Devotional Archives

January 1, 2021January 1, 2021

Our Living Hope

³Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to His great mercy, He has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, ~ 1 Peter 1:3

Every day brings new hope. Every new year brings even greater and more wonderful hope. 2020 was filled with its ups and downs, but we have a living hope that can never be taken away from us. A living hope that we can never be cheated out of. Our living hope is Eternal Life with our resurrected savior Jesus Christ.

One day He will wipe every tear from our eyes, and we will reign with Him for a thousand years. One day we will be enjoy God’s perfect peace and rest. Until then, let us strive to make every day and every new year, especially 2021, another chance to better ourselves and the world around us.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Hold To Our Living Hope.

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End In Hope

⁸We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; ⁹persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; ~ 2 Corinthians 4:8-9

2020 has seen the promulgation of fear across the nations. 2020 has seen us banned from gathering to worship our God. It has seen us banned from gathering in our own homes for fellowship. It has gone as far as to try to ban us from singing to our God in our homes. It has seen us banned from visiting our loved ones, especially our elderly family. 2020 has come with multiple attacks on our liberties and freedoms bestowed upon us by God through the Founding Fathers.

We have been afflicted in many ways, but we are not crushed. We have been persecuted, but God has not abandoned us. The Church has been deemed non-essential by many men and women in our government, but God deems the Church and our assembling essential. 2020 feels as if it is ending on a negative note, but that doesn’t mean that it has to actually end negatively. Make today count. Make the last day of 2020 be filled with joy, hope, faith, and love.

May you be thankful for all of the many blessings God has bestowed on you. May you be filled with the joy of the LORD, for that is our strength. May you be consumed with the overwhelming, never-ending, reckless love of God. May you live in the eternal hope accompanied with the faith that this life is temporary for Jesus will be coming back for His bride.

We are the Bride of Christ, so let us begin to act like we are the Bride of Christ. Let us end 2020 better than we started it. Let’s make this final day of 2020 count, help someone, give someone hope, pray for your enemy. Don’t let 2020 end discouraging; let 2020 end in hope. For we have eternal hope in Jesus Christ. Don’t go into 2021 filled with fear and anxiety, ⁷for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control (2 Timothy 1:7).

Peace. Love. Go Forth and End In Hope.

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Hold Your Tongue

“²⁶If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person’s religion is worthless.” ~ James 1:26

Our tongues often can get us into much trouble. Whether it’s because of anger, sadness, hatred, hurt feelings, pride, our tongue can easily and quickly start a fire; all it takes is a few words. Why does what we say matter? Proverbs says, “life and death are in the power of the tongue.” Words matter.

The entire universe and everything in it were created with words. Next time you get angry and your tongue wants to cut loose, keep your mouth closed. Don’t speak until you’re calm because you can’t always take back your words.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Hold Your Tongue.

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Be Doers of The Word

“²²But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.” ~ James 1:22

Sometimes we get caught up in ourselves. We treat the Bible as a book we read but don’t really follow. We know the Scriptures, but we don’t put them into practice. We know the commands of Jesus, yet we shy away from them. We set up our own rules, justifying them with Scriptures taken out of context. We go to church every Sunday, but we don’t really take in the message. We want things sugarcoated and easy to swallow, but that’s just not Christianity.

Christianity is an action-faith. You can’t just say you’re a Christian and live however you want, cherry-picking your way through the Bible. Being a Christian takes restraint from certain things, faith, love, and imitating Jesus. But many of us have fallen asleep, and we don’t even know it. We have an appearance of Godliness, but it doesn’t go any deeper than that. Be doers of the Word, not only hearers. Don’t be deceived, allowing yourself to drift off into Spiritual Slumber. Awaken. Rid yourself of all of life’s sleeping pills.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Be Doers of The Word.

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The Love of Money

“⁸But if we have food and clothing, with these, we will be content. ⁹But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. ¹⁰For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.” ~ 1 Timothy 6:8-10

One of the worst strongholds a person can have is the stronghold of greed. The love of money will destroy not only the person it is affecting but also those around them. Paul isn’t telling Timothy it’s bad to have money but to only strive for money. He’s saying even if we aren’t rich, but we’re going to sleep with full bellies and comfortable PJs, then we should be content. We don’t need more, but it’s okay to have more. Placing money on a high mantle will ruin friendships, relationships, marriages, even jobs. Because money easily becomes a god, replacing the one true God.

So, don’t feel bad if you have money, but don’t let it control you. If we allow God to use us and place Him above everything else, making Him our one and only God, He will bless us. He will bring us to the next level. He will take us out of poverty, but first, we must lay everything down and place Him above all.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Love Not Money.

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The Beginning of The End

“You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of birth pains.” ~ Matthew 24:6-8

Jesus starts out by saying what is not a sign of the end: wars and rumors of wars, famines, and earthquakes. Even deceivers claiming to be the Messiah. These are the beginning of the end; the end is yet to come. Have you thought about the end? I believe we are there; the beginning of the end has already begun. Are you making preparations for it? What about your children? Have you taught them how to store up treasure in heaven that will last for all eternity? Do they know the saving grace of Jesus yourself? Today is the day of salvation; tomorrow is promised to no man.

Heavenly Father, You told us to store up treasures in heaven that will last for all eternity. Help us to see the urgency of the late hour. Let that great and dreadful day not overtake us like the floodwaters did the multitudes in the days of Noah. Please be patient and kind and forgive our sins when we confess our sins and ask for forgiveness. In Jesus’ name, I pray, amen.

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Pay Attention To Blockades

“When Lot still hesitated, the angels seized his hand and the hands of his wife and two daughters and rushed them to safety outside the city, for the Lord was merciful.” ~ Genesis 19:16^NLT

Sometimes God gives us a little push so that we may be saved from ourselves. Lot chose the land of Sodom, even though it had a bad reputation. He chose men for his daughters in the land of Sodom, even though the men of Sodom were wicked. Lot looked at what he could gain, not what his soul could lose. Sometimes we look at everything we could have instead of looking at everything we could lose.

How many sought after the glamorous life of Hollywood started out as Christians and now are on drugs, completely far away from God, living in sexual immorality, and have become so blinded that they can’t even see that. Or how many sought after a glamorous job but became filled with lust for more and more power. More and more money. So much so that they spiritually corrupted themselves.

Sometimes God places blockades in our path because that’s not the path for us. Because He knows we’re meant for so much more. Because He knows what we’ll lose. It’s his way of grabbing us by the hand and rushing us to safety. But we don’t always take His hand and go, sometimes we jerk away, and we stay, as Lot’s sons-in-law did. And in the end, we are Spiritually destroyed. Awaken and look around. Is this what God has in store for you? Is this good for your Spirit? Don’t be deceived by beauty because Sodom was beautiful and seemed to flourish on the outside, but on the inside, it was wicked and spiritually dead.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Pay Attention To The Blockades.

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Hold Your Peace

³² He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the LORD God will give to Him the throne of His father David, ³³ and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end. ~ Luke 1:32-33

Jesus was not simply an ordinary man. Don’t get me wrong, Jesus was fully human, but that wasn’t all He was. Jesus was also fully God, but He set aside His Godliness and took the form of a helpless baby. He didn’t have to, He could have easily stayed on His throne in Heaven, but He didn’t. No, instead, He humbled Himself and took the form of a human so that we could live with Him forever.

Jesus didn’t get off of His throne so that He would have an everlasting Kingdom because His kingdom would’ve been everlasting whether He came to earth or not. He came to earth so that we would be with Him in His kingdom forever. He came so that no matter how hard life got, no matter how scary the times seemed, we would always have the hope of everlasting life with Him. That’s why Jesus came, not so that He would be rewarded, but so that we would be able to live. So, that His creation that He molded and formed and placed in their mother’s womb would have the opportunity to spend eternity with Him forever. His one goal on this earth was to save mankind.

When life feels too difficult, too bleak, too much to handle, look to God. Look to Jesus and remember He is still on His throne. No matter what happens in life, God is still seated on His throne. No one can move Him. No one shakes Him. God’s dominion and throne will never come to an end. It is from everlasting to everlasting.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Hold Your Peace This Christmas.

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Look For Your Star

“²saying, ‘Where is He who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw His star when it roseand have come to worship him.’” ~ Matthew 2:2

God set forth not only a sign for the Wise Men that Jesus had come but a star that led them straight to Him. God sets before each of us our own star that leads us to Salvation. A star that leads us to our call. And a star that leads us to every step we need to take in life, yet we don’t always see our stars.

We don’t always look up to see where we’re going or where to go next. Sometimes we’re too focused on what we want and what we think that we don’t take a second to look to the Heavens to see what God wants or thinks. This Christmas, look for your star, whether it’s a star leading you back home, to your call, or to your next step in life.

No matter what it is, put your faith and trust in God, not yourself or others, for God’s will for your life is perfect. And if you follow His star, you’ll find everything you could have ever wanted or needed.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Follow Your Star.

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Look For The Invisible

“³By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.” Hebrews 11:3

We believe that God created everything out of nothing. He spoke light into being. Birds. Fish. Trees. Grass. Etc. He created everything from nothing. He is a God that does not change. If He could create light out of nothing, He can create a path to your next step out of nothing. When you’re trapped in a situation, and you don’t know how you will be able to get out of it, God has a plan.

Even if you can’t see it, God can create a door where there is no door. If you can’t pay your bills. If you’ve just lost your job. No matter the case, if you place your trust in Him, He will create for you a path to victory, even if you can’t see it yet.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Look For The Invisible.

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