A Devotional Study of the Living Word of God

Take Note #62

Psalm 119:42 Reading, writing and talking were always hard for me, especially when I was required to give account of some concern, but when I discovered that I could trust the Word of God, the blocks of stumbling went away and expression now has a comfortable place in my soul. Romans 5:1-5

Good Morning

Everyone likes to hear about submarine life, but I think that I have exhausted most of the experiences over the past year and five months, but maybe this is one I missed. We harbored in Lisbon, Portugal for a brief time for rest and recreation. I do not recall much about the port except that it was a part of the Portuguese Army base. Our bases and soldiers have it great compared to these men as I observed. Their uniforms were shoddy, their weapons were Russian made and they smelled of strong tobacco and they did not stand guard in any manor that would indicate pride or good military discipline. The men did not go to an evening meal at the base mess hall, but most of them took dough, vegetables and some kind of meat and placed them in an oven that was carved out of the rock face of a very large hill a few feet from the pier where we tied up. There were several of these make shift ovens all along the rock face. They also drank wine freely all day long, their rifle or sub-machine gun over their shoulder and a bottle of wine in their drinking hand, they were all set. Because of this condition we decided to arm our sentries with weapons too. I am glad that we spent only one full day there, things could have been very bad very quickly since they wanted to come on board in that condition. But thanks to our God our stay in Portugal was uneventful.

Acts 13

Acts 13:1-3 There should be little opposition when the Holy Spirit places His Hand on individuals for a specific ministry. In these verses we see that all is going well as it should be, but later in chapter we see that the Holy Spirit is not involved with the breakup of Paul and Barnabas. We would do well to learn of these two events.

Acts 13:4-7 So being led by the Holy Spirit – I like that phrase, when we allow God to lead there is no power that can divert our mission. It is very easy to fall into what I call, “Operation flesh” Here we can say and do all the things that sound right, but if we are not careful to include all that God has promised through His Word, opposition from men or women like Elymas will be effective

Acts 13:8-12 With the Holy Spirit we can be people of God with power, purpose and plan. Filled with the Holy Spirit we can look intently at the devil and defeat him. Fraud and deceit will melt when face to face with the power of God. Paul understood what it meant to feel the effects of blindness, he also understood that the proconsul would see and be astonished at the teaching of the LORD. This is something for all of us in ministry today to believe. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. (Philippians 4:13), I know we know the verse, but I am not sure we participate in the action of the verse. Which would be (Philippians 4:8-11) We could do well reading the whole Philippians Epistle.

Now if you do not have your bible with you, the following is a link you can go to and find the verses of scripture I have referenced herein. Bible Gateway at: www.biblegateway.com/

A Devotional Study of the Living Word of God

Take Note #61

Psalm 119:40 Wrongful imprisonment often draws a person close to God. What is nice to know is that God draws near to those who cry out for grace and deliverance. Psalm 111 Jesus Never Fails!

Good Morning

I retired from the Navy in September of 1987 but in 1985 I had started a small business of landscaping and minor carpentry work. At that time in 1985 knowing that my career in the Navy would soon end I thought that since my brother made a decent living at landscaping that I would too. Well to my surprise; I found out that if your body is not use to grunt work it fights back, so by 1988 the efforts of landscaping changed to cleaning. I was able to contract with a few banks, office building and schools to clean the offices, classrooms, etc. We even had a few restaurants, and we were making a good chuck of change. As anyone will tell you, owning a business is tough business. Employees have needs and it is not long before you are personally linked to them in some way. Even the slacker that you would like to fire gets treated with considerable care since he has a wife and two small children. Yes, you might be the boss, but you are still a servant, serving in places that you might never go if you were driving alone. Well, I have said all of this to say the following. Our LORD puts us in places that we would never expect and if we are tuned in to follow His voice, we will hear just as Peter heard in (John 21:20-22)

Acts 12

Acts 12:20 Kingdoms and kings all have their day of pomp and circumstance, whether they jockey for position politically or breakout the war clothes it is ultimately God who rules the world. The margin for error in the world around us is very wide (Matthew 7:13-14). It is certainly a wide road of destruction and many kings, political entities, influential people and everyday humans wander this road continually. The exit gate is always in plain view, it is the gate that glorifies God through His Son Jesus. (John 12:28), but the better read is the entire gospel of John.

Acts 12:21-23 These things that happen to people like Herod are rare, but they do happen. When the headlines of our newspapers fill up with an event like this, it does not take long for the tabloids to trash the events with some dark side of the story so that the glory of God is made of no effect. When I see those tabloids in the places where we shop, I can almost see the worms crawling in and out of the pages. If we stick to the Word of God we will see great and mighty works. (Jeremiah 33:3)

Acts 12:24-25 While the wide world of destruction keeps moving in that spiraling downward motion, notice what God is doing in His people. It is growing and multiplying. This is what the Church of Jesus Christ is called to do. If this were really happening these days as some would think, then our world would be ever so closer to the uplifting of the saints and the downtrodden road to destruction would become a very narrow path. But I do not see that happening any time soon.

Now if you do not have your bible with you, the following is a link you can go to and find the verses of scripture I have referenced herein. Bible Gateway at: www.biblegateway.com/

 A Devotional Study of the Living Word of God

Take Note #60

Psalm 119:40 Sometimes the soul hungers and thirsts for God and we find our voice crying out. The longing of the soul to rest in the precepts of God is much like a homesick teen who has wandered from the warmth and tender care of parents.

Good Morning

Many of us struggle with jobs that pay to little, families that require to much and the stress of making both ends meet when the rope that binds these things together seems to be to short. There are other factors that interfere with making those ends meet. Financial and Family management are the root cause of all marriage problems and sin develops when the arguments over these develop into a loss of faith between the husband and wife. This loss of faith leads to a critical absence of communication, a lapse in sexual desire and then a breakdown in common interests. Secular marriage counseling could care less to patch up a broken family, or the bond of marriage. Secular counseling is only interested in the profit and loss statement of the business of counsel. This is only added conflict to an already strained budget and at the very best, secular counsel is only a temporary fix to a deep rooted problem. In the past I have had opportunity to counsel men who struggle with the loss of family. Most were inmates in the prisons of Connecticut, in nearly every case, budgeting and management of the family caused these men to react in foolish measures, causing their incarceration. (Proverbs 2:1-22)

Acts 12

Acts 12:10-12 Becoming aware that God is moving you to advance His kingdom can be a slow burn, but when we come to our senses, it does not take long to get moving. Like Peter we know that God has provided angelic safety and a path of deliverance. At this very moment of awareness, our faith becomes a shield of defense and nothing can alter our course. The chains of fear fall away, doors that were once closed are now open and swiftly we are moved to the freedom to glorify our LORD.

Acts 12:13-16 The Activity of God the Holy Spirit in the quest of people for God to take action is always an awesome experience. I personally would like to think that Rhoda closed the door and and confusion developed in the home of Mary, John Marks mother was due, not to a lack of faith. But a failure to execute biblically to the immediate response to their prayer. Biblical faith has two parts, 'trust' which is active participation and 'rest' which is passive anticipation. Both of these attributes of faith failed as the emotion of the moment took over.

Acts 12:17-19 This was no small or unnoticed event. The guards were put to death, Herod was furious and the military might that maintained the so called security in the city had failed. No one, no power and no dynasty can stand and survive against the plan of God to glorify His name among the nations and if a nation has a soul, then deep down the nation is aware of the awesome power of God, yet the battle still rages and the devil still tries to gain a victory. Thanks to God, the victory is already won. God created a hill just outside Jerusalem, created a tree, a thorny bush and cattle. From these creations man made a site for execution, a cross and a thorny crown. God gave up His Son, but He did this to gain the final victory over sin, Satan and death. Jesus lives, praise God, JESUS LIVES!

Now if you do not have your bible with you, the following is a link you can go to and find the verses of scripture I have referenced herein. Bible Gateway at: www.biblegateway.com/

 A Devotional Study of the Living Word of God

 Take Note #59

Psalm 119:39 Our conscious will approve or disapprove the things we do. A healthy conscious will seek justice from the LORD since His judgments are the only source of restoring a guilty soul.

Good Morning

Even though it seems that nothing changes, change is always going on. We all like to be active doing something, but there are many obstacles in the way for some of us. Health, wealth and opportunity just to name a few. One opportunity may override another, health may hinder us from a season of activity and wealth may prevent us from reaching a certain goal. Yet, there is the other side of this coin that allows for the freedom to do activities, reach goals and manage opportunity. It really is a matter of execution. I have understood this for a long time, but it is ever so much clearer to me today since I have had the opportunity to watch Cutie Pie, the parakeet. She has to eat or starve, the bell that hangs in the middle of her cage, blocks the way to the seed container. In order for her to eat, she jumps from the perch to the wires on the cage then slides down the wire strands until she is over the seed container and then drops in for a bite. Where there is a will to survive; opportunity will reveal the goal ahead and life maintains a degree of health to keep going, and if you are a bird, you don't need money. Of course, we could take this a step further. (Matthew 6:25-34)

Acts 12

Acts 12:1-4 Good and evil run throughout the Bible, in the Old Testament we see kingdoms of good and kingdoms of evil. Here in Acts there is this same condition. A look at our nation will quickly reveal good leaders and evil ones. It is not uncommon to see good people destroyed for standing in the gate where good and evil meet. When evil controls the day, these good men and women fall, victims of the evil sword. Sometimes it is character assassination and sometimes it is physical.

Acts 12:5 When evil takes a stand, people always suffer loss, in this case it is the persecution of the saints of God. James the brother of John is dead, now the apostle Peter is in prison. I have a question for us today as a church, be it universal or local. Evil is an ever present condition; do we pray daily that evil will be subdued? If we do, then why is there so much evil overriding the good these days. I wonder when I read this passage, would our church leaders survive imprisonment today as we will see Peter survive in His day.

Acts 12:6-11 Have we not heard in the past how Peter was fast asleep and bound with chains and with a guard on each side of him. How could one sleep under these conditions? He must have know his life was in danger. Yet I know that when people are tortured or treated severely the body will shut down and sleep, so that energy can be restored and I believe that this is the condition here. Peters composure is shaken when he awakes, he is thinking that the end is now near like that of James and it takes a moment or two for him to recognize the wonderful escape that the LORD has arranged.

Now if you do not have your bible with you, the following is a link you can go to and find the verses of scripture I have referenced herein. Bible Gateway at: www.biblegateway.com/

Psalm 119:38 We hear these words daily, “the fear of the LORD is the beginning of Wisdom”. Devotion to God is not a mystical experience, but a diligent work of God who establishes His love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness and self-control in every receptive soul. Galatians 5:22-23

 Good Morning

We have three birds, two finch and one parakeet and since we are redoing the master bed room the birds have moved in with me in the study. Each day when I do the devotional I have the awesome opportunity to watch the birds go through their morning routine. The finch share a cage and the parakeet lives by herself in a separate cage. In the morning when I take the covering off the bird cages the parakeet goes through the same antics trying to get the attention of the finch. They could care less! Cutie pie the parakeet bounces up and down, careens off the side of the cage and then swings on her swing, repeating this activity until she wears herself out. The finch; one unpacks the nest of unwanted trash and the other one brings up new twigs and paper for the make over. One finch is heavy set the other is skinny. Skinny does the hauling and Fatso does the makeover. When they are done they both take a bath, have a little breakfast and discuss various accomplishments. I know the finch understand that the parakeet lives next door, but I am thinking that there is a language barrier, or maybe it is a hygiene issue. I’ve never seen the parakeet take a bath. The three are very entertaining, better than television.

Acts 11

Acts 11:19-21  ~ Cyprus and Antioch are nearly 300 miles north of Jerusalem, that is a long journey even by today’s standard, but after the death of Stephen it was necessary for believers to move out of the city where Christ started His church. Persecution was on the rise, but also this gave opportunity for the universal church to grow and the local church to establish. Church planting should be a common occurrence for the Church of Jesus Christ. A word is coined in Antioch, “Christian”

Acts 11:22-26  ~ News travels faster than the foot can carry it. I think we do not say enough about the news that develops as the result of the grace of God in the lives of the people around us. Our news seems to be wrapped around some tidbit of gossip, an ill wind or Charlie’s broken car.. How we need to take a lesson from these passages that it is the grace of God that provides us with the encouraging news that people are gaining salvation and finding purpose of life. Saul will soon be joining Barnabas and life in these times will get even more exciting and if the LORD tarries we will journey with Paul and his friends through the rest of Acts.

Acts 11:27-30  ~ Here we see a sudden change from the context. There is trouble in the land and the voices of prophets declaring a warning can be heard. The churches respond properly and send relief. I believe that this is a clear indication that believers can come to the rescue of others. We need government and protection, but what we need more of is for local churches all across the world to have purpose of heart and continue with the LORD. There are many needs affecting the universal church of Jesus Christ, mostly ignored in today’s world by the local church who call themselves Christians.

 Now if you do not have your bible with you, the following is a link you can go to and find the verses of scripture I have referenced herein. Bible Gateway at: www.biblegateway.com/