Daily Devotional 9-18-2021
Rom 9:8 That is, it is not the children by physical descent who are God’s children, but the children of the promise are considered to be the offspring. It is not physical descent that counts. The true Israel consists of those Jews who were selected by God and to whom He made some specific promise, marking them out as His children. We see this principle of sovereign election in the cases of Isaac and Jacob.
Daily Devotional 9-13-2021
Deu 7:6 For you are a holy people belonging to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you to be his own possession out of all the peoples on the face of the earth. The basis for the command to destroy the Canaanites lay in God’s election of Israel. The word translated chosen means “to be chosen for a task or a vocation.” God had selected Israel as His means of sanctifying the earth. Thus, they were holy (set apart for God’s special use) and were His treasured possession. Since the Canaanites were polluting the earth, and since they might endanger Israel’s complete subordination to the will of the Lord, they either had to repent or be eliminated. And as stated, for 400 years they had refused to repent.
Daily Devotional 9-6-2021
Rom 5:5 and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us. A believer’s hope, since it is centered in God and His promises, does not disappoint him. “Disappoint” means “put to shame because of disappointment” in unfulfilled promises. The reason this hope (resulting finally from affliction) does not disappoint is that God has poured out His love into our hearts. God’s love, so abundant in believer’s hearts, encourages them on in their hope. And this love is poured out by the Holy Spirit, whom He has given us. The Holy Spirit is the divine Agent who expresses to a believer the love of God, that is, God’s love for him. The reality of God’s love in a believer’s heart gives the assurance, even the guarantee, that the believer’s hope in God and His…
Daily Devotional 9-5-2021
Joh 17:24 “Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory which You have given Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world. The communion and fellowship which disciples have with Jesus in this life will increase in eternity. The goal of a believer’s salvation is future glorification which includes being with Jesus. Jesus’ last testament and will is that His disciples enter into see His glory. This glory was what Jesus had from the Father and would again have. His testament was sealed by His death and resurrection. Since His will is identical to the Father’s, it will certainly come to pass.
Daily Devotional 8-30-2021
Lam 3:21-23 Yet I call this to mind, and therefore I have hope: (22) Because of the LORD’s faithful love we do not perish, for his mercies never end. (23) They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness! Could Judah push God so far that He would finally abandon her forever? Was God’s supply of loyal love and compassion limited? Jeremiah’s answer was no. God’s mercies are new every morning. God offered a fresh supply of loyal love every day to His covenant people. Much like the manna in the wilderness, the supply could not be exhausted. This truth caused Jeremiah to call out in praise, Great is Your faithfulness. He was taken back by the limitless supply of God’s grace offered to him. Because of this, Jeremiah resolved to wait for God to act, bringing about restoration and blessing. He could trust God despite his circumstances because he…
Daily Devotional 7-29-2021
Joh 15:8-12 My Father is glorified by this: that you produce much fruit and prove to be my disciples. (9) “As the Father has loved me, I have also loved you. Remain in my love. (10) If you keep my commands you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. (11) “I have told you these things so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete. (12) “This is my command: Love one another as I have loved you. A believer is motivated by the wonder of Jesus’ love, which is patterned after the Father’s love in its quality and extent. Remain in My love might seem to be mystical but Jesus makes it very concrete. Obedience to the Father’s commands is the same for a disciple as it was for the Son. Active dependence…
Daily Devotional 7-26-2021
1Jn 2:5 But if anyone obeys his word, love for God is truly made complete in them. This is how we know we are in him: Obedience to God’s Word results in a rich and full experience of God’s love: God’s love is truly made complete in him. In John 14, an obedient disciple is promised a special experience of the love of the Father and Son. Since a Christian is already the object of God’s saving love, this additional, experiential realization of the divine affection may be properly said to make God’s love complete in him. That is to say, an obedient believer has a deep, full-orbed acquaintance with “God’s love.” Since God is love, to know God intimately is to know His love intimately.
Daily Devotional 7-25-2021
Psa 147:10-11 His pleasure is not in the strength of the horse, nor his delight in the legs of the warrior; (11) the LORD delights in those who fear him, who put their hope in his unfailing love. He should be worshiped for the priority He gives to the spiritual over the physical. He is not awed by the horses in the cavalry unit, or for the strong, muscular legs of the infantrymen. Or to change the figure, He doesn’t take pleasure in the horses as they race, or the athletes as they contend in the Olympics. But the LORD is delighted with those who reverence Him and who hope in His mercy.
Daily Devotional 7-19-2021
Act 20:24 However, I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me–the task of testifying to the good news of God’s grace. As the apostle weighed this outlook in his mind, Paul did not think that his own life was the great consideration. His ambition was to obey God and to please Him. If in doing this, he would be called upon to offer up his life, he was willing to do so. No sacrifice we could make would be too great for the One who died for us. All that mattered was that we finish our race and complete the ministry which we received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God. No title could better express the good news which Paul preached—the gospel of the…
Daily Devotional 7-17-2021
1Ti 1:5 The goal of this command is love, which comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. Perhaps the most important thing to understand in this verse is that commandment does not refer to the Law of Moses or the Ten Commandments. This is brought out clearly in the NKJV: Now the purpose of the commandment is love. … Paul is saying that the goal or aim of the charge which he has just given Timothy is to produce not just orthodoxy but love from a pure heart, from a good conscience, and from sincere faith. These things always follow when the gospel of the grace of God is preached.