Posts with the category “daily-devotionals”

In my travels I have visited several ancient ruins, including the Flavian Amphitheater in Rome, more commonly known as the Colosseum. During those ancient battles, the gladiators would sometimes fight...  Read More

What an image of a “sacrificial yes!” Elisha chooses to follow Elijah and the Lord’s will, and in determination and complete resolve, decides to burn his job and livelihood, for God’s best. Honestly, ...  Read More

If you are going to have faith, have faith!  Quit messing around!  You were saved by faith (Eph. 2:8).  If that is true of you, then you know what faith is, and how to have it.  Our salvation is an in...  Read More

One of the first Bible books I ever thoroughly studied (and preached) was Paul’s Letter to the Galatians. The following are some names given to this epistle by some of the great preachers: • The Magna...  Read More

Today, as you read this short devotional, I would like to encourage you to center your thoughts around one of the central themes of Christianity…forgiveness. ...  Read More

In 197 AD, Tertullian coined the phrase: “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.”  That quotation comes from his defense of the Christian faith called The Apology, in which Tertullian wro...  Read More

The older I get the more I realize my need for the Lord’s mercy, for myself, and for my loved ones. And… the more I am so very thankful for His mercy. In the passage after these verses, there is a lis...  Read More

This is one of those verses that brings back my AWANA memories. It’s one of those memory verses that always stuck with me, and it is a good one. There is a lot of good meat in this verse and let's fac...  Read More

Before we moved to Fresno, we lived in house that had a lot of interesting quirks. There was a closet that was converted to a bathroom, a bathroom that was converted to a laundry room, and a laundry s...  Read More

Preparing for a guest to arrive is always revealing.  Revealing in that I notice how dusty everything in my house is!  Walking across my living room I stretch up on my tiptoes to view a layer of dust ...  Read More

1954 William Golding wrote a book about some well-educated English schoolboys who crashed into the paradise of a deserted island with no adult survivors. Many of you know this literary timeless classi...  Read More

Have you noticed that we have more infrastructure, support and assets in our everyday life than any human since the beginning of mankind, and yet in all our progress, it’s clear by simple skim of the ...  Read More

Psalms 34 is one of the first passages I memorized as a new believer.  I kind of claimed it because it was the number on my uniform in college basketball.  Not that I caused that number to be distingu...  Read More

On the second Monday of October my Canadian relatives gather for their version of Thanksgiving Day. It is held at a time that brings back fond memories of my childhood in Ontario--picking apples, play...  Read More

Waiting in hope for what we do not see…The day is coming when God will declare, for the entire world to see, that we are His sons and daughters.  We do not know the exact day or moment that this will ...  Read More

Sometimes I just really need to know the Lord is with me and that He will speak to me. This week was one of those times. So when I read this as I began my week, I was comforted. But one of the stipula...  Read More

Written below is a prayer that I wrote several years ago.  I return to it often when I am feeling weak or discouraged, which is far more often than I care to admit.  It reminds me of the things that a...  Read More

Have you ever been talking to someone about spiritual things and the question is asked, “are you a Christian?” Or maybe someone has said, “well I think I am a Christian,” or “I consider myself to be a...  Read More

I once heard a comedian tell a story about an interaction he had with his friend that went something like this:Comedian: Do you want to get a donut?Friend: No, I’m not hungry.Comedian: What does that ...  Read More

A Mom’s work is never done!  When my kids were preschool age, I remember the complete and utter exhaustion.  I worked on the house, dinner and caring for my kids and hubby faithfully.  But it was real...  Read More

One of the most entertaining parts of sports is the dramatic stories. Wimbledon 2001 was one of the most dramatic scenes in tennis history for a man named Goran Ivanisevic. The former 1992 Australian ...  Read More

This is an extraordinary promise that God tucked into the divinely inspired Book of Jeremiah, and it made me stop and think recently, are we calling to God and looking to Him for insights, strategies,...  Read More

It seems like problems pop up in my life that leave me not knowing what to do.  Or how to do it.  Or maybe require tasks which I do not like.My roof needs some work, to make it more rainproof, and to ...  Read More

I am rarely a crier, especially in public. In fact, I used to react to preachers who were “pulpit criers” who made me wonder if it was for real or for show. Frankly, it was wrong of me to accuse their...  Read More

God the Father’s ultimate goal for us is that we should be “to the praise and glory of His grace.”  Our lives have been designed by God to bring Him glory.  We are to be the recipients of His grace.  ...  Read More

When was the last time you thought about how amazing God’s grace is? We often think of grace as “God’s undeserved favor,” and that is certainly true!  But what does undeserved favor mean?  In the Bibl...  Read More

I think about all the work that the Lord would want us to do and it seems so much more than is possible. And yet here, the people had to be restrained because they had provided more than was needed. T...  Read More

The human race has done some pretty remarkable things over the centuries. We have tamed many seemingly uninhabitable parts of this world, we’ve built great machines that have let us explore, fly, and ...  Read More

80% of drivers say they are above average drivers. Stop for a minute and think about that. It’s statistically impossible for 80% of people to be above average at something. Even though 94% of people s...  Read More

Noise. Emails. Notifications…. before we know it, it can all become such soul clutter! And since our enemy, the “god of this age” the devil (2 Corinth 4:4), is committed to building a culture that ste...  Read More

The start of a new school year brings back personal memories of my own starts to a new semester. I remember being excited when I finally received my class schedule for a new school year. If you were a...  Read More

The most important prayer of my life was the day I prayed to receive Christ! My life was forever transformed!  I admit, as a new believer, prayer confused me.  Why did I need to pray when God already ...  Read More

One of the great questions we need to answer in our own hearts is this: “Who am I in Christ?” Because if we are not careful, we will allow ourselves to be placed on the totem pole by the world. But th...  Read More

I have spent many decades listening to children and grandchildren crying out for their baby bottles. They really have no understanding of the value of the milk. They just want it and want it now! The ...  Read More

God’s Loving Restoration…Elijah was a great prophet of the Lord.  He ministered to the Nation of Israel during the reign of King Ahab and Queen Jezebel.  During his ministry he saw the Lord do many mi...  Read More

Have you ever wondered why people sometimes don’t get healed when we pray for them?  Especially in light of the promise in James 5:14: “the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord ...  Read More

Living on earth it is often easy to forget about higher things, heavenly things. We can get lost in the trivial, in our day-to-day lives, and focus only on what we can see with our own eyes. This vers...  Read More

I wonder how many miracles it takes to change our need for the familiar? Notice that it doesn’t say “if” they see war but “when?” It is so typical to want to revert to what is familiar when troubles c...  Read More

We can look at a verse like this and think it’s too harsh. ONE failing makes you guilty of breaking the whole law? How is that fair?! At first read, it may seem unfair, but I think if we shift our per...  Read More

David did not want anything in his life to keep him from a deepening relationship with his God.  He asked God to search/test him as a refiner tests metal. David’s desire was for God to examine him and...  Read More