Devotionals

Matthew 18

Class Action is a class act. It's a film about two lawyers who go head-to-head, both in court and in life. They are father and daughter...on opposite sides of a complicated case charged with the full spectrum of emotions.

1 John 5:4-7

According to Scripture, three things are required for spiritual victory: birth, faith, and truth. In order to enter into the ranks of the victorious, we must be "born of God." It occurs when I accept Jesus Christ as Saviour.

Then comes faith. I draw upon the power that is in me. I no longer operate on the basis of human strength, but by faith. I rely upon divine power. 

Then is truth. Everything is made possible by the truth, by believing the truth, by living the truth. Allow the truth to invade, reshape, and cultivate your life anew. 

Jeremiah 12

During the reign of Oliver Cromwell, the British government began to run low on silver for coins. Lord Cromwell sent his men to the local cathedral to see if they could find any precious metal there. After investigating they reported: "The only silver we can find is in the statues of the saints standing in the corners."

To which the radical soldier and statesman of England replied: "Good! We'll melt down the saints and put them in circulation!"

Matthew 11:27-30

Like potatoes in a pressure cooker, we 21st-century creatures understand the meaning of stress. A week doesn't pass without a few skirmishes that beat up on our fragile frames. They may be as mild as making lunches for our kids before 7:30 in the morning (mild?) or as severe as a collision with another car...or another person. Makes no difference. The result is "trauma." You know, the bottom-line reason Valium remains the top seller.

2 Timothy 2:15

Remember that time you got ticked off trying to find a verse in the Bible and couldn't? That was almost as bad as the day you decided to read a couple of chapters and got hung up on "Nazirite"...or scratched your head over "cubit."

These are like hardened, glazed coverings that suddenly obscure our understanding of God's truth. The pick and shovel of good intentions simply will not cut through. Sharper tools than that are needed, believe me!

2 Timothy 3:1-5

Like sticks of dynamite taped together with a short fuse, our times are really volatile. Anger is ready to explode into physical violence at the slightest provocation. This entire globe seems brimming with hair-trigger hostility, ready to flare into full-scale disaster.

It's not just a vast global problem, however. It's personal. It's in your neighbourhood. Your school. Where you work. Home security systems are no longer considered a luxury for the rich. Even teachers are not safe in the classroom.

Now if Christ is preached, that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, not even Christ has been raised; and if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is vain, your faith also is vain. Moreover we are even found to be false witnesses of God, because we testified against God that He raised Christ, whom He did not raise, if in fact the dead are not raised.

John 3:11-17

For years we have been hung up on records and statistics—particularly in the world of sports. They have become the standards for greatness.

1 Corinthians 11:28, 31

Thanks to the Word of God, we can list several marks of integrity that God would have us appropriate into our lives. Do you have these marks of integrity?

    • An excellent attitude 
    • Faithfulness and diligence at work 
    • Personal purity of the highest calibre 
    • Consistency in your walk with God 

You have the scalpel in your hand. Self-examination is up to you. It is not only a good idea, it's a biblical imperative.

Matthew 16

Better than any other word I can think of, change describes our world. Vast, sweeping changes, especially in the last 150 years. Simply to survive requires adjusting, and to make any kind of significant dent calls for a willingness to shift in style and to modify methods.

Consider two of the more pronounced changes in our world. 

Population. It was not until 1850 that the number of people on this globe reached one billion. By 1930 (a mere 80 years later) the number had doubled. Only 30 years later—1960—it had shot up to three billion.