Category: Daily Inspirational Devotional

Amos was appalled by the arrogance, injustice, and cruelty of the social sins by the upper class. We read that these people didn’t think twice about oppressing the poor, widow, or orphan and treating them harshly. But Amos warned them that the Lord sees all…”He takes notice of ever act of wickedness however slight.” And He remembers…”But they don’t realize that I remember all their evil deeds. Their sins engulf them; they are always before Me.” We may think that God isn’t watching the wickedness and oppression in the world today…that He’s far off or unconcerned…but He’s not…for God promised, “I will never forget anything they have done.”

Here Peter is warning of false teachers and their corrupt doctrines. Peter was especially cautioning fellow Christians against two popular philosophies that were circulating… Gnostics and Antinomians. Gnostics taught that in addition to believing in Christ, you must also receive esoteric knowledge. While Antinomians believed that since salvation was by grace alone, all requirements to keep moral law were irrelevant and unnecessary. Peter refuted both philosophies to cheapening God’s gift of grace and eviscerating the power of the Cross and the blood of Jesus…instead, reminding the Church to stick to the foundational Truths they had been taught and read in the Scriptures…all the while being given Spiritual insight by the Holy Spirit. Times change and so do popular philosophies that waft in and out of Churches…and we must all be on guard for corrupt and deceptive doctrines that could cause us to run aground.

Elsewhere in Isaiah, God promises that Israel would be restored and the city of Jerusalem would be rebuilt. But when the people returned from captivity in Babylon and looked upon the ruins, in the wake of total destruction by enemy armies…all they could see was desolation. It was Nehemiah who encouraged the dispirited group to rebuild. He exhorted them to look beyond the obvious to what could be with the Lord’s help. “Jerusalem lies in ruin its gates burned, come let us rebuild the wall.” (Nehemiah 2:17) With God’s help, Nehemiah spoke life not only into the city but into the souls of the hopeless exiles…uniting them into enthusiastic and dedicated Repairs of Broken Walls, and Restorers of Streets with Dwellings. Is there something in your life today that needs to be brought back, restored, or rebuilt? Stop looking at the broken pieces in hopeless apathy and seek the Lord who is the ultimate Repairer of Broken Walls and Restorer of Streets with Dwellings…for as He promised restoration to the City of Jerusalem, He has promised it to you.

When I read this, I immediately keyed in on the very last word…gangrene. Now as a retired Nurse, I’ve seen my share of this serious medical condition, and thought to myself, what is Paul trying to tell the young Pastor Timothy here? Gangrene is caused by a bacterial infection that spreads throughout the tissue, causing the tissue to die. If not aggressively treated, gangrene can cause sepsis (infection in the bloodstream), cause major systems of the body to shut down, result in surgical loss of body parts (amputation), and/or death. So why is Paul comparing godless chatter to this life-threatening condition? Both can kill the body… and Paul wanted Timothy to be very aware of the dangers that mindless, worldly, vain babbling can bring. It was so important to Paul that he even ended his first letter to Timothy on the same note, “Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to your care. Turn away from godless chatter and the opposing ideas of what is falsely called knowledge, which some have professed and in doing have wandered from the faith.” (I Timothy 6:20)

Why is it so difficult to obey God? Do we think we know more than Him in our haughty pride, or could it be possibly our lack of trust in Him? Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes 9:3, “That the hearts of men are full of evil and there is madness in their hearts…” And this is so true…wickedness resides within, leading us astray… and refusal to obey God is then easy to do. But not trusting God in obedience is just as serious. Our faith is very fickle, depending on the situation or circumstance and whether we’re going to trust ourselves or God. But remember, obeying God grows and strengthens our faith, not hinders it.

This verse comes from the Old Testament, but could very easily apply to the world we live in today. That’s because there seems to be no end to mankind’s violence and upheaval…both here and abroad. So what can we glean from this verse to help us? First off, God is the ultimate Law-giver, Who examines the essential character of each person…searching our inner most being and nature for goodness or evil. And not just that but, “He searches every heart and understands every motive behind the thoughts.” (I Chronicles 28:9) In other words, nothing gets past God and as the ultimate Law-giver it’s His responsibility to avenge the wicked, not ours. He reiterates this in Revelations 2:23 when He tells us, “I am He Who searches hearts and minds and I will repay each of you according to your deeds.” We must remember that God is a just God…full of mercy and grace, desiring none to be lost…but at the same time promising a day of judgment for all.

The Book of Philemon was a private and personal letter Paul wrote to his close friend to give him a proper understanding of the Hebrew fugitive law found in Deuteronomy. Philemon was a wealthy member of the Christian community and leader of the Colossian Church. His slave, Onesimus, ran away and sought refuge with Paul, who took him in. Rather than betraying Onesimus’s trust, Paul shared the Gospel Message with him…eventually leading him to a saving faith in Christ. It was then that Paul sent Onesimus back to Philemon…stating that he was now a brother in the Lord and should be welcomed back as such. In verse 17 Paul wrote, “So if you consider me a partner, welcome him as you would welcome me.” In other words, “Be merciful just as your Father is merciful.” (Luke 6:36) Paul was telling Philemon, who he had personally led to the Lord years before, and who was now leading the Church in Colossae, to practice what he was preaching.

Elsewhere in Ecclesiastes we read, “Wisdom is better than folly, just as light is better than darkness.” Good sense and sound judgment will always win out over foolish undertakings and stupid behaviors. But when you couple folly and a crowd, you get what they call Mob Mentality, or Herd, Pack, or Gang Mentality. It’s when otherwise responsible people are influenced by the crowd they’re part of…adopting behaviors on a largely emotional rather than rational basis…with increasing excitement, anger, or hostility, heightened by the group itself. Decisions are made by a few, while the rest just follow…which then has the propensity for the crowd to shed their inhibitions of societal and moral standards as they take less and less responsibility for their own actions. Soon everyone is caught up in the fray of unsafe, senseless behavior. Need an example? We only have to look at the trial of Jesus before Pilate. A few people – the chief priest and elders – persuaded the crowd – a crowd that had followed Jesus for three years and had witnessed miracles, healings, and heard Him teach – to condemn Him to death. It was out of that Mob Mentality and just a few evil men that the words, “Crucify Him!” grew louder and louder.

This Scripture is quoting Psalm 116:10 which can also be translated, “I believed even when I was greatly afflicted.” As long as life is good and we’re sailing along our journey without incident I can dare say that our faith level is pretty high…but it’s when life gets hard and troubles come our way that our trust in God is put into question. To believe in the midst of personal adversity takes courage, perseverance, and others standing in the gap for us. That’s when the Body of Believers, of whom share the same Christian faith and Holy Spirit, need to come together to pray, undergird, and encourage our brother or sister. For there’s no more powerful of a prayer that states, “I believe…”

“Fix your thoughts on Jesus.” Over the past year and a half I’ve had friends and family suffer great adversity and loss due to the Pandemic…and it’s been during those times of anguish and distress that fixing our thoughts on Jesus has became real. C.S. Lewis put it this way, “God, Who foresaw your tribulation, has specially armed you to go through it, not without pain but without stain.” Probably one of the best examples of this is Job, who the devil was convinced would curse God when afflicted…but he didn’t…instead, Job focused on God, and not the chaos around him. Yes, it will be difficult, you may falter a thousand times, and the pain may be overwhelming…but God is there to encourage you every minute of the journey. Or as Paul exhorted the young Timothy who had found himself under duress, “Fight the good fight of faith. And take hold of the eternal life to which you were called.” (I Timothy 6:12) Just remember, the difference between whether you can withstand hardship or not is based on the foundational truths within you…for they are the bedrock of your faith.