Recent Devotions
“I will sing to the Lord as long as I live; I will sing praise to my God while I have being.” (Psalm 104:33, ESV) Which do you remember best: a song from your childhood or what you had for lunch last week? Probably the song. Music “sticks” in our minds, and years later we recall the words to a melody we haven’t sung in decades. Can you still sing the A-B-C song? Probably. Even when our memory fades, the music we learned years ago is still locked inside. I remember nursing home services where residents would sing, “What a Friend We…
“For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not…
“A woman in the crowd had suffered for twelve years with constant bleeding, and she could find no cure. Coming up behind Jesus, she touched the fringe of his robe. Immediately, the bleeding stopped” (Luke 8:43-48, NLT). “WHO touched me?” Jesus asked. Everyone denied it, and Peter said, “Master, this crowd is pressing…
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“For this child I prayed; and the Lord hath given me my petition which I asked of him: Therefore also I have lent him to the Lord; as long as he liveth he shall be lent to the Lord. And he worshipped the Lord there” (I Samuel 1:27-28). This scripture, lifted from the story of the birth of Samuel, who was destined to become a great spiritual leader to the children of Israel, is really a story of the prayer of every mother with a heart for the kingdom, prayed for every child. There is something born in the heart…
But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed. (II Corinthians 4:7-9, NKJV) When the twelve disciples answered Jesus’ invitation to “follow me,” none really understood the drastic changes that would come into their lives by that action. Yes, becoming a part of the ministry of Jesus was an unbelievable experience—the miracles, the multitudes, the powerful teachings of the Lord. But they also…
“But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people.” (I Peter 2:9, KJV) God’s people have always been special to Him. The King James Version of Exodus 19:5 describes them as a “peculiar treasure,” a possession He values and holds dear to Himself. The word peculiar has several meanings. As a teen I never took time to check a dictionary. In my mind peculiar meant strange, and being an oddball was not a particular goal for my life. Why did I have to be strange to be a Christian? A trip to the dictionary…
“For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.” Romans 8:14 Let us do a bit of time traveling today. Imagine that you are an Israelite woman camped in the wilderness. For a few days you have been in one spot, and you have gone about your daily routine. Each morning as you awake, the first thing you do is go to your tent door and look towards the Tabernacle. Is the cloud still hovering over the Tabernacle, or has it started to rise? Depending on the answer, you will either wake…
