Daily Bread Archives

May 6, 2021May 5, 2021

Remember the Persecuted Church

³²But recall the former days when, after you were enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings, ³³sometimes being publicly exposed to reproach and affliction, and sometimes being partners with those so treated. ³⁴For you had compassion on those in prison, and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one. ~ Hebrews 10:32-34^ESV

The writer said, not only do you remember the joy you had after Salvation, but the compassion you had on those in prison. Here in the free world, it’s easy to forget that there’s persecution and torture that the underground Church is going through today. It’s easy to turn a blind eye to them because we don’t see them. Pastors don’t really highlight them. We’ve got our own stuff going on right here right now, nevertheless, how can we turn our eyes away from our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ?

We are called to love one another and pray for one another, yet oftentimes we don’t pray for the strength of God to fill the body of Christ. We don’t pray for the strength of the Church in the free world. And since we don’t have physical persecution here in the free world, we need to be willing to partner with those who are being persecuted and who are suffering for the name.

There are 100’s of thousands, maybe millions of Christians around the world, who suffer beatings, torture, killings, and even being an outcast in their families. All they ask is for us to pray for them and send them the tools they need to win souls: Bibles, bicycles, and Gospel literature. Let’s partner with our persecuted brothers and sisters and make a difference in their lives and communities.

Heavenly Father, we lift up our brothers and sisters who suffer daily for your name. They pay the ultimate price for being your witness. We pray for their safety and that they will have great success. Watch over the families whose husbands, wives, mothers, fathers, daughters, and sons are imprisoned for preaching the Gospel. In Jesus’ name, we pray, amen.

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Remember the Former Days

The writer said, remember when you first got saved, how happy and joyful you were. You were even willing to suffer insult for His name. That’s where we Christians today need to get back to. We need to get to the place where Jesus is the most important person/thing in our life so that He takes priority. So, that when we’re attacked for our faith, we don’t get offended and angry at our persecutors or God, but instead we rejoice and praise God that we were counted worthy to suffer for the name of Jesus.

Persecution of the Church is already happening all over the eastern world, and it will soon be all throughout the free world, here in the west, as well. We have to spiritually prepare ourselves so that we won’t be angry or fall away when persecution comes, but instead, we will rejoice and hold on to our faith so that we will hold on to the hope of eternity with our LORD and Savior Jesus Christ.

Heavenly Father, help us to hold to Your promises. Fill us with Your everlasting love that we may love those who hate us and pray for those who persecute us. Fill us with Your Holy Spirit that we might be strengthened for the time of persecution coming. Teach us how to be as the first Church was. In Jesus’ name, I pray, Amen.

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Move For God

¹⁴ if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land. ~ 2 Chronicles 7:14

Oftentimes, we expect God to move for us, but we don’t want to move for Him. We can’t expect God to hear and answer our prayers if we don’t spend time with Him, or we live in sin. We have to have a relationship with God, if we expect Him to move on our behalf. We can’t go weeks without spending time with Him, and then when something goes wrong expect Him to fix it.

But, if we humble ourselves, pray, seek Him, and turn from our sin, then He will forgive us and answer our prayers. God doesn’t move unless we move first.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Move For God.

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Don’t Return To Your Vomit

^22b The dog returns to its own vomit, and the sow, after washing herself, returns to wallow in the mire. ~ 2 Peter 2:22

Peter compares returning to our sin as a dog returning to its vomit and a sow (female pig) returning to mire (muck). If this is what returning to sin is like, why do we do it? Could it be because we’ve allowed ourselves to be deceived? According to Paul (2 Corinthians 11:14), Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. Therefore we can assume that he disguises sin as well.

See, we often get caught up in the things of this world, and we stop spending time with God. We stop reading our Bible, praying, worshiping, etc. We become spiritually blind to the tactics of the enemy. Even though Jesus has just purged us of our sin, when Satan comes around with our vomit (past sins) in a new dish, we gorge ourselves because of our spiritual blindness.

We have to stay spiritually alert so that we won’t give any opportunity to the Devil. We have to spend time with Jesus every day, lest we fall away and return to our filth He cleansed us from.

LORD God, please open our eyes that we may be spiritually awake, testing and discerning the spirits around us. Give us wisdom that we might see sin for what it truly is. Guide us, LORD God, as we run this race set before us. In Jesus’ name, I pray, amen.

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All Are Special In His Sight

¹⁵And He said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation. ¹⁶Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved,” ~ Mark 16:15-16b

Before Jesus ascended into Heaven, He sent His disciples into all the world to proclaim the gospel. He didn’t exclude anyone. He didn’t tell them to avoid any areas or peoples. Jesus sent His disciples to all of the world. To the whole creation.

God doesn’t cherry-pick humans. Instead, He calls us all to Himself. He gives each of us the opportunity to choose Him. To choose life. Because no matter where we’re from. No matter what we’ve done wrong, God will always want us. As a potter reworks His broken clay in His hands, God molds us into a new creation.

LORD God, please soften my heart to You. Help me to feel Your gentle tug on my heart. Help me to forgive myself as You have forgiven me. Help me to see that I am special in Your eyes. Help me to see my worth, oh God. In Jesus’ name, I pray, amen.

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Stoke The Flame

⁵And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength. ⁶And you must commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these commands that I am giving you today. ⁷Repeat them again and again to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are on the road, when you are going to bed and when you are getting up. ~ Deuteronomy 6:5-7^NLT

God said we are to constantly talk about the things of God. The Romans picked up on that with their proverb “repetitio mater studiorum,” or “repetition is the mother of all learning.” We have to keep God at our center so that He can be our anchor in the storm. When our minds are constantly on other things, the fire within us dwindles. God isn’t going to stoke the fire for us. It’s our job to keep that fire in us burning through prayer, reading our bibles, worship, fasting, meditating on His Word, and discussing the Scripture.

Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. We can’t understand everything on our own; otherwise, we’d be the entire body of Christ. It takes discussion and learning from each other to grow. Iron sharpens iron.

I’m not saying you can’t enjoy talking about something other than the Bible, but we can’t let the secular stomp out the spiritual. Our heart and our mind should always be set on God so that we won’t stumble. So that our fire won’t dwindle.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Stoke The Flame.

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Ignite Your Faith

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

So many of us in the Church today lack one of the most important foundational blocks, faith. We no longer operate in faith. When we try for a goal, we expect failure, and we defend this by calling ourselves a realist. But is that what we are? Realists? Or are we really just doubters? What’s happened to the Church? Why are we filled with so much doubt and so little faith?

In today’s world, we have so many different distracters fighting our attention. It’s hard to find time for God. It’s especially hard to find time to read our Bibles. Most of us make time to pray at least once a day (our bedtime prayer), but we don’t make time to read our Bibles. Why? Why is it so hard to bring ourselves to read the Word of God?

I believe it’s because the enemy knows that faith comes through the Word of God, so he does everything he can to stop us from reading our Bibles because he knows that without faith, no amount of prayer matters. We are in an ongoing war for our souls. We have to fight. We can’t allow ourselves to become so spiritually drained that we don’t even realize that we’ve fallen asleep. As Christians, we have to make the conscientious decision every day to make time for God to speak to us through His Word.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Ignite Your Faith.

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Am I Too Familiar With God?

³Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord? And who shall stand in his holy place? ⁴He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to what is false and does not swear deceitfully. ~ Psalms 24:3-4

David, a man after God’s own heart, posed a question that we no longer ask today. Who can enter into the presence of the LORD? In fact, we no longer even consider this a valid question anymore because this is now seen as an offensive, hateful, and discriminatory question. But why? Could it be that we’ve become too familiar with God?

Here’s what I’m getting at, yes, God is our friend, our brother, our father, our betrothed, but He is still God. We’ve lost respect for the King of the Universe. The creator of everything. David starts this Psalm by declaring how great God is by saying,

¹ The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein, ²for He has founded it upon the seas and established it upon the rivers.
Psalms 24:1-2

The earth, and everything in it, was created by the LORD and still belongs to the LORD. Yet we think that we can enter into the presence of the LORD God Himself anyway we want. And if anyone dares to question that idea, we’re up in arms and offended. Why? Because we’ve lowered the greatness of God and elevated the greatness of ourselves. We have greater respect for earthly kings and rulers than the God of the universe. We revere mere men more than we do the Living God.

Imagine walking into Buckingham Palace covered in filth and rags demanding to speak with the Queen. Or walking into the White House, regardless of who’s in office, and demanding to speak with the President. We’ve become too familiar with God. Solomon introduces the book of Proverbs by explaining the importance of wisdom and knowledge, which are the foundational blocks of our relationship with God. Without the knowledge of God, we can’t accept Him. Without the instruction and wisdom of God, we cannot follow Him. After this, Solomon shares the foundation of knowledge.

⁷The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.
Proverbs 1:7

We no longer fear the LORD; we’ve become fools despising wisdom and instruction all for the sake of our own selfishness. All because we desire our own version of truth that leads to our own version of temporary happiness. Here and now, we live our lives however we please because when we sin, God doesn’t send His warring angels to crash through the sky and strike us down where we stand. No. That doesn’t happen because we live in a time of grace and a time of forgiveness. We’ve gotten so caught up in grace and forgiveness that we’ve forgotten reverence and fear.

LORD God, help us to fear You. Help us to revere You as the LORD of the universe. You are our friend, brother, and father, yet You are still our God. Never let us forget that. Help us to love wisdom and instruction. Give us the Spirit of Discernment that we might know You and the things of You. Help us to love You with more than just our empty words. In Jesus’ name, I pray, Amen.

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Know God

^7b So to keep me from becoming proud, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger from Satan to torment me and keep me from becoming proud. ⁸ Three different times I begged the Lord to take it away. ⁹ Each time he said, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.” So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me. ¹⁰ That’s why I take pleasure in my weaknesses, and in the insults, hardships, persecutions, and troubles that I suffer for Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong. ~ 2 Corinthians 12:7-10^NLT

Paul was a man of God. He was arguably the greatest apostle who ever lived. Yet even though he was great, he still had his own battles to face. He had his own demons to fight. He was human, just like us. The difference, though, between Paul and us is that Paul didn’t allow his weaknesses to keep him down. He didn’t allow his flesh to dictate who he would be or who he would become. Why?

Because he knew his God. He knew the one which he served. And it’s not because he met God on the road to Damascus. It’s not because he saw so many miracles take place or because of the many revelations he had. It was because he sought after God. He wanted to personally know. He had a hunger for more than just what the world could offer him. Paul wanted to know God. Not know of Him. He wanted to personally know God.

Paul had known what it was like to quiver in fear before the presence of Almighty God. He knew what it was like to be before the Throne of Grace guilty. He knew what it was like to be before God uncovered, naked, and shameful. So, he fought for more. He fought for a relationship, so that that day when Jesus takes His seat on His throne and judges the whole earth and everything in it, he would hear the words, ‘well done my good and faithful servant.’ Paul was fighting for his life. His eternal life.

Paul knew God not because he did great miracles, those were direct effects. Paul knew God because he sought him. See, we forget that this world comes with difficulties. This world comes with pain and suffering. It’s inevitable. We can’t avoid it. We can’t skip it. But we can overcome it. Paul, a man of God, prayed three times for the thorn in his side to be removed, but God reminded him that His grace was sufficient for him. God reminded Paul that he wasn’t alone. That this thorn that He has allowed to torment him for this short time here on this earth will not only mean nothing to him in eternity, but while here on this, it would be able to help someone else struggling with the same thing, but lacking the faith and endurance to fight.

We have to understand that God won’t just come down and fix every struggle we have overnight. But that He has given us an abundance of grace, love, mercy, and goodness to overcome any obstacle set before. Overcoming doesn’t always mean that we no longer struggle with something, but that we no longer give in to that something. And if we follow God and fight with everything in us, then we can be confident that if we stumble, God will catch us before we fall because His grace is sufficient for us.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Know God.

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Run With God

⁹ Keep putting into practice all you learned and received from me—everything you heard from me and saw me doing. Then the God of peace will be with you. ~ Philippians 4:9^NLT

Oftentimes, we get so caught up in grace that we forget that we are expected to do something to keep that relationship with God. We forget that it’s up to us to run the race set before us. It’s up to us to fight for our souls. It’s up to us to pray for ourselves, our loved ones, and the Church. Once we hear the Gospel and accept it, it’s up to us to put it into practice and build a relationship with God.

Just look at what Paul said; he didn’t say that if we accept Christ, then the God of peace would be with us. He didn’t say if we believe in Christ, the God of peace would be with us. He said that if we practice all that he has taught us, THEN the God of peace will be with us. We have to practice all that we’ve learned from the Scriptures and put it into practice.

We, the sheep, have to follow the Shepherd, and here on earth, God has given us many shepherds to teach His flock while He is away. But that doesn’t mean we just blindly follow anyone. We have to pray and seek God for discernment. We have to read our Bible to make sure that everything that our pastors are preaching to us is Biblical. Then we have to put it into practice. Christianity isn’t a quick pill that you can take that will fix every problem you have overnight.

Christianity is a long, hard road that is set before us. This is why Paul says that if we follow the commands of God, if we follow His teaching, then He will be with us. Then God will give us the peace that passes all understanding. Then the road that once seemed so daunting, tedious, hard, and unbearable will be joyous and fulfilling because it’s no longer us running by ourselves; it’s no longer according to our own power. When we follow the commands of God, then we run according to His power. Then we run with peace, knowing that God is with us always.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Run With God.

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Tag: Daily Bread

Remember the Persecuted Church

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