Representing God Here on Earth

On 2019-05-312021-06-01 By Ed AlgreenIn Awesome God, Eternal Life, Representation of the Master, Representative of Christ, SalvationLeave a comment

Friday, 2019-05-31

Bible Reference: Isaiah 48:11–13
Translation: New Living Translation (NLT)

Bible Text: ¹¹ I will rescue you for my sake – yes, for my own sake! I will not let my reputation be tarnished, and I will not share my glory with idols! ¹² “Listen to me, O family of Jacob, Israel my chosen one! I alone am God, the First and the Last. ¹³ It was my hand that laid the foundations of the earth, my right hand that spread out the heavens above. When I call out the stars, they all appear in order.”

OBSERVATION: As a child of the King of all kings, we should constantly be mistaken for King, because of our actions, words, and our heart. But how often does that happen? Way too often our friends will see no difference between followers of Jesus Christ and the ungodly. Why do you suppose that might be? Well, in our Scripture today God said that He would not share His glory with the likes of this world. So wouldn’t that mean that we should be dedicated to the glory of our King and not just to pleasing our friends and the rest of the world? Let’s open our hearts to the Word of the Lord today as we meditate on Him.

APPLICATION: I believe that God spoke to me on two items in these verses this morning, and I wanted to share this with you friends:

1. The verses preceding those above spoke about God purifying His people with fire. Then He said something very powerful in verse 11: “I will not let my reputation be tarnished”. Friends, we may claim the name of ‘Christian’ or ‘follower’ or we may have a desire, and commit to live like Jesus. However, this may sometimes result in no change in our lives. I believe that God will then quickly step in to make sure that His reputation is not tarnished. We hear about Christian leaders being caught in adultery or some other sin, and we may sometimes wonder how did they get caught. Friends, God said that He will not allow His reputation to be tarnished. I believe that this still very much applies today! Christianity is not a ‘pretend’ thing, it’s a lifelong commitment to the very One who sacrificed His life for our salvation. He’s the One who holds our future in His hands, and may I remind you that He will not allow His reputation to be tarnished!
2. In verses 12 and 13 God reminds us of His awesome power and supremacy. Let’s try to keep in mind that this God that we serve, created the universe that we enjoy today. He is the ONLY God – the Alpha and Omega; the beginning and the end. Let’s also note that it is just not the human race that is under the obligation of obeying our Master, but even to the stars that we enjoy looking at – God also made them and they are obedient to His call. When we think of the awesomeness of our God, do we need to go any further than to simply read His Word and savor the awesome descriptions of our Creator? May I remind you that we serve a strong, awesome God!

Friends, do you know this awesome God of whom I have spoken in this devotional? If you do, please enjoy His presence today and rejoice in the awesome God that He truly is. If you don’t know my God, please allow me to introduce Him to you. There is information in my ‘Footnote’ that might help you, but I would welcome your email asking for my help. It would be my honor to introduce you to the One who will make the difference between eternal life with the Creator of this universe vs endless death in the presence of the Evil One – Satan.

PRAYER: Praise God, I can rejoice in the joy of my salvation, the Creator of this universe and the One who lives forevermore! Lord, please deal in my heart daily so that I may never misrepresent You or tarnish Your name. Please touch the hearts of my readers today so that they may also commit to a pure, dedicated life that is totally sold out to You – a life that will never sacrifice or tarnish the wonderful name of Jesus. May others see Jesus through our actions and through all areas of our character, for I ask this in the precious and holy name of Jesus, AMEN!

FOOTNOTE: There are two more pages on my blog at https://NuggetsFromGodsWord.org that will provide you with additional information, one of them being ‘To Know Jesus’. If you have been challenged to make a decision today after reading or listening to this devotional, please go to the above page, or speak with a local Bible Teaching Pastor, or contact me at NuggetsFromGodsWord@outlook.com. Please allow someone to pray with you and give you help and/or encouragement as you begin, or continue your walk with Jesus. If this devotional was forwarded to you and you would like to see more, please go to Nuggets From God’s Word and see all of my posts, or you may freely subscribe for a daily email conveniently containing each day’s devotional. I would encourage you to find a church home near by your home, and attend as frequently as you could. Get to know God, and allow His people to encourage and strengthen you in your Christian walk, while making every effort to be a blessing to them. God is at work among His people! Please consider growing in your faith, as you worship with fellow believers!

Man’s Picture vs God’s Reality

On 2019-05-302021-05-29 By Ed AlgreenIn Answered Prayer, Appreciation, Needs, Praise, Recognize God, WorshipLeave a comment

Third day, 2019-05-30

Bible Reference: Numbers 11:21-23
Translation: Easy-to-Read Version (ERV)

Bible Text: ²¹Moses said, “There are 600,000 soldiers here, and you say, ‘I will give them enough meat to eat for a whole month!’ ²²If we were to kill all the sheep and cattle, that would still not be enough to feed this many people for a month. And if we caught all the fish in the sea, it would not be enough for them!”
²³But the Lord said to Moses, “Don’t limit my power! You will see that I can do what I say I can do.”

OBSERVATION: Moses was blown away with what God said He would do, and this was partially due to the fact that Moses was looking through the lens of man’s physical limitations. But I believe that we think so logically, that we just find it very challenging to see beyond that. Let’s think about how God settled this for Moses, then think about the mountains in our own lives and how we need to surrender those to the Master.

APPLICATION: There’s a song ‘Got any rivers you think are uncrossable?‘. I initially typed ‘mountains’ instead of ‘rivers’, but I bet we all can identify with the song, no matter which object is used! For there are times when our challenges are much bigger than anything we have answers for, or that we could overcome. But friend of God, let’s be reminded that there is also another song that reminds us that ‘Nothing is impossible‘ when we place our trust in Jesus! The interesting part of the story with Moses is that God said He would feed meat to the Israelites for 30 days, and Moses took it as his responsibility to determine where he would get the meat from for God to do as He promised! That is almost comical my friend, for if God takes us to it, He will take us through it! He is not one who makes a promise and then turns around, scratches His head and tries to figure out how He will accomplish His work. If He said it, we could go to the bank with that, sit back and just watch Him accomplish whatever He said He would do. I’m sure that we are no different to Moses in wanting to be involved, wanting to help, and wanting to figure out how we could solve planet earth’s problems. But stop to remember how many other miracles Moses had already seen, and yet he still didn’t just take God at His word and sit back in wonderment while God accomplished the miraculous act that He promised. Friends, let’s remember that we serve an awesome God and that He can and will do everything that He has promised, and that He might promise you today. So let us therefore place our trust in Him, depend on Him, and be ready to praise Him as we see Him accomplish His work. Remember that mountains are only obstacles for us, not for our awesome God!

PRAYER: Lord, we have faith, but every day we need more, for we struggle to see beyond the limitations of our own eyes. I believe that each reader of this devotional will face mountains, or rivers of some form today. Oh that we might constantly be reminded that greater is He that lives inside of us than he that is in this world. In fact, You, Mighty God, created the mountains and the rivers, so You control them. Lord, as You look on feeble man today, please once again touch and encourage your children to keep our eyes fixed on You, our all-powerful God, through whom all things are possible! AMEN!

Lord, You are….

On 2019-05-29 By Ed AlgreenIn Answered Prayer, Appreciation, Needs, Praise, Recognize God, WorshipLeave a comment

Wednesday, 2019-05-29

Bible Reference: Psalm 36:5-8
Translation: Living Bible (TLB)

Bible Text: ⁵Your steadfast love, O Lord, is as great as all the heavens. Your faithfulness reaches beyond the clouds. ⁶Your justice is as solid as God’s mountains. Your decisions are as full of wisdom as the oceans are with water. You are concerned for men and animals alike. ⁷How precious is your constant love, O God! All humanity takes refuge in the shadow of your wings. ⁸You feed them with blessings from your own table and let them drink from your rivers of delight.

OBSERVATION: I believe that if we were exposed to God’s awesome love, as displayed in nature, rather than what we see on our television screens or devices, then perhaps we might become more appreciative, and creative in describing the awesome handiworks of our maker, like David did. For a farmer will probably describe something or someone in terms of what he experiences each day, while an artist will see, and explain things quite differently. Each one is correct, so let’s just remember to look for the handiworks of our awesome God and share that with Him – often!

APPLICATION: So if you were to describe your Master – your God, your Savior, to someone that you meet later today, what might be some of the adjectives you would use? Too often we will simply say that He is good, or we may even stretch it to say that He is awesome, but if you walked along the edge of a stream in a mountainous area, do you suppose that you might be able to add a more descriptive view of God? What about a view of God after sailing quietly in the clear waters of the Bahamas early one morning? What about doing this right after leaving the hospital and hearing your doctor say that you must have been healed, because he was unable to find that mass inside that showed so prevalent in the radiation reports? Friends, I don’t believe for a minute that God created us so uniquely, for us to just repeat what the Psalmist said. For I believe that from the depths of our heart and the experiences we have been blessed to encounter, we may have a lot more to say than David ever saw, or thought to say. I believe that in much the same way that spouses like to be told how awesome they are, and kids long for parental affirmation, God also longs to hear His children lift up their voices and lift up holy hands in praise and worship to our Creator. Do you do that often enough? Do you look for, and acknowledge all that He does in your life, and all around you? Great is the Lord, and worthy of praise! Great is the Lord!

PRAYER: You are so worthy dear Lord of our worship, our praise and our thanksgiving, for You are sooooo good to us. Lord You designed us to return thanks to You and to worship and adore You, but we have allowed pride and worldly attitudes to creep into our lives that hold us back. Beginning with the nucleus of friends that will read this devotional today, I pray dear Lord that You would create a right spirit within us, and fill us to overflowing with a strong hunger for more of You in our lives. For I pray that we will overflow with your goodness to such an extent that the world will see, hear and know that we are saturated with Your love. We are a thankful people oh Lord! May we express that more often in appreciation to You and so that people around us may know the source of our joy! AMEN!

Step Up To The Plate and Tell Your Story!

On 2019-05-28 By Ed AlgreenIn Humble, Humbleness, Humility, Personal Witness, Salvation, Saved, WitnessingLeave a comment

Tuesday, 2019-05-27

Bible Reference: Acts 22:7-11
Translation: The Passion Translation (TPT)

Bible Text: ⁷As I fell to the ground I heard a voice say, ‘Saul, Saul . . . why are you persecuting me?’ ⁸“I answered, ‘Who are you, my Lord?’ “He said to me, ‘I am Jesus, the Victorious. I am the one you are persecuting.’ ⁹“Those who were with me saw the brilliant light, but they didn’t hear the voice of the one who spoke to me. ¹⁰“So I asked, ‘Lord, what am I to do?’ “And the Lord said to me, ‘Get up and go into Damascus, and there you will be told about all that you are destined to do.’ ¹¹“Because of the dazzling glory of the light, I couldn’t see—I was left blind. So they had to lead me by the hand the rest of the way into Damascus.

OBSERVATION: Saul lived a very dramatic life. He was known for persecuting and killing Christians of his day. However, in our Scripture today we can see where God completely turned this man’s life around. In fact, there was such a change that it involved Saul’s name being changed to Paul in order to identify the drastic change in the man himself. This kind of change may cause some to stay out of the public’s eye, because it would be so challenging for anyone to believe their story. But this was not the case for Paul, for he was overjoyed and wanted the world to know his story!

APPLICATION: There are several miraculous things about this experience shared by Paul:

It was Personal – Paul didn’t share a story with the group arresting him about a friend of his, or a story he had read in ancient transcripts, he shared his story;
Recognized it was God speaking – Paul’s first response to the voice he heard was “Who are you, Lord?” When God gets our attention, we know that it is divine, holy and very personal;
It was transformational – Paul, a persecutor of Christians and a destroyer of churches, immediately recognized it was God, and instead of cursing God, as he had been doing, he asked for further instructions!
It was shared without regard to the place or occasion – Paul didn’t wait until he was in the synagogue, or among fellow believers, or until it was church time. In fact, this seemed like a very odd time to share his testimony, but Paul shared his story anyway!

I believe that the whole purpose of Paul sharing his story was: that he not only wanted his captors’ eyes to be opened to the fact that he was a fellow Roman citizen, but also that they might hear, understand and come to know the God that touched, and ministered through, Paul. He was a true evangelist, both in the pulpit and out of it. Like Paul, we have a ‘story’ that we should share with folk. Often in conversations we step up to the plate and tell a story about an incident in our lives that we believe is far greater than anything said so far by anyone else. Imagine the quiet that would fill the room if, in the middle of discussions about sports, or hunting or family, we would jump in and share our story about our conversion? This is basically what happened here! Among all the confusion and excitement of calming the crowds and making an arrest, Paul asked for a moment to share his story. Wow! Friends, God can use us for His glory in any circumstance that He chooses, if we let Him. But it will only be impactful if we share our story for His ultimate glory and not ours. So why don’t we do that more often friend? We need to do this as often as we can, because we have no promise of a future moment with that individual or group that we are meeting with. Don’t be shy or afraid, God will never lead you into a situation that He will not help you through! Allow Him to do His great work through you! Be bold, yet humble in allowing all the praise to flow straight up to your Master and Lord.

PRAYER: Lord Jesus, in Your precious and holy name, I come humbly before You to first say thank You for getting my attention back in 1976 and leading me to accept You as Lord of my life. Thankfully, You have since lead me through many situations and given me ample opportunities to share Your saving power with many people. Please forgive me for lost opportunities, and give me wisdom, humility, boldness and power to share my story with many more folk in all walks of life, so that others might see the glow of Your presence in and through me, and subsequently want to also accept You as Lord. Father God, it is only through Your continued grace that the wicked and lost of this earth can come to know a holy and righteous God, so I ask that You touch lives that I interface with today so that in something that I might say or do, You might impact their lives for Your ultimate glory. I ask all this in the name above all names, the King of all kings, Your one and only Son, JESUS. AMEN!

How Will We Know?

On 2019-05-27 By Ed AlgreenIn Answered Prayer, Appreciation, Needs, Praise, Recognize God, Warning, Warning Signs, WorshipLeave a comment

Monday, 2019-05-27

Bible Reference: Mark 13:5-8
Translation: New Living Translation (NLT)

Bible Text: ⁵Jesus replied, “Don’t let anyone mislead you, ⁶for many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Messiah.’ They will deceive many. ⁷And you will hear of wars and threats of wars, but don’t panic. Yes, these things must take place, but the end won’t follow immediately. ⁸Nation will go to war against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes in many parts of the world, as well as famines. But this is only the first of the birth pains, with more to come.

OBSERVATION: The disciples took advantage of their time with Jesus to ask Him about the end times. I found it especially interesting to be reminded of what Jesus said, because in His caution I could see that end-time evangelists today still use the same signs that Jesus warned us not to get caught up in. Wars, earthquakes, famine, etc. Jesus warned that these are all part of what we could expect here on this earth, but as for His return…..

APPLICATION: It appears like mankind has this thing about waiting for the last minute to do anything at all. In the area where I live, hurricanes is a great threat. We are warned about the beginning of the typical season, and that we should prepare our food pantry and our window shutters in order to be best prepared when a storm comes our way. Weather forecasters warn us in lots of time when it appears like a storm is tracking towards us. However, most residents will not get themselves into gear until the panic warning is given that the hurricane will hit within 24 hours. In the spiritual realm, we have many churches and even more evangelists that deliver the message of Jesus Christ each and every day, yet we hear of many death-bed conversions. Clearly in our Scripture today we are told that we expect these things in the normal course of everyday life. Yes, they are early warning signs, but notice that Jesus still didn’t tell them when the BIG day would occur? That’s because Jesus never made it a practice to speak out of both sides of His mouth. In earlier Scripture, Jesus made it clear that no one knows the day or the hour, not even He, for His Father alone makes that decision. So let’s get back to the title of our devotional. How will we know? I believe that throughout the Word of God, we are warned that we have no idea when the King will come to take us home, although it could be today! Yes my friend, Jesus never said that He will wait for you to finish your project, or complete your plans to marry your best friend, or to make the amount of money that you always dreamed about. So wait no longer to make your heart right with God, do it now. Should He return today to take us all up to heaven with He and His Father, let there be no doubt that He will find a people who are ready to go with Him! I pray that everyone reading this devotional will waste no time in readying themselves for that day. Read my ‘Footnote’ if you are unsure of what to do. Drop me a note and allow me to pray with you about your decision dear friend.

PRAYER: Precious Lord, You not only prepared a home in glory for us, but You provided the means for dirty sinners like us to receive forgiveness of our sin, and to be acceptable in Your sight. Thank You for the warnings You placed in Your Word today to help us see and understand the deceivers that will come our way. Please help us simply to be obedient and ready for Your return, even if it is today. We want to see You Lord, and we want to be where You are. Oh that this might be the day! AMEN!

How To Give Your Two Cents Worth

On 2019-05-25 By Ed AlgreenIn Answered Prayer, Appreciation, Give it up, Give thanks, Giving, Needs, Praise, Recognize God, WorshipLeave a comment

Saturday, 2019-05-25

Bible Reference: Mark 12:41-44
Translation: The Passion Translation (TPT)

Bible Text: ⁴¹Then he sat down near the offering box, watching all the people dropping in their coins. Many of the rich would put in very large sums, ⁴²but a destitute widow walked up and dropped in two small copper coins, worth less than a penny. ⁴³Jesus called his disciples to gather around and then said to them, “I tell you the truth, this poor widow has given a larger offering than any of the wealthy. ⁴⁴For the rich only gave out of their surplus, but she sacrificed out of her poverty and gave to God all that she had to live on, which was everything she had.”

OBSERVATION: No doubt you have always given your ‘two cents worth’ in every conversation you overheard! But in today’s Scripture we can see where two cents was everything that this poor widow had, yet she gave it for the work of the Lord in the temple. Still today people give from their abundance, while others give out of deep gratitude to all they have been blessed with, no matter how small that may seem to some. Let us meditate on this one little illustration that made it into the Gospel. Let us truly understand all about how we may apply this illustration to our lives today.

APPLICATION: I believe that all of us could look in on this story and conclude that God wants our very best, and He wants us to give willingly and freely. Imagine for a moment that someone blesses you with enough money to pay all of your expenses for the rest of the year. Would you be forever thankful? I bet you would be besides yourself with gratitude, right? But wait a moment, this gracious person who blessed you has asked for your help on Saturday afternoon while the game is on, plus you have already invited friends over to party with you during the game broadcast on television. So what will you do? How will you respond? There’s no right or wrong answers, this was intended to help you examine your heart for its level of gratefulness. After you have pondered those few questions, now stop to ponder your feelings when you’re paid for your hard work and for the stress you’ve encountered at work. How willing are you to commit to God a portion of what He has blessed you with financially? Remember, He opened all the doors for you to get that job, and He has truly touched the heart of your boss to give you good increases each year. Because of your good health, you have been able to handle your work each and every day. So do you suppose that it was more than anything you could personally have achieved, that made you succeed at work and earn a good income? Since God partnered with you, don’t you feel like you should return thanks to Him by sharing generously from all that your boss paid to you? Friends, we serve an awesome God. He blesses us in ways that we could only imagine; He loves us, in spite of our selfish and conceited attitudes; He provides for us when we wonder where the next dime is coming from. He’s our Almighty; All-powerful; All-loving; awesome God, that sacrificed even His own Son for our eternal benefit. What is it that we would withhold from Him and/or His mission in our family, our church and our community? His Word is specific of where we should give financially, and His Word also gives us a good guide for the amount we should give. In His Word God tells us that we will be blessed in return for our willingness to give. Be blessed today my friend, and give to God’s work freely, lovingly, and with a happy heart. We could never outgive God. And we know that God is pleased when He sees His children show their gratitude in giving freely to His earthly cause. With our hearts in the right place, we will not only give financially to the work of our Master, but we will be much more apt to give of ourselves in His service. So let’s imitate the widow in our story today, by giving of our ‘two cents’, even if it is our last two cents.

PRAYER: Thank you Lord Jesus for giving everything to us. There is nothing that You withheld, and we are forever grateful for Your precious love in blessing us each and every day. May this lesson of the poor widow invoke a new sense of release inside all of us, so that we may give freely from our financial resources and of our time that has become such a precious commodity anymore. It’s all Yours dear Lord, please help us to be open in responding in ways that will please You. Please continue to bless us, and make us channels of blessings; ones that will give and give, back to Your mission here on earth. AMEN!

Most Important

On 2019-05-24 By Ed AlgreenIn Answered Prayer, Appreciation, Needs, Praise, Recognize God, WorshipLeave a comment

Friday, 2019-05-24

Bible Reference: Mark 12:29-31
Translation: The Passion Translation (TPT)

Bible Text: ²⁹….. “The most important of all the commandments is this: ‘The Lord Yahweh, our God, is one!’ ³⁰You are to love the Lord Yahweh, your God, with every passion of your heart, with all the energy of your being, with every thought that is within you, and with all your strength. This is the great and supreme commandment. ³¹And the second is this: ‘You must love your neighbor in the same way you love yourself.’ You will never find a greater commandment than these.”

OBSERVATION: A religious scholar of Jesus’ day wanted to know, and I believe all of us would want to know, what is of top priority importance to Jesus? Of all the commandments and teachings that He shared through His Word, all of which are super important to us, it is so good to know what Jesus considers most important. So let’s take time to meditate on this today.

APPLICATION: I believe that if these things are considered ‘important’ to Jesus, then surely He is happiest when He sees His children making an effort to obey these commandments and putting these things at the very top of our priority list. So let’s really dig into what seems important to our Master: (1) Love the Lord your God deeply and sincerely – with energy and compassion of heart – I believe this means that there is nothing more important to us, than to make Jesus the priority of every part of our lives and of our day. For if He is Lord of our lives, then He will automatically be Lord of everything we do. There is no compartmentalizing, meaning that Jesus is only Lord at home, or will only be obvious in our actions at church. Friends, I believe that if He is the source of our Joy, then it will exude from us and rub off on those that we associate with. For us to say that we love Jesus, and that He fills our life with joy, then to act like the devil around our friends, it’s like living a double standard. It’s like thinking we could pack Jesus away in the back corner of our heart,while we return to our old self in order to tell a friend off. It just don’t work that way friends! Jesus is either Lord of your life and Lord of all, or you’re still searching for Him. I am not saying that a Christian won’t, or can’t sin, because as long as we are on planet earth, that will happen. But if we have invited Jesus to rule and reign in our lives, I have faith to believe that He will guide us in His ways and to act in ways that would be pleasing to Him. If we mess up on that, then we must quickly seek His forgiveness, for Jesus will not reside where sin abounds. And (2) Love your neighbor in the same way that you love yourself – I believe that Jesus is teaching us to treat that friend/neighbor at the same level as we are, not looking down on them, nor feeling intimidated by them. We would never hurt ourselves, so don’t even think of hurting a neighbor. You always want yourself to look best, be fed the best food, and achieve the best in everything. Help that neighbor achieve the same thing. Because you want them to be just like you; have everything you have; and act just like you in response to life, then you will work hard to love them unconditionally and help them connect with the source of your joy and your strength and your hope. Our Lord Jesus said that there are no other commandments as important as these two. Don’t you feel like that narrows things down to a manageable level? We can do this friends, with the help of the one who died for us, so that we could one day be with Him in glory!

PRAYER: Lord Jesus, please touch my life today, and the lives of those who will meditate on these words that I’ve shared with Your help and direction. We want to be like You, and we want to be obedient children, but we need your help. I believe that You want us to follow in Your ways and according to Your commands, especially these two important commandments. Please enable us to hear Your will for our lives, and obediently follow where You will lead us. May others see Jesus today, begining with their encounter with us. AMEN!

The Lens Through Which You See Life

On 2019-05-23 By Ed AlgreenIn Answered Prayer, Appreciation, Needs, Praise, Recognize God, Witness, WorshipLeave a comment

Thursday, 2019-05-23

Bible Reference: Proverbs 7:1-3
Translation: The Voice (VOICE)

Bible Text: My son, live according to what I am telling you;
guard my instructions as you would a treasure deep within you.
²Stay true to my directives, and they will serve you well;
make my teachings the lens through which you see life.
³Bind cords around your fingers to remind you of them;
meditate on them, and you’ll engrave them upon your heart.

OBSERVATION: Too often we hear that old saying ‘garbage in, garbage out’. The Word of God teaches us today that when we take in the Word of God and let it saturate our hearts and our lives, then we would expect nothing less, what others might hear from us. This also comes into play with our sight, for we could see the good in a situation, or we could look for things that tear down a person. In desiring to be more like our Master, let us look for ways that He might respond in life and then determine in our hearts to do the same…

APPLICATION: The last time I saw my grandmother alive, she assured me that even though she could no longer see to read her Bible, she was able to recite Scripture daily and meditate on the Word of God. Our Scripture today encourages us to write the Word upon our heart. Could it be for times such as my grandmother experienced when her sight left her? Perhaps! And I could only praise the Lord for her ability to remember, for it seems like a struggle for me to do the same! But friends, I believe this is also important at other times in our lives: What spurts from your mouth when you are caught off guard, or frightened by someone? What comes forth when you are told shocking news? What words do you share with someone when you know its the last time you might see them here on this earth? Let’s be reminded that “from the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks”. Also remember, if it’s in you, it will come out of you! So dear one, let us be busy about the Master’s work. Let us daily commit to take in more of the Lord, by reading His precious Word. Not only will it give us direction for the day, but it gives us a path for us to walk, or a lens through which we could see the world and the richness of God’s love in this world. Let the love of God so live inside of you, that your life and your words will show evidence of that in everything you say or do. May your life count in multiple ways today as evidence of your King, to a lost and hopeless world.

PRAYER: Precious Lord, take my hand today and lead me on. May the Words that I’ve read today be a rich source of inspiration, and a witness, to someone without any hope. May they desire to know You personally and be willing to seek the source of all hope that results in eternity with You in heaven. Please touch the hearts of all who might read this devotional today, so that their hearts might be impacted by the King of all kings, my Master and my Lord. AMEN!

To Live In Expectation of That Day!

On 2019-05-21 By Ed AlgreenIn Acknowledge God, Joy, Temptation, Temptations, TrialsLeave a comment

Tuesday, 2019-05-19

Bible Reference: Job 19:23-27
Translation: Living Bible (TLB)

Bible Text: ^23-24Oh, that I could write my plea with an iron pen in the rock forever.
²⁵“But as for me, I know that my Redeemer lives, and that he will stand upon the earth at last. ²⁶And I know that after this body has decayed, this body shall see God! ²⁷Then he will be on my side! Yes, I shall see him, not as a stranger, but as a friend! What a glorious hope!

OBSERVATION: In ways that we could never imagine, Job was tested and tried because of his faith. In ways that may have caused us to buckle under the pressure, Job stayed true to God and endured the persecution. All because He knew that a day was coming that he would unite with the King of Glory! What a lesson for us to ponder today as we meditate on the Word of God!

APPLICATION: At the beginning of the book of Job, God said of Job that he was a true man of God that stood tall among other men and was firm in his commitment to God, in spite of what might come his way. Friends, we have seen for the past 18 chapters where Satan unleashed his power on Job and, yes it became very discouraging for Job, because he even wished he was never born. But praise to the God of heaven and the Savior of all mankind, Job never lost his allegiance to God. He knew that God was right there, and that it was he (Job) that needed to lift his eyes above the troubles and look towards the day when he would see God’s wonderful and loving face. I believe that when he wished that these words were written in stone for others to see and be encouraged by, he not only thought of us, but he also wished that he could be encouraged by his own words when discouraging times came. Job realized and acknowledged where his struggles came, but he also firmly acknowledged where his strength came from. Satan is very powerful friends, but our God is head and shoulders above him, He created this universe and He is very capable of ruling and reigning over Satan and any of his deceptions, lies or devious acts that could possibly be imposed upon us while living in this old world. What a lesson this is for us! If we would take time to analyze the cause of our sin, our frustration, our weakness and our failing, perhaps it would help us to do like Job and stand firm in our faith in spite of all that goes on in our lives. I believe that our application here is that we must make God so much a part of our lives that not only will He be able to say like He did about Job, but that He will also acknowledge our commitment, our dedication to the cause of Christ, and that our faith will be evident to our God and to those around us. Friends, others hear of Jesus but they are constantly looking for proof of His existence in the lives of His children here on earth. Will they identify whose we are, and in whom we gain our strength and guidance. While we are living each day in the fear of the Lord, others are watching for an example to follow, and they are making mental notes, so that when anything is said about us, whether in life or death, they will be ready to attest to our lives and what our principles and character meant to them. Let us then live in the light of eternity, in our everlasting hope, in the One who leads us to the love others like He did. Let us stand strong in our faith, no matter what may come against us by this world and it’s leader. Our God’s not dead, for He is very much alive in us each and every day!

PRAYER: Lord Jesus, You are my hope and my strength in all that I contend with in this old world. My joy comes from You alone, and it causes me to reflect on heaven where I will spend eternity with my wonderful Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ! Thank You for loving me enough to make such provisions for me. Thank You for always being there for me! Please continue to give me strength to look above my troubles and look towards the heavens and remember all the joys that are mine! Lord, more than we could ever imagine, You are fully aware of our challenges here on earth, and You know full well everything that my friends and I face on a daily basis. Please keep us focused on You, so that our challenging times down here will seem miniscule compared to the overwhelming joy that is ours when we join You in heaven. Thank You for watching over Job, yet allowing his true strength and joy to be revealed to us in the scriptures. May the light of Your Word always be the path that we will follow all the days of our lives! Jesus, I ask all this in Your precious and most holy name, knowing that You are Master over everything that could possibly come our way, AMEN!

Forgive Before Asking God For Forgiveness

On 2019-05-20 By Ed AlgreenIn Answered Prayer, Appreciation, Forgiveness, Needs, Praise, Recognize God, WorshipLeave a comment

Monday, 2019-05-20

Bible Reference: Mark 11:25-26
Translation: The Passion Translation (TPT)

Bible Text: ²⁵And whenever you stand praying, if you find that you carry something in your heart against another person, release him and forgive him so that your Father in heaven will also release you and forgive you of your faults. ²⁶But if you will not release forgiveness, don’t expect your Father in heaven to release you from your misdeeds.”

OBSERVATION: It appears like we easily place ourselves before God and ask for things, without giving any thought to what His Word says. Forgiveness is one of those things where the Word says that one must forgive others, before asking God to forgive them personally. There is a similar command on giving, but today we will focus in on forgiveness.

APPLICATION: How easy is it to forgive another individual? When considering the extreme hurt caused to you, it becomes pretty challenging, doesn’t it? However, I believe that we are capable of understanding how God feels about us also. Imagine for a moment: God created human beings – you and I; He placed us on this beautiful earth that He meticulously created for us to enjoy, to live on, and the survive from everything that He placed on the earth. Yet we carelessly destroy all the beauty He created, plus we sin against one another, and even murder one another over very silly things. We are hurt by others who may be jealous over our successes, or they just may not approve of our well being, compared to their own. We are therefore provoked to stay away from them and be on guard to take any action necessary to protect our own territory. The relationship we develop with these individuals is such that we want to stay far enough away from them, and it wouldn’t hurt our feelings any if we saw them struggling along the edge of the road or about to drown in the ocean. However, praise to the Almighty, we are a holy people, and although we have sinned, we know that we can present ourselves before our Master and ask for forgiveness. STOP right there! That’s where our Scripture today becomes so vital to us. For why would God listen to a man, or woman, holding such a grudge against a Brother or Sister to the degree that they are willing to see them harmed along the roadside, or sink into the depths of the ocean? Could such a person seriously want forgiveness of their own sin, without giving thought or attention to the awful sin bound up inside against a fellow Brother or Sister? I believe that God is saying to us in His Word today, that this type of pleading from Him is unacceptable. For He expects us to clean up our own act, before asking a perfect God, who knows every little itsy bitsy thing about us, to forgive us of our own sin. I believe that God is saying to us that He will forgive us, as we have forgiven others. Only you and God can answer what that might look like: completely? fully? totally forgiven with nothing held back? There’s a song that centers around this theme and it speaks to the forgiven person being asked by God ‘What sin?’. Can you honestly ask that question of God if He questioned you about your relationship with a Brother or Sister who hurt you and caused you to harbor sin in your heart? ‘What sin are you referring to, dear Jesus? I forgave them a long time ago’. I believe that the Scripture is telling us to consider any grudge we have against another, before asking God to forgive us of our trespasses and our sin.

PRAYER: Precious Lord, we stand before You as an opened book today, knowing that You are well aware of our comings and our goings; our sin and our readiness to forgive. Please touch deep inside the hearts of all who will read this devotional today, and cause us to forgive others, so that we might receive Your forgiveness. AMEN!

Nuggets From God's Word

Month: May 2019