Daily Bread Archives

January 30, 2020January 30, 2020

Get Rid of False gods

“³Then Samuel said to all the people of Israel, ‘If you want to return to the Lord with all your hearts, get rid of your foreign gods and your images of Ashtoreth. Turn your hearts to the Lord and obey Him alone; then He will rescue you from the Philistines.’ ⁴So the Israelites got rid of their images of Baal and Ashtoreth and worshiped only the Lord.” ~ 1 Samuel 7:3-4

The people of Israel were afraid of the Philistines because the LORD was no longer with them. So, Samuel showed the people the way back to the LORD. They had to get rid of all of their false gods, and then the LORD would return to them. See some of us are under attack by the enemy and the LORD is nowhere to be found because we’ve replaced Him with false gods and idols. The only way to get out of the situation we’ve got ourselves into is to return to the LORD fully by getting rid of our false gods.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Get Rid of False gods.

Back to Cleansing?

Back to Daily Bread?

Question, But Still Trust

“²¹Saul 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?’ ²²Then Samuel brought Saul and his servant into the hall and placed them at the head of the table, honoring them above the thirty special guests. ²³Samuel then instructed the cook to bring Saul the finest cut of meat, the piece that had been set aside for the guest of honor. ²⁴So the cook brought in the meat and placed it before Saul. ‘Go ahead and eat it,’ Samuel said. ‘I was saving it for you even before I invited these others!’ So Saul ate with Samuel that day.” ~ 1 Samuel 9:21-24

Saul didn’t see himself as Samuel did. Samuel saw God’s chosen King of Israel, Saul saw himself as a member of the least important, probably poorest family of the smallest tribe in Israel. He couldn’t see the vision God had for his life, so he asked, “why me?” Samuel didn’t get upset by this. Samuel didn’t condemn him for questioning; instead he tried reassuring him by showing him a glimpse of God’s plan by sitting him at the head of the table and giving him the best cut of meat.

Even though Saul couldn’t see it, he didn’t argue. After he asked that question, he obeyed and followed Samuel’s instructions. He could have argued and told him he couldn’t take the most important seat at the table. No, instead, he accepted his call and didn’t fight it. He didn’t fully understand, yet he committed. He probably didn’t fully believe, but yet he committed.

Is God calling you to be someone or something that doesn’t make sense to you because you’re not enough, you’re too poor, too young, too stupid, too messy? Ask the why, but walk with faith following the call, even if you don’t get a response from God on the why.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Ask, “Why?”

Back to Faith?

Back to Daily Bread?

Fear Rushes God

⁷ Some of them crossed the Jordan River and escaped into the land of Gad and Gilead. Meanwhile, Saul stayed at Gilgal, and his men were trembling with fear. ⁸ Saul waited there seven days for Samuel, as Samuel had instructed him earlier, but Samuel still didn’t come. Saul realized that his troops were rapidly slipping away. ⁹ So he demanded, “Bring me the burnt offering and the peace offerings!” And Saul sacrificed the burnt offering himself. ¹⁰ Just as Saul was finishing with the burnt offering, Samuel arrived. Saul went out to meet and welcome him, ¹¹ but Samuel said, “What is this you have done?” Saul replied, “I saw my men scattering from me, and you didn’t arrive when you said you would, and the Philistines are at Micmash ready for battle. So I said, ‘The Philistines are ready to march against us at Gilgal, and I haven’t even asked for the Lord ’s help!’ ¹²So I felt compelled to offer the burnt offering myself before you came.” ~ 1 Samuel 13:7-12 ^NLT

Saul and his men were afraid. They were terrified that the Philistines would attack them, but he waited for Samuel to come. Saul waits the seven days, but when Samuel still wasn’t there on the seventh day, Saul began to panic. He probably thought Samuel abandoned him and left him to fend for himself, so he moved without him.

When time seemed to be running out and the enemy closing in, Saul gave into fear and lost everything. He lost his entire kingdom to David. See God wanted to establish King Saul, but Saul’s lack of faith and disobedience made it impossible for God to use him.

Don’t believe the lie that fear screams at you. God isn’t too late. He’s always right on time. Have faith and be obedient, so that God may be able to use you and establish your name forever.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Don’t Rush God.

Back to Fear?

Back to Daily Bread?

Trust God

“⁷Some of them crossed the Jordan River and escaped into the land of Gad and Gilead. Meanwhile, Saul stayed at Gilgal, and his men were trembling with fear. ⁸Saul waited there seven days for Samuel, as Samuel had instructed him earlier, but Samuel still didn’t come. Saul realized that his troops were rapidly slipping away. ⁹So he demanded, ‘Bring me the burnt offering and the peace offerings!’ And Saul sacrificed the burnt offering himself. ¹⁰Just as Saul was finishing with the burnt offering, Samuel arrived. Saul went out to meet and welcome him, ¹¹but Samuel said, ‘What is this you have done?’” ~ 1 Samuel 16:1-4 ^NLT

Saul waited for Samuel as instructed until time seemed to be running out. Saul began to panic. His men were afraid. He was afraid. He couldn’t see all that God had done for him and through him. So he moved without God. He didn’t wait for Samuel as commanded, he waited as long as he saw fit to wait. He moved without God, and often times we do the same thing. We see the giants in the land, the enemy moving quickly, your company’s failing, your job’s hanging on by a tight thread, you don’t know how your gonna get through this storm. So we move on our own because we feel like God is late.

Fear grips us by the throat and refuses to let go. But Fear trembles in the presence of the LORD our God. We don’t have to be afraid of all the craziness going on around us. We don’t have to fear the war that we’re in because God is fighting for us. God is with us. We have to learn to listen to faith instead of fear. God will never let you down, He loves you more than you will ever know.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Trust God.

Back to Fear?

Back to Daily Bread?

Use Your Stick

“⁴⁵David replied to the Philistine, ‘You come to me with sword, spear, and javelin, but I come to you in the Name of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies—the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. ⁴⁶Today the Lord will conquer you, and I will kill you and cut off your head. And then I will give the dead bodies of your men to the birds and wild animals, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel! ⁴⁷And everyone assembled here will know that the Lord rescues his people, but not with sword and spear. This is the Lord’s battle, and He will give you to us!’” ~ 1 Samuel 17:45-47

I want you to understand the scene. David is just a boy. A shepherd. Not a warrior. Not a strong man. Goliath, on the other hand, is a grown man. Fighting from his youth. The Philistine Champion. Did I mention he’s 9 ft tall? And his chain mail alone weighed 125 lbs? Or that his spearhead alone weighed 15 lbs? And David went to him with a stick…

David didn’t go with the armor offered by the king, it was too big for him. David is so small that the King’s armor doesn’t fit him. And yet he is so confident in who his God is, that he goes to this 9 ft tall man of war with a stick and a stone. Most of us would see this as a suicide mission, but David knew His God. He knew how He protected him from the lion and the bear. He never forgot where God had brought him from. He spent that quiet time with God so that when it was time to put his faith into action, he was able to do so without doubt or fear.

At some point, we will all stand before our own Goliaths but will be able to overcome them with the stick God gave us or fail with the man-made sword we gave ourselves. Trust God. You don’t need to add to what God gave you. He gave you everything you need. Your job is to trust Him and fight.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Use Your Stick.

Back to Faith?

Back to Daily Bread?

Ask For Confirmation

“One day news came to David that the Philistines were at Keilah stealing grain from the threshing floors. ²David asked the Lord, ‘Should I go and attack them?’ ‘Yes, go and save Keilah,’ the Lord told him. ³But David’s men said, ‘We’re afraid even here in Judah. We certainly don’t want to go to Keilah to fight the whole Philistine army!’ ⁴So David asked the Lord again, and again the Lord replied, ‘Go down to Keilah, for I will help you conquer the Philistines.’ ⁵So David and his men went to Keilah. They slaughtered the Philistines and took all their livestock and rescued the people of Keilah.” ~ 1 Samuel 23:1-5

Even though David just heard from God to go attack the Philistines and save Keilah, David’s men were afraid. They were terrified that them being few in number, would allow the whole Philistine army to obliterate them in battle. So what did David do? He asked God a second time. God didn’t get upset. He didn’t say, “Didn’t I just tell you what to do? What’s wrong with you?” No, He told them to go, and then added more, verse 4, “So David asked the Lord again, and again the Lord replied, ‘Go down to Keilah, for I will help you conquer the Philistines.’”

David’s men couldn’t see how they would be able to defeat such a large army being so small. They had to stories of Joshua and Caleb and the Nephilim, they had the stories of Exodus, they had the stories of Samson, but still fear was able to penetrate their heart. Fear was able to poison them with doubt, so God in His love and compassion reassured them that they wouldn’t be fighting alone. Instead, God would fight through them. God would defeat the Philistines for them.

How amazing is that? God would fight through them, so they had no reason to fear. God doesn’t change, so if He fought for them, He’ll fight for you. He’ll fight through you. When fear comes in with his lies and twisted self-image, ask God for confirmation, and He will remind you exactly who He is.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Ask For Confirmation.

Back to Fear?

Back to Daily Bread?

Risk It All

“²³When Abigail saw David, she quickly got off her donkey and bowed low before him. ²⁴She fell at his feet and said, ‘I accept all blame in this matter, my lord. Please listen to what I have to say. ²⁵I know Nabal is a wicked and ill-tempered man; please don’t pay any attention to him. He is a fool, just as his name suggests. But I never even saw the young men you sent.’” ~ 1 Samuel 25:23-25

A little background, David is fleeing from King Saul. He is staying in the Wilderness of Paran with very little provisions. So he reaches out to a wealthy man, Nabal, who was preparing to celebrate a feast and asks for any leftover provisions he can spare. Nabal’s response is basically, “What? Who is he that I should give him a scrap? Who does this David think he is?” This insult riles David up, and he gathers about 400 of his men to go wipe out Nabal and his entire household so that there is no longer any question who David is.

This is now where this verse picks up. Abigail, Nabal’s wife, goes to David before he slaughters her and her entire household and pleads for mercy. She reminds him that it wasn’t them who insulted him, but only her husband. Abigail could have been killed then and there for all she knew, but she didn’t care. She had to at least try. She had to at least attempt to save her family.

How many of us are willing to risk everything to save our family from Eternal Death? Too often, we’re afraid to offend family members and push them away by speaking Truth to them. We’re afraid to offend the world by speaking Truth. Intercede for your family because if you don’t, who will? God said He looked for one man to stand in the gap and found none. Intercede for your family before God. Speak to them face to face. What is prayer without action? Too often, we just pray once or twice for them, and never take that next step of actually witnessing to them. Don’t be afraid of their reaction, place it before God as Abigail did, and trust that He will protect you and also water all the seeds you planted in prayer.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Risk It All.

Back to Faith?

Back to Daily Bread?

No Man’s Debtor: The Obedient

“And when he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, ‘Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.’” ~ Luke 5:4

In part 1, we looked at how God rewards people for doing His will even if they don’t realize it, or even if it was something they would want to do naturally. In Part 2, let’s look at the obedience of someone who might not necessarily want to do God’s will, but does it out of obedience.

Jesus was preaching by the lake of Gennesaret on one occasion when the crowds became too big and started pressing in on Him. He spotted two empty boats and saw their owners washing their nets as they listened to the sermon. Their faces were probably tired and withdrawn from the disappointment of the night because they had caught no fish.

Jesus gets into Simon Peter’s boat and asks him to push off from the shore so He could finish up His message. After the benediction, Jesus wants to pay for the use of the boat. He isn’t carrying a money pouch with gold or silver coins in, so He does the next best thing, He gives them what he does have, a miracle. He instructs Peter to launch out into the deep and let down his nets for a catch.

This is a seasoned fisherman here. He was toiling all night and caught nothing. Now the tide has changed, and the fish have stopped biting. Besides, he had just finished washing and cleaning his nets. He knows there is no fish out there, and the thought of cleaning those nets again is overwhelming. Nonetheless, Peter responds, “And Simon answered, ‘Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word, I will let down the nets’” (Luke 5:5). Peter was a good Jewish boy, taught to be respectful to the Rabbi.

Though he did not want to do it, though he did not have a whole lot of faith in it, he did it anyway in obedience. The result? Well, let’s just say he didn’t just need to wash those nets because the catch was so huge the nets began to break. He had to signal for his partners to come and give him a hand with all the fish.

I’m telling you, God is no man’s debtor, He will pay for whatever He uses, including your time. So, “…stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain” (1 Cor 15:58).

Our Heavenly Father, thank you for being a good, good Father. Thank you that You do not use us up and then disregard us. You not only take note, but you repay us according to what You’ve used, and then You will overpay us. Help us to be steadfast in good works. Look and see LORD, at what we do LORD and repay us according to Your heavenly standard.

Missed Part 1?

Back to Encouragement?

Back to Daily Bread?

No Man’s Debtor

“Therefore, this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I will give the land of Egypt to Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. He will carry off its wealth, plundering everything it has so he can pay his army. Yes, I have given him the land of Egypt as a reward for his work, says the Sovereign Lord, because he was working for me when he destroyed Tyre.” ~ Ezekiel 29:19-20 ^NLT

God uses people to accomplish His will on the earth. In the Scripture above, God used king Nebuchadnezzar to bring judgment on Tyre. God also used them to bring judgment on His people Judah. Even though the Babylonians were a conquering people, bent on expansion, they accomplished what God had in mind doing what they wanted to do anyway. So for their efforts, God said He was going to pay King Nebuchadnezzar for carrying out His plans.

If God will see to it that a murderous, heathen king is repaid for his work, how much more the child of God? That is why Paul could boldly and adamantly declare to the Corinthians, “Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain” (1 Cor 15:58). So, keep on doing good, and the LORD will reward you for your work because He is no man’s debtor.

Heavenly Father, I ask You to help us not to become weary with doing what You have called us to do. But help us to be immovable and steadfast in work for You. In Jesus’ name, I pray. Amen.

Part 2?

Back to Encouragement?

Back to Daily Bread?

Embracing Your Cross?

“²³Then He said to them all, ‘If anyone wants to come with Me, he must deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow Me.’” ~ Luke 9:23

In the movie “Passion of the Christ,” one of the thieves that was crucified with Jesus ridiculed Him saying, “Why do you embrace your cross, fool?”

Well, Jesus stated it twice in the book of Matthew, once in Mark, and two more times in the book of Luke. The purpose of embracing, or taking up your cross daily, is to deny ourselves and put Jesus first by putting others first. Paul takes up the torch on this as well when he instructs us to “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves” (Phil 2:3).

So what does it mean to embrace your cross? In its simplest form, it means to do things you do not want to do, like forgiving others for slight as well as grievous offenses done against you. It means that when others curse you, you bless them. Do not return railing for railing, or insult for insult, but rather offer words of hope, encouragement, and avoid word wars at all cost. If we do these things, we will do well.

Father, thank You for the blessing of reconciliation. Help us to count the cost and to pick up our cross and follow Jesus daily. Help us not to tire of doing good. In Jesus’ name, I pray, amen.

Back to Growth?

Back to Daily Bread?