The Devotional - USA09

The Devotional

Comment: As a young sailor it is required of one to learn how to be a sailor. Now sailors are not alone in this, any military person in the branch of their own choice has a uniform, a boot, and various other clothing to conform each of its members into a soldier, sailor or airman. A marine is a soldier, just as one might find in the Army and a sailor is as much as a Coast Guardsman as one found in the Navy; also a Navy, Marine and Coast Guard Pilot will be characterized in likeness with those in the Air Force. Yet in all of this there is distinction, differences in many ways are obvious, but the mission of all military personnel remain the same and that is to defend and keep safe the Nation.

Challenge: When the apostle Paul understood that he was about to become a martyr, he wrote his final epistle to Timothy, to his son – 2 Timothy 1:2, in this epistle he recounts Timothy’s faith and family upbringing. He also challenges Timothy to the gift that the young man had through the ministry of Paul in the laying on of hands. Paul is calling out Timothy to fulfil the gift that he has. Verse 7 reads – For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. Let me add verse 8 – Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our LORD, nor of me His prisoner, but share with me in the sufferings for the gospel according to the POWER OF GOD.

Paul encourages his son that the BATTLE is the LORD’s and Timothy is to be LOYAL to the FAITH. Now there is a measurable amount of information contained in chapter 1 to fill up the rest of this devotional, but I need to move to chapter 2. But before I do – there are certain distinctions in the mission of ministry that are never changed. The gospel is never to be shamed – Romans 1:16-17. The gospel is the power of God and not the edict of man. That good thing that is committed to every saint, keep it by the HOLY SPIRIT who dwells in us. The battle while there is distinction in service the mission changes NOT, the battle is the LORD’s. 

A few words from 2 Timothy 2:14-17 – but shun profane and vain babblings (empty chatter in the Greek), for these will increase to more ungodliness. The church of Jesus Christ today throughout the United States of America is full of profane and empty chatter. This condition has caused many people to depart from the FAITH, note 2 Timothy 2:14 – we have failed to remind our church leaders, charging them before the LORD to stop striving about WORDS of no profit, these RUIN the faith of those who HEAR.

Messages of this sort are common place in all churches today, like a spreading cancer. Is this curable? I understand that most cancers up to stage 3 are curable, after that the disease takes its toll. Where we are today in our churches can be measured by those who have an ear to hear what the Spirit of God is saying about the churches. In Revelation chapters 2 and 3 the LORD evaluates His Church. There are churches today who have lost the LOVE of God, there are those churches who are still being PERSECUTED, and also there is the COMPROMISING church, the CORRUPT church, the DEAD church, the FAITHFUL church and the LUKEWARM church. 

In each of the seven churches JESUS finds FAULT and challenges each church to take heed, then His challenge is for those who will HEAR what the SPIRIT is saying to the church and STOP listening to the vain babblings of some of the leadership or pulpit thumpers who stand in authority and distort the Living Word of God. Hear therefore what the SPIRIT IS SAYING. Yes we can be different in some things but our mission must REMAIN under the Power of God and the outworking of God the Holy Spirit who guides us into ALL TRUTH – John 16:13. We need to defend and protect the Gospel of Grace.

The Devotional - USA08

The Devotional

Comment: Yesterday I spoke of a friend and did not mention his name, well his name is John. We have known each other for forty years, the wonderful thing about our relationship is that we have not been close through the years. Not that we have purposely avoided each other, it is just that life has taken us down different paths. John is a “biker” and I like four wheels under me, yet it is not the bike or the car that separates daily contact and I suppose that whatever does, does not matter. I know that if there were a need, he would be there for me as I would for him, and truly; this is the sufficiency of any friendship. Yet in this there is another Friend and it is He who makes our friendship what it is and to Him be the Glory.

Challenge: Continuing now in John 15 and looking at verses 9-14 we can learn that friendship with God and the children of God is founded on perfect love and expressed in pure joy. This experience is holy, or separated from the world, or better said; the world cannot duplicate this love and joy. The people of the world can only watch and they do watch the children of God, intently!

John 15:9-14 – Jesus speaking “As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you, abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in His love. These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full. This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends. You are my friends if you do whatever I command you.

Someone might be thinking “COMMANDMENT – why would I want to be commanded to love God or for that matter another person other than my wife and immediate family?” “I ought to be able to choose who I love, some people are not worthy of my love”. This fortunately is not the love that Jesus is speaking of, He does not command us to love as the world loves, notice that this is brought to light with John’s first epistle. 1 John 2:15 – Do not love the world or the things of the world. If any man loves the world the love of God is not in him.

So the LORD Jesus commands His children to look to Him and the Father and see how love from God differs from the love of the world. Then practice this love toward each other that the world can observe what the Joy of the LORD truly is. The love of God differs in volume and character from the love of the world. The love of the world is measurable, (step on my toes and I will step on yours) or, (fool me once and my true character will reach out and nail you to the wall). God’s love in volume is never maxed out and the character of God’s love is – all forgiving!

The scripture explaining His love is very familiar to everyone, even the world observes and knows these words by heart. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” John 3:16. The words are rejected because the love that God offers to the world is not the love that the world and the people of the world understand. For example it is often heard. “Why would God have His Son Jesus purposely crucified (sacrificed)? Is there really love in this?”

The love of the world and its people is crippled with SIN thus the love produced by the world is filtered through or with every conceivable thought known to man. For example; lust, greed, hate, coveting, anger and a host of other sins that cause the love of the world to be fragmented or in partial, even bias; or as God explains unholy or impure. The command of Jesus Christ in our passage this morning is simply to lay aside every sin that entangles us and receive the His Word which is always able to deliver us in victory in Christ. 

Now we do not have the time to go into all of this in detail, the responsibility on everyone’s part is to search out the scriptures and see if these things spoken of this morning are true or false. The love of God is called “agape” In the Koine Greek language, it means pure, free of entanglement. God can love us knowing that His Son died for our sin. Thus we are commanded to love God and the people of God, even as God loves us. In Him (Jesus) who is the Lamb of God, John 1:29 we have newness of life.

The Devotional - USA07

The Devotional

Comment: Looking through some of my saved documents I can determine that I began writing devotionals in December of 2007, I suppose I am reaching the 8^th year. Many changes have occurred along the way. To start, I received permission from “Turning Point”, Dr. David Jeremiah’s devotional, to ride piggy back on his daily messages and with that okay I began. This morning a brother in Christ and wonderful friend whom I have known since 1975 reminded me that we were both saved in 1975, which directed my thoughts to look back to one of my first devotionals. The title of that message was. “How connected to Jesus are we days?”

Challenge: Of course this will not be verbatim from that message, excerpts of the message itself will be in italics.

“In May of 1975 I accepted the message of the gospel and Jesus rescued me from a terrible life of sin and despair. He took me out of the quicksand of sin and death, cleansed me and for the first time in life I felt peace with God and experienced His Love, He gave me a brand new life. All of us “children of God” have a similar experience to tell”.

Religion teaches a person how to walk, talk and pretend godliness but all the while that person in their heart of hearts knows that something is missing in their god talk; that is, if they chose to talk of God, as their life apart from a Sunday church event knowingly stinks of sin.

The devotional of the past goes on about God’s children ought to be about growing and abiding in the vine, as the Vine is Jesus Christ, John 15:1-27. We will break from the comments of the past at this point, but continue the thought of abiding in Christ and being separated from the worldly religions that appear as beautiful places of worship, yet as Jesus points out in Matthew 23:27 that these are nothing more than “white washed tombs” in side those sepulchers (burial tombs) you will find nothing but dead bones.

If the scripture of the Holy Bible is true, and it IS! Then Matthew chapter 23 teaches us that God (Jesus is God) that God rejects the practices of religious worship. Following this discourse of Jesus in Matthew 23 and beginning in verse 13 through 23 we see the rejection of God toward those practicing righteousness apart from faith. Eight times Jesus calls this practice hypocritical, twice He refers to those who participate in religion, fools. He calls the leadership of these religions, serpents and vipers which is a direct connection to Satan himself, Revelation 12:9.

Satan’s main course of action is deceiving the world, he is doing a good job and with religion he is able to take the peoples of this world away from the True and Living God. A personal relationship with the Creator God is unthinkable and unheard of in all religions. Being a friend, brother, bond servant and personal believer in God is not popular in religion. Religions believe that God needs to be convinced that the righteousness practiced by the religious conduct of people are good enough and therefore deserve to be with Him. Bah! Humbug!

Isaiah 64:6 reads like this – But we are all like and unclean thing and all our righteousnesses are like filthy rages (garments). We all fade as a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind have carried us away (from God). Thus if salvation of the soul is to happen, it must be provided, not by the religion of man, but by the gift of God. John 1:29 and John 3:16 is the gift, Ephesians 2:8-9 is how it happens and Ephesians 2:10 is why it happens. Receiving this gift opens the gate of heaven, faith in Jesus Christ becomes a relationship with God that never fades away. Abiding in the Vine is simply allowing God to teach us to discard all of the religion by setting us apart from it.

Becoming Christ-like is a personal relationship with God Himself and we learn that the religious garments are to be discarded as filth, (do not put them in the Goodwill bin at the corner market) burn them. We also learned that God replaces these garments with clothing of His own. Romans 13:14 and Ephesians 6:10-17 provide ample clothing giving us the ability to fend off the works of the world and religion. With this powerful apparel we will learn to pray in the Spirit and observe that all of our needs are fulfilled, just as our other brothers and sisters in Christ. So ours in Christ is a personal relationship with God, not a religion striving to gain favor with God.