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

Today's topic in "Our Daily Bread", entitled: "Through Thick and Thin", addresses the relationship of the people of Israel and God. Since their exodus from Egypt, God had made Himself known to them in many ways. God had performed signs and wonders prior to their leaving Egypt by the many plagues God brought upon Pharaoh and the people of Egypt. After their departure of Egypt, the Israelites experienced God presence daily in either a pillar of cloud by day or a pillar of fire

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

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

In today's "Our Daily Bread", we see a glimpse of God's hand in the lives of the children of Israel through the eyes of the prophet Isaiah in chapter 35 of the Book of Isaiah. In this chapter Isaiah speaks of the coming joy for the people of Israel after all the horrific devastation that has and will happen to them. Many times, God must allow bad things to happen to His people to bring us to our knees to be able to see His love for us. Not until we can take our eyes "off ours

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

I am preparing to make a trip up north to visit my mother, who has recently turned eighty-six years old. For this past year she has been in ongoing pain and has mentioned to me on numerous times that she is ready to go home to meet her Heavenly Father. She came to know her Lord and Heavenly Father over forty years ago. The Lord gave me the great privilege of leading my mother to her salvation in the Lord. My mother, since her first year of coming to salvation, has been a gr

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

As I was reading in the Book of Deuteronomy this morning, I came upon the following verses that addressed the purpose of why God allowed the people of Israel to go through some difficult testing over their forty years in the wilderness on their way to the Promise Land. Read the following: Deuteronomy 8: 2-3 (NKJV) 2 And you shall remember that the Lord your God led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you and test you, to know what was in your heart

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 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

I believe we all must continually recognize how truly sinful we are, even as saved Christians, and have walked with our Lord for quite some time in our life. Even though many of us recognize that we need Jesus as our Savior in our salvation, we still hold on to our "self-will" and begin to think over time that we are not so bad after accepting Jesus into our lives. The power of sin in this world is overwhelming at times. And if you are serving God in a special ministry or sha

I heard a message yesterday on the radio from Pastor Chuck Swindoll while I was sitting in my truck. The message was on the "Beatitudes", the Sermon on the Mount given to the people by Jesus. The message addressed how "blessed" one can be if we truly live our life in full contentment focused on our Savior, Jesus Christ. The word "blessed" is stated nine times by Jesus, (Matthew 5: 1-12) but I loved how Pastor Swindoll defined what "blessed" means: "The lasting joy and/or peac

The Book of Second Peter, chapter 1, reminds us that God is the One who provides us the power we need to live our life in Christ. The way He does this is by giving us the Holy Spirit. The Apostle Peter goes on to remind us that God has given us "exceedingly great and precious promised" that will help us live a life of "godliness", so that we may share in HIs divine nature. Read the following: 2 Peter 1: 2-4 Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of

In Wednesday's post, February 15, 2021, it addressed the constant changes and influences in our life and the decisions we begin to make because of these changes. One of those changes that begin to happen in our hearts is that we can become indifferent to other people and even to the point of becoming unloving toward people. How can we learn to love other people who become hurtful toward us and sometimes even downright mean? The following is an excerpt from the book" Absolute

Upon reading in the book of Colossians in chapter 1, the Apostle Paul addresses the importance of our relationship with our God. He encourages the the Colossians to be filled with the knowledge of God and with all wisdom and spiritual understanding. Colossians 1: 9-10 9 For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; 10 that you may wal

As our lives are bombarded with the forever constant lies of this "world system", we the "Bride of Christ, the Christian church", are in turmoil everyday wondering what our outcome will be. But the hope we have as the Church, our future and destiny has already been fully determined and established by our God and Savior, and that is Jesus Christ. Revelation 19: 1-2 After this I heard what sounded like the roar of a great multitude in heaven shouting: “Hallelujah! Salvation and

In today's world our circumstances can sometimes become too heavy to carry. The weight of our burdens can become unbearable at times. We cry out to God and wait for an answer, but at times His answer does not seem to come in time, or we get a different answer than we expected. What do we do at times like these? Do we scream out louder at God? Do we curl into a ball and cry uncontrollably, or do we come to accept our bad circumstances as they are and give up that nothing will