Purpose Yourself to Worship God

On 2015-08-292015-08-29 By Ed AlgreenIn Allegiance, Treasure, WorshipLeave a comment

THE HOLY BIBLE (New Living Translation – Matthew 6:19-21): ¹⁹ “Don’t store up treasures here on earth, where moths eat them and rust destroys them, and where thieves break in and steal. ²⁰ Store your treasures in heaven, where moths and rust cannot destroy, and thieves do not break in and steal. ²¹ Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be.

THOUGHTS: Why do you go to church? Why do you worship God? Did you find God in the corporate worship time? How? – I believe the first two questions would be a good survey to ask folk about to enter a weekend church service, and the last two questions would be great for an exit survey as they are leaving. I believe it would be good for each reader to answer these questions even now! Because you are human, just as I am, I know there are times that we jump out of bed, rush to church, sit back and wait for the entertainment to start. There are times that we have so much going on in our lives that our body attends church, but we hope that no one asks what the preacher spoke about, because we were way too preoccupied solving issues in our minds to hear and apply a word that he said! So how then do we get ourselves in motion and in tune with God? First of all, I believe that worship is a daily, relational thing. It’s a matter of priority, and it’s a deliberate action on the worshiper to think about the Savior of this world and the many blessings that He continually pours out on us. By now you are wondering how all of this ties in with the point of this scripture I bet! Friends, when we place so much of our time and effort into material things, guess where our minds are while our bodies attend church? When we assume control of our finances, instead of allowing God control of this vital part of our existence, we worry about how we will make the budget, and we constantly contemplate where and how we can make more money. It is challenging for us to give God our undivided attention when, in our minds, we have so much else going on. I believe that if we were to sincerely aim at achieving what verse 21 advocates, then we will invest ourselves, our time and our money into the worship and work of the Lord. My treasure is in heaven, is that evident in every aspect of my life?

PRAYER: Dear God, thank You for sacrificing Your precious Son, in spite of those that You know would just ignore You and take Your Treasure for granted. Lord we fool no one else but ourselves when we get ourselves so distracted, and we can’t concentrate on You because of all that we worry about. Too often our ‘treasure’ is misaligned and consumes our attention, and draws us away from giving You our full attention and allegiance. Please continue Your work in me and in the lives of my readers, that we may be so aligned with our greatest ‘TREASURE’ that great works will extend from the hearts and lives of Your children and that You will have full access to our hearts for Your use. I ask this in total humility and in the wonderful 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 www.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!

What Triggers Your Praise?

On 2015-08-182015-08-18 By Ed AlgreenIn Faithfulness, Loving-Kindness, WorshipLeave a comment

THE HOLY BIBLE (The Living Bible – Psalm 138:1-3): ¹Lord, with all my heart I thank you. I will sing your praises before the armies of angels. ² I face your Temple as I worship, giving thanks to you for all your loving-kindness and your faithfulness, for your promises are backed by all the honor of your name. ³ When I pray, you answer me and encourage me by giving me the strength I need.

THOUGHTS: In this Psalm we can see where David was touched by, or reminded of the love of God and His undying faithfulness, and it triggered his worship of God. Notice that David said he faced the temple as he worshipped, but he didn’t wait until the next worship service where he could watch the praise team worship or the pastor rejoice over a passage of scripture that God spoke to him about. Friends please don’t get me wrong, each of these things I mentioned are important, but I truly believe that when we recognize the love of our God, when we feel His precious love for us individually and we realize that He is faithful to us in every aspect of our lives, then we will be moved to worship God on a very personal level. When we do that, I believe that our corporate worship services will take on a whole new dimension, for our churches will be filled with worshippers, not just Christians looking for a place to be electrified, or energized by a good worship leader or an awesome praise team. David goes on in these verses to say that he is reminded that all of the promises of God are backed by the honor of His holy name – the name above all names! He is also encouraged that the God of this universe answers his prayers and encourages him by giving him the strength that he needs to go on each day and live a strong and noble life for the Lord. These are all wonderful reminders for us to also worship our God, but this list is not all inclusive. For I think of the wonders of nature that He places before me as I drive to work, the beauty of another sunrise, the blessing of rain, of cows and wildlife playing in the fields and pastures. Most of all, like David, I am amazed that the God of this universe takes time to listen to my prayers and answers/comforts my concerns. Who am I that a Kind should bleed and die for? Yet, I am convinced that He would have sacrificed himself on that old cruel cross if I was the only one in need of a Savior. He loved me that much, and it is no different in the love that my Savior has for each of you today friend. Worship Him! Thank Him! Recognize His goodness and never attribute His careful and deliberate love for you as mere chance or good luck. Make every effort to be a personal, worshipping believer, not just one looking for a place for corporate worship of the Savior who loves you personally so very much.

PRAYER: Father in heaven, You have given us so much reason to worship You from the depth of our heart. Please awaken Your saints from the sleep of laziness, or dependence on others and/or other influences to invoke a heart of worship within us. Please help us to rest from the busyness of this life long enough to reflect on Your goodness, Your love and Your undying faithfulness. The Psalmist has triggered our minds and reminded us of the awesome joy in lifting up praise and worship to You, may this be a day that our eyes will be opened to reflect on Your beauty and Your goodness and may we recommit to a personal relationship with the God of this universe who loves us personally and cares for us intimately. Thank You Father for loving and caring for even me. These things I ask of You in the precious name of Your Son, my Savior and King, Jesus. AMEN!

How Christians Are To Avoid Heartaches

On 2015-08-042015-08-04 By Ed AlgreenIn Focused, Heaven, WorryLeave a comment

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

THOUGHTS: When Christians worry, do you suppose it’s because we are worried that God will not do what He promised? When we doubt and stress out to the limit, do you suppose that we are concerned that God is unfaithful? When we feel unloved and like no one cares, do you suppose that we allow ourselves to ponder why God must have left us alone and no longer care about us? Friends, I believe that when we allow these types of feelings and/or thoughts to enter our minds, it’s because we have taken our eyes off Jesus and looking for the attention of earthly friends or loved ones. I believe it is times like these that Satan moves in for the attack, for he sees that we have taken our eyes off Jesus and allowing the distractions of this world to take hold in our lives. I would highly recommend these verses to all Christians today, for if we follow the advice in verse 2 and fill our thoughts with heaven – our future home, then we will be reminded that it is a place prepared just for us. A place where we will unite with Jesus at the foot of the cross and worship Him with unending praises. A place where we will hear the voice of the Father who will encourage us with words such as “well done good and faithful servant”! A place where the creator of love, especially love for you and I, will help us to appreciate His handiwork and find reasons to worship Him for it. A place where there will be no distractions, but instead attract our full undivided attention! I recently took a missions trip into another country, and we disconnected from cell phones for a week. Wow, what a release! Friends, I must remind you that we have allowed so much interference in our day that we not only lose sight of our one-on-one time with the Lord, but we also have lost sight of one-on-one time with our spouses, our children, our friends, our coworkers and all others. Is it any wonder that we have trouble evangelizing to them? If as verse 3 indicates, that our real life is in heaven, then I would dare say that our minds, our attention, our aim and our devotion should be there also. Does that describe you friend? If not, why not? Is this something you need to take time to talk with God about?

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

Justice, Fairness and Righteousness

On 2015-07-272015-07-27 By Ed AlgreenIn Righteousness, Things God lovesLeave a comment

THE HOLY BIBLE (The Message – Amos 5:21-24): ^21–24 “I can’t stand your religious meetings. I’m fed up with your conferences and conventions. I want nothing to do with your religion projects, your pretentious slogans and goals. I’m sick of your fund-raising schemes, your public relations and image making. I’ve had all I can take of your noisy ego-music. When was the last time you sang to me? Do you know what I want? I want justice—oceans of it. I want fairness—rivers of it. That’s what I want. That’s all I want.

THOUGHTS: I have just returned from a trip into another world, it seems, so I hope that my view on the scripture that really spoke to me this morning will not be too slanted! It was good to step back from our busy world and enjoy the peace, obscurity, simplicity and humbleness of all that God provides for us, if only for a week. Yes, we missed the conveniences and pleasures of this world and all that we are blessed with in our modern world. However, after being reminded by Amos in this scripture today about how God must feel when we feel obligated to provide everything that our world demands, just so that they might listen to the gospel message, then I wonder how much of God we must truly portray to the world. In these few verses, God not only said what He was displeased with, but He also told us what would really make Him pleased: Oceans of justice; Rivers of fairness and a true, honest, one-on-one, heartfelt song to the Master. Sounds fairly simple right? Sounds like something we do almost every day, but at least once a week during our church service, right? Friends, I believe that God is just as anxious today, as He ever was, to hear from us personally with our praise and worship and not just to raise our hands and voices in worship when asked to do so by our worship leader. Think for a moment how thought provoking it is to prepare a day of celebration for a loved one’s birthday or anniversary, yet how little thought we put into preparing for our daily worship of God, or even our weekly corporate worship time. Yes, we really put time into planning what we will wear to church, but do we stop to ponder what all God has blessed us with during the week so that we might truly look full into His wonderful face and just worship Him with a thankful heart? One translation includes ‘righteousness’ (right-with-God) as a characteristic in verse 24 that God is looking for in His people. May I suggest that as we look for justice in God’s form, fairness in His example and righteousness sampled after His righteousness, that we will have no trouble lifting up holy hands and hearts in worship to our King in a manner acceptable to Him?

PRAYER: Lord God, You alone are holy, just, fair and righteous. You have blessed us with so much and shown us how to live this life imitating Your characteristics in every way, yet we so easily allow this world to sway our thoughts, our character and even our appreciation of You. Please forgive us for straying so far away from Your ideals and the example You set for us. Please help us to return to the basics of what You have taught us, what You have exampled for us and what You expect from us – as detailed in Your Word. May we learn to be more like You every day and in every way, is my humble prayer that I ask in the precious and holy name of Jesus, AMEN!

The Tender Compassionate Love of Our Father

On 2015-07-182015-07-18 By Ed AlgreenIn Accountability, AppreciationLeave a comment

THE HOLY BIBLE (The Contemporary English Version – Hosea 11:3-5): ³ I took Israel by the arm and taught them to walk. But they would not admit that I was the one who had healed them. ⁴ I led them with kindness and with love, not with ropes. I held them close to me; I bent down to feed them. ⁵ But they trusted Egypt instead of returning to me; now Assyria will rule them.

THOUGHTS: I believe that one of the most antagonizing things that a parent can experience is: after bringing a child up in the fear of the Lord, loving that child and teaching them to honor and respect mankind, giving them an education to help them succeed in life, then for you to stand by and watch them throw it all to the wind and lead a life of crime, or unconcern for their fellow man. Imagine what that does to a parent. Imagine how God must feel when considering that He went the ultimate step of sacrificing His own life for our benefit, yet we brush it all aside and do our own thing without any regard for His reason for blessing us in unimaginable ways – His deep, sincere, unconditional love for us. This is what it sounds like Hosea was referring to in this scripture today, for God blessed Israel and then blessed her over and over again. In verse 4 I can picture how an earthly father would show only endless love for his child, and not in any way punish or revenge his child for the times they turned against him. Why at every opportunity, the dad would hold that dear child close to him, bend down so he could look the child in their eyes and feed them. Loads of evidence that not only earthly fathers pour out love for their children, but also a very clear indication that God’s love is at an even greater level. How are we doing in acknowledging the love of our heavenly Father? Do we show appreciation for His love by trying to be obedient followers, and by loving our earthly brothers and sisters in like form? Or are we as bad as Israel, in that we have learned nothing from their experience? Are we still as obstinate as they were? Are we OK with receiving the judgment of God that will ultimately be forthcoming for those who reject God and/or show total disregard for His Word and His commands? Friends, I want to encourage you to accept this precious love of our Father today. I want you to know without a shadow of doubt that He loves you just as much as expressed by Hosea in this scripture today. He will meet your needs, He will meet you wherever you are in life and He will feed you, if hungry; He will encourage you, if discouraged; He will be your constant guide, if you feel you are floundering; He will love you when you feel like no one else does. This is what He sacrificed His only dear Son for friend. Run to His open arms today. Ask Jesus to forgive you of your sin and total disregard for His love and sacrifice, and invite Him to be your Savior, Lord, King and eternal guide. Just make His day friend, and of course, make your everlasting eternity secure in Jesus!

PRAYER: Father, You showed such awesome love to Your chosen people of Israel, and we are thankful that we got to hear about and meditate on that awesome love today. We are also aware of that same unexplainable, unconditional, unending love for us, because we know ‘more of the story’, and the sacrifice You allowed on Calvary by Your very own Son, Jesus. Thank You Lord for Your Blessings on Me! Please touch this child with a desire to return that love through my obedience to You and through my love and service to others. Lord there’s a day coming when I’ll be presented to You. May my other readers striving to live this life of which I refer here, join me at Your throne and be blessed to hear “well done good and faithful servant”. Here on earth we call that ‘accountability’, Lord may we live our lives knowing that we are accountable to You, the King of all kings, the Savior of this world! I ask these things in the beautiful, strong and awesome name of Jesus, AMEN!

PLEASE NOTE: I will be out of town on a mission trip to be of service to our friends in Mexico during the week of July 19^th. I will not be able to publish these devotionals during that time. Please pray that God will use His servants, our group of 30, so that His children in this foreign land might be encouraged and drawn to Him through our honest and sincere representation of our Savior. May God be glorified in all things through our witness! I expect to resume these devotionals on Monday, July 27^th.

Perseverance Pays Off

On 2015-07-162015-07-16 By Ed AlgreenIn Obedience, PerseveranceLeave a comment

THE HOLY BIBLE (New International Version – James 1:12): ¹²Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him.

THOUGHTS: We hear about ‘fair weather’ Christians, where we find it very easy to praise God when we feel like everything is going our way. We also hear about ‘hard times’ Christians, for it is only then that many of us look up to God and truly seek His face. Friends, as I read this verse this morning I felt like God was saying that He will truly bless us and/or reward us if we stick with Him while He is blessing us with riches and good fortunes, or testing our faith through very tough times. There’s a song that has lyrics similar to this “if I never have a burden, how would I know that God can truly pull me through“. I believe that ‘to persevere’ is to be consistent and/or dedicated in spite of our circumstances. Imagine taking a road trip from one location to another. You don’t turn around and head back home if your car has a flat tire, instead you have your problem repaired and then you travel on to your destination. On those trips when you’ve travelled hundreds of miles and arrive without incident, hopefully you then take time to thank the Lord for safety and protection on the road. These types of scenarios are similar to those that we face each and every day, and indicative of our walk with the Lord. If you are not already a praising person, may I encourage you to learn to ask God to bless you each day! Ask Him to use you as His faithful witness here on planet earth and to bring glory to Him in all things. Don’t place any conditions on that, such as “if things go my way” or “if there’s no setbacks”. Learn to praise God (persevere) in all circumstances and look for the lessons that He is teaching you, or how He uses those circumstances to redirect you into His perfect will. Oh that we may learn to let go of self and let God have His perfect will in our lives. Let’s commit to honor God, worship Him, serve Him and follow Him in spite of our circumstances. Obeying God in every circumstance, no matter where He leads, is an important way of showing our love towards God for His rich blessings, protection, guidance and leadership. This scripture assures us that when we do this, we are sure to receive a crown that God has promised to all who love Him.

PRAYER: Father in heaven, thank You for Your love and Your assurance of being our Guide, our Protector and our Provider each and every day. Please give us strength and fortitude to let go of our selfish desires and self-will to do ‘our own thing’ instead of leaning on the everlasting arms of the One who created us and who knows what lies ahead for us and the ones we need to help. Lord, may we learn to be as instruments in Your hands so that You may accomplish Your will through us in every circumstance of life. We are appreciative of our promised reward, but Lord, may we be content in knowing that we are obedient followers of the One who has this whole world in His hands and under His control. We are Your children Lord. We love You and long to be obedient in following Your plan for our lives. I ask these things in faith and in the precious and all-powerful, all-knowing and all-loving name of Jesus, AMEN!

Prepare for Praise and Worship!

On 2015-07-152015-07-15 By Ed AlgreenIn Heaven, Praise, Worship2 Comments

THE HOLY BIBLE (Contemporary English Version – Revelation 4:8-11): ⁸ …Day and night they never stopped singing, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord, the all-powerful God, who was and is and is coming!” ⁹ The living creatures kept praising, honoring, and thanking the one who sits on the throne and who lives forever and ever. ¹⁰ At the same time the twenty-four elders knelt down before the one sitting on the throne. And as they worshiped the one who lives forever, they placed their crowns in front of the throne and said, ¹¹ “Our Lord and God, you are worthy to receive glory, honor, and power. You created all things, and by your decision they are and were created.”

THOUGHTS: If we were to give advice to an Olympic swimmer hopeful, it would be that they practice, practice and practice some more, right? So what if you were to give advice to a Christian who might be questioning what they could do to best prepare themselves for their eternal home in heaven? God has shared the above verses with us to give us a glimpse of what it will look like in heaven, our eternal destination. It seems like our preparation might be along the lines of constant praise and worship, to the Lord in whom we have placed our total trust, while here on earth. So how could we possibly prepare for such an awesome time as that? Perhaps like the Olympian swimmer, we should aim at practicing this praise and worship while still here on earth, and like the swimmer would try to improve his/her time, we too should look for ways to draw closer to God and express that closeness through our increased effort to lift up our praise and worship to our King. I believe that if I asked most Christians if they do a fair job at praise and worship already, I would probably receive some ‘canned’ responses, such as “yep, I attend worship services every weekend, and we have the best praise team in town”, or “we don’t need praise and worship at our church because our pastor is such a phenomenal preacher – we can just sit and listen to him endlessly”. I wonder sometimes if our first misconception of praise and worship, is that it can only occur inside a specific building at a specific time. Isn’t it amazing how we believe God is on duty to handle our prayer requests 24/7/365, yet our praise and worship to this same God is limited to specific times and places? Here’s something that Matthew Henry shared on this passage: All true believers wholly ascribe their redemption and conversion, their present privileges and future hopes, to the eternal and most holy God. Thus rise the for-ever harmonious, thankful songs of the redeemed in heaven. Would we on earth do like them, let our praises be constant, not interrupted; united, not divided; thankful, not cold and formal; humble, not self-confident. I believe that while here on earth we should learn to worship our King based on our heartfelt response to Him for His manifold blessings and in deepest sincerity and honesty to our Savior. This should not be something that is only turned on in time for our weekend services, but may our weekend services instead be filled with the overflow of our personal praise and worship to our King. May it not surprise God to see You lift up holy hands to him in church, or to hear you cry out in praise to Him during the church service, because He is so accustomed to seeing and hearing similar acts of praise and worship from you throughout the week. Friends, we are preparing for the greatest day in history, and to meet the awesome God who created mankind and everything in this world, let us be busy readying ourselves by doing all that we are should be doing here and now!

PRAYER: Lord Jesus, it is so exciting to think about a time when we can bow before you with no external interruptions and just worship You as if no one else even exists. For those who are accustomed to lifting You up in praise and worship here on earth, this will be a natural transition. For those who depend on external resources to trigger their worship of You, they may find that they have missed out on an awful lot here on earth, and the idea of personal one-on-one worship may seem challenging. Lord, please open our hearts and our minds to be very aware of Your presence and Your unlimited blessings that You bestow on us daily. May it then come natural to us to burst into praise and worship of You, no matter where we are or who we are with. You deserve our praise today, and every day, as we move closer to the time when we will humble ourselves at Your feet in heaven. Blessed be the name of the Lord forever and forever! These things I ask in the name of Jesus, the name above ALL names, AMEN!

PLEASE NOTE: I will be out of town on a mission trip to be of service to our friends in Mexico during the week of July 19^th. I will not be able to publish these devotionals during that time. Please pray that God might use His servants, our group of 30, so that His children in this foreign land might be encouraged and drawn to Him through our honest and sincere representation of our Savior. May God be glorified in all things through our witness! I expect to resume these devotionals on Monday, July 27^th.

Be Faithful Until The End

On 2015-07-102015-07-10 By Ed AlgreenIn Faithful, Obedience, The EndLeave a comment

THE HOLY BIBLE (The Contemporary English Version – Revelation 2:25-27): ²⁵ But until I come, you must hold firmly to the teaching you have. ²⁶ I will give power over the nations to everyone who wins the victory and keeps on obeying me until the end. ²⁷ I will give each of them the same power that my Father has given me.

THOUGHTS: My daily devotional scripture plan takes me into the depths of the Old Testament and into the light and glory of the New Testament. Often it amazes me how God uses the Old Testament reading to tie into the reading in the New Testament! Today was one of those cases, for I highlighted Daniel 12:13 because I was touched by God telling Daniel not to be overly concerned about everything that he saw in his visions, but to “be faithful until the end! You will rest, and at the end of time, you will rise from death to receive your reward”. Moving then to the New Testament reading I saw in verse 25 of Revelation 2, that until Jesus returns to take us home with Him, we are to hold firmly to the teachings given to us. In other words, be faithful until the end. Friends, please be careful, for these are times that Satan is trying every distraction in his book of tricks to derail Christians. He can’t stand the idea of us influencing his team of unbelievers in Christ. I believe that if God is concerned enough about us being faithful to Him until the end, them He must be concerned that there will be many things that will distract us along the way. Can you think of a few right off the top? Political views and stands is a huge distractor for the Christian, as we are taught in the secular world, and even the church, that we should vote and be a part of the decision making for our respective countries. Very important stand, but how can we remain faithful to the Word of God even among the filth and dirt that stigmatizes politicians? How can we take a stand in politics, yet remain neutral so that we can promote God to everyone that needs Him, regardless of what side of the fence they stand on in politics? This is just one of many issues that come along and often places a divide in God’s church and totally distracts the needed trust for us to be a witness to ALL that we come into contact with. Many of the other distractors you may have given thought to, might be equally as destructive. My take on the verse in Daniel, and the verses in Revelation is that we are to remain faithful in our relationship with God and hold firmly to His teachings. Everything else that occupies our minds, our hearts and our busy lives, are all distractors. Only God can change this sinful world, we are called to serve Him, obey Him and worship Him, not to do His job in trying to change the world. Let’s be careful that we remain faithful until the Master comes!

PRAYER: Dear God, I am so thankful that You gave of Yourself so that I might look forward to life eternally with You! I thank You for Your Word and how applicable it is to our lives right now. You knew that distractions would come our way, so You placed warnings in Your Word so that we might be alerted to these distractions. You have not only shown us how to best deal with these distractions, but You have also made promises about our rewards, if we remain faithful to You. My readers and I live in a world where there are so many distractions. I know that this is not a secret to You, but we need You Lord. We want to remain faithful, even though there are times that we must take a stand based on the values You have taught us. Please help us to never destroy our witness, because I believe that You would always want us to promote and lift up the name of Jesus with a clear conscience and without the possibility of having a finger pointed back at us by those we should be witnessing to. You must be first in all we do. If in marriage – You must be first; If in parenting – You must be first; If in working secular jobs – You must be first; If involved in our community – it must be obvious that You are first in our lives; If there is a need for us to become involved in the leadership of our churches, city, state or country, then it must be obvious that we first represent You, and it is for Your sake, Your glory and Your agenda that we are involved/taking a stand. Please help us to always be conscious of this as we serve You, love You, worship You and lift You up each day. For I ask this in the deepest honor, and respect of You oh Lord, and in the precious name of Your Son Jesus, AMEN!

The Joy of My Relationship With The Lord!

On 2015-07-092015-07-09 By Ed AlgreenIn Relationship, Revival, SurrenderLeave a comment

THE HOLY BIBLE (Contemporary English Version – Psalm 51:10-12): ¹⁰ Create pure thoughts in me and make me faithful again. ¹¹ Don’t chase me away from you or take your Holy Spirit away from me. ¹² Make me as happy as you did when you saved me; make me want to obey!

THOUGHTS: I heard a sermon recently about the need for spouses to revive the creativity within them in order to enliven their marriages. I believe that David gave us a Psalm here where we might consider doing something similar to reinvigorate our relationship with God. But let’s examine what may cause us to weaken in our relationship to that relationship to deteriorate in the first place. In the earlier verses of this Psalm, David had asked God to turn his head from the embarrassment of his sin and wash him clean. Friends, each day we become stained with the impact of sin. Not that we leave our homes with every intention of maximizing our exposure to sin, but our lives in this world is similar to a stick being dipped into a bucket of paint. It becomes covered in paint and even colored by the paint because of its contact with the paint. If the stick is quickly removed, washed, and wiped clean, one may not notice that it have been exposed to paint. However, if it is left inside the bucket of paint very long, you will find that the paint is saturated all the way through every fiber of that stick. This simple illustration is very representative of what happens in our lives when we, like David, plead before our heavenly Father to cleanse us and help us to develop filters that would help us stay as clean as we were the first day of our Christian walk. Satan is very deceiving in the way that he exposes us to sin and generates the evil desires within us very slowly, but surely. To defend against this, and to proactively seek to enhance our relationship with God, we must daily seek God’s touch on our lives – seek His forgiveness for our wandering eyes, thoughts and participation in ungodly conversations and actions; we must learn to fill our minds with the things of the one we want to follow; we must study the ‘rule book’ so we could stay true to it and find ways to please God in all that we do and say. In all these things we will become convinced that ‘greater is He that is in us, than he that is in the world’! We will become instruments that are clean, and usable by God to further His kingdom here on this earth. In any good, healthy relationship, we always reflect back on the day we met because it helps to fill us with the joy of that first meeting date. I would suggest that we do like David and ask God to return to us today the joy of that day when we first met Him and gave Him control of our lives. Imagine the energy and excitement that will lend to our day and our ongoing witness for God!

PRAYER: Lord God, our joy is always complete when we reflect on a moment in our lifetime when our joy and happiness was at its peak! There may have been a few memorable occasions such as this, but I doubt that any could compare to the day that we received Your Son as our Savior and Lord, and asked Him to direct our happiness and our surrendered lives for His glory. This is something that we should strive for daily, so having been reminded of this by the psalmist today, I want to ask that You resume control of my life oh God. Please wipe away the stain of sin. Create within me a clean heart that can be used by You. Please make me well aware of Your Holy Spirit’s presence in my life so that I can be assured of the power, the comfort and the joy that resides within. May the joy of my salvation, and my relationship with You be very evident in and thru every word that I speak and every action that I take. While I can’t do this for my readers also, I pray that You may impact their lives with Your Word today so that they too might have a desire to allow You to regain Your rightful place in their lives. May Your army grow and gain in loyalty today so that You might be glorified and lifted up by everyone who claim You as Lord and Master! I ask all this in and through the precious and holy name of Jesus, AMEN!

While We Wait…

On 2015-07-042015-07-04 By Ed AlgreenIn Actions, Christ's Return, Christ-Like, Wait PatientlyLeave a comment

THE HOLY BIBLE (Contemporary English Version – Jude 20-23): ²⁰ Dear friends, keep building on the foundation of your most holy faith, as the Holy Spirit helps you to pray. ²¹ And keep in step with God’s love, as you wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to show how kind he is by giving you eternal life. ²² Be helpful to all who may have doubts. ²³ Rescue any who need to be saved, as you would rescue someone from a fire. Then with fear in your own hearts, have mercy on everyone who needs it. But hate even the clothes of those who have been made dirty by their filthy deeds.

THOUGHTS: Many may not even notice the subtlety of objects placed in the lobby of businesses today to distract the attention of those waiting in long lines, but pay particular attention the next time you see a TV mounted in the lobby of a business for you to watch. Sometimes this is used to advertise, but more often just to provide entertainment so the waiting person will ignore the waiting time! So this is what we do when we wait for service here on earth! In these verses today, we are warned what’s important for us to be doing as we wait on the return of our Lord Jesus. Friends, I believe you will note that if we were busy about what we should be doing while we wait, there wouldn’t be near enough time for us to be ‘busy bodies’ who cause division and distractions in the church and/or among God’s people. In fact, I believe you will see that there is even more evidence that these disruptions are nothing more than Satan’s way to slow and/or stop the progress God could make in and among His church. So here’s what we really should be doing as we wait:

Keep building on the faith that convinced us of God’s love for us (vs 20)– Don’t you stop and reflect sometimes on you could possibly have gotten to where you’re at today, compared to the time when you first believed and was on fire for the Lord, lifting up His name to everyone you came into contact with?
Pray (vs 20) – Not just pray for ourselves, but pray that the Holy Spirit would enlighten us and help us to pray according to His will; for His benefit; through His power and for the things that He sees a need for us to pray for. This is often a totally foreign concept, compared to our selfish prayers for self, spouse, sons, daughters and no more. Imagine praying to God about those things that He is concerned about?
Keep in step with God’s love (vs 21) – another version says “guard and keep yourselves in the love of God”. In other words stay so closely attuned to God’s love that there’ll not be room for Satan to interfere with Your thought process, that often impacts Your actions, your will and your love to others. Remember how pure love was demonstrated for us – sacrificially, and on a cross for our benefit, not a soft cozy benefit to Jesus for His obedience and suffering. We too must learn to put God first and place others above self when it comes to reflecting our love like Jesus did.
Be helpful to those who may have doubts (vs 22) – Remember where you were when Jesus sent someone to rescue you, and reflect that kind of compassion toward others.
Rescue the unsaved (vs 23) – I love this scripture as it compels us towards an urgency we should use in our rescue efforts. When you think about it, we are literally rescuing someone from a fiery Hell, just as you would rescue someone from a home on fire. Before you make your first move to rescue someone from a fire, you have decided that they are worth you risking your life for, and you are exercising the God-given desire and abilities inside of you to save them. Let’s ask God to help us to do this with those who need rescuing from the ultimate pit of Hell should they die without accepting Jesus as Lord of their life.
Have a fearful respect for those in need (vs 23) – if not for the grace of God in your life, you could very easily be that person in desperate need. God saw our desperate need to be rescued from Hell and He sent His very own Son so that we might be saved. How far are you willing to go to help those in need that you come into contact with?
Hate even the clothes of the wicked one (vs 23) – don’t condone evil, sin and those things that God hates. See the soul that needs rescuing, but show no compassion for their evil deeds.

PRAYER: Father God, You have shown us very clearly through Your saints/writers how to find peace in knowing You as our Master and King; You have given us assurance of our salvation and in this passage of scripture today You have clearly shown us how we should live while we wait for Your return. Thank You for holding our hand the whole way through this challenging life on earth. We were rescued by some caring messenger of Yours, and there are many that we know that needs to be rescued. Please continue to impose upon us the urgency of the hour, the urgency of those friends who may never show it, but really need the salvation that only You can offer. Please continue to bless us with mercy, grace and an urgency of the needs of our fellow man so that when that day comes that You call us home to glory, we shall all gather around Your feet and worship You endlessly for rescuing us from our worldly destiny to Hell into the glories of heaven with You and the Father. And, Oh What a Glorious Day is a song that has reverberated in my mind the whole time while writing this blog. Be blessed by it as you meditate. God loves each of us with an endless love that is indescribable and impossible for mere humans to understand. Just know it and believe in Him to enjoy that love for all times friend! I ask all this today, in faith and in the faithful 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 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!

Nuggets From God's Word

Tag: Worship