Daily Devotional 10-30-2021
Php 1:29 For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe in him, but also to suffer for him, So that being opposed would not come as a surprise, he gave them a reminder. Both believing on Christ and suffering for Him had been granted to them. Suffering for Christ was not to be considered accidental or a divine punishment. Paul referred to a kind of suffering that was really a sign of God’s favor. Believing on Christ and suffering for Him are both associated with God’s grace.
Daily Devotional 10-29-2021
Php 1:6 being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. As the apostle thinks of the good start the believers have made in the Christian life, he is confident that God will finish the good work He has begun. Good work may refer to their salvation, or it may mean their active financial participation in the furtherance of the gospel. The day of Jesus Christ refers to the time of His coming again to take His people home to heaven and probably also includes the Judgment Seat of Christ, when service for Him will be reviewed and rewarded.
Daily Devotional 10-28-21
Rom 6:12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. The attitude of mind that a believer has died to sin must be translated into action in his experience. Paul commanded, Therefore do not let sin reign as it did before salvation. The present imperative negative can also be translated, “Stop letting sin reign.” When sin reigns in people’s lives and bodies, they obey its evil desires. Sin enslaves, making a person subject to his own desires. Here, in the case of sin, the desires are evil. In your mortal body means that sin manifests itself through one’s physical actions in this body. The Greek here stresses that the body is mortal or dying. Perhaps this suggests the foolishness of giving in to the desires of a body that is transitory and decaying. To give in to a dying master is…
Daily Devotional 10-27-2021
Pro 17:3 A crucible for silver, and a smelter for gold, and the LORD is the tester of hearts. As silver and gold are purified under intense heat, so a believer’s heart is purified by the heat of trials which the Lord brings.
Daily Devotional 10-26-2021
Mar 10:29-30 “Truly I tell you,” Jesus said, “there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for my sake and for the sake of the gospel, (30) who will not receive a hundred times more, now at this time—houses, brothers and sisters, mothers and children, and fields, with persecutions—and eternal life in the age to come. In another solemn affirmation, Jesus acknowledged that their allegiance to Him and the gospel entailed a break with old ties – home, loved ones, or property (fields), as the case may be. But to everyone who makes the break Jesus promised that all these things will be replaced a hundredfold by new ties with fellow rewarddisciples in this present Age, the time period between Jesus’ First and Second Advents. Then in the Age to come, the future Age following Jesus’ return, each…
Daily Devotional 10-25-2021
Rom 12:3 For by the grace given to me, I tell everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he should think. Instead, think sensibly, as God has distributed a measure of faith to each one. A believer’s consecration to God and his transformed lifestyle is demonstrated in his exercising his spiritual gifts in the body of Christ. As an apostle of Christ, Paul warned his readers individually – “Do not think of ourself more highly than we ought”. An inflated view of oneself is out of place in the Christian life. Then Paul encouraged us to rather think with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you. God has given each believer some faith by which to serve Him. All natural abilities and spiritual gifts are from God. As a result, every Christian should have a proper sense of humility and…
Daily Devotional 10-24-2021
Mat 6:22-23 “The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light. (23) But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. So if the light within you is darkness, how deep is that darkness! Jesus realized that it would be difficult for His followers to see how His unconventional teaching on security for the future could possibly work. So He used an analogy of the human eye to teach a lesson on spiritual sight. He said that the eye is the lamp of the body. It is through the eye that the body receives illumination and can see. If the eye is good, the whole body is flooded with light. But if the eye is bad, then vision is impaired. Instead of light, there is darkness. The application is this: The good eye…
Daily Devotional 10-23-2021
2Co 4:10 We always carry the death of Jesus in our body, so that the life of Jesus may also be displayed in our body. The life of the servant of God is one of constant dying. Just as the Lord Jesus Himself, in His lifetime, was constantly exposed to violence and persecution, so those who follow in His steps will meet the same treatment. But it does not mean defeat. This is the way of victory. Blessing comes to others as we thus die daily. It is only in this way that the life of Jesus can be apparent in our bodies. The life of Jesus does not here mean primarily His life as a Man on earth, but His present life as the exalted Son of God in heaven. How can the world see the life of Christ when He is not personally or physically present in the…
Daily Devotional 10-22-2021
2Co 3:18 We all, with unveiled faces, are looking as in a mirror at the glory of the Lord and are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory; this is from the Lord who is the Spirit. The glory evident in Moses’ face was a diminishing radiance. By contrast, in the faces of Christians is God’s ever-increasing glory. Christians’ glory, like that of Moses, is a reflection of the Lord’s glory. But unlike Moses’ transitory glory a believer’s glory is eternal. This is because of God’s abiding presence through the Holy Spirit. This glory is the experience of salvation available in the New Covenant and mediated by the Spirit who leads Christians from justification through sanctification to glorification. As believers manifest the fruit of the Spirit, they are progressively being transformed (metamorphosis) into His likeness. Christlikeness is the goal of the Christian walk. No wonder Paul said…
Daily Devotional 10-21-2021
1Co 1:23-24 but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Gentiles. (24) Yet to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God, But Paul did not cater to their desires. He says, “We preach Christ crucified.” As someone has said, “He was not a sign-loving Jew, nor a wisdom-loving Greek, but a Savior-loving Christian.” To the Jews, Christ crucified was a stumbling block. They looked for a mighty military leader to deliver them from the oppression of Rome. Instead of that, the gospel offered them a Savior nailed to a cross of shame. To the Greeks, Christ crucified was foolishness. They could not understand how One who died in such seeming weakness and failure could ever solve their problems. But strangely enough, the very things that the Jews and the Gentiles sought…