Recent Devotions
“If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you . . . If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you . . . But all these things they will do to you for My name’s sake, because they do not know Him who sent Me.” (John 15:18-21, NKJV) Have you ever been disliked because of a friend you associate with? Not…
“To put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.” (Ephesians 4:22-24, ESV)…
“Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” (Esther 4:14, NKJV) Esther, the young Jewish exile who married Persian King Ahasuerus (Xerxes I), was in the right place at the right time to bring deliverance to her people. However, in the time leading…
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“I must work the works of Him who sent Me while it is day; the night is coming when no one can work.” (John 9:4, NKJV) A friend of mine recently left to take the gospel to another nation. It was not a sudden decision at all. From the teen years on, we all recognized that missionary work was in his future. So why is he just now going more than a decade later? Two key words: preparation and timing. He spent those intervening years preparing himself, developing his ministry, and doing whatever he could in his local church. He stayed busy…
“Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.” I Corinthians 13:1 The third attribute that Paul advised Timothy to be an example of was “charity.” I am sure we are all familiar with I Corinthians 13. Charity is a pure love that our Saviour Jesus Christ manifests. He commanded us to love one another as He loves us. We manifest pure love when from our hearts we show real concern and compassion for others. Paul also expressed this to Timothy in I Timothy 1:5…
“Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice!” (Philippians 4:4, NKJV) Do you live life joyfully? Is that even possible in our fast-paced, stressed-out, far-from-perfect world? Will joy survive when life gets tough? While many would answer yes, others might shake their heads no. They feel life has too many ups and downs for us to be joyful all the time. God desires for His children to live with joy, a joy that flows from our relationship with Him. This joy is one of the nine attributes of the fruit of the Spirit. His joy becomes part of…
“Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” John 15:13 With the holiday’s approaching I have been reflecting upon my childhood more and more. I grew up with little; I wore a lot of goodwill clothes, there were many days I brought a homemade lunch to school on pizza day because we did not have $2 to spare, a lot of my gifts were from the Dollar Store, and one Christmas in particular I remember people from the Salvation Army coming into our home with armfuls of gifts for me; a…
