Devotionals Archives

November 10, 2023November 7, 2023

Prepare, His Return Nigh

¹³And He said, “Hear then, O house of David! Is it too little for you to weary men, that you weary my God also? ¹⁴Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.” ~ Isaiah 7:13-14

It was because of Ahaz’s rebellion and blatant disbelief that he wouldn’t ask the LORD for a sign. He was putting his hope and trust in idols, not in the Living God. So, he refused to commit himself to God by asking for a sign because if he did, then he would have been obligated to trust God. So, God responded by saying that He Himself would give a sign by sending a deliverer to not only save Israel but will save everyone who will believe, whomsoever will…

Jesus came to be the way for everyone from every nation, every tribe, and every tongue. No one is left out, excluded, or disqualified from the plan of salvation. Whomsoever will, can come and receive through faith the free gift of salvation.

That prophecy came to pass over 700 years after it was made in the God-man Jesus Christ. The promise of Revelation 21 was given to us over 2,000 years ago. And not one of God’s good promises has ever failed, and this one will not either.

So, prepare yourself and your house; Jesus is coming back. Make no mistake, He will come back to get us so that where He is, there we will be also, and there we will be with Him forever and ever.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Prepare For His Return.

Back to Growth?

Back to Daily Bread?

Rejoice For The New Covenant

²⁴ for “All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, ²⁵ but the word of the Lord remains forever.” And this word is the good news that was preached to you. ~ 1 Peter 1:24-25

The LORD promised that one day, He would write His Word on our hearts. When Jesus came, rose, resurrected, ascended, and sent His Holy Spirit, He made this a reality. For when He sent His Holy Spirit to dwell in us, Christ Himself also came to dwell in our hearts as well. And who is Christ? He is the Word of the LORD. That is why the Word of the LORD is living and active, sharper than any double-edged sword.

This is why it’s so important that we don’t just read the Word of God but memorize it and apply it to our lives so that it’ll be written on our hearts. This is how Christ dwells in us and through us, by our actions of studying, memorizing, meditating on, and letting His Word change us. This is the new and better covenant that was promised so many years ago. The promise of a covenant that not only changes us but brings us closer to God.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Rejoice For The New Covenant.

Back to Thankful?

Back to Daily Bread?

Abide and Bear

¹⁵ I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. ~ John 15:1

We are the branches, Jesus is the vine, and our Heavenly Father is the vinedresser. What is the role of a vinedresser in the vineyard? First, the vinedresser selects the canes that will grow the branches. Second, he inspects every branch to make sure they are growing properly, and he prunes off any spare or unwanted canes so that the branches can have room to grow and grow vigorously. He doesn’t expect the branch to produce fruit the first day or the first month even, but he does expect them to grow and grow healthy and then, in their season, bear fruit.

Then, he passes through the vineyard again and prunes off all unwanted buds and shoots before the growth spurt leading up to flowering and pollination starts. The vinedresser is always inspecting and always pruning for maximum fruit production. In fact, the whole season is all about pruning for optimum fruit production. He inspects the trunk, which is the vine, and removes any growth that is coming out on it because it is not supposed to be there.

In the parable of the Good Shepherd, Jesus said that if any man does not enter the sheepfold by the door, he is a thief, John chapter 10:1-2. Then, in Matthew 22, He tells the parable of the Wedding Feast. In it, He said that a man came into the wedding without having wedding garments on. When the king came in to inspect the guests, He saw a man there without wedding garments. He asked him how he got in without wedding garments.

The man could not answer, so the king called the attendants and instructed them to bind the man hand and foot and cast him into outer darkness, where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. Please understand you may look like one of the wedding guests. You may act like one of the wedding guests. You may go to church every Sunday. You may claim to know Jesus. You may even teach a Sunday school class, but if you don’t truly know Jesus, or better yet, if Jesus doesn’t know you… if you don’t abide in His love… if you don’t bear fruit… You don’t have a chance. You will be thrown out into outer darkness.

Dear LORD, please help me to not just go through the motions but to fully submit myself to You. Help me to have a true desire and yearning for You. Teach me to pant for You like a deer pants for water. For You alone have living water. Please forgive me for all the times I chose the things of the world over You. Thank You for Your never-ending love and Your mercy that’s renewed each and every morning. In Jesus’ name, I pray, amen.

Back to Growth?

Back to Daily Bread?

Be A Willing Soul

³⁰And I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it: but I found none. ³¹Therefore have I poured out mine indignation upon them; I have consumed them with the fire of my wrath: their own way have I recompensed upon their heads, saith the Lord God. ~ Ezekiel 22:30-31

All God needed to make intercession for His people was one man, one woman, one child, just one person who was willing to take Him at His WORD and say, ‘Greater is He that is in me than he that is in the world.’ One person to stand and fight. One person to intercede for the rest that the rest might be saved, but He found none.

Today is no different. God is looking for one person to stand in the gap. One person to pray. One person to fully follow Him and spread His Word. God can do mighty things through one willing soul. God changed the entire gentile world with one willing soul, Paul.

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

Back to Growth?

Back to Daily Bread?

Escape What Is Coming

¹⁹I know your works, your love and faith and service and patient endurance, and that your latter works exceed the first. ~ Revelation 2:19

¹⁰Because you have kept my word about patient endurance, I will keep you from the hour of trial that is coming on the whole world, to try those who dwell on the earth. ~ Revelation 3:10

The Church in Thyatira had love, faith, and patient endurance, but He did not say He would keep them from the Great Trial. Do you know why? Because the time had not yet come for the Great Tribulation. But the Church in Philadelphia, if not for their patient endurance, they would be the ones going through the Great Tribulation.

But what I want you to focus on is what Jesus said at the end of the sentence. The hour of trial that is coming on the whole world, to try those who dwell on the earth. It’s not just the Church but the whole world. So, those who are helping bring this to come to pass, you will be right there sharing in the suffering that is coming. You will not escape. The elites, those running the show behind the curtain, don’t care about you. You’re just pawns to them.

Not only will you share in the suffering of the Great Tribulation, but something much worse is stored up for all those who do not accept Jesus as LORD and Savior. It’s called the Wrath of God. But the LORD promises that if you put your faith and trust in Him and you follow Him, He will come back for you. He’ll deliver you from the from the Wrath that is to come.

Dear LORD, please forgive me for my part in ushering in the coming Tribulation. Forgive me for being lukewarm. Forgive me for hiding the Light that is within me. Teach me to follow You. Teach me to let my Light shine before others. Prepare me for whatever might come my way. Strengthen me that I might be found doing what it is that You have called me to do so that I might escape Your coming Wrath. In Jesus’ name, I pray, amen.

Back to Cleansing?

Back to Daily Bread?

Prepare For The Coming Times

¹ Now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to him, we ask you, brothers, ²not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed, either by a spirit or a spoken word, or a letter seeming to be from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come. ³Let no one deceive you in any way. For that day will not come, unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, ⁴who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God. ⁵Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things? ⁶And you know what is restraining him now so that he may be revealed in his time. ⁷For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. Only he who now restrains it will do so until he is out of the way. ~ 2 Thessalonians 2:1-7

Paul talks about a departing from the Truth when he plainly says that the Day of the LORD cannot come unless the rebellion occurs first. That word rebellion is the Greek word apostasia, which signifies a state of apostasy.

The word apostasy means:

An abandoning of what one has believed in, as a faith, cause, or principles.

Webster’s New World Dictionary

Many are departing from the truth and turning to the teachings of demons, to lies, and to the occult. That is why the Church of Laodicea has grown lukewarm. We’ve flung down our weapons. We’ve exited the battlefield. We’ve abandoned the ramparts. We’ve deserted the parapets. We’ve fallen asleep during our watch upon the walls. And We’ve walked away from the cause. We’ve become like mute dogs who do not bark. We would rather offend our God than offend man. What a lukewarm Church we’ve become.

No wonder God has removed His protection by spewing us out of His mouth, as He states in Revelation 3:15-16.

And because We’ve become so lukewarm, God is not willing to hold back the Tribulation any longer. But because of His great love and great mercy, He will cut those days short. It’s because of us that our God is willing to cut those days short. It is because of the great love Jesus has for His Bride, the Church. Our God is a loving and compassionate God.

Dear LORD, thank You for Your mercy and love and compassion upon us, even when it’s our own fault that we are going through trials and tribulations. Please strengthen my mind, body, and soul so that I might stand firmly when Tribulation begins on this earth. Please fill me with Your Word and Your Holy Spirit so that I might grow in You. Teach me to overcome the world. Teach me to stay strong in You regardless of what happens around me. In Jesus’ name, I pray, amen.

Back to Growth?

Back to Daily Bread?

God’s Sloppy Wet Kiss

¹⁶For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. ~ John 3:16

As a child, I remember being in Tuesday Chapel morning service at school (I went to a Christian School). I remember I heard the chords to the worship song, How He Loves. I immediately got excited because I loved that song. Then they sang the words “Heaven meets earth like an unforeseen kiss” instead of “Heaven meets earth like a sloppy wet kiss.” I wasn’t just annoyed that the lyrics were different; I didn’t understand why.

That was over a decade ago, and the changing of those lyrics still bothers me. I heard Crowder, the singer who changed the lyrics, say that it was because he wanted to sing it at his church but couldn’t because of that line. They claimed it was inappropriate for church. That it wasn’t a line to be sung in church. So, eventually, the line was changed by Crowder to “unforeseen kiss.”

Many people believe this is a much better and more appropriate description of Heaven meeting Earth, but I would have to disagree.

Unforeseen means: not anticipated or expected: not foreseen: UNEXPECTED

Is that an accurate description of Christ coming to Earth? Is that an accurate description of heaven meeting Earth? An unanticipated, unexpected kiss? No. It’s not. From creation, God had the coming of Christ, and His millennial reign throughout that story. Prophet after prophet was given the revelation of the coming Messiah and the giving of the Holy Spirit. It wasn’t unforeseen. It wasn’t a sweet, innocent kiss. It was a sloppy, wet kiss.

God became man to redeem those who would nail Him to a tree and mock Him as He bled and suffered. Then, not only was all of the sin of the world placed on Him, but He Himself became sin in order to kill sin in His death. There is nothing unforeseen or innocent about Heaven meeting Earth. It was messy and emotional, just like a sloppy, wet kiss.

Why do we have to clean up God’s affection for us and put on this false representation of piety in order to worship? The Scripture isn’t an easy read. It’s not a book of innocent things, but it describes in detail what love looks like and what adultery against the one who loves you looks like. We miss the very essence of what God has done for us when we water down the Bible and the retelling of that Bible.

Dear LORD, please help me to not allow false piety and false religiosity to keep me from seeing You and Your sacrifice for what it is. Teach me to focus only on You during my time of worship and not allow my fear of what others might think to consume me and my thoughts. Give me confidence in You and who I am in You. In Jesus’ name, I pray, amen.

Back to Cleansing?

Back to Daily Bread?

You Can’t Fool God

⁸ You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your presence. ~ Psalms 90:8

This is a Psalm written by Moses, the man of God, who spoke face-to-face with God and lived. He said that God brings all of our Secret Sins out into the light of His presence. What did Moses mean by that?

God is not fooled by our charades. Nor is He fooled by our playing church. Just because our sins may only be in our mind, in our thoughts, in our imagination, or done in the dark behind closed doors does not mean that God does not know about them.

You can fool some of the people most of the time, you can fool most of the people some of the time, but you can’t fool God any of the time. Make no mistake, the Scriptures teach us God will not be mocked, and neither can He be deceived. Therefore, don’t take His silence as weakness, for it is mercy in this present life.

Dear LORD, help me to place my heart before You. Show me the way to You. Help me not to deceive myself in believing that You don’t see my sins. Forgive me of each of my secret sins and cleanse me from all unrighteousness. In Jesus’ name, I pray, amen.

Back to Cleansing?

Back to Daily Bread?

You Don’t Have the Right

¹⁶But to the wicked person, God says: “What right have you to recite my laws or take my covenant on your lips?” ~ Psalms 50:16

Listen to what God said to the wicked person, “What right do you have to recite My laws or to take up My covenant on your lips?” That is scary stuff. If a wicked person doesn’t have the right in this life to even recite God’s laws or to take up His covenant on their lips, how much more will they not have access to His promises after they die?

If you continue to reject God and His word, then God will reject you. It’s not that He doesn’t love you because He does. It’s not that He hasn’t given you the opportunity because He has. But today is the day of salvation. Tomorrow is not promised to any man.

But someone will say, “God has taken away our right to cite His laws or take up His covenant on our lips. Therefore, He has taken away our opportunity.”

No, not at all. What He is saying is you don’t have the right while you are still in your sins. If you had all of the privileges of salvation and all the rights of sonship without actually being redeemed, it would make you even more lost. That is the reason why God had to drive Adam and Eve out of the Garden of Eden after they sinned because He didn’t want them to stretch out their hand and eat from the Tree of Life. Why? Because they would be eternally lost in their sins. It’s all about mercy. It’s not God’s will that any perish. He wants everyone to accept His free gift of life that Jesus purchased when He was crucified on the cross at Golgotha.

Therefore, cleanse the inside, and the outside will follow. Be obedient in the commands of God, and you can partake of His holiness and participate in His promises. For then His eternal love will surround you, and the blood of Jesus will cleanse you.

Father, I have sinned. I know that I am not a perfect person. I’ve tried to mix the unclean with the clean. I repent of my sins and accept the free gift of Jesus Christ. Wash me in the precious blood of Jesus, that I might be clean. Thank You, LORD Jesus, for dying for me and redeeming me from darkness. Keep me in Your everlasting love and teach me to differentiate between light and darkness, good and evil, right and wrong. Guide me in everything I do. In Jesus’ name, I pray, amen.

Back to Cleansing?

Back to Daily Bread?

Share Your Testimony

¹⁹ Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰ teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age. ~ Matthew 28:19-20

I recently read the testimony of an ex-gang member who got saved in prison. He talked about how when he met Jesus, he refused to look back. He shared his faith with anyone willing to listen, even if it got him killed in prison. He would lead Bible studies in prison, pray for inmates, and even going as far as to witnessing to the guards. He was a man on a mission to share his testimony with as many people as he could.

He didn’t care if it got him killed. Christ changed his life for the better, and he wanted to share that with anyone willing to listen. He truly picked up his cross and followed Christ with all that was within him. Whereas we who are free are more in bondage than he who was locked up. How? Because of fear. Fear keeps us silent. It keeps us from sharing our testimony. His single testimony created a mini-revival in his prison. Revelation 12:11 tells us that we overcome the devil with the blood of the Lamb (salvation) and the word of our testimony (sharing what Christ has done for us).

There’s a reason the world tells us to keep religion out of the workplace, schools, government, and even society as a whole. Because if each Christian were to begin to tell anyone willing to listen what Christ has done for them, then the world would begin to change. We would see a revival in the land. We would see the glory of God begin to manifest in our lives and those around us. We would see God move in our midst. If we are a part of the Church, then we already have salvation; we already have the blood of the Lamb. Now, all that’s left is for us to begin to share our testimony with others.

You don’t have to be a theologian. You just have to tell others what Christ has done for you. Yes, I believe every Christian should study the Scriptures daily, but you don’t have to know everything before you can share your testimony. You could have gotten saved that same night and begin sharing all that God has done for you. There is power in talking about Christ and what He’s done for us.

Dear LORD, help me to never remain silent when it comes to You or the things of You. Teach me to be bold and confident. Raise me up so that I might not be afraid. Help me to speak truthfully of all the good things You have done for me, and may the words of my testimony be like a fire kindling a flame of love for You within all who hear and listen. In Jesus’ name, I pray, amen.

Back to Fear?

Back to Daily Bread?