Daily Devotionals

Hebrews 6:19

Somewhere along the many miles of southern California shoreline walked a young, 20-year-old woman with a terminal disease in her body and a revolver in her hand. 

She had called me late one evening. We talked for a long time. A troubled young woman, her mind was filled with doubts. She had advanced leukemia. The doctors told her she would not live much longer. She checked herself out of a hospital because, as she put it, she “couldn’t take another day of that terrible isolation.” 

Revelation 21:1-6

The same Bible that develops the subject of hell also reveals the truth about heaven. What is heaven like? Playing harps all day? Lounging around on Cloud Nine? Living in enormous mansions along solid gold streets? Does it mean we’ll all have long white robes with matching sandals, glowing halos, and big flapping wings? Hardly! 

Heaven is an actual place. A prepared place, designed for God’s redeemed people, those who have accepted God’s free gift of His Son. 

Luke 16:19-31

A particular story Jesus once told comes to my mind every time I think of life after death. Because it is descriptive and brief, we are able to get a fairly uncomplicated picture in our minds of this subject of hell. 

Romans 3:10-18

It doesn’t take a PhD in English Literature to observe that God offers us a gift in salvation. The gift is eternal life, which is directly connected to His Son. 

Genesis 2:1-3

Following the sixth day of creation, the Lord God deliberately stopped working. He rested. It wasn’t that there was nothing else He could have done. It certainly wasn’t because He was exhausted. Omnipotence never gets tired! He hadn’t run out of ideas, for omniscience knows no mental limitations. He could easily have made more worlds, created an infinite number of other forms of life, and provided multiple millions of galaxies beyond what He did. 

But He didn’t. He stopped. 

Matthew 6:25-34

How do you get good at getting the rest God said was good for you? How do you get good at leisure? We can, of course, nod in agreement to all we’ve discussed in the past couple days about how important it is to rest and get recharged, but our greatest need is not inclination; it’s demonstration. 

Here are two suggestions that will help. 

1. Deliberately stop being absorbed with the endless details of life. Our Saviour said it straight when He declared that we cannot, at the same time, serve both God and man. But we try so hard! 

James 1:22

"Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says."

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Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

2 Peter 3

Entertainment is everything today. So important, in fact, that we have television programs and magazines devoted solely to the subject. All of which makes it real difficult to be committed to substance rather than the superficial. This includes reading widely, probing deeply, seeing with discernment, rejecting the false, learning the facts. In short, thinking!

Isaiah 53

I love music! Choral music, instrumental music, popular music, classical music...folk tunes, ballads, country western and bluegrass...the patriotic and romantic. For me, music is a must.

Like you, I have my favourite hymns—the ones that hold some special meaning for me or evoke grand and vivid memories of significant events. Invariably, those things pass in mental review as I become "lost in wonder, love, and praise" in my worship.

1 Samuel 16:7; Matthew 5:5