A Weekly Devotional – Prayer – Personal Meditation

A Weekly Devotional – Prayer – Personal Meditation

Comment: Do you pray? James in his epistle states that the effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much! Are you fervent (devoted)? If you have offended someone, do you confess with ‘one another’, do you pray for ‘one another’, James 5:16? “A new commandment I give you, that you love ‘one another’, by this (by this - what?) all will know that you are my disciples if you have love for ‘one another’. 

Devotional: The epistle of James expresses to us that FAITH obeys the WORD of God. Trials in our lives come and go, so do temptations, but the child of God who abides in the Word and who is devoted to walking by faith will not “crash and burn”! Prayer in the life of God’s children must be rooted in the Word and expressed by faith.

James epistle is not so much about whether faith and works are a “one over the other issue” but more about, how faith and works are revealed in the child of God at any given moment in time. James begins with the inner man (you and I personally before God). We are daily under trials and temptations.

Here are the trials and temptations of one day in the life of every child of God. The rich and poor, personal favoritism, the untamable tongue, personal pride versus godly humility, judging, boasting, patience and endurance, the specific needs of others and lastly the spiritual ability to bring back a sinning brother or sister. 

Laced within these trials and temptations is the meditation and prayer that personal faith requires if we are going to glorify God in the daily works that result from a devoted (fervent) faith. James states that if patience is to have a good and perfect result (work), faith must be perfect too. 

James begins his epistle on the subject of prayer, see (James 1:5). I am convinced  (James 5:13 to the end) that James is connecting the whole epistle to the implanted Word within the child of God and that prayer is the implicit thought running through the whole epistle. That, if you are not praying over every circumstance daily, than you have a doubting faith. Your works; which are not good, will burned up at the Bema Seat of Christ. See 2 Corinthians 5:9-13.

A Weekly Devotional – The Gospel – Personal Meditation

A Weekly Devotional – The Gospel – Personal Meditation

Comment: Today people around the world, including the United States of America hear an unclear message of the Gospel of the Grace of God. Acts 20:24 – when someone is called to preach the Gospel, he is called as God’s ambassador. They are to reveal to those listening the Will and Character of God. Someone once said this; “We are called to preach the Gospel, and sometimes we are to use WORDS!” Notice what the apostle Paul states again in Acts 20, this time in verse 27, “For I have not shunned to declare to you the whole counsel of God”. We must be willing live out the counsel that God teaches us, before we open our mouth. The apostle amplifies this concern for the gospel in 1 Corinthians 13:1-13. That is; if you do not see the love that God has for our soul in the ambassador before and after presenting the Gospel, then the Holy Spirit and the love of God has not ministered to the soul.

Devotional: Romans 1:16 – “I am not ashamed to the gospel, for it is the power of God (to all men and women – see John 3:16) to salvation (this salvation is the redeeming work of God’s Son applied to every soul) for everyone who believes. For the Jew first also for the Greek (Gentile).

Romans 1:17 – For in it (the Good News of God), the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith. (Now do not miss this). Just as it is written, the just shall live by faith. I am not ashamed of the gospel and I am not ashamed of my faith in the gospel, therefore I ‘justly’ live by faith in the Good News of God at all times to project faith and share faith whenever possible.

In summing this up, lets look at Acts 3:1-10, Peter and John were going into the temple to pray, it was 3pm. A certain lame man from birth who was not looking to be healed, but for money, stopped the apostles and asked them for a few coins. Peters reply – “Silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have I give to you: In the Name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk.” So, leaping up, the man stood, and he walked, he entered the temple and he praised God. The lame man’s faith agreed with the apostle’s faith, he entered the temple on his own. It was his first step of faith, and for the first time, he entered the temple by his own freewill.

We all need to take that first step. It may be that you are not yet believing in the Gospel, that first step is believing that Jesus Christ died for YOUR sins. That His sacrificial death please God. Thus the Father God raised up His Son Jesus (alive again) on the third day of being in the tomb and in believing this Truth you may have your sins and iniquities forgiven and that you may have life (eternal life) in His Name. Notice Acts 4:10-12.

A Weekly Devotional – Faith – Personal Meditation

A Weekly Devotional – Faith – Personal Meditation

Comment: This morning I was ready to deliver a different challenge to meditate on the Living God. However; based on current events I have changed my mind. We are all called of God to “Run the Race”, some Bible scholars preach or teach daily the need for every believer to fix their eyes on Jesus. He alone is the Author of personal faith in God. Yes, He obeyed the laws of the land and fulfilled the Law given to Moses, His Faith was in God, not the nation or the religion. We need to notice something in this thought that is very important for all of us. Jesus is the originator and the perfecter of FAITH, why then would we want to focus our faith on a religion or a nation as many of us do today in Christendom? God has called us (you and me) to run this same “race” that Jesus ran. Not only did Jesus run the race that was sat before Him, but there are many witnesses, like a cloud in the sky of people who have done the same. Hebrews 12:1-2. Are you in that cloud today?

Devotional: The days in which we live are EVIL, this is not a new message or thought, yet somehow it is a message that does not penetrate anyone’s mind these days. We are a nation of apostate Christians, we are living in times of ‘stress’. Christian men love themselves and money more than God. They are proud boasters, blasphemers. They are rude and reject parental authority, they are unthankful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, they are full of slander, without self-control and brutal. They are traitors of Christ faith, headstrong, haughty, loving the pleasures of the world rather than loving God who created them.

If the apostle Paul under the guidance of the Holy Spirit were talking about the unbelieving world, this would be a matter we saints might understand.  But, Paul is talking about those who profess to be saved by grace. If you do not know this already, I am referring to 2 Timothy 3:1-9, now notice verse 5 – having the form of godliness but DENYING its power. And from such people TURN AWAY! I will leave you to read the remaining four verses while I comment.

The destiny of man, at its very best is TEMPORAL, while man would like to think that he or she is improving by always learning. Without personal faith, they are NEVER able to come to the knowledge of the TRUTH. Every generation seeks to re-invent truth, then when invented they spread their cancerous lies into households, captivating people already loaded down with besetting sins and lustful passions.

We live in times of men with corrupt minds, they are disapproved by God concerning FAITH because they are temporal in projecting truth that they fail to believe themselves and their progress fails. Set your mind on things (Spirituality) above, not on things (carnality) of the earth, see Colossians 3:1-11.