Paul had a way of cutting through the flowery language and being brutally honest about who he really was without Jesus in his life. He was one miserable human being… spiritually dead and separated from God. But in the next breath, Paul speaks of being eternally grateful that Jesus Christ had set him free and liberated him from the law of sin and death.(Romans 8:2) For in reality we can only serve one master…we can either be a slave to sin, or a slave to obedience. (Romans 6:16)
Category: Daily Inspirational Devotional
II Kings 4:27 ” When she reached the man of God at the mountain, she took hold of his feet. Gehazi came over to push her away, but the man of God said, ‘Leave her alone! She is in bitter distress, but the Lord has hidden it from me and has not told me why.’ “
This was a Shunammite woman who had made a small room on the roof of her house for Elisha to stay when he was traveling in the area. The prophet Elisha was very grateful and wanted to reciprocate, so he asked his servant Gehazi, “What can I do for her?” Gehazi replied, “Well, she has no son and her husband is old.” So Elisha prophesied to the woman that God would give her a son…and He did. But a few years later the young boy fell ill and died in his mother’s arms. The grieving Shunammite woman then set off looking for Elisha and found him at Mount Carmel. But God did not divulge the reason to Elisha, for the Lord wanted him to live in the moment with her, experience her emotions, and meet her where she was at. Similarly, In I Samuel 1:15, the Priest Eli saw Hannah deeply troubled in prayer in the Temple but thought she was drunk and didn’t realize the truth until he spoke to her. If God shrouds things from us it’s for a specific reason. ..we may not need to know the details in order to help/pray for the person, or He may want us to just share in the emotion of the moment.
I Timothy 6:9-10 ” People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.”
Be careful not to misquote this Scripture, for it doesn’t say that money is the root of all kinds of evil, but rather, the love of money that will cause a frenzied lust and crazed passion in a person, blocking out their better judgment. When we allow ourselves to become a lover of money and not a lover of Jesus Christ…when we take Him off the Throne of our heart, mind and soul and place obtaining wealth there instead, we set ourselves up for every kind of forbidden and unrighteous action to take place. And in the end, we may think we’ve acquired our heart’s desire…but at what cost?
Isaiah 40:28 ” Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and His understanding no one can fathom.”
“Great is our Lord and mighty in power; His understanding has no limit.” (Psalm 147:5) He alone is God…He alone created everything out of nothing. So it should be without question that everything is God centered. Or as Romans 11:36 tells us, “For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever! Amen.”
Galatians 1:3-5 ” To the Churches in Galatia: Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, Who gave Himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the Will of our God and Father, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
Paul’s salutation here was to the Churches in Galatia, a province of Rome, and/or to Believers of Gallic heritage. (Both ideas have been debated.) Either way, his salutation could easily address today’s modern Church and Body of Believers for nothing much has changed. Sin still rules the world, with Satan, the author of all evil in the world, still at work deceiving and enticing those towards moral and spiritual wickedness. But we are not to lose hope, for Jesus Christ has overcome the world. Or as Romans 4:25 tells us, “He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.” So Paul’s words still ring true today… in the end, the Will of God always wins out…and His divine plan and purpose will forever be done for His glory. Amen and Amen.
Genesis 25:21-22 ” Isaac prayed to the Lord on behalf of his wife, because she was barren. The Lord answered his prayer, and his wife Rebekah became pregnant. The babies jostled each other within her and she said, ‘Why is this happening to me?’ So she went to inquire of the Lord.”
Here we see two different types of prayer. Isaac interceded on behalf of his wife, asking the Lord to bless her with children. In other words, he was standing in the gap of the broken down wall (his childless wife) in order to make it whole or complete.(a pregnancy and successful birth) But early on in this pregnancy Rebekah began to experience new and frightening movements of the twins within her…the pushing and shoving so bad that she sought the Lord herself. What Rebekah was asking was strictly between her and God, for no amount of relaying her concerns to her husband could get Isaac to fully understand what was really happening. And God answered her prayer in verse 23 when He told her, “Two Nations are in your womb, and two peoples from within you will be separated; one people will be stronger than the other, and the older will serve the younger.” In our Prayer life both types of prayer are necessary and vital…one focused on others, one focused on our self.
Luke 17:1 ” Jesus said to His disciples: ‘Things that cause people to sin are bound to come, but woe to that person through whom they come.’ “
The original meaning for the Greek word for “things that cause people to sin” is a trigger on which the bait is placed so that when an animal touches it the trap swings closed on its victim. Jesus is telling His disciples here that such sin is bound to happen in a world filled with depravity and wickedness, but deplorable and wretched is the person who would intentionally entice another to fall into such moral and spiritual ruin. So in other words, that person was the trigger of the trap…the cause of another’s stumbling… with devastating results for both.
Revelation 3:1-3 ” I know your deeds; you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead. Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your deeds complete in the sight of my God. Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; obey it, and repent. But if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what time I will come to you.”
The city of Sardis was a very wealthy and prosperous place…and the same kind of apathetic arrogance that characterized the city was also very evident in the early Church there. Its members had become complacent, and self-satisfied with the status quo…resting on their laurels of past importance among the early Churches…which led to a spirit of smugness and opened the way to sin. The Church of Sardis had drifted into spiritual unconsciousness…or as it’s called today – nominal Christianity. Quite simply put…it’s someone who professes faith, but has no fruit to show for it. John’s letter to the Church of Sardis is a cautionary tale for many a Church today if they’re banking on what they once were, and not on what they’ve become. What’s needed John wrote is a moral reorientation of hearts and minds, and a turning back to Jesus and our first love.
Jeremiah 28:8-9 ” From early times the prophets who preceded you and me have prophesied war, disaster, and plague against many countries and great kingdoms. But the prophet who prophesies peace will be recognized as one truly sent by the Lord only if his prediction comes true.”
From the very beginning, there have been people speaking God’s message and those declaring words that just sound good to them or to the crowd they’re part of. Jeremiah speaks of these two types of prophets here…the true prophet of God and the false prophet. Deuteronomy 18:21-22 speaks to discerning between the two this way, ” You may say to yourselves, ‘How can we know when a message has not been spoken by the Lord?’ If what a prophet proclaims in the name of the Lord does not take place or come true, that is a message the Lord has not spoken.” Also remember, prophesy has to be consistent with all prior revelation…an example would be if a prophet instructed Believers to serve another god, he would be a false prophet. Finally, be careful of people who claim their message is from God but when it doesn’t happen will rationalize, explain away, or in some way justify what they said was true…when it wasn’t.
II Timothy 1:8 ” So do not be ashamed to testify about our Lord, or ashamed of me His prisoner. But join me in suffering for the gospel…”
To illustrate what Paul was trying to get across to Timothy, I will ask you this. Does your next-door neighbor know that you’re a Christian? Or when a group of friends get together and the conversation goes into the sewer do you say something, or just squirm uncomfortably? Paul is exhorting Timothy to not just stand there in embarrassed silence, afraid of persecution because he doesn’t conform to worldly standards, but to boldly give witness through his “story” of how the Lord has worked in his life. People need to hear the “Good News” of the Gospel Message…they need to know God loves them and has a wonderful plan for their life…so what’s so shameful about that?
Safetypinlove 