The Devotional – Faith

The Devotional – Faith

Comment: Faith and works go hand in hand with the Servant of God. The apostle James speaks to his Jewish brothers and sisters and explains the subject like this, “James a bondservant of God and of the LORD Jesus Christ.” James 1:1. In other words… “Faith is serving God” Through the last 60 plus years the universal church of God has drifted from the way faith and works are applied in a church environment and in the personal life of God’s children. Today in churches all across this land we call the United States of America we find theologies and denominations that are serving ‘the gods of the flesh and spirits’, rather than in the Spirit and in Truth (John 4:24). It should be clear to all of the children of God that faith and service is to be devoted to God. BONDSERVANT to God is the only way that pleases God.

Devotional: Without faith it is IMPOSSIBLE to please GOD! Various trials and temptations are a daily routine in our lives as children of God, by the way, the person who is not a child of God has trials and temptations too, but the unbelieving do not consider these as tests to produce faith in God. At best the unbelieving might treat a trial or temptation as a project to improve one’s own faith in themselves. The child of God who is not perfected in faith will seek to do the same as the unbelieving.

Testing FAITH, God is the only reliable source to test the faith of His children, a church cannot perfect the faith of any man, woman or child by placing them in works. Trials come from God alone, temptations come our flesh alone. We might notice that in James 1:1-7 there is not one mention of Satan or any of his fallen demons imposing temptations on the children of God, we are born with temptations to do sin since our human nature is evil (fallen).

The very first attribute that God tests in the life of His children is “patience” we ought to cling to this thought in that, we need to be patient with God. What does God mean for His children to be patient? Endurance is the answer! Being patient with God does not mean molding a person to be a servant of the church, yet it does mean for the children of God to be devoted to God, then serve the church. This is a serious thought and meditation will reveal the answer.

The apostle James projects this thought and meditation in verse 5 – if ANY of you lack wisdom on the subject of faith and works, let him or her ask of God, WHO gives to ALL liberally and without reproach. In other words; God does not find fault in us when we ask Him for wisdom, He understands that we are but dust to begin with. God understands our constitution, see Psalm 103:14, this in and of itself ought to point us to God for perfecting faith and works.

James goes on to say; “but let him or her ask in FAITH” that is, church membership, church works and church leadership will not produce faith. Doubting comes from using the WRONG methods. For example; if I seek to please God because my family goes to church and I go with them, then I must have faith. Bah humbug! If I go to worship services that are directed at pleasing my emotions, this is not faith and again it is Bah humbug. These are ways of doubting God’s Way. 

Isaiah puts this in perspective with these words. Isaiah 26:7 – The way of the Just is uprightness; O Most Upright, You weigh (make level) the path of the just. FAITH must be aimed at pleasing God, before it can effectively WORK in our personal and horizontal dealings with our brothers and sisters.

The Devotional – Funeral or Freedom!

The Devotional – Funeral or Freedom!

Comment: How many folks count the number of funerals they might go to in a lifetime? I know that I do not count these events and would conclude that most do not. Suppose while living life we might witness another kind of death, would there would still be a funeral but no people died! Say what? How does one witness a funeral but no human life is taken? What about a city, a state or for that matter an entire nation! I KNOW that some of us do not believe that this could happen to the United States of America, but as simple as it is; there are many warnings of this happening to us in the very near future. One warning is “Let’s make America great again” this sounds innocent enough and yet, if you look; this question becomes visible in our cross-hairs. Should not the slogan read “Let’s make the UNITED STATES of America great again”! We are ONE nation amid many nations on the continents of America, get the point?

Devotional: Of course we cannot challenge one political ploy without looking at the other. Socialism has always injected this thought into a people group of “STRONGER TOGETHER”. This thought knowingly leads people to a governmental control of economy, family, education, self-worth and self-defense, thus destroying national freedom, get the point?

Both political ploys leave God out of their agenda. On the one hand; our nation is ONE INDEPENDENT Flag among many in the Americas. By intentional verbiage we include all the flags of those nations north and south. In doing so we accept their socialist traditions and religions. It matters not if we are liberal or conservative, both points of view are corrupted because our Creator is pushed aside for the doctrines of demons.

I have two subjects that I will cover in this series of devotionals; one is idolatry and the other is traditional corruption, which includes immorality. Over the course of this I will write about the national condition of a country (ours) that is not about to change (it already has), not for the better as many are proclaiming, but for the worse, but I wish to look at a passage of scripture in a book written by the Prophet Jeremiah as he laments over Jerusalem destroyed by the social and political groups of his day, who brought the city to its end.

Jeremiah looks in sorrow and his soul melts over Jerusalem but he says this “This I recall to mind; therefore, I have hope. Through the LORD’s mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions do not fail. These are NEW every morning, Great is His faithfulness. The LORD is my portion, says my soul; therefore, I will hope in Him.”

For the saints of God in this United States of America there are TOUGH times ahead, if we fail to have the mercy and grace of God in our “cross hairs” every moment as we see our freedom to worship sinking in the quagmire of an idolatrous and immorally driven government we will fall victim. This is just what the powers, and principalities of Ephesians 6:10-12 is striving to do. We need in these times to rely on the Greater Power of He who is in us (1 John 4:1-6) since the powers of this world system cannot compete with God. Test the spirits, whether they are of God, many false prophets are seeking to control your life, liberty and pursuit of happiness. Draw near to God, resist the devil. God will draw near to you and the devil will flee, James 4:7-10.

The Devotional – The Value of Truth

The Devotional – The Value of Truth

Comment: Once several years ago my granddaughters and I were shopping for some candy for each of us. I decide on a rather large bag of chocolate covered peanuts. One of the girls replied, “Gramps that bag is too large for you, get the smaller one or you will make yourself sick!” In those days, she was not yet a teenager, today she is a mom. Nuggets of gold in our memory banks of life, yet we cannot go back and relive those days, but God has provided for all of us to DEPOSIT what is invested in time to His Glory. “Children are a heritage from the LORD, the fruit of the womb is a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, so are the children of one’s youth. Happy is the man who has a quiver full of them, he shall not be ashamed”. (An excerpt from Psalms, Psalm 127:3-5a)

Devotional: In the days in which we live our ability to be a prospector for gold, silver and precious stones have all but faded into the wilderness. Now hear me on this, it is important! We have forgotten our Creator God; we have turned aside from His Way, each one of us to OUR OWN WAY. Some to idolatry, some to immorality and some to a combination of both. As a result, our national minds are corrupted with the false gods of greed and power. Nationally we worship animals and lustfully worship people of the same sex. Yet we are not so naïve are we, read Romans 1:32!

If you are not saved by grace through personal faith in Jesus Christ (Ephesian 2:8) then the thoughts in your heart about the above paragraph are boastful in that your WORKS are better than the gift God offers to each of us by grace (Ephesians 2:9). And you are still dead (stillborn if you will) in your trespasses and sins. Now we all were DEAD at one point in our trespasses and sins, but for those of us who are saved by grace through faith, God has made us alive in Him.

We are a workmanship of God, created in Christ Jesus for good works, works that are PREPARED by God Himself before time began that we should walk in those works. So what are these good works? Gold, silver and precious stones are these works which are impossible to have, if we are not abiding in Christ who is the Living Word, Jesus is the Holy Bible, He instructs us by the Holy Spirit (John 16:13). It is in the process of prospecting from the Word of God that He will provide in time the nuggets of gold produced by RIGHT Living.