New Bethel Baptist Church

Archive for August, 2010

Daily Devotion August 31, 2010

The rich man asked Jesus, “Good Master, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?”  (Mark 10:17).  Then Jesus asked him if he had kept the law.  He said yes.  In love Jesus responded, “One thing thou lackest: go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, take up the cross, and follow Me” (Mark 10 21b).  But, the rich man was “sad at that saying, and went away grieved: for he had great possessions” (Mark 10:22).

Jesus let him go.  Jesus didn’t run after him.  And there’s another thing I want you to notice: Jesus didn’t lower His standards.  Is there anything you love more than Jesus?  You must willingly lay it down to be saved.

“Hereby perceive we the love of God, because He laid down His life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.”  1 John 3:16

Copy write: Love Worth Finding Ministries

Daily Devotion August 30, 2010

There are certain things that God is not going to reveal.  And that is good news.  Who wants to believe in a God that they can put in a box and completely understand?  Not me.

You can take a bucket down to the ocean and dip out a bucket full of water.  Everything in that bucket is ocean, but not all the ocean is in the bucket.  Amen?  And with our bucket-size minds, we are never going to know all there is about God.  I’m not.  You’re not.  Nobody is.

Deuteronomy 29:29 says, “The secret things belong unto the LORD our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law.”

“For He looketh to the ends of the earth, and seeth under the whole heaven; To make the weight for the winds; and He weigheth the waters by measure.”  Job 28:24-25

Copy write: Love Worth Finding Ministries

Daily Devotion August 29, 2010

Years ago, I was witnessing to a young lady in Florida.  I asked her if she had received Jesus as her Lord and Savior.  She became teary-eyed and said, “I just don’t seem…no…I can’t do it today. “ I asked her, “don’t you realize that if you don’t receive Him, that you’re going to deny Him?”  She said, “Oh, I wouldn’t deny Him for anything.”  I said, “But there’s no middle ground. “  And yet she refused.

I said, “Before you go, would you shake hands with me?”  And she said, “Well certainly.”  And so I said, “If you’ll take Christ as your Savior, take my right hand.  If you’ll take hell and refuse Christ, take my left hand.” She refused to take either of my hands.

Every person has a choice.  There is no neutral ground.  You are either crowning Jesus as Lord of your life or you are not.  Which is it my friend?

“I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live.”  Deuteronomy 30:19

Copy write: Love Worth Finding Ministries

Daily Devotion August 28, 2010

There was a preacher who kept a painting in his study of a shipwreck.  There were sailors in lifeboats reaching out their hands to people floating on debris from the ship.  A little boy looked at the painting and asked his daddy, “Are those in the lifeboats trying to save those people or are they just shaking hands?”

I wonder about us.  It is all right to have friends; in fact. I encourage you to do that.  But, are you doing more than just socializing?  Wouldn’t it be a shame if all you did was shake the hands of those around you, when you could be serving and showing them the way to God through Jesus Christ?

We don’t pray, live, and witness as if people are dying and going to hell or heaven every day around us.  May God have mercy on us.  The need of the hour is for men and women to have a servant’s heart.

“He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.”  John 3:36

Copy write: Love Worth Finding Ministries

Daily Devotion August 27, 2010

What wisdom is there in dying on a cross?  The Greeks couldn’t understand it, and yet that is the wisdom of God.

God is so wise that the person with the highest IQ cannot figure Him out.  If you could come to God with your intellect, then God is not fair because all of the smart people would have a head start and the rest of us would be left standing in the shadows.  Your spirituality would be based upon your intellect.

I’m so glad that God has “hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes” (Matthew 11:25).  It’s not that God is so high that few can figure Him out; it is that God has placed Himself at such a level that few of us will get down low enough to see God reveal Himself to us.  God is always there.

“But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chose the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; And base things of the world and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are: That no flesh should glory in His presence.”  1 Corinthians 1:27-29

Copy write: Love Worth Finding Ministries

Daily Devotion August 26, 2010

God has imputed His righteousness to every believer.  That means that instead of your sin being on your account, it is His righteousness instead.  Not only has He forgiven us.  Not only has He covered our sins.  But, He gives us His righteousness.

I fail, but God will not impute that to me.  If God were to impute sin to me, then when I fail I would be lost again.  How much sin would it take to make me lost?  Just one half of one sin.

You see, I am not going to heaven because I am perfect.  I am not perfect.  You are not perfect.  No one is perfect.  But we have received Christ as our righteousness.  And in His eyes, we are perfect.

“Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin.”  Roman 4:8

Copy write: Love Worth Finding Ministries

Daily Devotion August 25, 2010

God’s wisdom is supreme.  Now, we know after the fact, but God knows before the fact.  The word “foreknow” is from the Greek word proginosko.  God’s foreknowledge can best be illustrated like the viewing of a parade.

If you watch a parade from the ground level, you will see the floats as they come past one at a time.  But suppose you could go up in a 30-story building and look down upon the parade?  Then, you would not only see the float directly in front, but quite possibly the first and last float.  You now have a different vantage point.

We live in history.  We see events as they come by one at a time.  But, God dwells in eternity.  And He sees the beginning, the end, and everything in between.  And God knows everything.

“For whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. “  Romans 8: 29

Copy write: Love Worth Finding Ministries

Daily Devotion August 24, 2010

Your adversary the devil is prowling about like a rearing lion.  Don’t underestimate his power.

Satan is an enemy you need to respect like an electrician who has respect for the wires that carry deadly voltage.  He knows where the insulation is and he knows how to handle electricity.  If an electrician loses his respect for this power, he is going to be in serious trouble.

Everything may be going great for you right now.  You’ve got money in the bank, a good job, good health.  You’re dancing through the forest and picking wildflowers.  But, behind a bush is a lion so deadly, that he can pounce on you and swallow you whole.  You’ve got to be vigilant.

“Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.”

Copy write: Love Worth Finding Ministries

Daily Devotion August 23, 2010

If we are going to survive in the tough times of our lives, we must learn to submit.  That’s right.  Now, I know that sounds like an oxymoron, but let me explain.

The Word of God teaches us that no one is inferior to anyone else.  We are one in Jesus Christ.  Submission is something we do to one another “in the fear of God” (Ephesians 5:21).  Through submission comes power and victory.

Do you want to know a good definition of submission?  Here it is: Submission is one equal willingly placing himself under another equal that God may therefore be glorified.  We are never more like Jesus that when we submit.  And never more like the devil that when we rebel.

“There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither make nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. “ Galatians 3:28

Copy write: Love Worth Finding Ministries

Daily Devotion August 22, 2010

There are two days that can steal your joy and the fulfillment of today.  One is tomorrow and the other is yesterday.  Both are days in which we as Christians should refuse to live.

So many of us have never learned how to separate ourselves from yesterday.  We are still dragging it around with us and it is stealing our joy.  Paul could have lived there in the realm of guilt, but he refused.

Maybe you, like Paul and countless others, have committed some horrible sins.  But friend, what God has called cleaned, let no man call unclean.  If you have confessed that sin and given it to God, it is buried in the depths.  Don’t let it contaminate your day.  Learn to live in the present.

“Bretheren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 3:13-14

Copy write: Love Worth Finding Ministries