Devotionals Archives

September 17, 2021September 17, 2021

Fight For Your Marriage

³And Pharisees came up to him and tested him by asking, “Is it lawful to divorce one’s wife for any cause?” ⁴He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, ⁵and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? ⁶So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.” ~ Matthew 19:3-6

God instituted marriage from the very beginning. He intended for man and woman to be together, not just physically but spiritually. In a sense, He created man to complete woman and woman to complete man because everything woman isn’t man is, and everything man isn’t woman is. But today, 50% of marriages end in divorce.

Why? Because we bought into the lie, that marriage is a 50/50 arrangement. That will only give you a 50% chance to win. It is a 100% effort on both sides. Both of you will need to put in 100%. Husbands, it’s your job to keep the love in the marriage. It’s your responsibility to foster a safe and loving home. You must love your wife as Christ loves the Church. You have to be willing to give up everything, including your own life, for her.

Wives, it’s your responsibility to nurture respect. Today, we live in a society that tries to make women feel demeaned for the man being the head of the household. We turn it into a feminist problem, but just like the hand is not more important than the head, neither is the husband more important than the wife. We have different roles, and that’s okay. Don’t allow the world to turn you into a victim or ruin your marriage.

Don’t give up on your marriage. Fight for the one you love.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Fight For Your Marriage.

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The Jonah Call

¹ The word of the LORD came to Jonah son of Amittai: ² “Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.” ~ Jonah 1:1-12

God was concerned about Nineveh. He was going to destroy it because of the wickedness of the people. But He remembered that there were more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons who did not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle living in Nineveh.

God wanted someone to stand in the gap and go and warm them for Him so that He would not have to destroy the whole city. But Jonah ran away and wouldn’t go.

I wonder, is God calling you to a great revival in your family? Has He asked you to stand in the gap so that He doesn’t have to bring about the threat He has threatened?

Well, God has called each one of us to a specific task and a specific work. But in general, He wants you to witness so that those who we witness to will have an opportunity to hear and believe.

Do not do as Jonah did and run away from your God-given mandate. God wants to be merciful, so help Him to be by witnessing to as many people as possible.

Dear Heaven, thank You that we can be a part of what you are doing in the earth. Thank You that allow us to stand in the gap and see many of our loved ones and friends saved. Pour out Your conviction and your mercy, oh LORD! Touch and save the lost, in Jesus’ name, amen.

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Love 100%

³¹“Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” ³²This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. ~ Ephesians 5:31-32

Statistics tell us that 50% (that is, one in two) of new marriages end in divorce today. I’ve figured out the reason why?

We’ve all been counseled or at least heard at one time or the other that a marriage is 50/50. Right? Haven’t we? Well, I’m here to tell you that is wrong. If you put in 50%, then your relationship will have a 50% chance of surviving. The statistics back me up on that.

A covenant marriage requires 100% contribution/effort/participation/involvement (however you want to say it), but it needs 100% in order for it to work.

So many of us, when we get saved, have this same perspective when it comes to our relationship with Christ. We, the Church, are the bride of Christ. And as the bride of Christ, we have to put more effort into our relationship with our God. We can’t expect to put in 50% effort and succeed. God isn’t bringing 50%. He isn’t even bringing 100%. He brings 100+%. He said I came to give you life and life MORE ABUNDANTLY. He didn’t say I’d take you halfway to the cross, then you gotta do the rest yourself. No. He said, I’ll take you all the way to the cross, and when you’re feeling too weak to walk after, I’ll pick you up and carry you myself because I love you.

That’s what love is. It’s reckless. It’s willingly putting yourself at risk over and over again for the sake of the one you love. It’s putting in 100% and then some, even if your partner won’t, in the hope that they will follow in pursuit of your beautiful, reckless love. That’s how we have to live our relationship with Christ. We have to put our own life, wants, desires at risk for the sake of our relationship with God because our relationship with Him is all that matters.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Love 100%.

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Rein In The Wild Elephant

“¹Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. ‘²Honor your father and mother’—which is the first commandment with a promise— ‘³that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth.’ ⁴Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.” ~ Ephesians 6:1-4^NIV

I saw a video from 60 minutes where juvenile delinquent elephants brutally murdered about 30 rhinos. What had happened was elephant families were broken up, and only the young elephants were transported to a different park, and they grew up without adult supervision. These young elephants then formed an elephant gang and were going around harassing and killing rhinos. The rangers were bewildered at first, then they began to look into this and figured out that the young elephants were killing the rhinos and not poachers. This was baffling for them at first; then, they realized that these hooligans had no role models.

Social rules and protocols are not something innate, it is learned, it is taught, it is modeled by adults. Males learn from males, and females learn from females, and, if it is the plan of God in the animal kingdom, how much more in the human kingdom.

So, what the rangers did was to select some big strong male elephant bulls, and after tranquilizing them, they transported them to where the young teenage gangsters were. With the arrival of the adult male figure and role model, the young elephant gang was soon reined in, and peace between the elephants and rhinos ensued. The rhino murder rate fell to zero.

The whole thing, peace thing, according to the rangers, was all thanks to the introduction of the positive role model of the adult elephant bulls. Not only is it important in the elephant community, but it is just as important in human lives as well. Today we have so many young men killing each other. So many mothers now have to mourn their sons’ deaths because they were taken too soon.

We have the power to change the lives of so many people, but we have to desire to change their lives first. We can say that change is necessary. We can hashtag this and repost that, but unless we actually take a stand and do something, we might as well be asleep unaware of what’s going on. The only thing that can prolong evil is for good people not to do anything. If we would wake up from our spiritual laziness and make the conscious effort to change just one person’s life, then we could change the entire world. It starts with you.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Rein In The Wild Elephant.

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Take a Stand

²¹For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. ²²If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. ²³I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. ²⁴But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account. ²⁵Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all, for your progress and joy in the faith, ²⁶so that in me you may have ample cause to glory in Christ Jesus, because of my coming to you again. ~ Philippians 1:21–26

I understand that they are trying their hardest to make this world no longer be enjoyable. I get it. I recognize that we are all striving for the day when we get to be with the LORD forever. But I also understand my duty to my God and to my brothers and sisters in Christ.

See, Paul recognized his responsibility to his church family. He understood the importance of his role as teacher, intercessor, and example setter. He understood that if we all, once committed to Christ, returned to Christ, there would be none to witness to others. There would be no shepherds. There would be no teachers. There would be no sowers. There would be no harvesters.

Yes, I understand that the weight of this world is heavy. I understand the struggles and tribulations that come with each day. I understand the pain and suffering that can occur, but I also understand the need for Christians on this earth. So, for as long as Christ will prolong my life, I will live gladly spreading His gospel. I will preach and teach of the mercy, love, and second coming of Christ. We don’t have forever to reach the entire world. We only have a short time to win as many souls as we can, and with sin becoming more and more prevalent and acceptable in our society, the more Christians are necessary. Christians that will stand for justice, truth, righteousness, and love. Christians that will stand for Christ Jesus.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Take a Stand.

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Work While You Can

¹¹The saying is trustworthy, for: If we have died with Him, we will also live with Him; ¹²if we endure, we will also reign with Him; if we deny Him, He also will deny us; ¹³if we are faithless, He remains faithful—for He cannot deny Himself. ~ 2 Timothy 2:11-13

Grandparents, remind your grandchildren of the love of God. Remind them of His goodness, but also remind them of His judgment. We cannot separate the two. I know there is a school of thought out there that teaches that it doesn’t matter what you do; God will always love you.

That is a false teaching. It gives a faults sense of security. Let’s people become lax in their Christian faith, in the fight for their souls and the souls of their loved ones.

It matters a whole lot what you do. Yes, God will remain faithful, even if we are not faithful because He cannot deny who He is. But there is coming a time when sheep will be separated from the goats—the goats to the left and the sheep to the right.

Don’t let yourself lose the battle for your grandchildren’s souls. Fight while you can still fight for them. Influence their lives while you are still influential. Pray for them while you are still alive and can pray on their behalf. There is no such thing as a day off or retirement in this life. We only have this one life to influence and teach our children and our children’s children.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Work While You Can.

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Build Your Endurance

¹⁶So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. ~ 1 John 4:16

We have to work in order to abide with and in God. We can’t live our lives however we want simply because we believe God loves us. Why? Because love is a two-way street. If God shows His love for us by His actions, then He expects the same from us. Our Salvation was paid for in full, but that doesn’t mean it ends there.

Now, we have to run. We have to run like our lives depend on it because it does. Our lives depend on whether our actions match our words. God isn’t going to hold us captive; we have to want to be with Him. In order to remain with Him, we have to follow His commands. We have to make a change.

Running the race set before us isn’t easy. It can be tiring, discouraging, stressful, and hard at times, but endurance is built with persistence and the grace of God. We have to fight for our lives. Don’t relax now that you are saved; this is the time to grow. We only have one life to do as much as we can for Christ. To do as much as we can to grow in our relationship with God.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Build Your Endurance.

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Change Your Focus

¹Truly God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart. ²But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled, my steps had nearly slipped. ³For I was envious of the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. ~ Psalms 73:1–19

Today, we Christians have taken our eyes off of the eternal.

- We no longer look to Jesus
- We no longer stand on His promises
- We no longer rest secure in His Word
- We no longer take comfort in, “Thus sayeth the LORD.”

When we look to Hollywood and celebrities for guidance, when we look to our politicians and our representative for hope, or when we completely abandoned Jesus and His promises, we will be greatly disappointed because the majority of the time, the politician does not necessarily have our best interest in at heart.

I wish the Church would get back to the Biblical truths instead of getting in bed with the enemy.

The Psalm we just read is a prime example of the Church today. We’ve fallen spiritually asleep because we are too caught up in the tv shows, Hollywood, and the rich and famous that we seem to think that they are our best friends, and we are prepared to fight tooth and nail to defend them.

Christians are prepared to get up at 3 O’Clock in the morning to watch the royal wedding but can’t get up for 10 am to go to church. Hmmm!

The world and all of its delicacies is constantly trying to woo us over. We see them driving the nice cars, and some have their own jet. They live in huge mansions with exquisite Olympic pools and beautiful gardens. And it’s easy to get lost in all the noise, but we have to stand firm. We have to focus on the Almighty. We have to turn our attention to God because it’s only through Him that we have life. If we don’t, we’ll remain in a spiritual slumber that will lead to a spiritual death.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Change Your Focus.

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Ask Your Heavenly Father

¹⁶ The heavens are the Lord’s heavens, but the earth He has given to the children of man. ~ Psalms 115:16

He gave us, mankind, the earth; therefore, He expects us to run it and take authority over it. Genesis 1:26 confirms this. Look at what God decrees over Adam and Eve.

²⁶Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
Genesis 1:26

Therefore, God uses/needs man to accomplish things on the earth, and examples are splashed throughout the Scriptures.

- Egypt’s punishment – Thru Moses and Aaron
- Israel’s rescue – Thru the judges
- The punishment of Israel – Thru the Assyrians
- Judah’s punishment – Thru the Babylonians
- The Babylonian punishment – Thru the Mede’s and Persians
- And on and on

This is the importance of not only fulfilling the call on our lives but praying and crying out to God. God doesn’t do anything on the earth without first hearing the cries of His people. He knows what we need before we ask, but He never interferes in our lives unless He is asked. And when His children ask, He answers.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Ask Your Heavenly Father.

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Take Your One Opportunity

^27b … it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment. ~ Hebrews 9:27b

When I was a child, it seemed like Christmas came every two years. Now, it seems like Christmas comes every six months. You can hardly put away Christmas decorations when we are hauling them out again. And now, with the time just flying by, it is easy to keep putting off your relationship with God without realizing, “Oops, you’re out of time.”

Today is the day of repentance; tomorrow is promised to no man, or woman, or child.

That is why it is so extremely important that you understand that we only have this one opportunity to get it right. I cannot stress that enough.

We only have one chance at the life we’re given, and our lives aren’t long. Each generation seems to die younger and younger. We’ve got one chance to live our lives for Christ. One opportunity to reach as many lost souls as possible.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Take Your One Opportunity.

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