Category Archives: Devotional

Good and Perfect Gifts

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James 1:17 reminds us:

“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.”  (NKJV)

The Father, through the Holy Spirit within each believer, has given each of us some kind of spiritual gift.  He wants us to use them for His glory to build up the body of Christ.  God gives each of us gifts.  There are no gift-less Christians.

1 Corinthians 7:7 (NKJV) … each one has his own gift from God, one in this manner and another in that.

1 Corinthians 12:4-7 (NKJV) There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are differences of ministries, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of activities, but it is the same God who works all in all. But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all.

Gifts are something we need to use intentionally.  Every Christian has a gift, but not all use them.  We need to “stir them up” and make sure that we don’t neglect them – just as Paul had to encourage Timothy.

1 Timothy 4:14 (NKJV) Do not neglect the gift that is in you, …

2 Timothy 1:6 (NKJV) Therefore I remind you to stir up the gift of God which is in you … 

If you’d like some help in determining your gift(s) here’s a link to a little test that just may do the job.

www.spiritualgiftstest.com

The Simplicity That Is in Christ

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It’s easy to mix the gospel with other things.  I mean, there is so much in the way of spiritual teaching or human philosophy out there that is good, or potentially good, or seemingly good, or helpful, or that we know has been helpful to others we know.  Who can argue with something that works?

Well, no one has to argue with anything.  We just need to be sure we aren’t mixing it with the gospel.  If we’re building our lives upon that solid Rock of Jesus, then Jesus is everything we need.  All else optional at best, harmful at worst.  The Christian should desire the sincere milk of the Word and every word that comes from the mouth of God.  And that puts every other outlook in perspective.

Throughout Church history Christians have been led astray by Jesus and something – or something very close to Jesus.  Watch out for any other Jesus, any different spirit, any different gospel.  Paul put it like this to one of his churches:

“For I am jealous for you with godly jealousy. For I have betrothed you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. For if he who comes preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or if you receive a different spirit which you have not received, or a different gospel which you have not accepted-you may well put up with it! – 2 Corinthians 11:2-4 (NKJV)

The Goodness and Severity of God

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The prophet Ezekiel had just run down a list of problems still visible in a nation already in the process of being destroyed and taken into captivity.  But the Lord allows him to give them one more message of hope.  If they repent, they can still be spared from what looks like certain doom.

“Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to his ways,” says the Lord GOD. “Repent, and turn from all your transgressions, so that iniquity will not be your ruin. Cast away from you all the transgressions which you have committed, and get yourselves a new heart and a new spirit. For why should you die, O house of Israel? For I have no pleasure in the death of one who dies,” says the Lord GOD. “Therefore turn and live!” – Ezekiel 18:30-32 (NKJV)

“Turn and live.”  That’s really the message of the Gospel in its most reduced form.  We must turn from our sin and receive the life that God offers through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.   But the alternative is not living in neutrality towards God.  The alternative is not life at all, but death.  This is a harsh but merciful message.  This is the choice that each person faces.  Here we see that God is both love and light by His very nature and in His character is no darkness at all.

Therefore consider the goodness and severity of God… – Romans 11:22 (NKJV)

Guard Your Heart

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Sin begins in the heart.  The lust, the greed, the envy, the anger and every other evil thing starts there – deep within.   The words of Jesus don’t leave much room for interpretation:

“For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. These are the things which defile a man, …” – Matthew 15:19-20 (NKJV)

Therefore, how crucial it is that we protect our hearts from the junk that naturally forms there, collects there and then begins to rot.  Consider the wisdom of Proverbs 4:23:

“Keep your heart with all diligence,
     For out of it spring the issues of life.” (NKJV)

Or, as the New Living Translation puts it:

“Above all else, guard your heart, for it affects everything you do.”

Let’s be careful what we think about, what we meditate upon and in what directions our hearts might tend to go when we aren’t keeping them under control.  The psalms reveal how prayer and the application of the Scriptures contain the remedies discovered by ancient men of God:

“Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart
          Be acceptable in Your sight,
          O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer.”
                                        – Psalms 19:14 (NKJV)

“Your word I have hidden in my heart,
          That I might not sin against You.”
                                        – Psalms 119:11 (NKJV)

Keeping our hearts in the right place takes effort, but the Lord is right there to help us in guarding them if we avail ourselves of His strength.  The Holy Spirit in the heart of every believer in Jesus is more that sufficient for the task.