Daily Bread Archives

May 25, 2021May 25, 2021

Do You Know Who You Believe In?

^12bBut I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that he is able to guard until that day what has been entrusted to me. ~ 2 Timothy 1:12b

Paul doesn’t say he knows of whom he has believed in, but rather, he says he knows whom he believed. Making it a personal connection. It’s not like he just heard about God or that he knows God from a distance. It’s not like how we say we know the latest movie star or the popular musicians. We know about them, but we don’t actually know them, and they don’t know us.

But Paul, on the other hand, has a personal relationship with Jesus. He knows Jesus personally, and Jesus knows him personally. They have a personal relationship. This is the knowledge we need to have. Not what Jesus has done for someone else, but what He has done for me. We need to know God, like how Paul knew God.

Every day is a new battle for our souls, and every day someone will win that battle. Who we seek after and what we seek after will determine the outcome of each battle. We have to make sure that we are constantly seeking after God, just like we would our best friend, because there is no greater friend than God.

LORD God, please help me to seek You and love You as You alone deserve. Help me to yearn for a relationship with You like Paul and the early Church did. Help me to truly know You so that we might have the faith to stand each day in confidence, knowing who we believe. So that when trials and tribulations come, we can stand firm, unwavering from our faith in You. In Jesus’ name, I pray, amen.

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Move Mountains

⁵² “Put your sword back in its place,” Jesus said to him, “for all who draw the sword will die by the sword. ⁵³ Do you think I cannot call on my Father, and he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels? ⁵⁴ But how then would the Scriptures be fulfilled that say it must happen in this way?” ~ Matthew 26:52-54

Jesus could have used His divine power to achieve His objectives, but then He wouldn’t have been functioning as fully man, but as God, and God is not our Kinsman Redeemer, Jesus is our Kinsman Redeemer because of how the law of Kinsman Redeemer works, and I’m saying this without challenging the fact that they (the Holy Trinity) are one and the same yet are all separate individuals.

Instead, He chose to act as a servant and use the Name of God instead of His own name or power. But before His crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension, He basically told His disciples something new, something better is coming your way; just wait and see.

Jesus took the impossible path so that we didn’t have to. This is where the work of the Holy Spirit comes in, as we invoke and use the name of our LORD Jesus. Because when we call on the name of Jesus, mountains move, demons flee, wounds are healed, and we are made new. Jesus gave us His name and His Holy Spirit so that we wouldn’t be left vulnerable and defenseless. When problems come, call on the name of Jesus. He overcame the world so that we could overcome through Him.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Move Mountains.

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Partake in the Gleanings

¹⁴And this is the confidence that we have toward Him, that if we ask anything according to His will He hears us. ¹⁵And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of Him. ~ 1 John 5:14–15

Jesus came so that He could supply all of our needs on a personal level. From the establishing of the Feast of Weeks (Pentecost), God provided a way for the poor and for the Gentiles to receive some of the harvest. Today, Jesus has paved the way so that we can go directly to God for our needs. There is no longer a divide between people. There are no longer any of us that has to pick up the scraps; instead, every one of us is now equal in the sight of God.

So, if you need something from Jesus, find it in Scripture and believe Him for it. The faith the size of a mustard seed, even though it is the smallest of seeds, is enough to move a mighty mountain because of Pentecost. And this is Pentecost Sunday, a time for signs, wonders, miracles, and many acts of healings. Come receive yours.

Do you want to partake in the gleanings of the fields? Come to Jesus. He is waiting for you with arms wide open. Let your first miracle be the miracle of the New Birth. Listen, we might be God’s enemies, but God is NOT our enemy. He loves us and wants everyone to be saved. It is not His will that any perish.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Partake in the Gleanings.

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Defend Your Beliefs

¹⁵ but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect. ~ 1 Peter 3:15

Now, more than ever, we have to be grounded in the Truth of All Mighty God. We can no longer rely on our parents or their parents to get us into the Kingdom of God and build our faith, but we must not step up and do it ourselves. We must be able to give a defense for our beliefs.

This word defense simply means to ‘make formal justification’ for what you believe. It does not mean to argue, as in ‘to row and disagree or fight,’ but simply be ready to give an answer to people who question our beliefs.

When we are unable to defend why we believe what we believe, then doubt takes root in us. And if doubt takes root in us, then faith begins to dwindle inside of us. And without faith, no one can please God. We must prepare ourselves and build up our faith so that we can defend our beliefs when the time comes.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Defend Your Beliefs.

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The Power of Doubt

¹⁶Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. ¹⁷And when they saw Him they worshiped Him, but some doubted. ~ Matthew 28:16-17

Even though the eleven disciples just saw the resurrected Jesus, some still doubted. Doubt can creep into the hearts of even the strongest believers if we let our guard down. Jesus prophesied about His death and resurrection many times to His disciples, but their own version of who they believed Jesus should be hindered their faith and caused doubt in their hearts. When we put our own beliefs and feelings above God’s Truth, the only Truth, then we weaken our faith. And without faith, no one can please God.

Faith comes by the Word of God, not our version of the Word of God. We have to set aside our own feelings, our own beliefs, our own version of the truth, and accept the Truth. This is how we build our faith. This is how we please God by dwelling in Truth. And when doubt comes, we have to bow down and worship, humbling ourselves at the feet of Jesus, just like the disciples who doubted did. Even though they had doubt, they still humbled themselves before Jesus, and in doing so, Jesus rewarded their humility by strengthening their faith with the Scriptures.

When you doubt, don’t be ashamed because doubt happens to the best of us. When doubt does come, bow yourself down in humility at the feet of Jesus, and He will strengthen your faith. He can use anyone who is willing to be used.

LORD God, please help me to seek Your face in humility so that You may strengthen our faith. Show me the verses that we need to strengthen our faith, just as You showed the verses to Your disciples that they needed to strengthen their faith. Please continue to help me grow in our faith and strengthen our relationship with You. In Jesus’ name, I pray, amen.

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Remember Your First Love

²I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false. ³I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name’s sake, and you have not grown weary. ⁴But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. ⁵Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent. ~ Revelation 2:2-5

Jesus is speaking to the church in Ephesus. He said, “But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first” What He is actually saying is, “You have lost your passion for me. You no longer have the fire shut up in your bones.”

They had the actions, but not the passion.

Remember when you first got married? You couldn’t wait to see your spouse. To be with him/her. To talk with them and to hold their hand. Sometimes that’s all you could talk about at work or think about. That was passion.

Now the flames don’t burn as hot; you’re now ok with working late. You don’t sit and talk for hours anymore like you did at first because you didn’t want to go to sleep because it was time taken away that could be spent with the love of your life. It’s your first love; there was passion.

This is how we are with Jesus now, but that’s not how it ought to be. Jesus is our betrothed. We’re supposed to love Him, yearn for Him, seek Him, speak with Him. We’re supposed to be head over heels in love with our bridegroom, who is on His way to bring us to Himself so that we might be with Him forever.

LORD God, please help us to remember our first love. Help us to not seek out the darkness but seek out the light in the darkness. Ignite a passion within our bones once again that we might seek Your face and Your presence. In Jesus’ name, I pray, amen.

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We Know Good, But God Knows Best

¹ On one occasion, while the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, he was standing by the lake of Gennesaret, ²and he saw two boats by the lake, but the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. ³Getting into one of the boats, which was Simon’s, he asked him to put out a little from the land. And he sat down and taught the people from the boat. ⁴And when he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.” ⁵And Simon answered, “Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets.” ⁶And when they had done this, they enclosed a large number of fish, and their nets were breaking. ⁷They signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink. ~ Luke 5:1–7

Please notice that Jesus, knowing that Peter had not caught anything all night fishing, wanted to pay him for the use of his boat. But Peter knowing good, said it was useless to go back out there because there were no fish out there. Jesus, knowing best, told Peter to go ahead and push on out into the deep and let down his nets for a catch. Peter was tired and weary from working all night, now he had the added burden of washing his nets and will have to wash them again after catching nothing again. Peter knew good, and well, there were no fish out there to catch.

But Jesus insisted, go on, Peter, just try it. Peter did not want to go and try it. He wanted to feel sorry for himself and go home. But in obedience, he did as Jesus had instructed. The result? They caught so many fish that they had to call for help from their partners, and both boats were filled that they both began to sink.

The moral of the story is: even if it doesn’t make sense, even if you know that it is probably a useless thing to do if Jesus says to do it, do it. Just trust Him because we know good, but God knows best.

Father, help me to be obedient to Your word, no matter how silly and useless it may seem to me. Help me to understand that I might know good, but You know best. In Jesus’ name, I pray, amen.

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Strive to be Holy

Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord. ~ Hebrews 12:14^NIV

Holiness is a word we don’t hear very often in the Church anymore, and when we do hear it, it is taken a bit out of context. We are led to believe that holiness consists entirely of our outward appearances. I heard a sister commenting on another sister’s way of dress, because of the no sleeves, that she would rather sit in church with someone who did not have love than someone dressed like that.

I’m not saying dress is nothing because it is something, but not everything, and it definitely is not the sign of holiness. Look around at some of the folk who are covered from head to toe, is that holiness?

But we’ve strayed so far from what true holiness is that we’ve lost our way, and nobody is trying to point us back in the right direction. We watch any old filth on the TV with the most explicit language and nudity and sexual content, and we don’t even bat an eye. Our consciences have been seared as with a hot iron.

Holiness isn’t necessarily the way you dress but the way you act. Holiness is what’s on the inside. So, if all you’re pumping inside of you is filth, then all that can come out of you is filth. Feed your spirit with Godly things, and deny your flesh that you may grow and become more holy like God.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Strive to be Holy.

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Where Does Your Faith Come From?

…Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth? ~ Luke 18:8

As they say, Faith is more than just the name of a woman. It’s more than just a feeling. It’s crucial to our Christian walk. For the Scriptures tell us by faith the Old Testament heroes who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. Women received back their dead by resurrection:

It’s difficult to walk by faith if our eyes are always searching for proof or evidence. Faith is the bedrock that our firm foundation is built on. Just to clarify, faith in who Jesus is and in the truth of His promises to us is the bedrock that our firm foundation is built on. You see:

By faith Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear constructed an ark to save his household. By faith, Sarah herself received power to conceive, even when she was past the age since she considered him faithful who had promised. By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac. By faith, Isaac invoked future blessings on Jacob and Esau. By faith, Jacob, when dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph, bowing in worship over the head of his staff. By faith, Moses, when he was born, was hidden for three months by his parents.

By faith…by faith…by faith… Everything that was and is done or is worth doing is all done by faith. Faith in the God you serve. We all serve someone or something; we all have faith in someone or something. Who or what do you serve? Who or what do you have faith in?

LORD God, please help us to put our faith in You and You alone. Help us to find our hope in You. Help us to fulfill Your call for our lives by strengthening our faith so that we might be able to endure whatever lies ahead of us. In Jesus’ name, I pray, amen.

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Category: Daily Bread

Do You Know Who You Believe In?

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