Daily Devotional 2-24-2022
Psa 132:15-18 CSB I will abundantly bless its food; I will satisfy its needy with bread. (16) I will clothe its priests with salvation, and its faithful people will shout for joy. (17) There I will make a horn grow for David; I have prepared a lamp for my anointed one. (18) I will clothe his enemies with shame, but the crown he wears will be glorious.” Actually the Lord answers abundantly all that Solomon requests in this Psalm. There is the added promise of plentiful provisions and of bread for the poor. There is the promise that the priests will be clothed with salvation, not just with righteousness. There is the promise that the saints will shout aloud for joy. There is the promise that the enemies will be clothed with shame. The meaning of verse 17 is that in Jerusalem God will make a powerful King to come…
Daily Devotional 12-14-2021
Jer 1:17-19 CSB “Now, get ready. Stand up and tell them everything that I command you. Do not be intimidated by them or I will cause you to cower before them. (18) Today, I am the one who has made you a fortified city, an iron pillar, and bronze walls against the whole land—against the kings of Judah, its officials, its priests, and the population. (19) They will fight against you but never prevail over you, since I am with you to rescue you.” This is the LORD’s declaration. After explaining the task, God charged Jeremiah to take up the challenge. Get yourself ready! is literally, “gird up your loins”. God gave him the needed strength to stand against the people of Judah. Through God’s enablement Jeremiah would be as strong as a fortified city, an iron pillar, and a bronze wall. God’s strength to withstand attack would be needed…
Daily Devotional 12-9-2021
2Pe 3:9 CSB The Lord does not delay his promise, as some understand delay, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish but all to come to repentance. The Lord’s return seems to be so long in coming is that God wants as many people to be saved as possible. The Lord is not slow in keeping His promise. Again Peter gave a divine-human comparison. God’s so-called “tardiness” as viewed by some people (as some understand slowness) is only a delay with respect to their time schedules, not His. In fact God’s time schedule is modified by patience, a major attribute of the heavenly Father. The words not wanting anyone to perish do not express a decree, as if God has willed everyone to be saved. Universal salvation is not taught in the Bible. Instead those words describe God’s wishes or desires; He longs that all would be…
Daily Devotional 11-25-2021
Heb 11:17-19 NIV By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had embraced the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, (18) even though God had said to him, “It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.” (19) Abraham reasoned that God could even raise the dead, and so in a manner of speaking he did receive Isaac back from death. he theme of testing emerges here as the writer returned to Abraham. The readers can learn from that supreme test in which the patriarch was called on to sacrifice his… son. Though this seemed to contradict the divine promise, Abraham was able to rise above the trial and trust in the resurrecting power of God. So also Christian readers must sometimes look beyond the experiences of life, in which Gods promises do not seem to be fulfilled, and…
Daily Devotional 11-11-2021
Rom 9:16 So then, it does not depend on human will or effort but on God who shows mercy. The apostle now faces up to a serious theological problem. If God made promises to Israel as His chosen earthly people, how can this be squared with Israel’s present rejection and with the Gentiles being brought into the place of blessing? Paul insists that this does not indicate any breach of promise on God’s part. He goes on to show that God has always had a sovereign election process based upon promise and not just on lineal descent. Just because a person is born into the nation of Israel does not mean that he is an heir to the promises. Within the nation of Israel, God has a true, believing remnant.
Daily Devotional 11-7-2021
Heb 2:1 For this reason, we must pay attention all the more to what we have heard, so that we will not drift away. Paul pauses to inject the first of several solemn warnings that are found in the Epistle. This is a warning against drifting away from the message of the gospel. Because of the greatness of the Giver and because of the greatness of His gift, those who hear the gospel must give more serious attention to it. There is always the danger of drifting away from the Person and slipping back into a religion of pictures. This means drifting into apostasy—the sin for which there is no repentance.
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 10-14-2021
2Co 1:20 For every one of God’s promises is “Yes” in him. Therefore, through him we also say “Amen” to the glory of God. All the promises of God, no matter how many they are, find their fulfillment in Christ. All who find in Him the fulfillment of God’s promises add their Amen. Open our Bibles at a promise, we look up to God, and God says, “You can have all that through Christ.” Trusting Christ, we say, “Amen” to God. God speaks through Christ, and we believe in Christ; Christ reaches down and faith stretches up, and every promise of God is fulfilled in Jesus Christ. In and through Him we appropriate and take them to ourselves and say, “Yes, Lord; I trust You.” This is the believing yes. All of this is to the glory of God through us. He is glorified when it dawns on human souls…
Daily Devotional 09-08-2021
Rom 15:13 Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you believe so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. The description of God as the God of hope relates to hope in to the promises of God recorded in the Scripture which give hope. Paul desired God to fill his readers with all joy and peace. Joy relates to the delight of anticipation in seeing one’s hopes fulfilled. Peace results from the assurance that God will fulfill those hopes. These are experienced as believers trust in Him. As a result, believers overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. The achievement of all God’s purposes for the spiritual welfare of His children comes from the power given by the Spirit of God.
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…