Love the Lord

On October 27, 2025   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Psalm 31: 23- 24        (NIV)

Love the Lord, all his saints! The Lord preserves the faithful, but the proud he pays back in full. Be strong and take heart, all you who hope in the Lord.

The New American Standard Version says, “Be strong and let your heart take courage.” We all have reason to be of strong courage and full of hope because the Lord fills the heart of the faithful. He preserves the faithful. He is our shepherd tending us, looking after us, meeting our needs. He is the good shepherd. He is preserving us through his Word and His righteousness.

Don’t allow your heart to be weary. I know the world crumbles in on you from time to time but do not let that remain your course. Look up unto the horizon. No matter how dreary, there will be another sunny day. No matter how weary you are, there is restoration. Love the Lord and allow him to refill your tank. Give yourself to Him.

He really can heal every wound you have, if you will let Him. He can do nothing without your permission though. There is always a cooperation between us and the Spirit of God. Where you see a promise of God you will often see a condition precedent, meaning something we must do first. God is a gentleman. He is not going to run over you even if it is to do something nice for you. He awaits your invitation. Then He will heal every injury, fix every broken thing, protect you and prepare your future paths. So, in this verse you see that the condition precedent, or thing we must do first is to love the Lord. When you love Him, you trust Him. And when you trust Him, you begin to let Him in. Then the next thing you know, you are asking Him into all of the sealed off rooms of your heart so that He can mend every hurt you have ever had.

It begins with you loving the Lord. Love Him with all your heart, with all your mind and with all your strength. He is faithful to care for you in every way. Therefore, you can be strong of heart and full of hope because He has promised to preserve you. You don’t have to earn His graces. Just love Him and give Him permission to be Lord of all the bits of your life. Allow Him to shepherd you. Be strong and courageous because you have a Lord who gives you hope. Release yourself into His arms. He is a loving father, and you are safe.

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Prayer at Work

On October 20, 2025   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Acts 12:5

So Peter was kept in the prison, but prayer for him was being made fervently by the church to God.

It is, at times, hard to believe prayer actually works. Haven’t we all prayed for something that never came to pass? Let me ask this. Have you ever prayed and received your answer? Most of us have examples in both directions. My purpose in this devotion is to get both you and me to lean a little more in the direction of believing in the power of prayer.

Speaking of power, today’s verse represents a powerful story. Peter had been arrested and was to be executed. The very night before his execution, an angel appeared in Peter’s cell. Herod employed extensive security measures to guard Peter, using sixteen guards for one prisoner. That fateful night before the scheduled execution there were guards posted inside and outside the prison cell. In fact, there were guards sleeping on either side of Peter. There was no way anyone could free the prisoner. But . . .!

God is the grand exception, isn’t He? When the angel awoke Peter, the shackles fell from Peter’s hands. The angel instructed him to dress and they escaped the prison disappearing into the night. Peter then went to the home of Mark’s mother where the faithful were gathered, praying. So cool!

This story causes faith to arise in me. Does it you? In this case, prayer overcame astounding odds. What is amazing to me is that Peter was asleep. Do you imagine you would sleep much the night before your planned execution? Perhaps Peter expected God to intervene. I don’t know but I find it remarkable that he was peacefully asleep, deeply enough, in fact, that the angel had to nudge him.

Maybe I don’t pray as much as I should. Well, there is no maybe about it. Which of us does, right? Why don’t we pray all the time? I think at the base of this conundrum lies two factors. The first is perhaps obvious. We don’t really, really believe in the power of prayer. Yes, in our minds we do, but our hearts are unconvinced. So, prayer is not the first tool we reach for.

The second reason is more subtle but related to the first. It’s this, we don’t want to be disappointed. Admittedly, we have all prayed without receiving the desired result. Perhaps that unanswered prayer resulted in heartbreak or at least uncomfortable emotions of lack and disappointment. Now, faced with a new situation, it feels risky to put our emotions back out on the table to perhaps be trampled again. No one wants to experience emotional pain. Then along comes a Bible story like this one and the flame of hope flickers into life. We want to believe.

Our ministry has a prayer team, and I will tell you that they are a devoted group of pray-ers. We have seen some miracles through the prayer team’s efforts, and it is always encouraging. We would like to pray for you, if you will allow us. Here I wish to say, it is not an admission of weakness or a lack of faith to ask for prayer although it seems a thread of that belief runs through the body of Christ. In fact, doesn’t it show belief and faith to ask for prayer? I know we can pray for ourselves, and I do, but I feel more confident and powerful praying for others than I do for myself so if you like, I will pray for you and you can pray for me.

I wish you would flood us with prayer requests. The link is: Prayer Requests. Further, are there some among you who would have liked being one of pray-ers that moved heaven on Peter’s behalf? Become a prayer team member! We send out a list of prayers a couple of times a month. We just ask that you connect with God in your heart and pray for each request on the list. It’s that easy. You can use the same link as above or use the contact us form: contact us.

Can prayer move mountains? I believe it can. It seems to have worked quite well for Nathan, as we saw in last Monday’s Word of the Day (click Here). I hope you will be encouraged today to pray more and expect God to answer, and don’t underestimate the power of having the whole crew praying with you. Prayer was instrumental in getting Peter released from prison, so let us pray more and pray for each other more too.

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Fortune Cookie

On October 13, 2025   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

 

Jeremiah 29: 11

“For I know the plans that I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.”

I would like to tell you another story today hoping that you not only enjoy it but that you find inspiration and hope in it. This story is about my friend Nathan.

Nathan is a Human Resources director. In January, his corporate headquarters surprised everyone with the announcement that the facility he is employed at was going to close. It was a stunning announcement. The planned execution date, October. Nathan had a facility full of folks who would shortly be without employment, but he also had his own career repercussions to think about. Of course, if you are the HR director of a facility that is about to close, you’ve got a lot of worries and stress. That is where faith in Christ and his Father are so important.

Fast forward to the Saturday after July 4th. Nathan’s wife suggested they go for a ride. Then, despite having a refrigerator full of leftovers from July 4th, they decided to stop at a favorite Chinese restaurant. At the end of the meal, the waitress delivered two fortune cookies to their table. They each took their cookie and opened them. Nathan’s wife, Penny, looked at him and wanted to know what was wrong. Nathan shared his fortune, “October is going to bring love and happiness.” Really? October, of all months! No one else would have suggested that it was going to be a good month in any way with so many friends losing their jobs.

The following Tuesday, the local Community College posted a job for an HR Director. Several people contacted Nathan to let him know about the posting. Honestly, I don’t think Nathan had given his own employment a great deal of consideration. Besides, he figured the Community College would want someone with a background in education.

I saw Nathan during these months. Notwithstanding the palpable stress that ran through the facility, Nathan exhibited surprising peace. He has said, “As I get older, I value peace” and one could tell that he was pursuing peace even while he had the concern of all those employees on his heart. I suspect those closest to him wished he would give greater attention to his own issues but rather than running to a new job, he felt he had to “see this to the end.” He told his wife, “I have peace.”

When you partner with God, it necessarily means that you can’t sit on your hands, though. Partnership implies contributions by all the partners.  Last week’s post taught that God will “go before you and will level the mountains; I will break down gates of bronze and cut through bars of iron.” God will level the path and even bust through doors for us, but we must get on our feet and walk. In Nathan’s case that meant he needed to fill out the application, order transcripts and get some references together despite believing he would not be the ideal candidate for the community college.

Three weeks later, on a Tuesday, the college emailed him saying they would like to schedule an interview with him for that Friday. Many of you will have cringed just then, thinking it would be tough to clear your calendar that quickly. Well, miraculously, Nathan had Friday off. The interview lasted two hours which would seem to be a good sign, a sign of interest but 2 ½ weeks later, he had heard nothing from the college. Then the Tuesday after Labor Day, Nathan was sitting at his desk. The job circumstance and the interview at the Community College came to his mind. He bowed his head, prayed and, as he says, for the first time in his life, fully gave the situation to God. He let go of the care of it. He took his hands and mind completely out of situation and rested in the peace that whatever came of the community college position, it would be God’s will and one way or another, God would provide.

Within 5 minutes of releasing the job and his concerns to God, Nathan received an email request from the college for him to call them. Once on the phone, they didn’t dance around but rather offered him the job right away. It seems that all Nathan had to do was to let go.

This is a story of provision, of partnering with God, of following his leading, of faith, of trust but ultimately of surrender. Nathan says it is an example of what happens when you get out of God’s way. He also says that God didn’t just open doors for him; God busted them down. Isn’t that exactly what Isaiah 45: 2 – 3 promises? “I will go before you and will level the mountains; I will break down gates of bronze and cut through bars of iron.”

As promised in today’s verse, God had a good plan for Nathan, one for his welfare. You have the same promise. Is there something troubling you? Are you dealing with a difficult circumstance? If you were speaking with Nathan, I believe he would tell you, “Give it to God and then get out of His way!”

Go with God and be blessed!

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Cleared Path

On October 6, 2025   /   Word of the Day   /   3 Comments

Isaiah 45: 2 – 3

I will go before you and will level the mountains; I will break down gates of bronze and cut through bars of iron. I will give you the treasures of darkness, riches stored in secret places, so that you may know that I am the Lord, the god of Israel, who summons (calls) you by name.

Two weeks ago we looked at Romans 11: 29 and we saw that all of God’s gifts and His calling are irrevocable. They cannot be removed, drawn back or recalled. Today’s verse has both promises and the promise of your calling in it.

It is God’s will that you succeed in this life. That is why He is going to go before you and break down mountains, strong impassable doors and cut through bars that were put up to keep you out of your success. This is such beautiful imagery of our God who is willing to participate with you to break down every barrier that has been erected against you.

He wants you to have the hidden treasure and the treasures of darkness. When you read that part of the passage it sounds a little odd that He is going to give us the treasures of darkness, but when you look it up the Hebrew text makes much more sense. The word “darkness” as used in this passage is taken from the ordinary word (chashak) that means to be without light, dark, but the Hebrew text did not use that ordinary word. The word used in this text is choshek. In this construction the word translated as darkness actually means: misery, destruction, death, ignorance, sorrow, wickedness and obscurity. What a huge difference one word makes.

What God is saying to you is that he will break down all of the barriers that have come out of misery, destruction, death, ignorance, sorrow, wickedness and obscurity so that you may reap the treasures that were wrought in that wickedness. It is very much like Romans 8: 28 where God told us that He would cause all things to work for our good. In this case he is going to take the wealth that was stolen and misappropriated through immoral means and redeem it for His chosen ones. He is going to take that theft that the devil meant for ill and redeem it for His kids. You are given the riches that have been stored away secretly.

God is going before you so that you just walk through the busted down doors, you walk on a level path rather than having to climb or go around mountains. His holiness will redeem the ill gotten gains and then He will give them to you. Now don’t sit in Egypt awaiting manna from heaven. What we have to do is follow God. He will break down the locked and barred doors, He will level the path before you, when you walk where He leads you. Your success, your wealth are in His wake. Well, that is a good place to be.

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The Blessing

On September 29, 2025   /   Word of the Day   /   1 Comment

Deuteronomy 28: 2

All these blessings will come upon you and overtake you if you obey the LORD your God.

I want to tell you about my friend Brad today and, in so doing, I think you will see how the blessing works.

Brad is a dedicated Christian. He is also a carpenter. Three years ago, he worked with a buddy on a project. When the project was complete, there was some tile left over. His friend gave the remaining tile to Brad. It has sat there in his shed for three years. Brad is working on a new project right now. They have laid a beautiful tile in the bathroom. It is a big pattern. Interestingly the central part of the pattern turned out to be the same size as the center of the drain. Therefore, they could lay the square right in the center part of the drain. It’s beautiful. Unfortunately, when they began to tile the niches in the shower the tile pattern was just too big, so didn’t work. Brad began to think about the tile he had in his barn that had been sitting there taking up space for three years. He took some to the job site and surprisingly, amazingly, it ended up being the same color as the detail on the large tile. Wow! How does that happen? Brad and his partners had no idea the center part of the pattern would fit the drain and not even an inkling that something in his barn would add a touch of finesse. That’s the blessing at work.

I’ve written many times about partnering with Christ in your projects and in your work. Brad’s experience shows how the blessing will touch all that you do and make things better than we could have ever done intentionally. Our job is to dedicate ourselves to the Lord and to prayer. We need to spend time before the Lord and with Him. I believe this opens the channels through which the blessing flows.

God wants to bless us. All you have to do is read the twenty-eighth chapter of Deuteronomy to see that. God is effusive in his declaration of desire to bless us. The really great news is that we needn’t work so hard when Yahweh is in the mix. Father God knew when Brad put that tile in the barn that it was going to come in handy for this current project. God knew when Brad and his partners chose the new tile that it was going to match the tile Brad already had. I would go so far as to say that Father probably nudged them to choose that tile. That is how life works in the blessing.

Your part is to pray and spend time with the Lord. His is to bless all the work of your hand. We can never accomplish, by the sweat of our brow, what the Lord can do in the blink of an eye. Our time is much better served when we have Him as our priority and prioritize time with Him. When we do our apportioned part and allow Him to do His, things flow with grace and matters work out in outstanding and remarkable ways.

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Binding

On September 15, 2025   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Romans 11: 29

[F]or the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.

You’ve gotta get excited about this today! God has made you irrevocable promises. Irrevocable means that the subject cannot be recalled or undone. It is unalterable. That means that not even God can revoke or recall the gifts He has made or call back the calling He has sent. Once done, it is done for all time. God is bound by His own words and cannot change His mind. That is what God intended, that He be bound. He has made His word irrevocable so that you might have confidence and assurance. If He ever said it, then it is there always. Therefore, we can have faith in every word Yahweh has ever spoken.

Any promise you find in the Bible, even if it is an Old Testament promise, is yours because God cannot take it back. Any promise He has ever made to you personally is also still active and you can rely on it. It does not matter if that promise is twenty or thirty years old. God is just as bound by that word today as He was the day He made it. So don’t give up on your hope.

Furthermore, go digging around the Bible for His promises. When you find one that covers your situation, you can hold it up to Him expecting Him to fulfill it for you. All you have to do is ask Him. He has already made the promise and is standing by to fulfill everyone He has ever made. He is just waiting for you to bring it to Him to be filled.

Don’t miss out on the last part of the verse though which says that His calling is irrevocable as well. God has called every single person to Him. That is the calling that is on every life, and every single person has a place in the body of Christ.

There are some of you who have a specific call on your life who have begun to wonder if it will ever come to pass. God has spoken to you but you have given up on the call on your life. Maybe life got busy and the calling slipped to the back for awhile. And yet it is still in the back of your mind pestering you, trying to break out.

You have a reason to hope. His name is Jesus and by his resurrection you have a new life and a new hope. The calling of God is alive and every bit as available to you now as the day you first heard it. Don’t give up on the calling of God because God did not and cannot call it back. Be encouraged for His word never dies and it has within itself the power to bring itself to pass.

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The “One” Sin

On September 8, 2025   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Romans 5: 20            TPT

So then, the law was introduced into God’s plan to bring the reality of human sinfulness out of hiding. And yet, wherever sin increased, there was more than enough of God’s grace to triumph all the more!

I hear comments, as I know you do, about how the world, and even our own cities, are falling into greater and greater sin. Some speculate that God is not as active because sin has become greater, or more prevalent. One day when I heard someone speaking in these terms it made me wonder what sin we are engaged in these days that is causing the breakdown of societies. What sin has, seemingly, caused God to vacate our towns and cities? There is really nothing new under the sun. You can read the Bible and see that. The Israelites created idols while God was leading them to the Promised Land. Are we worshipping idols? What is it that is going on today that is any different than in previous times? What is the sin which is destroying us?

As I pondered this question, I sought the one with all the answers, and do you know what, He answered me. He showed me the one great sin which is our problem and on the other hand that conventional sin isn’t really the issue. Where sin has increased, God’s grace has increased more. No matter how great a sin problem we have, if we understand today’s scripture then we know that God’s grace expands to even greater volumes. So, there is a sin problem, but then again there isn’t because God’s grace is greater than any sin committed by man.

So, what is the problem? The way the Lord said this to me was, “There really is only one sin, one great sin and though this is not what people refer to when they speak of the increase in sin, it actually is the root problem from which all other sin is derived.” Does this surprise you? Are you anxious to know what the “One” sin is? I was. The problem we have, the one which is destroying the fabric of society is the sin of attrition. Spiritual Attrition is the slow wearing down of our Christian faith, but it is more than that. The core issue is that fewer and fewer of us seek God. The Lord showed me that the real problem is separation from Him. He has grace for the sin, but He does not have a remedy for people who choose not to partner with Him.

The great sin of the world is separation from God! And you can quote me. If you think about it, that is the same problem God constantly addressed in the Old Testament. The people kept turning away from Him. Once they took their eyes off Him, then they fell into all sorts of sins, even to serving foreign Gods. When Israel sought God, they flourished. When they fell away from Him, they suffered lack and hardship. Their sin grew too but sin isn’t the problem. When a people serve God, when they spend time in His presence, they have no desire for the “sins” that we often sculpt into lists. Unbelief and abstinence from prayer and seeking are the problems that undermine society. God can deal with sin when people believe in Him but when the nation turns its face from God, there is no one to pray, no one to intercede. Who heals the land of a nation that does not believe in nor seek God?

Even as Christians, we are forced into some important questions, questions that I had to face in this conversation with God. In what ways or in what areas am I separated from God? Is there a part of my life which I keep separate from Him? Do I go to work every day without Him or even thoughts of Him? Where is He on Monday? Tuesday? Am I seeking Him in all aspects of my life, or have I divorced Him from part of my life? We probably all have little spaces in our lives where we have yet to intertwine with the Lord Jesus. If we, have little separations, little areas where a vacuum exists, then who shall lead the uninitiated.

Here, world, is the real problem. We have separated ourselves from God and not only is this the one truly big sin, but it is also hell. To the degree we do not involve Yahweh in our lives, we are living in sin and experiencing hell. God would give you encouragement though, because now that we know what the actual problem is, we can individually and collectively take measures to correct it. Ya wanna talk about hell? Or pontificate about sin? They both exist right outside our front door. The good news is that we also have the power to free the world from both. Seek the Lord, your God with all your heart, all your mind, and all your soul – then teach others to do the same. This is how we save the earth!

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