Category: Devoted

Overcoming Distractions: Prioritizing God in Your Life

On By Ed AlgreenIn Acknowledge God, All-powerful, Allegiance, Allegiance to the Lamb, Always There, Ask and Receive, Awesome God, Blessings, Bold Confidence, Challenges, Choice, Church attendance, Cleanse me Oh God, Daily communion with God, Devoted, Distractions, Draw Me Close to You, Eternal Life, Everything We Need, Faith, Follow Jesus, God our Provider, God's Guidance, God's Power, Leadership of the Holy SpiritLeave a comment

DATE POSTED
Tuesday, November 12, 2024, and I was blessed to be at Mariposa at Hunter Road, San Marcos, TX when God inspired me to prepare this devotional. My Footnote will tell you how to find and read any and all episodes that I have shared over the years.

TODAY’S SCRIPTURE
Quoted from the Good News Translation (GNT) and found in Isaiah 65:1-3

THE SCRIPTURE READS
1 The Lord said, “I was ready to answer my people’s prayers, but they did not pray. I was ready for them to find me, but they did not even try. The nation did not pray to me, even though I was always ready to answer, ‘Here I am; I will help you.’ 2 I have always been ready to welcome my people, who stubbornly do what is wrong and go their own way. 3 They shamelessly keep on making me angry. They offer pagan sacrifices at sacred gardens and burn incense on pagan altars. 

APPLICATION – as inspired by the Holy Spirit
Perhaps you have better control over your emotions on being trapped in an impatient situation, but it seems like as I age, I am becoming way more intolerant over waiting for someone that I expected to make the next step in a process, only to find out they either misunderstood their role, or had no intention in following through on something expected of them. As I meditated on this Scripture today, I held my head down in shame, because I was reminded that God must be exceptionally tolerant of me as He waits for me each morning after blessing me with a very safe, warm, comfortable, restful night, yet I fail to thank Him as I awaken and approach another beautiful day. At evening time, after all day preparing the way for me, directing my path while opening doors that would otherwise be shut tight, yet I lay my head down without saying ‘Thank You’ to my Provider, my Protector, my Savior and my Lord. Friends, try re-reading today’s Scripture and allow it to challenge you about your similarities to the nation of Israel that God spoke to through His servant, Isaiah. We are quickly approaching a time of the year that many set aside as a special day each year to offer up thanks to Almighty God for His amazing hand of mercy and blessings throughout the year. Let us pray that this will not just prove to be a day of overindulging in turkey and whatever other food items might fill our tables that day, for just as our God is reminding us in this Scripture, He stands ready to continue blessing us in the year ahead, if only we would recognize our source of each and every blessing. He stands ready to hear our prayers and petitions as we share our concerns with Him in prayer, for in Isaiah 59:1 we are reminded that God’s arm is not too short to save us or hear our cry for mercy, or want or salvation. Please, dear friends, be reminded that God is still on the throne and He sees the gods that we have chosen to worship. Yes, especially those gods that are outside of His temple where we expect Him to be present. For the Israelites, He saw the gods they worshipped in their gardens. For us, it is any thing, or any one that we allow to take precedence over our time with Almighty God. Let me suggest that we start with, and particularly look at, what we choose to do during the times that our church worship services are going on. Examples might be the beach, boating, sports, shopping, hunting, work, etc. Are these the things that you give thanks to at Thanksgiving for your survival over the past year? Are these the things that you go to, or call on, in times of trouble, disappointment or illnesses? I believe that if these things take priority, and/or take up the time you would otherwise spend with God, then God may be jealous to the extent that He considers you spending more time with other gods rather than Him. May God direct us to keep our hearts and minds fixed on Him, our Creator and Savior, and allow nothing else to distract from our time with Him.

PRAYER
Lord Jesus, thank you for Your unconditional and persistent love for us – Your creation and Your children. You created us in Your image, yet we’ve strayed to our own vices and found other ‘gods’ more attractive, necessary and important to us. You bless, protect and guide us to be more like You every day, yet we choose to ‘do it our way’ like the songwriter wrote about. Please Lord, forgive us of our twisted priorities and our misguided allegiance. Please continue to work on us and open our eyes to see You as You are, our Savior and Lord – our everlasting King – the God of this universe for today and for evermore. In the busyness of life we often complain about not having time for everything that should be important to us. Please help us to use the words that something, or someone was not a priority to us, if we chose other things to consume our time. We want You to be our top priority in all walks of life. Please help us to give priority to You above all else. Amen!

FOOTNOTE
If you have been challenged to make a decision today after reading this devotional, please take advantage of information provided on my page ‘To Know Jesus’. I would also suggest that you speak with a local Bible Teaching Pastor, or contact me at NuggetsFromGodsWord@outlook.com and share your good news! Perhaps one of God’s servants will pray with you and give you help and/or encouragement as you begin, or continue, your walk with Jesus. If you would like to read more of my devotionals, or subscribe for a daily email containing each new devotional, please go online to NuggetsFromGodsWord.org. Friends, please allow me to encourage you to find a church home nearby 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 being a part of that, while also growing in your faith, as you worship with fellow believers!

How Christians Avoid Heartaches

On By Ed AlgreenIn Dedication, Devoted, Devotion, Focused, Heaven, WorryLeave a comment

Monday, 2019-08-05

Bible Reference: Colossians 3:1-3
Translation: The Living Bible (TLB)

Bible Text:  1 Since you became alive again, so to speak, when Christ arose from the dead, now set your sights on the rich treasures and joys of heaven where he sits beside God in the place of honor and power. 2 Let heaven fill your thoughts; don’t spend your time worrying about things down here. 3 You should have as little desire for this world as a dead person does. Your real life is in heaven with Christ and God.

OBSERVATION: What occupies your time? What do you tend to become worried about? Do you feel like your mind, and your life is properly aligned with the Creator of heaven and earth? Jesus displayed an incredible love for you, and He wants His very best for your life, but He needs your undivided attention. So STOP and meditate with me for just a short while today! It may be the most meaningful out of anything else you do today!

APPLICATION:  When Christians worry, do you suppose it’s because we are worried that God will not do what He promised? When we doubt and stress out to the limit, do you suppose that we are concerned that God is unfaithful? When we feel unloved and like no one cares, do you suppose that we allow ourselves to ponder why God must have left us alone and no longer care about us? Friends, I believe that when we allow these types of feelings and/or thoughts to enter our minds, it’s because we have taken our eyes off Jesus and becoming overwhelmed by the the things of this world, and perhaps looking for the attention of earthly friends or loved ones. I believe it is times like these that Satan moves in for the attack, for he sees that we have taken our eyes off Jesus and allowing the distractions of this world to take hold in our lives. I would highly recommend these verses to all Christians today, for if we follow the advice in verse 2 and fill our thoughts with heaven – our future home, then we will be reminded that it is a place prepared just for us. A place where we will unite with Jesus at the foot of His throne and worship Him with unending praises. A place where we will hear the voice of the Father who will encourage us with words such as “well done good and faithful servant”! A place where the creator of love, the One who loved us enough to die on a cross so that we might have everlasting hope and assurance of heaven. A place where there will be no distractions, but instead where our full undivided attention is attracted towards the Savior of the world! Try getting away where you are totally disconnected from cell phones and devices for a week. Wow, what a release! Oh how our attention is quickly drawn to the things and people who are truly important to us! Friends, I must remind you that we have allowed so much interference in our day that we not only lose sight of our one-on-one time with the Lord, but we also have lost sight of one-on-one time with our spouses, our children, our friends, our coworkers and all others. Is it any wonder that we have trouble evangelizing to them? If we can all agree that verse 3 is totally spot on and accurate, then we will agree that our real life is in heaven! I would dare say that our minds, our attention, our aim and our devotion should be there today and everyday also. Do these thoughts apply to you, friend? If not, why not? Is this something you need to take time to talk with God about?

PRAYER: Lord God, we are such worry warts, but it’s always over things that really don’t matter – things of this world. Being reminded in this scripture that our minds are to be set on our heavenly home, and our time with You, we humbly come before You today asking for forgiveness for our misguided thoughts and worries. We realize that all these things do is to distract us in our walk with You and our witness of You. For when we become solid in our faith and demonstrate it in our walk with You, we will influence those who follow in our steps. Lord I pray that You will do an awesome work in my life and in the lives of my readers, so that we might become healthy Christians focused on the ‘main thing’ – our heavenly home. I further pray that this new focus will have such an impact on others that Your name might be lifted high as Your children become better aligned with Your perfect will for us. I ask these things in the strong, mighty and holy name of Jesus – your Son, and my Redeemer, 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!

Looking Forward to THE DAY!

On By Ed AlgreenIn Devoted, Heaven, Holy, Peace, SalvationLeave a comment

SCRIPTURE  FROM:   2 Peter 3:11-14 (ERV)

TEXT: 11 Everything will be destroyed in this way. So what kind of people should you be? Your lives should be holy and devoted to God. 12 You should be looking forward to the day of God, wanting more than anything else for it to come soon.When it comes, the sky will be destroyed with fire, and everything in the sky will melt with heat. 13 But God made a promise to us. And we are waiting for what he promised—a new sky and a new earth. That will be the place where goodness lives.   14 Dear friends, we are waiting for this to happen. So try as hard as you can to be without sin and without fault. Try to be at peace with God.

OBSERVATION:   God used Peter to remind Christians of his day, and to remind us today, that He will return. He has promised that! While we wait, Peter is warning us of the things that will bombard us, and the people that will discourage us, by doubting and questioning the integrity of God. In the focal verses, we are reminded of what kind of people we should strive to be while we wait. Because this applies to us today, we must be very familiar with what the Word of God instructs us, so let us stop and meditate on this for a while today. 

APPLICATION:   As kids, we might remember our parents either threatening us, or promising to reward us, depending on how well we behaved, and how obedient we were to baby sitters while our parents are out. Often they would return and ask the sitter how the kids did while they were away. Through Peter, God is instructing us on how we should act while He is readying our eternal home! As we stop and meditate, I wonder how we would rate ourselves on how we’re doing? Here are some things that stood out to me in this Scripture:

  1. My life should be holy and devoted to God. God knows all things, so He can quickly tell me how I’m doing in this arena, but if my family and friends were honest with me, I wonder what they might say? Is it apparent to them? One translation says that I should be consumed with godliness!
  2. I should be looking forward to the day of His return! One translations says that I should daily expect His return! ‘Daily’ tells me that I should never forget that my Lord will return – any day now! Yes, it could be today, and I should have a deep desire for that. To the contrary, remember hearing folk say that they hope the Lord will wait one more day? Perhaps so they could welcome their first grandchild, or meet the guy they met online and chatted with for almost a year, etc, etc. Would you say that you desire and long for the return of our Master?
  3. I should be trying my best to live without sin and without fault. Way too often, I believe that we ‘cave in’ to every little effort of satan to distract us from our walk with Christ, and from our path to holiness. If we ‘caved in’ so easily in our marriages, we would see a drastic increase in the rate of divorce, I believe. So isn’t it frightening to imagine what Christ might say when He sees us face to face?
  4. I should live at peace with God. Friends, we can only do this if our conscience is clear and we know wholeheartedly that we are living holy and righteous lives unto God. How are we doing?

PRAYER:   Father God, You have such awesome plans in mind for us, and we know this from the promises You have made in Your Word, yet we still seem so unenthused by the look ahead to THE DAY when You will welcome us home. All we know of here on earth are things like: heartaches, financial burdens, health challenges, hatred and many other things that pull us down every day. But to look through the clouds of doubt and heartaches of daily life here on earth, and to know that our Savior is awaiting our arrival with open, loving arms, does it not give you joy for today and great hope for tomorrow? Friends, if your know my Savior, let’s live like He ordained it in these verses today. If you don’t know Jesus personally, may I encourage you to seek Him out now and accept Him as Lord of your life? Read through my Footnote below and follow the plan of salvation outlined there. Accept Him today friend, while there is still time! AMEN!

FOOTNOTE: There are two more pages on my blog 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 this devotional, please click on 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. 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 Nuggets From God’s Word 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 Sebring, 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!

When Jesus Looks Into Your Eyes

On By Ed AlgreenIn Devoted, Honest, Honesty, SincereLeave a comment

Post Date:

 Wednesday, 2017-09-13
SCRIPTURE

From:

 Luke 22:60-62 (TLB)

Text:

  60 But Peter said, “Man, I don’t know what you are talking about.” And as he said the words, a rooster crowed.
61 At that moment Jesus turned and looked at Peter. Then Peter remembered what he had said—“Before the rooster crows tomorrow morning, you will deny me three times.” 62 And Peter walked out of the courtyard, crying bitterly.
OBSERVATION:
In earlier verses Peter swore that he would do anything and everything to show his loyalty to Jesus. But he was cautioned by Jesus, as He knew what would happen when Peter was really squeezed by the local people to claim his allegiance. Of course Jesus knew what He was saying, and unfortunately for Peter, Jesus was present when it happened the third time when Peter heard the rooster crow, just as Jesus had predicted to Peter. Let’s apply this to our own lives…
APPLICATION:
As a child, I knew when mom’s eyes meant she was proud of me, or when she was upset at me, or when I was really in trouble. At school, I knew the same traits of my teacher. Now that I’m older, I can see how silly it was of me to try and hide certain things from either of these people, because they knew me so well, and they were certainly smart enough to see guilt in my eyes. Reading these verses, I was reminded that Jesus sees me as His loving child, and when I try very diligently to obey Him and do His perfect will. However. I was also reminded that He also sees when I willfully disobey His commands and His instructions, and when I make promises to Him but totally disregard them when I think that no one knows me or sees me. Am I alone in this? Am I the only one that didn’t learn from this embarrassing moment of Peter’s? Friends, each of us must face God for ourselves. It won’t matter how much of a godly mother we had or that our dad was a pastor, God will look into our eyes (individually) and judge us for who we were and for all the words we said or thoughts that may or may not have provoked our actions. If that was to happen today, how would that go for you? May I remind you that this could be the exact scene for you or I today? We all have lost friends this year that we never suspected that they would be called home so early in life. So may I encourage you today to know that you know Jesus personally, and to live as if today will be the day that Jesus looks fully into your eyes and makes a final decision on you, based on what He knows to be the case.
PRAYER:
Father God, we come humbly before You today and confess that way too often we are probably way too much like Peter. Lord, I believe that we all will confess that we would much prefer being the ‘perfect’ child and that we have been totally obedient to you in mind, action and daily walk. Please forgive us for trying to ‘pull the wool’ over our parent’s eyes, our teachers, our friends and for foolishly thinking that we could do the same with You. I believe that our greatest desire as Your child today is that we become more and more like You every day, and that friends we witness to will see us the same in the dark as they see in the daytime; the same in town as they might see out of town; the same in our workplaces as they see in church and that Your character will be evident in and through us at all times. Lord, may You rule and reign supremely in us at all times, is my humble prayer, AMEN!
FOOTNOTE:
There are two more pages on my blog 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 this devotional, please click on 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. 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 Nuggets From God’s Word 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!

A Warning To Those Running From God

On By Ed AlgreenIn Devoted, Unswerving, Warning2 Comments

May I encourage you to get your spiritual ‘Nuggets’ to start your day off right? We tend to adhere to warnings about approaching natural disasters like hurricanes or earthquakes, but today I am sharing a warning about turning your back on God. Read up, take heed, and be blessed friend..

Today’s Bible Reference: 2 Peter 2:20-22
Today’s Bible Text: 20 People can be made free from the evil in the world. They can be made free by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. But if they go back into those evil things and are controlled by them, then it is worse for them than it was before. 21 Yes, it would be better for them to have never known the right way. That would be better than to know the right way and then to turn away from the holy teaching that was given to them. 22 What they did is like these true sayings: “A dog vomits and goes back to what it threw up.”[Prov 26:11]And, “After a pig is washed, it goes back and rolls in the mud again.”
The Bible Translation: Easy To Read Version (ERV)

My Take Away: I will do my very best to keep personal feelings out of this friends, because the Word of God is very capable of speaking earth-shattering truth to us all by itself! These verses come at the end of a discussion about false teachers who looked for opportunities with weak Christians to lure them back into their previous worldly lifestyles. I believe that if we think about the two choices here: (1) to encourage and promote someone on their walk for the Lord, or (2) to tempt someone with things from their past; we all may have some guilt here! However, Peter also saw this as prevalent in the day he wrote this book, and I believe God used the opportunity for Peter to warn all of us, because He knew we would fall into the same traps today. But here is a vivid picture of what Peter is talking about:

  • Where you were: You were a part of the world controlled by Satan and filled with sin and all kinds of acts and habits that lead a person to sin against the commands of the God who placed us here in the first place;
  • Christianity: You recognized the voice of Jesus who called you from this old world of sin, so you surrendered your life to Jesus and accepted Him as Lord. You learned about His commands and you did your level best to be obedient to God in every way;
  • Your return: Through a gradual slipping away from God; From many invitations from friends in your prior life; From a lack of plugging yourself into a Christian environment and friends; Through listening to the temptations of Satan through his earthly followers, you returned to a place in your life that was once attractive to you.

I believe you might get the picture, right? So I believe the warning is this for the child of God: If there was a time in your life that you stepped from the first stage above into the 2nd stage mentioned. You probably learned a lot about the character of God; the love of God and the instructions of God. Just because you might return to your former life, you did not have a strong magnet that erased all memory about what you learned, lived and experienced as a child of God. Therefore you return to a life of sin, while daily acknowledging to yourself that you know what you are doing is wrong, but you’re going to do it anyway. Friends, our God is a very faithful God, but He is a very jealous God. I don’t believe He has extended patience for a stubborn and obstinate child that looks Him in the face and says that I’m going to do it anyway, even though I know better and that it opposes the will of God. Be warned friend. Read the Old Testament and be reminded of how many were killed because they ‘chose’ to disobey or turn away from the God of this universe. Please don’t be fooled into thinking that this can’t happen again, especially to dear ones that you know, or perhaps to you personally.

Prayer: Dear God, You showed us sincere, sacrificial love like we have never seen before, yet some have chosen to leave a life that You have called them into, and return to the superficial love that this old world has to offer. Please once again work in the lives of my family and friends, and in the lives of those who will read this devotional today. May they feel Your holy presence so strongly that they would surrender their live to You today, oh Lord. I would be forever thankful. Please protect me with a wall of strength that will help me to stay strong in the faith and eternally grateful for the Savior who loved me so much. I ask these things 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