The Devotional

Papa “J” Says

I have heard some prominent people say that when Jesus came to earth the first time, He came in a manger. We need to be careful with our words since anything that distracts from the truth of the Virgin Birth is a lie! Matthew 1:23

When I retired I thought to myself, self your going to have so much time on your hands that everything you do will be done on time and life will be a breeze from here on out. (Maybe I should not have said that!) And there is no way to effectively “laugh” on paper... have you ever tried it? It seems that these devotionals take the biggest hit for being late and I hope you will bare with me until we get past the Christmas and New Year season. Today is one of the busy, busy days. I threw that extra busy in there so you would know how busy I am. In fact; for the last three days it has been this way! But our God is right on time with everything. He is never in a hurry, never late and always has an ear to hear what we have to say to him. I think that this has something to do with eternity since there is no time schedule there. It is true you know, take a look at 2 Peter 3:8 and I think this is a good thing don't you? If God had to adhere to a time schedule, then it would mean that He would be limited to time and space like us. Then His Spiritual character would likewise be limited and there would be no such thing as eternity and He would not be Infinite. Wow! How I love God and His eternal estate.

1 Corinthians 10:14-22

1 Corinthians 10:14-22 In sharing 1 Corinthians I am noticing some things that I've not noticed before, I wonder if you notice it? Much of what the apostle is warning the Corinthians about (the 64 plus sins) all circle around to main subjects. Idolatry and Immorality, these two major transgressions produce all sorts of trouble in the heart of individuals, families, churches and communities.

As people of God, we need to depart from these sins, there are no stronger words to use then what the apostle says here. “Flee from Idolatry” If you have any wisdom at all you know that God is not pleased when we put anything in His place of worship. Oh! You say; “I never do that!” We have had much study of the Bible and heard many sermons concerning our present day holiness. From what one might observe casually, I say we fail a lot.

Are we approaching the LORD's table with sin in our heart as an anchored vessel in the harbor? We say to God, “LORD, I am about to partake of the Your table and I confess to you that I am a sinner over “such and such”. Yes, that does agree with God that you know about your sin, but it does not say anything to Him about “repentance”. Once the service is over we are right back in our idolatrous ways. Bah! Humbug!