Sensitive To Giving Comfort

May I encourage you to get your spiritual ‘Nuggets’ to start your day off right? Probably one of the more challenging things we face, is trying to comfort someone who is really hurting. Here is an idea that you may never have thought of – straight from the Word of God! Try to read the whole devotional, and look for your blessing, friend!………

Today’s Scripture: “Three of Job’s friends heard of all the trouble that had fallen on him. Each traveled from his own country—Eliphaz from Teman, Bildad from Shuhah, Zophar from Naamath—and went together to Job to keep him company and comfort him. When they first caught sight of him, they couldn’t believe what they saw—they hardly recognized him! They cried out in lament, ripped their robes, and dumped dirt on their heads as a sign of their grief. Then they sat with him on the ground. Seven days and nights they sat there without saying a word. They could see how rotten he felt, how deeply he was suffering.”
‭‭Job‬ ‭2:11-13‬ ‭MSG‬‬    http://bible.com/97/job.2.11-13.msg

My Take Away: In a recent study I shared with you how Job’s wife tried to comfort Him by telling him to curse the God who brought so much trouble on him. Of course we know that Job absolutely refused to turn his back on his God. In this scripture today I found a few things very interesting:

  1. Unless we are careful in reading this scripture, we may think that Job’s friends must have picked up their cell phones and collaborated on the best time for their visit, right?!!! Well, in all seriousness, we know that was not the case! So for these guys to leave their homes in various parts of the country, don’t you suppose that this was a part of God’s plan to bring this concerted comfort to His humble servant in his time of need? Our application: This should bring comfort to us, because we must believe that the God of Job – our Heavenly Father, our God, will also do the same for us in our times of desperation and need;
  2. The hearts of these three friends were so sensitive to the needs of Job, that they saw his desperation from a distance and was immediately impacted in deep empathy for their friend. Our application: I feel like we are way too distracted in thinking about our own struggles, and what scenario in our life could top the circumstances of the friend who is sharing, or about to share his or her needs or struggles with us. We have to learn to be good listeners, without worrying about whether we might have a good answer or solution for our friend, or the need to share our needs with them so they won’t feel alone in their struggles. A friend will listen and even repeat what they thought they heard, so that the friend in need would know that you are taking in everything they are saying.
  3. The friends joined Job where he was at – on the ground, and just sat there with him – quiet – for one…. two….. three…. four…. five….. six….. seven whole days in total silence. Our application: When we say to a friend that we will stop by and visit to help bring comfort to them, how long are we prepared to visit? Can we possibly keep our sanity for seven days in total silence with three other wonderful friends around us? What about our digital devices? If we value the quality of quiet time with a friend in need, surely we won’t be rude enough to sit in their presence on our cell phone or tablet, right? Isn’t this something to think about friend?

So I believe the challenge for us today from these Words of truth, is to stop and think about those in need of comfort, and to not shrug off our responsibility, or calling, to be there for them but to allow the Holy Spirit to direct us as we visit. It may be through an encouraging word that we bring comfort to a friend, or it may just be our presence, without any words at all. Either way, we are expressing our desire to be there for our friend, and being obedient to God in saying only what He ordains.

Prayer: Father, I believe that each reader will recognize that they have been on both sides of this scenario at one time or another in their life. Please help us as a patient, or person in need, to welcome friends when we would rather just be alone, for often God has seen our need and sent some friends over to encourage us. As a visitor, please help us to stop finding excuses and actually go out and visit, then as we visit to remember our purpose for visiting is to encourage the one that we visit, and not spend the time relaying our lifetime of struggles. Especially challenging will be the possibility of just sitting in silence, if that serves a purpose. So Lord, please especially help us in that regard. Bottom line is that we share Your love, Your concern, and Your touch through our visit, so that You may be honored and praised, while also being of encouragement to our friend. These are challenging Lord, so we desperately need Your help, guidance and direction in these circumstances Lord. Thanks for Your assurance of always being with us! May we learn to get out of the way so that You may work a miracle in the life of our friends that we visit. AMEN!

Footnote: If you have been challenged to make a decision today after reading this devotional, please speak with a local Bible Teaching Pastor, or contact me at NuggetsFromGodsWord@outlook.com. Allow someone to pray with you and give you help and/or encouragement as you begin, or continue your walk with Jesus. Words underlined in my blog could indicate a link to a song that came to mind as I wrote the devotional. Feel free to click on the link and listen as you continue to read or pray. If this devotional was forwarded to you and you would like to see more, please go to http://www.nuggetsfromgodsword.org and read more, or you may freely to subscribe for a daily email conveniently containing each day’s devotional. If you are anywhere near the Highlands County, Florida area and do not have a church home, I would be thrilled to welcome you at Bible Fellowship Church, located at 3750 Hammock Rd, Sebring, FL 33872! Click the link to check out service times and/or other special activities. God is at work among us! Please consider coming to worship with us!
2016

Why do you still trust God?

May I encourage you to get your spiritual ‘Nuggets’ to start your day off right? Pretty amazing that our awesome God would consider feeding even us with His Word! May I encourage you to read the whole devotional, and look for a blessing, friend!………

Today’s Bible Reference: Job 2:7–10
Today’s Bible Text: So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord and struck Job with a terrible case of boils from head to foot. Then Job took a broken piece of pottery to scrape himself and sat among the ashes. His wife said to him, “Are you still trying to be godly when God has done all this to you? Curse him and die.” But he replied, “You talk like some heathen woman. What? Shall we receive only pleasant things from the hand of God and never anything unpleasant?” So in all this Job said nothing wrong.
The Bible Translation: The Living Bible (TLB)

My Take Away: In this life we have choices. We can sit in our corner and cry “Why Me, Lord?” all day long, and we may even write a song about it like the one I linked to. However, when one is totally surrendered to Jesus Christ, and as long as we remain here on this earth, we know that there will be times that God will shower His blessings on us and answer our prayers just like we might expect, and as outsiders looking in might expect from our awesome God. But what if God needs our experience to teach someone close to us something about His grace, or His mercy, or even His stand for perfect, unadulterated holy living? Job was introduced by God to Satan as the finest man on earth, and a man of integrity who truly trusted God, yet God allowed Job to be tested and tried beyond, what appears to be, anything a man could truly bear. But we are still learning lessons from this man even today. Friends, I believe that when we place our faith and trust in God, we have to be prepared to stand firm in that commitment with the faith that proves that we are willing to go beyond the good times and the great answers to prayer that we expect, but we need to also be aware that as God, He might sometimes answer our prayers for our best and His glory, in ways that we didn’t ask for or expect. Think about this friend, why would we ask God about a need, if we think that He only has the same answers as we do? We ask because we want His divine direction and we want responses that will bring glory to God. What has God benefited if answers to our prayers serve to lift us up only? I know of friends who have traveled hundreds of miles to be prayed over by certain evangelists. Who has been getting the praise in that ministry? Friends, my God is everywhere and He hears the heart-cry of all of His precious kids. In His desire to reach more of His rebellious kids, He may have to test us and allow us to respond to His testing in ways that might prove to the world who our Master truly is. Are you sincere in your relationship with God? Will you uphold the test of fire in your life and still claim Jesus as your Lord? Our military has very stringent punishment for desertion by soldiers, May I encourage you to stand firm in your faith and never face desertion charges by God?

Prayer: Father, way too often pride steps in the way for us and we cave in to popular belief, or worldly expectations. It is so easy to brag on You when everything is ‘going our way’, and when our success is what the world is expecting. I believe that all of this is true when we keep You included, because Lord Jesus, we simply don’t have all of the answers. Lord, we want to be used of You in ways that will help unbelievers to see Jesus. I’m sure that this will not always be pleasant for us, just as we saw with Job, but Lord I pray that we will be constantly reminded of the unpleasant action You took on the cross at Calvary so that we might have eternal life in glory with You. It is so important that we maintain our faith and trust in You Lord. Please touch us today with Your grace, mercy and love for others. We want the world to see the Jesus that we love, adore and trust with all things in our life. You oh Lord, are my King. Thank You from the bottom of my heart for being Lord of all my decisions. Bless my readers to sincerely trust in You for all things, for I ask this in the precious and loving name of Jesus, AMEN!

Footnote: If you have been challenged to make a decision today after reading this devotional, please speak with a local Bible Teaching Pastor, or contact me at NuggetsFromGodsWord@outlook.com. Allow someone to pray with you and give you help and/or encouragement as you begin, or continue your walk with Jesus. Words underlined in my blog could indicate a link to a song that came to mind as I wrote the devotional. Feel free to click on the link and listen as you continue to read or pray. If this devotional was forwarded to you and you would like to see more, please go to www.nuggetsfromgodsword.org and read more, or you may freely to subscribe for a daily email conveniently containing each day’s devotional. If you are anywhere near the Highlands County, Florida area and do not have a church home, I would be thrilled to welcome you at Bible Fellowship Church, located at 3750 Hammock Rd, Sebring, FL 33872! Click the link to check out service times and/or other special activities. God is at work among us! Please consider coming to worship with us!

2016

Committed – Through ALL Circumstances

May I encourage you to get your spiritual ‘Nuggets’ to start your day off right? Pretty amazing that our awesome God would consider feeding even us with His Word! May I encourage you to read the whole devotional, and look for a blessing, friend!………

Today’s Bible Reference: Job 1:20–22
Today’s Bible Text: Job stood up and tore his robe in grief. Then he shaved his head and fell to the ground to worship. He said, “I came naked from my mother’s womb, and I will be naked when I leave. The LORD gave me what I had, and the LORD has taken it away. Praise the name of the LORD!” In all of this, Job did not sin by blaming God.
The Bible Translation: New Living Translation (NLT)

My Take Away: Some Spoiled kids fall face to the ground and bang their heads on the ground while screaming, when things don’t go the way they want. I’ve seen where adults have left the church; hit a wall so hard that it broke their hand; Pouted all day when their angers flare up; and I’ve also seen where folk will go into total depression when they lose someone or something important to them. In this chapter of Job, I believe we can understand how Job could have responded in any of the above ways, based in the many disappointments and losses that he faced at one time, and we would have totally understood his actions. But friends, if you are not fully familiar with the story of Job, I must share briefly what caused him to tear his robe and shave his head. Various servants came in to Job one right after the other excitedly telling of certain disasters that had occurred with his Oxen; his sheep; his camels and his children. In each case, each of these had been killed together with the servants who watched over them. So I must ask you to consider: what would you have done if you were in Job’s place? In purple I highlighted the words of Job’s prayer to God. Could you have done that? Friends, I’m afraid that we place so much emphasis on the ‘stuff’ that we own and the precious gifts that God has blessed us with in family, that it becomes a thing of pride and boasting about what we did to achieve all that we have. When Jesus hung on the cross, about to die sacrificially for our sin, His only concern was that His mother be taken care of. There was no real estate or equipment or cattle for Jesus to worry about. Unless Jesus comes back first, we will all die; and based on decisions we made while alive, we will wind up just like Job, where we stand before the throne of God, just as we came into the world. This could happen this very day friend, so may I encourage you to emphasize on what’s really eternally important to you today. May I suggest that your relationship with the God of this universe, the One you will face after life here on earth, is the most important thing for you to concentrate on. Only then will you be able to separate yourself from the chaos of everyday earthly greed, and keep your eyes fixed on the one who truly holds tomorrow. Jesus loves you friend, and He wants your undivided attention. Job did it, and so can you and I.

Prayer: Father it seems almost farfetched how faithful Job was, especially as we get so attached to all that we are blessed with here on this earth. But Lord, our attachment to ‘stuff’ takes away from our total attachment to You. Please forgive us for all that we have allowed to distract us in our walk with You. Please teach us to place You first in all things, so that our priority in this life here on earth will be to worship, adore and serve you. May we stay focused on You so that earthly belongings and desires will become secondary in our lives. Fill us with so much of Yourself that it will become very evident whose we are, and may this serve only to promote You in all aspects of our character. Praise the name of the Lord! AMEN!

Footnote: If you have been challenged to make a decision today after reading this devotional, please speak with a local Bible Teaching Pastor, or contact me at NuggetsFromGodsWord@outlook.com. Allow someone to pray with you and give you help and/or encouragement as you begin, or continue your walk with Jesus. Words underlined in my blog could indicate a link to a song that came to mind as I wrote the devotional. Feel free to click on the link and listen as you continue to read or pray. If this devotional was forwarded to you and you would like to see more, please go to www.nuggetsfromgodsword.org and read more, or you may freely to subscribe for a daily email conveniently containing each day’s devotional. If you are anywhere near the Highlands County, Florida area and do not have a church home, I would be thrilled to welcome you at Bible Fellowship Church, located at 3750 Hammock Rd, Sebring, FL 33872! Click the link to check out service times and/or other special activities. God is at work among us! Please consider coming to worship with us!

2016

Extreme Testing

May I encourage you to get your spiritual ‘Nuggets’ to start your day off right? Be thinking in advance how you would act under pressure today. Satan wants to see you fail. However God wants you to be His hands and feet on the ground! What’s inside will surely come out when put under pressure. I pray that nothing but the character of Jesus Christ will pour out from you today!…….

Today’s Bible Reference: Job 1:12
Today’s Bible Text: “All right, you may test him,” the LORD said to Satan. “Do whatever you want with everything he possesses, but don’t harm him physically.”
The Bible Translation: New Living Translation (NLT)

My Take Away: Right at the very beginning of the book of Job. in the very first verse, Job was announced as a blameless man filled with total integrity. Hopefully you know a few men that you would feel comfortable in calling them ‘men of integrity’. In fact, I once heard a preacher say that it is the same as someone coming up to you and telling you all sorts of evil about this ‘man of integrity’ that you have in mind right now, and you saying to them that although you weren’t on the scene, you can comfortable vouch for your ‘man of integrity’ knowing that he was not involved in any sort of evil. That’s about the impression of what I discerned in verse 1, only realizing that God knows even our deepest thoughts, intents and purposes, and still He announced Job as a man of deep convictions to which he was totally committed. So in this verse 12, we see where God is so confident in Job that He allows Satan permission to test him and try him. Knowing the successive verses that this testing became extreme, this whole thought made me stop and ponder: what if God wanted me to dig deep into my  thoughts, my words and my actions to see if I am truly all that I claim to be before the church, before my family, my friends or my coworkers? I wonder what His evaluation of me reveal? Will I past the test and still be strong in my witness for the Lord even through such extreme times? What about you friend? There’s a song ‘I’m Standing on the Solid Rock’. Are you truly where you need to be with Christ, or have you just been successful in fooling the world around you? I’ve been married over 40 years, and there’s no fooling my wife. She knows when something is bothering me and she knows when I am feeling ‘on top of the world’. I pray that I will never assume that God is anything less than my wife and that I can act any differently before folks in my world than who I truly am deep inside. I pray that I will constantly be confused for Jesus, because my character mirrors His character so closely. Where are you at friend? Will anything be revealed that would surprise others should you be put under this type test?

Prayer: Lord Jesus, I thank You for giving us free will, but I also thank You for hearing our heart’s cry when we call out to You. I pray that my readers will join me in pleading with You to give us the boldness and stamina to stand firm in our faith, and may we not just pretend but rather, that our lives in every way will reflect our hearts that are filled in every way with Your character. We would prefer not to be tested to the extreme that Job was tested, yet we know that Satan is ready to pounce on us each and every day to discredit our witness for You. I ask for Your ongoing strength and guidance to always prove Satan wrong and instead to be a total witness to You before a hurting and dying world. I ask these things in the name of Jesus, my Everlasting Strength, Protector, Guide and Loving Savior. AMEN!

Footnote: If you have been challenged to make a decision today after reading this devotional, please speak with a local Bible Teaching Pastor, or contact me at NuggetsFromGodsWord@outlook.com. Allow someone to pray with you and give you help and/or encouragement as you begin, or continue your walk with Jesus. Words underlined in my blog could indicate a link to a song that came to mind as I wrote the devotional. Feel free to click on the link and listen as you continue to read or pray. If this devotional was forwarded to you and you would like to see more, please go to www.nuggetsfromgodsword.org and read more, or you may freely to subscribe for a daily email conveniently containing each day’s devotional. If you are anywhere near the Highlands County, Florida area and do not have a church home, I would be thrilled to welcome you at Bible Fellowship Church, located at 3750 Hammock Rd, Sebring, FL 33872! Click the link to check out service times and/or other special activities. God is at work among us! Please consider coming to worship with us!

2016

Rescue The Perishing

May I encourage you to get your spiritual ‘Nuggets’ to start your day off right? Pretty amazing that our awesome God would consider feeding even us with His Word! May I encourage you to read the whole devotional, and look for a blessing, friend!………

Today’s Bible Reference: Jude 1:20–23
Today’s Bible Text: But you, dear friends, must build each other up in your most holy faith, pray in the power of the Holy Spirit, and await the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will bring you eternal life. In this way, you will keep yourselves safe in God’s love. And you must show mercy to those whose faith is wavering. Rescue others by snatching them from the flames of judgment. Show mercy to still others, but do so with great caution, hating the sins that contaminate their lives.
The Bible Translation: New Living Translation (NLT)

My Take Away: Interesting how God used Jude to not only share this with his church as he prepared to leave them, but also to have this included in His Word for our ongoing benefit. Friends, have you ever stopped and thought real good about the folk that God directs your way for your weekend services? They are looking to escape the cruelty and hatred of their world, and hoping to find the opposite at your church – God’s House. As they walk in, some might look them up and down because their dress code may not be quite like that of your regular church membership, or perhaps they may not have had water turned on at their place for a shower. So let’s look at Jude’s advice here: “Pray in the power of the Holy Spirit” May I suggest that when you pray in this way, I believe God, through His Holy Spirit, will direct your thoughts to be better aligned with His thoughts, so that you might see the heart of that visitor, without being impacted by anything else. Fill yourself with God’s Holy Spirit and you will speak His words without having to worry about saying something that may ordinarily upset someone. You will quickly see the spiritual need of the individual without being distracted by, or worrying about their immediate physical needs. Friends, Jude also goes on to encourage us to deal with believers from a Holy Spirit filled heart. This is where we show mercy and love towards a Brother who is drifting away and not always living up to the mark. Satan is working seriously on the person and unless you intervene and gently speak to, and love on that person, they will be torn away by the forces of evil. In fact, it will be just like you are snatching that weaker Brother or Sister from the flames of Satan and his wicked and evil judgment. Please be concentrated on the heart today friend. The words and the actions may appear ugly and extremely sinful, but as the heart of the individual is touched, the outside stuff will be cleaned up as they invite God in. At the end of the day, this also helps you to reconcile with God about where your heart is. Interested in the restoration of a soul for Christ, or satisfied to see them fail and feel even more rejected by the world – and even worse, by Christ and His ‘representatives’?

Prayer: Lord, this is serious business for Your children, for our words and our actions can either serve to help restore one who has fallen, or one who is desperately looking for a better way, OR we could totally turn them off from ever wanting to know You at all. That’s quite a responsibility Lord Jesus, however we have been reminded that we must become better aligned with Your Holy Spirit so that we may be led daily by Him. My readers and I need You Lord Jesus, because we tend to be so critical of those that just don’t seem to have their act together quite as good as we think we do. Please forgive us for acting this way, for we have seen so often that mankind will fail in and of their own merits. Only things that are done for Jesus will last, and only things directed by Your Holy Spirit will lead to spiritual goodness that could be used for Your glory. Please have Your will and way in our lives this day, Oh Lord. For I ask these things in the all-powerful name of Jesus, my Lord, AMEN!

Footnote: If you have been challenged to make a decision today after reading this devotional, please speak with a local Bible Teaching Pastor, or contact me at NuggetsFromGodsWord@outlook.com. Allow someone to pray with you and give you help and/or encouragement as you begin, or continue your walk with Jesus. Words underlined in my blog could indicate a link to a song that came to mind as I wrote the devotional. Feel free to click on the link and listen as you continue to read or pray. If this devotional was forwarded to you and you would like to see more, please go to www.nuggetsfromgodsword.org and read more, or you may freely to subscribe for a daily email conveniently containing each day’s devotional. If you are anywhere near the Highlands County, Florida area and do not have a church home, I would be thrilled to welcome you at Bible Fellowship Church, located at 3750 Hammock Rd, Sebring, FL 33872! Click the link to check out service times and/or other special activities. God is at work among us! Please consider coming to worship with us!

2016

Reasons To Defend The Faith

May I encourage you to get your spiritual ‘Nuggets’ to start your day off right? This might be a day, or a week that you may need to challenge a ‘Christian’ worker about a false teaching. Do you feel fully equipped to do that? May I encourage you to read the whole devotional, and look for your blessing, friend!………

Today’s Bible Reference: Jude 3–4
Today’s Bible Text: …. I must write about something else, urging you to defend the faith that God has entrusted once for all time to his holy people. I say this because some ungodly people have wormed their way into your churches, saying that God’s marvelous grace allows us to live immoral lives. The condemnation of such people was recorded long ago, for they have denied our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.
The Bible Translation: New Living Translation (NLT)

My Take Away: I believe that some early believers will look at our churches today and wonder why do we bother to call it a ‘House of God’ because it is so far from their traditional idea of what God’s house should look like. Think about it friend, in earlier churches, ladies had to cover almost every piece of skin, compared to many today that aim to expose as much as they feel like they can get by with, or at least tightly wrap it. Women had to be silent in church, but today men are so passive in their roles, that many churches survive because of the work, and in some cases teaching of the Word, especially to our kids. Some churches even have female pastors, because of the shortages of men willing to step up to the place of responsibility in their denomination. Styles of music has drastically changed, and I won’t get further into that because even today it is a very controversial subject among church goers. So because we have become so tolerant of these few things that I mentioned, among the many other things out there, I believe that Jude could just as easily have addressed His letter to either of our churches today. The words that God caught my attention with are the words where Jude challenged the church to ‘defend the gospel’  or ‘defend the faith that God has entrusted to us’. This tells me that we must be so convinced of what we truly believe that we would be willing to defend it among our friends, our coworkers, or even in a doctor’s office waiting room area, when others speak falsely or derogatory of it. Defending the Word of God becomes critical when our faith tells us that what is being declared disagrees with the Word of God, and when we are prepared to go to battle to defend it. I know, we never like to argue over religion, and I’m with you on that, but what if the circumstances that Jude recognized at his local church was happening at your church, where members became teachers and then started out to ease what God really intended believers to adhere to? What if we got a few new members and within a short period of time they were sharing some beliefs with us that we had never heard of before? They may have even wiggled themselves into a teaching position, as most churches today could always use more workers, and we wound up under their teaching. Would we recognize any false doctrines being taught and then be willing to defend against the hypocrisy? Even if it meant that we would lose that wonderful new couple who joined our church and were already paying good tithes into our church treasury? God had Jude include this very short one-chapter book in His Word, because He knew that all down through the ages we would need to be reminded of this. I would encourage us to soak this in real good today, and be willing to defend the Gospel of Jesus Christ in every circumstance of life – especially in our local churches.

Prayer: Lord, we have become a people willing to compromise our souls because of numbers in our church membership, or in order to satisfy our church budgets, or even to fill the teacher voids in our Bible schools. Unfortunately, I believe we may also easily let someone slide in with varying beliefs who might influence our church memberships or at least cause them to question what they truly believe. Forgive us Lord. We have such a large percentage that attend our churches without any intention of maturing spiritually, or becoming confrontational about Your precious Word, should it become necessary to defend the Gospel as Jude has taught us today. Please forgive us Lord. Draw us close to thee dear Lord and give us a clear understanding of Your Word so that we might defend its truths when and as needed. We need You precious Lord. Amen!

Footnote: If you have been challenged to make a decision today after reading this devotional, please speak with a local Bible Teaching Pastor, or contact me at NuggetsFromGodsWord@outlook.com. Allow someone to pray with you and give you help and/or encouragement as you begin, or continue your walk with Jesus. Words underlined in my blog could indicate a link to a song that came to mind as I wrote the devotional. Feel free to click on the link and listen as you continue to read or pray. If this devotional was forwarded to you and you would like to see more, please go to www.nuggetsfromgodsword.org and read more, or you may freely to subscribe for a daily email conveniently containing each day’s devotional. If you are anywhere near the Highlands County, Florida area and do not have a church home, I would be thrilled to welcome you at Bible Fellowship Church, located at 3750 Hammock Rd, Sebring, FL 33872! Click the link to check out service times and/or other special activities. God is at work among us! Please consider coming to worship with us!

2016