Author: Nick

“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; all who follow his precepts have good understanding.  To him belongs eternal praise.” Psalm 111:10 NIV Rose and I attended the second session of Fear of the Lord last night. This series is excellent with a very good workbook for follow up study. If you missed the first two sessions, I greatly recommend you join us for the remaining sessions. Todays’ devotional is not based on that series. It takes a slightly different perspective on fear of the Lord. I would like to think about boundaries. We set boundaries for our children. Don’t touch the hot stove. … Don’t run into the street.  Show respect to other people. These boundries often don’t make sense to the children they are designed to protect. But we set these boundaries because we love them and want those things we know are best for them. As parents, we are in a better position to know what’s in their best interest. God in his love has set boundaries for us, his children. It is popular to consider that these boundaries are arbitrary and old-fashion. Modern man believes he is wiser than God. Yet,the wisdom […]

And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according go his purpose. Romans 8:28 How else may we get more of Jesus in our lives? We can do so if we embrace God’s purpose for our life single-mindedly and wholeheartedly. We drift from Jesus when we drift in our lives. Successful athletes are similar in their single minded focus. Everything they do has the improvement of their game in mind. The first step is to gain a clear sense of God’s purpose for our life. We share the same general purpose of serving Him and living for His glory; but each of us has an individual purpose which He will reveal to us if we patiently listen to His voice. We can never achieve satisfaction if we don’t know our purpose. Once we know our purpose, anything that doesn’t move us toward that purpose is useless. Stay focused on what God wants for your life, and do all you can to fulfill that purpose well. This move toward the purpose then guides every decision in our lives. Should I sleep or pray more? Should […]

As we continue to consider how to get more of Jesus in our lives, the area of prayer seems obvious. If communication is the grease of any relationship, then prayer should be a significant part of our relationship with Jesus. Our prayers change as our relationship develops. When I recall my first date with my wife of forty-one years, the ease of communication is the thing I remember most. I did not have a ton of experience with the opposite sex and had always had a high level of discomfort in talking to girls. It was never that way with Rosemary. We spoke spontaneously and continuously since our first date. Our communication with Jesus (Prayer) doesn’t always begin so easily. We may start with formula prayers. Many Christians never get past prayer as a request. Prayer is so much more than asking God for stuff.  When we talk about answered or unanswered prayer, we sometimes forget that “answers” presupposes questions. Too often we seek a result from God rather than placing a problem before Him and awaiting His resolution. There’s a couple of reasons for this. First, we think we already have the best answer to any problem, we […]

Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said,    “Never will I leave you;  never will I forsake you.” Hebrews 13:5. I wasn’t lonely last night. In fact, we had so much activity I forgot to do the devotional for today. Jessie and KK were preparing for their trip to Florida and Nicky was over spending the night.  But there are times when we feel alone. It is said we are born alone and die alone. Is that really true?  As Christians we should never feel alone, because we never are. Jesus has promised to never leave us or forsake us. It’s interesting that this promise comes in the same verse as a warning for us to be free from the love of money and content with what we have.  When we buy things we don’t need or suffer discontent with our lives, isn’t it really just a symptom of our loneliness? We try to fill a hole in our soul that only Jesus can fill. If we can just develop a sense of His presence and a confidence that He is with us, loneliness flees as does […]

In more than 40 nations around the world today Christians are being persecuted for their faith. In some of these nations it is illegal to own a Bible, to share your faith Christ, change your faith or teach your children about Jesus. Those who boldly follow Christ—in spite of government edict or radical opposition—can face harassment, arrest, torture and even death. Yet Christians continue to meet for worship and to witness for Christ, and the church in restricted nations is growing. In America we are too timid to mention Jesus, freeze at the idea of sharing our faith, and turn a blind eye to growing hostility toward Christianity in our society. Be willing to stand out and speak up for Jesus in all areas of your life, and with whoever you meet. Take a strong public stand for the uniqueness of who Jesus is; for the truth of the entire Bible; and for the necessity of living a life of integrity, purity, and humility in order to please God. Rather than living a lifestyle that simply blends in with that of non-believers, show people the difference that your relationship with Jesus makes in your attitudes and actions. Pray for […]

I love my great grand daughter. She’s easy to love, most of the time. I don’t get any “brownie points” for that. Our challenge is to love those who are difficult to love: the person who gets under our skin at work, the ones who believe differently than we do, the smelly, dirty, and obnoxious, and, of course, our family. In case you raised your eyebrows at that last one, think about it. Those closest to us are often the most difficult to love just because they are closest to us. We are always near them; there’s no getting away from them. We know them too well. We know every little irritating thing about them. Finally, no one can hurt us like those we love.  For these special love challenges we need help. We can’t love them on our own. We need more of Jesus to love these hard cases. As you give Jesus more of your heart, He will fill it with more of His love, and that will overflow into the lives of the people with whom you interact each day.  This concept of love is far more than modern concepts of love. This love is not […]

Yesterday we consider that more of Jesus’ dirt in our hands, more service, is yet another way of getting more Jesus in our lives.  What if we serve, but see no fruit? That’s a vine problem. It won’t help to try harder, pray harder or extend our service borders. Fruit is the product of a healthy vine. Spiritual fruit is produced by a good connection, read that as relationship, with Jesus.  Fruit is produced by the Holy Spirit. Jesus is the Vine and we are the branches. A vine produces well if it is consistently expertly pruned, buried in good soil, with proper sun and water. We need to be willing for God to prune those things from our lives that sap energy from our fruit-producing function, that could be anything but our relationship with Jesus. God is the great vine tender. He knows what needs to be pruned. Be careful about trusting your own judgment or those of others on this point. Listen for His word and yield to His pruning touch.  As the branch spends more time grafted into the vine, the branch begins to look more like the vine and produce richer and sweeter fruit. If […]

For most of us, nothing is less appealing as a way to get more of Jesus than getting our hands dirty. Jesus came as a servant, not the head servant but the lowest servant. Cleaning the feet of visitors was, and still is, the job of the lowest ranked slave in a household. So when Jesus performed this task, it was a startling example to the disciples. One of my favorite stories is about the seminary student who was considered by his classmates as “least likely to succeed.” He had a speech impediment. He was last in most of his classes. It took him months after graduation to get his first job. At the first meeting at his new tiny church, he couldn’t be found until someone located him in the back of the room, feeding a quadriplegic by hand.  He’s a great pastor today. We need to live with a service attitude. We need to wake each morning considering whom and how we can serve. If we are honest, this is completely contrary to the way we live. If we consider service, we think of it as something we do when we complete everything we have to do […]