Devotionals

“[There is] therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus,…” [Romans 8:1 NKJV]

Bros how many times has even the enemy used condemnation to blunt us in our walk, our ministry efforts, and our personal devotion in our lives to the Lord Jesus Christ? I know it is a nonstop barrage of assaults of varying degrees to condemn us in every aspect of our lives and most importantly to us as Christians, in our Christian faith. The sin that dwells in and of our flesh will have us to believe-even using our own mind and flesh to condemn us in our spirit of our sin nature, and our inability to comprehend that we are indeed in Christ and the flesh is dead but the weakness and ability to still commit sin even in our present state as born again, Bible believing, evangelical Christians is still present. We desire not to sin but our flesh is weak in that it cannot keep the flesh in check and control our sinful desires even though we walk as repentant sinners, and have received Christ we wrestle with sin within our very nature. We love the law of God but the law could not keep us from sinning we have this battle going on inside us warring against the law of our mind and the law of our members wanting to bring us into captivity to the law of sin and we feel condemned knowing that we feel that there is always this evil that is present and we are helpless to deal with it. But thanks be to God for sending our Savior Jesus Christ who condemned sin in the flesh and who Paul tells us this; “[There is] therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus,…”[Romans 8:1 NKJV]

Paraphrasing Paul here; who will deliver us from this body of death? We may feel condemned and have this insistent battle in the sin members that war against the law of God. But thanks to God through Jesus Christ our Lord that with our mind we serve the law of God and we are washed and cleansed of this, but in this with our flesh we serve the law of sin. Thank you Lord Jesus that because of You paying for our sins we are not condemned because of this wretched flesh that is always and has always been on a path to condemn us in that we are not able to keep the law and also as we struggle daily not being able to keep the law of our mind. Yet knowing there is not anything we could do to take away that condemnation to make us righteous. But you did indeed take that condemnation away from us and because of You and through You we are no longer condemned because we are in You and You are in us and we are no longer in the law but in Christ. The jus is we are free from the law and free in Christ- amen!

“For the wages of sin [is] death, but the gift of God [is] eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 6:23 NKJV)

Bros what a payday for the wages of sin-death! Amazing how crafty the enemy is to lead astray so many to their death making most sins seem so pleasurable for a fleeting moment all the while a step closer to the guillotine. Notice how clever the trickery to lure one into sin, to make the deed as fun as possible for a season and then the terror sets in from that liberty that has been abused to many times to count and has taken ahold of a person’s life. It seems there is some sort of magical line that gets crossed. You stay behind that line for a time of great miserable pleasure during which you are somehow deceived into continual use of that sin liberty until you have been there long enough where you cannot say no, or stop from taking that liberty that seemed so fun and pleasurable. Then you cross over the line from where it was fun and pleasurable for a season to where you are in absolute terror from this sin thing that’s got a hold on you, hating it becomes easy, trying to stop doing it seems impossible. The sin becomes merciless in holding you down as you beg for mercy then the sin doubles down on you to completely incapacitate you to the point of complete and utter hopelessness and destruction… And now since you are on this payroll you can see your final paycheck coming staring at you day in and day out, you can feel it in your soul as the life is sucked out of you one sin at a time until you have received your wages for all the sins that seemed so fun and that boss “momentary pleasure”-death is his name!

Bros if you are like me I know you are glad to be off that payroll and to have escaped that death grip your old boss had on you and to have received the gift of God that is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. What a contrast between life and death. A never ending blessing that we did not earn, cannot buy it because it is a free gift and definitely do not deserve it- but it is the ultimate gift from God eternal life in Christ Jesus-amen!

“My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand.” [John 10:27-28 NKJV] 

Why would we ever want to go back to the old boss of our souls (don’t be tempted) when we have been given this free gift of eternal life in Christ Jesus…

“No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God [is] faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear [it].”[1Corinthians 10:13 NKJV] Heed wisdom from the Lord- amen!

“Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one's slaves whom you obey, whether of sin [leading] to death, or of obedience [leading] to righteousness?” [Romans 6:16 NKJV]

Bros sin or obedience-we will be a slave to one or the other… one leads to death the other to righteousness! We all have to make a clear choice, no middle ground here; never will one foot in the church and one foot in the world be acceptable as obedience. But it’s an easy choice to make, we all know the right choice of who we want to be slaves to, but the commitment part is hard. If we have truly been set free from sin slavery by the only One that has that power to set us free- then is not Jesus our Master and whom we are  obedient to and a bond slave to? To be a bond slave we were made slaves by choice to obedience, but our flesh fights us all the way on that choice, every day, and every situation.

I believe we have to look to the master of our life or the master of whatever the choice we have chosen to follow and live our life for that master. I would rather be ruled by the love of Jesus Christ- following obedience leading to righteousness than ruled by and given over to bondage of slavery to the demonic forces of the evil one that leads to death… which is pure hell. I believe for most of us- we have chosen righteousness. If then we take it- our choice of obedience leading to righteousness to Him, our Master who owns us then there really is no choice but to follow Jesus all the time in every decision. It’s not like we have to think about it, we know what’s right in pleasing the Lord, He showed us the way-laying down His life for us, shedding His innocent blood to redeem us. He is who we serve and want to be obedient to-but our flesh wrestles against us and manipulates us with thoughts, physical attractions and temptations that are coming at us all at once like a thousand rounds from a machine gun… In the twinkling of an eye we can be presented with the decision “sin or obedience” a thousand times a second. Love the song “I have decided to follow Jesus” how appropriate and right is this song title to latch onto in our thoughts when we are faced with a barrage from the enemy. Just to have that obedience woven into our heart and this mindset on auto-pilot that there is no other choice we made our mind up to follow Jesus, to be obedient to His calling, to His Word, to His ways… My sheep hear me… "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. [John 10:27 NKJV] Bros if you hear the Lord and He knows you then is He your Master? If so the choice is clear follow Him in everything, don’t present yourselves to another master- amen!

“But now having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life.” [Romans 6:22 NKJV]

“And do not present your members [as] instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members [as] instruments of righteousness to God.”[Romans  6:13 NKJV]

Bros have you ever noticed that when you are meeting someone maybe for the first time that it makes a difference if you let them know you are a Christian. Sometimes it changes the direction of conversation and also implied conversation. In other words when you present yourself as a Christian right from the beginning most of the time the other person will not try to drag you into some ungodly conversation or perverse joke or coarse dialog. I believe in a similar way this scripture is saying the same thing to us: that right from the get-go we present ourselves as instruments of righteousness-being alive from the dead, turn to God first, honor God first, don’t allow yourself (your members) to be presented in unrighteousness first, in other words do not allow yourself or make yourself available to sin or unrighteousness choose life over death… reckon the old man dead on arrival, present yourself alive from the dead and available to God first. Then you will not give opportunity for your members to control you and present you as an instrument of unrighteousness and take you in a direction you do not want to go but rather make available yourself or present yourself to God first. The old man is dead quit resuscitating him, take him off life support permanently, quit making this another episode of the “night of the living dead” or some zombie like in the Sci-Fi’s that won’t die! Stop introducing the old man first and trying to bring him back to life again and again- but let it be known first that he has been crucified with the flesh, no longer available- he is dead and buried and gone! So present your members to righteousness first and make available yourself to His power and victory over sin and then you won’t go that direction of perverseness or ungodliness but as an instrument of righteousness to God-amen!

“Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.”(Romans 5:9 NKJK)

Bros just a gentle reminder as I was thinking about the fact that we have been justified by His blood, saved by His great love for us, by His awesome mercy and by His unending grace. Also realizing we are completely and totally His; because He first loved us and justified us! Who then could separate us from that kind of love-His love? “Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.”[Rom 8:37 NKJV] We overcame wrath only because of His great love for us to justify us by His blood that was surely shed and He did save us from that wrath that was certainly ours…Much more then; His blood washed us and makes us clean from our sins, His innocent blood that was shed for us sinners, He suffered and died so we could have life much more abundantly and live for eternity with Him, in His great love we were brought near, by His blood-the cost that justified us He was the only acceptable payment! “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.”[Ephesians 2:13 NKJV]

Much more; He saved us and delivered us from wrath that we surely deserved. But know and believe that he did this while we were yet sinners; that He laid down His life and shed His blood even before we received Him into our hearts. To spare us from that wrath that would have surely come were it not for us being justified by Christ blood that was shed on Calvary for us- you and me. Jesus whom God has raised from the dead just as Jesus raised us from the sure death path we were headed for in our sins being caught up in our sinful flesh that had a death grip on us. As we look to Jesus our deliverer from that wrath to come now and forever... “and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, [even] Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come.”[1Thessalonians1:10 NKJV] Bros there is more, much more; “For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.  And not only [that], but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.”[Romans 5:10-11 NKJV] Reconciled to God through the lover of our soul Jesus!

Even so there is much more. “He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?” [Romans 8:32 NKJV]

Bros don’t let it be this much more though, speaking of this verse- “But now after you have known God, or rather are known by God, how [is it that] you turn again to the weak and beggarly elements, to which you desire again to be in bondage?” [Galatians 4:9 NKJV] 

We have received Salvation through Jesus and deliverance from God’s wrath not to go backward but move forward and upward in Christ’s love, mercy and grace we have been justified by His blood and saved from wrath-amen! Mortify; ask the Lord to mortify the flesh today if it is in the way, so that you may have that much more abundant life in Christ!

"The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have [it] more abundantly.” [John 10:10 NKJV] Christ Jesus gives us life-much more abundantly-amen!

“Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.” (Romans 5:1-2NKJV)

Bros, even though we truly are sinners we have been set free from the death sentence that comes with those sins we did commit, by believing in Christ we are justified, to be rendered righteous by faith, nothing we could do or had to do on our part except believe and receive! We receive peace with God- no longer at enmity with God, no longer separated-but sanctified and set apart for His purpose, His use. Justified by faith, opens the door to all of God’s blessings. Without being justified by faith we would not have the key to the kingdom of God. But being “justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ through whom also we have access by faith into this grace.” Faith giving us access into this grace, unmerited favor from God by believing in Jesus Christ. Count me in bro! When we realize what a great gift this grace is and all we have to do is believe and we are justified by our faith in Him and that gives us access by faith into this grace. It is born merely by the love of God which has no birthdate other than the moment when we receive justification by faith-which was there in the waiting and requires no effort on our part; it’s just a condition of Gods unconditional love for us. And His love is incalculable by any measure or standard of accounting and there is always a never-ending abundant supply. We are declared righteous by the fact that God in His grace allows us through faith to receive His grace. We can find this grace through faith-praise the Lord for His grace-amen!

“Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Corinthians 1:3)

“He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God, 21and being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform (Romans 4:20-21NKJV).”

Bros,

 What a great witness of faith in God Abraham is to all of us as believers this should inspire our faith to even greater depths. He was promised something that sounded impossible and must have been so ridicules to many at the time especially because of his age nearly one hundred years old. And also the fact that he did not have any children previous to this announcement. Can you imagine those close to him were probably thinking Abraham better keep this to yourself-folks will think you are nuts if word gets out that you and Sarah were told you are going to have a child… Forget about it dude you are past your time… I like what the preceding verses said “17 (as it is written, "I have made you a father of many nations") in the presence of Him whom he believed--God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did; 18 who, contrary to hope, in hope believed, so that he became the father of many nations, according to what was spoken, "So shall your descendants be." 19 And not being weak in faith, he did not consider his own body, already dead (since he was about a hundred years old), and the deadness of Sarah's womb.”(Romans 4:17-19 NKJV) May we be fully convinced of the fact that God calls those things which do not exist as though they did, and that as the Creator of every living thing He has the power and authority and dominion over every aspect of our lives, there is not one thing He overlooks or doesn’t care about or does not know about us. Bros we see such great faith in Abraham- the kind of faith we need to have especially knowing He loves us and created us. Because of this we belong to Him and should be Fully Convinced to trust Him in every decision we are up against and every area of our lives that we obey Him, believe in Him and not waver from the truth of His Word and our faith in believing that He is God and our Creator; by faith believing without seeing-amen

“Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance (Romans 2:4 NKJV)?”

Bros when you think of God, do you think of the vastness of all the reserves that He has of His goodness, His patience, His tolerance, His forgiveness, His mercy, His constant longsuffering and His endless grace? I love the fact of knowing that God is so good, His love and goodness towards us will never run out. His never ending goodness towards us that is why we turned to Him in the first place-because of His great love for us. God did not need to get us in a headlock or beat us relentlessly over the head or pistol-whip us into submission to repent and follow Him-He led us to Him by the riches of His goodness! And here Paul tell the Jews in the preceding verses that the Jews were told they were inexcusable, those who judge others, whatever they judge-they condemn themselves; that they practice the same things they judged others of doing. They thought they were good enough by their works-but it the goodness of God that saves. The Jews lived by the law so they expected all to follow the law to the tee and yet they were incapable of following it or maintaining it perfectly. Both the moral and the religious Jews failed to meet Gods standard. So they were judging others when they were guilty of the same and so Paul lays out for them that the judgment of God is according to truth against those who practice such things. He says to them do you think you will escape the judgment of God when you who are judging are yourselves practicing the same things? They could never be righteous on their own or live up to the law or their own standards- let alone Gods standard yet they imposed that on everyone else. They need God’s righteousness! Definitely something for us to think about here; when God is so good to us do we despise the riches of His goodness by judging others, knowing God was longsuffering and so patient with us? And knowing by what Paul shared with the Jews that God judges according to truth, works and impartiality, he drove home these points about them doing the same things they judged others of doing- he asked them do you think you will escape the judgment of God?  The goodness of God leads you to repentance; I pray that neither you nor I would ever forget that fact. The goodness of God-amen!             

Now Judas and Silas, themselves being prophets also, exhorted and strengthened the brethren with many words (Acts 15:32 NKJV).”

Bros, at the beginning of Acts 15 it says certain men that came down from Judea and tried to teach the Gentiles that they had to be circumcised according to the customs of Moses before they could be saved, this caused great dissention and dispute with Paul and Barnabas. So Paul, Barnabas and others went up to Jerusalem to bring this question to the apostles and elders as they came together to consider this matter. Peter then reminded them that a good while ago God chose by his mouth that the Gentiles should hear the word of the Gospel and believe. So he said the following in reference about the bad teaching in which the Gentiles had to be circumcised first in order to be saved-“So God who knows the heart, acknowledged them by giving them the Holy Spirit just as He did to us, and made no distinction between us and them, purifying theirs hearts by faith.”

So it was understood to them that it is by grace through their belief in Jesus Christ that all shall be saved, not just some, but all! So it pleased the apostles and elders to send out chosen men to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas, namely Judas and Silas. So when they got to Antioch and got through straightening out the mess of bad teaching by certain men that came down from Judea about being circumcised and keeping the law. They “exhorted and strengthened the brethren with many words…” The thing I think is so cool about this is that Judas and Silas took the time as did Paul and Barnabas, they ministered to the brethren, they stayed there a while. That’s what ministry is all about exhorting and strengthening the brethren. Bros, you see if we could do that right now in our place in history, slow down this fast paced, getter ‘er done ministry mentality we sometimes can get caught up in and let God use us to minister to and encourage and strengthen the brethren around us on and in His time not our fast paced record breaking time. Can you imagine if we were not always rushed and took more time to exhort and strengthen the bros around us with many words? What would God do in and through you by His Holy Spirit? That is what they did at Antioch, teaching and preaching the word of the Lord with many others. I guess what I am saying is this is how this verse spoke to me is that we should spend more time encouraging other bros and less time rushing around from ministry opportunity to ministry opportunity it would be more edifying for the brethren and us too-Amen!

“Peter was therefore kept in prison, but constant prayer was offered to God for him by the church (ACTS 12:5 NKJV).”

Bros prayer is our most powerful weapon, more powerful than any flesh could wield… Why? Because it is our direct communication to the Lord and when He hears our prayers it is the most powerful thing that we can do- is bring our plea, our need, our heart before our Father in heaven. As a Father when I hear the needs of my children I want to always help and deliver them in their need anyway I can as their father knowing my ability is limited at best, but always trying my best… But God doesn’t have to try His best-He is the Best and is unlimited in His ability to do anything and everything to help His children as He sees best. The constant prayer that was lifted up for Peter by the church proved to be a powerful answer from God by proving how powerful our God is and how powerful prayer is and encouraging us all to never give up lifting up our prayer to the One who is able to do exceedingly abundantly more than we could ever ask… “Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us (Ephesians 3:20 NKJV),”

Bros I met a bro about ten to twelve years ago through another bro who we are both friends with, about four to five years ago he told me he had a son in prison for life, and asked me to pray for him. So I put him on my prayer list and have faithfully prayer for this man’s son. My prayer was that Gods would use him, encourage him and strengthen him in prison because he was leading Bible studies in prison and men were coming to the Lord through his ministry. So my prayers continued for Gods Holy Spirit to minister in and through him there in prison knowing he would never get out. Last month at a men’s conference I ran into this bro and let him know I was still praying for his son and asked him how his son was doing- he pointed behind me to a man whose back was to me and said he is right there…! I asked him again thinking he didn’t hear me correctly, he again said he’s right there behind you. So once again thinking he was talking about maybe another son or could not hear me because of the all the talking and music in the background. Finally I said bro I am talking about your son the one who is in prison! He said he is right there behind you, the governor gave him a pardon seven months ago. I was blown away, here was a man sentence to life in prison and now free after almost twenty years of being incarcerated. He had been teaching Bible studies five to six times a week in prison and many receiving Christ though this ministry. While in prison sentence to life, this bro did not tattoo his body up-which is a miracle, this bro read the Bible from Genesis to Revelation twenty-one times, memorized verbatim fifteen books from the New Testament, and wrote a 57 page Writ of Habeas Corpus for a fellow Christian and inmate that had been incarcerated for seventeen years that helped him get released. Upon His conversion of becoming a Christian denounced his gang affiliation that had made it known the only way out of their gang was death- but they let him out… Bros you see the church was praying for this bro, their constant prayer to the Lord and God heard and answered. We ought never become discouraged when time goes by- but wait on the Lord and keep praying! Don’t lose hope but put your hope, faith and trust in the Lord, keep praying- “Constant Prayer” amen!