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Christian Devotional – January 30, 2017
Reading through Ezekiel chapter 2 was eye-opening for me. As we look through there, we see what God is asking of Ezekiel. I almost heard the “Mission: Impossible” theme music rising up in the background as I read this chapter. God explains to Ezekiel all the reasons why he is going to have a very difficult and hard time with the assignment that God is giving him. He goes on to state that He will encounter people who will not listen to him. The people he is going to share with will disagree with him and Ezekiel shouldn’t be concerned about that. Ezekiel isn’t to fear them and he’s not…
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Christian Devotional – January 26, 2017
Today we are going to start reading through Ezekiel. Take some time and read through the first chapter. As we look at the amazing and, quite frankly, indescribable vision that Ezekiel had, we see the amazing and awesomeness of God depicted here. Even though I can’t wrap my mind around exactly what Ezekiel saw, I am amazed at the sense of power that is depicted. Also, I get a great feeling of fluidity and harmony and how everythning works together. The other thing that strikes me in this passage is that this amazing description of God says over and over again that He is always moving forward, even though He…
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Christian Devotional – January 25, 2017
For our final day looking at purpose, we turn to the New Testament and a story that Jesus gave to the people. Read Matthew 25:14-30. This parable, often called the Parable of the Talents has several applications to our lives, but one of the main ones relates to what are we doing with the gifts that God has given us. Each and every one of us have been given talents and abilities that God Himself has shaped and developed. Additionally, when we accepted Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, we also received the Holy Spirit and the gifts that He bestows. When it comes to our purpose and making…
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Christian Devotional – January 24, 2017
We have been looking at purpose during this month of January and in the past several days, we are focusing in on Solomon. Today we are going to finish up Solomon. Read 1 Kings 11:14-43. Solomon had turned away from God. He had gotten distracted by his foreign wives and he had been willing to put their wants and desires ahead of God’s wants and desires. He obeyed them more than he obeyed God. God saw this and God responded by raising up adversaries against Solomon. He tried to get Solomon to turn back to God, but instead, Solomon decided that he was going to just focus on his anger.…
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Christian Devotional – January 22, 2017
As we continue to look at Solomon, we see that things did not go well for him. He had great success and had built the temple. He was very wise and God had promised to be with him in everything if only he would trust and obey God. God even reiterated this promise to Solomon and we read about that in the last devotional. However, then comes 1 Kings chapter 11, a disastrous chapter for Solomon. Read 1 Kings 11:1-13. Here we see that Solomon got distracted. He was distracted by women and all the seemingly wonderful things that this life has to offer. He stopped following God and was…
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Christian Devotional – January 19, 2017
Yesterday we saw that Solomon had become king and he had a conversation with God where he received wisdom to govern the people. The next few chapters in 1 Kings (4-8), we see Solomon displaying this great wisdom and even going about accomplishing the amazing purpose that God had for him. Solomon built the Temple for the Lord, which was the culmination of his father David’s dream. Then we get to 1 King chapter 9. Read verses 1-9. God reiterates his promise and reminder to Solomon. Why would He choose that very time to do that? Solomon was at the height of obedience. He’d been faithful to do what God…
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Christian Devotional – January 18, 2017
As we look again at Solomon today, we are looking at the same passage of scripture from 1 Kings chapter 3. As we see in the first several verses of the chapter, Solomon has been worshipping God and God comes to him and asks him a question that many of us wish God would ask us, “What do you want me to give you?” We can think of many things that we might answer God with. We often use our prayer time to bombard God with a litany of requests. Solomon’s answer was very interesting. He asked for wisdom in governing people. He did not ask for wealth and power.…
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Christian Devotional – January 17, 2017
We’re going to spend the next few days looking at the life of Solomon. There are, perhaps, no better examplesin the Bible of someone who had great opportunity and who missed it. He had amazing purpose,but he did not live up to all that God had for him and there is so much to learn from his life. Today, read 1 Kings 3:3-15. Solomon has just been crowned king and the Bible explains that he did loveGod and he did follow God, but he didn’t give up all the evil practices that the others were doing in Israel at that time. So as a result, we find Solomon offering sacrifices…
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Christian Devotional – January 14, 2017
Have you been afraid? What about a situation where you really wanted to know the answer to something, but you were afraid to ask? Maybe others didn’t want you to know. Maybe you weren’t sure you could handle the answer. Either way, it presents a difficult situation. That’s how Nicodemus must have felt. Read his story in John 3:1-21. He was a high ranking religious official and he had spent years studying the law and living by the rules that were set forth in that. Now there is this person, Jesus, who is teaching something similar, but different. He didn’t understand it and he had questions, but the other religious…
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Christian Devotional – January 13, 2017
I like to see results. I am very driven and motivated by seeing the results of what I am doing, however, that generally means that I’m expecting something to happen very soon after whatever it is that I’ve been doing. Today we’re looking at purpose that doesn’t show immediate results. Read 2 Timothy 1:1-7. Timothy certainly was well on his way to accomplishing his purpose and Paul was writing to him to help encourage him along the way. However, Paul also mentions Timothy’s mother and grandmother, Eunice and Lois, He commends them for having fulfilled their purpose by training and teaching young Timothy, so now Timothy is better equipped to…