Devotionals

Yesterday, we celebrated our national freedom knowing it costs a great deal to remain free. John F. Kennedy once said, “The cost of freedom is always high, but Americans have always paid it.” I am so proud of our C2C spiritual family for how we support our military and first responders who serve to preserve our freedom no matter what the cost.

In our passage today, Jesus has an encounter with two people who say they want to follow him and embrace his way of living. Certainly, Jesus welcomes these two people, but wants them to know there is a cost that may call for sacrifice of comfort, personal time, family, friendships, and pleasurable habits. To be a follower of Jesus requires loyalty to him as our highest priority.

Being a follower of Christ is not easy, but it is the most rewarding path of life. Our faith in Christ turns us away from selfish inclinations, to focus on the Father’s will and purpose for us. We live to please God; rather than live to please ourselves. So we are wise to count the cost of our commitment.

Matthew 8:18-22 NLT The Cost of Following Jesus
18 When Jesus saw the crowd around him, he instructed his disciples to cross to the other side of the lake.
19 Then one of the teachers of religious law said to him, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.”
20 But Jesus replied, “Foxes have dens to live in, and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place even to lay his head.”
21 Another of his disciples said, “Lord, first let me return home and bury my father.”
22 But Jesus told him, “Follow me now. Let the spiritually dead bury their own dead.

Prayer: Lord, thank you for being so honest with us as your children. We do not have to blindly enter into a relationship with you; we can know the truth right up front. You provide us a choice. Thank you for setting us free from the power and wages of sin and selfishness. Thank you for making us whole in your love. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Today, we celebrate Independence Day in America. We are such a blessed nation to have this beautiful freedom. Because of this blessing, the enemy works very hard to desensitize people to the value of freedom. It is our freedom that actually sets us apart from other nations. As one nation under God, we presently have rights and privileges other nations cannot even imagine.

We have the freedom to practice our faith—to worship the Lord God—and to pursue life, liberty and happiness, because we have constitutional laws that act as a shield to protect our freedoms. Wake up, brothers and sisters, and know God’s grace is the reason we are still free even though the enemy is trying to strip away what makes us victorious. We are saved by grace through faith; so the freedom to practice our faith is an immeasurable gift of coming under Christ’s authority (Eph 2:8-9)! Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord (Ps 33:12).

Our country is blessed because of God’s grace. We are to be obedient and good stewards of grace, because apart from Christ we are blind to the truth. When we are tempted to see salvation about our outward performance rather than believe everything rests upon the Lord and what he is doing for us on the inside, we are blinded to the greatest Truth.

Certainly, how we live our lives matters to God, because we are his representatives, but we can do nothing to save ourselves. Our position must be to receive what Jesus is doing inwardly to bring us greater liberty and freedom from sin and dead living; this is how we reflect the glory of God.

2 Corinthians 3:13-18 NLT 13 We are not like Moses, who put a veil over his face so the people of Israel would not see the glory, even though it was destined to fade away. 14 But the people’s minds were hardened, and to this day whenever the old covenant is being read, the same veil covers their minds so they cannot understand the truth. And this veil can be removed only by believing in Christ. 15 Yes, even today when they read Moses’ writings, their hearts are covered with that veil, and they do not understand.
16 But whenever someone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. 17 For the Lord is the Spirit, and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 18 So all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord—who is the Spirit—makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image.

Prayer: Lord, thank you for removing the veil that tries to cover our minds. Please bring clarity to your children; awaken our souls to the truth and renew our minds and help us understand the power of obedience to your Word. Continue to make us more like you, Jesus, because then we will be living more closely to your authority as our King. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Prayer is a beautiful gift from God. Our faith grows through prayer. We appropriate grace through prayer. We learn to become more dependent upon God with each prayer we utter, because we are acknowledging our inability to meet the need we bring to God. With so much going on in the world that challenges genuine faith, we must pray without ceasing and expect to see the goodness of God triumphing over evil.

In our passage today from Mark’s gospel, several things stand out for me: 1) The argument over the prevailing power of evil; 2) People trying to decide what Jesus can do to evil; and 3) The authority of Jesus to take command over evil—the demon. Evil will always overpower unredeemed humanity. But believers do not need to face the same fate. Faith will call us to pray and grace will provide what we need to successfully serve God. As children—sons and daughters—of the Lord, we are as powerful as our faith in Christ love for us. Evil is powerless when, by faith, Jesus is Lord of the heart!

Mark 9:14-29 NLT Jesus Heals a Demon-Possessed Boy
14 When they returned to the other disciples, they saw a large crowd surrounding them, and some teachers of religious law were arguing with them. 15 When the crowd saw Jesus, they were overwhelmed with awe, and they ran to greet him.
16 “What is all this arguing about?” Jesus asked.

17 One of the men in the crowd spoke up and said, “Teacher, I brought my son so you could heal him. He is possessed by an evil spirit that won’t let him talk. 18 And whenever this spirit seizes him, it throws him violently to the ground. Then he foams at the mouth and grinds his teeth and becomes rigid. So I asked your disciples to cast out the evil spirit, but they couldn’t do it.”

19 Jesus said to them, “You faithless people! How long must I be with you? How long must I put up with you? Bring the boy to me.”

20 So they brought the boy. But when the evil spirit saw Jesus, it threw the child into a violent convulsion, and he fell to the ground, writhing and foaming at the mouth.
21 “How long has this been happening?” Jesus asked the boy’s father.

He replied, “Since he was a little boy. 22 The spirit often throws him into the fire or into water, trying to kill him. Have mercy on us and help us, if you can.”
23 “What do you mean, ‘If I can’?” Jesus asked. “Anything is possible if a person believes.”
24 The father instantly cried out, “I do believe, but help me overcome my unbelief!”

25 When Jesus saw that the crowd of onlookers was growing, he rebuked the evil spirit. “Listen, you spirit that makes this boy unable to hear and speak,” he said. “I command you to come out of this child and never enter him again!”

26 Then the spirit screamed and threw the boy into another violent convulsion and left him. The boy appeared to be dead. A murmur ran through the crowd as people said, “He’s dead.” 27 But Jesus took him by the hand and helped him to his feet, and he stood up.

28 Afterward, when Jesus was alone in the house with his disciples, they asked him, “Why couldn’t we cast out that evil spirit?”
29 Jesus replied, “This kind can be cast out only by prayer.”

Prayer: Lord thank you for this amazing lesson, today, about the power of faith, prayer, and grace for our victory against evil. Overwhelming victory is ours because we are loved by Jesus the all-powerful Anointed One. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

As we invest the time to study scripture, we learn about God, as well as ourselves. The more we learn, the less trouble we have understanding the immense gap between humanity’s sin-filled lives and God’s pure undefiled holy presence. The Word of God points to the fact that if God did not move to rescue and save us, we would never be able to connect to him and his love. Gaining eternal life with God would be hopeless.

On Sunday, I took a few minutes to share from Mark’s gospel about the woman with the issue of blood (Mark 5:25-34). She experienced separation from worshiping God in the Temple, as well as forbidden to enjoy her home or her relationship with her family and friends. Because of the law of purity she could not be with them as her bleeding issue never stopped; she lost everything that made life worth living due to her affliction. After twelve years of dealing with this infirmity there are no more resources. She remains powerless to heal herself. Doctors remain powerless to heal her. But when she reaches out to touch the hem of Jesus’ garment, it cures her affliction and changes everything involving her life. Her blood is no longer an issue. The purity of Jesus has filled her.

When we look at this lesson from the gospel of Mark through the lens of the Old Testament book of Leviticus, we are quickly made aware of the law that brought this discouraged and desperate woman to Jesus. She knew it would take a supernatural work of salvation to restore her life. And, that is what Jesus did for her.
Sin against God’s purity is humanity’s affliction and no one but Jesus can heal us and bridge the gap with Father God. We need the blood of Jesus to cover us and his purity to fill us. Amazing Grace from our Compassionate Lord!

Leviticus 15:25-30 NLT 25 “If a woman has a flow of blood for many days that is unrelated to her menstrual period, or if the blood continues beyond the normal period, she is ceremonially unclean. As during her menstrual period, the woman will be unclean as long as the discharge continues. 26 Any bed she lies on and any object she sits on during that time will be unclean, just as during her normal menstrual period. 27 If any of you touch these things, you will be ceremonially unclean. You must wash your clothes and bathe yourself in water, and you will remain unclean until evening.

28 “When the woman’s bleeding stops, she must count off seven days. Then she will be ceremonially clean. 29 On the eighth day she must bring two turtledoves or two young pigeons and present them to the priest at the entrance of the Tabernacle. 30 The priest will offer one for a sin offering and the other for a burnt offering. Through this process, the priest will purify her before the Lord for the ceremonial impurity caused by her bleeding.

Prayer: Lord, thank you for being the change in our blood DNA. Now, believers are covered by the blood of Messiah. We can enjoy life with you and live with the promised hope of heaven. Thank you, Lord! In Jesus’ name. Amen.

King David’s “Song of Praise” is a song to the Lord about the day the Lord rescued him from all of his enemies (who are controlled by the sin and darkness of this world) and from Saul, his father-in-law who sought to kill him (more sin and darkness of this world). This “Song of Praise” can be found in 2 Samuel 22 and in Psalm 18. Today, we are focusing on the first six verses of Psalm 18.

Like many of my brothers and sisters in Christ, I pray with and for people every single day. Last week a dear friend said, “I am praying for strength because Lord I am on the verge of crumbling and falling apart right now”. I am not going to lie; this friend’s circumstances are extremely difficult. Each one of us can think of extremely difficult circumstances that we have had to walk through, or we are walking through right now, and if we are being completely honest, we know that we will walk through more in the future.

But, friends, we must not allow our circumstances to determine our faith or the goodness of God, rather, our faith must rest in the goodness of God, and we must trust our circumstances to Him. David helps us to understand why we do this.

Remember, David walked through many difficult circumstances, adultery, leadership of the most powerful nation in the region of the most rebellious people, death, his own son tried to kill him for power, and the list goes on and on; but, regardless of each difficult circumstance, David still said:

Lord You are my strength – friends, when you and I feel weary and weak, we must press into our faith and remember that God never gets tired, and He is our strength at all times.

Lord You are my rock – we must stand firmly on the One Who is the Rock of our salvation, Jesus, and cry out to Him when we feel like everything is falling apart around us, because He is our only firm and unchanging place of Truth, and He wants to help us. God hears our prayers! Remember, He is omnipresent, everywhere at all times. He wants to help us.

Lord You are my safe place – Jesus is our safe place, His Word lives within each of us, and it never changes. We are the ones who either physically, emotionally, mentally, and/or spiritually change or wonder into unsafe places, but Jesus was, is, and will always be our safe place of rest and restoration. Cry out to Him for help. He is our safe covering and our strong tower!

Place your faith and trust in God for every circumstance. Because one thing is certain, while our circumstances will continue to change, our God is our only stable and unchanging place of pure love. Believe that God will use all things for Your good (even the hardest circumstances) because He loves you for all eternity, and He wants to use our hardest circumstances to help others.

Psalm 18:1-6 (NLV)

Song of Thanks for Being Kept Safe

1 I love You, O Lord, my strength. 2 The Lord is my rock, and my safe place, and the One Who takes me out of trouble. My God is my rock, in Whom I am safe. He is my safe covering, my saving strength, and my strong tower. 3 I call to the Lord, Who has the right to be praised. And I am saved from those who hate me.

4 The ropes of death were all around me. The floods of death make me afraid. 5 The ropes of the grave were all around me. The traps of death were set for me. 6 I called to the Lord in my trouble. I cried to God for help. He heard my voice from His holy house. My cry for help came into His ears.

Prayer: Lord, thank You for being our strength, for giving us Jesus, Who is our Rock, and for allowing us to call on the Holy Spirit to lovingly guide us. Thank You for hearing our prayers and for being with us at all times, especially during difficult times. We love You, Jesus. Amen.

If there is one thing that I am very concerned about in all areas of life is the idea of safety.  I believe that safety and protection is what is currently lacking within the church.  We have seen and heard in the news about the different shootings that take place all across the country: in schools, in malls, in public areas, and even within the local churches and synagogues.  It is absolutely horrific.  People are so genuinely concerned about safety.  There are some people who are afraid to step out side of their house because they fear that they are not safe.  

While people talk about safety in the physical world, people don’t or rarely think about their spiritual safety.  A lot of times, we are in a position where we are in spiritual danger.  It is in those moments where the enemy will sneak right in and attack.  In today’s passage, the psalmist David is describing how God is our refuge during times of stress.  Here’s a truth nugget for us: God is always going to be there for us no matter what.  He will make us feel spiritually safe when we are feeling unsettled.  

Challenge

Let’s always turn to Him.  When we are feeling at our lowest, He is there to lift us up.  Always remember to turn to your refuge in Him rather than turning to other things.  

Prayer

Thank you for all that You do for us.  Continue to reveal things that need to be revealed.  Give us strength and wisdom to make it through our day.  Help us to not be spiritually blind by the things of this world.  We known that the enemy is the author of confusion and will do everything he can to keep us away from You.  Help us to be strong and to resist him.  Help us to be prepared.  No matter what takes place in our lives, thank you for loving us unconditionally.  Help us to go to You during times of chaos and confusion.  Strengthen us and help us to be stronger than what this world has to offer.  In Jesus name, amen.  

Psalm 16

“1. Keep me safe, O God, for I have come to you for refuge. 2. I said to the Lord, “You are my Master! Every good thing I have comes from you.” 3. The godly people in the land are my true heroes! I take pleasure in them! 4. Troubles multiply for those who chase after other gods. I will not take part in their sacrifices of blood or even speak the names of their gods. 5. Lord, you alone are my inheritance, my cup of blessing. You guard all that is mine. 6. The land you have given me is a pleasant land. What a wonderful inheritance! 7. I will bless the Lord who guides me; even at night my heart instructs me. 8. I know the Lord is always with me. I will not be shaken, for he is right beside me. 9. No wonder my heart is glad, and I rejoice. My body rests in safety. 10. For you will not leave my soul among the dead or allow your holy one to rot in the grave. 11. You will show me the way of life, granting me the joy of your presence and the pleasures of living with you forever.”

Have you noticed that people are always searching for something?  Whether they are looking for something specific like finding something in their local grocery store or looking for a new pair of shoes (even though they may have over 100 pairs of shoes) but I digress.  While people are looking for something specific, have you thought that there are individuals who are looking for someone?  People are looking for other people.  For instance, the men and women who serve in law enforcement look to bring people to justice for their crimes.  In the political arena, people are looking for each other to have meetings and different things of that nature.  In the spiritual world, people are looking for some kind of deity who can help them when they need him.  Christians are constantly looking for God and seeking after Him.  

In today’s passage, the psalmist Asaph is writing this psalm to explain how he cries out to the Lord.  How many times have we been in that same boat?  Even during our day to day life, we still have moments where we are calling out to Him.  In verse 2, he says that he was searching for the Lord when he was in deep trouble.  While he has his hands lifted up towards heaven, his soul was not comforted.  Perhaps he wasn’t comforted because he didn’t find Him instantly.  The truth of the matter is that God is always comforting His children.  Since we are citizens of heaven (Philippians 3:20), He truly comforts His children.  Here’s another truth: God is always listening.  In verse 1, Asaph mentions that he shouts out to God hoping that He would hear him.  He is always listening to Him.  He is always there listening to us.  Because of this assurance, we can always go boldly before the throne of God (Hebrews 4:16).  

I challenge you to never doubt God.  While we may think that He is not listening, He is there.  We cannot be microwave Christians and expect to receive blessings from Him on our time.  That’s not how He operates.  Dr Tony Evans once said, “You can ask God questions but don’t question God.”  In other words, don’t question His methods.  He knows what He’s doing.  All we need to do is trust Him and place our faith in Him.  

Dear Heavenly Father, 

Thank You for always listening to us.  We know that we go through different phases and different seasons of our lives and sometimes we would begin to doubt, but help us to remove those thoughts of doubting You.  You have given us the assurance time and time again that You are always there for us.  Help that assurance resonate within us and let us come boldly before You without any hesitation or fear.  In Jesus name, amen

If there is one thing that people in today’s world like to do is to complain.  People complain about a whole lot of stuff.  Whether it is about the food that they eat, the service that they received, their favorite sports team losing the game, their political beliefs and view points are being attacked, or anything else of that nature, people just want to find a reason to complain.  Majority of the time, people complain about the big things as well as the small things.  I remember being in high school and my peers would start complaining about everything.  It was remember hearing that and thinking to myself that there’s more to life than always complaining.  The apostle Paul writes in Philippians 2:14 where it says to do all things without complaining or grumbling.  So, throughout high school and I would hear classmates complain.  I told them to look up Philippians 2:14.  When they asked me about what that verse meant, I told them to simply look it up.  Then they understood.  

How often do we complain?  Sometimes we complain about events and people.  There are occasions where we would complain about God or to God.  God can’t give us things that we cannot handle.  We need to understand that because He loves us unconditionally.  In today’s passage from Psalm 64, we see that David is writing out a prayer to God asking Him to hear his complaint (verse 1).  He is talking about how others around him were saying bitter words and attacking very fearlessly.  The enemies have been plotting and attacking with their words and different things of that nature.  He is assuring the people that God will fight back against the enemy.  Not only will He fight but the people of God will find shelter in Him (verse 10).   I want to ask this question: are you in the shelter of the Lord?  I pray that we, as the people of God, should always find shelter in His wings (Psalm 91:4).  

Prayer

Dear Heavenly Father, 

Thank you for always having our best interest at heart.  Father, we know that this life is very challenging and can have different seasons.  We ask that You will help us to not complain about different things when they begin to surface.  Help us to pray to You rather than complain.  Help us to change the way we think when it comes to the different seasons we experience.  No matter what happens, continue to remind us that You have our best interest and You know what we need rather than telling You what we want.  Thank You Father for loving us unconditionally.  

In Jesus name, amen

Psalm 64

“1.  O God, listen to my complaint.  Protect my life from my enemies’ threats.  2. Hide me from the plots of this evil mob, from this gang of wrongdoers.  3. They sharpen their tongues like swords and aim their bitter words like arrows.  4. They shoot from ambush at the innocent, attacking suddenly and fearlessly.  5. They encourage each other to do evil and plan how to set their traps in secret.  “Who will ever notice?” they ask.  6. As they plot their crimes, they say, “We have devised the perfect plan!”  Yes, the human heart and mind are cunning.  7. But God himself will shoot them with his arrows, suddenly striking them down.  8. Their own tongues will ruin them, and all who see them will shake their heads and scorn.  9. Then everyone will be afraid; they will proclaim the mighty acts of God and realize all the amazing things he does.  10. The godly will rejoice in the Lord and find shelter in him.  And those who do what is right will praise him.”  

If there is one thing that this world needs in this world today, it is peace.  Too often, we get caught up in the hustle and bustle of the stress of what is going on in the world that we are missing out on the peace of God.  When we get stressed, our minds are focused elsewhere and we are in the state of fight vs flight.  In other words, people would either fight the situation or avoid the situation.  Let me put it in another way: in majority or all of the IKEA stores, there are shortcuts or a faster ways to see the inventory.  People would go through those shortcuts to bypass some of the busier areas of the store.  How often do we do that in life?  Do we take shortcuts?  

As mentioned earlier, we definitely need to have peace take over our lives.  In today’s passage from Ephesians 2:11-22. The apostle Paul is talking about the idea of oneness and peace of Christ.  In verses 13-14, it says “13. But now you have been united with Christ Jesus.  Once you were far away from God, but now you have been brought near to him through the blood of Christ.  14. For Christ himself has brought peace to us.  He united Jews and Gentiles into one people when, in his own body on the cross, he broke down the wall of hostility that separated us.”  It is because of Jesus that we have the peace.  It is because of Jesus that we have been made united with Him.  One of the many things that this world today is focused on is hostility.  In other words, they want to bring division and chaos.  In verse 14, Paul says that when Jesus died on the cross, He broke down the wall of hostility.  Other translations would say that Christ broke the “dividing wall” (NASB Translation).  We need to remind ourselves that Jesus is going to break the wall of labelism and grouping.  He brings people together, Jews and Gentile, regardless of what differences we may have.  We have all been made one in Christ Jesus (Galatians 3:28).  

Dear Heavenly Father, 

I thank You for all you do.  Thank You for continuing to show us Your love and grace to us.  Help us to not take shortcuts in life.  When we feel like we are in a jam or don’t know what to do, help us to fix our eyes on You.  You know what is best for us and show us what You have for us rather than following our own plans.  For we know that this battle is not ours, but Yours (2 Chronicles 20:15).  Help us and strengthen us so that not only we can make it through the day but also through our everyday lives.  

In Jesus name, Amen

Some of you may know this, but as a reminder, Psalm 119 contains 176 verses, and the chapter is divided into 22 stanzas. Each stanza is titled with a letter from the Hebrew alphabet. Today we are digging into the Truth of the fifteenth stanza which is titled with the fifteenth letter of the Hebrew alphabet, Samekh, meaning to lean upon, to uphold, or to support.

In today’s passage, we can clearly see that the psalmist understands his great need for God’s support. He is so focused on lovingly obeying and honoring God by upholding His Truth (God’s Word), that he hates when individuals are divided in their loyalty between God and this world.

At first, it might seem ungodly or unloving for the psalmist to use the word “hate”, however, the psalmist is not saying that he does not love individuals who are different from him or who do not know God, he is stating that he hates those who choose to be double-minded because he loves God’s Word and understands that by choosing God, he must deny this world. The psalmist will not allow anyone to stand in the way of his devout love for God, he knows he needs the support of the indwelling Spirit of Christ (the Holy Spirit) as he endures this world and upholds his faith. The Apostle James gives us clear instructions on faithful endurance. He tells us that we need God’s wisdom, and you and I get that when we ask the Holy Spirit for divide guidance and support. “But when you ask Him, be sure that your faith is in God alone. Do not waver, for a person with divided loyalty is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is blown and tossed by the wind. Such people should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. Their loyalty is divided between God and the world, and they are unstable in everything they do.” (v. 6 – 8)

Friends, we cannot be double-minded, we must place our loyalty in Christ Jesus, alone! We cannot choose God and this world; it doesn’t work that way. By choosing both, we are standing against God. Dig deep into His Word, share it with others, and reject Satan.

Psalm 119:113-128 (NLT)

Samekh

113 I hate those with divided loyalties,
but I love your instructions.
114 You are my refuge and my shield;
your word is my source of hope.
115 Get out of my life, you evil-minded people,
for I intend to obey the commands of my God.
116 Lord, sustain me as you promised, that I may live!
Do not let my hope be crushed.
117 Sustain me, and I will be rescued;
then I will meditate continually on your decrees.
118 But you have rejected all who stray from your decrees.
They are only fooling themselves.
119 You skim off the wicked of the earth like scum;
no wonder I love to obey your laws!
120 I tremble in fear of you;
I stand in awe of your regulations.

Prayer: Jesus, thank You for imparting Your Spirit within us. We need Your wisdom to guide us. Help us to press deeper into Your Word, every single day, to grow closer and closer to you and further and further away from this world. Forgive us when we’ve waivered, we do not want to be divided in our loyalty, we want to be firmly planted on You and our roots to grow deeper and deeper into Your Truth. We ask all of this in Your Name, Jesus. Amen.