Devotionals

I have twin nine year old grandsons who in somewhat typical fashion for their age can shut out your voice even though you are standing right next to them when you speak. You have to get a hold of their face, turn it toward you, make eye contact, and then speak….read my lips. You know what I am talking about. This is just how we are before our Father God.

Blushing most often describes a reaction to something with a physical manifestation—a red face! But our souls can blush as well, especially when we are alone and not in the company of others, and we are ashamed. It is a good thing to have the conscience and the heart to blush.

Father’s Day has been a time for giving thanks to fathers who in some measure have followed the example of the Heavenly Father; but it ought to be more fittingly a day of repentance. For those fathers willing to see the facts in front of their eyes it is never too late to do something about the failures of the past. “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. Jesus said it, and He meant it.

“Oh, what tangled web we weave, when we practice to deceive.

Whatever you do in life, and wherever you go, and at any given moment lies are lurking because your Enemy is lurking. It is the very reason Jesus persistently pointed out the antidote to lies to His disciples. In one key instance for theirs and your own ears He said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father except through me. If you are to discern lies from truth, and good from evil, you must EVER be pursuing your relationship with Jesus; loving, obeying; obeying, loving; they are interchangeable!

What have we come to? Do we get some idea of what Jesus meant when he said, “When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth? (Luke 18:8)

the battlefield is not just Normandy, Guadalcanal, the Auchau Valley, or Tikrit. The battlefield of which Jesus speaks covers the world, and his Medal of Honor is and will be placed on the chests of those disciples who spend their life for others that they might live forever.

The literal reading of our Lord’s prayer is not only “deliver us from evil, but deliver us from the evil, that is, the evil one. He is a stalker, your stalker. You may not sense his presence, especially if he does not see you pursuing righteousness anyway. But do NOT forget this one thing. Jesus was and is the victor over the evil one. Your victory rests nowhere else.

Righteous fear in regard to time is this: it is a gift to be used, not buried, with a disciplined view to its investment, just as the Lord expressed in His Parable of the Talents; for we all must give account to Him one day for our time.

The fire of burning incense never goes out on the altar of any heart. There is either a pleasing and acceptable incense rising from it to God, or there is a detestable one that stinks to high heaven.

When his father Jacob (Israel) foolishly placed him between a “rock and a hard place by sending him to bring back a report on his brothers’ behavior, what was Joseph supposed to do?

This One who was the very glue and energy of the entire creation, a universe so incredible that 2000 years later we still have only seen 4% of it, if that; this One, they marveled, we have seen, and touched, and eaten with; this One we saw crucified unto death, and then we witnessed His resurrection from the grave and ascent into heaven.