KEEP HIS WORD! The LORD is my portion; I promise to keep your words…. I am a companion of all who fear you, of those who keep your precepts… I am yours; save me, for I have sought your precepts… I hold back my feet from every evil way, in order to keep your word. I do not turn aside from your rules, for you have taught me. How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth! Through your precepts I get understanding; therefore I hate every false way. 105 Psalm 119:57, 63, 94, 101-104             Do I truly see the Lord as my portion and is it really my…

DEVOTION TO JESUS, HIS PEOPLE AND THE LOST I will meditate on your precepts and fix my eyes on your ways. —Psalm 119:15  I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor. For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s field, God’s building.  According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building upon it. Let each one take care how he…

ONLY ONE CRUCIFIED CORNERSTONE! For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.  —I Corinthians 2:2-5 The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. —Psalm 118:22             Where does your faith lie? To what is it based off? Is it based off “the wisdom of men” or “the power of God?” Is it based…

ALL BY GOD’S POWER! For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the POWER OF GOD. —I Corinthians 1:18 For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe.  For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the POWER OF GOD and the wisdom of God.—I Corinthians 1:21-24 For I am not ashamed of the…

WATCH OUT! I appeal to you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught; avoid them. For such persons do not serve our Lord Christ, but their own appetites, and by smooth talk and flattery they deceive the hearts of the naive. —Romans 16:17-18             When a follower of Jesus is not grounded in the foundational truths of God’s Word then they are in danger. They are in danger of someone coming along that “sounds” good even as God’s Word is used by them. The Jehovah Witnesses and Mormons will use the Word of God for their own…

BE A JOY AND REFRESHMENT TO OTHERS By God’s will I may come to you with joy and be refreshed in your company. —Romans 15:32             Let me ask you— Do you know faithful followers of Jesus that bring you joy and refreshment to be in their company? Are you a faithful follower of Jesus that brings joy and refreshment to other faithful followers of Jesus when they are in your company?             There is great joy and refreshment when we are in the presence of those who are faithful followers of Jesus. It is refreshing as they share their relationship with the Lord and how He is working in…

HIS WORD GIVES HOPE! For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. —Romans 15:4 When he summoned a famine on the land and broke all supply of bread, he had sent a man ahead of them, Joseph, who was sold as a slave. 18 —Psalm 105:16-17 They angered him at the waters of Meribah, and it went ill with Moses on their account, for they made his spirit bitter, and he spoke rashly with his lips. —Psalm106:32-33             So the Word of God that “was written in former days” should have an impact on us today. How?…

THE CREATIVITY OF WORK Man goes out to his work and to his labor until the evening. —Psalm 104:23             Work is not a “necessary evil.”   It is what God has designed us for.   We are created after the image of our Creator to be creative in work and life. Not only that, but “we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do” (Ephesians 2:10).  So what are the “works” God has prepared for you and for me in advance for us to do? May we be faithful in them!             God had work for Adam,…

LIVE A BLAMELESS LIFE I will be careful to lead a blameless life— when will you come to me? I will conduct the affairs of my house with a blameless heart.   I will not look with approval on anything that is vile. I hate what faithless people do; I will have no part in it. The perverse of heart shall be far from me; I will have nothing to do with what is evil. Psalm 101:2-4               Hmmm… Am I careful to live a blameless life? Do I conduct the affairs of my house with a blameless heart? Do I look on anything with approval that is vile?…

  HATE EVIL AND CLING TO WHAT IS GOOD O you who love the LORD, hate evil! —Psalm 97:10 Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. —Romans 12:9 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. —Romans 12:21             Do you love the Lord our God? Then you are commanded to “hate evil.” Not only are you to hate evil, but you are to “cling to what is good.” In Proverbs 8:13 we read “To fear the LORD is to hate evil; I hate pride and arrogance, evil behavior and perverse speech.”   So if the Lord truly is loved by us then we will hate…