Devotion: The Joy Of The Lord Is Your Strength

Rejoice in the Lord.  The Lord is your strength and your defense.  I delight greatly in the Lord for my soul rejoices in him.  I will be joyful in God my Savior.  I will be happy in the God of my salvation.

“Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior” (Habakkuk 3:17-18).

“Rejoice in the Lord always: and again I say, Rejoice.  Let your moderation be known unto all men.  The Lord is at hand.  Be careful (anxious) for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.  And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep (guard) your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:4-7).

“The Lord is my strength and my defense; he has become my salvation.  He is my God, and I will praise him, my father’s God, and I will exalt him” (Exodus 15:2 NIV).

“I delight greatly in the Lord; my soul rejoices in my God.  For he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of his righteousness, as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.  For as the soil makes the sprout come up and a garden causes seeds to grow, so the Sovereign Lord will make righteousness and praise spring up before all nations” (Isaiah 61:10-11 NIV).

“Even though the fig trees are all destroyed, and there is neither blossom left nor fruit; though the olive crops all fail, and the fields lie barren; even if the flocks die in the fields and the cattle barns are empty, yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will be happy in the God of my salvation.  The Lord God is my strength; he will give me the speed of a deer and bring me safely over the mountains” (Habakkuk 3:17-18 TLB).

“Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me” (John 14:1).

“These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace.  In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).

“Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you.  Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid” (John 14:27).

“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit” (Romans 15:13 NIV).

We will rejoice in the Lord and we will not let our heart be troubled for he is our strength and our defense.  We will rejoice in the Lord and we will be joyful in God our Savior.

We always give thanks to God for the ability to share this inspirational message with you.  We constantly pray that you will be blessed as well as informed by this message and that you will be the better for having read it.  If you are blessed by this message, please share so that others may be blessed as well.  Amen.

Enjoy your blessings - KW

Devotion: Walk In Love

Louise Hay once said, “The act of forgiveness takes place in our mind.  It really has nothing to do with the other person.”  When you forgive someone who hurts you, you have decided to live with the pain that someone else has inflicted upon you.  Please understand that we are in no way saying that your forgiveness excuses someone else’s behavior, but that forgiveness will prevent someone else’s behavior from destroying your heart.  Forgiveness is the key to being forgiven.

“If ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses” (Matthew 6:14-15).

“And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any: that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.  But if ye do not forgive, neither will your Father which is in heaven forgive your trespasses” (Mark 11:25-26).

“Forgive and you will be forgiven” (Luke 6:37).

“Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice.  Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you” (Ephesians 4:31-32 NIV).

“Bear with each other and forgive one another if any if you has a grievance against someone.  Forgive as the Lord forgave you” (Colossians 3:13).

“And be ye be kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you” (Ephesians 4:32).

“Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.  And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.  And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body.  And be thankful.  Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.  And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him” (Colossians 3:12-17 ESV).

“Stop being mean, bad-tempered, and angry.  Quarreling, harsh words, and dislike of others should have no place in your lives.  Instead, be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God has forgiven you because you belong to Christ” (Ephesians 4:31-32 TLB).

“Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against a fellow Israelite, but love your neighbor as yourself.  I am the Lord” (Leviticus 19:18 NLT).

Forgiveness is the key to being forgiven and it will prevent someone else’s behavior from destroying your heart.  As always, we pray that our commentary will abundantly bless you, greatly inform you, and that you will be the better for having read it.  If blessed by this message, please share so that others may be blessed as well.  Amen.

Enjoy your blessings - KW

Devotion: God Can Be Trusted

Getting back to this “wanting to know who this God that we had pledged our life to, that we had chose to follow, to obey, and to serve was” thing, we mentioned the fact that God says, “I am the Lord, I change not” (Malachi 3:6).  We went on to mention that what God is today is what he had to be in the days past, and even had to be in the beginning.  Could it be true that we have somewhere along the way, gotten a few things wrong about the God that we have pledged our lives to and who we have chose to follow, to obey, and to serve was?

Many have stated that as you read through the events of the Bible and the relationships God had with people, God is progressively revealing himself to man.  That appears to be great for man today, but what about all those back in the beginning.  Did he leave them short in their understanding of who he was?  Did he not impress upon them how he operates?  If this be the case, then God himself has given us an advantage over those who came before us.  And more importantly, God has shortchanged those who were back in the beginning by not giving them the same opportunity as us.

In order for the man to understand who God is and what he wants of him, God has to reveal himself to man.  In saying that, God had to reveal himself to the first man and then to all men following the first.  This is important because once we know who God is, from the beginning, then we will forever know who God is.  Remember, it was God who said, “I change not.”  If God changes one thing, even in the slightest, that he did from the very beginning, then he lied because he did in fact “change.”  According to scripture God “cannot lie” (Titus 1:2), for “it is impossible for God to lie” (Hebrews 6:18).  We also find in scripture that “there is no iniquity with the Lord our God, nor respect of persons, nor taking of gifts” (II Chronicles 19:7).

First of all, we see that God cannot lie.  Then we see that “there is absolutely no injustice, immorality, unrighteousness, or wrong doings with God.”  Next, we see that “there is no respect of persons with God.”  This means that there is no partiality or any unfair preferences for one person or group over another with God.  And finally, we see that God cannot be bribed with gifts, promises, or the like, “for there is no taking of gifts with God.”

“In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe” (Hebrews 1:1 NIV).  “These men of faith I have mentioned died without ever receiving all that God had promised them; but they saw it all awaiting them on ahead and were glad, for they agreed that this earth was not their real home but that they were just strangers visiting down here.  And quite obviously when they talked like that, they were looking forward to their real home in heaven” (Hebrews 11:13-14 TLB).

And though it may not appear to be so, we now see that God did in fact reveal himself to those before us in similar or like fashion.  We know that we can trust God, because he changes not, because he cannot lie, and because there is absolutely no injustice, immorality, unrighteousness, or wrong doings with God, nor is there any respect of persons or taking of gifts.  God is faithful in all that he does and his word is forever right and true (Psalm 33:4).  And just a closing note for those of you who have been following our commentaries, the reasons we know we can trust God are the fundamental building blocks used to support our entire belief system.  May they be used to strengthen your belief system and elevate you to the next level as well.

Once again, we give thanks and glory to God for his wisdom and understanding.  We are so blessed to be able to share with you the reasons we know we can trust God and the fundamental building blocks used to support our entire belief system.  We continue to pray that this inspirational messages will be a blessing to each of you and that you will be the better for having read them.  If you are blessed by what has been provided, please feel free to share so that others may be blessed as well; for as freely as our Father has given this to us, we freely give so that others may share in the love and be blessed.  Amen.

Enjoy your blessings - KW

Devotion: What Is God Like?

For us, “We wanted to know who this God that we had pledged our life to, that we had chose to follow, to obey, and to serve, was?”  We believed in God, but there were so many conflicting descriptions that we were totally confused as to what kind of God we were serving and/or what we should be doing to please him.  One of the most confusing things for us was the idea that the God of the Old Testament was somehow different from the God of the New Testament.  We have been taught that the God of the Old Testament was “a God of wrath,” which is in stark contrast to the portrayal of the God of the New Testament as “a God of love.”  We will concede that there are many events in the Old Testament that appear to portray God as this “God of wrath,” but was this an accurate portrayal?

The Old Testament events have been used to show that God is this “angry tyrant,” who was always mad and full of wrath.  He is portrayed by these events as a God who sits around waiting for mankind to sin so that he can pass judgment on him, punish him, and then condemn him to hell.  According to some traditional teachings, committing any one sin was no different than committing any other sin, they were all treated the same regardless of how hard we tried to classify them based on severity.  You see, under this rule, lying was the same as committing murder and the punishment was the same, condemnation.  Because of this, many Christians believe that God demands that we live holy and do things righteous in order for us to receive anything from God or even to get God to move in our lives.  But again, is this an accurate portrayal?

“But we are children of God; that is why only those who have walked and talked with God will listen to us.  Others won’t.  That is another way to know whether a message is really from God; for if it is, the world won’t listen to it.  Dear friends, let us practice loving each other, for love comes from God and those who are loving and kind show that they are the children of God, and that they are getting to know him better.  But if a person isn’t loving and kind, it shows that he doesn’t know God—for God is love” (I John 4:6-8 TLB).

According to this New Testament passage, “love is of God, for God is love.”  It goes on to say that those who are loving and kind show that they are children of God and that they are getting to know God better because “love comes from God.”  Is this “God is love” portrayal a more accurate one?

“God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him.  This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.  Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other.  No one has ever seen God.  But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us.  And God has given us his Spirit as proof that we live in him and he in us” (I John 4:9-13 NLT).

The New Testament points out the fact that God loved us, the same people who earlier had earned his so-called wrath, so much that he sent his son, Jesus Christ into the world, so that we, the same people who earlier had earned his so-called wrath, could have eternal life through Jesus Christ.  This New Testament portrait of a loving God certainly contradicts the Old Testament God of wrath.  But which one is the accurate one?

We know from a previous discussion that God says, “I am the Lord, I change not” (Malachi 3:6) and we summed up this passage to mean God has not changed since the beginning nor will he ever change in the future, which we know to be contrary to many popular beliefs.  If our portrait of God portrays him as “a God of wrath,” then we need to ask, “When did he change?”  We can ask the same “when did he change question” about the portrait that portrays him as “a God of love.”  It would be more difficult to prove the Old Testament portrait of “a God of wrath” than the latter portrait, especially since we know that God ends up being this “God of love” and we know that God says, “he changes not.”  What God is today is what he had to be in the days past, and even had to be in the beginning.  This means that somewhere along the way, we got a few things wrong about the God that we have pledged our lives to and who we have chose to follow, to obey, and to serve was.  We hope that this commentary will help you with your portrait of God.  We do however wonder though, “Could there be more that we have gotten wrong along the way?”  This does make one ponder the possibilities.

We pray that this commentary will abundantly bless you, greatly inform you, and that you will be the better for having read it.  If blessed by this message, please share so that others may be blessed as well.  Amen.

Enjoy your blessings - KW

Devotion: Hindered By Limited Truth

Previously, we shared a tidbit of information about God that we thought was interesting and one we felt would take some to another level of understanding.  In that discussion, we focused our attention of the fact that God says, “I am the Lord, I change not” (Malachi 3:6) and summed up this passage to mean he has not changed since the beginning nor will he ever change in the future, which we know to be contrary to many popular beliefs.  That tidbit of information about God has become one of three fundamental building blocks that supports our entire belief system.  Like building a house, we wanted to make sure that our foundation was built on the biblical information that we had proven to be solid, sound, and without fault.  We know that one weak spot in our foundation could cause our whole house to crumble, so to speak.  It would have “a domino effect,” where as our foundation failed, so would go the integrity of the structure, or in this case, “our entire belief system.”

Most everyone has built their belief system on those fundamental truths that they learned when they first believed.  Whether limited or absolute, those truths formed the building blocks to your current belief system.  The same “domino effect” occurs to the integrity of your belief system when those fundamental building blocks fail due “to misinformation or misinterpretation.”  We know that many of you have experienced such failures, especially with the discovery of a biblical truth that has proven to be contrary to what you have accepted as a fundamental truth and one that you have built your belief system upon.  The new revelation wreaks havoc upon your entire belief system, leaving this sense of confusion and misunderstanding.  This is why you have to make sure your foundation is solid, that your beliefs are well grounded in the truth contained in the word of God and not based on something you just accepted as truth because it sounded like it could be godly, biblical, traditional, or even denominational.  This is something that you have to do; no one else can do this for you.  This is something that will require you to open up the Bible and check things out for yourself (Proverbs 4:20-22), no matter the source, including this source.

Words can be manipulated to say many things, make sure the ones that you accept are in line with the rightly divided word (II Timothy 2:15).  Make sure the information you accept is proven true and not contrary to existing information that you yourself have proven to be true.  Once accepted, use it to measure or compare other related and relative information or scriptures against.  While, there be plenty of bad information or misinformation pertaining to the word of God, you will never know the true word of God unless you immerse yourself in the scriptures, for “they will tell you what to believe (for doctrine), what is wrong (for reproof), how to correct wrong (for correction), how to live (for instruction in righteousness), including everything needed to grow in maturity, to be perfect (meaning proficient or capable), and to do what God wants” (II Timothy 3:16-17).

In today’s society, truth is limited, open to or having more than one possible meaning or interpretation.  Limited truth causes uncertainty or confusion and is often used in an attempt to mislead somebody.  It is difficult to interpret, respond to, and understand, but its acceptance comes from a lack of knowledge, a lack of understanding, and a lack of revelation from God (Hosea 4:6).  By definition, the truth is absolute.  The truth corresponds to fact and reality; is generally believed to be unconditional; is unequivocally complete, not capable of being viewed as partial or relative; and is not dependent by or qualified by anything else.  The truth is absolute and comes directly from God, who grants knowledge, understanding, and revelation (Proverbs 2:6; James 1:5).

“Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law” (Psalm 119:18).  “Lead me in thy truth, and teach me: for thou art the God of my salvation; on thee do I wait all the day” (Psalm 25:5).

God can open your eyes to see the wonderful things in his word.  Illumination by the Holy Spirit is the means by which God reveals to mature Christians the truths he has hid within the scriptures.  The Spirit reveals to you the secrets of God (I Corinthians 2:10).  It allows you to see and hear the word of God with understanding.  The psalmist asked God to open his eyes because he recognized the need for supernatural aid in understanding the scriptures.  The psalmist also asked God to be his guide and his teacher, guiding him in the true way, revealing to him his truth.  Since spiritual man, inspired by God, wrote the Bible it should be spiritually discerned, illumined by the Holy Spirit for only those who have the Spirit within them can understand what God has revealed through the scriptures.  And believe it or not, there is only one truth (Ephesians 4:3-16), so seek to find it.  Use this truth as the building blocks to your belief system and you will know that your foundation is built on what you have proven to be solid, sound, and without fault.  By the way, we will share the other two fundamental building blocks used to support our entire belief system in a future commentary, so stay tuned.

May today’s inspirational message abundantly bless you and greatly inform you.  We pray that you will be the better for having read them both.  If blessed by today’s message, please share so that others may be blessed as well.  Amen.

Devotion: The Lord Changes Not

Here is a tidbit of information about God that you may find interesting, one that may take you to another level of understanding.  We hear quite often that God is doing a new thing this year or in this season.  We realize that many of you have experienced something new in your life and we understand how you believe that God is doing something new or has done a new thing in your life.  And while we cannot disagree with the fact that something new maybe going on in your life, this new thing that you are experiencing does not automatically translate to mean that God himself is doing something new or has changed.  God says

“For I am the Lord, I change not” (Malachi 3:6).

God has said that “he change not” and he has not changed since the beginning nor will he ever change in the future.  God has not changed his mind nor changed those things that he put into place since the beginning, contrary to popular beliefs.  Many of the changes we see today are because man has changed what God says, it is not God changing what God says.  Man has changed many things and used God’s name to do so.  But here is a revelation for those of you who have a hard time accepting this truth and think God is doing something new or has changed in some way.  God can be doing the same thing that he has always done, but what he has always done can be something new for you, a never before experienced blessing, a never before experienced healing, or a never before experience revelation, all being something new in your life but not something new for God.  Keep this thought in mind, it was you who accepted the Lord Jesus Christ and caused the change in your life.  It was you who chose to draw nearer to God and by doing so, caused this new experience that you are now going through.  It was you who changed and not God.

Man, Adam to be more specific, not God, changed the original creation, the original nature of mankind in the garden when he ate of the fruit.  However, it has been God’s plan, hidden since the beginning of time, to reconcile mankind back to him.  And it was God who reconciled his creation back to its original state, not a new state.  For if a man be in Christ, he be a new creature, redeemed for his old sinful nature, created by Adam, to a new nature for him, the nature of the original man, before the fall, created by Jesus Christ.

“Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.  And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; to wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation” (II Corinthians 5:17-19).

This be the ministry of reconciliation, the renewing of that relationship that existed with the original man before his fall from God’s grace.  So, God has not changed his mind nor changed those things that he put into place since the beginning.  An all-knowing God cannot have a change of heart or a change of mind because if he changes anything that he has already done or said, then that change, that variation, or that deviation would suggest that he did not know everything from the beginning and we all know that this is not true, for “God is omniscient or all-knowing.”

“All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ.  Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes.  God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ.  This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure” (Ephesians 1:3-5 NLT).

Even before he created anything, God had a plan for mankind, a plan to save mankind, a plan to reconcile man back unto himself.  While he knew, in advance what man, Adam would do to mankind, he also knew what Jesus Christ would do for mankind (Romans 5:19).  God has loved mankind from the beginning, before he created the first thing and this love for his creation has never changed.  It is this love for mankind that caused God to devise a plan from the very beginning that would bring or reconcile mankind back to a state where God would not see our faults anymore, to a state where we could be a part of his family once again, to a state that he wanted us to be in and one that gave him great pleasure.  This has been God’s plan for mankind from the very beginning and this plan has not changed nor is it something new.

We trust that you can see that if there were any variation or deviation in God or the slightest suggestion of change, that he would have been untrue to himself at some point in time.  We trust that you can also see that he would also have lied at some point as well.  This is why there can be no change in God.  This is why he cannot be doing a new thing.  This is not to say that what is going on in your life is not something new or some type of new experience for you, but that does not automatically translate to mean that God himself is doing something new or has changed, because God says, “I am the Lord, I change not.”  If we cannot take God at his word, then whose word are we to take?  Whose word do you take?

As always, we pray that today’s inspirational message will abundantly bless you, greatly inform you, and that you will be the better for having read it.  If blessed by this message, please share so that others may be blessed as well.  Amen.

Enjoy your blessings - KW

Devotion: God's Covenant of Words

Recently we talked about the most powerful system in the world, and we said that we had been given “the power” to control and “the authority” to command this very system.  We mentioned how important the words were that we spoke and how they do control the things that happen to us.  We found that we choose between life and death, blessing and cursing based on what we say because we discovered that “death and life rest in the power of the tongue” (Proverbs 18:21).  We found where Jesus told the disciples that if they believed the things that they spoke would come to pass and not have any doubt in their hearts, that whatsoever they spoke would come to pass (Mark 11:23-24).  We even found where salvation required us to speak with our mouth and to believe with our heart (Romans 10:9-10).  We know that some of you are not convinced that there be a system that hinges on what we say, be it saying something good or saying something bad, much less that you have been given “the power” to control and “the authority” to command such a system.

“You brood of snakes.  How could evil men like you speak what is good and right?  For a man's heart determines his speech.  A good man's speech reveals the rich treasures within him.  An evil-hearted man is filled with venom, and his speech reveals it.  And I tell you this, that you must give account on Judgment Day for every idle word you speak.  Your words now reflect your fate then:  either you will be justified by them or you will be condemned” (Matthew 12:34-37 The Living Bible).

Jesus says that whatever is in our heart will come out through our mouth.  Both blessings and curses come out of the same mouth, but this all depends on what is in the heart.  Therefore, if the mouth “ain’t” speaking then there must be nothing in the heart.  Our tongue, our mouth, our words have the power to choose life or to choose death, to bring blessings or to bring curses into your life.  Did you know that the law of the Spirit of life in Christ and law of sin and death are subject to our mouth (Romans 8:2)?  This means that with our mouth, we can turn on either the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus or the law of sin and death.  Did you know that our mouth gives us authority “on earth, in heaven, and in hell?”  With our mouth, we can “command” the forces of heaven, we can “change” the situations of earth, and we can “bind” the forces of hell.

“Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven” (Matthew 18:18).

According to this passage, we have the authority to bind and loose things on earth, which in turns will bind and loose things in heaven as well.  Nevertheless, we need to take hold of this authority to bind and loose things on earth and in heaven.  We have God’s spirit dwelling inside of us and the angels of God surrounding us.  They are there with us in the midst of all of our needs, in the midst of our wants, in the midst of our desires, and in the midst of our darkest problems.  However, God’s spirit cannot do anything, neither can the angels do anything until we open our mouth and “say” what we need to “say” to employ the forces of heaven.

“Because thou hast made the Lord, which is my refuge, even the most High, thy habitation.  There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling.  For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways.  They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone.  Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder: the young lion and the dragon shalt thou trample under feet” (Psalm 91:9-13).

“Bless the Lord, ye his angels, that excel in strength, that do his commandments, hearkening unto the voice of his word” (Psalm 103:20).

“Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation” (Hebrews 1:14)?

We see from these passages, God has ordered his angels to protect us wherever we may go.  They will protect us in all of our ways and keep us wherever we go.  These angels will steady us with their hands so that we will not dash our foot against any rocks.  They will hold us up in their hands to keep us from stumbling.  The angels will even protect us so that no evil will happen or come to us.  These same angels will protect us so that no disease or plague will come near our dwelling or house, which is our body.  These angels are there to protect us because God has given them charge over us to protect and to keep us in all our ways.  These mighty angels carry out his orders and do all of his commands because they are not only spirit-messengers but are also ministering spirits sent out to minister to those who have received salvation.  But so few know what is needed to enable these angels to come forth.  And so few know what to say that will get these angels to act.  Do you still think or believe that your words are not important?

We again give thanks to God for this avenue that he has given us to share his word through our inspirational messages.  We continually pray that God’s grace will be upon you and that these devotionals will be a blessing to you.  If you are blessed by them, please share so that others may be blessed as well.  Amen.

Enjoy your blessings - KW