Genesis 22:12 DEVOTION FOR TODAY, August 8, 2019 “…now I know that you truly fear God…” The Lord spoke those words to Abraham on a mountain top when he proved the depth of his love and trust for God. “Now I know.” Those words are wondering words for me. We serve a God who knows all that is knowable. It is not yet known if I will be faithful throughout…Keep Reading

Jeremiah 4-6 THOUGHT FOR TODAY, August 8, 2019 “LOOKING FOR AN HONEST MAN” When Abraham bargained with the Lord to spare Sodom and Gomorrah, he started the negotiations by asking if there were 50 righteous persons in the cities, would he not spare them. God agreed, and Abraham reduced the number to 45, then 40, then 30, then 20, and finally 10. We don’t know if he was confident that…Keep Reading

Jeremiah 1-3 THOUGHT FOR TODAY, August 7, 2019 “BALANCED PREACHING” While Jeremiah was still a young man, the word of the Lord came to him, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations” (Jeremiah 1:5). Jeremiah objected that he was but a youth (v.6), but God said, “Do not say, ‘I am…Keep Reading

2 Peter 1:3 DEVOTION FOR TODAY, August 7, 2019 “His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life…” “Where is the Big Dipper?” the little boy asked his Mother as they looked into the sky. “Oh it is there,” she said, “but you cannot see it right now. You must wait until the right time, when it is dark, and then you will see it clearly….Keep Reading

Genesis 21:17-18 DEVOTION FOR TODAY, August 6, 2019 “KEEP BELIEVING” She sat by a lonely road and cried. The last words she had heard were, “Just go away, I don’t care where, just go!” Now here she was with a child at the point of death from dehydration and an empty water bottle on a desert road. She cried more for him than herself; parents do that. Why had God…Keep Reading

Zephaniah 1-3 THOUGHT FOR TODAY, August 6, 2019 “THE DAY OF THE LORD” The thrust of Zephaniah’s ministry was to announce, “The day of the Lord is near.” The day of the Lord was a day of intervention in which God’s hand in the affairs of man became obvious. The term refers to impending judgment, which prefigures the time when God breaks into history in a mighty way destroying the…Keep Reading

Psalm 84:1 DEVOTION FOR TODAY, August 5, 2019 “How amiable are thy tabernacles, O lord of hosts!” I see some places that give me a sense of splendor and some whose beauty is inspiring. Amiable is something else. It is a heart’s tug from the old home places where a person found love and acceptance; a place where memories were made and collected as treasures of the heart. Amiable is…Keep Reading

2 Kings 22-23; 2 Chronicles 34-35 THOUGHT FOR TODAY, August 5, 2019 “LIP SERVICE” Josiah has this testimony: “Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned thirty-one years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Jedidah, the daughter of Adaiah of Bozkath. And he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord and walked in all the way of David his father, and he…Keep Reading

Colossians 2:11-12, Romans 5:1-2, 1 Corinthians 1:18 THOUGHT FOR TODAY, August 4, 2019 “POWER OF GOD UNTO SALVATION” Authors and speakers in the Bible often used parables, metaphors, and other figures of speech to clarify truths. In this metaphor, faith is the cord by which sinners access the grace of the cross, which is the power of God unto salvation. In our zeal for the holiness of God, we sometimes…Keep Reading

Nahum 1:3 THOUGHT FOR TODAY, August 4, 2019 “IS THE WORLD GETTING BETTER?” A century after Jonah had preached to Nineveh, Nahum gave his oracle concerning them. This time they did not repent, and they fell to Babylon in 612 B.C. Nahum pronounces a woe on the bloodthirsty, deceitful, seductive, and oppressive city: Woe to the bloody city, all full of lies and plunder— no end to the prey! The…Keep Reading

Luke 6:44 DEVOTION FOR TODAY, August 3, 2019 “Each tree is recognized by its own fruit. People do not pick figs from thorn bushes, or grapes from briers.” We take pictures of roses, but never focus on the thorns; neither will anyone cut off the blooms and make a vase of thorny stems. Forgive my foolishness but why then do we focus so easily on the thorns of life? It…Keep Reading

2 Chronicles 32-33 THOUGHT FOR TODAY, August 3, 2019 “THE NEXT GENERATION” Yesterday we read about Hezekiah and Chamberlain’s peace-in-my-day statements. For Chamberlain, it was empty words. Hezekiah did die in peace as a very wealthy king. He slept with his fathers (2 Chronicles 32:33) and his son Manasseh began to reign at age 12 and reigned for 55 years. “And he did what was evil in the sight of…Keep Reading