Recent Devotions
“And God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance.” Genesis 45:7 Joseph was just a youth when God gave him a dream. Not really knowing what it meant, he told his brothers. This made them truly angry and turned them against him. Even his father, Jacob, though he loved him greatly. thought he was being foolish. God was showing Joseph that He had a special position to fill. But it was not to happen right away. He would have years to wait before he saw the…
But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint. Isaiah 40:31 Wait: to allow time to go by, especially while staying in one place without doing very…
“But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people” (I Peter 2:9). God’s people have always been special to Him. Exodus 19:5 speaks of them as a “peculiar treasure,” chosen and set apart by God. The word peculiar has several meanings. As a teenager…
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Then Jesus answered, “Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” (Luke 17:17-18, ESV) Luke 17 tells the story of ten lepers and the encounter that changed their lives. To understand their plight, we need to understand the cruel effects of the disease. Leprosy was an infectious skin disease (or possibly a group of skin diseases). It was painful, disfiguring, and isolating. Those affected became outcasts of society because of their contagion. INTERRUPTED LIVES As Jesus traveled toward Jerusalem, He entered a certain village. The ten…
It happened on the same night that the LORD said to him, “Arise, go down against the camp, for I have delivered it into your hand” . . . Then he divided the three hundred men into three companies, and he put a trumpet into every man’s hand, with empty pitchers, and torches inside the pitchers. (Judges 7:9 and 16, NKJV) Gideon was a reluctant leader because he did not feel up to the task God was calling him to perform. God desired Gideon to lead an army against the Midianites. Although he began with 32,000 men, God said that was too many.…
Leviticus 23:2 states, “Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, Concerning the feasts of the LORD, which ye shall proclaim to be holy convocations, even these are my feasts.” This week, our devotions will cover the seven feasts the Jews were to celebrate throughout the year. These feasts became a beautiful preparation for celebration, reflection, rest, fellowship, and special gathering. I heard a minister liken these feasts to a Thanksgiving dinner in North America. Sure, we eat dinner every day, but Thanksgiving dinner happens only once a year, and there is excitement attached to the day. We…
If this world could buy peace, it would become one of the most popular and expensive commodities. However, peace cannot be purchased, so there is a surge of fabricated peace that assures the anxious heart to take rest through self-medicating, busyness, or prosperity. This counterfeit peace reveals its fallacies after a few uses, but unaware of another remedy, people enter into a vicious cycle of trying to escape the cares of this world. Jesus gives us hope, even through our trials. He declares, These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world…
