Devotionals

Wednesday - October 29, 2008 -
Matthew 10:16-25
Although the Lord Jesus is speaking to his apostles and early diciples I think we can easily apply this passage to his latter day saints. (Not Mormons, but rather the saved in the last days or in other words - us.) The persecution against Christians world wide is astounding. We do not hear much about it but it is there and witnessed by millions. And, it is going to get more difficult. This country, and the world, according to Scripture is going to face the greatest personal attacks against Christians that the world has ever known. So, the best way to deal with this is to become a coward, dig a hole and crawl inside and cover ourselves with the dirt! Or we can do what the champions of the Cross did before us. We can become more aggressive, carrying the Word of God all over our known world winning the war by telling others of the glories of the cross. Yes, but that might get us killed! Yea, isn't that great!

Thursday - Oct 30, 2008 -
Matthew 10:32-39
We must be confident in the power and the promises of our God. As we preach the Word of God we must understand that there will be some that will hate us. That is a fact. What did Jesus do to get crucified? He healed the sick, caused the lame to walk, fed thousands. All criminal offenses wouldn't you say? Of course non of these things were the things that crucified the Christ. He proclaimed himself to be equal with God! That will do it. And when He declared himself to be God, they rose up against Him and killed Him. But wait a minute. What if someone came and said that he was God, and that all that we believed was wrong. That things that we believe were wrongly taught to us all our lives. Would we not rise up against that individual and seek to destroy him? Certainly we would, that is why we warn about the coming Anti-Christ. When we preach against sin, divorce, immorality, booze, drugs, abortion, same sex marriage, etc., we are preaching against the God of this world. Of course we will be persecuted. The world is doing just what the known world did in the times of Christ. But we must love them enough, to continue on, just like Jesus did

Friday - October 31, 2008 -
1 Timothy 4:6-16
Finally, a passage of Scripture that I can throw in the face of my wife that will shut her up and her constant harping about me going to the gym "For bodily exercise profiteth little. . ." amen and glory hallelujah!!!! Bodily exercise profiteth little and yet one of the great industries in our country tells us that bodily exercise is every thing. Open up a magazine and there are diet pills to make us skinny. Turn the page and there is some skinny guy telling about the energy drink that made him loose 200 pounds. Nip this, tuck that! Body, Body, Body! Exercise and you will be loved by every one, your children will be proud of you, you will not have marriage problems, you will make more money, your family will be well adjusted and your lawn will not have crab grass. Yada, Yada, Yada!! However, the Bible also says that "Godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come." Now, I was trying to be a little bit sarcastic about the exercise of the body. I myself belong to two exercise facilities. I go to both of them on a regular basis. One of them I go to on the 15th of every month and pay my dues. On the other I go to on the 28th to pay the dues. Isn't that the way most Christians do. We go once or twice a month to pay our dues but we never really get into the Word of God. That is why we are weak. Godliness is profitable unto all things, all things that we face today. All of our trials, tribulations, disappointments. It is also profitable for the days ahead. And what will we face then? Only God knows, but if we walk with Him we will be well prepared.

Saturday - November 1, 2008 -
Acts 13:1-12 (V 42-43)
As a worker for God, what should we accomplish? What should we dream? What should we pray? Life is tough and it is getting tougher, and yet the work that God has put before us must be accomplished and we do not have long to do it. We will be persecuted, there is no doubt about that. Millions around the world are already being persecuted and losing their lives but they continue on and should we do any less. We will be unpopular. There will be those that miss-quote us misunderstand us and hate us because of what the Scripture says. But this is not a popularity contest, and we must love our enemies enough to continue on and to be there for them. It will be worth it to them and us. Notice verse 42. There were those that walked away, but there were those who walked with them and desired the things of God. It is for them that we continue on.

Devotionals

Monday -Oct 27, 2008
Acts 1:15-26
Take a moment with me this morning and look at verse 24. "They prayed and said, Thou, Lord, which knowest the hearts of all men. . . " It is true. Our Lord knows the hearts of all men. When I think of a passage I think of the little girl that wants to help her mommy in the kitchen and ends up knocking the batter on the floor. Is that little girl punished? Not if her mother has any brains at all. The little girl didn't do it on purpose, her heart was right even though her actions brought about a catastrophe. Sometimes, we as Christians do wrong things. But God knows our hearts. He understands our failures, but God will always look on our heart. Sometimes, we as Christians do right things, with a bad attitude and for the wrong reasons. God also then looks on the heart and knows our hearts. We can fool people, but we cannot fool our God, He knows our heart.

Tuesday - OCT 28, 2008
Matthew 10:1-15
We are living in tough times, I think that nearly everyone will agree with that. Someone, a rather naive someone, said to me the other day, I cannot imagine things getting any worse. I thought to my self, that this person was clueless. I have been to the Philippines. I have friends who have described to me in detail the life in India, Mexico, Mongolia, Romania, etc. Things can get worse and, even though I am a great optimist, I declare unto you that things will get worse. In Matthew 10, and verse 14 it talks about the ones that would reject the apostles and the message they delivered. The same holds true to those who reject the Words of God today. The times are tough, but there is hope. Hope in the Word of God and his promises for those who love Him. One could say, it is the only hope.

Devotionals

MONDAY - Acts 4:1-12
Why were the priest, the captain of the temple and the Sadducees grieved that they taught the people and preached through Jesus the resurrection from the dead? That is the difference between religion and Christianity. Religion will always be grieved at the preaching of the Word of God. Religion does not like the Word of God because it goes against what they believe. Religion is born in the heart of man Christianity is born in the heart of God Religion believes good works will be rewarded Christianity teaches that God rewards faith in His Son and the Sacrifice of Calvary. Religion teaches that you can never know if you are good enough Christianity teaches that you will never be good enough. That is why you need to be saved by the shed blood of Jesus Christ.

TUESDAY - Acts 2:13-22
In the world today, we have Bible Colleges, and seminaries. I have no problem with either one, in fact I teach in 2 Bible Colleges one in the Indianapolis area and the other in Davao City, Philippines. But I fear that many mistake and substitute education for walking with God. I have many good layman that have felt unqualified to witness or to teach a class because they do not have the proper education. One in fact used the very words of verse 13 when he stated that he was "unlearned and ignorant." I believe that it is the responsibility of every Christian to have a working knowledge of the Word of God. One should not only read the Bible and pay attention in church but take the responsibility to study God's Word as well. However, never confuse Bible knowledge with the power of God as you walk with Him.

WEDNESDAY - Acts 4:23-31
Why do we not speak to others about our Lord and Saviour? Why do we not speak to our neighbors, our co-workers and our family members about the salvation that God has entrusted to believers to spread to a lost and uncaring world? Notice verse 29. We, like they (the early followers of Jesus), fear the threatenings of the non believers. Of what are we afraid? In the days of Jesus the loss of jobs, homes, family and life itself were a possibility. In some parts of the world the same is still true, however in this country, the USA, those threats are not as real as they were in the days of the early church. The early disciples prayed that God would give them boldness. They did not ask for the removal of the threats, but that God would allow them to have the boldness. regardless of the threats to be the witnesses that God would have them to be. They knew that trials and tribulations would make them stronger, and make them into the Christians that they should be. Hopefully we will learn the same lessons.

THURSDAY - Acts 5:1-11
We must pray that God will keep us real. Ananias , Sapphira and the early church learned this lesson the hard way. Ananias and Sapphira sold a piece of property and there is no sin in that. They also gave a portion of that money to the church. There is no sin in that. God does not require us to give all of our money to Him. Then why did God kill them? Because they lied about the price they received and for show wanted people to believe that they had given all to the church to make themselves look better than they really were. People are people and the sins of Ananias and Sapphira are still alive and well in the church today. Let us be real and honest with God. You may be able to fool your fellow man, by God knows, and he is the one that needs to say well done thy good and faithful servant.

FRIDAY - Act 5:27-39
V 29 states that we "ought to obey God rather than man." The early church leaders have found themselves in a mess. One of their own making. One they could have avoided. But a mess that they chose by their own spiteful will. They chose to go against the law of the day. They preached Christ in spite of the fact that they were expressly ordered not to do it. Today, most of mans problems are because they choose by their own spiteful will, to do things that are expressly against the will of the established authority. And every time someone does that there are consequences because of that action. Here in Acts 5 the early church faced the council. Soon, the church today will face the Father to explain why we did not do what He wanted us to do. SATURDAY - Acts 6:1-15 The early church was getting the job done. The gospel was spreading throughout the world and multitudes were being saved. But the devil never quits. The Bible says that there arose a murmuring of the Gracians against the Hebrews. For a moment, there were those that stopped lifting their eyes toward the harvest and began to complain the treatment was unfair. When we stop looking at others and the harvest that is set before us and begin to look inward we will always begin to mummer. Thank God there were men in the church that was full of wisdom from the Holy Spirit and was able to help the situation rather than making things worse. May God grant us the same wisdom today.