Devotionals

Intro: This past Wednesday evening during our Chosen Bible Study, we watched a video about meekness—defined as controlled strength under pressure. Meekness is the inner attitude of the heart—of our mind/will/emotions—which expresses itself outwardly as strong, active, courageous, restrained and never self-aggrandizing. Evil and sin will always arrive to disrupt our meekness, because Satan wants to move us away from a posture of humility, trust, forgiveness, and a fear of the Lord.

In our passage from Luke today, Jesus is teaching about perpetuating evil—those who encourage others to sin against God. Certainly, we all sin and fall short of Christ’s glorious standard; sin is the spiritual malady of the human heart that seeks to live without the fear of the Lord. We all need to take a meek position with each other. The temptation to sin against God, others, or ourselves will exist until Jesus returns; so, forgiveness is essential.

When someone is living with the spiritual illness of the heart, he or she tends to want others to join him or her in that sickness. Misery loves company and many times Jesus addresses the Pharisees about how they are leading God’s people to join them in their spiritual malady rather than living to please God. For this reason, Jesus casts a very vivid picture of what will happen to those who are given spiritual authority but mislead God’s family away from the truth. Sorrow awaits.

So, let’s just think for a moment about how our faith must lead us toward forgiveness, because we are commanded to forgive. In the Body of Christ, we will need to forgive one another over and over again. That means we must be quick to repent, apologize, and recognize our own sin before fixating on the sin of others. So, before we get upset with a fellow brother or sister in Christ and try to point out their sin, let’s make sure our action is based on meekness and our purpose is to restore another in relationship to God.

Luke 17:1-4 NLT Teachings about Forgiveness and Faith
1 One day Jesus said to his disciples, “There will always be temptations to sin, but what sorrow awaits the person who does the tempting! 2 It would be better to be thrown into the sea with a millstone hung around your neck than to cause one of these little ones to fall into sin. 3 So watch yourselves!

“If another believer sins, rebuke that person; then if there is repentance, forgive. 4 Even if that person wrongs you seven times a day and each time turns again and asks forgiveness, you must forgive.”

Prayer: Lord, thank you for this lesson on meekness. Help your children to be bathed in quiet strength and to have the right attitude about our personal sin, as well as the sin of others. Sin is wrong and we must help one another rise above it. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Intro: The other day I witnessed the most beautiful sunset and what rose up in my heart was the amazing power of God to create, maintain order, and sustain all of nature. Oh, and beyond that piece of truth, I felt the assurance this same wonderful God occupies my heart, your heart, and all of genuine life is found in him. So, it was with great joy that I praised him for the love that fills my life with amazing experiences and wonderful family and friends! Watching this sunset became an inspiring place of worship.

In our passage today, we learn the same power that reveals the light of God’s glorious presence in nature—all of creation—and keeps it in order is the same God who protects the lives of his children and makes us strong. Some days we may feel weak and unable to bear the darkness that presses in, but we must look beyond our limits to see the God of perfect love who knows no darkness or limits. His grace is sufficient and his strength is made perfect in our weakness (2 Cor 12:8-10).

In our weakness, God is strong; this is the beauty of God’s favor and salvation in Christ. We can know the power of the Creator who is our personal Hero; Christ prevails in strength and power to lead us forward into abundant life in his glorious and shining character. If we never find ourselves “unable,” we will never know the One by faith who says, “I AM!”

Psalm 89:15-18 NLT
15
How happy are those who have learned how to praise You;
    those who journey through life by the light of Your face.
16 
Every hour of the day, they rejoice at the sound of Your name.
    They are lifted up and encouraged by Your righteousness.
17 
For You are the beauty of their strength.
    On account of Your favor, our strength, our horn [power], is increased.
18 
For our shield of protection comes from the Eternal,
    and the Holy One of Israel has given us our king.

Prayer: Lord, thank you for placing your beautiful glory before us each day. In spite of the darkness, we see your shinning perfection and experience your strong protection. Continue to be our shield, Lord. In Jesus’ name Amen.

Intro: According to Merriam-Webster, favor involves gracious kindness. However, the biblical definition of favor is a bit different: a “demonstrated delight” which reveals the faithful outpouring of love and blessing from the Lord. God’s favor is connected to grace and we are encouraged to seek the Lord’s favor, because it ushers us into his glorious presence. In God’s presence we can enjoy security, wisdom, righteousness, and the fullness of joy (Ps 16:11). For this reason, God commands us to love him wholeheartedly; he wants to shower us with favor. What do you think your day-to-day experience would be like if you positioned everything in your life around loving God wholeheartedly?

Today, we continue our passage from Psalm 86. David finally shares about how he is affected by negative, hateful, and arrogant people. We can probably all testify to the influence of negativity; it’s all around if we look closely. However, believers are not to focus on negativity because God does not inhabit it. Instead, we are to seek the Kingdom of God and his way of being favored and righteous, then everything else we need to enjoy more of life in God’s presence will be given to us.

It sounds to me like wisdom is leading us to a new way of handling negativity. We are to focus on the glorious character of God: his compassion, mercy, patience, love, and loyalty. These are the ways God demonstrates his delight for us. Believers are to be looking for God’s character in action as a sign of his presence with us. That means we should actually be looking for God’s character on display through the support of our families, friends, and fellow worshipers, because we are focused on growing in righteousness. Ponder this thought, today: What if God allows us to experience negativity in others, so instead of participating in that darkness we choose to release righteousness as a sign of God’s favor operating in our lives?

Psalm 86:14-17 NLT
14 
O God, insolent people rise up against me;
    a violent gang is trying to kill me.
    You mean nothing to them.
15 
But you, O Lord,
    are a God of compassion and mercy,
slow to get angry
    and filled with unfailing love and faithfulness.
16 
Look down and have mercy on me.
    Give your strength to your servant;
    save me, the son of your servant.
17 
Send me a sign of your favor.
    Then those who hate me will be put to shame,
    for you, O Lord, help and comfort me.

Prayer: Lord, thank you for sending us signs every day of your beautiful favor and character. If we look carefully, we will see your demonstration of delight for us as your children. Not every person we meet will understand the joy we experience; but maybe our joy will positively influence the negativity others are tempted to unleash. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Intro: According to Scripture, purity of heart is necessary when connecting to God. I am reminded in the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus spends time talking about inner purity, because the Pharisees talk a lot about God, but Jesus tells them they actually violate the direct commands from God for honoring their parents. Jesus tells these religious leaders without purity of heart they are cancelling the Word of God for the sake of their own selfish ways. Jesus uses a quote from Isaiah to challenge the Pharisees, “These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me” (Mat 15:8). Ouch! This is certainly an example of how the Word comes to bring correction (2 Tim 3:16).

The word heart in Hebrew is lev or levav [sounds like: labe] and, in Scripture, most often refers to the inner life [mind/will/emotions] of a person rather than the physical organ. The lev is the core of one’s being from which a person gains direction for his or her life. This word is used more than 800 times in the Old Testament alone. Solomon teaches, “Guard your heart [lev] above all else, for it determines the course of your life” (Pro 4:23). The lev is the first part of us that lives and is the seat of our spiritual lives. Human beings must guard the heart; otherwise, it can easily become the possession of Satan. If our lev is not reborn from above through Christ, we will live for selfish endeavors—committed only to ourselves which of course leads to destruction. Only a pure lev produces righteous fruit; because Jesus comes to be enthroned in human hearts. “God blesses those whose hearts are pure, for they will see God” (Mat 5:8).

In our passage today, David sings a prayer and asks God to give him a pure heart [lev]. David is facing some very distressful situations, but instead of asking God to change the tangible things, he prays and asks God to first change his heart. Once he finishes that portion of the prayer, David moves on to confess his brokenness in this temporal life (we will look at the continuation of David’s song tomorrow). No wonder David is referred to in Scripture as a man after God’s heart. That prayer demonstrates a godly desire for the purity of heart only God can provide.

The issues we are facing in our culture and world are certainly distressful, but these issues are manifestations of unredeemed hearts. Satan is the deceiver and influencer and he will run to take dominion of unguarded hearts. God’s commands are to be upon our lev and only Jesus can fulfill them (Due 6:6). Today, I pray for more human hearts to reach for the only One who can bring inner purity—because people who desire purity of heart will continue to leave God’s mark on this rebellious or sinful world.

Psalm 86:11-17
11
Teach me your ways, O Lord,
    that I may live according to your truth!
Grant me purity of heart,
    so that I may honor you.
12 
With all my heart I will praise you, O Lord my God.
    I will give glory to your name forever,
13 
for your love for me is very great.
    You have rescued me from the depths of death.

Prayer: Lord, please help us guard our hearts. May we refuse to let down our guard for even a moment, because we desire to see you operate in our lives. Grant us purity of heart in Jesus’ name. Amen.

We know that the Book of Revelation is a heavenly vision, that God gave to John, of events that are still to come. In today’s passage, John is instructed to write the first of seven letters to seven churches. This letter is “The Message to the Church in Ephesus”.

John addresses the angel who functions as the representative of the church, to remind the church of their heavenly existence. Friends, you and I are the church; and we are so blessed that our Pastor, Mary Haley, reminds us often that we are first and foremost spirit beings, who are temporarily here on earth in these bodies, but God calls us to lovingly operate with the growing understanding that we are living for His heavenly promise of eternity with Him now. That means that you and I need to speak and act as those we are in heaven, with Jesus, at all times. Jesus is the “One” who walks among the church or the gold lampstands, and He knows each of our hearts because He created each one. As our Creator, He not only wants to fellowship with us, but He wants us to remember that He is our first love.

Jesus is reminding the Ephesians, as well as you and me, of who we are as His followers and how our relationship with Him is the most crucial piece of our existence up until our very last earthly breath. We are not to grow weary. Rather, we need to be in His Word daily, gathering with His Family (fellow believers) all of the time, going to worship Him, attending Bible Study to learn more about Him, going out and being His hands, feet, and heart to others, praying, praying, and never stop praying because we are communing with Him. Let’s face it, you and I will find ways to get out of all of these things, and that’s because the enemy wants nothing more than to distance us from Jesus and His Family (which is our Family). Don’t let the devil speak lies to you, get up and be with Jesus and His (your) Family today and every subsequent day of the rest of your earthly life.

Revelation 2:1-7 NLT
The Message to the Church in Ephesus

1 “Write this letter to the angel of the church in Ephesus. This is the message from the one who holds the seven stars in his right hand, the one who walks among the seven gold lampstands:

2 “I know all the things you do. I have seen your hard work and your patient endurance. I know you don’t tolerate evil people. You have examined the claims of those who say they are apostles but are not. You have discovered they are liars. 3 You have patiently suffered for me without quitting.

4 “But I have this complaint against you. You don’t love me or each other as you did at first! 5 Look how far you have fallen! Turn back to me and do the works you did at first. If you don’t repent, I will come and remove your lampstand from its place among the churches. 6 But this is in your favor: You hate the evil deeds of the Nicolaitans, just as I do.

7 “Anyone with ears to hear must listen to the Spirit and understand what he is saying to the churches. To everyone who is victorious I will give fruit from the tree of life in the paradise of God.

Prayer: Jesus, thank You for this letter because it is for me and all fellow believers. You are my first love, and please forgive me when I have stepped aside or away from You and allowed other things, circumstances and/or people to take priority over You. I want to keep growing in my relationship with You. I want to continue to help to grow Your heavenly kingdom. Holy Spirit, please fill me with Your strength, the strength I need for today. Guide me with heavenly wisdom to do what it is You need for me to do today. Help me to rest tonight in Your peace and to wake tomorrow with renewed hope, faith, and joy, covered in Your grace, to do what You’ll need for me to do. For now, I am Your vessel to do with what You need for the kingdom of God today. I ask all of this in Your Holy and Precious Name, Jesus. Amen.

Last week, we started looking at different preachers and evangelists starting with Dwight Moody.  With this intention still in mind, I want to still continue looking and examining at these individuals who have made a name for themselves when it comes to evangelism.  This week, we are going to look at a man named Ira David Sankey (1840-1908).  One interesting thing about Sankey is that he wasn’t always an evangelist.  While he was born of a prominent state senator, banker, editor, and even a member of the Internal Revenue Service collection staff under the presidency of Abraham Lincoln, Sankey was a soldier fighting in the Civil War for the Union Army from 1860 to 1862).  After his time serving in the army, he started to work in the IRS as an agent.  In 1871, Sankey began his ministry career as a singing evangelist.  What?  A singing evangelist?  Indeed he was.  He served alongside Dwight Moody for more than 30 years.  Moody picked Sankey as a song leader when they attended a convention up at the Indianapolis YMCA in 1871.  Since then, they have served within evangelism.  He is commonly referred as the “father of gospel music.”  (Sorry Elvis).  When these two men teamed up, they became the first ever evangelistic preacher-singer team.  They traveled all over the world, including the two years that Moody spent in Great Britain as part of the Moody Crusades.  In the late 1870s, a new genre of music, known as the gospel song or gospel hymn, came into play.  Since then, there have been a wide variety of artists have dipped their feet into the gospel music arena such as Elvis Presley, Carrie Underwood, Alan Jackson, Randy Travis, Josh Turner, and a whole lot more.  

Challenge 

I want to challenge you to think about what it means to step out in faith.  Not too long ago, I spoke about this idea during my sermon “Step Out of the World, Step into His Word” referring from Matthew 14:22-33.  In the Great Commission in Matthew 28, Jesus tells us to go into the world and make disciples of all nations as well as baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  So, He is telling us to step out of the boat of familiarity and comfort and step into the direction and obedience of Christ.  He is the one who will provide for us, not the world nor the things of this world.  Ask yourself: Am I staying in the boat or am I stepping out of it? 

Prayer

Heavenly Father, I pray for Your continuous strength and wisdom as we continue to do the things that You have called us to.  As we grow Your Kingdom, let us not be ashamed of it.  Instead, let us embrace it and let Your word shine before others so that the darkness will flee and Your light will shine through.  In Jesus name I pray, amen.  

Intro: Luke’s writings in the Book of Acts picks up—with life in the Spirit—where the Gospels [highlighting Christ’s life, death, and resurrection] leave off. Luke shares about the establishment and the expansion of the Church—believers and lovers of God through Christ. Because of the power of the Spirit released to these believers, they must learn to obey Christ as their Supreme authority and live for his redemptive purposes (Mat 28:18-20). This was true for the early Church and it is true for us as God’s children led by the Spirit, today. No matter what the world or religious organizations proclaim to be acceptable to God, our obedience to Christ—the Living Word of Truth—must be the foundation for the decisions and obedience that guides our lives.

In our passage this morning, the apostle’s passionate proclamation of the Gospel provokes the religious counsel members [powerful and wealthy Sadducees who are in control of the Temple] to take action against them. The Sadducees do not believe in the resurrection or want to hear anything that would diminish their authority over the people, so they rise up to silence and destroy God’s messengers of Truth.

The Sadducees demand respect and honor for their teaching and authority, but due to their sin of omission [failure to honor Christ], they do not receive what they expect. These religious leaders are driven by jealousy and greed. The honor the apostles give to God, the religious leaders want for themselves. Therefore, these leaders have the apostles arrested by the Temple guards and placed in jail.

However, just as Jesus promised, persecution does bring blessings and an opportunity to conform more closely to the life and character of Jesus. God’s purpose will always prevail and we see how God sends his angels to dispense grace in order to rescue and release his Christlike apostles from jail. As well, the Spirit sends these apostles back to the Temple to courageously continue sharing the message of Christ, so they obey. It would have been tempting to run away rather than to return to the Temple again to proclaim an unwelcome Truth, wouldn’t it? May we boldly proclaim what Christ has placed in our hearts, today!

Acts 5:17-26 NLT The Apostles Meet Opposition
17 The high priest and his officials, who were Sadducees, were filled with jealousy. 18 They arrested the apostles and put them in the public jail. 19 But an angel of the Lord came at night, opened the gates of the jail, and brought them out. Then he told them, 20 “Go to the Temple and give the people this message of life!”
21 So at daybreak the apostles entered the Temple, as they were told, and immediately began teaching.

When the high priest and his officials arrived, they convened the high council[a]—the full assembly of the elders of Israel. Then they sent for the apostles to be brought from the jail for trial. 22 But when the Temple guards went to the jail, the men were gone. So they returned to the council and reported, 23 “The jail was securely locked, with the guards standing outside, but when we opened the gates, no one was there!”

24 When the captain of the Temple guard and the leading priests heard this, they were perplexed, wondering where it would all end. 25 Then someone arrived with startling news: “The men you put in jail are standing in the Temple, teaching the people!”

26 The captain went with his Temple guards and arrested the apostles, but without violence, for they were afraid the people would stone them.

Prayer: Lord, thank you for the courage we gain from reading about your apostles and how bravely they faced religious persecution. Whatever difficulties we may face, please help us to persevere and allow it to make us more like Jesus. As well, help us to be vocal with our convictions and be ready to give the reason we bow to the authority of the Living Word. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Intro: You and I—all humanity—are deeply and sacrificially loved by a Holy God. It is hard for us to comprehend God’s deep and sacrificial love for us, because we are so unworthy of it. However, in spite of our inconsistencies to live righteously for our Holy God, believers are given mercy and love in Christ while we learn obedience. God loves his fallen human creation and continues to provide a way in Christ for redeeming us.

When Jesus—the Righteous One—descended to earth, he identified with humanity to become a little lower than the angels. Through the sinless life and death of Christ—a supreme act of grace—all things are now accountable to him as the Head and one day, as his redeemed Church, we will rule and reign with him.
In our passage today, the writer of Hebrews quotes Psalm 8 when he speaks of the position God originally gave to human beings. We failed to take the proper dominion over sin, but Jesus did not. Jesus is the Head who represents humanity for the honor and glory of the Father—he is the Anointed One.

So, the promise has been given to us—one day we will rule and reign with Christ. Yet, until he returns for his Church, we presently must endure a variety of difficulties because sin and death still exists in the world. Therefore, we must allow God’s grace to impact our lives every day—to grow in grace and rely on its work (2 Peter 3:18; Acts 13:43). Never forget it is grace that is at the heart of God’s message and it is grace that sustains us in Christ. Have a grace-filled day with Jesus!

Hebrews 2:5-9 NLT Jesus, the Man
5 And furthermore, it is not angels who will control the future world we are talking about. 6 For in one place the Scriptures say,
“What are mere mortals that you should think about them,    or a son of man [human existence] that you should care for him?
7 
Yet for a little while you made them [humanity in general] a little lower than the angels    and crowned them with glory and honor [gave them charge of everything you made].
8 
You gave them authority over all things.”

Now when it says “all things,” it means nothing is left out. But we have not yet seen all things put under their authority. 9 What we do see is Jesus, who for a little while was given a position “a little lower than the angels”; and because he suffered death for us, he is now “crowned with glory and honor.” Yes, by God’s grace, Jesus tasted death for everyone.

Prayer: Lord, thank you for forgiving our sin against your love and for sending the Son of Man to take dominion in this world. As we wait for Christ’s return, please provide the grace we need to obey and honor you, because we desperately need your help. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Intro: How do you view prayer? How does grace merge with prayer? Over the past few months, God has been convicting me about prayer, as well as urging me to pray about every aspect of each day. As I go through my day, I am to set myself up to receive his grace [power for living] in an ongoing fashion [cascading—like water pouring downward rapidly in large quantities]. “God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work” (2 Cor 9:8).

I do not typically pray for myself in specifics; I simply give myself into the care of God in the morning and thank him in the evening when I lay my head back down to rest. However, God is leading me to be very specific now with my prayers as I seek to be a resource of blessing to others. Because life seems to be getting increasingly more challenging to our Christian witness, I am to ask him specifically for the grace I need to minister to each need or task moment by moment and without fear.

In our passage today, Jesus goes to the mountain to pray all night, because he must select twelve of his followers who will go forward as his emissaries [representatives or agents of Christ’s mission]. As well, the Father is preparing Jesus, so he prays for the wisdom to know who to choose, as well as prays for the grace [power] to bring the truth and healing to those who would be seeking him the next day.

Over the past few months in our Chosen Bible Study time, we have met many of these disciples who were chosen to serve as Christ’s representatives. The series reveals the disciples as unique in their backgrounds and personalities, as well as unique in their gifts. Scripture leads us to know this is the truth. Each one is essential, even Judas; the other eleven will fulfill the will of the Father by carrying on the mission of Christ after he ascends back to the Father.

My friends, we are those emissaries who must endure and travail for the truth in our generation. So, I pass onto you my lessons; to speak into your lives and encourage you to pray each day for the grace you need to be a blessing in Christ to others. Grace [the ongoing benevolent act and power of God] is essential and Jesus told us so, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Cor 12:9).

Luke 6:12-19 VOICE
12 Around this time, Jesus went outside the city to a nearby mountain, along with a large crowd of His disciples. He prayed through the night to God. 13 The next morning, He chose 12 of them and gave each a new title of “emissary.”

14 They included Simon (Jesus called him Peter) and Andrew (Simon’s brother); James and John; Philip and Bartholomew; 15 Matthew and Thomas; James (son of Alphaeus) and Simon (known as the Zealot); 16 Judas (son of James) and the other Judas (Judas Iscariot, who later betrayed Jesus).

17 The whole crowd of disciples (including the 12 now designated as His emissaries) came down together, and they stood on a level area nearby. They were joined by an even greater crowd of people who had come from across the whole region—from all of Judea, from Jerusalem, from the coastal areas of Tyre and Sidon. 18 These people came to hear Jesus teach and to be healed by Jesus of their diseases. Those who were troubled by demonic spirits were liberated.

19 Everyone wanted to touch Jesus because when they did, power emanated from Him and they were healed.

Prayer: Lord, I pray for the grace each of us, as your children, need to operate in your character and mission today. For each task or encounter we face, I pray for us to invite you and your grace into it and to serve you in that place. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Intro: Joy—a sense of wholeness and well-being—is a beautiful gift the world cannot give anyone. Therefore, joy is not the same as happiness. We can experience happiness in the world, but it is fleeting, because what may make us happy today could change by tomorrow. That is the danger of living by our will or emotions; we are fickle and finite. I find happiness in many relationships, but not every relationship leaves me with a sense of well-being or joy. The fullness of joy, on the other hand, is only found in the presence of God, through Christ, and in the Spirit. Joy is always inexpressible and overwhelming, because it is supernatural (Ps 16:11).

In our passage for today, Israel is returning from their second exile due to God’s judgment; the first exile was in Egypt and the second was in Babylon. The Israelites have learned the hard way that God means what he says about idolatry. When God is finished teaching them about his sovereign rule and why they should honor him above all, like Moses leading the people through the wilderness, God mercifully leads his people toward freedom in Zion and a new beginning.

The freedom before the Israelites seems surreal, because their past 70 years have been so awful. The Lord moves them from sorrow into joy and laughter. So, they praise the Lord with shouts and singing. But, beyond their praise, the people cry out for God to restore not only their freedom, but deliver them into a prosperous and new spiritual life. The exile left them spiritually empty, broken, and in need of restoration.

Jesus does this for every believer, because the world does a devastating number on our souls. We can very easily find ourselves captives to sin and the destructive behaviors of ourselves or others. Yet, Jesus comes to rescue us and deliver us into the shalom of God, so we may be restored by his presence and walk in his plan and purpose. Praise God, it is never too late to call on the name of the Lord for salvation. Rise up, pilgrims!

Psalm 126 NLT A song for pilgrims ascending to Jerusalem.
1 
When the Lord brought back his exiles to Jerusalem,
    it was like a dream!
2 
We were filled with laughter,
    and we sang for joy.
And the other nations said,
    “What amazing things the Lord has done for them.”
3 
Yes, the Lord has done amazing things for us!
    What joy!
4 
Restore our fortunes, Lord,
    as streams renew the desert.
5 
Those who plant in tears
    will harvest with shouts of joy.
6 
They weep as they go to plant their seed,
    but they sing as they return with the harvest.

Prayer: Lord, you truly do amazing things for us as your children. Thank you! Please restore the weary souls of your sons and daughters and cause us to be filled with your joy, today. In Jesus’ name.