Devotionals

18 Sep Devotional Thought – Where I Would Most Miss My Lord

"Then he said to Him, "If Your Presence does not go with us, do not bring us up from here."  Exodus 33:15 This has to be one of the most unbelievable and amazing prayers in all of the Bible.  It is not a prayer to be ushered into the Promise Land.  As a matter of fact, it is a prayer asking not to get there except under a very specific condition.  These wilderness wanderers had been guilty of idolatry.  They had invited the anger of God and as a result God had withdrawn His presence from them.  No longer would He be their personal guide.  No longer would He manifest Himself in their midst.  Sure, He would follow through on His promise and bring them into the land of Canaan, but He wouldn't be the One to lead them there.  He would send somebody else to be their guide.

03 Sep Devotional Thought – Love’s Song

"But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world." Galatians 6:14 Is there anything that can cause the bearing of a cross to become glorious? To be sure, there are those things that can enable a cross to be endured - patience, pride, and even despair can make make it endurable. However, is there anything that can turn it into something to be boasted about? There is only one thing that can make it so, and that one thing is love.

27 Aug Devotional Thought – Let Your Uplook Be Your Outlook

"You love righteousness and hate wickedness; Therefore God, Your God, has anointed You With the oil of gladness more than Your companions." Psalm 45:7 The writer of Hebrews says that these words were spoken of the coming Messiah, but do they actually describe the One who came? As we walk through the Gospels do we see Jesus as one who was "anointed with the oil of gladness"? Isn't He considered to be the "Man of Sorrows"? Wasn't it on the muddy banks of the Jordan that He was anointed for a ministry of great suffering and pain? Wasn't the inaugural address given by the Baptist - "Behold the Lamb of God!" - a foreshadowing of Jesus' sacrificial work? Yes. So, are we now to change our view of Him from the man of sorrows into a man of joy? Are we to no longer see Him as the One who was so marred by the hands of man that He didn't even look like a man, and begin now to see Him as One who is distinguished from all the men around Him by His perpetual, powerful gladness? If such is the case then it would indeed be a tremendous transformation of thinking.

20 Aug Devotional Thought – The Spirit’s Guarantee

"who also has sealed us and given us the Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.” 2 Corinthians 1:22 The Spirit’s guarantee is always found in the heart. It is more than just wanting to be good. It is a God-given desire to be more than what you are apart from Him. You see, the Spirit has great heights that rise before Him – heights of understanding and accomplishment, heights of Golgotha and the Garden Tomb, but its earnest, its down payment is a simple desire of the heart. Just like Sharon’s Rose springs from the bud of longing, the first gift that God gives my soul is a sense of lacking, the realizing of an empty heart. It is that emptiness that tells me that I am more than some sort of animal. I am the highest, crowning creation of the Creating God. As such I bear His fingerprints on my soul.

13 Aug Devotional Thought – Remembering The Unknown

"And a certain man lame from his mother's womb was carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple which is called Beautiful, to ask alms from those who entered the temple." Acts 3:2 We're not told. Luke does not give us the names of those who carried this man who had been lame from birth and laid him every day at the Beautiful Gate.  All that we're told is that Peter and John found him and healed him where "they" had placed him.  That is both interesting and encouraging.  The main participants in this soul-stirring scene are the nameless men who brought him there that day.  Isn't that the way it is so many times?  Those who do so much to bring the lame to the place of healing and help are nameless, known only to God?  Haven't we all been carried along in our lives by unknown, obscure hands?  And when we pass through those beautiful gates do we stop to remember the debt that we owe to the unknown?  What about those, who like the angel Jacob met, bless us but refuse to give their names?  What about the fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers - strangers even - who helped us in those needed hours and days?

06 Aug Devotional Thought – Asking In The Name Of Jesus

"Until now you have asked nothing in My name. Ask, and you will receive . . ."  John 16:24. Jesus is seeking the development of His disciples, and the place that He looks to perceive it is in the progress of their prayers.  The amazing thing, at least from our  human point of view is where in the prayer He looks.  Jesus doesn't look at their invocation, but at their motivation.  He doesn't look to see what they ask for, but rather why that ask for it, and He measures their prayers accordingly.