Devotions

Psalm 33:12-15: “Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD, the people whom he has chosen as his heritage! The LORD looks down from heaven; he sees all the children of man; from where he sits enthroned he looks out on all the inhabitants of the earth, he who fashions the hearts of them all and observes all their deeds.”Reflection:The opening verse of this passage, “Blessed is the nation whose Go

"'Return, O faithless sons; I will heal your faithlessness.' 'Behold, we come to you, for you are the Lord our God.'"-Jeremiah 3:22The words of the Lord can pierce our hearts when we are convicted as faithless. We may sometimes believe that we are walking in faith, when in reality the Lord sees us as faithless.  Yet He is full of unending love and mercy with the promise to heal our waywardness, gi

"But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, 'God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.'  Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom.

If you want to see a miracle, what should you do? It’s a question that children in Sunday school could readily answer: Ask God, and have faith. This message runs all throughout the gospels, in the numerous healing accounts in which Jesus says, “Your faith has made you well,” “Be it done to you according to your faith,” or something similar, and in His explicit and repeated teaching on the subject

"Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need." -Hebrews 4:16 When faced with the weight of our own failures, sins, and weaknesses, it seems there are two choices–either confess and reap external consequences or refrain from honesty and reap internal consequences. The cost of keeping these things secret seems far les

"Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God, for He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and He relents from sending calamity." – Joel 2:13Aristotle outlined three appeals that writers use to persuade their audiences: logos, ethos, and pathos. Consider how parents might strive to motivate their children to improve their behavior or to walk in

"When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my F

"But when he came to himself, he said, “How many of my father's hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants.”’ And he arose and came to his father. But while he was still a l

"Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Amend your ways and your deeds, and I will let you dwell in this place. Do not trust in these deceptive words: ‘This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord.’" -Jeremiah 7:3-4I grew up in a family with roots in the military. My father worked as an engineer on satellite systems for the Air Force during the Vietnam Wa

“Come, let us return to the LORD; for he has torn us, that he may heal us; he has struck us down, and he will bind us up. After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will raise us up, that we may live before him. Let us know; let us press on to know the LORD; his going out is sure as the dawn; he will come to us as the showers, as the spring rains that water the earth.” -Hosea 6:1-3These

"If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land." -2 Chronicles 7:14King Solomon had completed building his magnificent temple to be a house for the Lord. Remember all those years that the children of Israel were wandering in the wilderness, with a taber

Seek the Lord while He may be found; call upon Him while He is near; let the wicked forsake his way,and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the Lord, that He may have compassion on him, and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon.. -Isaiah 55:6, 7, ESV Prayer is a marvelous gift that the Lord has given to us, allowing us the privilege of entering into His presence for the purpose

Zechariah 8:20-23 (ESV) “Thus says the LORD of hosts: Peoples shall yet come, even the inhabitants of many cities. The inhabitants of one city shall go to another, saying, ‘Let us go at once to entreat the favor of the LORD and to seek the LORD of hosts; I myself am going.’ Many peoples and strong nations shall come to seek the LORD of hosts in Jerusalem and to entreat the favor of the LORD. Thus

Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket, and are accounted as the dust on the scales; behold, he takes up the coastlands like fine dust… All the nations are yet as nothing before Him, they are accounted by Him as less than nothingness and emptiness. - Isaiah 40:15,17 In these verses, the prophet Isaiah magnifies the incomparable greatness of our God, putting the importance of our nation