Daily Devotional 8-21-2021
Psa 31:19-24 How great is your goodness that you have stored up for those who fear you and accomplished in the sight of everyone for those who take refuge in you. (20) You hide them in the protection of your presence; you conceal them in a shelter from human schemes, from quarrelsome tongues. (21) Blessed be the LORD, for he has wondrously shown his faithful love to me in a city under siege. (22) In my alarm I said, “I am cut off from your sight.” But you heard the sound of my pleading when I cried to you for help. (23) Love the LORD, all his faithful ones. The LORD protects the loyal, but fully repays the arrogant. (24) Be strong, and let your heart be courageous, all you who put your hope in the LORD. David praised the Lord (How great is Your goodness) for His protection of…
Daily Devotional 8-20-2021
1Pe 3:18 For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring you to God. He was put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit, One of the shortest and simplest, and yet one of the richest summaries given in the New Testament of the meaning of the Cross of Jesus. Christ died for sins. However, once for all is clearly a contrast with the Old Testament yearly sacrifice on the Day of Atonement and declares the complete sufficiency of Christ’s death. The substitutionary nature of Christ’s death is indicated by the phrase the righteous for the unrighteous. Christ, the “righteous One, uniquely qualified to die as the substitute for the “unrighteous ones”. The divine purpose for Christ’s sacrificial death was man’s reconciliation, to bring people to God. Peter concluded his summary of Christ’s redemptive work by referring…
Daily Devotional 8-19-2021
1Sa 12:21-22 Don’t turn away to follow worthless things that can’t profit or rescue you; they are worthless. (22) The LORD will not abandon his people, because of his great name and because he has determined to make you his own people. In a marvelous manifestation of the grace of God, Samuel related to the people that God would bless them in spite of their wrong choice if they would only be steadfast in their obedience from this point on. The past could not be undone but their future was untainted and could be devoted to the Lord.
Daily Devotional 8-18-2021
2Ti 2:8 Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead and descended from David, according to my gospel, Jesus is an example of suffering followed by glory. Remember that Jesus Christ, of the seed of David, was raised from the dead according to Paul’s gospel. The thought is not that Timothy is to remember certain things about the Lord Jesus, but rather that he is to remember the Person Himself, alive from the dead. In one sense, this verse is a brief summary of the gospel which Paul preached. The crucial point in that gospel is the resurrection of the Savior. Hiebert writes: “Not the vision of a crucified Jesus but the vision of a risen Lord is held up before Timothy.” The expression of the seed of David is a simple statement that Jesus is the Christ, the descendant of David, in whom the Messianic promises of God are fulfilled.…
Daily Devotional 8-17-2021
Pro 16:33 The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the LORD. The results of casting lots may seem like mere chance, but God controls even them.
Daily Devotional 8-16-2021
Gal 5:16 I say then, walk by the Spirit and you will certainly not carry out the desire of the flesh. As a believer walks through life he should depend on the indwelling Holy Spirit for guidance and power. But the Spirit does not operate automatically in a believer’s heart. He waits to be depended on. When a Christian does yield to the Spirit’s control, the promise is that he will not in anywise gratify the desires of the sinful nature. Thus, while no believer will ever be entirely free in this life from the evil desires that stem from his fallen human nature, he need not capitulate to them, but may experience victory by the Spirit’s help.
Daily Devotional 8-15-2021
Gal 5:1-2 For freedom, Christ set us free. Stand firm then and don’t submit again to a yoke of slavery. (2) Take note! I, Paul, am telling you that if you get yourselves circumcised, Christ will not benefit you at all. Paul declared that Christ was the great Liberator who set believers free from bondage. The apostle then appealed to the Galatians to stand firm in that liberty, for having been delivered from slavery to heathenism, they were in danger of becoming entangled in slavery to the Mosaic Law.
Daily Devotional 8-14-2021
Jas 1:6-8 But let him ask in faith without doubting. For the doubter is like the surging sea, driven and tossed by the wind. (7) That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord, (8) being double-minded and unstable in all his ways. However, God’s provision has some prerequisites. To receive God’s wisdom in trials, the believer must be wise in asking. First, he must ask in faith. He must believe and not doubt. He dare not come to God like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. God is not pleased with a double-minded man who is unstable in all he does, like an unsteady, staggering drunk. The answer from God depends on assurance in God.
Daily Devotional 8-13-2021
1Jn 1:5 This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light, and there is absolutely no darkness in him. Here he began with something he had heard from the Lord Jesus Christ whose Incarnation he had just referred to verses 1-2. The content of this “message,” as John expressed it, is that God is Light; in Him there is no darkness at all. In describing God as Light, John was no doubt thinking of God as the Revealer of His holiness. As Light, God both exposes man’s sin and condemns it. If anyone walks in darkness, he is hiding from the truth which the Light reveals. The transition from darkness into Light is what brings about salvation.
Daily Devotional 8-12-2021
Pro 16:17 The highway of the upright avoids evil; the one who guards his way protects his life. The upright person seeks to avoid evil. Guarding his way (i.e., maintaining upright conduct) is a means of guarding one’s soul (inner life with its drives, appetites, and desires) from sin.