer that you would expect to find in a divinely-inspired book.  Think about it. Is it a humane thing to pray that your enemies would be put in fear?  It is if the result would be them becoming more humane.  That's what the Psalmist is praying, that the Lord would teach his enemies that they were just men.  The point is for them to learn to have pity for others by showing them their own need for it.

24 Apr Devotional Thought – The Dawn Light Of Easter

"In Him was life, and the life was the light of men."  John 1:4 The life of the Lord Jesus Christ has illuminated the entire world.  That truth can not be denied on this Easter morning.  But the Lord's light that has illumined this world comes not just from what He did, but also from who He was.  "His life was the light of men."

19 Apr Devotional Thought – The Lord’s Love Of Life

"Therefore My Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it up again." John 10:17 "That I may take it up again..." As we look toward Good Friday and think about the last week of the earthly life of Jesus, we must be reminded that the real beauty of the Savior's sacrifice is not found in its despair. Despair is a sight that the Father never longs to see.  Why would He?  An artist doesn't want to see his work despised, and that's what life is - it is God's work and He says its beautiful.

16 Apr Devotional Thought – The Crown And The Cross

"But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, that He, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone." Hebrews 2:9 What a beautiful provision for what would appear to be so terrible and wasteful of an end - a life that was crowned for death. If you knew that the flowers that you planted and tended in the early spring would die before they ever gave forth their first summer bloom, would you have handled them with as much care? If you knew that the plane would drop from the sky in mid flight would you have placed on it your greatest and most precious possessions? The answer most likely is "no." But, you see, this isn't a plant or a plane, this is a human soul.

12 Apr Devotional Thought – When An Angel Had A Stone For A Stool

"And behold, there was a great earthquake; for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat on it."  Matthew 28:2 Surely that angel could have done more than just sit there on top of that tombstone.  After all, rolling away the stone from the tomb of Jesus was a great thing, an important thing, something that will forever be remembered.  But to roll that stone aside and then sit on it? What good was that?  What did that accomplish? A great deal, that's what.