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

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

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 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

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

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 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

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

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

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

Our world around us is constantly changing and not for the better. If you look at our family values from fifty years ago or even twenty years ago, what we may have chosen not do in our behavior then, we seem to do today. As the world's standards and influences change, so do we. Living together outside of marriage was looked down upon fifty years ago. That kind of relationship was done in secret. We were embarrassed to let our family and friends know we were living together ou

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

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

As I read through the Book of Leviticus, I am reminded of the many sacrifices that were made on behalf of the people of Israel by the High Priest on a weekly, monthly, and annual basis. These sacrifices were made for the sins that were committed by the Israelites intentionally or unintentionally by the people. There were different types of sacrifices for the different types of sins committed. Depending on the type of sin committed, a different type of animals was to be used s

In today's message in "Our Daily Bread", I am reminded in the Book of Isaiah that God is always with us. He will not leave us or abandon us. It is we who abandon God during our everyday circumstances. During our busy lives we go about doing the things we need to do such as going to work, taking care of our family, and building our financial security. All this is good, but where is God in our busy lives? It is not until the bottom falls out from underneath us that we cry out

In the Book of Matthew beginning in Chapter 5: 1-11, Jesus proclaims those words in His Sermon of the Mount. And in the Old Testament, the very first Psalm also states: "Blessed is he" who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked. What I did not understand in reading those words of Jesus, is that the statement of: Blessed Are Those" is not a state of "wishful thinking" or to "invoke a blessing" from God. It is a "state of mind" in one's life. These words recognize an "exist

In reading today's "Our Daily Bread", entitled: "Out of Breath", I was convicted myself of how often we rush to try and get things done. Everything we do is rush, rush, rush. We don't seem to find enough time for everything we want to do. In the Old Testament, God reminds the nation of Israel twice the importance of resting on the Sabbath Day, the seventh day of the week. For instance, the commandment to keep the Sabbath in Deuteronomy 5: 12-15 is grounded on God’s act of red

While reading this morning in "Our Daily Bread" devotional, the Book of Exodus tells the story of when Moses lead the people of Israel out of Egypt after being in bondage for four hundred and thirty years. God had put Pharaoh and the whole land of Egypt through many plagues before His final plague of the death of the first-born of everyone throughout the land. But God had told Moses that He would not kill the first-born of the Israelites as long as they did what God had told