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!

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!

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!

Overcomers!

On 2015-05-072015-05-07 By Ed AlgreenIn Difficulties, Overcomers, TemptationsLeave a comment

THE HOLY BIBLE (The Living Bible – James 1:2-4): ² Dear brothers, is your life full of difficulties and temptations? Then be happy, ³ for when the way is rough, your patience has a chance to grow. ⁴ So let it grow, and don’t try to squirm out of your problems. For when your patience is finally in full bloom, then you will be ready for anything, strong in character, full and complete.

THOUGHTS: I believe that most of us reading these verses today will conclude that our patience, or endurance, must be nearing maturity now, because of the extent of our difficulties over recent months and years! Friends, James has really reminded us (Christians) to do just the opposite to what we are tempted to do, under the power of the One we claim as our Master and Lord. Think about it, we are most apt to cry “poor me” when things are not going our way. When our faith is tempted, we tend to question why God wasn’t there for us during the time we were so weak. BUT meditate closely on what James is teaching us to do in these verses, for he, under the influence of the Holy Spirit, instructs us to be happy in these cases, because we are seeing evidence that God is developing us, or maturing us in our faith. This most often comes at a time where God knows that there are bigger things ahead where we will need the increased endurance or patience. It comes at a time where it will be obvious to sinners that the only thing accountable for our endurance/patience must be the bold work of the Savior working in and through us. So friends, let us especially stand firm to our faith and, in what appears to be, the weakest times of our lives. Let it be obvious to others that our strength is coming from a much higher source that anything we could do in and of ourselves. Let us be ready to brag on God – give Him the glory for all that is accomplished in us. As Christians, ‘good luck’ should hardly be in our vocabulary, for we should never depend on it. Our strength, our guidance, our endurance, our patience, our power to overcome or say ‘no’ when tempted to do wrong – all of it comes from the God we serve. The God that we ask to protect us and help us to be overcomers, strengthened by His hand for the benefit of everything, and everyone, that follows. I believe that our motto must be: ‘Know God, Know peace. No God, no peace’! It’s all about our Savior friend, we have no power without Him!

PRAYER: What a blessed man I am to have such a Savior to watch over me and strengthen my walk, even in what appears to be life’s toughest times. ‘Who am I‘ Thank you gracious heavenly Father for allowing it all to start at the cross. For while we were yet sinners, You sent Your only Son as a sacrifice so that we could be saved from this wicked world that could only destine us for Hell. However, because I (and many others who will meditate on this today) surrendered our lives to You, we were received by You, and now fit into the category of persons that James taught about. Thank You Father for the assurance of knowing that You care, and that Your promise to be with us through every ‘storm of life’ is very real. How can I possibly say ‘thanks’ adequately for such a Savior, and Your amazing love for me? Lord, please use me as Your instrument to spread that love, and to show it in every aspect of my life, so that unbelievers might be introduced to the King of Love today. Because trials and temptation still come, I am convinced that You are not finished with me yet, so I thank You for Your ongoing work in my life. May the results of Your work always serve to encourage someone else towards a decision to accept You as their Savior, is my humble plea. I ask all this in the gracious name of Jesus, my Savior, AMEN!

An Unshakable Kingdom

On 2015-05-022015-05-02 By Ed AlgreenIn Reconciliation, SincerityLeave a comment

THE HOLY BIBLE (The Message – Hebrews 12:25-29): ^25–27 So don’t turn a deaf ear to these gracious words. If those who ignored earthly warnings didn’t get away with it, what will happen to us if we turn our backs on heavenly warnings? His voice that time shook the earth to its foundations; this time—he’s told us this quite plainly—he’ll also rock the heavens: “One last shaking, from top to bottom, stem to stern.” The phrase “one last shaking” means a thorough housecleaning, getting rid of all the historical and religious junk so that the unshakable essentials stand clear and uncluttered.

^28–29 Do you see what we’ve got? An unshakable kingdom! And do you see how thankful we must be? Not only thankful, but brimming with worship, deeply reverent before God. For God is not an indifferent bystander. He’s actively cleaning house, torching all that needs to burn, and he won’t quit until it’s all cleansed. God himself is Fire!

THOUGHTS: Don’t you suppose that some of the super-powers in our world today wished they could say that they have ‘An Unshakable Kingdom’? We are warned that God shook up His kingdom once before when He showed the Israelites that although He preserved and cared for them in the wilderness for 40 years, most of them would not be allowed into the Promised Land because of their continued sin and disregard for God. Friends, here we are thousands of years later still being warned that we must listen and take note of the awesome God that we know and serve, because He has a side that imitates a raging fire, and just as He shook up the Israelites, He will once again shake up the earth’s population. In fact, it sounds like He is specifically speaking to the church here, because He refers to the many things we have put in place to supposedly encourage people to worship, yet those very things built and/or developed to attract our worship often breakdown the intended purpose for which we put them into place. Let me explain: many churches have split apart over the color of the church walls or the location of the piano, many more have split over the arguments that develop between members – the very persons that the ‘church’ was designed to bring together to worship and adore the one, true Lord that we all call ‘Our Father’. Friends, we are being warned in these verses that God has a much different kingdom in place for His children, but only after a good shakedown to cleanse His church – for those who are sincere in their relationship with God, and who prove it in their daily walk, talk and relationship with their fellow brothers and sisters. Where does that leave you Brother? Will you be in the group that is sifted out Sister, or are you secure in your relationship with God and His people? According to Deuteronomy 4:24, our God is not to be trifled with, for He is a consuming fire and a jealous God. We might fool our pastor or others in the congregation, but God knows our inmost thoughts and our every action – even the intent behind our actions. Often we might realize how those very close to us can see straight through our actions, so imagine how much more powerful God is. In all sincerity friends, let us get our lives in order and truly practice worshipping the one true God here on earth, so we will be ready for an eternity of praising Him in heaven.

PRAYER: With great reverence and with utmost respect I come before You this morning, knowing that in spite of Your loving and caring nature, yet You know my inmost thoughts, decisions and intentions behind everything I say or do. Please forgive me for the times that I have been less than upright or fully forthright before You and/or my fellow man. I am convinced that not only do I need You as my Savior and Lord, but I am in constant need of Your guidance, protection, wisdom and everlasting love. I need You Every Hour, as that good old hymn says. I cannot do this thing called ‘life’ without Your everlasting presence. I hope that my friends reading this devotional are in much better shape in all of these areas than I am, but I pray that You might clear the cobwebs from their minds and show them any shortcomings they might have. Lord, we don’t want to bury our heads in the sand and ignore our faults and/or our sins, because we want to stand before You one day and hear You say “well done good and faithful servant”, for we want to know that even today “It is well with my soul“. Thank You for this reminder Heavenly Father, please help us to be true to You and in our earthly relationships, and we will carefully give You all the credit and praise, for I ask these things in the matchless name of Jesus, AMEN!

The Purpose of Discipline By God

On 2015-04-302015-04-30 By Ed AlgreenIn Discipline, Holy, SubmissionLeave a comment

THE HOLY BIBLE (New Century Version – Hebrews 12:7-10): ⁷ So hold on through your sufferings, because they are like a father’s discipline. God is treating you as children. All children are disciplined by their fathers. ⁸ If you are never disciplined (and every child must be disciplined), you are not true children. ⁹ We have all had fathers here on earth who disciplined us, and we respected them. So it is even more important that we accept discipline from the Father of our spirits so we will have life. ¹⁰ Our fathers on earth disciplined us for a short time in the way they thought was best. But God disciplines us to help us, so we can become holy as he is.

THOUGHTS: I believe that we can endure many things if we know why they are happening to us. This is the reason that we often complain, ‘why me Lord?’ However it is often difficult, and perhaps very ‘human’ to limit our sight to our current circumstances instead of looking for the possible good that God could achieve through our suffering or challenge. Friends if we are ever involved in making something – perhaps a piece of pottery or building something out of wood, we may have to smash it at times and start over. Similarly, God made us perfect, but He gave us free-will to do our own thing, so our sin nature often gets the better part of us and leads us down a path that could be destructive. Without having to smash us and destroy us, God, in His infinite wisdom and love, gets our attention, and brings us back on the road where we look more like Him again. This is called ‘discipline’. So if you get nothing more out of this devotional today, please memorize the words that are bolded at the end of the highlighted verses: “God disciplines to help us become holy, just as He is“. Why do we deserve such love, you might ask. I believe that the words that I first quoted as our main gripe, were also used in the title of a song that helps us voice our opinion to God but yet understand the great love shown to us by the Father. Listen to ‘Why Me Lord‘ as you ponder why God would love even you so much that He would send His one and only Son as a sacrifice for all your bad – your sin. Remember, He wants us to look just like Him and to be good representatives of His while on our path of life here on planet earth. His discipline serves an eternal purpose that only God knows, and that we may or may not ever see or understand. Just trust Him friend! I have been struggling with one challenge, or trial, after another recently, and yesterday while really feeling burdened, God sent a messenger to tell me that my trials are not to burden me or hurt me, but to strengthen me for greater and bigger things that will benefit His kingdom! Wow, what an inspiration! Our road to holiness is a challenging one while living in a challenging world filled with greed and sin, but our God can do all things in the lives of those who place their faith and trust in Him. Draw close to God, friend, so that He may draw close to you and help you on this challenging road of life.

PRAYER: What have I done to deserve God’s only Son? As I hear those words sung in the video reference above, I am reminded of all the love You have shown, both at Calvary, and through all phases of my Christian life, and I can only sit back and ask Why? Why me Lord? I may never know why You love me so much Heavenly Father, but I am compelled to say yet again today how much I appreciate all that You have done to make me more like You every day. I stand amazed in the presence of the King and Creator of this universe and humbly call You my Lord, my Savior, my Friend and my soon coming King! Please soften the hearts of the rebellious today. Please pour out Your love on those that may question why they are going through challenges. Draw them to Yourself in such a way that their rebellion will turn to pure love and submission, knowing that You only want us to be more holy, as You are. I love You Lord Jesus, and I thank You for first loving me! I ask all this in Your precious name, 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!

Stop, Listen and Consider

On 2015-04-272015-04-27 By Ed AlgreenIn Commitment, Listen, PriorityLeave a comment

THE HOLY BIBLE (Good News Translation – Job 37:14-16): ¹⁴Pause a moment, Job, and listen; consider the wonderful things God does. ¹⁵ Do you know how God gives the command and makes lightning flash from the clouds? ¹⁶ Do you know how clouds float in the sky, the work of God’s amazing skill?

THOUGHTS: I’ve often said around my house that if my family could move to the garden in quiet solitude, without any electronics, including the house phone, and just listen to the birds sing, catch a glimpse of the beautiful creation that God has put in place for us, and after a period of quietness before God, just chat with each other, I believe we would draw closer to God and to each other – if we don’t go totally insane through withdrawal symptoms!!! Ever noticed how we must always be attached to a device of some sort, or have background noise to seemingly block out the quiet? It ‘kills’ me to call someone and compete with the loudness of their television set while trying to speak to them! Like Job, I believe that often someone may try to comfort us or share a message with us, and our minds are so busy that we hardly remember they were in the same room with us. Can this happen with God? Of course it could, for often it’s not until we are laid out on our backs, that we stop, listen, and look up to God to consider how helpless we are without Him. Unfortunately, it’s often not until we have tried everything and failed, before we finally decide to call on God and seek His help. Friends, I believe that it is critical that we make time in our day to get alone with God. We need time in His Word so that we can listen for His voice through the written Word, but we need to stop the busyness of our lives for a few minutes each day to stop and gaze into the wonderful face of our Lord and give welcoming time for Him to just minister to us. Please don’t try to convince me, or God, that you just don’t have time for one more thing in your already busy schedule. When challenged by your accountability partner about your time with the Lord, try saying that it was just not a priority for you that day. For not having time for something directly relates to those things you gave priority to, or didn’t make priority for. I believe that if you respond in this way, you will be quickly challenged by God to reconcile who really is first in your life!

PRAYER: Father, ashamedly I come before You recognizing that the above sermon was first preached to myself, for I allow my day to be filled with so much that I often fail to step away from all of the modern day devices and distractions to truly look into Your wonderful face and savor time with You. I thank You for Your Word, and Your help in giving me energy to meet with you very early each morning to hear You speak through the written Word, but I would love to have time alone, with no other activities or time constraints, so that I might hear You speak through Your creation. Like Job, I have deliberately imposed upon myself very tight and busy schedules. In fact, it may even appear that I have scheduled You right out of my life, and for that I must apologize and seek Your forgiveness. I believe that many of my friends reading this devotional may have developed the same bad habits, so I beg You to patiently speak with each of Your children today and remind us of the importance of our time with You. I could only imagine how You must wait for us each day, and wind up disappointed at how we’ve scheduled You out of our lives yet another day. Please forgive us Lord, and please don’t give up on us. We need Your powerful touch upon our lives, so that we might be revived in our spirits and return to making the ‘main thing’ the ‘main thing’ once again. I ask all this in the patient, yet all-powerful name of Jesus, my Lord and Savior, AMEN!

Faith Demonstrated

On 2015-04-242015-04-24 By Ed AlgreenIn Faith, Hope, PeaceLeave a comment

THE HOLY BIBLE (The Good News Translation – Hebrews 11:1-2, 7): ¹To have faith is to be sure of the things we hope for, to be certain of the things we cannot see. ²It was by their faith that people of ancient times won God’s approval. ⁷It was faith that made Noah hear God’s warnings about things in the future that he could not see. He obeyed God and built a boat in which he and his family were saved. As a result, the world was condemned, and Noah received from God the righteousness that comes by faith.

THOUGHTS: I believe that way too often we take this word ‘faith’ very lightly, for we tell others that we have ‘faith’ in them, or we might say that “yes, I am a person of ‘faith'”, however as we read these verses in Hebrews I believe it is evident that ‘faith’ is much deeper in meaning than the ways that we use it in light conversation. I believe that our ‘faith’ in God is developed first through the things that we learn about God throughout His Word, and because of the ‘faith’ developed and shared with us by great men and women of God that we have come into contact with. These experiences reinforces the ‘faith’ that we gain in God and therefore results in the surrender of our lives to Him through accepting His Son Jesus as our Savior. Understand, we have never seen God, nor have we seen Jesus, but because of all that we have learned, and in turn trusted, we have developed a ‘faith in God. I also believe that sinful man will have no desire to know anything about God, so when one starts to question, or when one becomes curious about this God we know and adore, this is pretty good evidence that God is actively working on them already, for the Word tells us that God will draw mankind unto Himself. He made us, and He has the power to open our eyes to Truth, and to draw us to a relationship with Himself. There were other great men of God mentioned in verses 3-6 of this chapter, so let me encourage you to read the whole chapter. But notice in verse 7 that Noah had to say ‘no’ to the whole world and ‘yes’ to God when he did the extraordinary – built a huge boat on dry land with faith to know that God will bring rain for the very first time in the creation of the world, and that the ‘boat’ would be required by he and his family, in order to survive. That is a demonstration of ‘FAITH’ friends! Is that truly the type ‘faith’ you have when you use that word? If not, may I encourage you to get into God’s Word and read about how He created the earth and how He created our first ancestors, followed by one miracle after another. Invite Jesus to open your eyes of ‘faith’ so that you might believe. Then invite Jesus to be your Lord and Savior so that your ‘faith’ might develop and draw you closer to God that will result in total surrender of your life – in faith! It’s the only thing worthwhile and meaningful to mankind today, and I sincerely pray that each of you reading this devotional will make this relationship of which I have spoken about, a reality today. Seek God, while He is near and while you are still able to, friend.

PRAYER: Lord Jesus, I pray that we might be like the father in Mark 9:23-24 who cried out to God with all the faith he had, but asked Him for even more faith so that any gaps in his faith might be filled. Some reading this devotional today may feel like they have no faith at all, while others may feel like they have loads of faith, but….. May I please ask that You, oh God, might fill us with as much faith as You know we can handle, and as much as we need for each day. Lord, we believe, but please help our unbelief. We know You exist, and we know about Your power and awesome love for us, but we need so much more confidence in our Christian lives before we can say like Noah, ‘Yes’ to God, in spite of the whole world telling us it just can’t be right. Fill us with all the faith that we need, and that You know we can confidently handle. For those You have led to read this devotional who may not even know Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior, please help them to understand that this is the first step of ‘faith’, and is critical to their life here on earth and for eternity. I ask all this in the precious name of Jesus, my Savior and my King, in whom I have placed my faith, AMEN!

God is Coming Soon!

On 2015-04-232015-04-23 By Ed AlgreenIn Eternal Life, Hope, SalvationLeave a comment

THE HOLY BIBLE (The Contemporary English Version – Hebrews 10:36-39): ³⁶Learn to be patient, so that you will please God and be given what he has promised. ³⁷As the Scriptures say, “God is coming soon! It won’t be very long. ³⁸The people God accepts will live because of their faith. But he isn’t pleased with anyone who turns back.” (Habakkuk 2:3–4) ³⁹We are not like those people who turn back and get destroyed. We will keep on having faith until we are saved.

THOUGHTS: To some who will read the subject and the Bible verses, we might hear “Come Lord Jesus, come!”, and they may be referred to by their friends as Paul said of himself, “They have fought a good fight and they have kept the faith, enter now into the kingdom of heaven prepared for you by our Lord”. However, some will try to claim the victory and protest their position with the Lord because of their giving, or church attendance, or the faithfulness of their parents, only to sadly hear the words of Jesus reverberate “I never knew you”. There will also be some who will face eternity as lost as they are here on earth, because they consider the Word of God as ‘fables’ or ‘meant for the people of old who knew no better’. Friends, I believe that you should clearly understand the intent of the gospel – the Word of God, and this scripture serves as a great tool to remind us of that. An example to help explain this might be the need for a driver’s license to legally drive a vehicle on the public roads of any country. You know, and understand that driving without that legal document could lead to a prison term for you. You should also clearly understand that you are required to surrender your life of sin, and ask for forgiveness from the Savior of the world, Jesus Christ. According to John 3:16, God loves us all, and if we Admit our sin, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and Confess our unworthiness and our ‘lost’ condition without Jesus, then we will become His very special child; saved from this sinful world and kept secure in His keeping until the day He calls us home to heaven to live with Him eternally. So compare the two scenarios given: driving without legal permission (a driver’s license) will send you to prison; living without ever personally accepting Jesus as your Savior will lead to eternity in Hell with Satan. The choice is clear, but it is totally up to you to decide your destiny, or what you will do. My desire is that God will soften your hardened heart and lead you to the cross of Calvary where you would see the great love expressed by my Savior to make your only positive choice a viable option. The plan is in place Brother and Sister, the choice is entirely yours. Please be smart and choose faith in Christ. I really want to see you in glory where we will kneel together at the feet of Jesus and praise He and His Father forever!

PRAYER: Lord God, we are given the liberty of making choices every day. Often some will lead to success, while others lead to failure, and possible destruction. In Your Word, You revealed our options about whom we will serve while here on this earth, and where that will ultimately lead us to in death, as we know it here on earth. I thank You and praise You that I accepted the best option available for my life, and that, based on Your Word, I have fore-knowledge about where I will spend eternity when the day comes for my graduation from earth to my new home in Heaven! I believe You have led me to clearly explain the above to my readers today so that they may KNOW in whom they believe, and with whom they will spend eternity. I humbly plead for Your help to those who are challenged with making a sound choice today. Please, may this be the day of clarity of mind and sound decisions, so that all who have received this challenge will walk away having made the only decision that leads to eternal life with You in heaven. I ask all this in faith, and in the name of Jesus, my Lord and soon coming King, AMEN!

Personal, Intimate Worship

On 2015-04-212015-04-21 By Ed AlgreenIn Forgiven, Praise, Sacrifice, WorshipLeave a comment

THE HOLY BIBLE (The Contemporary English Version – Hebrews 10:16-18): ¹⁶“When the time comes, I will make an agreement with them. I will write my laws on their minds and hearts. ¹⁷Then I will forget about their sins and no longer remember their evil deeds.” ¹⁸ When sins are forgiven, there is no more need to offer sacrifices.

THOUGHTS: In Jeremiah 31, Jeremiah spoke about the coming Messiah and the power He had over sin, however He was speaking to a people with hardened hearts and who only knew one way of seeing sins forgiven, and that was through sacrifices made at the temple. To the Israelites, any other preaching on forgiveness of sin was heresy. In the New Testament, and particularly in this passage being studied today, we see where Jeremiah’s prophecy is being repeated again in verses 16 and 17, because the people had fallen into a rut and chose to believe, and practice the same old teachings of their forefathers. This made me question if times have changed any for us today? Do we still attend church out of tradition, and practice forms of worship as passed on by our forefathers, or have we truly connected with the Holy Spirit of God that resides inside of us, and gladly anticipate times of worship so we could truly speak to God through the Lord Jesus Christ? Do we in all honesty, and in close communion with Jesus, place ourselves bare before Him and seek forgiveness of our sin, and just melt away into honest and sincere worship of the King of this universe, giving thanks for His bountiful mercies and His amazing grace? Do we leave a corporate worship service wondering if anyone else was in attendance that day, because all we remembered was the sweet time of fellowship and worship of the Savior that we immersed ourselves into, with God’s help? Knowing Jesus as our personal Savior, and continuing a sweet, honest relationship with Him each day, involves times that we stop, recognize Him for who He is, and worship Him as Master and Lord over our lives and everything around us. I believe that if we struggle with the latter, then perhaps we need to return to the former and insure that we have a personal relationship with Jesus! Where do you stand friend? Please talk to Jesus about this and make sure that all is well between you two!

PRAYER: Father, thank You for making us so that we would have a relationship with You, and a heart and mind to worship You. Please forgive us for failing miserably in the aspect of personal worship, and so often blaming our lack of desire on our worship teams, or our pastors, or the tone of the services that we attend – if we find time to attend. We are such an ungrateful bunch dear Lord, please forgive us. You gave the very life of Your one and only Son as a sacrifice for us. You’ve brought us through many trials and burdens, yet we pitifully proclaim that we were not ‘led into worship’ at a church service. Father, I believe that my heart is filled to overflowing from the many blessings that You willingly pour out on me, and the overflow alone is enough to fill times of worship and adoration as I come before You. I praise You Lord Jesus for all that You have done for me. I thank You for forgiveness of my sin. I am again reminded that there is nothing I can place at Your altar in place of my sin, but because of the shedding of Your precious blood on Calvary, I can seek Your forgiveness and know that my sin is forgiven! Blessed be the name of the Lord, most high! I worship You, and I lift my voice… Please touch the heart of each one meditating on this devotional today dear God. May they release the offering of praise that is welled up inside of them! May I always give thanks for who You are, praise You for Your amazing grace, and place these petitions at Your feet, humbly asking all this in the wonderful name of Jesus, my King, my Lord and my wonderful Savior. AMEN!

Nuggets From God's Word

Tag: Forgiveness