January 24 – Taught by God

“He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you.” John 16:14 (NIV)

During the last hours that Jesus was with His disciples before His death on the cross, He revealed many things to them. Jesus promised to send the Holy Spirit and revealed what the Holy Spirit would do for them. The disciples had walked and lived with Jesus for about three years. Yet, there was much they needed to understand about Him. Jesus promised that the Holy Spirit would come and live within them and teach them more to help them understand their Lord Jesus more fully. He would also bring to their remembrance and understanding of all that they had experienced with Him. That is our promise and that is what the Holy Spirit is doing in our lives too. Through some New Testament inspired by the Holy Spirit we learn of Jesus. Actually how else would we really know Him since we've never seen Him with our eyes or heard him with our ears. When the Holy Spirit teaches us about Jesus, He becomes glorious to us. Is Jesus a person of glory to you? If He is becoming more and more glorious it's because the Holy Spirit is teaching you.

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What is the glory of God? - See the Note

January 5 – As Many As...

“He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name,”  John 1:11-12 (NASB)

Our verse and promise today may be familiar to many but it also may be new to others. The Apostle John tells us what happened when Jesus Christ came to live as a human on this earth. As many as received Him⸺take notice John does not say dogma, creed, myth, but a person. This person in the previous verse is identified as the creator of everything that exists. Christ is the Son of God and He brought the world and all creatures into being, they were His own. This is not limited to Israel but it is Israel who represented the world which Christ came to. Our promise is in verse 12. The expression “as many as” amounts to “whosoever” whether Jew or Gentile. It might be rendered “as many of them,”⸺of those He came to. As many as did accept him; as many as acknowledged Him; and welcomed Him as the Light which enlightens every one of us; as many as have embraced him by a living faith in his name, to them he gave—it is ever a gift of God’s sovereign grace—the right, the authority, to become children of God.

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Thanks in part to: A Living Daily Message From The Words of D. L. Moody selected by Emma Moody Fitt, Copyright, 1900, by Fleming H. Revell Company, now in public domain.

December 29 – Acknowledge – Yes. Deny-No.

“And I tell you, everyone who acknowledges me before men, the Son of Man also will acknowledge before the angels of God, but the one who denies me before men will be denied before the angels of God.” Luke 12:8-9 (ESV)

Our verse today is powerful in truth and wisdom.  The huge crowds “so many thousands” were clambering around Jesus. To them Jesus was the miracle maker and many were caught up by their curiosity but not truly followers. He begins to use this mass attraction to teach his disciples and warns those who might be unwilling to recognize Him as the promised Messiah. The disciples and all people had to make a choice. To acknowledge denotes the fact that the disciples believed Him as the Messiah and therefore they had access to the way of salvation. Those who did not acknowledge Him were denying themselves the way of salvation. Not every promise that Jesus made is a blessing promise.  Some, like these warnings are for us today promise consequences that we need to heed. If, with open hearts, we choose to acknowledge and receive Jesus as Lord and Savior, God will acknowledge us before the angels. The meaning of ‘acknowledge’ used here is an act of recognition free from any denial. For those who don’t acknowledge Christ publicly when the opportunity is given, they are considered deniers and the promise is God’s denial of them. Acknowledge, don’t deny our Lord.

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September 22 – Received, Not Earned

“For who regards you as superior? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it?  1 Corinthians 4:7 (NASB)

Do we have any recourse or platform from which we can claim superiority over others in receiving God’s forgiveness and eternal life?  As believers in Christ we know that what we have, we received from God.  We also know that in receiving God’s free grace to be saved we have nothing to boast about how we were saved. But this is a challenging position to hold. We have no claim to how that was done. In our daily life we are offered unending opportunities to boast of being most loyal customer. Loyalty points boost us to the front of the line and we kind of take pride in that, right? Being a Group 1 is so much better than Group 3 or 4 when boarding an airplane, isn’t it?  What it really means is maybe convenience. Buy into a favored club to get first option at a movie? The movie will start at the same time for all. Grace is not a loyalty plan. No Group 1, 2, 3, or 4 matter.  Maybe we can boast is some  things, but not about our salvation. It was given as a promise and no effort on our part gained it for us. 

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May 18 – Whom Do We Serve

“Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.”  -  Colossians 3:23-24 (ESV)

In the time when the Apostle Paul wrote his letters to the churches while in prison chained to a guard, it was common for some to serve masters as slaves or indentured slaves.  Some of these slaves came to believe in Jesus and their lives were changed.  Paul is speaking directly to slaves in these verses and he encourages all to rethink their purpose.  All work and all actions of a Christ follower, a true believer is viewed in the light of their confession.  As slaves, they were in a situation they could not escape from but Paul knew that they could serve their masters in a way that would honor their God.  We today have this same promise and call to work for our employers as if we are working for our Lord.  We have an inheritance promised as a reward.  Paul affirms that all our actions should be acts of service to the Lord Christ – He is whom we serve.  There is also a warning promise.  Those who do wrong receive not the inheritance but the consequences of doing wrong. That, we do not want so we strive to serve all as if we are serving Christ. 

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April 19 – Asking and Knocking

“And I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.”  - Luke 11:9-10 (ESV)

Most  of us have no problems coming up with lists of things we need.  But finding help to satisfy those needs may be difficult.  When Jesus was on this earth and teaching, he offered promises and directions that were specific to getting what we needed.  Our verse today is one of those promises.  It is really simple but it requires us to have faith.  Jesus was describing how willing He was to help us.  His instruction was, “Ask.”  If we ask, it will be given to us and, “Knock.”  If we need someone’s help and attention, we knock on their door and hope they open it.  Jesus was telling the people that He was more willing to give what was needed and more willing to open the doors we knock on than an ordinary person who actually might have to be pestered and nagged a bit before they respond.  Our Heavenly Father is more willing than our neighbors or friends to respond to our needs.  If you ask for Jesus, you will receive Jesus and all you need.  If you knock on a door, He will open the door to what you need.

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February 11 – Worried About Cost of Service

““Truly I tell you,” Jesus replied, “no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age: homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields—along with persecutions—and in the age to come eternal life.”  -  Mark 10:29-30 (NIV)

What is the cost of committing ourselves to Christ’s service?  We can do this wherever we are but there is a cost to this commitment.  Those who serve might find themselves relocated away from their loved ones.  Or, may find that our commitment causes a kind of separation from our loved ones even if we don't move away. Jesus spoke these words in response to the same question and to the apostle Peter’s declaration that they had “…left everything to follow you.!”  Jesus’ response was intended to affirm the value of following Jesus wherever He goes and go where ever He sends us.  Is it to a career as a missionary in Africa or South America?  Is it to a community that needs our skills we can serve others and proclaim the Gospel?  Whatever it is and where ever it might be, Jesus promises that for those of us that make that commitment, we will receive a hundred times more than we have to give up.  God does not leave us without what we need and He blesses us when we obey His call.  If He has called, we can hope to have experienced this promise. 

Next: Worrying about Afflictions

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August 24 – Keeping A Grip

“Therefore, do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward.  For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised.”  Hebrews 10:35-36 -   (NASB)

We believe that you who read this blog are living by faith and have great confidence in the promises of God.  Yet we are encouraged by today's verse to maintain our confidence in our heavenly Father and in His promises.  Often under attack by the enemy of our souls, we at risk of wondering off the path God has set before us.  Even these days, we hear of those in leadership who are turning from the faith they have been teaching and looking for a fulfillment in things not honorable to God. This is why the encouragement is given to reinforce our to maintain our endurance when it is challenging to do so.  We are told that we need to keep our grip on our confession. The promises of God come with some very clear teaching about what God expects His followers to do and how he expects His followers to live.  This is how and why we do the will of God. The reward is great and we will receive what is promised if we endure in the faith.  In that, we can hang on with faith to our confidence even when others are forsaking theirs.  

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August 3 – Be Acknowledged

“So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven,”  Matthew 10:32 - (ESV)

Jesus, up in heaven, knows what we are doing and also what we are saying – even what we are thinking as we go through each day.  He is our advocate and He desires that we stand and proclaim Him as the Savior.  When we do what Jesus wants, reminding the people around us that Jesus is our Savior and our Lord and that He is standing up for us before God the Father.  He will acknowledge us as members of God's family and fellow heirs of all of God's promises.  This is why we can pray to God in Jesus' name and why He has instructed us to do so.  Those who do not acknowledge Jesus in this life, stymie Jesus' acknowledgment of them before God the Father as He has no basis to do so.  Believe and receive and He promises to claim us as His before God.

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March 17 – Enduring In Our Confidence

“Therefore, do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward.  For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised.”   Hebrews 10:35-36 (NASB)

Yesterday we considered the confidence we have in the goodness of God.  Today we look at the importance of that confidence and how we need to nurture it and not discard it.  Confidence is something we can lose if we do not sustain our faith in what we believe.  We have been told that we live by faith.  We become children of God by trusting in what Jesus did for us when He died on the cross.  We keep on living by faith by trusting that God will take care of all our needs from day to day.  The confidence spoken about in this verse is the same as our faith. Our faith builds our confidence and encourages us to keep trusting in God.  God has promised a great reward for those who keep trusting in Him.  Jesus wants us to do just that and He knows when we maintain our confidence in Him and in what He has promised. That is the way that we receive what God has promised.  Let's keep trusting Him today and every day, don't let anything cause you to throw your confidence away or discard it for any reason.  Endure in confidence always. 

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December 10 – Children of God by Right

“He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him.” John 1:10 (ESV)
“But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God,”  John 1:12 (ESV) 

After Jesus was born and then, after He lived here on earth His disciple John wrote much about Him.  In the Gospel of John, in the first chapter are these two selected verses for today.  These verses reveal two very different attitudes toward the child who was born in Bethlehem and whose birth we celebrate during this Christmas season.  For some, the events of the Christmas story are not really very important.  Why is this?  Because they do not yet know Him.  They reject and do not recognize Jesus as the One sent from God and who was also the One through whom our world was created.  But for us who know Jesus as the One who came personally into our world to live as a human and have accepted through faith and belief in His Word, we have received adoption with the right to be a child of God.  Fully understanding how great God is may be difficult but we can thank Him for what He has done for us.  The more we embrace this truth, the more precious it is for us to know we are children of God by rights He has given to us.    

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Please take a moment to share with others.

October 20 – Feeding on the Word

“Your words were found and I ate them, And Your words became for me a joy and the delight of my heart; For I have been called by Your name, O Lord God of hosts.”  Jeremiah 15:16 (NASB)

Jeremiah, a prophet of God delivered many messages to the people which God gave to him.  But, Jeremiah also spoke to God on his own behalf as we have in today's passage.  We believe that these words were recorded for our benefit and are intended to teach us the attitude that we should have when God speaks to us through the Bible.  God speaks to us in many ways and each time we receive His word, it is like receiving food, spiritual food for our spiritual life.  Why would the words from the Bible be so good for us?  Because they bring joy and delight to our heart for they are the Words of God and the Promises of God.  God has called each of us by His name to a life of worship and praise and sharing His truth.  May we learn to develop a hunger for His Word today, it is good for our soul.  

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July 5 – Believe to Know

“So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.”  1 John 4:16 (ESV)

One of the important messages of the Bible is that God loves His creatures.  This love for all the people of the world is the reason God sent His Son to become our Savior.  As we read this verse, we can notice two important verbs.  First of all, God wants us to KNOW that He loves us.  That is why He sent Jesus, His only begotten Son to our world, to live as a human without sin and so take our sin away when he died on the cross. That is why he has given us the Bible to tell us of His love in many ways.  He wants you and He wants me to know and experience His love.   As we learn about God's great love we come to BELIEVE on His love and to depend on it for all our needs.  We must believe in order to know and receive what Jesus has done for us.  We must stop rejecting and refusing to believe and we must change our minds toward believing and receiving His gift of salvation. 

June 11 – It is Personal

“The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.”” Romans 8:15 (NIV)

It is when we believe in Jesus Christ as our Savior that we enter and become a part of the family of God. Today's verse describes how God brings about this change.  So, who is it that brings a change in our lives when we believe in Jesus? It is the Holy Spirit. He comes to live in us and the result is that we become God's children.  We are adopted into God's family by the coming of the Spirit and this relationship is very personal and a continuing one.  Today, the Holy Spirit makes the relationship real. He is the one who helps us to call God our Father. We can call Him Father in a very personal way like a child calls his or her Daddy.  This is the ministry of the spirit of adoption as our verse says and as we come to understand the true nature of God as revealed in the Bible we might be amazed that He not only allows us, but even encourages us to Call Him by that very personal name as we cry out to Him, “Abba” Father. 

January 4 – A Promise of Promises

“Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised.” Hebrews 10:35-36 (ESV)

God's promises never fail and we are reminded in today's verse that we need to continue to believe and have faith in what God has promised. Hold on to our confidence in the face of whatever God allows to be put in our path and our lives. His promise in the Bible is that He gives us the confidence and the endurance we need. It is His will for us to not lose the reward He has promised. We do not receive the great reward through our own effort of being good enough but by trusting each day in what God has promised. Our promise today is that we will receive what is promised by doing the will of God — which is to trust Him and rely on Him.

October 3 – Undying Love

“Grace to all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with an undying love.” Ephesians 6:24 (NIV)

Although this promise was written to the body of believers in Ephesus 2000 years ago, we believe this promise is also for us today. The grace given to us by God is a wonderful gift and we know that grace is actually undeserved favor from God. We have done nothing to earn it. God is all  knowing and he does pay attention to our actions and also he knows very well the attitudes of our hearts. He gives us, through his grace, our ability to love the Lord Jesus Christ with all our heart and with an undying love. We respond with that ability and practice that love and we receive more grace. Not because we have done good things and deserve it but because we believe and receive it freely from the hand of God. 

September 14 – Full Measure of Joy

“But now I come to You; and these things I speak in the world so that they may have My joy made full in themselves.”  John 17:13 (NASB)

The night before Jesus was crucified and died he expressed in prayer what he wanted for His disciples and for all who would become believers in Him. His prayer fills the whole chapter 17 in the Gospel of John. Jesus asked His Father for a few things for His followers. Our verse gives the reason – he wanted all to have the full measure of His joy in our hearts.  This desire is still there. God wants you and I to be filled with His joy and even on that night we can believe and understand that Jesus was praying on our behalf as well as if we were at that same place.  Reach out and receive His joy, the fullness of His joy in yourselves. He has promised it to you and that is as good as you having it. 

July 22 – Ask. Receive. Seek. Find. Knock. Opened.

“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.” Matthew 7:7-8 (NIV)

The verse we are reading today is from what is often called the Sermon On The Mount. Jesus was speaking to and teaching his disciples and many more who had gathered around him to listen to him teach. He was also speaking to us and our promise today is one we can take to heart and live by.  We all have needs throughout our life and Jesus knows that. We all are looking for the truth and knowledge and guidance. We all come to places where we might find the way closed. Jesus tells us to Ask for what we need and it will be made available; Seek what we are promised and we will find it; Knock when the door is closed and it will be opened. We can be thankful and rejoice to know that God responds to us when we ask, seek and knock. He is always there to respond.

August 7

“Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete.” John 16:24 (NIV)

These words were spoken by Jesus to His disciples the evening before He was to go to the cross. He was soon to return to His Father’s presence in heaven. Things would be different for His disciples. Now they would need to present their requests to God in the name of Jesus. And that’s the way it has been for all of us since. Jesus encouraged His disciples and us to pray to God in His name, and He promised two things. He promised that we would receive what we asked for and that this would give us reason to rejoice. Has this been your experience? Have you experienced joy because of an answer to prayer? That’s what God wants to happen.