Tag: Devotionals

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Go Outside The Camp

10 We have an altar from which those who worship at the tabernacle do not have a right to eat. 11 For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the most holy place by the high priest as a sin offering are burned outside the camp. 12 Therefore, Jesus also suffered outside the gate, so that he might sanctify the people by his own blood. 13 Let us, then, go to him outside the camp, bearing his disgrace. 14 For we do not have an enduring city here; instead, we seek the one to come. ~ Hebrews 13:10-14CSB

Every right we have was paid for us by Christ Jesus. He went before and made a way for us. He did this by first being crucified outside the camp. What does that mean? Well, we can look at the camp as the world. The world is like the soul of the earth, and it’s bound to the number of days the earth has left until it will no longer be found on Judgment Day (Revelation 20:11). Jesus was crucified outside of the world. We have many rights because of this, but two main ones are that:

  1. We are no longer a part of the world but called out of the world ( John 15:19).
  2. We can be saved regardless of the time period in which we are born (John 20:29).

If Christ were crucified in the world, He would not have been able to call others out of the world. Christ had to be crucified out of the world in order to ensure each and every person who has ever lived had the opportunity to either accept His salvation or decline it.

Everything God does is for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purposes. Therefore, we must go outside the camp, outside the world we currently live in, in order to find the God who loves us and created us. The world may offer us shiny objects, but what Christ is offering is eternal. One day, the world will no longer be here, but there will never be a time when Christ is not here. He is the first, the last; the beginning, the end; the Alpha, the Omega. He is our Eternal, Everlasting God. Nothing on this earth can truly give us a replacement for what He’s offering; it’s all just a cheap knockoff.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Go Outside The Camp.

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Consult God First

14 So the men took some of their provisions, but did not ask counsel from the Lord. ~ Joshua 9:14

The people of Israel had just entered their Promised Land. The Gibeonites heard all about what Joshua and his army were doing to the other cities in the land, and they were afraid. So, they came deceptively and tricked the elders of Israel. They showed them worn-out clothes and shoes, stale bread, and worn-out wineskins and told them they had come from a very distant country.

The elders believed what they heard, confirmed by what they saw, and they made a peace treaty with them. They gave those men their word without input from God. Three days later, they heard that those same men had tricked them and that they were actually their neighbors.

Now that these elders had given them their word, they could not break it because they swore it before God.

The key, or the problem, rather, was that the elders did not consult God about the matter.

Christians today make the same mistake. They make alliances with people they should not make alliances with. They go to places they should not be at. They accept favors from their enemy without even knowing it. Because they make these decisions with their flesh. They sample the wares. They look with their own eyes and listen with their own ears, but they don’t consult the LORD their God.

Spiritual laziness and prayerlessness have become the downfall of today’s Church. The Christian thinks with their flesh, driven by their greed and desire. It is like Jesus said to Peter, “Get thee behind me, Satan, for you do not have the things of God in mind, but the things of man.

So, the next time you have a decision to make, consult God. Before you forge unauthorized relationships, consult God. Before you fall for the biggest lie of the century, consult God.

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Don’t Be The One Hit

12 Then the disciples came and said to him, “Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this saying?” ~ Matthew 15:12

Have you ever heard the maxim, “Throw a stone in the pigpen, and the one that squeals is the one the stone hit?” When you speak truth, and someone is offended, that means that the person offended knows that they aren’t living their lives in accordance with the Word of God. If you tell someone that you disagree with a certain action or lifestyle and they are offended, then they, in some way, are connected to that action or lifestyle, and they know deep down that you are right.

The only reason someone is offended is if they are the one who was hit by the stone that was thrown. You may say, oh, but brother Kenny, maybe they are sympathetic to the cause. If you identify with the cause, you are a partaker in the cause; thus, you suffer or celebrate as the cause suffers or celebrates. Which means, “You’re one with the cause; the cause is with you.”

Truth should never offend; it should only set free. Facts should never offend; they should only educate. If you are an easily offended person, then you should examine yourself and ask yourself why you’re offended so easily. Is it because you have a spirit of rejection? Is it because you’re prideful? Is it because you’re living in sin, and you know that it’s wrong?

The Truth can only stop being offensive when you accept it, believe it, and let it set you free.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Don’t Be The One Hit.

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What’s In Your Heart?

17 Do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth passes into the stomach and is expelled? 18 But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person. 19 For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. 20 These are what defile a person. ~ Matthew 15:17-20

The mouth only speaks what is in the heart. In other words, whatever is in abundance in the heart, that is what the mouth cannot help but speak. Why? Because it is the most dominant, making it the most influential.

Ever heard the saying, “The squeaky wheel gets the most grease?”

Whatever the heart is full of will spill out of it and into the mouth and consequently be expressed in words.

Therefore, if your heart is full of

  • Hatred
  • And anger
  • And slander
  • And accusations
  • And talebearing
  • And gossip

That is what the mouth speaks because the mouth speaks only what it hears coming from the heart, and what it hears, it repeats. So, if you want to know what is in a person’s heart, listen to their words. Not only what they say but what they do not say.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and What’s In Your Heart?

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Be Careful What You Say

11 The mouth of the righteous is a well of life, But violence covers the mouth of the wicked. ~ Proverbs 10:11NKJV

Because of the words spoken by the righteous, there is life, a well of life. But the words of the wicked are not the same. Violence seeps in, and violence covers the mouths of wicked men.

We are to put away filthy talk from amongst ourselves when we are Christians because words defile us. It is not what goes into the mouth but what comes out of the mouth that defiles us, according to Jesus (Matthew 15:11).

Words bring life, or they bring death, and those who love it will eat its fruit. Whether good or bad, whether healthy or harmful, you will eat the fruits that you cultivate with your words.

There is wisdom in the words of the childhood song, “Oh Be Careful Little Mouth.”

Oh, be careful, little mouth, what you say,
Oh, be careful, little mouth, what you say.
There’s a Father up above looking down in tender love,
So, be careful, little mouth, what you say.

Truly our words hold the power of life and death because in them is the power to create or to teardown.

The very first chapter of the very first book of the Bible states that God spoke everything into being. It says that God said, “Let there be light, and light was.” It didn’t hesitate, and it didn’t stop being. And so it continued on for the next five days; God said, “Let there be, and there was.”

God’s words are creative; how can we, His children, the Bride of the Lamb, speak any different? We must speak words of life.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Be Careful What You Say.

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With Much Fear and Trembling

12 Dear friends, you always followed my instructions when I was with you. And now that I am away, it is even more important. Work hard to show the results of your salvation, obeying God with deep reverence and fear. ~ Philippians 2:12NLT

I saw a short of a devout Muslim man whose wife had just given birth to their first child. He explained that he was so scared of evil eye and, therefore, losing the child that he didn’t tell anyone, even his mom, that his wife was pregnant. This made me feel so sad. This man is a devout Muslim who prays daily, goes to the mosque, fasts, knows his Quran, but there’s nothing to protect him from evil eye with all that he does. Think about it.

We Christians are promised to be covered by the Blood of the Lamb, a hedge of protection built around us, angels of God concerning us, the prayers of Jesus Himself for us, and the authority of the name of Jesus to cast down and tear down all manner of evil spoken against us, yet we don’t even pray once a day for 10 minutes. This man isn’t even promised eternal life by his god, yet he’s devout to his god. Whereas Christians are promised eternal life and more, but we don’t give God the time of day.

We as Christians get so caught up in the love of God that we forget that there is likewise a wrath of God, which then makes us complacent. This complacency renders its users useless in the art of winning souls and disciplining the nations. True, God is love. True, it’s His love that saves us and keeps us, but never forget that that same love can turn to wrath if trampled upon. Therefore, serve the LORD in the beauty of holiness and work out your salvation with much fear and trembling.

Heavenly Father, thank you for loving me. Please help me never to forget my purpose or to become complacent. Give me the strength and the boldness to be a witness for You. In Jesus’ name, I pray, amen.

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Fill Up On The Good

45 A good person produces good out of the good stored up in his heart. An evil person produces evil out of the evil stored up in his heart, for his mouth speaks from the overflow of the heart. ~ Luke 6:45CSB

I remember being in university, and a friend of mine told me that they were starting to subconsciously take the LORD’s name in vain when something happened, and they didn’t like it. I don’t remember what my response was or what happened after that, but I remember her saying that. See, at the time, we weren’t living our best Christian lives. We were listening to secular music and filling ourselves with darkness for a period of time. During that time, her subconscious had become darker than light.

See, it wasn’t that we were only filled with darkness that was the problem, but it was that the darkness began to spill over because it had grown more than the Light. As humans, our soul is a vessel that will either have good or evil. It will either be a light or a shade. The state of the Church is much like my friend was while we were acting like heathens.

The Church has a form of love for God, but we don’t fill ourselves with Him; we fill ourselves with the world. And if we seek out God, it’s only on Sunday mornings. Monday through Saturday, God doesn’t hear a peep from us; Sunday morning comes around. We show Him a few moments of our time, and then we’re back to being with the Devil until next Sunday.

Our thoughts are a reflection of our hearts. If it’s filled with foul language, anger, lust, etc., it’s because those are the things we’ve been feeding our hearts. If we want to change our thoughts, we need to change our hearts. How? Repenting of everything we’ve done that we weren’t to do and then replace it with Godly action. We do this by spending time in prayer, worship, and Bible reading daily. We fill ourselves with the good things of God and not the evil things of the world.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Fill Up On The Good.

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Prepare For The New

19 See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland. ~ Isaiah 43:19

Renewing your mind is basically changing the way you think. Replacing negative thoughts with positive thoughts. Replacing pessimistic words with words of optimism. Casting down the same old, same old, for the fresh and new.

Therefore:

  • Do not let circumstances dictate what kind of day you will have
  • Do not let someone else’s words disrupt your peace
  • Do not let negative thoughts, which are most probably not true in the first place, take up residence in your mind
  • Do not speak rash or say the first thing that pops into your mind
  • Your thoughts become your words, and your words will eventually lead to your destiny

Why? Because God is doing a new thing. Therefore, the responsibility is on us to tune in to His frequencies by the renewing of our minds. We stop focusing on the things that are now, that are keeping us down, and we start speaking God’s promises instead.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Prepare For The New.

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Rewire Your Mind

7 For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he: ~ Proverbs 23:7KJV

As humans think, that is who we are. Meaning that we become our most intimate, and most pronounced thoughts. My daughter, Arie, has a quote on her wall which reads:

Watch your thoughts,
they become words.
Watch your words,
they become actions.
Watch your actions,
they become habits.
Watch your habits,
they become your character.
Watch your character,
It becomes your destiny

Your destiny can be determined by something as small as your thoughts, and that is why it is so important and necessary to renew your mind. Basically, your destiny depends on it. The Scripture is as plain as day: if you think about sinful things, you will be dominated by a sinful nature. But if you want to be controlled by the Spirit of God, and if you want to please God and have His peace that passes all understanding, then you must have thoughts that are pleasing to the Spirit.

If you say, “I will never make it,” then you will never make it. Your words determine your destiny. So, watch your words. Be intentional with your words, for the enemy is always watching, looking for a way to trip you up and keep you from reaching your true potential in Christ Jesus.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Rewire Your Mind.

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Hold To What Is Steady

5 Those who are dominated by the sinful nature think about sinful things, but those who are controlled by the Holy Spirit think about things that please the Spirit. 6 So letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to death. But letting the Spirit control your mind leads to life and peace. 7 For the sinful nature is always hostile to God. It never did obey God’s laws, and it never will. 8 That’s why those who are still under the control of their sinful nature can never please God. ~ Romans 8:5-8

Culture shifts daily. It’s an ever-changing, never satisfying, shifting world. Therefore, society needs to have some sort of standard in order to not go into total depravity, which we are not far from today. For instance, today, we have groups of people getting together to promote the normalization of people who feel like dogs. So, they get together and howl together like dogs. They walk around on all fours, barking while on leashes. This is crazy. This is not normal behavior. It seems like society is ‘pulling out all the stops’ in order to make the abnormal normal; we need a balance.

But for that, we need an unchanging standard, which is God, Who is ultimately our final judge. For the Word of God says that the LORD does not change (Malachi 3:6a and Hebrews 13:8). How do we combat this darkness? We start with us. Paul urges us to not let society or popular culture dictate our thoughts and, ultimately, our actions by accepting their perverted notion of morality.

But How Do We Renew Our Minds?

Well, first of all, we must make a conscious decision to make a change. But before we can actually make a change, we must identify the problem or the thing we wish to change, like anger, lust, and other things that God frowns on.

What I mean is to bring our lives into alignment with God. But how do we do that? By knowing what the Word of God says. You can only know what the Word of God says if you read the Word of God for yourself.

Craig Groeschel said, “Our lives move in the direction of our strongest thoughts.”

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Hold To What Is Steady.

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