In today's "Our Daily Bread", the Apostle Paul is addressing his letter to the Ephesians regarding their conduct with others. He states that if they truly follow Christ and have been taught by Him, then they must: "put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind". Read the following in Ephesians 4: Ephesians 4: 20-24 But you have not so learned Christ, 21 if indeed you have he

In the Book of Luke, Jesus is explaining to His disciples the day of His return after His rejection and suffering He must first receive from the current generation. The time is coming when we will long for our Lord's return. Many will say that He has come and to "'Look here!’ or ‘Look there!’ Do not go after them or follow them". Luke 17: 22-25 Then He said to the disciples, “The days will come when you will desire to see one of the days of the Son of Man, and you will not se

In the Book of Isaiah, the prophet speaks of drawing closer to the Lord while there is still time. He speaks about "our ways" are not God's ways. Isaiah 55: 6-7 Seek the Lord while He may be found, Call upon Him while He is near. 7 Let the wicked forsake his way, And the unrighteous man his thoughts; Verses: 8-9 “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord. 9 “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your wa

Do you find your relationship with God like a rollercoaster at times? One day you feel at peace with everything around you and your prayers with God are fulfilling and then the next day you feel out-of-step with God? Many Christians go through this similar rollercoaster ride with God. But the question is: What causes this to happen? The simple answer is: Our sinful nature within ourselves. As long as we are alive in this sinful body of ours, we will continually struggle with

This past week has been a reminder of how easy it for us to fall back into our "old selfish nature" and make choices that are not "Christ centered". I think about the Apostle Peter who did this while walking with Jesus. When Christ asked His disciples: "Whom do ye say that I am?" Peter was able to answer: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” And Christ said: “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is i

As we our lives daily basis and try to be ready for the unforeseen bad circumstances that may come our way, our plans do not consider the accidents or surprises that do come. Although planning helps us avoid the financial, health and minor surprises that come, even the best thought our strategies cannot eliminate all the problems from our lives. We live in a fallen world...a world full of selfish people seeking their own wants and desires. Only through God's help can we find

In today's reading of Our Daily Bread, the story addresses, "Refuge for the Rejected". David was on the run from King Saul before he eventually took over the throne of Israel. David was falsely accused of leading a rebellion and he was forced to hide from Saul’s approaching army in a cave. David described being “in the midst of lions,” among “men whose teeth are spears and arrows, whose tongues are sharp swords” Psalm 57: 4 (NKJV) My soul is among lions; I lie among the sons

In Chapter 4 of the book, Absolute Surrender, written by Andrew Murray, entitled "Peter's Repentance", this chapter deals with the repentance of the Apostle Peter. Over the Easter holiday, I am sure we all saw movies highlighting the life of Christ. The one part that always gets to me is the part when the apostle Peter had to recognize his own "strong self-will" when he came to deny his Lord after Jesus's arrest. It was at that moment upon his third denial of his Lord in the

When I think of Good Friday, I think about all that Jesus gave up for us. He went through a horrible death on the cross and suffered greatly for each one of us. In the Garden Gethsemane, on the night of His betray, Jesus was praying to His Father that if this cup could pass Him over, but He told God, "Not my will, but Your will be done". Mark 14: 35-36 (NIV) Going a little farther, he fell to the ground and prayed that if possible, the hour might pass from Him.36 “Abba, Fathe

In Psalm 139, King David pours out his heart to God for he knows that God knows everything about who he is. God knows every step that David is or will be taking. But King David is not afraid of God knowing all this about him, because David has a close relationship with God, and he welcomes God to show him his ways. He knows that God will direct him down the right paths of life. Psalm 139: 1-6 (NIV) You have searched me, Lord, and you know me. 2 You know when I sit and when I

Our lives can sometime feel like a battlefield with hostile fire coming from many different directions in our lives. We are bombarded with health challenges, financial problems, relational hurts, and spiritual stress. Our spiritual well-being during these hard times should already be well rooted in the one and only foundation, our Loving Father. His love and protection that He has already established for us, should be the "core of our strength". In Psalm 11, King David ampli

In reading today's "Our Daily Bread", we are reminded on how God builds His church. It is done by those who have accepted Jesus into their hearts and upon receiving Him, God gives us His Holy Spirit to live in us. It is through the Holy Spirit's work through us, that God can direct and lead us to the people who maybe seeking Him, or the Lord is needing us to deliver a message to a certain individual. But the most important part of this working relationship we have with our L

Joshua 7:13 Get up, sanctify the people, and say, ‘Sanctify yourselves for tomorrow, because thus says the Lord God of Israel: “There is an accursed thing in your midst, O Israel; you cannot stand before your enemies until you take away the accursed thing from among you.” In chapter 7 of the Book of Joshua, the children of Israel had just destroyed the city of Jericho and God had commanded Joshua that the army of Israel were not to take the "accursed things" of Jericho for th

During my visit at my mother house this week with my daughter, eighteen, and my son, fifteen, my mother shared some great stories about her older brother who loved the Lord and served Him unconditionally. My mother told us stories of my Uncle Pete, who would be laying on the floor watching television and suddenly, he would get a prompting from God on his feet. This prompting my uncle fully recognized, as it was time to go and serve Him wherever God would send him. My uncle wo

In the Book of 1Peter, the Apostle gives us four characteristics of the church and then followed by a purpose statement. He describes us as a "chosen people", "a royal priesthood", "a holy nation", and "God's special possession". Our purpose as "Christians", God's chosen people, is to "declare the praises" of our God who called us out of darkness into his wonderful light and has given us "true rest" for our lives. I Peter 2: 9-10 (NIV) But you are a chosen people, a royal pri

In the Book of Ezekiel, God had given the prophet a vision of the "Valley of Dry Bones". God's purpose in this was to let Ezekiel know that God's preeminence, authority, His glory, and character is in control of all things and that He has the power to bring back the people of Israel after the great devastation of Jerusalem. In Chapter 37, God had taken Ezekiel by the Spirit of the Lord, into the Valley of Dry Bones. Read the following: Ezekiel 37: 1-3 The hand of the Lord wa

In the book of Mark, chapter 10, Jesus was moving from city to city teaching and healing many people. At one point, people were bringing their children so that Jesus may place his hands on them. When His disciples saw the people doing this, they rebuked the people. Immediately Jesus became angry with His disciples and told them to let the children come to Him. Mark 10:13-15 (NIV) People were bringing little children to Jesus for him to place his hands on them, but the discip

In reading this morning in "Our Daily Bread", we are reminded how God is in control of all things in our lives, good and bad. There is an old Chinese proverb which teaches that a difficulty can be a blessing in disguise and vice versa. This ancient wisdom has a close parallel in Ecclesiastes 6:12, where the author observes: “Who knows what is good for a person in life?” Indeed, none of us know what the future holds. A bad event might have a positive benefit, and positive even

In the 31st chapter of Deuteronomy, Moses is coming to the end of leading the people of Israel to the Promise Land. Moses has asked God not to send the people ahead without someone to lead them. God tells Moses that He has picked Joshua to lead the people into the Promise Land. God also reassures the people of Israel that He would be with them as well. Deuteronomy 31: 6 "Be strong and of good courage, do not fear nor be afraid of them; for the Lord your God, He is the One who

This morning I am reminded of the great comfort we have in our Lord, Jesus Christ. He is our Great Comforter, Provider, our Savior, our Redeemer, our Shepherd, and most importantly our loving and Holy God. In Psalm 23, the great Psalm of King David, reminds us of our Lord as our great Shepherd. The role of the shepherd is to protect his sheep at all cost. Nothing must come in his way of protecting his sheep. Psalm 23 states that "The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want. He