Devotionals Archives

March 27, 2024March 29, 2024

In Return

³⁹ Those who passed by were yelling insults at Him, shaking their heads ⁴⁰ and saying, “You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself! If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross!” ~ Matthew 27:39-40 ^CSB

Jesus was hanging on the cross. His body had been flogged and beaten unrecognizable. He was so weak He couldn’t even carry His own cross. A crown of thorns was pushed into His skull and beaten with a staff. Now, He was hanging on the cross struggling to breathe. Each breath is painful. And now those passing by are mocking and ridiculing Him.

They’re not just hurling insults at Him, they’re now taking what He said and twisting it and throwing it back at Him. Imagine it, these are the very people Jesus had come to save that are twisting His words and throwing them back at Him. He could have easily come down off of that cross shown them exactly what He had said that they were twisting, but He didn’t. He stayed on that cross and took every insult. Every lie. And then prayed for them.

Imagine that. Praying for those tormenting you because you love them. You know that if you get down off of that cross or even try to defend yourself, it’s over. So, you remain silent. You take the harsh words and hate. Then when you speak, you pray for them.

Dear LORD, please help me to love the way You loves. Help me to not return anger and hate with more anger and hate. Help me to love. Help me to bless when people curse me. Help me to pray for those who persecute me. Help me to remain silent when attacked. Help me to be more like You and less like me. In Jesus’ name, I pray, amen.

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Seek The New Covenant

²⁸After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the Scripture), “I thirst.” ²⁹A jar full of sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to His mouth. ³⁰When Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, “It is finished,” and He bowed His head and gave up His spirit. ~ John 19:28-30

Each Gospel describes Jesus receiving the sour wine while on the cross, but only John explains why this takes place. John states that Jesus knew all was now finished and then asked for sour wine to fulfill the Scripture.

The night before He was crucified, Jesus said that the cup represented the New Covenant. This is important to understand why Jesus said that all things were finished. Jesus wasn’t saying all prophecies were finished because He still had more prophecies to fulfill. In fact, there are still some prophecies and feasts that have to be fulfilled in the future. Therefore, Jesus wasn’t talking about fulfilling every single thing in this one action. Jesus was saying that He knew all things were finished. He sensed something in the Spirit.

We proclaim Christ’s death because in His death we died to sin, and because He raised to life again, will live to Him. In other words, we are no longer subject to sin, but sin has now become subject to Christ, who lives through us. And since we are no longer subject to sin when we die, death has no power over us, but instead, to be absent from the body is to be with the LORD (2 Corinthians 5:8).

The night before Jesus was crucified, Jesus spoke of a New Covenant for the first time. Before that Jesus never mentioned a New Covenant. Jesus waited til the last night before His death to mention the New Covenant because it hadn’t yet grown old and ready to vanish away. But after speaking of the New Covenant and making the old one obsolete and ready to vanish away, He went to the cross.

Jesus knew that the Old Covenant had grown old and was ready to pass away or vanish, not that every prophecy and law were fulfilled. This is why John added to fulfill Scripture (Psalms 69:21) right before He wrote Jesus’ words:

“I thirst.”

Jesus was fulfilling David’s prophecy that they would give Jesus sour wine to drink. Now, I want you to understand the importance of this. Jesus sensed in His Spirit that all things had been finished; in other words, the Old Covenant had grown old (Hebrews 8:13), so what did He do? He checks. How does He check? By asking for something to drink. And what do they give Him? Sour wine, and He accepts it. John specifically, in verse 30, says that He received the sour wine.

No longer are we under a covenant where sin uses what God created for our good against us (1 Corinthians 15:56-57). Now, we are under a new and better covenant (Hebrews 12:24) that isn’t based on works but on faith in Him (Ephesians 2:8-9). If Christ had not died on the cross that day 2000 years ago, the Old Covenant would have soured, and we would be without a covenant with God. We would be without hope at all. It is only through the death and resurrection of Christ Jesus that we have eternal life through following Him.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Seek The New Covenant.

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Don’t Overlook

²⁷“Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But for this purpose I have come to this hour.” ~ John 12:27

Jesus said, “Now is my soul troubled.” Jesus knew what awaited Him. It came as no surprise. I did a comparison with that one sentence, “Now is my soul troubled.” And every one of the different translations said the same exact thing. “Now is my soul troubled.”

Something was deeply troubling Jesus. Some say that it was because Jesus would be separated from the Father for the very first time. And that may be so, but that was not the only reason. The word ‘troubled’ doesn’t give us a fair picture of the extreme stress that Jesus was under, especially that last week we call passion week.

Think about Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. Remember, this is after the great Triumphant Entry celebration. The cursing of the fig tree. And the last supper. Judas has just betrayed the Savior. Jesus is praying just before He is arrested. This was it. The time had finally come. The time determined from eternity past. The time of mankind’s purchase back from death to life.

Jesus is praying to God the Father that if He is willing, if there is some other way, if only He didn’t have to go through what He was about to go through, please save Him from His great destiny, yet He prayed, not my will but Your great will be done.

Please notice that an angel from heaven came to Jesus to strengthen Him, but it was not enough. This was, as we say, where the rubber hits the road. This was the beginning of the cup He was to drink.

He was in so much anguish that He fell to the ground and His sweat became drops of blood. The path Jesus had to take in order to redeem us wasn’t an easy one. It wasn’t just a walk in the park. This was an extremely difficult load He was carrying. It was literally the weight of the entire world weighing down on His shoulders, yet we live our lives for ourselves.

We call ourselves devout if we pray before each meal and before bed. We should be living our lives as a thank offering before the LORD. Our freedom is only in Him, for it is only He that gives us life and life more abundantly.

Dear LORD, thank You for taking my sin upon Yourself. I’m sorry for all the times I didn’t live my life for You. Please help me to live my life as a living offering holy and acceptable to You. Help me to live each day thankful for all that You’ve done for me. Please help my heart not to grow cold. In Jesus’ name, I pray, amen.

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Lay Down Your Clothes

⁷They brought the colt to Jesus and threw their clothes on it, and he sat on it. ⁸Many people spread their clothes on the road, and others spread leafy branches cut from the fields. ~ Mark 11:7-8

When we think about Jesus’ Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem, we think about the Palm Branches and Jesus riding on a donkey. Oftentimes, we overlook that the Scriptures imply that the majority didn’t lay palm branches in front of Jesus, but instead, they laid down their clothes. By saying many did this and others did this, the author is implying that the many are the majority. The majority laid down their own clothes. They laid down all that they had before the LORD.

Early in Jesus’ ministry, He taught on faith. Specifically casting your anxiety onto God and having faith that He will clothe you and feed you (Matthew 6:25-34). They were putting this teaching into action, either knowingly or not. They threw their clothes before the LORD as they praised His name. They were building the Kingdom of God in faith, not caring about losing their earthly possessions.

Praise is one of the few things all with breath are to do (Psalms 150:6). This was their praise offering. They didn’t just declare Jesus the Messiah and praise His name; they praised Jesus with their actions. Their hearts were yearning for, seeking after, and following the Messiah. They praised Him with all that was in them because they understood who He was. This is the same kind of praise God desires from us. He desires us to praise Him with more than just our voices but with our actions.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Give An Offering of Praise.

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God Given Authority

²⁶ And 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 fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. ~ Genesis 1:26^KJV

From the very beginning, God’s intention was to create a world where His most prized possession (man) would have dominion or be in control. The earth is the LORD’s and everything in it, but He has given the authority or the rulership of earth to man. Now that man possesses this vested interest in the affairs of earth, God expects him to take dominion over all the jurisdiction that He has given him and to bring all of creation under the subjection of Almighty God. It is, therefore, our job to ensure that all of God’s creation obeys His rules and regulations and to bow at His throne.

But man gave it all up in the fall, and it fell into the hands of Satan, which he made very clear to Jesus when he told Him that all the kingdoms of the earth were given to him and he could give them to whomever he chose. But the good news is that Jesus bought it all back for us on the cross and gave it back to us again. Jesus came with the sole purpose of dying for mankind and giving them back life and life more abundantly.

During this time of the year, Easter time, we remember the suffering that Jesus went through. We remember the cross that He died upon. We remember His death and resurrection. We remember all of the great promises He has made to us; like when He promised us, “Ask whatever you want in my name, and I will do it.” So, what are you waiting for? Call those things that are not as if they are; you are in authority upon the earth. Stop acting like a second-class citizen. You are a child of God, blessed and highly favored.

Throw your hands up and praise God now for your God-given authority. Then fall on your knees and change your circumstances through prayer.

Father, I come in agreement with every prayer that is of You and ask that You would not only hear but that You would answer as well. That You would change the circumstances for the better for this brother or sister. In Jesus’ name, I pray, amen.

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Drenched In Blood

it on all sides of the altar. ¹³ They brought him the burnt offering piece by piece, along with the head, and he burned them on the altar. ¹⁴ He washed the entrails and the legs and burned them with the burnt offering on the altar. ~ Leviticus 9:12-14^CSB

When we think about forgiveness, oftentimes, we only think of the picture-perfect love of our Heavenly Father embracing us. Rarely do with think about the extremely painful price that had to be paid. There was never a time when forgiveness didn’t cost someone something. An innocent animal had to be slaughtered so Adam and Eve’s shame could be covered. Innocent animals had to be slaughtered in order to cover the sin of mankind after the flood. Innocent animals had to be slaughtered in order for Israel’s sin to be rolled over another year. Jesus, the innocent Lamb of God, had to be slaughtered on a tree in order to wash clean the souls of those who would accept forgiveness.

Forgiveness isn’t pretty. It isn’t sweet. It’s a cold and broken hallelujah. The moment we realize the true cost of our actions is when we begin to understand the price Jesus paid for us. The image of the altar of the Old Testament can be seen as a foreshadowing of the body of Christ. No longer does God come down on the Mercy Seat to meet us; He dwells in us. No longer do we sprinkle the blood of an innocent animal on the altar; God covers us in His perfect, blameless blood.

Love isn’t sweet and innocent. It’s painful and heartbreaking. Jesus had to take the sin of the entire world onto Himself and die in order to cancel the debt of sin. Then after He rose again, He had to cover us in His blood.

The cost of sin isn’t cheap. It’s the cost of a life. One day, we will all stand before the LORD, and on that day, He’s looking for His blood. Those who aren’t covered in His blood will have to pay their own debt. They’ll have to spend eternity in Hell away from the LORD. But to those who have been covered in the blood, they will dwell with Him forever and ever on the new earth that He will create for us and Himself.

Dear LORD, please help me not to be ungrateful for the price that You paid on the cross so that You could cancel my debt. Thank You that You gave Yourself for me so that I might escape my well-deserved fate. Thank You for Your love. Help me to realize the weight and severity of my own sin. Teach me to love You with all my heart, mind, and soul. In Jesus’ name, I pray, amen.

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A Justified Enemy

⁹ How much more then, since we have now been justified by His blood, will we be saved through Him from wrath. ¹⁰ For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, then how much more, having been reconciled, will we be saved by His life. ~ Romans 5:9-10^CSB

Christ died for us while we were still His enemy. He didn’t die for the righteous because there was none to die for; no, instead, He died for the unrighteous—the sinner and betrayer—the very ones who put Him on the cross and the ones who would blaspheme Him in the future. Christ, the perfect Lamb of God, died for His enemy.

This is the reason salvation is so important because, without it, you will die as an enemy of God. What does that mean? Jesus refers to Hell as a place of gnashing of teeth. This isn’t because of the pain that the people will be in, but that they’ll be tortured in Hell. That there are torturers who are tormenting those in Hell because they’ve chosen to be an enemy of God. So, those torturers are gnashing their teeth against those in Hell on behalf of God.

Dear LORD, please forgive me for every temptation I have given into. Please continue to wash me clean and cleanse me from all unrighteousness. Thank You for Your blood that washes me clean. Thank You for Your sacrifice because I don’t deserve it. Thank You for Your perfect love that keeps me safe from all evil. Thank You, LORD, for calling my name and forming me into a new creation in You. In Jesus’ name, I pray, amen.

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Get Rid of The Old Yeast

⁶Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? ⁷Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. ⁸Let us therefore celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. ~ 1 Corinthians 5:6-8

The NIV says, “Get rid of the old yeast.” In Scripture, yeast, or leaven, represents sin. In this passage, Paul is dealing with sexual immorality in the church there at Corinth. One of their members has taken his father’s wife as his own wife. Therefore, Paul instructs them to get rid of the yeast. Get the sin out of their midst because if they do not, it will infect the whole church, one by one, and soon, the whole batch will be infected with sin.

If you think about it, that is basically what is happening in the church today. We tolerate the leaven in our church because the person is a celebrity or they are a good tithe payer, and we don’t want to upset them. Or the church simply bows to the political pressures of society, ignoring God’s commands to us. But that is not Paul’s instruction to the Corinthian church. He told them straight up, get rid of the yeast that is in your presence, or it will infect your whole church.

It is the same thing that God instructed the Israelites before they entered the Promised Land. Get rid of the sin in the land. Smash their sacred altars. Breakdown their Asherah Poles. Destroy anything that is used for idol worship. If you do not get rid of all of that, it will be a snare to you. They will be like briers in your eyes. Because a little leaven leavens the whole batch.

It is the same with the new Christian. God does not expect you to get saved and then change overnight, but He does expect you to seek holiness, without which no man shall see God. That means you don’t keep making the same mistakes you made last year or even last month. You don’t use grace as an excuse for your own slackness. God understands, or I know I’m not living the way I’m supposed to, but thank God for Grace. No, God wants you to mature because His Son suffered and died so you can live a higher life.

Paul puts it this way: Christ, our Passover Lamb, has been sacrificed; therefore, let us get rid of all the yeast, which represents sin, out of our lives so that we can pursue holiness. So, this Easter, make it a point to get rid of the yeast of malice and evil out of your life. Get rid of quick-temperedness, course joking, slack-talking, cussing, watching things Christians have no business watching, and whatever else that prevents your spiritual growth.

Father, help me to live the things I believe, to practice what I preach, and to be an example to those who watch. Help me to let my light so shine that others may see my good works and glorify You. In Jesus’ name, I pray, amen.

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Unclean To Clean

³¹ You must keep the Israelites from their uncleanness, so that they do not die by defiling my tabernacle that is among them. ~ Leviticus 15:31^CSB

In the Law of Moses, God explained that certain natural bodily functions were unclean; some even required a sacrifice at the end of the days they were unclean for. At first glance, this sounds unfair and quite mean of God, but when you take into account that God is preparing them for the new and better covenant, it begins to make sense.

See, in the Law of Moses, bodily functions out of our own control made us unclean, but today our fleshly desires that feel natural and out of our own control, are what make us unclean. No longer are the things out of our control what is separating us from God. Instead, no temptation that has ever come to us not tempted someone else. In fact, we overcome because Christ first overcame.

No longer is our own uncleanness out of our control. Now, we have been given the power, authority, and weapons to overcome all temptation of the enemy. No sin is who we are. No sin did God plague us with. We are called out of darkness into His everlasting Light so that we might be transformed by the renewal of our mind and be the very dwelling place of God Himself.

Dear LORD, please forgive me for every sin I’ve given into. Please forgive me for every sin I’ve claimed as just who I am. Cancel my words of death, lies, and separation from You, for You created me to be with You. Your desire is for my good and not for evil. Please fill me with the Spirit of Discernment so that I might know the difference between Your Truth and the lies of the world and my flesh. Please cover me in Your precious blood and protect me from every attack of the enemy. Teach me to put on the full armor so that I might stand strong in the day of temptation. In Jesus’ name, I pray, amen.

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Be A Willing Vessel

²⁰ But there were some of them, men of Cyprus and Cyrene, who on coming to Antioch spoke to the Hellenists also, preaching the Lord Jesus. ~ Acts 11:20

Simon of Cyrene was forced by a Roman soldier to carry Jesus’ cross. Simon didn’t just go back to his everyday life after coming in contact with the Messiah. No. After this, his two sons became disciples of Christ. Men from the same city as him found Christ as well. So much so that when they came to Antioch, they preached Jesus to the Hellenists.

Today, the Church desires and attempts to keep their encounter with the Christ a secret in the name of tolerance, respect, and love, but this isn’t the purpose of the Church. We are to be the light of the world, for we are to tell and lead people to the Light, Jesus. We are to state the good news and all that He’s done for us. We are to be like Simon the Cyrene, who didn’t keep his encounter to himself but instead told all willing and allowed Christ to shine through him as a willing vessel.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Be A Willing Vessel.

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Tag: Devotionals

In Return

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