Recent Devotions
“He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am? And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” Matthew 16:15-18. This week we have been taking a trip back in time and imagining that we…
“And Jesus going up to Jerusalem took the twelve disciples apart in the way, and said unto them, Behold, we go up to Jerusalem; and the Son of man shall be betrayed unto the chief priests and unto the scribes, and they shall condemn him to death, And shall…
“And when they drew nigh unto Jerusalem, and were come to Bethphage, unto the mount of Olives, then sent Jesus two disciples, Saying unto them, Go into the village over against you, and straightway ye shall find an ass tied, and a colt with her: loose them, and bring them…
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“But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory both now and forever. Amen.” (II Peter 3:18, NKJV) Sometimes a little phrase in a single verse brings me to a halt in my Bible reading. One morning recently I stopped at the phrase “grow in grace.” I asked myself, am I doing that? And then I began to reflect on what it meant to grow in grace and knowledge. Growth is a process that leads to maturity. It is progressive. Think of the birth of a child. Cute and cuddly but…
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you . . . Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.” (Matthew 5:43-44, 48, NKJV) When Jesus gave what we refer to as the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7), He packed a lot into that one discourse. We are familiar with the Beatitudes, but Jesus talked about so…
James 1:22 NLT “But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves.” I have two young children, so speaking to them and not truly being heard is a frequent occurrence in my home. They are busy, active children who have their minds set on their current task and anything beyond that is unimportant. Usually I have to really fight for their attention, just to be sure that they have indeed heard the words I spoke. To be quite honest, sometimes I’m guilty of doing the exact same thing. I can…
“By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion. We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof. For there they that carried us away captive required of us a song; and they that wasted us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion. How shall we sing the LORD’S song in a strange land?” Psalm 137:1-4 Missing the life that they were used to in Israel, a group of exiles left the city of Babylon and found a shady spot by the river, to lament their lot…
