Tag: Nuggets

Warning! Danger Ahead!!

On By Ed AlgreenIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

The Bible – The Message

1 Corinthians 10:11–13

 11–12        These are all warning markers—danger!—in our history books, written down so that we don’t repeat their mistakes. Our positions in the story are parallel—they at the beginning, we at the end—and we are just as capable of messing it up as they were. Don’t be so naive and self-confident. You’re not exempt. You could fall flat on your face as easily as anyone else. Forget about self-confidence; it’s useless. Cultivate God-confidence.

13             No test or temptation that comes your way is beyond the course of what others have had to face. All you need to remember is that God will never let you down; he’ll never let you be pushed past your limit; he’ll always be there to help you come through it.

Thoughts:

In the first 10 verses of chapter 10, Paul shared with the Corinthian church much of what their ancestors had done and how they were punished for their sin. In verse 11 he tells them that these were all recorded so that they might be warned not to repeat the same sins, otherwise they would face the same consequences. Friends, our Bible today is totally inspired, and ordered by God so that we also may be reminded of the many sins of our ancestors and the ensuing consequences. With any common sense at all, we should take note, and not repeat the same sins, but I am reminded that without Christ in control of our lives, we are led by the same Satan that our ancestors were, and we are bound to repeat the same sins, and perhaps even more hideous – even as we read about, or see on the evening news. Like Paul, I must remind you friend, that we will be punished just like our ancestors. Sin will not enter heaven, and there is only one other place for you to go, and unlike David’s wish in Psalm 109 about his enemies, I would not wish the alternate place on my worst enemy. Friend, think about this real good, we are careful to take very seriously the warnings about possible tornado touchdowns, or hurricanes, or heart attacks, etc. I would so like to see us also take the warnings God has placed in His precious Word very seriously and take our precautions to prevent the danger that will result by simply placing your faith and trust in Jesus my Savior. He made special provisions just for us so that we might one day be with Him in glory where there is love, peace and joy forever in store for those who believe. The warnings are evident friend, and the provision for a safe and secure passage to safety is very clear. Please don’t continue to live your life in danger of not being prepared for something that could happen in an instant. Enjoy heaven’s glory while still here on earth by knowing my Savior today. He loves you and will welcome your decision, without regard to your present condition. Use information from the footnote to help you make this vital change. I assure you that you won’t regret it!

Prayer:

Lord Jesus, thank you for opening my eyes to my life of sin, a life without You in it. Thank You for encouraging me to make a right decision back in 1988, and thank You for working with me to maintain a life pleasing to You. I regret that it has not been perfect, but I thank You for being a forgiving God; an encouraging God to help me along the way and prod me of sin that was lurking. Thank You for working in my life to help me be more like You every day. I realize that Satan tries every trick in the book to trip me up, so I plead with You to continue to guide me, protect me and show me the ways of righteousness. May You receive glory because of something that I may say or do in the matchless name of Jesus. Paul’s warning reminded me that there is no time to waste, so I humbly ask that You immediately bring to my attention when I fail and lead me to the cross for forgiveness so that my life will not be marred by sin. Lord, I have unsaved family and loves ones, unsaved friends and coworkers, tender their hearts and minds so that they may heed the same warning of which Paul warned us about in 1 Corinthians 10. Please use my life to be a witness to them so that they may surrender their lives to You before it’s too late. Please be especially gracious to those led to this devotional today, may they shore up their position with You this day. These requests can only be handled by You dear Lord, so I humbly ask these in Your precious and holy name, AMEN!

NOTE: 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.

Condition Yourself For Seeing Jesus!

On By Ed AlgreenIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

The Bible – New Living Translation

1 Corinthians 9:24–27

24 Don’t you realize that in a race everyone runs, but only one person gets the prize? So run to win! 25 All athletes are disciplined in their training. They do it to win a prize that will fade away, but we do it for an eternal prize. 26 So I run with purpose in every step. I am not just shadowboxing. 27 I discipline my body like an athlete, training it to do what it should. Otherwise, I fear that after preaching to others I myself might be disqualified.

Thoughts:

I believe that the best way to relate to someone is to speak with them in terms that they can identify with. If speaking to a carpenter, speak in terms of what little you understand about carpentry. Paul was speaking to a church that lived and breathed sports, because the Isthmian Games (similar to the Olympic Games today) took place in a nearby town every two or three years, so they understood sports and the idea of conditioning to win a race. We should keep this in mind when speaking with folk about the Lord. In order to build a rapport with someone, a mechanic shouldn’t go to a carpenter talking about engine parts and mechanic work, but rather, make it a point to speak more about the building trade. The analogy used by Paul is very important to us today friends. If we are preparing our souls for heaven, then we must first of all know the game master. All the studying you can muster up will not open the doors of heaven to you. Jesus said in His Word that there is only one way to get into heaven: (a) admit that you are a sinner and that you need a Savior; (b) believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and that He died so that You might be saved; and (c) confess your sins to Jesus, ask Him to forgive you of your sin, and to accept you as His child. This is equivalent to being accepted into the games. Now to condition yourself in the Christian life you are to read up as much as you can on what God expects from you. Friend, this is all contained in the Bible, so make this your game book. Look into it daily so that you may strengthen your walk with the Lord. This will also grow you into the strong, conditioned child of the King that He expects. You see, He wants you to duplicate His life here on this earth so that others might see Him when they see and hear you. Winning the prize for the Christian, is to be present with the Lord when we are called away from this life (when we die). We want to be so conditioned, that when we stand before our King on that Day of Judgment, He will recognize us as one of His and that He will look at us and through a smile He would say “Well done, you have been a good and faithful servant”. Oh what a day that will be, when my Jesus I shall see!!!! So friend, the big challenge for you today is: Do You know my Lord in a personal, relational way? And if you do, are you conditioning your spiritual life daily, so that you will be ready for the day you will see Him face to face? Please waste no time in doing this, I want to see you there when I look around for you in heaven! It will be worth it all!

Prayer:

Father, thank You for providing the Rule Book for us, the ‘Coaching Book’, in fact the Book that not only leads us to You, but also helps us to condition our lives into something that is pleasing to You. Thank You for the prize you have promised us at the end of the race that we call ‘life’. You never said we would not have challenges while living this life, but praise God You have promised a home eternally with You at the end of this life for all who have accepted You as Lord and conditioned themselves to live as Your child here on this earth. As a child of Yours, we can enjoy even the most challenging days knowing that we have a prize ahead that includes living with You, walking with You, talking with You and listening to Your comforting and loving words throughout eternity! Please help us to daily condition our lives with Your Word – the play book designed by You for Your children that help us to be all that You meant for us to be while still being here on this earth. Thank You Lord for being my Savior, my Redeemer and my soon coming King! I ask all this, and praise You, in the wonderful name of Jesus, AMEN!

NOTE: 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.

Who Will Stand?

On By Ed AlgreenIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

The Bible – The Good news Translation

Psalm106:29–31

                 They stirred up the Lord’s anger by their actions,

and a terrible disease broke out among them.

                But Phinehas stood up and punished the guilty,

and the plague was stopped.

                This has been remembered in his favor ever since

and will be for all time to come.

Thoughts:

Phinehas was recognized a few times in the Bible: for his leadership role in a group sent out, and as an adviser in a war. So he was not a known religious leader whom one would have expected to stand up again the evil that stirred up the Lord’s anger in the verses above. This precisely brings up an important point that I would like for us to consider in response to this passage. In today’s society, we will immediately look to our church leaders to stand up for evil, because we consider them God’s point men in our churches. However, like in our homes we have kids, and sometimes, spouses that rebel against our stand against evil, I believe that church members will be the first to criticize our church leaders for the stand against the evil that they have either recognized, or been told about. You see, I believe that many of us ‘church members’ are so wishy-washy in our beliefs and especially in our stand against the norm that we go along with the flow way too often, instead of standing up against the evil that happens around us out in this evil world. We are such advocates of being politically correct – in other words ‘splashing around in the truth in order not to take a stand and/or hurting anyone’s feelings’. So if this describes our ‘church members’ in general, who again do we expect to stand with our pastors and/or church leaders when they take a stand on behalf of our church? It won’t happen friend! We have seen churches split over simple things like the paint color on the walls, so imagine how quickly members will walk when asked to stand with our church leaders on decisions made that might cause the media to point out our church for a Biblical stand that it took! In these verses we see where the effects of sin were already being felt – a terrible disease had broken out. Do we see the effects of sin in our society, and in our churches today? I dare say that we do. There are diseases caused by certain known sins such as homosexuality, yet we have churches that splash around in the truth and accept this as a way of life. In fact some churches even accept these individuals as members, leaders or pastors. Yet we wonder why God permits certain disasters upon our land? Friend, our God is no different today than He was in this scripture we are studying today. I am studying a book by a popular pastor who said that he is not allow to preach something that is not Biblical. When we surrender our lives to the Lordship of the Lord Jesus Christ, we agree to live according to His commands as detailed in His Word (the Bible). Why would we do this, but look to our ‘Christian’ brother living in sin and say it’s alright? As we take a stand for total obedience to God’s Word, we might be more apt to also join our church leaders in taking a corporate stand for Biblical truths and against SIN. Are you prepared to join the army of Christ, friend? Are you prepared to call sin what it is?

Prayer:

Lord Jesus, taking a stand against the normal flow of society is very challenging. Yet when we accepted You as Lord of our lives, we agreed that we would live in agreement with Your Word, and its commands. You are very clear in Your Word on what is acceptable to You and what is sin. If there is doubt in our minds then we should consider the challenging thing as sin until we can get a clearer word from You. Many times we are so confused, I believe, because we are listening to the world for advice instead of looking to You for clarification. As we read Your Word more, we become more in tuned with what Your expectations of us. We then also understand Your commands and principles better. We learn the very heart of our Master and therefore have a much better base for the decisions that we should make, and subsequently for the stands that we should take. Please help us to stand firm on the Truth of Your Word, and that it is the only thing that would change our minds. We need more like Phineas in our world today. May I plead for Your strength and wisdom to be more like Phineas and not disagree for argument sake, but in order to stay the course for You. This is only possible through the power and mighty hand of my King, so Jesus I ask this in Your powerful and awesome name, AMEN!

NOTE: 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.