Tag Archives: the word of God

Devotion Numbers 7/7/21

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I got a big dose of encouragement at work today! A song came on by NeedtoBreathe that they never played before. One I’ve been listening to almost constantly about being humbled about God’s love. Thank You, Lord…

Are we really the reflection of Jesus? Can we live for God even though we might stumble?

I sometimes will struggle constantly against my sin! In the worst of these “storms,” I get upset and wonder if I was ever a true believer.

But God sees us in ways we may not or will never understand.

To reflect godliness first takes the acceptance of the gift through Jesus Christ. If one doesn’t do that as an initial decision where they have come to the full realization to want to know the glory of God, nothing can happen.

The holy spirit needs to have the pull on a person’s heart before they can become a true believer.

Then the person goes through life. There will be struggles, there will be hardships, but all adds up to something that is worth living for, which is so tough but yet a possibly necessary life lesson!

We may have goals in life or things that we want to do in said lives but if you live for God, are those goals a reflection of the One who first loved you?

To have any job is okay. Living flipping burgers, having an office to work in, serving the public in some capacity is great. Other jobs are great. But if you are living in Christ and may have side hobbies or things you want to do, are your goals set along the lines of the straight and narrow?

To be in the truth means you must reflect the true heart of love for Him to be in your life. I pray that You find out the love in Christ may not be everything you might currently ask for.

Here’s a scripture from the Bible NKJV:

The LORD bless you and keep you; The LORD make His face shine upon you, And be gracious to you; The LORD lift up His countenance upon you, And give you peace. Numbers 6:24-26

I am looking into what the book of Numbers is about (I’m new in examining the bible like this, bear with me, haha!) and a source says this:

“The book of Numbers was written to demonstrate that God’s covenant plan stays on track even when His people don’t. The instances of sinful complaining and rebellion and the resulting judgment are so pronounced and widespread that it seems like they will never make it (Num. 14:2-4, 26).” Source patsieler.com

People during that time had to follow rules only because as a result God would be reflected on and glorified.

People knew about God and yet sin was still rampant. To really show the heart and love of Jesus, we must not be like this “rampant” sin. We must also if we do or have given in know to ask for forgiveness and be genuine in that to continue on in the life of Jesus.

It is okay to “struggle against” your old sin, just don’t make it a habit where you end up no longer reflecting a true believer in Christ. Be strong but only in Whom you know is strong. You are weak but you need Him more and more so that you can reflect HIS goodness.

May the Lord bless you and keep you! And may He make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you.

Another Quick Devotion?- 6/24/21

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And do not lead us into temptation, But deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.

Matthew 6:13 NKJV

We must remember that in order for us to be rescued from the perils that we were once slaves to, we should know just what exactly we were first rescued from. There is a lot of bad stuff out there and if we as Christians keep giving into it there might be a reason that it feels the holy spirit leaves a person’s life. Not completely abandoning the person, but it is a time where God goes “okay, it’s time for you to take me seriously again… whenever you want to, I’ll be here.”

I’ve experienced that time and time again before and worse before that. Giving into my old ways, not caring what other people might think. But there are always consequences, especially if a believer after a while does so and keeps doing so with reckless abandon! We must take the Lord seriously.

We also must not pray to look good. That was the flaw of the Pharisees during the New Testament. They loved “showy” prayer and yet God was not in them. We must adjust our praying so that He is glorified and we must talk directly to Him before we might have to speak in public, let’s say.

No pride. If pride then no glory. And let’s remember what we were delivered from so we can be strong during those temptations, AMEN

Devotions Micah 6:8- 6/7/21

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He has shown you, O man, what is good; And what does the LORD require of you But to do justly, To love mercy, And to walk humbly with your God? NKJV

(~Note: Hi. Just saying, but the earlier post was not the “surprise” hahaha. That was something to say just from a few days before. The big surprise will hopefully come sometime soon~)

A judge can sometimes be harsh yet fair. What comes down on what a person “gets” sometimes is upsetting for the one on trial.

That being said, can a person who has been given their sentence have many emotions about the cruel turn out in life? What if the sentence was death!

“No. Somebody please, take this punishment that I righteously deserve!” This can’t be the end… can it?

In life there are many things. There is happiness, joy, peace, but above all else, somehow there is grace and mercy.

Surely that isn’t all there is in life? I probably used to think that was ultimately all there is in life but there is also payment of sin and death as well.

We all have sin. Also someday we will all die.

I have a problem that could kill me. That might be disheartening to somebody but it is true. If I am careful I can get this problem treated and see if I might get better.

What else is there besides people “curing”‘ other people through medicine? There is a lot more than that!

The medicine might not be the help to my body or my “soul” haha. There is so much more to life than helping the physical body get “well” by the power of medical technology.

We need something deeper than anything this world might provide.

That is where the true thing for the soul could come for us. Maybe it’s through the power of prayer. Or maybe it is asking for help in the midst of such a tough strife like a current situation.

What if all a person needed was really in all things, love?

Be just means to let one in on consequences, show what a person has done is wrong, be tough and firm at times, and let the person know the error of their ways.

But to also love mercy makes things a little complicated, doesn’t it?

Maybe those consequences should only go so far? What if you were shown more mercy than what was shown towards that person right now…!

Things get complicated as we face “trials” and times that feel so burdensome yet familiar. But we must not lose hope. We must still pray for so-called “enemies” and see if what you’ve reflected towards them in Christ will one day be the thing they seek because their tough day might be coming soon.

And we must not walk around and tell people “I am perfect” too. That is we must be humble during our walk.

We must not forget everything that happened for us was not because it was anything we did in our lives but that it was because of what Christ has done for us!

We must not give up for our friends, for our people against us, from people who are against what we stand for, and for ourselves in the refreshing blood and mercy from Jesus.

Praise You Lord for giving me the gift of grace, which I did not deserve!

Devotions Near End of Psalm 3- 5/31/21

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Arise, O Lord; Save me, O my God! For You have struck all my enemies on the cheekbone; You have broken the teeth of the ungodly. Psalm 3: 7 NKJV

That phrase in that song that is a psalm (I think I will only touch on part of that verse since we do not need to include that one above, the last of Psalm 3). Salvation belongs to the Lord…

What does that mean…..?

And why was the song “The Battle belongs to the Lord” written, and what does that mean?

I think we just might find this out!

Also Note: I do know the answer just something to grab your attention!

Let’s pick apart the beginning: “Arise O Lord Save me, O my God!”

The writer seems to want to be rescued! From what? Maybe from death but is crying out for the Lord to rescue him from his situation!

A lot of times we need to be rescued. Maybe we cry out to be saved from sin. Maybe we cry out because we think God should rescue us from the peril we put ourselves in…!

But all we know is we need God. We need the Lord.

“For You have struck all my enemies on the cheekbone; You have broken the teeth of the ungodly.“…. hmm

Could this be something physical? I honestly don’t know, haha!

This could be a battle that David actually fought. All I know is God did something in His power and was not much or was little of David.

David had to see what the power of the Lord would do. He had to be weak in order for the Lord’s strength to be strong!

We must not see that strength is of ourselves alone. We must not feel that we are perfect, at least we must know that the “Perfector” in our lives is the only one changing us day to day! To all the glory be to Him and not to us or through us.

And we must know that there is a “battle” every day. But it is not a physical battle (violence), but we must recognize that every day that it is actually a spiritual battle…!

Here is a verse:

“For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” KJV from Ephesians 6:12.

It means that we must not be like our old selves or what we were like before Christ (or to be love and not work in other ways, like to be hateful. “Be Love”).

We should pray for our enemies, not rise up and overpower them, we should be love like the Lord, not be angry and fight people not knowing what is going on, we must hope that the hopes we have will one day open the eyes to people to see His love…!

Because salvation and the battle truly belongs to our God. “Salvation” belongs to the LORD. Amen.

Devotions Finishing Psalm 2- 5/28/21

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Now therefore, be wise, O kings; Be instructed, you judges of the earth, Serve the LORD with fear, And rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, And you perish in the way, When His wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all those who put their trust in Him. Psalm 2:10-12 NKJV

Wisdom is applied knowledge. Have you ever used what you know and put it to good use? I don’t know how many times I have been the opposite. That didn’t help with growth, as after a while it was like going in circles.

We should apply to our lives what we know and use it to mature otherwise we will not be helped by fully living for God.

The first part of the tenth verse says to be “wise, O kings.” If we know Jesus we must also know we are special to God also. We are like royalty.

The kings here are being told to serve the Lord with a full heart. That is they must “serve the LORD with fear… rejoice with trembling.” Now I don’t know if you saw what I said earlier. I happened to talk about fearing the Lord.

That we must fear the Lord because if we don’t we will not care about whether what we do every day or not is in our hearts wrong. It is, for example, bad to go back and sin again and again because an attitude in that could be “Well I can do that cuz Jesus will forgive me afterwards.” But if you do that, are you truly in your heart actually sorry you did it? No. And that’s not good at all.

That’s not a good attitude and that is not fearing the Lord

Anyway onwards into the verses it says to “kiss the Son,” Love the Lord Jesus. We should honor and love Him before we make any decisions in life.

If we reflect something that the Lord doesn’t and we in effect are being terrible, then as a consequence He will be angry.

I just looked up what “lest” means from the bible (I am learning about as much as you are reader, hahaha) and it says from yourdictionary.com:

Lest is defined as something done in order to avoid an undesirable consequence.

Consequences are not good if they come from the Lord. Sometimes He will be angry with what we do so we have to be careful and live in the Spirit and not of something that is not good. We must also learn to love and not strike out on others in an unhealthy manner, let’s say, if we get angry. Let us always strive and live for Christ. We cannot fail if all our goals are for Him and to have a desire to do actions through Him.

So we must love the Lord our God or else we could face some terrible consequences.

Let’s put all our trust in Him and be blessed! I hope you are doing well today.

Thief in the Night- 5/26/21

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If the Lord doesn’t tarry what would you do? What I mean by that is this: What if we might see the end times soon? What if the Lord has had enough of all of our sin? What would you do about it? Would you be ready to one day have Jesus coming again?

My church is going over the book of 1 Thessalonians. In that, of the fifth chapter it says “The day of the Lord… comes” as a “thief in the night.” What could that mean?

Can it be used as a warning to people not ready yet to know Christ or to people who want to be used by Christ that keep living deep in stuff that does not honor God?

A thief comes unexpectedly. It is like a person who steals stuff away from people before they even realize it. One like that could take valuables, clothing, money, and then be gone before the people left behind in all of it will even notice it.

Some are so good they can sneak into a house and steal things from people’s houses in the middle of the day! Wow. Now that is a good thief!

There is a lot of surprising evidence also in the bible that talks of people being taken up to be with the Lord before the hardest days on earth can occur. I will reference them later in case you wonder about them (it is good to “wonder” about things, hehe. Sorry self-commercial over).

Yes the bible does support a way that Christians with conviction I believe is mixed with the world that are claiming horrible things about this from the bible. The “rapture” is NOT demonic, let me tell you guys straight and simply:

Do not claim something like that is demonic because if you claim conviction on that… maybe you are in reality influenced by something that IS demonic.

I have to warn some people as critical as a fire alarm. Just putting that out there, believers online that have made such a (self) righteous claim.

Sorry sometimes I want to push some conviction like a pastor…. I digress!

We cannot stop Christ coming if it is meant to be. But we also must live in the here and now and fear the Lord. Does that mean we have to think he will strike us down in death if we don’t follow every step all the time? No.

“Fear the Lord.” Hmm.

Did you know in the bible it says about not fearing Satan but fearing God who chooses to take you to heaven or hell, yes Paul says, fear Him?

That is talking about eventualities in eternity but fearing God today just means something else.

If you believe you know Him then it is to be mindful of His commands and to walk in the Spirit and not stay in old lusts and old ways from your pasts.

It also means to live for Christ as in making decisions that might hurt (like individual choices that God would honor though would emotionally be tough) but then the Lord would then bless in response. It means making big decisions that might be uncomfortable to do (witness? Start little. Then you will see blessings. Keep at it and before you know it you’ll love living for the Lord!).

Just following God and walking fully and wholeheartedly will do amazing things in your life. People who want to follow Christ must deny their old selves and then walk and live in Him. Maybe after we all give our all the Lord tarries. There is a chance.

Also doing so like this every day will cause amazing things in our lives to happen. Who knows what can happen because of the Love and deep mercies of Christ from His father? Amen!

Psalm 23 *Part 2 5/26/21

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I hope you can see this as well as the first part. For some reason it seems this site only allows one post to be visible a day. Hope that’s not true but it seemed I had no views on the last one when I did this yesterday; there were views only on part 2 for some reason….

“(the) Rod and (the) Staff they comfort me.” For the Lord’s rod and staff comfort David.

What in the world are the “rod” and “staff”?

To truly understand that aspect you have to think in the mind again of a shepherd.

A “staff” is used to help guide the flock. There are many times the sheep will wander wherever they want. But the shepherd makes sure while they find fresh grass and nourishment that they are heading the right way.

A “rod” is used for an interesting purpose. It might to some be not good: many parents may think to not punish a child, yet that kid becomes so spoiled years down the road they think that whatever is coming to them they are won undeservedly.

The rod is used for sheep not doing what they are supposed to. Anyone ever got a whooping? As in, did anyone ever get spanked for doing wrong?

I have. It was humiliating.

Yet I needed it because I was not doing the right thing.

The rod is to give a member of a flock a smacking if needed. But it is probably like a tap on the “sheepy” behind, haha……..

Anyway I was digressing. Further more is just some more words that are great because it is from the Bible.

Could God be preparing a feast now? Could be. Might be.

“(He prepares) a table before me in the presence of my enemies;…”

What is this? Is there a big feast coming? A big celebration? I am not totally sure here, all I know is it might be describing a feast at the end of times.

The end of the world.

Then it continues. Here there is a semicolon being used. For that part of the verse and then with the part following. That means that the two sentences are closely related (sorry my “teacher” side is coming out now, lol!).

“ies; You anoint my head with oil: My cup runs over.”

There are many blessings from God that come just from following Him and staying as true to His word as humanly possible. Sure we may sin time to time (we even unintentionally sin too. And also never say “I am perfect” because that’s a sin too!) but as long as we wait on His promises, keep goals we might have for Him, we can see amazing things in our lives.

Wow that was a tangent! Sorry, haha.

And in that it is sure that “goodness and mercy shall” be in tune with us all the days we are here and alive.

We should also know that we are in a dwelling if we live for Christ. We will also feel that we will live in spirit and in truth in “the house of the LORD forever.”

Do you want to truly live for God? Or maybe do you think if you follow the Lord you could win a million dollars? Just know to ask for God’s help in all times of trouble ask for God’s mercy if you end up weak, but strive and abound in His peace. He the Lord just wants to help you.

“Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life; And I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.”

Just ask God for what you wish and as long as it fits His will for you He will do great things. Amen!