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Post Date: |
Saturday, 2017-07-15 |
| SCRIPTURE | |
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From: |
Deuteronomy 16:16-17 (NCV) |
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Text: |
16 ….No man should come before the Lord without a gift. 17 Each of you must bring a gift that will show how much the Lord your God has blessed you. |
| OBSERVATION: | |
| The Israelites received guidance from Moses on where they should worship, when, how and why. Other than the sacrifices, where Jesus offered Himself as a living sacrifice for us, I believe the other guidance that Moses felt led of God to share with his people are still very much in line with what we should still be doing today. The point today of giving in return for the blessings you receive, is one that we will look closer at and attempt to apply to our lives today. | |
| APPLICATION: | |
| I would imagine that there are some out there that give to the work of the Lord for various reasons, like giving because of promises by preachers that you would be healed, or that you will get rich. Some to avoid shame when the offering plate is passed, so that you will not be looked at strangely if you put nothing at all in it. Some may not give because they feel like churches or pastors are out to get rich quick from the gifts of even the poorest members. Or because you never have enough money for yourself each paycheck after paying your bills, so why should you short yourself to give to the church? These are probably just the ‘tip of the iceberg’ on excuses you have either heard or used before, but friends, our direction comes from God’s Word. Throughout His Word He teaches that those who love Him, or know Him, or who are His, are those who obey His commands. The guide given in verse 17 above, is that we give in line with how we’ve been blessed. Notice that there is no other calculation used? Here’s a personal testimony: When I became a tither, the biggest hurdle for me was to switch from a $1 offering in the plate as it passed, to actually giving 10% of my paycheck. There were times when funds got so tight that old Satan would make me question why am I doing this crazy giving thing? But God always saw me through, and He blessed me day after day. No He didn’t make me rich in money, but rather rich in blessings. Later in my Christian walk, an evangelist spoke on giving to God from our financial resources. In his closing prayer, he had us take our wallets out of our pocket, hold them in our hands before God, as we prayed for direction on our giving in relation to our blessings. God clearly reminded me that He had blessed me with my whole paycheck, and not just the net amount after taxes, loan payments, etc. At a time when funds were already challenging, I trusted God to see me through this change in the amount that I surrendered to Him. In no way is this bragging on anything special about this old born again sinner, but I would like you to know that God has held my hand and helped me through every financial challenge, AND blessed me enormously in my everyday life. Is God proud of the way you recognize His blessings to you? If He went strictly by the percentage you gave to Him unreservedly, and out of total obedience to His Word, would He consider you to be a totally appreciative person? If God blessed you strictly based on the amount you give to Him, do you suppose your blessings would increase, or decrease? Friends, let me assure you, our God is a very giving God. You can’t out-give Him, and I strongly believe that He will bless you even more as He recognizes that you are giving honestly and in response to His matchless blessings to you! | |
| PRAYER: | |
| Lord, how could we ever give enough to show our appreciation for all that You willingly and generously give to us? Lord, please help us to always give back to You out of love and in proportion to all that You have blessed us with, and never in response to what we feel that our church leaders may fail at. We want to be blessed by You, so we give to You. As You direct us to elect Your leaders to lead Your church, I have no doubt that You will place trusted leaders to mind Your flock and provide for the spiritual welfare of Your flock and our community. Thank You for giving so overwhelmingly to us Lord. May we give in proportion to all that You give to us. 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! | |
Category: Give thanks
The God Who Protects Us!
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Post Date: |
Saturday, 2017-02-25 |
| SCRIPTURE | |
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From: |
Psalm 18:1-3 (TLB) |
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Text: |
1 Lord, how I love you! For you have done such tremendous things for me.2 The Lord is my fort where I can enter and be safe; no one can follow me in and slay me. He is a rugged mountain where I hide; he is my Savior, a rock where none can reach me, and a tower of safety. He is my shield. He is like the strong horn of a mighty fighting bull. 3 All I need to do is cry to him—oh, praise the Lord—and I am saved from all my enemies! |
| OBSERVATION: | |
| David had been rescued from battle after battle, and he sat down and considered the source of his protection, support and wisdom, and exploded with a sacrifice of praise to the only God, the One who was so gracious to him. He acknowledged that God stepped in and saved him from his enemies whenever he cried out to Him, and now his heart was so filled with thanksgiving and praise that it appears like there may not be enough descriptive words to serve the purpose! How are we doing in this area of life? | |
| APPLICATION: | |
| We hear about folk traveling hundreds of miles to be touched by a TV evangelist who has been known to heal attendees of crippling deceases, and we hear of prayer meetings where we are encouraged to bring our petitions and our needs before the Lord, but how often do we remember to return to the altar and lay our hearts out before God in awesome praise and adoration, having recognized Him as the Healer, or Provider, or Miracle Worker in our personal situation that we had laid before Him in prayer? As a kid, we were taught that it is good and proper to say ‘thank you’ after being blessed with a gift from someone. But how often do we return to God to acknowledge His holiness and His awesome blessings to us? Friends, may I encourage you to acknowledge God for His mighty works, and stop attributing your successes, recoveries and wins over serious deceases to ‘good luck’ or ‘your special moment’ or any other avoidance of praising God? If you took time to pray for God’s intervention in your serious situation, and you see a breakthrough in that situation, please acknowledge the One that you asked to help in the first place. I believe that each day results in multiple ways that we can stop and praise the Lord – protection while traveling the road of life; the doctors who helped us overcome serious illness; loved ones who encourage and bless us every day; food to eat and the comfort of our homes. Let’s not take those things for granted. God blessed us with then, and He knows what we need and when we need them. Let’s acknowledge Him in all things each and every day, and let’s not forget to thank those that God has placed in our path, so that they also might be blessed and appreciated by us. God is so good, and in so many ways. Let’s praise Him for who He is and for all that He does! | |
| PRAYER: | |
| Lord Jesus, You are so good to us and so often we neglect in returning thanks and appreciation for all that You do. Please forgive us for our ungratefulness. Lord, may we learn from David and be more moved by Your Spirit to return to the throne of grace and offer up our praises to You on a regular basis. As recognized in my ‘Application’ above, You look out for us each and every day, and You bless us more than we could possibly deserve every day. Thank You Father for Your awesome love for us and for all that You do for us. May we be more like David in an example of a grateful and appreciative child of the King. 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! | |
The True Worshipper
May I encourage you to get your spiritual ‘Nuggets’ to start your day off right? Pretty amazing that our awesome God would consider even us, to nourish us for His glory! Read on and be blessed!………
The Bible Translation: The Good News Translation
The Bible Reference: Psalm 50:22-23
The Bible Text: “Listen to this, you that ignore me, or I will destroy you, and there will be no one to save you. Giving thanks is the sacrifice that honors me, and I will surely save all who obey me.”
My Take Away: In my first read through these verses I was convinced that verse 22 was referring to a non-believer and verse 23 to a believer in Jesus Christ. If you got the same impression, may I encourage you to click on the scripture so you could see the whole chapter. You will quickly agree with me that the whole chapter is referring to those who ‘worship’ God. This was quite an eye opener for me, for I quickly recognized that just as David saw people coming to the temple to offer a sacrifice to the living God, I believe there are still some today who offer similar sacrifices through the money they give to the church, thinking that surely God will be satisfied with them if they give a little from the excess they have earned. There may be others who give, or ‘sacrifice’, of their time, or even attend church services. Friends, when your heart belongs to God, it means that you have surrendered your whole self to God – body, soul and spirit. If everything about you belongs to God, then who do you suppose owns your money? There is no ‘sacrifice’ in what you give to God, when you truly belong to Him. Perhaps, instead you are to be thankful for the 90% that He allows you to keep for your earthly obligations. When you surrender your all to Jesus, you are acknowledging that everything you are, or have, now belong to God, so you are in a continual mode of thanksgiving for the mighty works that you recognize Him doing through you. Why else would you be blessed with a job, when so many others are struggling to find one? Why else would you have the opportunity to witness to someone for Jesus, when they live right next door to the pastor? God has vowed to destroy, or as some translations read, “He will rip you apart” if you ignore Him and His gracious hand in your life. There’s no pretending, lying, or hiding anything from God friend. You are an ‘open book’ in His eyes, and therefore it really upsets Him when you think for a moment that you could ‘pull the wool over His eyes’. A totally surrendered life will be one looking for ways to worship God for His awesome power and love to you. It will be one to recognize God’s handiwork and His blessings in your life and praise Him continually for His unmerited grace. This is what pleases God and honors Him. This is what is referred to in verse 23 when we see God reaching out His hand to save us! Is there anything you need to clear up before approaching the throne of God friend?
Prayer: Lord God, You are so merciful to us. You are so patient with us, especially when we try to convince ourselves that it was our knowledge, or our health or because of the people we know, that we are surviving in this rough old world. Please sober our confused minds for ever thinking that we could do anything, or survive any day, without Your ongoing grace in our lives. There is no way that we can save anyone, but based on Your Word Lord, I believe that You will work through those who have presented themselves before You with a heart that is contrite, and has been washed by Your blood, and that is totally surrendered to You. Please allow Your Holy Spirit to work on us today so that we may clear up any misconceptions that Satan may have planted in our minds. It is only then that You will find room to work through us to minister to Your children. Lord, please open the hearts of my readers today, so that they might draw closer to You and present themselves faultless before the Father one day. These things I ask in the strong and sacrificial name of Jesus, the Christ, 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
Nuggets From God's Word 