Category: Daily Bread

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Embrace the Love of God

24 Saul said to Samuel, “I have sinned, for I have transgressed the commandment of the Lord and your words, because I feared the people and obeyed their voice.” ~ 1 Samuel 15:24

Saul was a beloved king chosen by God Himself to be the first king of His chosen people, yet Saul feared the people. He was a great leader that the LORD had shown His grace and love upon, yet for Saul, it wasn’t enough. From the moment Saul was chosen by the LORD, he responded with self-doubt that he wasn’t good enough. This led to the need to be loved and accepted by the people of Israel regardless of whether or not he was dwelling in the will of God. This was because he feared being rejected by the people and risked being rejected by God.

This is how we are today. We are so afraid of being rejected by society that we push away the love and grace of God. The spirit of rejection is one of the most dangerous spirits that can take root in us because the spirit of rejection breeds fear in us. When we are filled with fear, we can’t please God because we have a lack of faith and love in God. The only way to overcome the spirit of fear is to embrace the love of God. Only in the love of God does fear disappear, and faith begins to grow.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Embrace The Love of God.

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Follow The Man Jesus

5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied Himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God has highly exalted Him and bestowed on Him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. ~ Philippians 2:5-11

Paul wasn’t speaking on his own authority but according to the Spirit of God. This is important to understand that Jesus, while on earth, acted as a man. He lived as a man. He felt pain, sorrow, and temptation as a man. He had to get up and pray to receive strength to make it through His days. Why?

Because if He overcame sin by being God, then we have no hope of overcoming sin because we will never be God. This is why Jesus said in John 8:28, I do nothing of my own accord. Because He had to learn. He didn’t come down omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent. He was in His Father’s house, learning from His Father. When He was baptized, the Holy Spirit came upon Him.

This is also why He says in John 18:28 that He has to return to the Father because the Father is greater. As Paul explains in great detail in Philippians 2:5-11, Jesus had set aside His Godliness to come down to the earth and become man. So, Jesus, as a man, had to return to the Father in order to present Himself as the sacrifice so that the Father could accept His sacrifice and elevate Him to His rightful place in order to forgive the sins of all who believe and repent so that He could send the Holy Spirit. If Jesus overcame the world as God, we would have no hope, but because Jesus came as a man, all men now have the opportunity to overcome the world through Him. We now have hope.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Follow The Man Jesus.

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Problems of People Pleasing

18 And the Lord sent you on a mission and said, ‘Go, devote to destruction the sinners, the Amalekites, and fight against them until they are consumed.’ 19 Why then did you not obey the voice of the Lord? Why did you pounce on the spoil and do what was evil in the sight of the Lord?” 20 And Saul said to Samuel, “I have obeyed the voice of the Lord. I have gone on the mission on which the Lord sent me. I have brought Agag the king of Amalek, and I have devoted the Amalekites to destruction. ~ 1 Samuel 15:18-21

Saul was a people pleaser more than a God pleaser. He always seemed to believe that sacrifice was more important than obedience. He didn’t learn from the last time he sacrificed instead of obeying. It’s like he just didn’t get that God wanted obedience. His need to please the people was stronger than his need to please God. It’s almost like us today when we say God understands.

This is just like Saul when he says, God understands those animals weren’t taken for us, but to offer a sacrifice to Him, so God should be pleased. Like us, Saul tried to justify his disobedience, although he should have known better after all those years of being guided/mentored by Samuel and hearing from God Himself.

Today we have the word of God and the Holy Spirit to guide us, but more often than not, we do everything based on our feelings versus what God says because God understands that we’re mere men and made from dust. These are the lies of the enemy that we believe. These are the lies that keep us in bondage.

LORD, help us to stop making excuses for our disobedience and ask for forgiveness. Help us to lay it on the altar, draw close to You, and put up a fight against our flesh. Encourage us as our flesh weakens the more we walk in obedience to You. In Jesus’ name, I pray, amen.

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Have Confidence in Christ

1 There was a wealthy, influential man named Kish from the tribe of Benjamin. He was the son of Abiel, son of Zeror, son of Becorath, son of Aphiah, of the tribe of Benjamin. 2 His son Saul was the most handsome man in Israel—head and shoulders taller than anyone else in the land. 21 Saul replied, “But I’m only from the tribe of Benjamin, the smallest tribe in Israel, and my family is the least important of all the families of that tribe! Why are you talking like this to me?” ~ 1 Samuel 9:1-2, 21

Saul was from a great family of influence and wealth. He was more handsome than any other man in Israel, even being head and shoulders taller than them, yet he saw himself as no one. He had no confidence in who he was. This is how a lot of us are today. We are sons and daughters of God Almighty, yet we don’t see our own self-worth. We look at ourselves through tainted eyes that can’t see who God has formed us into and who He is shaping us to become.

So many of us miss out on our potential and our call because we are too busy holding onto rejection from our past or shame of past regrets. When rejection or shame tries to sneak in, we have to remind ourselves who we are in Christ Jesus. We are sons and daughters of the Most High. We have a purpose and call for our lives from the Creator Himself. Our debt has been paid with the precious blood of God Almighty Himself. Don’t let the stronghold of rejection or regret keep you from seeing who you are in Christ Jesus.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Have Confidence in Christ.

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Call On The Word

17 and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God ~ Ephesians 6:17

The Sword of the Spirit is our greatest weapon. It’s our defensive and offensive weapon. Why? Because the Sword of the Spirit is the Word of God, and Jesus is the Word of God. He isn’t dead but alive. He is the King of kings and LORD of lords. He is the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End, the one who was, who is, and who is to come. He is the Word made flesh. Our greatest weapon is the Word of God because it is Jesus. The Word is alive and active, sharper than any double-edged sword, because every time we quote Scripture, we are calling on Jesus to come to our rescue.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Call On The Word.

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Look Passed Outward Appearances

24 Now Thomas, one of the twelve, called the Twin, was not with them when Jesus came. 25 So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe.” ~ John 20:24-25

Outward appearance means little. Thomas looked so much like Jesus that he was called, ‘the twin.’ In fact, even though Jesus taught in the synagogues and in the streets and was a well-known rabbi when He was arrested at night, they waited for Judas to give the sign of who Jesus was before they arrested Him. We can only assume that this was because it was so dark at night that they couldn’t easily tell Jesus and Thomas apart. Yet, Thomas was the disciple who struggled with the resurrection of Jesus the most.

So, many of us look at the outer appearance of a Christian. They may have the appearance of Godliness, but inside they’re struggling. Inside they may be full of doubt because of a loss they experienced or a failure that they just endured. It’s so easy to look simply at the outward appearance of someone and miss out completely on the spirit inside that person.

So, when we look for a teacher or a leader, we can’t just look at someone based on their outward appearance, whether they look the way we believe a Christians should look or not. We have to look with the eyes of God and search the heart of men and women so that we won’t be led astray by a false outward Godly appearance.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Look Passed Outward Appearances.

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Be Led By The Spirit of Truth

24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. 26 For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; 27 and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error. 28 And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. ~ Romans 1:24-28

So many believe that we are to only show a love that doesn’t correct nor discipline, but is this the kind of love God has sent us to show the world? Look at the outcome of mankind suppressing the Truth about God. Their hearts were darkened; they became fools exchanging the glory of the immortal God for images. God then gave them up to their lusts because they exchanged Truth about God for a lie and worshiped the creature instead of the Creator. For this reason, God gave them up to dishonorable passions.

After the dishonorable passions were planted inside of them, they still didn’t see fit to acknowledge God. That root then began to then take root inside of, so God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. That’s when the floodgates of these other evil things seemed to take grow and bear fruits of unrighteousness and evil, for it says,

29 They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31 foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32 Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.

Romans 1:29-32

Definitely sounds like the current state of the world that we’re living in. We have people and churches fighting to make these sins normal and acceptable before God, and if you don’t agree with them, then you’re a hater, bigot, and unkind. We’re to take the stance that we don’t want to partake in any of what they’re pushing. We take the stance to honor Him as the only one true God and give thanks to Him and worship Him so that our hearts won’t be darkened and turn to evil, as Paul warns here in this scripture. That’s why the Truth of God sets you free because only the light can shine into the darkness exposing the lies that we believe about who God is or isn’t. These lies that keep us in bondage and trapped in darkness can only be broken with Truth. Not our own deceiving truth that tickles our ears and never sets us free, but the one and only Truth that is the Word of God that shines the light of Jesus Himself into our lives as we are led by the very Spirit of Truth Himself.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Be Led By The Spirit of Truth.

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Receive Your New Heart

5 “A sower went out to sow his seed. And as he sowed, some fell along the path and was trampled underfoot, and the birds of the air devoured it. 6 And some fell on the rock, and as it grew up, it withered away, because it had no moisture. 7 And some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up with it and choked it. 8 And some fell into good soil and grew and yielded a hundredfold.” As He said these things, He called out, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” 9 And when His disciples asked Him what this parable meant, 10 He said, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of God, but for others they are in parables, so that ‘seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand.’ 11 Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God. 12 The ones along the path are those who have heard; then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved. 13 And the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear the word, receive it with joy. But these have no root; they believe for a while, and in time of testing fall away. 14 And as for what fell among the thorns, they are those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature. 15 As for that in the good soil, they are those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patience.” Luke 8:5-15

Jesus tells the parable of a sower that threw out His seed onto four different types of land. Three out of the four of the different kinds of land that the seed fell on failed to survive and thrive. This parable was Jesus’ way of explaining what kinds of people would be able to withstand the temptations and trials of the world.

If we look at the reason each fell to the schemes of Satan, we can see it’s because of a heart issue. Our desires are usually on the world and the things of this world instead of on the things of God. For instance, most of us find the commands of Jesus to be restrictive instead of freeing. We find it taxing to pray, worship, and read our Bible. In fact, the majority of us don’t fast at all.

We want to love God, but our desires and our heart are on the things of this world. So, how do we fix this? We beat our flesh into submission by daily prayer, worship, and reading our Bible. We starve our flesh through fasting as we seek the face of God. In doing so, God will strengthen our spirit and give us a new heart that desires Him and the things of Him.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Receive Your New Heart.

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Give Up Your Biases

17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ. ~ Romans 10:17

Today, we often hear that we don’t need the Bible to know God or to have a relationship with Him. But without the Bible, we wouldn’t even know about God. As Paul explained, “faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.” Without the Word of God, we cannot please God.

This kind of thinking opens us up to the Spirit of Deception because we now base our ideas and descriptions of God on our own desires and biases. As a result, our minds become dark and confused, and our body then follows and is filled with darkness. So what are we to do? All we can do is give up our own thoughts and biases, open our Bible, and ask God to show us the truth as we read His word. This is the only way we will ever truly know God.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Give Up Your Biases.

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Seek God to Leave a Legacy

1 After the death of Moses the servant of the Lord, the Lord said to Joshua the son of Nun, Moses’ assistant, 2 “Moses my servant is dead. Now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people, into the land that I am giving to them, to the people of Israel. ~ Joshua 1:1-2

Even though Moses was dead and Joshua was now going to lead Israel in his place, the LORD didn’t forget Moses. Moses had left a legacy. Joshua was described as Moses’ assistant even though Moses was gone and Joshua was now leading.

Moses’ legacy was a great example of the life we should try to live. Moses sought the face of God continuously. No matter how much he had been shown, Moses remained hungry for God. He was never satisfied with the relationship he had with God. He always sought more.

So, He built a legacy for himself just by seeking the face of God and following His perfect and Holy will. This is how we are to live our lives, seeking the face of God and following His plan.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Seek God to Leave a Legacy.

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