Category Archives: Devotional

One Good Bible Study

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These guys were discouraged.  Life had suddenly become gloomier than it had ever been.  The man they took for the Messiah had just died a gruesome death.  Now what?

They were confused.  Some women they knew said the body of Jesus was gone and claimed to see angels who said He was alive.  Alive.  What?  This was all going to take some time to process.

What they didn’t realise was that they were walking and talking with the risen Jesus at that very moment. 

Then He said to them, ‘O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory?’ And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.”  – Luke 24:25-27 (NKJV)

Too often the Lord gets my attention the same way: “O foolish one!” (literally, “without mind, without sense”) In this case, He kept their attention for a long time – and the students took it all in.  Later, they recalled it:

And they said to one another, ‘Did not our heart burn within us while He talked with us on the road, and while He opened the Scriptures to us?'”- Luke 24:32 (NKJV)

No question, that was the best Bible study we all ever missed.  Still, there’s one more thing Jesus said that we should all probably take more seriously. 

These things I have spoken to you while being present with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.” – John 14:25-26 (NKJV)

May our hearts and minds be open to everything the Spirit desires to teach us.

Something That Lasts

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Let’s face it. Everything we do in this world is plagued by impermanence. Our own mortality – that nagging, irritating, upcoming appointment with death – can bring a sad sense of dissatisfaction to anything we hope will endure. “All flesh is grass,” says the prophet. “The people are grass.” That’s us.  

The voice said, ‘Cry out!’
And he said, ‘What shall I cry?’
‘All flesh is grass,
And all its loveliness is like the flower of the field.
The grass withers, the flower fades,
Because the breath of the Lord blows upon it;
Surely the people are grass.
The grass withers, the flower fades,
But the word of our God stands forever.'”
          – Isaiah 40:6-8 (NKJV)

Because we mortals cannot keep going, the best we can hope for is to latch onto something that will outlast us – something like the Word of God. The Bible; let’s devote ourselves to it. The Scriptures; let’s keep them ever before our eyes. God’s thoughts, God’s words; let’s fill our minds with them…

Having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever, because

    ‘All flesh is as grass,
    And all the glory of man as the flower of the grass.
    The grass withers, and its flower falls away,
    But the word of the Lord endures forever.'”
          – 1 Peter 1:23-25 (NKJV)

Unprofitable Prophets

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God has a lot of people who speak in His name without ever first hearing from Him what to say – and He knows it.  These false prophets lead people astray with messages that they have made up.  They say whatever they want and they serve no useful purpose. Normally, they say what people want to hear in order to gain a following.  This is no recent phenomenon, but has actually long been the case.

So it was in the days of Jeremiah.  He was a bona fide prophet – the real thing – and he was especially unpopular.  Prophets were a shekel a dozen in Jerusalem in those days and each of them had a following.  Things were beginning to go badly in Judah, so it was pretty easy to get listeners if you said something that sounded nice.  People were eager to hear pleasant-sounding messages – and to continue in their evil practices at the same time.  Jeremiah, on the other hand, with his continuously unheeded messages of repentance, found it easy to get discouraged.

So the Lord encouraged Jeremiah, His faithful messenger, by offering His personal commentary on these popular, but unprofitable, prophets.  Here’s what He had to say:

I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran.
I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied. 
But if they had stood in My counsel,
And had caused My people to hear My words,
Then they would have turned them from their evil way
And from the evil of their doings.”
               – Jeremiah 23:21-22 (NKJV)

Every Christian should make it a point to stick to God’s counsel as found in His word.  We will be more profitable as a result, when the time comes to open our mouths.

The God Who Keeps On Giving

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I need a lot of God’s grace, His unmerited favor, those unearned blessings that He gives and keeps on giving.  There are times I think I’ve nearly drained the limit of His supply.  Those are the times He gently reminds me of the cross.

The cross of Jesus Christ illustrates just how far God will go on our behalf.  Once we’ve accepted it, the floodgates of grace are now open.  We can’t touch the ceiling; if it’s good He will give it.  We can’t find the edge.  Once we’re inside, having entered through Jesus Christ the Door, the boundaries of His love are unsearchable.  And if there is a need He is readly, willing and able to meet it. 

Let’s give Him the honor and show Him the respect of taking Him at His word.

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?”
                                                – Romans 8:31-32 (NKJV)