I’m loving reading the advent devotional in “From Creation to Christ” along with a daily reading of a chapter of Luke. Hope it blesses you, too. Here’s an excerpt from today’s, Day 11, devotional.
Even though Ruth was a Moabite, she loved God and she wanted to go along with Naomi when she returned to Israel.
God’s love is available to people from every nation. Anyone who trusts in Jesus, the only Son of God, can become a child of God, whether they are an Israelite, a Moabite, an American, or a Russian. God judges us by our heart of faith, not by the color of our skin or what language we speak.
Like John 1:11-13 says, “[Jesus] came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.”
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Luke 11:17 ESV — But [Jesus], knowing their thoughts, said to them, “Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and a divided household falls.”
Heavenly Father, thank You for making a way for us to become Your children. Thank You for loving us, no matter what color our skin or language we speak. May there be clear division between light and dark and no division between the children of Your kingdom. Break down the walls of division in the body of Christ. Make us one, Lord, as You are ONE. In the Name of Jesus, we pray. Amen.
I’m loving reading the advent devotional in “From Creation to Christ” along with a daily reading of a chapter of Luke. Hope it blesses you, too. Here’s an excerpt from today’s, Day 10, devotional.
Has anyone ever broken a promise to you? Have you ever broken a promise you made to someone else? Unfortunately, we, as humans, sometimes break our promises. Sometimes something unexpected happens, so we can’t keep a promise we made.
But God is not like us. God will always keep His promises. God never gets sick. God is never too tired. God is all-powerful and all-knowing, so He never makes a promise He can’t keep. As Numbers 23:19 says, “God is not man that He should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?” We can always trust God. Always.
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Faith is believing that what God says is true, even when you can’t see it (Hebrews 11:1). God had helped His people again and again – passing over their firstborn sons, rescuing them from Egypt through the Red Sea, giving them manna from Heaven – yet the people doubted God’s power and God’s goodness. Because of their lack of faith, God made them wander in the desert for forty years before they could enter the Promised Land.
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Luke 10:1-2 ESV — After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them on ahead of him, two by two, into every town and place where he himself was about to go. And he said to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”
Heavenly Father, Thank You for bringing me into Your kingdom, for bringing me out of the dark and into the light, for breathing life into my dead bones. Thank You for every one of the laborers that You have sent out into the harvest. We lift up Ryan and Chelsea and their daughters and Moses and Esther and their sons serving in Asia, Ryan and Chelsea and their children serving in Africa, Gabor and Edinaand Dorsey and Renee serving in the U.S., Ray and Leah and Spencer and Patti serving in Mexico, Tom and Brenda serving in France, Srinivas and Sujatha serving in India, and the whole host of those who have dedicated their lives to making disciples of all nations. I pray that You will raise up more, millions more, laborers – men, women, and children – to work in the fields, preparing soil, scattering seed, tending young seedlings, and bringing in the ripe clusters of grapes. Provide what they need financially, physically, and spiritually. Give them wisdom. Give them strength. Give them peace and joy and hope and endurance. Help them to abide in You that they might bear much fruit. Make us one of them and one with them, and help us to remember them each day in our prayers. By faith in Your promises we pray. Amen.
I’m loving reading the advent devotional in “From Creation to Christ” along with a daily reading of a chapter of Luke. Hope it blesses you, too.
Today’s advent devotional was about the Lord leading the Israelites out of Egypt and giving them the Ten Commandments.
“And God spoke all these words, saying,
“I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
“You shall have no other gods before me.
“You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.
“You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.
“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
“Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.
“You shall not murder.
“You shall not commit adultery.
“You shall not steal.
“You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
“You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s.”
Exodus 20:1-17 ESV
And [Jesus] said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself? For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words, of him will the Son of Man be ashamed when he comes in his glory and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.”
Luke 9:23-26 ESV
Heavenly Father, Thank You for freeing me from my slavery to sin, that I might joyfully and willingly make myself a slave to righteousness. Help me to set my mind on the things of the Spirit and not the things of the flesh. Help me to look at Your Law with thanksgiving rather than dread. Give me the desire and the strength to lose my life for Your sake, that for me to live is Christ and to die is gain. In the name of Your Son Jesus who is my Lord and my Savior I pray. Amen.
I’m loving reading the advent devotional in “From Creation to Christ” along with a daily reading of a chapter of Luke. Hope it blesses you, too.
Today’s advent devotional was about God calling Moses to lead the Passover.
I know many of our brothers and sisters around the world are facing severe persecution. Please, friends, join me today in praying for them.
One of the best ways we can encourage our faith family is to be faithful to share the gospel ourselves. If they are faithfully worshipping God under such constraints, why are we so remiss when we enjoy such freedom?
And when a great crowd was gathering and people from town after town came to him, [Jesus] said in a parable, “A sower went out to sow his seed. And as he sowed, some fell along the path and was trampled underfoot, and the birds of the air devoured it. And some fell on the rock, and as it grew up, it withered away, because it had no moisture. And some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up with it and choked it. And some fell into good soil and grew and yielded a hundredfold.”
As he said these things, he called out, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”
And when his disciples asked him what this parable meant, he said, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of God, but for others they are in parables, so that ‘seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand.’
Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God. The ones along the path are those who have heard; then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved. And the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear the word, receive it with joy. But these have no root; they believe for a while, and in time of testing fall away. And as for what fell among the thorns, they are those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature. As for that in the good soil, they are those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patience.
No one after lighting a lamp covers it with a jar or puts it under a bed, but puts it on a stand, so that those who enter may see the light.
The sixth advent devotional in “From Creation to Christ” along with Luke 6. If you don’t have your own copy, you can order your own a Kindle version instantly, while you wait for the paper copy to arrive.
When we read the story of Jacob dreaming about a ladder set up on earth reaching to heaven, let’s pay careful attention to Genesis 28:13-14, where the Lord repeats the promise He had made to Abraham, Jacob’s grandfather, telling Jacob that, “The land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring. Your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south, and in you and your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed.”
I was reminded of Galatians 3.
“And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “In you shall all the nations be blessed.” … Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say, “And to offsprings,” referring to many, but referring to one, “And to your offspring,” who is Christ. … But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.”
Galatians 3:8, 16, 25-29 ESV
Friends, though there are many children of Abraham, there is only one ladder by which anyone can reach God, that is Abraham’s one offspring, Christ, the Son of God.
Then, turning to Luke 6, I noticed in verses 17 and 18 that “[Jesus] came down with them and stood on a level place, with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea and Jerusalem and the seacoast of Tyre and Sidon, who came to hear him and to be healed of their diseases. And those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured.”
According to Got Questions, “Tyre and Sidon were Gentile cities north of Israel.” And in Luke 10:13, Jesus compares the cities of Galilee (Chorazin and Bethsaida) with these Gentiles cities, “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes.” (You can read more about Tyre and Sidon in Matthew 11:20-24, Matthew 15:21-28.)
Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Him. (John 14:6) It is by faith in Him that we can come to the Father now and for all eternity. All the nations will be blessed through the faith of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, through Messiah Jesus, the Promised, Long-Awaited Seed.
Heavenly Father, I pray that You will use me to bless the nations of the world. Draw all men to Yourself by faith in Jesus Christ, Your Only Begotten Son. Send Your children out to preach the good news in the corners and in the marketplaces, from the rooftops and through the airwaves. Bring the nations in! We want heaven to be filled with every nation, tribe, people, and tongue to the praise of Your glorious name. In the Name of Jesus Christ who is the Only Way to You, Father, we pray. Amen.
Read through the Bible in 2 years: Psalm 144; Numbers 14
It is so convicting to read Numbers 14 and see how desperately Moses desires God’s Name to be glorified among the nations. Moses’s top priority isn’t his own comfort, nor the comfort of the Israelites. Rather Moses’s top priority is that God would not be profaned among the Egyptians. Moses feared that “if you kill this people as one man, then the nations who have heard your fame will say, ‘It is because the LORD was not able to bring this people into the land that he swore to give to them that he has killed them in the wilderness.'” (Numbers 14:15-16 ESV)
Moses isn’t the only one who put such a high priority on God’s name among the nations. Read Daniel’s prayer from Daniel 9,
“O Lord, according to all your righteous acts, let your anger and your wrath turn away from your city Jerusalem, your holy hill, because for our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and your people have become a byword among all who are around us.
Now therefore, O our God, listen to the prayer of your servant and to his pleas for mercy, and for your own sake, O Lord, make your face to shine upon your sanctuary, which is desolate. O my God, incline your ear and hear. Open your eyes and see our desolations, and the city that is called by your name. For we do not present our pleas before you because of our righteousness, but because of your great mercy.
O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive. O Lord, pay attention and act.
Delay not, for your own sake, O my God, because your city and your people are called by your name.”
– Daniel 9:16-19 ESV
And don’t forget Psalm 79:9-10, “Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of your name; deliver us, and atone for our sins, for your name’s sake! Why should the nations say, “Where is their God?” Let the avenging of the outpoured blood of your servants be known among the nations before our eyes! “
Heavenly Father, I echo the words of the psalmist and cry out, “Not to us, O LORD, not to us, but to your name give glory, for the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness! Why should the nations say, “Where is their God?”” (Psalm 115:1-2) Father, so many other nations see America as a Christian nation, so we ask for Your sake, for the sake of Your Holy Name, that You will save our land. Draw us back into a right relationship with You, Lord. Heal our land. Forgive us our sins. Give us a heart of repentance, that we would turn to You and turn away from our wicked ways. In the Name of Jesus Christ our Savior and King, Amen.
Not to Us (Psalm 115) – The Worship Initiative (featuring Davy Flowers)
Psalm 115 (Not to Us) with Actions – CCBC Kids Sing
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Read through the Bible in 2 Years: Psalm 86, Exodus 7-8
I’ve always had a heart for the nations. As a little girl, I wanted a “rainbow family” of a dozen children adopted from all different nations. As a middle schooler, my closest friends were from the Middle East and the Far East. When I graduated high school, I spent a month in France putting those four years of French classes to use.
But all those years I was an atheist. I wasn’t trying to share the good news with anyone. I just liked traveling and trying new, interesting things.
Fast forward to present day, and God has fanned into flame my heart for the nations – because it’s His heart, too. Our Father God loves people from every different tribe and nation and tongue, every hair color and skin color and eye color. All are equally sinners in the sight of a perfectly holy God, and all are equally precious in the sight of a perfectly loving God.
“The Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD, when I stretch out my hand against Egypt and bring out the people of Israel from among them.”
Exodus 7:5 ESV
God has dual purposes in bringing the plagues upon the people of Egypt. He is going to rescue His own people out of slavery, but He is also going to show Himself to the Egyptian people – that they will know that He is Jehovah, the Great I Am, the Lord God Almighty.
God has purpose for everything He does. Sometimes we can be so self-focused that we think that the things happening in our lives are all about us, forgetting that God is also showing Himself to the people around us through the trials and joys that we are in.
For me, losing a baby wasn’t just about me. It was also about my husband, and my older daughter, my in-laws and my neighbors, my friends at church and the people I’d meet twenty years later at the grocery store, and especially about a little boy who was going to be born halfway around the world and need a family.
Friends, if you know Jesus, then your life is no longer your own. You’ve been bought with a price so you can glorify God in your body. You have been made holy and acceptable to God through the sacrifice of His son, now let your life be a living sacrifice – an offering that keeps on offering itself day after day – back to Him, that all the nations might know that He alone is God. (See 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, Romans 12:1-2, 1 Kings 8:60, Acts 1:8, Matthew 28:19-20)
Let’s pray together.
Heavenly Father, what a blessing and honor to be called Your child and to be used by You to accomplish Your purposes here on earth! There is none like You! We pray all that nations You have made will come and worship before You and glorify Your name. Help us to remember that we are no longer our own, that we have been bought with a price, not with worthless things like gold or silver, but with the precious blood of Jesus Christ, the spotless Lamb of God. We love You, and we thank You for your mercy and grace. We pour our praise back to You with hearts full of gratitude. In the Name of our Savior and Lord Jesus we pray, Amen.
Psalm 86:8-12
There is None like You – Shane and Shane
There is None Like You – Pang – with Chinese subtitles
Read Through the Bible in 2 Years: Psalm 85, Exodus 5-6
People have often asked me my thoughts about sharing the gospel in places where there is a very real risk of persecution. My response has always been something along these lines, “This world is not our home. We are all just sojourners, passing through a foreign land on our way to our final destination: heaven or hell. We have to stop being so earthly minded. We have to fix our eyes – and our minds – on eternity. We have to be faithful to share the gospel and make disciples of all nations like Jesus commanded in Matthew 28.”
I was thinking about that today when I read,
Then Moses turned to the LORD and said, “O Lord, why have you done evil to this people? Why did you ever send me? For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has done evil to this people, and you have not delivered your people at all.”
Exodus 5:22-23 ESV
Do you believe that heaven and hell are real? Are they eternal? How is a person’s final destination determined?
The answers to those questions will determine the answers to these questions:
What if I study the Bible with someone and they end up losing their job because of their faith?
What if I tell someone about Jesus and their husband ends up leaving them as a result of their new faith?
What if I share the good news with someone and they end up in jail?
I’m not saying we should be reckless, cavalier, or foolish, but I am saying that if God is calling you to share the good news – which He is – you should be more concerned about the results of your disobedience to Him than the results of your obedience to Him.
It’s true that the Israelites faced greater trials, albeit temporary ones, as a result of Moses’s confrontation with the Pharaoh, but it’s also true that much greater long-term joys of freedom were coming!
Will you pray with me?
Heavenly Father, You have told us to go and make disciples of all nations. You have promised that You will be with us. Please strengthen those who are living in dangerous lands, and please strengthen us who are living lives of such comfort and ease. Help us to know You more intimately that we might be willing to suffer for the gospel and for our brothers and sisters who are in harm’s way. Please protect us all from the enemy’s schemes and help us to keep our eyes fixed on You. In the name of Jesus we pray, Amen.
Read through the Bible in 2 Years: Psalm 81, Matthew 28
The ending of Matthew’s very thorough account of Jesus’s life and ministry feels so sudden. After reading twenty-seven lengthy chapters, Matthew 28 contains only twenty verses, summarizing the resurrection of Christ, Jesus’s appearance to the Mary’s, the bribing of the Roman guards by the Jewish leaders, and some of Jesus’s final words to His disciples,
“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
Matthew 28:18-20 ESV
So, as we wrap up four weeks spent studying the words of Matthew, let these be my concluding words to you.
Jesus has all authority in heaven and on earth. He can do it. Nothing is impossible for Him. You can trust Him. Therefore, you can go with confidence, under His authority, by the power of His Holy Spirit, and make disciples of all nations. He wants to use you. You don’t need to be a ordained minister to share the good news. You don’t need a seminary degree to tell people how to trust in Christ. His Spirit and His Word are all you need. He wants you to share the good news with those who have never heard. But don’t stop there – teach them to observe all that He has commanded in His word. Being a disciple is so much more than just being a fan.
The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. If you’d like to join me in international ministry, leave a comment or send me a message. I’d love to help you get plugged in! Let’s pray.
Heavenly Father, What a blessing it is to be a laborer in the harvest! I am so thankful for Your Holy Spirit who lives in me and gives me wisdom. I pray that Your Spirit would guide me to those who are hungering to hear the good news and those who need to be discipled to obey Your commands. In the powerful Name of Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord we pray, Amen.
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Please forgive me for being behind in posting my daily advent devotionals here, but it’s been amazing to see God’s perfect timing in my lateness.
I’m loving reading the advent devotional in “From Creation to Christ” along with a daily reading of a chapter of Luke 7.
Today’s advent devotional was about God calling Moses to lead the Passover.
This morning when I checked my phone I was dismayed to see a message from a precious sister in Asia saying that her church’s Sunday worship service had been interrupted by police, and her husband, along with several other leaders in the church, had been arrested. Please, friends, pray for our persecuted brothers and sisters around the world.
One of the best ways we can encourage our faith family is to be faithful to share the gospel ourselves. If they are faithfully worshipping God under such constraints, why are we so remiss when we enjoy such freedom?
And when a great crowd was gathering and people from town after town came to him, [Jesus] said in a parable, “A sower went out to sow his seed. And as he sowed, some fell along the path and was trampled underfoot, and the birds of the air devoured it. And some fell on the rock, and as it grew up, it withered away, because it had no moisture. And some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up with it and choked it. And some fell into good soil and grew and yielded a hundredfold.”
As he said these things, he called out, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”
And when his disciples asked him what this parable meant, he said, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of God, but for others they are in parables, so that ‘seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand.’
Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God. The ones along the path are those who have heard; then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved. And the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear the word, receive it with joy. But these have no root; they believe for a while, and in time of testing fall away. And as for what fell among the thorns, they are those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature. As for that in the good soil, they are those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patience.
No one after lighting a lamp covers it with a jar or puts it under a bed, but puts it on a stand, so that those who enter may see the light.
Teach What is Good 
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