Month: April 2009

Day-by-Day – Day 30 – Reflection

On By KateIn Devotionals2 Comments

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~John 7:37b and 7:38 If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.

As I was driving up the Oregon’s Scenic Highway 101 on my way to work this morning, I saw one of the most beautiful views since I’ve been living here. I did not take this picture but what my eyes beheld was almost exactly like it. The sky and ocean just seemed to melt together and I couldn’t tell where the ocean ended and where the sky began.

That’s the way our relationship with our Heavenly Father should be. The unsaved should look at us and be able to see God. They should not be seeing sin and worldliness, but love and Godliness. As we grow in Christ, and drink from His Word (the Scriptures), our words and actions will reflect His goodness. We should be like that beautiful picture – we should be melting into our Father and becoming one with Him.

~Ephesians 4:22-24 That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.

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Day-by-Day – Day 29 – Alone

On By KateIn Devotionals3 Comments

101_1328~Psalm 142:4 I looked on my right hand, and beheld, but there was no man that would know me: refuge failed me; no man cared for my soul.

How desperate a verse this is, isn’t it? The Psalmist looked around him and discovered that no one wanted to be a friend to him. There was no place for him to hide or even seek help. No one cared whether he lived or died.

But notice the next verse – the Psalmist did not wallow in self pity. Look at how he dealt with his feelings of desperation:

~Psalm 142:5 I cried unto thee, O LORD: I said, Thou art my refuge and my portion in the land of the living.

What a prescription for encouraging one’s spirit! A personal relationship with God is the ultimate solution for everyone. After salvation, the believer’s life is spent developing that relationship with the Lord through the changing power of the Holy Spirit – He teaches us, we submit to Him – as a result, we become more like our Father!

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Day-by-Day – Day 28 -Delight

On By KateIn Devotionals4 Comments

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~Psalm 37:4 Delight thyself also in the Lord: and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.

Delighting ourselves in the Lord may sound strange to some people. However, to the believer, it is an important part of worshiping God! Noah Webster defines “delight” as:

1. To affect with great pleasure; to please highly; to give or afford high satisfaction or joy; as, a beautiful landscape delights the eye; harmony delights the ear; the good conduct of children, and especially their piety, delights their parents.

Do my actions affect the Lord with great pleasure? Do I please Him highly? Do I give or afford God high satisfaction and joy? Do my actions speak volumes and glorify God? These are all excellent questions to ask ourselves when we do moral inventory of our lives. Keeping our spiritual life and walk with God in check keeps us out of trouble. Even better, we have a promise that the Lord will give us the desires of our heart when we do so. Will our desires always be our “wants”? No! But they will definitely be exactly what we need.

“I know of no better thermometer to your spiritual temperature than the intensity of your prayer.”
Charles Haddon Spurgeon

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Day-by-Day – Day 27 – Revival

On By KateIn Devotionals2 Comments

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~Psalm 138:7 Though I walk in the midst of trouble, thou wilt revive me: thou shalt stretch forth thine hand against the wrath of mine enemies, and thy right hand shall save me.

The Christian is so blessed to be settled in the palm of God’s hand! When we set aside our pride and allow the Lord to do His work, we reap peace! Sometimes there just isn’t anything that can be done but to trust in the Lord – to trust Him in such a way that you know He will bring you through your trial.

I think of the Apostle Paul who asked God three times to remove the thorn in his side but the Lord told him His (God’s) grace was sufficient. If I were Paul, this would not have been the answer I wanted. However, look at what Paul reaped! God used him – the New Testament is comprised mostly of his writings. The Holy Spirit used Paul in a mighty way by speaking God’s Word through Paul’s pen. He had been tortured, imprisoned and beaten. Paul truly walked in the midst of trouble.

We should never belittle someone else’s experiences and say their trial is small. Everyone struggles with trials at one time or another. At the time, the burden seems too heavy to bear to that individual. It’s just as equal to them as whatever burden you’re carrying. Everyone carries burdens – the young as well as the old. Burdens have a blessed role in our lives. They fill our hearts with compassion for one another. How can one be compassionate if one never has trials?

Dear Christian, God promises to revive us when we are overburdened with cares, physical ailments and troubles. One of my favorite verses that encourage my spirit is in Isaiah.

~Isaiah 40:29-31 He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength.  Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.

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Day-by-Day – Day 26 – Chosen

On By KateIn Devotionals3 Comments

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~Psalm 139:13-16 For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother’s womb. I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well. My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them.

To think that God knew us before we were born is mind boggling to me! God just doesn’t know me, but He knows every part of me. I’m so thankful that He chose to die for me despite of who I am today. I love Spurgeon’s quote:

It’s a good thing God chose me before I was born, because he surely would not have afterwards.
Charles Haddon Spurgeon

I’m also thankful that despite of who I am and the sinner that I am, Christ chose to die for me! It shows how much God loves us!

~Romans 5:8 But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

Day-by-Day – Day 25 – Intercession

On By KateIn Devotionals1 Comment

101_1314Prayers are awesome.  They are the Christian’s wonderful connection to God.  But just think about it for a moment.  How would you feel if you knew that Jesus Christ was praying to His Father for you?  If anyone knows you inside out, it’s Christ.

I don’t know about you, but I would rather have my Saviour praying for me than a thousand people!!

~John 17:9 I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine.

~Romans 8:34 Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.

I love this quote:

If I could hear Christ praying for me in the next room, I would not fear a million enemies. Yet distance makes no difference. He is praying for me.
Robert Murray M’Cheyne

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Day-by-Day – Day 24 – Fear of God

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I stand in awe of the God of all creation when I look at the moon and all the stars in the heavens! As a believer, I have a special relationship with God – He is my Heavenly Father. The Bible has much to say about the fear of the Lord. There are 30 verses with that same phrase. One such verse is:

~Psalm 111:10 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: a good understanding have all they that do his commandments: his praise endureth for ever.

This fear has nothing to do with being afraid of God and His judgment. We are no longer judged because we have accepted Jesus Christ as our Saviour and His blood is what cleanses us from all unrighteousness. This places us in a different position than the unsaved. The unsaved have every right to be afraid of God and His judgment. But to the believer, we fear him as we do our own earthly father – a reverential fear.

What blessed peace is brought to the heart of the believer knowing that he is a child of the King and no longer needs to be afraid!

There is a difference between fearing God, and being afraid of God; the Godly fear God as a child does his father, the wicked are afraid of God as the prisoner is of the judge.
(Watson, Religion Our True Interest, 9)
Thomas Watson

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Day-by-Day – Day 23 – Magnetic Personality

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As the sun goes down at night, you can still see where you’re going as long as there is the slightest amount of sun still showing. Once the sun has gone down completely, finding one’s way without a flashlight is difficult.  Christ compares the Christian as a light to the unsaved world. In a world filled with sin, the believer’s actions and speech should shine a light that reveals Christ to them.  The believer’s testimony should be such that it points the lost to salvation.

Christ also compared the believer to salt. Salt adds flavor and can also cause you to thirst. True salvation gives the believer a new life.  The believer desires to live a more righteous life and desires to sin less.  This leaves an open door to share the gospel with the unsaved.  You would not continue to salt your food if the salt had no flavor.  Neither will the unbeliever desire anything spiritual, let alone salvation, if the person sharing the gospel does not have the salt he needs.

~Matthew 5:13-16 Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men. Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

Our life should reflect the gospel so the unbeliever can see that we are not phony. The salt of our lives should cause them to thirst after the gospel and desire to learn more about Jesus Christ.

The life of the Christian should be a magnet to draw people to Christ.
Charles Haddon Spurgeon

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Day-by-Day – Day 22 – Relationship

On By KateIn Devotionals1 Comment

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~Psalm 42:1 As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God.

As you meditate on your relationship with God, can you speak the words in this Psalm and mean it?  Do you thirst after God with the same intensity as a deer would seek water after running through the woods?  Do you desire a close relationship with Him with such intensity?

When I was a child, I absolutely loved being with my parents.  I felt a sense of security when my Dad was home from work.  When he entered the house, it seemed as though nothing could harm me.  When I became a child of God, the day I was born-again, I felt this same sense of security.  I now had the same type of relationship with the Heavenly Father as I did with my own father.  The child of God can run to the Father with the same confidence and assurance as he would to his earthly father.  As we grow in Christ toward spiritual maturity through the convicting power of the Holy Spirit, we desire a closer fellowship with God than before.

Our hearts should pant/desire a closer relationship with God just as that deer desires a nice cool drink from the brook after an exhausting run through the forest.

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Day-by-Day – Day 21 – The Boy and the Duck

On By KateIn Devotionals1 Comment

duck
As we approach Easter, let’s remember why we are really celebrating this holiday.  It is not about bunnies or eggs.  It is, however, all about forgiveness.  I hope you enjoy this story.  It’s a good one!

There was a little boy visiting his grandparents on their farm.

He was given a slingshot to play with out in the woods. He practiced in the woods; but he could never hit the target. Getting a little discouraged, he headed back for dinner.

As he was walking back he saw Grandma’s pet duck.  Just out of impulse, he let the slingshot fly, hit the duck square in the head and killed it. He was shocked and grieved! In a panic, he hid the dead duck in the wood pile, only to see his sister watching! Sally had seen it all, but she said nothing.

After lunch the next day Grandma said, ‘Sally, let’s wash the dishes.’

But Sally said, ‘Grandma, Johnny told me he wanted to help in the kitchen.’

Then she whispered to him, ‘Remember the duck?’

So Johnny did the dishes.

Later that day, Grandpa asked if the children wanted to go fishing and Grandma said, ‘I’m sorry but I need Sally to help make supper.’

Sally just smiled and said, ‘well that’s all right because Johnny told me he wanted to help.’

She whispered again, ‘Remember the duck?’ So Sally went fishing and Johnny stayed to help.

After several days of Johnny doing both his chores and Sally’s, he finally couldn’t stand it any longer.  He came to Grandma and confessed that he had killed the duck.

Grandma knelt down, gave him a hug and said, ‘Sweetheart, I know. You see, I was standing at the window and I saw the whole thing, but because I love you, I forgave you. I was just wondering how long you would let Sally make a slave of you.’

Thought for the day and every day thereafter:

Whatever is in your past, whatever you have done… And the devil keeps throwing it up in your face (lying, cheating, debt, fear, bad habits, hatred, anger, bitterness, etc.)…whatever it is…You need to know that God was standing at the window and He saw the whole thing.

He has seen your whole life… He wants you to know that He loves you and that you are forgiven. He’s just wondering how long you will let the devil make a slave of you.

The great thing about God is that when you ask for forgiveness, He not only forgives you, but He forgets.  It is by God’s grace and mercy that we are saved.

~Author Unknown

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