Tag Archives: quotes

Fruit on the vine image

The True Vine Produces Good Fruit

Daily Devotion, Daily Devotional, , , , , , , ,

  • What is going on in these verses?
    • John authored this book. His style was different from the other gospel authors. He contemplated the profound meaning of what Jesus had said and done. John highlights Jesus’ nature. John’s book tells the story of the eternal Word who became flesh and lived with humans.
    • The Gospel of John spells out so plainly the basics of the Christian faith. Jesus proves who He is, diagnoses human problems, and forcefully describes what is necessary for transformation to eternal life.
    • Like other places in this Gospel, “true” means “genuine.” No branch that is Jesus’ can be completely fruitless. But branches that belong to Jesus will bear fruit and go through the pruning necessary to grow and multiply. The “fruit” refers to a Christ-like life produced by the Holy Spirit (Galatians. 5:22-23).
    • Jesus stresses endlessness and loyalty in His relationship with the disciples. “Abide” [same as to remain in] is repeated ten times in vv. 4–10. The figure of speech of the vine renders the point; it’s only when nutrients flow freely to the branches that fruit can come about.
    • The works (producing much fruit) talked about are the result of a saving union with Jesus received through grace, not merit.
    • His command to love each other is repeated three times in this gospel (v. 12; 13:34). He means business. Three is an important number to God.
  • What is God’s word saying?
    • I contemplate my life… Is it fruitful? If I take a look at Galatians 5:22-23 and see that the fruit of the spirit are these:
      • love
      • joy
      • peace
      • patience (longsuffering)
      • kindness
      • goodness
      • faithfulness
      • gentleness, and
      • self-control
    • As far as I know, these are the fruit I exhibit. I may slip from time to time and lose patience, etc. I quickly recover, however.
    • The main way to be and remain fruitful is to be in the Word and communicate with God/Jesus/Holy Spirit. Pray. Have fellowship with like-minded believers. Take part in being God’s hands and feet (being about His business) when occasions arise.
    • I believe love is the main and important fruit. God’s love is mentioned through His Word. When we love (it’s an action word; a verb) people; everything else falls into place.

“Hate is too great a burden to bear. It injures the hater more than it injures the hated.” – Coretta Scott King

“When we enter into intimate communion with God, He converts hate into love, anger into peace, and fear into courage.”  – Sammy Tippit

Do you need Prayer? Fill in the contact form below and submit it. I and the prayer warriors will pray over you and your needs.

aaron burden unsplash image

You Choose Your Master!

Daily Devotion, Daily Devotional, , , , , , ,

  • What do you see going on in the verses?
    • Matthew authored this book. The audience is Greek-speaking Jewish Christians during the time after Christ’s resurrection; between AD 50 and 70. 
    • Attitude toward wealth should be such that we aren’t seeking to live to gain money. Our heart is where our treasure is, and that should be in spiritual things. Every material thing is subject to decay or loss. Christians must be single-minded in serving God and not ‘mammon’ (mammon is used in some translations). Mammon stands for being dominated by money and materialistic worldly riches. Mammon is a Syriac word, that signifies gain; so that whatever in this world is, or is accounted by us to be, gain (Philippians. 3:7), is mammon.
      • We must not count these things as the best things.
      • We must not call them glory.
      • We must not covet an abundance of these things.
      • We must not confide in them for time to come.
      • We must not say to the gold, You are my hope.
      • We must not content ourselves with them, as all we need or desire:
        • – We must be content with a little for our journey, but not with all for our share.
    • Jesus urges us not to value possessions enough to seek them. Jesus’ words hit at the core of human selfishness, challenging both the well-to-do and the poor.
    • We must watch carefully for hypocrisy and worldly-mindedness in choosing the master we serve.

But if you refuse to serve the Lord, then choose today whom you will serve. Would you prefer the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates? Or will it be the gods of the Amorites in whose land you now live? But as for me and my family, we will serve the Lord.” Joshua 24:15

“Christ designs not to deprive us of our treasure, but to direct us in the choice of it.” -Matthew Henry
  • What is God’s word saying?
    • Wow! As it says above, “Jesus’ words hit at the core of human selfishness.” My humanness makes it very hard to stick with serving only one master. In not choosing to serve only one, I find myself splitting and fracturing trying to do the splits with one foot in Eternity with Jesus and one foot in the World. However, the more I focus on God and His word the less I’m looking longingly at the world and the things in it. I long more for Heaven with my Triune God.
    • In all honesty, I’m not really materialistic. I only want things that I truly need to survive.
    • This is also talking about my spiritual health, not just my physical. So, my goals and aim are to stay in God’s word and seek Him always, not the world. It has nothing of value to be worthy for me to gain it.
    • The world/earth or only temporary. When it is gone, Heaven is the only answer.

Prayer: Thank You, Father God, for showing the true value of gaining heaven in eternity instead of the world and its “stuff”. I pray that all Your children will see and accept You and heaven for eternity. I lift up the ill and pray for well-being and peace of mind. I pray that we would all trust and obey You, God. In Jesus’ name, amen.

at Jesus' feet

Who Do You Serve?

Daily Devotion, Daily Devotional, , , , , , , , , ,

Matthew 6 scripture image

“A general maxim laid down; no man can serve two masters, much less two gods; for their commands will some time or other cross or contradict one another, and their occasions interfere.” Matthew Henry

Generally speaking, serving more than one can become quite cumbersome. At some point, the two will intersect. It will be at that point you will have to choose. Human nature will always choose sinfulness. It’s just how it is.

We all have a bent toward something in the secular world. It can be anything. When the secular becomes your choice, you will be out of alignment with GOD. Once out of alignment, you will not be blessed with GOD’s promises.

It tells us more in 1 Timothy:

Anyone who has a different teaching does not agree with the true teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that shows the true way to serve God. This person is full of pride and understands nothing, but is sick with a love for arguing and fighting about words. This brings jealousy, fighting, speaking against others, evil mistrust, and constant quarrels from those who have evil minds and have lost the truth. They think that serving God is a way to get rich. Serving God does make us very rich; if we are satisfied with what we have. We brought nothing into the world, so we can take nothing out. 1 Timothy 6:3-7

The caution is given three times. That seems pretty important; don’t you agree? GOD uses the number three a lot in scripture. There’s a symbolic link between the trinity and His Word. Three is very important. So, if warned three times… we must take it to heart or suffer the consequences.

We are encouraged by GOD that He will provide our needs when we trust and obey HIM to the fullest. We are of more value to HIM than all the creatures that move on this earth and in the skies. HE is our FATHER. We are his firstborn.

If we had but more faith, we should have less care. Matthew Henry

We need to have faith and trust GOD to care for and meet our needs. When we worry and carry on we only add more stress to our lives. It’s not worth it.

GOD tells us in Revelation 2:

8 “Write this to the angel of the church in Smyrna:
“The One who is the First and the Last, who died and came to life again, says this: 9 I know your troubles and that you are poor, but really you are rich! I know the bad things some people say about you. They say they are Jews, but they are not true Jews. They are a synagogue that belongs to Satan. 10 Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer. I tell you, the devil will put some of you in prison to test you, and you will suffer for ten days. But be faithful, even if you have to die, and I will give you the crown of life.
11 “Everyone who has ears should listen to what the Spirit says to the churches. Those who win the victory will not be hurt by the second death.

The book of Revelation is the prophecy of what’s to come. We need to take heed of it. TRUST GOD.

How does this look in your life? What are you doing to trust and obey GOD and have faith in HIM?

Dear YAH, ABBA, I lift everyone up to YOU. I pray that they will put all their cares at YOUR feet; at the foot of the throne and leave them with YOU. Please show us what to do and how to live, to have all the faith we can muster in YOU. Thank YOU for all YOU do and continue to do in our lives. I pray for the ill, physically, mentally, and spiritually. YOU are THE Great Physician and can heal us in all ways. I trust YOU. I adore, honor, and glorify YOU, YAH, in all things. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Purposeful Life

Daily Devotional, , , , , ,

Psalm_100_1-2_4-5

With all the social issues going on around us we need to bring out focus back to our Creator, Yahweh. So, this message is strong.

Man was created to live and breathe in an atmosphere of praise-filled worship to The Creator.

Without Yahweh, we are nothing less than self-centered, self-pitying, and complaining (see Gen.3:9–12). But upon receiving salvation and life through Jesus Christ, our daily living calls us to prayer and the Word for fellowship and wisdom in living.

Our daily drawing near to God in that union is to be showered with praise: “Enter into His gates with thanksgiving And into His courts with praise.” Such a walk of praise-filled acceptance to Him will nurture deep devotion, faithful obedience, and constant joy.

We can move into each day that we live knowing that a praise walk is not wild and offhand, nor decreased to insignificant ritual but, a walk of life-saving power is available to those of us who believe in Jesus.

The Holy Spirit is a renewing spirit. The Bible says: He saved us because of His mercy. It was not because of good deeds we did to be right with him. He saved us through the washing that made us new people through the Holy Spirit (Titus 3:5).

In order to be renewed by the Spirit, the author, Sherwood Wirt, in his book, Afterglow says,

“We must go to the cross, not only to kneel in reverence, not only to bow in commitment, not only to pick up our cross and carry it but, to be crucified.”

Self-crucifixion means that Christ will send His power into us as individuals by the same Spirit. But, first, as another author/evangelist, Richard Bennet says,

“The Christian has to attend his own funeral–willingly.”

I know, that sounds creepy. But, it’s the truth, isn’t it? We must attend our own carnal spiritual funeral, first, willingly.

I know that is a tough thing to do. However, it’s required to live a Christ-centered life.

I struggle too! You’re not alone.

How are you doing with this? Leave a comment. I enabled google commenting to control the spammers.

Forgiveness – Part 3

Daily Devotional, , , , ,

Forgiveness-Prt3_Micah_7_18-20What forgiveness is!

Forgiveness is returning to God the right to take care of justice.
By refusing to transfer the right to exact punishment or revenge, we are telling God we don’t trust him to take care of matters.
Forgiveness is a process, not an event.
It might take some time to work through our emotional problems before we can truly forgive. Forgiveness doesn’t happen overnight. However, as soon as we can, we should decide to forgive, but it probably is not going to happen right after a tragic situation. It’s okay.
We have to forgive every time.
If we find ourselves constantly forgiving, though, we might need to take a look at the dance we are doing with the other person that sets us up to be continually hurt, attacked, or abused.
If they don’t repent, we still have to forgive.
Even if they never ask, we still need to forgive. We should memorize and repeat over and over: Forgiveness is about our attitude, not their action.
We might forgive too quickly to avoid pain or to manipulate the situation.
Forgiveness releases pain and frees us from focusing on the other person. Too often when we’re in the midst of the turmoil after a tragedy, we desperately look for a quick fix to make it all go away. Some women want to “hurry up” and forgive so the pain will end, or so they can get along with the other person. We have to be careful not to simply cover our wounds and retard the healing process.
Forgiveness starts with a mental decision.
The emotional part of forgiveness is finally being able to let go of the resentment. Emotional healing may or may not follow quickly after we forgive. It takes time.

Forgiveness quotes:

“Always forgive your enemies – nothing annoys them so much.” – Oscar Wilde
“He who cannot forgive breaks the bridge over which he himself must pass.” – George Herbert

If Yahweh doesn’t hold onto sin and He throws them away why do we continue to hold onto them, being unforgiving?

There’s another quote that I like that goes like this:

“To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover that the prisoner was you.” – Lewis B. Smedes

Will you set yourself free, now?

Share your testimony and bless others.

Awestruck

Daily Devotional, , , , ,

Habakkuk 2:18 imageQuotes about idols:

“As long as you want anything very much, especially more than you want God, it is an idol.”
– A. B. Simpson

“If we exalt money, status, or sex above the Word of God, we are living in idolatry. Every time we inwardly submit to the strongholds of fear, bitterness, and pride, we are bowing to the rulers of darkness. Each of these idols must be smashed, splintered, and obliterated from the landscape of our hearts.” – Francis Frangipane

“An idol of the mind is as offensive to God as an idol of the hand.” – A. W. Tozer

We tend to grasp ahold of things and idolize them as if they are our God. The Israelites did it when Moses led them through the desert. In Exodus 32:4; 8 it tells us:

Then Aaron took the gold, melted it down, and molded it into the shape of a calf. When the people saw it, they exclaimed, “O Israel, these are the gods who brought you out of the land of Egypt!”

How quickly they have turned away from the way I commanded them to live! They have melted down gold and made a calf, and they have bowed down and sacrificed to it. They are saying, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you out of the land of Egypt.’”

It happens today. We look to ourselves, we carry on about our materials things, i.e., automobiles, clothing/shoes, hair/cosmetics/jewelry, our identity in our jobs and things, and the list can go on and on.

Here’s an excerpt from a devotion I read:

Idolatry may seem like a sin that modern people need not fear. But idolatry is not just bowing down to idols; it is trusting in what one has made, and therefore, in one’s own power as creator and sustainer. If we say we worship God but put our trust in bank accounts, homes, businesses, and organizations, then we are idolaters. Excerpted from Life Application Study Bible

Do you trust Yahweh more than you trust what you have? Surrender to Him. Be in awe of Yahweh, not things.

Listen to this music video. Allow the Holy Spirit to wash over you and be in awe of Yahweh.

Do you need prayer? Contact us now with your prayer request.