Weekly Devotional

Enjoy a weekly devotional! These will update each week, but you can see what you've missed up to the past four weeks!!

 

The Good Dishes

A preacher and his wife were invited to Sunday dinner with a new family that joined their congregation. The invitation was accepted. As everyone sat down to eat the youngest member of the family asked, "Mommy when are the special guests coming who you are saving the good dishes for?" We all have things that we save and use for special guests. We want some to have the very best of what we have to offer. Have you ever invited God to use you? If you have, He most likely accepted the invitation.  Sometimes we are surprised at the seemingly mundane things God asks us to do. Sometime we think God can surely use us for something better than this. Perhaps if we worked on making these containers more useable, more presentable to God, He would use us for more special things. We each need to work on becoming the good dishes, the best container that God can use to present His special gift to others.

 

God's Love is Like

God’s love is like a fallen baby bird being gently placed back in the nest.
God’s love is like being so tired and weary and finally finding such sweet rest.
God’s love is like a warm hand wiping a tear that is rolling down your cheek.
God’s love is like suddenly finding everything you could ever seek.
God’s love is like sunshine after ten days of rain.
God’s love is like relief found from every hurt and pain.
God’s love is like experiencing light after only experiencing dark.
God’s love is like hitting the target when you have always missed the mark.
God’s love is like an amazing all consuming fire that warms.
God’s love is like finding peace instead of alarm.
God’s love is amazing, astounding, astonishing, and abiding.
God’s love is unshakeable, unbreakable, undeniable and undying.
God’s love is really just like God,
Because God is love.

 

Just a Couple of Minutes Ago

by Judy Parker


Peripheral is defined as concerned with relatively minor, irrelevant, or superficial aspects.  Minor details I suppose could be thought of as peripheral details.  Heaven is something we think of often, but not in detail. We think of the big picture - you know the gates of pearls and streets of gold. We imagine the big reunion that will be with those who have gone on before us.  The minor details aren’t important, just the fact that Jesus will be there is enough for me. Most of us just want to make sure we get to go.  But sometimes I do wonder about Heaven. When we get to Heaven will we remember what we were doing a couple minutes before we got there?  When Christ returns the Bible tells us people will be taken right in the middle of whatever they might be doing. I suppose those who die suddenly before His return experience a similar situation. This joke touches on that subject. A cowboy appeared before St. Peter at the Pearly Gates. “Have you ever done anything of particular merit?”  St. Peter asked. “Well, I can think of one thing,” the cowboy offered. “On a trip to South Dakota, I came upon a gang of bikers who were threatening a young woman. I told them to leave her alone, but they wouldn't listen. So, I approached the largest biker and smacked him in the face, kicked his bike over, ripped out his nose ring, and threw it on the ground. I yelled, ‘Now, back off all of you!’”  St. Peter was impressed, “When did this happen?”  “Couple of minutes ago.” This of course isn’t a true story, but does give us something to think about.  Life is short.  One day what you were doing just a couple of minutes ago could not be a peripheral detail, but most important.  Be ready! Live each minute for Christ.

 

On This Day in History

Ever hear that on the morning radio or TV show? It’s usually lists of events from things that have happened historically on that particular day.  Some days there isn’t much of a list to read. However, most days in history have proven themselves to be newsworthy. One interesting firsts is the story of the first human voice radio transmission; which traveled across the airways Christmas Eve of 1906 to US Navy ships off the Atlantic coast.  Reginald Fessenden accompanied himself on violin to the song O Holy Night as well as read Luke Chapter 2 on the air.  Can you imagine being out on the sea in the dark of the night away from your family on Christmas Eve and suddenly hearing a human voice coming from a little box for the very first time?  And to think of God’s Word being the first words ever heard over the air ways is amazing! That was a holy night. It was as if God was making sure Satan knew that He was making claim of this “new” invention of man.  Even though Satan is said to be the prince of the air, (Ephesians 2:2) God is King and Lord over all the earth, even the airways. Yes, Satan is at work in those who refuse to hear and obey, but God is also at work drawing all men unto Him. (John 12:32)  And one day every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord of all. What about you?  In thirty years or so from now, can you look back and say on this day in history that you chose to hear and obey the voice of the KING of Glory, the LORD of All for the rest of your life?  Be quite and listen. He is speaking to you (Revelation 3:20). Holy days and nights abound in the presence of God.

 

A Wise Woman

And Joab sent to Tekoah, and fetched thence a wise woman, II Samuel 14:2

 How would you most like to be remembered?  One month to the day we celebrated Christmas. Mary, Joseph, Baby Jesus, the shepherds and of course the wise men are familiar to us. Even though we don’t know the wise men’s names we know they were wise; that is how they will always be remembered.   They were men who obeyed and followed the star to Jesus, our King. The Bible also speaks of a very wise woman, unnamed; simply called the wise woman of Tekoah. She did not follow a star, but she did follow instructions and go before King David.  She wisely showed King David the importance of forgiving Absalom, who had been banished from the country and from David’s life.   In Verse 14 she reminds David of God’s love for His children. For we must needs die, and are as water spilt on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again; neither doth God respect any person: yet doth he devise means, that his banished be not expelled from him  King David heeded the advice of the wise woman and was eventually reunited with his son Absalom.  In Verse 33: and when he had called for Absalom, he came to the king, and bowed himself on his face to the ground before the king: and the king kissed Absalom.  God loves us so much. He devised a plan that we would not be banished from His (our Father’s presence.  Let us each be remembered as those who loved God and wisely brought unity where there once was division.

 
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