Where Does Your Wisdom Come From?

On 2015-05-152015-05-15 By Ed AlgreenIn Godly actions, Wisdom, Worldly actionsLeave a comment

THE HOLY BIBLE (Easy-To-Read Version – James 3:13-18): ¹³ Are there any among you who are really wise and understanding? Then you should show your wisdom by living right. You should do what is good with humility. A wise person does not boast. ¹⁴ If you are selfish and have bitter jealousy in your hearts, you have no reason to boast. Your boasting is a lie that hides the truth. ¹⁵ That kind of “wisdom” does not come from God. That “wisdom” comes from the world. It is not spiritual. It is from the devil. ¹⁶ Where there is jealousy and selfishness, there will be confusion and every kind of evil. ¹⁷ But the wisdom that comes from God is like this: First, it is pure. It is also peaceful, gentle, and easy to please. This wisdom is always ready to help people who have trouble and to do good for others. This wisdom is always fair and honest. ¹⁸ People who work for peace in a peaceful way get the blessings that come from right living.

THOUGHTS: I praise God for the wisdom expressed through His servant-writers in the Bible! These few verses help us to identify which of our actions are Godly, and which are not. For certain actions reveal a Godly form while some actions show our old carnal ways. I know, some may think that because we are Christian, those carnal ways are gone. May I remind you that we are ‘a work in progress’, for as long as we are left here on this earth, Satan will give a constant fight to distract our walk for the Lord. So friends, have a look at the following list, taken straight from this scripture today, and based on your own actions, determine the source of your actions, and which ones you still need to seek God’s help with:

Worldly Actions		Godly Actions
Boasting (a lie that hides the truth)		Humility
Proud		Pure wisdom
Selfish		Peaceful
Jealousy		Gentle
Instigator of Confusion		Easy to please
Every kind of evil		Always ready to help people in trouble
		Doing good for others
		Always fair
		Always honest

Verse 18 tells us that as we seek God to help us attain the actions in the right column, we will receive true blessings! I would challenge my readers and myself to pray, and work diligently on eradicating our ‘Worldly Actions’ and to ‘press forward towards the goal’, as Paul said he was, to become more like our Savior every day, by living out ‘Godly Actions’. If we persist, then one day, with God’s help, we will consistently produce truly Godly Actions every day. Let’s strive to minimize Satan, and maximize God, in our lives every day!

PRAYER: Lord, you never said that life here on this earth would be easy, but You clearly promised that You would always be with us! We know that You have the power to do ALL things, and we know that You have the power to overcome Satan. Please remind us of this any time we struggle with those actions listed in the left column above. I believe that You want us to succeed in being like You, and I know that You have the power over Satan, so Lord I ask that You strengthen us for every challenge. May it be obvious that You are in control as we show signs of success in these areas of our character. In the interim period, please teach us to be dependent on You as we strive to honor Your Word and be obedient to Your teaching. Help us to squish Satan and those worldly actions in our lives, so that we may be bold witnesses for You while permitted to stay here below. I ask these things in the precious 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 read through Biblical truths on How To Know Jesus, or contact me at NuggetsFromGodsWord@outlook.com so that we can pray with you and give you help and or encouragement as you begin, or continue your walk with Jesus. Any words underlined above will 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 blogger.nuggetsfromgodsword.org and read more, or you may freely 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, Sebring, FL! 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!

Small, But Powerful!

On 2015-05-142015-05-14 By Ed AlgreenIn Blessing, Hurt, TongueLeave a comment

THE HOLY BIBLE (The Message – James 3:7-12): ^7–10 This is scary: You can tame a tiger, but you can’t tame a tongue—it’s never been done. The tongue runs wild, a wanton killer. With our tongues we bless God our Father; with the same tongues we curse the very men and women he made in his image. Curses and blessings out of the same mouth! ^10–12 My friends, this can’t go on. A spring doesn’t gush fresh water one day and brackish the next, does it? Apple trees don’t bear strawberries, do they? Raspberry bushes don’t bear apples, do they? You’re not going to dip into a polluted mud hole and get a cup of clear, cool water, are you?

THOUGHTS: It is unfortunate, but in spite of the warnings by James, it seems like we have paid little attention to his words. Still today, we are finding where many are being blessed by the good things that come from our lips, but yet we are also seeing friends hurt by the things that we say without regard to their feelings and/or implications to their reputation, and/or the chances to convince them to follow our Lord and Savior. James is telling us to do a self-check, because we can’t possibly deliver blessings using a small instrument in our body – the tongue, and also with the same instrument deliver bitter words and hatred. He likened it to a spring where we would never expect to see fresh and brackish water come forth from the same spring. Also as part of our inner check, James has challenged us to consider how friends we are witnessing to would never expect to see us righteous and holy one minute, and the very next minute see us being a bull-headed, cruel, mindless, thoughtless, abusive and hateful person, spitting forth evil and hurtful words. He likened this to a tree that bears only one type fruit. I believe the sobering part of this whole discussion and exhortation by James, is that God knows the ‘real’ us. We may try to convince people of our goodness, but God knows all about us. Friends, we must be sincere every hour, every day and with every word that comes forth from our mouth. If we truly belong to Christ, then every word and every action must exemplify Him. How are you doing friend? It’s a constant battle for me, which leads me to the cross daily for much needed help. Are you a child of the King and can go directly to the throne for help? If so, please surrender your thoughts and your entire life to Jesus daily for His guidance and blessings. To be like Him – speak like Him and act like Him, you must be closely attuned to Him. Bible Study and prayer is two very important habits that will draw you closer to God and tune your ears and mind to His powerful touch. If you have not surrendered your life to Jesus’ control, please read through my ‘Footnote’ and follow the links for the help offered. With God’s help, we can do ALL THINGS for His glory!

PRAYER: Lord Jesus, each day I want to grow stronger in You and become more like You. To do this, I am reminded that I must give You full control of my most inmost being, because I believe that from the heart the mouth speaks. So Lord, although it’s my tongue that I particularly want You to have ultimate control over, I also know that it is of even greater importance that I give You total control over my heart, mind and soul. Clean on the inside will produce clean and wholesome words on the outside, but this can only be achieved with You in total control of my life. Please take control dear Lord. I’m yours! Please speak to hearts of all my readers that may meditate on this devotional today. May they be impacted by You, for I ask all this in the precious and worthy name of Jesus, my King, AMEN!

Evidence of our Faith

On 2015-05-132015-05-13 By Ed AlgreenIn Evidence of Faith, FaithLeave a comment

THE HOLY BIBLE (The Contemporary English Version – James 2:14; 21-23): ¹⁴ My friends, what good is it to say you have faith, when you don’t do anything to show that you really do have faith? Can that kind of faith save you? …… ²¹ Well, our ancestor Abraham pleased God by putting his son Isaac on the altar to sacrifice him. ²²Now you see how Abraham’s faith and deeds worked together. He proved that his faith was real by what he did. ²³ This is what the Scriptures mean by saying, “Abraham had faith in God, and God was pleased with him.” That’s how Abraham became God’s friend.

THOUGHTS: Ever noticed how we evaluate people to determine who they truly are? After a short meeting with, or introduction to, someone, generally we can come away with our minds set on who they are deep inside. James is getting a similar point across to us in these verses today, for He tells us that if we truly have faith, there will not be a need for us to tell folk that we have it, but that it will shine through in our actions. The example given by James is a mind opener on this subject. Imagine Abraham exercising his faith in God to the degree that he is headed to the place of sacrifice prepared to place his own son on the altar to be sacrifice, because this is what God ordered him to do. Imagine doing something like that, being assured that God will work out something for His good, if we follow His command! Friends, I believe that this story is pure evidence that the faith of Abraham was far greater and convicting to him than any earthly possession. Matthew Henry said in his commentary on these verses: “This place of Scripture plainly shows that an opinion, or assent to the gospel, without works, is not faith. There is no way to show we really believe in Christ, but by being diligent in good works, from gospel motives, and for gospel purposes.” I truly believe that we are tested each day on our level of faith, and by the end of the day we can analyze how much of what we said or did was based on our faith in God and dependence on Him, versus how much was a result of our selfish will for our own selfish purpose. I believe the question to ponder today is, “do we truly believe in God?” If so, “Why do we not exercise sufficient faith in Him to prove our faith in, and dedication to Him” If we never said a word to our coworkers about our Christianity or belief in God, would they know by our faith that we are a Son, or Daughter, of the King of all kings, based on our expressed faith?

PRAYER: What a mind-sobering thought for us today oh God! We say with our lips that “we believe in You”, but is our faith truly evident and noteworthy to those that we come into contact with? What’s inside of us will truly come out when we face relatives, friends and coworkers who have gained knowledge of us through everyday dealings. I wonder, have they seen through my actions alone that there is a God, or that I am controlled by, and encouraged by, the very God of this universe? Please help my friends reading this devotional today, and myself, to truly put our heart where our mouth is. It is very easy to say at church, or in the presence of fellow Christians, that we are ‘Christian’. May our hearts be so affected by Your grace dear Lord, that our actions will overflow with the abundant faith of our hearts, and may You be glorified if this faith is recognized by anyone, because it’s all about You Jesus. I ask all this, in faith, and in the wonderful name of Jesus, my Lord and soon coming King, AMEN!

Through Godly Eyes

On 2015-05-112015-05-11 By Ed AlgreenIn Love, UnconditionalLeave a comment

THE HOLY BIBLE (The Living Bible – James 2:1-4): ¹ ….how can you claim that you belong to the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, if you show favoritism to rich people and look down on poor people? ² If a man comes into your church dressed in expensive clothes and with valuable gold rings on his fingers, and at the same moment another man comes in who is poor and dressed in threadbare clothes, ³ and you make a lot of fuss over the rich man and give him the best seat in the house and say to the poor man, “You can stand over there if you like or else sit on the floor”—well, ⁴ judging a man by his wealth shows that you are guided by wrong motives.

THOUGHTS: I would imagine that the title alone might draw attention thinking that perhaps I would address various sins that might be acceptable to God. No that would never happen, because God makes it clear in His Word that He hates sin. However, there are certain actions we are guilty of that reveals our ugly motives and ultimately leads to sin. Often Satan will place the thought of greed and self-promotion in our hearts and we easily concede to sin. The example given in this scripture today is still very real today, but I want us to examine what might be the motive behind it. We are still recovering from a fairly challenging financial depression, where we have seen a number of churches close their doors and/or reduce staff in order to survive the financial crisis. Church treasurers are excited to see new tithers enter their church, and they morn the departure of those that faithfully give financially. Churches are called on more than ever before to help poor families who may have lost jobs and/or faced crucial financial challenges that have really impacted their homes. If this kind of information is well known to church leaders, how do you suppose they would react to a well-known rich person visiting their church, versus a struggling family who may have to call on the church for help? If we do this in our churches, don’t you know that we do this in every phase of our lives? Will you prepare your home as nicely to receive a humble clerk from your employment for dinner, as you would the CEO? In our scripture we see where God gave James insight into this by challenging us to think about our motives behind the ways that we treat people from various walks of life. Friends, we should never treat someone based on their financial status, or the color of their skin, or their social status in society. These are worldly statuses we have given to each other, because all God sees is a sinner in need of His grace. He will save the poor person as quickly as He would a rich person. Because all are simply children made by God, He loves the rich person as much as He does the poor person. If we are to be just like our Father, why would we act any differently that He? Let us learn to love one another, without regard to their social or financial status, friend!

PRAYER: Lord, I need to love my CEO as much as I love my lowliest co-worker. They both were designed by You and they both need You as their Savior to be acceptable into heaven. I believe that You love us as much today, with all that we have attached to ourselves from this old world, as You did the day You released us from our mother’s womb. For worldly attachments will remain, and only those basic things created and blessed by You will rise to meet You in the air. I pray that You will help us to rid ourselves of prejudices and wrong motives. Please help us to see Your children for who they are, not for what they have become throughout their lifetime here on earth. Financial gains as well as poverty will remain, but our hearts, souls and minds will all look the same as we enter Your kingdom. Please help us to see each other in this form while we remain on earth, so that when we rise to meet You we can lock arms with people of every nation, social status or walk of life – all children saved by Your wonder grace. Please help us to look at others through Your lens today and see folk in need of our Savior, or celebrate with them as children already saved by Your grace. I ask this in the powerful and almighty name of Jesus, AMEN!

Who’s In Control?

On 2015-05-092015-05-09 By Ed AlgreenIn Commitment, Holy, RighteousLeave a comment

THE HOLY BIBLE (The Good News Translation – James 1:19-22; 26-27): ¹⁹Remember this, my dear brothers and sisters! Everyone must be quick to listen, but slow to speak and slow to become angry. ²⁰Human anger does not achieve God’s righteous purpose. ²¹So get rid of every filthy habit and all wicked conduct. Submit to God and accept the word that he plants in your hearts, which is able to save you. ²²Do not deceive yourselves by just listening to his word; instead, put it into practice.
²⁶Do any of you think you are religious? If you do not control your tongue, your religion is worthless and you deceive yourselves. ²⁷What God the Father considers to be pure and genuine religion is this: to take care of orphans and widows in their suffering and to keep oneself from being corrupted by the world.

THOUGHTS: Bankers must follow the rules, regulations and sometimes even the desires of their regulators, in order to stay in their good graces and know that they are doing what they understand the law requires of them. I believe this is pretty prevalent in many things that we do in life, but being especially concerned in this blog with what I interpret from the Bible that God requires of us, I want to remind us of exactly what God said through His servant James, in the highlighted verses today. God’s ultimate desire, I believe, is that we be as much like Him as possible. Particularly, that we be righteous, even as He is righteous. I believe it is evident from these verses, and God’s Word in general, that we will never attain righteousness as long as we allow Satan a foothold in our lives. So how do we know when this is occurring? When we do those things, and act in ways that do not represent what we know about God. We are reminded in the scripture today that self-control is very important. In other words, way too often we allow our anger to get the better part of us and we react way too quickly, based on our own opinions, rather than listening a little longer. The only way we can listen longer, is the speak less. When we do this we avoid jumping to our conclusions prematurely, and instead hearing the full story from the heart of the one speaking. Think about it friend, while God desires peace and goodwill towards our fellow man, Satan desires just the opposite to God. So when we speak prematurely and cause an argument or hard feelings in the other person, we are pleasing what Satan wants from us, not God. I am so amazed and always blessed by God’s Word, because whenever we read about God’s demands or His ‘thou shall not’s’, we can often read on and see what it is that He desires from us instead. Look at verse 27, and notice what God wants us to do with our time, instead of being Satan’s vehicle to stir up trouble and discontent. If we desire to help, and practice helping those who cannot help themselves and love them like Jesus would, don’t you see that we will be overwhelmed in appreciation of all that God has blessed us with, rather than letting Satan use us to tear down and destroy others – which is his main goal? Friends, please remember that if we have surrendered our lives to Jesus Christ, our actions are driven by God, otherwise we are naturally driven to please Satan. Strictly based on your actions, who’s driving you?

PRAYER: Dear God, thank You for showing us the way to righteousness and thank You for being ‘the way‘ to righteousness. You are the One that directed what You want from us, and You provided us with the means to accomplish that. Thank You for Jesus, and the life that He lived here on earth, in order that we might learn how to live righteously like He did. Father, in a life totally committed to being like You, I need Your hand upon my every thought, my every action and my every word, so that I might follow Your way, Your desire, and Your will for my life. May I be so committed to this kind of life that Satan will find no room to tempt or use me in any way for his dirty work. Lord, I believe that my friends reading this devotional may have similar temptations today, so I pray that You might impact their lives in such a way that they may commit to giving You full control of their life and experience a total transformation. May You have Your will and way in our lives so that we may be obedient, holy, and righteous, as You intended. I ask all this in the precious name of Jesus, AMEN!

The Originators of Evil and Good

On 2015-05-082015-05-08 By Ed AlgreenIn Evil, Good, RighteousLeave a comment

THE HOLY BIBLE (The Living Bible – James 1:13-17): ¹³ And remember, when someone wants to do wrong it is never God who is tempting him, for God never wants to do wrong and never tempts anyone else to do it. ¹⁴ Temptation is the pull of man’s own evil thoughts and wishes. ¹⁵ These evil thoughts lead to evil actions and afterwards to the death penalty from God. ¹⁶ So don’t be misled, dear brothers. ¹⁷ But whatever is good and perfect comes to us from God, the Creator of all light, and he shines forever without change or shadow.

THOUGHTS: Less Christians believe that all things that happen in their lives after conversion derives from God, James found it important to clarify this. It served as a great reminder to me, so I wanted to share this with my blog audience today also. Just in case we ever feel like God might be tempting us to prove our faith in Him, or tempting us for whatever reason, James clarified this in verses 13 and 14. Friends, it is unfortunate, but the reason why it is so important to stay closely attuned to God through Bible Study, Prayer, Worship and Fellowship with like believers, is because as long as we are here on this earth, Satan will be a constant pain in our side. Always tempting, prodding and making every attempt to have us turn aside from, what he believes to be, a stupid decision to follow Jesus. Of course, as soon as we come to our senses we know that verse 17 is a perfect sermon for us, because while the verse is telling us where everything good and perfect comes from, we can naturally reason that the opposite must come from Satan. So I believe that our lesson in this scripture today is to remind us that when we feel temptation; when we feel evil overtaking us and when we feel like nothing good is happening to us, we must quickly come to our senses and ask God to forgive us for the evil that we have allowed to enter our lives. Ask Him to build a great hedge of protection around us. Send a true messenger of His to encourage us, and to make His presence very obvious to us, Friends, when we find ourselves slipping away from God, I believe you will always find that it is not God who is letting go of our hand, but rather us who wants to try and do things our way. It is then that we become very vulnerable to Satan. Always remember: anything good, loving and worthwhile comes from God. Anything else is caused by our weakened spiritual condition that has allowed Satan access into our lives. We can protect our righteous lives by staying closely attached and attuned to the only Righteous One, Jesus Christ. Try realigning yourself with the King of Glory today friend, and let God be God in your life!

PRAYER: Until we are reminded of all that You have done for us, and continue to do for us dear Lord, we tend to forget and even minimize Your love for us. We know that we should stay in the Word, and we know that we should revere our relationship with You oh God, but it is so unfortunate that often it will take a disaster or major event in our lives to realign our relationship with You. Please forgive us for being so weakened to sin, and so weak in our relationship with You that we would allow Satan access to our lives so easily. We are the temple of the Lord, and God cannot reign where Satan resides. Please help us to stay closely aligned to You dear God, through saturation of Your Word, through frequent prayer and through an unwavering commitment and determination to give You full reign over us. Please forgive us Lord, and be our constant Lord, Master and Ruler over all things in our lives. For I ask this in the precious name of Jesus, AMEN!

Sacrifices That Please God

On 2015-05-062015-05-06 By Ed AlgreenIn Giving, PraiseLeave a comment

THE HOLY BIBLE (God’s Word Translation – Hebrews 13:14-16): ¹⁴ We don’t have a permanent city here on earth, but we are looking for the city that we will have in the future. ¹⁵ Through Jesus we should always bring God a sacrifice of praise, that is, words that acknowledge him. ¹⁶ Don’t forget to do good things for others and to share what you have with them. These are the kinds of sacrifices that please God.

THOUGHTS: For those of us still in the workforce, I believe it is very evident that we are to strive to please our employer, and especially our supervisor, if we are to be successful in our job and enjoy longevity with our employer. Often doing the things that appeal to us, or seems right to us, may not always be exactly what our supervisor is looking for, and will not result in deepest appreciation from them. Receiving a ‘pat on the back’ or hearing words of praise and appreciation makes our day complete and worthwhile! Similarly, in God’s Word we are cautioned to think about our eternal home, because our life here on earth is only temporary, compared to eternity. If we have reconciled our lives with the Lord Jesus Christ and accepted His lordship over us, then we are destined for eternity in heaven, otherwise our default destination will be Hell. If we belong to Jesus, then we should be doing our very best to please Him and do what He desires even here on earth. In these few verses we are given items that we should concentrate on here on earth, as sacrifices that will please God:

Praise – Verse 15 even spells out the meaning of this sacrifice: Words that acknowledge Jesus as Lord. I know that we often correlate this word with the lifting of hands and singing praises directed to our King, but I believe that our lives should be so impacted by our relation with Jesus that we will no longer attribute our successes to ‘good luck’, or the ‘man in the sky’ or any other fable, but we should freely attribute our blessings to God, no matter whose presence we might be in. Our unashamed expression of praise will not only please God, but may also impact an unsaved friend that might be in our presence;
Giving to others – God has blessed us with everything we claim as ours. If we are merely keepers of the joy that result from those gifts, and not sharers, of what value is that to the kingdom of heaven? In Matthew 10:8 we are admonished to freely give, as we have freely received from God. It’s not ours friend, we are just blessed to have the gifts God has wonderfully entrusted to us!

Based on this scripture, we know that these two sacrifices please God. Let’s not be so hesitant in offering these up to God through our actions today. I believe that God will acknowledge His appreciation by blessing us in return!

PRAYER: Lord You are so good to us! Thank You Lord for all Your blessings that You pour out on me every day of my life. You were especially gracious to answer my prayer requests yesterday, but Lord I am thankful each and every day. May my sacrifices of praise and unselfish giving always be a priority in my everyday walk of life so that You may be pleased with Your servant. Please tender the hearts of the unsaved today dear Lord, so that they may openly witness Your blessings on Your people and the resulting sacrifices they offer back up to You. I’m So Glad I’m a Part of the Family if God! I pray that other’s reading this devotional can freely acknowledge this fact today. If you can’t friend, then may I recommend you spend some time reading my ‘Footnote’ below to make sound decisions towards accepting Jesus as your Savior? I ask all this in the wonderful and generous name of Jesus, my Lord, AMEN!

Jesus Christ – The Same Now and Forever!

On 2015-05-052015-05-05 By Ed AlgreenIn Faith, Remember, TrustLeave a comment

THE HOLY BIBLE (Good News Translation – Hebrews 13:7-8): ⁷Remember your former leaders, who spoke God’s message to you. Think back on how they lived and died, and imitate their faith. ⁸Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and for ever.

THOUGHTS: I remember the first time that I installed a pet door at our home, our dog would go up to it, but not touch it. We helped him by pushing him through the door a few times to show him that he could trust it, and now he zooms through it as if it wasn’t even there! Here are a few ways that we might learn to, or enhance our, trust in God as believers:

Meditate on His Word (the Bible), and see how God miraculously handled situations for His saints such as Abraham, Isaac, Noah, Moses and Paul, to name a few. Then read the verse captioned today – He is the same yesterday, today and for ever!
Listen to testimonies of God’s faithful servants today – Pastors, Missionaries, Bible School teachers, etc, and hear how they have experienced God at work in their lives – often in miraculous ways. Very often we can hear how God is still working in their lives and be reassured that God is the same yesterday, today and for ever!
Always be ready and willing to trust God – even in the small, or what may appear to be insignificant, things in life. I head a faithful Brother say at one time that as he trusts God to help him find such minimal things as his keys, it builds his faith to ask God for help and guidance in the major areas of His life. It then helps him to gain confidence that God is the same yesterday, today and for ever!

Warning – we must be extremely careful to not let Satan tempt us into believing that God ‘is not the same’ when our prayers are not answered the way that we have instructed God. Remember God is all knowing and all powerful, and we are not. When we take our petitions before Him we must be prepared for His answer, not necessarily the selfish, unthoughtful ways that we may have told Him to answer. Let us therefore place complete faith in God, and as we take our small or large requests before Him, rest assured that He is able, and that He will respond with us in mind, knowing that all things work together for good, for those who place their total faith and trust in Him. Another warning – you can only place your faith and trust in someone you have a relationship with. If you do not have this type of relationship with the God of this universe, please look carefully into the notes and hyperlinks offered in the ‘Footnote’ below. God is able friend!

PRAYER: How awesome it is to be reminded of Your power dear God, and the unending peace I gain each day by placing my faith and trust in You. Should there be one that You may cause to stumble across this devotional today who need You as their personal Savior, Lord Jesus, then I pray that You might convict them and draw them to You. Should there be one who has lost confidence in Your ability to still touch lives today, then I pray that You might deal in their lives and cause them to remember Your awesome power. Please continue to bless and draw mankind unto Yourself, so that we might be reinvigorated in our faith and become even more bold in our witness and in proclaiming how faithful You still are today! Lord, You are gracious, good and eternal. Thank You for reminding us again that You are still God! I trust in You oh God, and ask all these things believing, and in faith – in the awesome name of Your Son, Jesus Christ, AMEN!

Important Things To Pray For Each Other

On 2015-04-292015-04-29 By Ed AlgreenIn Christ-Like, PrayerLeave a comment

THE HOLY BIBLE (New Century Version – Philippians 1:9-11): ⁹ This is my prayer for you: that your love will grow more and more; that you will have knowledge and understanding with your love; ¹⁰ that you will see the difference between good and bad and will choose the good; that you will be pure and without wrong for the coming of Christ; ¹¹ that you will be filled with the good things produced in your life by Christ to bring glory and praise to God.

THOUGHTS: Just as Paul had a deep desire for his church members at Philippi, I believe that God would have us do the same for each other. Please allow me to break down the above verses to show us two important end results that we should pray for each other:

That we present ourselves to God at His second coming without spot or wrinkle, and to help with that we should pray:
- That our love will grow more and more. This reminds me that we will never attain perfection in this area here on earth, because of our selfish desires and personal greed. However, this is of utmost importance to us when considering that one day we will come face to face with our Savior. This also tells me that this particular attribute should be a daily prayer of ours so that we might love more today than we did yesterday, and that we love sacrificially as Jesus did for us on Calvary;
That we bring glory and praise to God:
- In addition to the evidence of God’s love being reflected in our lives, I believe that verse 11 is pointing us to live a life that exudes a sweet savor of goodness, ordained and blessed by Christ. I believe the latter is important to avoid our selfish pride, and the possibility of doing good for personal attention and/or gain. I believe the type goodness referred to here is the same as mentioned in other scripture as ‘fruit’. In other words, our lives will produce ‘fruit’ or ‘qualities’ that immediately reminds the world of Jesus. When this type goodness, or ‘fruit’ is evident, not only will we honor and praise our Creator, but those to whom we minister will also praise Him.

Living Christian lives that please God, will be evident to those we come into contact with. This only happens when you have accepted Jesus as your Lord and personal Savior, for there is not enough ‘good’ in you alone to please God. Only the work of His Son in us produces the kind of life acceptable to God. If you have not taken this leap of faith yet, may I introduce you to my Lord today, please? It’s the best thing that could ever happen to you! Read the ‘Footnote’ below for more information on how you might go about accepting Christ, please?

PRAYER: Lord Jesus, without You we would be forced to pattern our lives after the ‘good’ we see in each other, which would lead to chaos, greed and selfish desires. Thank You for showing us the way to pure happiness and a life of purity that would be pleasing to You. Thank You for touching the life of Your saint, Paul, and the desire You gave Him to share these words, looked at this morning, with the saints at Philippi first, then made available to so that we might gleam truth and direction for our lives. Lord, we want to be just like You. Thank You for showing us what that entails, and thank You for the assurance we have of Your willingness to help us achieve that. I place my life in Your hands and pray that You might cleanse me of all sin and characteristics that displeases You, and that You continue to bless me with the way to true perfection through Your Word. Please touch the life of each friend that will read this devotional today and draw them closer to You because of Your Word. Without full surrender to You we are way too much like this old world, please keep us focused on You every day, is my sincere plea, that I ask in the name of Jesus, my Lord and precious Savior, AMEN!

The Evidence & Results of True Faith

On 2015-04-252015-04-25 By Ed AlgreenIn Faith, HopeLeave a comment

The Holy Bible (The Contemporary English Version – Hebrews 11:13-16): 13 Every one of those people died. But they still had faith, even though they had not received what they had been promised. They were glad just to see these things from far away, and they agreed that they were only strangers and foreigners on this earth. 14 When people talk this way, it is clear that they are looking for a place to call their own. 15 If they had been talking about the land where they had once lived, they could have gone back at any time. 16 But they were looking forward to a better home in heaven. That’s why God wasn’t ashamed for them to call him their God. He even built a city for them.

Thoughts: I believe I was renewed in my faith as I read this scripture, and was reminded of the faith shown by our forefathers. The writer reminds us that all the faith shown by these powerful men of God, such as Abraham, Sarah, Isaac and Jacob was not necessarily on the promises that would be revealed to them during their lifetime, but because their minds were not fixed on eartly things and/or places, God was not ashamed of their human failures and instead prepare a heavenly home for them that, no doubt, was their ultimate goal. I am reminded of a saying that often we are so earthly minded that we are of no heavenly good!! It sounds just the opposite for these great saints, and I believe that this may be much of the reason why they were particularly made a part of the scriptures – to help show us what 'true faith' really looks like. To my readers, let me encourage you to join me in re-evaluating the level of our faith. Let's begin with evaluating our priorities – are they more earthly minded than heavenly? Do our actions reflect the qualities learned from our relationship with Christ, or those inherited from our earthly interactions? Would God be ashamed for us to say that He is our God, or would He be proud of His children? We have a hope friends! We have a heavenly home and a gracious heavenly Father that awaits our arrival in His presence. Are you ready? Let's make Him proud of us as long as we are allowed to remain on planet earth, and may others be drawn to our Savior through the faith they see in us!

Prayer: Father God, I thank You for the awesome experience of knowing You, and being blessed by the many ways that You have already touched my life. Please help my readers and I to place our relationship with You as our very top priority, and please help us to learn from the faith of our ancestors, while giving us the urgency to also allow our faith in You to be so obvious in us that those following in our footsteps would see more of Jesus than of our sinful selves. May our lives be so focused on You, oh Lord, that You would be proud to hear us call You our Father and our God. May all who come behind us find us faithful! I ask this in humility and in the wonderful name of Jesus, my Savior and 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 so that we can pray with you and give you help and or encouragement as you begin, or continue your walk with Jesus. Any words underlined above will 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 blogger.nuggetsfromgodsword.org and read more, or you may freely 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, Sebring, FL! 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!

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Nuggets From God's Word

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