Devotionals

“Behold, the days are coming," says the Lord GOD, "That I will send a famine on the land, Not a famine of bread, Nor a thirst for water, But of hearing the words of the LORD.12They shall wander from sea to sea, And from north to east; They shall run to and fro, seeking the word of the LORD, But shall not find [it] (AMOS 8:11-12NKJV).”

Bros we live in a time where Gods Word is heard everywhere on a lot of Radio Stations, TV, Internet and some great Bible teachers are all around us. We have lots of electronic recordings so we can get the Word all the time. Getting the Word and hearing the Word is two different things entirely. God had sent His prophets so His people Israelcould hear His Words that He had for them, but they rejected it, they rebelled. It is like they refused to hear or didn’t want to hear the impending doom coming and repent and turn back to the compassionate Lord. Amos was telling them to prepare to meet your God O Israel. They had been given the three sermons each beginning with Hear This Word on the sin of Israel, past, present and future. He gave them five visions, a picture of the judgment and showed them the judgment of the coming future they did not hear Him… So they got the Word but they did not hear or receive the Word. Bros it can be like that for us we have so much access to Gods Word more than any other time in history, God has given us every imaginable way to get the Word. But if we don’t hear and receive from God’s Word, if we take it for granted or if we refuse to hear and receive the Word or reject what the Lord wants us to hear and receive from Him by maybe not spending personal time with Him in His Word, in prayer, we could be in a famine of hearing and receiving from Gods Word. We are there in the presence of where His Word is taught and read yet we are starving not for lack of getting the Word but hearing and receiving the Word we just might be in a personal famine. Our best avenue to hear and receive the Word of God is to study it ourselves, spend time with the Lord, read the Word, meditate upon it, pray upon it, one on one with God, and ask God to help us to hear and receive from Him today and speak to our hearts as we read and take in His Word and give us ears to hear and receive. "A sower went out to sow his seed. And as he sowed, some fell by the wayside; and it was trampled down, and the birds of the air devoured it. 6Some fell on rock; and as soon as it sprang up, it withered away because it lacked moisture. 7And some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up with it and choked it.8"But others fell on good ground, sprang up, and yielded a crop a hundredfold." When He had said these things He cried, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear!" (Luke 8:6-8 NKJV)!" As our Lord Jesus Christ shared with the multitudes and painted a beautiful illustration of “hearing” in a parable of the soils and how it was heard and received by various people, Amos on the other hand shared the Words of God with Israel and they didn’t want to hear it. The seed is the Word of God. Help us Lord to hear your Words today, to be that good ground that yields a crop a hundredfold- amen!

“When Ephraim saw his sickness, And Judah [saw] his wound, Then Ephraim went to Assyria And sent to King Jareb; Yet he cannot cure you, Nor heal you of your wound. (Hosea 5:13 NKJV)”

Bros judgment was onIsrael because of harlotry or spiritual adultery. They had fallen away and sought other help, false idols, other lovers, other relief, other healing they willingly walked by human precept. They were adulterous in every aspect of their relationship with God; they were cheating on God they thought behind His back… God was willing to forgive them if they would just repent and turn back.

Bros we are the bride of Christ, yet is our life committed and set apart totally to Him alone, are we faithful to our One true love? Are we a faithful bride, is there is any spiritual adultery that is defiling our relationship? “1Come, and let us return to the LORD; For He has torn, but He will heal us; He has stricken, but He will bind us up. 2After two days He will revive us; On the third day He will raise us up, That we may live in His sight. 3Let us know, Let us pursue the knowledge of the LORD. His going forth is established as the morning; He will come to us like the rain, Like the latter [and] former rain to the earth (Hosea 6:1-3 NKJV).”

Lord heal us, restore us if there is anything separating us from You, and have Your perfect way with each one of us-amen!

“O Israel, return to the LORD your God, For you have stumbled because of your iniquity; 2Take words with you, And return to the LORD. Say to Him, "Take away all iniquity; Receive [us] graciously, For we will offer the sacrifices of our lips (Hosea 14:1-2 NKJV).”

Bros God made it so easy for Israelto be restored, His promise- just return to the Lord and say to Him “Take away all iniquity; Receive us graciously, For we will offer the sacrifices of our lips.” No fifty- hail Mary’s, no hoops to jump through, God is so gracious and merciful and He doesn’t make Israel or us in our lives for that matter labor for forgiveness or beat us or make us go through a grueling process. He shows His great love, mercy, patience, love and requires very little of Israeland even us when we need to be restored to a right relationship with our Lord. Therefore by Him when we receive His restoration, His unmerited favor, the expressions of our worship of praise and thanksgiving should be continuous fruit coming from our lips giving thanks to His name. “Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of [our] lips, giving thanks to His name(Hebrews 13:15 NKJV).” Worship means giving something to God, we can give our time, our gifts, our money, our hearts, our minds, our love, our self in service to God and His people and obedience to our Lord & Savior. Worship Him in all circumstances, for all things continually- “giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, (Ephesians 5:20NKJV).” The sacrifice of praise to God –“If he offers it for a thanksgiving, then he shall offer, with the sacrifice of thanksgiving…, (Leviticus 7:12NKJV).” Bros God has even given the words or prayer for Israelto return and receive, how easy is that? They just had to ask God for forgiveness, take away all our sins Lord, receive us graciously, just as the Lord gave us this reminder, this story seems just like us and the Lord might be reminding you or I today to return to me, ask forgiveness, take away all of our sins, receive us graciously. Say to Him, "Take away all iniquity; Receive [us] graciously, For we will offer the sacrifices of our lips (Hosea 14:2 NKJV).” Give praise and thanksgiving to His name today, may the Lord receive lots of fruit from our lips today and everyday He gives us- amen!

“Then Amos answered, and said to Amaziah: "I [was] no prophet, Nor [was] I a son of a prophet, But I [was] a sheepbreeder And a tender of sycamore fruit.15Then the LORD took me as I followed the flock, And the LORD said to me, 'Go, prophesy to My people Israel (AMOS 7:14-15NKJV).”

Bros right before this verse listed above Amaziah the priest told Amos to go and never prophesy at Bethelfor it is the king’s sanctuary and it is the royal residence. To flee to the landof Judahand there eat bread and there prophesy. But when God calls you and God equips you and He puts you where He wants you to be, you can’t but not obey Him. Amos never set out to be a prophet, God took him and made him one…Bros when God calls us and puts us in an area of ministry and for the most part, most folks don’t even set out to serve in a particular ministry. It always seems like we are just serving and doing something where we believe the Lord has placed us,  we have willing hearts that are given over to serving the Lord and are responding to a need and then as we continue to serve we find ourselves engaging and serving in various ministries. And this has happened to me on several occasions and I am sure many of you where you never set out to serve in a certain ministry but now find yourself overseeing a ministry and you find you have a giftedness from the Lord in that ministry that you never knew you had and found a place where as you look and analyze it that God took you there and He placed you there. At first we might think we stumbled onto to some ministry position of serving but as we look over and look back we find maybe a series of what seem like super natural events or circumstances that brought us to that place and we find that God has called us there. We can find no other explanation and we know we belong there because God took us and placed us there. Just as we read what Amos said to Amaziah…? “Then Amos answered, and said to Amaziah: "I [was] no prophet, Nor [was] I a son of a prophet, But I [was] a sheepbreeder And a tender of sycamore fruit.15Then the LORD took me as I followed the flock, And the LORD said to me, 'Go, prophesy to My people Israel (AMOS 7:14-15 NKJV).”

Amos was a sheepbreeder and he tended to fruit trees basically he was a farmer but God called him to be a prophet. Amos sees the nearness of Gods judgment and tries to turn the nation to repentance. So God took a Farmer named Amos and placed him as a His prophet in a nation that was rotting away to desolation and destruction. The point is bros God can place us anywhere He desires and maybe you find yourself in an unusual spot of ministry of serving and might be wondering what you are doing there and maybe you did not set out to serve there, and maybe you can’t figure it out… but if it is answers you want, and need to know then look to the Lord for the answers chances are God placed you there, He took you there! So bros wherever the Lord has you, serve Him with all of your heart, soul, body, mind & strength let Him take you wherever He wants to take you- no better place to be than where the Lord took you- amen!

“Yet I [am] the LORD your God Ever since the land of Egypt, And you shall know no God but Me; For [there is] no savior besides Me.5I knew you in the wilderness, In the land of great drought.6When they had pasture, they were filled; They were filled and their heart was exalted; Therefore they forgot Me. (Hosea 13:4-6 NKJV)”

Bros God expressed His great love for Israel and yet Israel keeps continuing on in sin and sin keeps them from remembering the One who loves them the most, their only Savior, and He blesses them in spite of their sins and promises to restore them. So to like us bros, we get blessed by God, we sometimes forget God, we forget to acknowledge Him, and we forget He is with us always, we forget to thank Him, and we might have a serious issue of lack of gratitude or gratefulness. There is no other God but our God, our Savior. He knew us when we were in those wilderness areas of our life where we felt all alone, separated and far removed from any source of help, solace or comfort that life had dealt us and no one could bring us relief, except our God. We were thirsting for the life sustaining things that seemed could not be found. Yet in the midst of our wilderness and drought experiences God was found with us and He brought great pastures that we grazed upon. We had more abundance than we could ever ask for, we lived in greatness of abundance, and our hearts were full and glad and lofty. We never had it so good and so to in those times of abundance of Gods blessing’s just like Israel never had it so good, God wanted to bless them and restore them and yet they forgot God. Have you ever forgotten your birthday…? Exactly, that is what I thought- how could we forget our Creator? Bros this day may we be thankful and mindful of all that God is doing in our lives, all that He has done and continues to do in our lives and even all that He desires to do in our lives and that He will never leave us. May we never forget to thank Him no matter what the situation, may we be content in all situations God has placed us! ”11Not that I speak in regard to need, for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content: 12I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. 13I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me (NKJV Philippians 4:11-13).” Bros He will never leave us or forget us, so don’t forget God this day! “[Let your] conduct [be] without covetousness; [be] content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, "I will never leave you nor forsake you (NKJV Hebrews 13:5)." Amen!

“[that] at the time you hear the sound of the horn, flute, harp, lyre, [and] psaltery, in symphony with all kinds of music, you shall fall down and worship the gold image that King Nebuchadnezzar has set up;(Daniel 3:5 NKJV)”

Bros I find it interesting that Nebuchadnezzar used music to command and cause all the dignitaries he invited to the dedication of his ninety foot tall gold idol to lead them into the sin of idolatry and false worship at the sound of music at his command. The thing I find interesting about this is that sometimes the enemy can use music to lead us back into times where we might have been caught up in some type of idolatry and false worship or desires of our flesh. Now don’t mistake me and think I am saying that all music is satanic or causes you to worship false idols or anything like that… But have you ever noticed that when you hear an old song maybe from your youth or maybe just a great song that that song you are listening to seems to be able to transport your mind temporarily back to a certain time period or event in your life. And maybe sometimes as you relish the thoughts the music conjures up it can bring you back to a place where maybe you were not following the Lord, doing ungodly acts, yielding to your flesh and leading an ungodly, sinful life. And as you are listening and perusing this song in your mind you find yourself thinking of and putting yourself back into those ungodly things in your minds eye. In a moments time of lack of thought control you find yourself consumed in sinful thoughts of past occurrences and unnoticeably walking in the flesh in your thoughts, pulled in, unsuspectingly lured back into idolatry although innocently enough but none the less brought back to relish in old sin. The enemy is crafty and can use music to his advantage we need to guard our minds and take every thought captive… “…every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, (2Corinthians 10:5 NKJV).” Bros we just need to always be mindful that the enemy is always looking for ways to bring us down like a roaring lion and trap us sometimes with the music we might enjoy! “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour (1Peter 5:8 NKJV).” Meditate on the things of the Lord and don’t allow the enemy to take you back to those former times, days and try to glorify them by putting music to them, the sound of music should not be used to dishonor God and drag us away from Him but used to worship Him and bring honor and glory to Him- amen!

“No one, when he has lit a lamp, puts [it] in a secret place or under a basket, but on a lampstand, that those who come in may see the light (Luke 11:33NKJV).”

Bros you ever notice that maybe it seems like sometimes our light might not shine as it should depending on where we are at or who we are with at any given moment… It is almost as if when we come into those situations where maybe people don’t take kindly to our witness of Christ at work or wherever or there is an intense ungodly environment we find ourselves in or we get taken up in the moment of ungodly course jesting. I don’t know why we fade back or why we shrink away it’s like we have a power outage or like we have a dimmer switch that turns down the light (our witness) maybe on auto pilot or something close to that when we are stowing away the light that is in us and suppose to shine brightly. Jesus put His light in us-If His light is in us it can’t be hidden away or shelved or dimmed down but is to shine brightly for Him. As we read on to the next verses we can see something that maybe we need to consider and heed; "The lamp of the body is the eye. Therefore, when your eye is good, your whole body also is full of light. But when [your eye] is bad, your body also [is] full of darkness (Luke 11:34 NKJV).” If an eye is healthy then all can see the light in it, but if the eye is unhealthy or blind or without the truth the light cannot be there and be seen in the physical sense. But in the spiritual sense could we be a bad lamp, eyes that don’t have the light of Christ in them, maybe there is a darkness that exist in our heart or walk, we are not walking in the truth or being led by Gods Holy Spirit and as a result causes us to not have His light… in other words His light is not shining bright because of some dark cloud or spot hanging over our walk or witness, it has been turned off...

"Therefore take heed that the light which is in you is not darkness (Luke 11:35 NKJV).”

We don’t want to have a tinted shade on sort of like sun glasses on over His light that causes it to appear hidden and not shine brightly. We need to look and see if we have been using the dimmer switch to fade our witness back into darkness and why we would turn off the light that is in us…

"If then your whole body [is] full of light, having no part dark, [the] whole [body] will be full of light, as when the bright shining of a lamp gives you light (Luke 11:36 NKJV)."

If a lamp is dirty you clean it so it will emit bright light, you clean the lamp! Let Jesus shine His light brightly in your heart and repent ask Him to reveal and remove any darkness that may exist so you will be “Full Of Light.” So there will be nothing blocking your witness, no dark spots, pure light, and a bright shining lamp to the whole world that Jesus Christ is Lord and Savior of all- and all will know you have been with Jesus amen!

"So they took Jeremiah and cast him into the dungeon of Malchiah the king's son, which [was] in the court of the prison, and they let Jeremiah down with ropes. And in the dungeon [there was] no water, but mire. So Jeremiah sank in the mire. (Jeremiah 38:6 NKJV)”

Bros can you imagine being thrown into prison or a dungeon no less, actually they lowered Jeremiah down with ropes into the dungeon which was a mud pit- deep mud. How many times we have served the Lord and been so blessed? I know every time I set out to serve God and His people I end up getting so blessed, somehow God reverses the blessing so to speak. We try to point it in one direction and He turns it back on us in some awesome way and blesses both ways and directions. He uses you to bless and serve and then He is blessing you at the same time… How different it must have been for the Prophet Jeremiah serving God and being thrown in prison a few times, his life threaten all the time, persecuted by his own family, plotted against by his own hometown (Homies), he was abused and beaten constantly, arrested and accused of treason, fed only bread and this time he gets lowered into the mire. Cold stinking miserable mud, I imagine this mud was just nasty where prisoners were left to die and maybe there were skeletons deep in that mud when Jeremiah sank into it. The point is Jeremiah was subjected to humiliating, extreme hardships by just speaking God message he was hated, everyone despised him and when it seemed hopeless and all was lost as Jeremiah sank down in the mire that slippery deep pit. God used a eunuch named Ebed-Melech to send word of Jeremiah’s situation to the king. And our King used king Zedekiah to send thirty men with the eunuch so that Jeremiah could be lifted out of the dungeon before he dies. God sent Jeremiah to warn the people to turn back from their sins and idolatry and they did not want to hear it, the messages he delivered were very unpopular and unbelievable how in these twelve graphic messages that Jeremiah gave lists the causes of Judah’s coming judgment and they were ignored. Wow look at all Jeremiah went through to get them the message of prophesy from God, The Lord just wanted to save them- from themselves, for them to repent and to turn back to Him, to forgive them, to give them a future and a hope, He sent His messenger Jeremiah to tell them back in the day, just like He sent Jesus to tell us. Look what they did to His messenger…, God loved them so much He gave them chance after chance but they rejected it. Bros in our present times there may be those who reject God or what He has called us to do or say to them or the message of His forgiveness and sharing His love when we are serving and following God. It seems we only need to remember back to the forerunners of Gods message or the Gospel of how good we have it and no matter what happens to us whether we get blessed or not for serving God or delivering Gods message to the unsaved, whether they reject Gods truth or not- “WE NEVER HAD IT SO GOOD”! We need to remember if we sink or have already sank in the mire of life, or ministry where God has called us that He will lift us out, He will send help in times of trouble. God lifted Jeremiah out of the mire when he sank and He will do that for us wherever we are at He knows the situation. God calls, God sends and He provides even if we get muddy He will lift us up-Amen!

"Thus says the LORD who made it, the LORD who formed it to establish it (the LORD [is] His name): 3'Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know.’ (Jeremiah 33:2-3 NKJV).”

Bros the God of all creation, our Maker, made it, formed it, and established it THE LORD IS HIS NAME. There is nothing He can’t do and as the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet for the second time while he was shut up in the court of the prison, which was in the king of Judah’s house. The Lord told Jeremiah to “Call to Me and I will answer you and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know.” Mighty things those that might seem inaccessible, hidden or hard to get, unreachable, hard to find and remote, these things are Gods promises and they are not hard to find if you know how to access the Throne of Grace and pray. In other words great mercies and promises from the Lord and as Matthew Henry states “Promises are given, not to supersede, but to quicken and encourage prayer. “ God can bring health, He can heal, and He will forgive and He does bless and have mercy on us all. As He had promised on the house of Israel and the house of Judah, if God undertakes the cure or prescribes the cure for Israel and Judah He will make it happen. And Bros whatever cure you may be in need of today if you will take it to God and seek God, turn back to Him, pray to Him and keep praying to Him according to His will God promises to meet all of your needs according to His riches and glory in Christ Jesus. The house of Israel and House of Judah seemed like they were doomed, full of sin and too far gone but God had prescribed a cure and healed them through His covenant & His promise. He said trying to remove His covenant would be like removing the covenant He made with day and night. So try to change the length of day or night or abolish them you can’t- just as you can’t change or abolish the Love that God has for you. He Knows Everything and has given the prescription for all sin and all that ails you and me in life and the promise of that cure that we need is Jesus Christ- amen!

"And behold, a leper came and worshiped Him, saying, "Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean. (Matthew 8:2 NKJV).”

The boldness of the leper is totally awesome, how sick and in pain he must have been! What he is asking seems impossible on a human level or perspective asking to be healed from a dreadful debilitating disease that dooms you for life… That is until you take it to the Lord Jesus, notice he worshiped Him-Jesus first, even as he was obviously greatly suffering from the effects of leprosy; he definitely has the right perspective and reverence worshiping the Lord God no matter how bad the trial, no pity party for himself. He honored our Lord and worshiped Him first; most times we want to get what we ask for first then we worship and honor God. The leper got it right first worshiping, then in humility he says if You are willing You can make me clean. And the Lord responded in such an awesome way that we all would want to hear those words come from our Lord and Savior when we are up against some dreadful debilitating destructive disaster that has come upon us and consumed us and rendered us doomed in our hearts and minds… and then we worship our Lord Jesus and ask “Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.” And maybe we need to feel His touch and hear those same miraculous words that Jesus spoke to this leper, those life resurrecting words, those life restoring, healing words, those loving kind beautiful words, those words that can cause a 180 degree turn around in everything in your life in an instant his countenance was soaring when Jesus said to him “I am willing”

“Then Jesus put out [His] hand and touched him, saying, "I am willing; be cleansed." Immediately his leprosy was cleansed (Matthew 8:3 NKJV).”

Bros whatever you are up against today, if you need the Lords touch and to hear from Him today, if you need to be cleansed, lay it at the cross, worship the Lord Jesus Christ and ask Jesus if He is willing and wait to hear from Him. He has the power to heal, cleanse, forgive, restore, to love, to have mercy, there is no good thing from His perfect will He will holdback from His children whom He loves and they that love Him and follow Him, He says “I am willing” are you willing? Worship the One true and living God today and ask- amen!