Devotionals Archives

October 1, 2023October 2, 2023

Only Sacrifice

²¹For our sake He made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. ~ 2 Corinthians 5:21

Once a year, the High Priest would lay the sins of the nation of Israel on the scapegoat. In the same way that the sins of Israel were transferred to the scapegoat, the Father laid on Jesus the sins and iniquities of the whole world.

Therefore, when the sin and iniquities of the whole world were placed on Jesus, He became that scapegoat. Now, to completely fulfill every iota of the Law, the scapegoat has to be sent away into the wilderness to Azazel. Azazel is a place, not a goat-demon. So, where is this place then? In short, it is Hell because Jesus has to take the sins and iniquities away from the camp and away from the people. Why? For the wages of sin is death…

This is not talking about normal physical death, but the second death. Otherwise, there would be no need for the second death mentioned in Revelation 20 if the normal physical death satisfied that requirement.

If physical death was the penalty for sin, and Jesus paid that penalty by dying on the cross, we would not have to physically die; otherwise, that is called double jeopardy. Neither would those who die without Jesus be sent to hell because the wages of sin would be satisfied by their physical death. But since the wages of sin is not normal physical death, the payment is left outstanding and has to be paid by someone. Who? Jesus, our only propitiation for sin. There is nothing like the love our God has for us to lay down His own life for His enemy.

Dear LORD, thank You for Your sacrifice on the cross for my sins. I know that I don’t deserve Your love, but You give it anyway. Thank You for Your mercy and Your grace. You are our only pure and perfect sacrifice for our sins. Thank You. In Jesus’ name, I pray, amen.

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The Only Cleansing Blood

¹⁴And he shall take some of the blood of the bull and sprinkle it with his finger on the front of the mercy seat on the east side, and in front of the mercy seat he shall sprinkle some of the blood with his finger seven times. ~ Leviticus 16:14

The first time the high priest went into the Most Holy Place on the Day of Atonement, he took with him the blood of a bull into the Holy of Holies, and with his finger, he sprinkled some of the blood seven times. The blood of the bull did not take away his sin but only covered it or rolled it ahead one year. He was still filled with sin, and no amount of sacrifice could do anything to change that. Why?

Because the blood of Jesus is the only blood that is sufficient to take away the sins of the world, but you have to accept that sacrifice. You have to accept that free gift of salvation. God does not force salvation on anyone. It must be a cognizant decision on the part of the worshiper to receive the free gift of salvation. There’s no all roads lead to God. Jesus said, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” The Scriptures say that it is for man once to die, and then the Judgment.

Therefore, once we die, that’s it. There’s no do-over. There’s no second chance. The door is shut. Forgiveness and salvation are only given as an option to the living because once you die, it’s time for Judgment. Therefore, today is the day of salvation; tomorrow is promised to no man.

Dear LORD, please forgive me of all of my sins and cleanse me from all unrighteousness. Please take Your rightful place as LORD and King of my heart and life. Please direct my path and guide me through each and every circumstance that comes my way. Thank You for Your love, grace, and mercy. In Jesus’ name, I pray, amen.

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The Workings of Fear

¹⁸ There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. ~ 1 John 4:18

Fear, an age-old enemy, attacking from generation to generation, relentless in its pursuit to defeat the strongest of men. A very true and accurate description of Fear by someone I love and miss dearly. Fear is an enemy that will intimidate you and throw lies your way in hopes that you never stand up to it. Why? Because Fear will have to back down. Fear uses this tactic because Fear doesn’t have the authority to touch you.

Here’s what I mean: Fear can’t beat you. It can’t scratch you. It can’t cause you actual harm. It can’t take your life. But it can convince you that others will. It will try its best to control you because it knows that if you refuse to give in to its demands, it no longer has any root in your life. So, it’ll bring friends with it, like anxiety, depression, suicide, shame, etc.

Mankind has struggled with Fear from the very beginning. After Adam ate the fruit and heard God in the Garden, Fear entered his life. Each and every one of his offspring after him have had to battle this enemy in one form or another. How do we fight and defeat this relentless enemy?

By standing firm in the overwhelming, never-ending, reckless love of God. Love that doesn’t take into consideration its own needs or safety but will do whatever it takes to protect those dwelling in said love. This is what we hold to. The love of God.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Stand In Love.

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The Redeemable

¹ Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. ²A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy. ³He wanted to see who Jesus was, but because he was short he could not see over the crowd. ⁴So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way. ⁵When Jesus reached the spot, He looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.” ⁶So he came down at once and welcomed Him gladly. ⁷All the people saw this and began to mutter, “He has gone to be the guest of a sinner.” ⁸But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.” ⁹Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. ¹⁰For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” ~ Luke 19:1-10

Jesus said He had to go to Zacchaeus’ house that day. The reason is that the next day, He was going to be in Bethany and then the Triumphal Entry, so He had a whole schedule to keep. Right. But why Zacchaeus? I believe it’s because Jesus came to earth to redeem the unredeemable. He healed the sick. Gave sight to the blind. Made the lame walk. And His disciples after Him baptized eunuchs. So, the lowly right. Many believe He had to go to Zacchaeus because he was a tax collector. Well, that doesn’t really make sense because He ate with many tax collectors, which is why the Pharisees were always upset with Him, and He even had a tax collector as one of His twelve Apostles. So, I don’t think that’s it.

Here’s the thing. When you go back and read the law, it says that only those without a defect could serve as high priests and enter the presence of God. So, no lame, blind, mute, or deaf could enter—as well as no dwarfs.

Zacchaeus was a dwarf. Jesus had to eat at his house because He wasn’t going back to Jericho. That Thursday, He was gonna die. So, He had to redeem all the unredeemable before then.

That’s why He had to stay at Zacchaeus’ house that night. His heart wasn’t hardened against God. He was willing to repay anyone that he had cheated 4x the amount. And would give half his possessions to the poor. Jesus didn’t have to say anything to him. He was just willing to do whatever it took to be right with God. So, God chose him to redeem on behalf of all other dwarfs that are redeemed because now God dwells in and with any willing heart. Not just those who are physically without flaws.

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Be The One

¹¹On the way to Jerusalem He was passing along between Samaria and Galilee. ¹²And as He entered a village, He was met by ten lepers, who stood at a distance ¹³and lifted up their voices, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.” ¹⁴When He saw them He said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went they were cleansed. ¹⁵Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice; ¹⁶and he fell on his face at Jesus’ feet, giving Him thanks. Now he was a Samaritan. ¹⁷Then Jesus answered, “Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine? ¹⁸Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” ¹⁹And He said to him, “Rise and go your way; your faith has made you well.” ~ Luke 17:11-19^NIV

There were ten lepers. Jesus spoke to them from afar off and told them to present themselves to the priest. There was no miracle. No change. Nothing immediately happened. In fact, I’m willing to bet that if they hadn’t walked in obedience to the high priest, they would have never been healed because that’s when they noticed their healing. Then, only one returned. A Samaritan. The Samaritans aren’t Jews of any kind.

Their ancestors were foreigners, from all over, that Sennacherib, King of Assyria, removed all Jews from Samaria and placed foreigners in their place. He did this because he had just seized Israel, and Samaria was Israel’s capital. They then began having plagues because of the amount of idolatry and corruption, to the point that the king sent a captured priest back to Bethel to teach them how to live in the land and not offend God. They then began to mix their religions with Judaism.

This is what the Samaritan man came out of. Paganism mixed with Judaism, yet he was the only one who returned to Jesus to thank Him. And he was the only person who received salvation. That word healed or made well that Jesus tells him, doesn’t mean physical healing. He already received that. It’s the Greek word Sozo, which means full entire healing and deliverance. It means to be saved. 9 Jews who had the Scriptures, the Prophets, and all the teachings of God in its entirety saw their healing and kept walking, but one man who had generations of mixing paganism and Judaism came back and fell at Jesus’ feet when he saw he was healed.

So many of us who grew up in the Church are missing out on a real relationship with Christ because we take it for granted. We aren’t as grateful. We aren’t seeking Him the way we should. We aren’t giving Him the thanksgiving and praise He deserves. While those who have never set foot in Church are finding Christ and surpassing us in the things of God. We’ve become like the nine instead of like the one.

Dear LORD, please help me to never take you for granted. Please teach me to love You the way You deserve. Teach me to follow you. Teach me to be grateful and thankful. Help me to always seek You with all that is within me. Even if no one else comes to You, LORD, help me to be the one that does. In Jesus’ name, I pray, amen.

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The Troubling of Asaph

¹⁵If I had spoken out like that, I would have betrayed your children. ¹⁶When I tried to understand all this, it troubled me deeply ¹⁷till I entered the sanctuary of God; then I understood their final destiny. ¹⁸Surely you place them on slippery ground; you cast them down to ruin. ¹⁹How suddenly are they destroyed, completely swept away by terrors! ²⁰They are like a dream when one awakes; when You arise, Lord, You will despise them as fantasies. ²¹When my heart was grieved and my spirit embittered, ²²I was senseless and ignorant; I was a brute beast before You. ²³Yet I am always with You; You hold me by my right hand. ²⁴You guide me with Your counsel, and afterward You will take me into glory. ²⁵Whom have I in heaven but You? And earth has nothing I desire besides You. ²⁶My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. ~ Psalms 73:15-26^NIV

Asaph looked at the wicked, and envy tried its best to creep into his heart. It showed him how they lacked the struggles he had. How carefree in life they are. How they seemingly had no burden to carry, and his soul was becoming distressed. Envy was starting to make its way into his mind and heart, then he entered the sanctuary of God, and everything changed.

His eyes were opened, and he saw that everything on this earth is passing away. All the money and wealth the wicked stored up for themselves will only last a short time. The influence and power that they have here on this earth will one day be stripped away. All that the wicked store up for themselves is worth nothing, but what the righteous store up is worth everything.

We don’t store up treasures for ourselves on this earth where moths and locusts can come in and destroy, and the thief can come in and steal. No. We store up treasures in eternity. We store up crowns. We store up treasures that will last all of eternity. And where our treasures are, there our hearts will be also.

Yes, today, the wicked may seem as though they have not a care in the world and all is going well with them, but that won’t last forever. It’s only the righteous that will dwell in eternity with God. It’s only the righteous that God will wipe every tear from their eyes and call them His children. So, don’t worry about all that the wicked have. Don’t envy them, nor wish them ill. Instead, pray for their salvation, for their end is destruction, and as the young man whom Solomon saw sneak off in the night with the adulterous woman, they do not know (nor can they grasp) that it will cost them their lives.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Pray For The Wicked.

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Afflict Yourselves

²⁹And it shall be a statute to you forever that in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, you shall afflict yourselves and shall do no work, either the native or the stranger who sojourns among you. ³⁰For on this day shall atonement be made for you to cleanse you. You shall be clean before the Lord from all your sins. ³¹It is a Sabbath of solemn rest to you, and you shall afflict yourselves; it is a statute forever. ~ Leviticus 16:29-31

Today is one of the most holy days in Judaism, for today is the Day of Atonement. When instituting this day, God told the people to afflict themselves because atonement was to be made for them in order to cleanse them. Now, many people will say this is the Law of Moses, and we’re no longer under the Law, so this doesn’t apply to us. I want to point out to all of you that the Law was a shadow of the good things to come. What does that mean?

No. We are not under the Law of Moses anymore; we are now under the Law of Christ. This is true. But the Day of Atonement has yet to have been fulfilled, and therefore, as Paul afflicted himself regularly so that he might never be overcome by his flesh, how much more should we in a day and age closer to the return of Christ than has ever been before, afflict ourselves? We’re living in the last days. They’re getting things ready for the Temple of God to be rebuilt. They’re trying their best to remove freedom of religion from every corner of the earth. We’re living in the perilous times that Paul warned Timothy of. No. Refusing to afflict your body today isn’t going to remove your name from the Lamb’s Book of Life, but choosing to afflict your body today will strengthen your spirit man. It will help put your flesh into subjection. And it will add to your treasures in heaven.

We’re called, by Paul, to present ourselves as a spiritual sacrifice holy and pleasing to God. How can we do that if our flesh rules our bodies and our spirit man has no room to grow? Therefore, give up something, even if it’s just for a few hours, at least until sundown, that you might have an offering to give to God as we await that day when we are changed in a twinkling of an eye, and our sins are completely removed from us never to cling to us again.

Dear LORD, help me to afflict myself by putting my flesh into submission. Help me to not give into the sins of this world, but instead, help me to overcome through You. You overcame the whole world. You were tempted in every way, just as I am, but You remained without sin. So, dear LORD, please help me to overcome through You. Help me to fast so that I might build up my spirit man within me and crucify my flesh. Help me to be a light in this dark world so that others might see You in me. In Jesus’ name, I pray, amen.

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Self Love

¹⁹ We love because He first loved us. ~ 1 John 4:19^NIV

We often quote this verse that we love because Christ first loved us in regard to other people, but rarely do we hear it taught in regard to ourselves. Today’s youth are killing themselves at record numbers. Suicide is a leading cause of death in the United States. Why? The lack of self-love.

We teach that we need to love others. We teach that we need to forgive others, but what about ourselves? If we are no longer our own because we were bought at a price, then wouldn’t we need to forgive and love ourselves? We teach humility in the Church, which is good, but I can’t think of a time I’ve heard a teaching on loving yourself and why it’s important.

When we love ourselves, we can forgive ourselves and, therefore, can move on. When we love ourselves, we stop constantly comparing ourselves to other people because we’re not envious but happy with what God has given us. When we love ourselves, we tend to love others more because the love of God is flowing through us.

Self-love isn’t prideful. It isn’t arrogant. Self-love is necessary to move forward in life and be used by God. We have to learn to love ourselves as Christ loves us so that we might see ourselves the way that He sees us, as His children. His beloved bride. His precious creation that He suffered and died for.

Dear LORD, please help me to love myself the way You love me. Help me to see myself the way You see me. Teach me to clean off the dirty mirror that distorts my reflection. Help me to forgive myself for the past mistakes I’ve made so that I can stop punishing myself. Teach me to properly love myself so that I might be able to be used by You in all that You have planned for my life. In Jesus’ name, I pray, amen.

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Set It On The Altar

¹⁴Hezekiah received the letter from the messengers and read it. Then he went up to the temple of the Lord and spread it out before the Lord. ~ Isaiah 37:14

Hezekiah received a letter from the messengers of the King of Assyria. Assyria had just taken Israel, the Northern Kingdom, and now was threatening Judah, the Southern Kingdom. Not only were they trying to strike fear into the hearts of the people, they went straight to the king of Judah, Hezekiah, and told him through a letter that he might as well surrender because no one could save him. This is how the enemy works. He tries to speak into our lives. He’ll speak fear and intimidation and wait to see if you accept it, giving him a footing into your life.

See, we, the Church, have to allow the enemy into our lives. Why? Because we’ve been redeemed. We’re the blood-bought. We don’t belong to the enemy anymore. Our souls now belong to Christ. Therefore, when the enemy wants to try to take us back or wreak havoc in our lives, he needs our permission. Sometimes, it just takes accepting the fear that he sent our way.

I remember hearing stories of my great-great-grandfather when he was younger. An Obeah Man came to him and told him that he would die in three days, but he didn’t accept it. Instead, he told him, “No. You will die in three days.” Three days later, he got word that that same man had died. People will try to speak all kinds of things over your life: death, failure, fear, addiction, etc., but it’s up to us to accept it. We have to be like Hezekiah, take that word straight to God, and lay it before Him. We can’t just accept everything that others speak over us, but only what God has spoken over us. That we are chosen. That we are His. That we are redeemed. That we may be struck down, but we are never destroyed. That we are more than conquerors through Him. These are what we hold to; everything else we lay on the altar and allow God to deal with as He sees fit.

Dear LORD, please help me not to just accept everything that people speak over me. Help me not to let their words dictate my life. Help me to lay it all down on the altar before You. Teach me to set up a spiritual boundary around my life that the enemy cannot penetrate nor destroy with threats, words, fiery darts, or any weapon. Help me to stand strong on Your Truth and run this race with endurance that You’ve set before me. In Jesus’ name, I pray, amen.

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Spread Understanding

¹⁰ The disciples came to him and asked, “Why do you speak to the people in parables?” ¹¹ He replied, “Because the knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them. ¹² Whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them. ~ Matthew 13:10-12^NIV

Jesus left the world on the outside, but to His disciples, He explained everything. That’s kind of like a foreshadowing of how He is with us today. James said if we lack understanding, ask God, and He’ll give us wisdom.

Jesus dwells with us and in us. His Holy Spirit dwells with us and in us. Our understanding is limited, and our greatest wisdom can’t even match the foolishness of God; God knows this, so when He speaks to us in parables, He expects us, His disciples, to ask for and seek out understanding so that we might then share that understanding with others. We’re not to keep it to ourselves because we have now become the light of the world since Jesus lives through us.

Therefore, we’re to show the world the Light of Christ and teach the Church the deeper things Christ has revealed to us. We’re to be the hands and feet of Christ while on this earth. We’re His body. We’re His witnesses. We’re His disciples, and to us, has been given understanding and wisdom.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Spread Understanding.

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Tag: Devotionals

Only Sacrifice

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The Only Cleansing Blood

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The Workings of Fear

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