January 28, 2024

THE GIFT OF GOD

Romans 6:23

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Encouraging Words

Salvation is not really about us at all. We are the recipients of a gift given by God through Jesus Christ our Lord. It is a gift that wipes out our sins; past, present, and future. We receive it gladly and yet continue to sin. It really is all about God and His love for us, His mercy poured out upon us and His compassion toward us even when we continue to sin against Him. He is the one that we must always put at the center of salvation. Glory be to God!

January 27, 2024

Saint of the Week

St. Gregory the Theologian

January 26, 2024

COMPASSION AND MERCY

Psalms 103:8 (102:8)

The Lord is compassionate and merciful,
Slow to anger, and abounding in mercy.

Encouraging Words

We live in a world that has become so full of anger and hatred. It is encouraging to know that our God, our creator, is compassionate and merciful. He loves all of His creation and desires that we love Him and each other. The way to counter the anger and hatred in this world is for us to imitate our God by loving Him and loving our neighbor, showing godly compassion and mercy. Glory be to God!

January 25, 2024

SLAVES

Romans 6:17-18

But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered. And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.

Personal Challenge

Slavery is a tough concept for us to embrace. We are blessed to live in an age where it is not acceptable to engage in slavery even though it still happens in many forms. It is the impact of slavery that Paul is writing about here and how, even today, we are either slaves to sin or slaves to righteousness. Through Christ we have been delivered from the slavery that sin held on us and are now slaves of righteousness, which is a good thing. Glory be to God!

January 24, 2024

BLESS THE LORD

Psalms 103:1-6 (102:1-6)

Bless the Lord, O my soul,
And everything within me, bless His holy name.
Bless the Lord, O my soul,
And forget not all His rewards:
Who is merciful to all your transgressions,
Who heals all your diseases,
Who redeems your life from corruption,
Who crowns you with mercy and compassion,
Who satisfies your desire with good things;
And your youth is renewed like the eagle's.
The Lord shows mercies
And judgment to all who are wronged.

Encouraging Words

Those of us who are followers of Christ have so much to be thankful for. By following Him we become joint heirs with Him in all things, both earthly and heavenly. We become adopted children of God. God is merciful to us even when we transgress against Him. He heals our diseases, both physical and spiritual. He redeems our life from corruption and makes it pure again. He crowns us with His mercy and compassion. He satisfies our desires. He renews us and shows us mercy. Blessed be the Lord, O my soul!

January 23, 2024

ALIVE TO GOD

Romans 6:11-12

Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts.

Personal Challenge

Paul charges us to be alive to God in Christ Jesus by being dead to sin. This is an ongoing process that we need to do in order to make it true in our lives. We must learn to put our body and its desires to death every moment of every waking minute in order for it to be alive in Christ. Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy!

January 22, 2023

WHEN WILL YOU COME TO ME?

Psalms 101:2 (100:2)

I will sing and understand in a blameless way;
When will You come to me?
I walked in the innocence of my heart in the midst of my house.

Personal Challenge

David was a man after God's own heart and yet there were times in his life that he called out to God asking Him where He was. We will always have times in our lives where it feels like God has distanced Himself from us. This is never the case. He never leaves us or for sakes us. It is us who distance ourselves from Him. The key to keeping close to God is to always be seeking Him, reaching out to Him, worshiping Him. Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, the sinner!

January 21, 2024

NEWNESS OF LIFE

Romans 6:3-4

Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

Encouraging Words

In our baptism we were buried with Christ. How is this encouraging? Because the rest of the process is that as we came up out of our baptismal waters, we were raised with Christ from the death that had its grip on us. We now are alive in the newness of life in Christ and should live our lives that way. Praise be to God!

January 20, 2023

Saint of the Week

St. John Chrysostom

January 19, 2024

GIVE THANKS TO GOD

Psalms 100 (99)

Shout aloud to the Lord, all the earth;
Serve the Lord with gladness;
Come before Him with great joy.
Know this: the Lord, He is God;
He made us, and not we ourselves;
We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.
Enter into His gates with thanksgiving
And into His courts with hymns;
Give thanks to Him; praise His name;
For the Lord is good; His mercy is everlasting,
And His truth is from generation to generation.

Encouraging Words

There is nothing that I can add to this psalm of thanksgiving. Glory be to God!

January 18, 2024

THE LAW AND GRACE

Romans 5:20-21

Moreover the law entered that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more, so that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Encouraging Words

By Adam and Eve, sin entered the world. As time progressed, mankind continued to sin. We were given the law to establish an awareness of our sin and to magnify how much we had wandered away from God. Through Jesus Christ God's grace was poured out on mankind so that we might know and see God. Jesus perfectly fulfilled the law, which opened the flood gates of God's grace so that all of mankind might be able to participate in righteousness and eternal life through Jesus. Glory be to God!

January 17, 2024

GOD'S DELIVERANCE

Psalms 97:10 (96:10)

You who love the Lord, hate evil;
The Lord keeps the souls of His saints;
He shall deliver them from the hand of sinners.

Encouraging Words

We are charged by the Psalmist to hate evil. This does not mean that we hate those who do evil things because all of us do evil things sooner or later. We hate the evil and love the sinner for that is what God does. The important part of this verse is the reminder that God keeps the souls of His Saints, His believers, in His protection and delivers from the evils of the world. Glory be to God!

January 12, 2024

SIN ENTERED THE WORLD

Romans 5:12-13

Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned— (For until the law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law.)

Personal Challenge

The challenge with embracing the concept of original sin is that it gives me the excuse that I sin because Adam and Eve sinned. Through Adam and Eve sin entered the world and broke the perfect creation of God. Adam and Eve are responsible for that sin and are accountable to God for it. However, now that sin has entered the world, I have the propensity to sin, When I sin it is because I choose to and therefore, I am fully responsible for that sin. That is why I need Jesus. Jesus did His great work so that I can be forgiven of my sins and through a relationship with Him, learn how to choose not to sin. Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, the sinner!

January 11, 2024

GOD'S ENCOURAGEMENTS

Psalms 94:19 (93:19)

O Lord, according to the abundance of grief in my heart,
Your encouragements consoled my soul.

Encouraging Words

God is so great. He knows us so well that He knows the level and type of encouragement that we need to console the grief within our heart. Our part of this relationship with God and His outpouring of encouragement is to be constantly seeking Him so that we can see His encouragements. Glory be to God!

January 9, 2024

NO GREATER LOVE

Romans 5:8

But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Encouraging Words

There is no greater love that one can have for another than to give their life for them. When the one who is receiving this gift does not deserve it, then that love is magnified. This is what Jesus did for us. He loved us so much that He became a human being, lived a sinless life, and then died a horrendous death for us. Why? So that we could experience eternal life with Him. Glory be to God!

January 8, 2024

NO WRONGDOING

Psalms 92:15 (91:16)

So as to proclaim, “The Lord my God is upright,
And there is no wrongdoing in Him.”

Encouraging Words

God is God and I am not. God is perfect in all aspects, and I am full of imperfections. God does nothing wrong or sin and yet I do all the time. Despite my imperfections and sinful life, He loves me fully and perfectly. For this I am very grateful and blessed. Glory be to God!

January 7, 2024

LOVE OF GOD POURED OUT

Romans 5:1-5

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. And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope. Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

Encouraging Words

I love all the active verbs in this passage revealing to us that our God is not passive in His relationship with us. Look at this list...

     justified by faith
     we have peace
     we have access by faith
     into His grace we stand
     rejoice in hope
     glory in tribulations
     knowing
     tribulation produces perseverance
          perseverance produces character
               character produces hope
                    hope does not disappoint
     love of God poured out, given to us by the Holy Spirit

Glory be to God!

January 6, 2024

Saint of the Week

St. Isaac the Syrian

January 5, 2024

HE HOPED IN GOD

Psalms 91:14-16 (90:14-16)

“For he hoped in Me, and I will deliver him;
I will shelter him, because he knew My name.
He shall call upon Me, and I will hear him;
I am with him in affliction,
And I will deliver and glorify him.
With length of days I will satisfy him,
And show him My salvation.”

Encouraging Words

The psalmist points out so many things that will happen in our lives when we put our hope in God. God will deliver us through every trial and tribulation of life. He shelters us. He lets us know Him. He hears us when we call out to Him. He is with us in our hard times. Again, He delivers us and even glorifies us. He satisfies us. And most importantly, He shows us His salvation. Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, the sinner!

January 4, 2024

BELIEVE AND BE BLESSED

Romans 4:5-8

But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness, just as David also describes the blessedness of the man to whom God imputes righteousness apart from works:

“Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven,
And whose sins are covered;
Blessed is the man to whom the LORD shall not impute sin.”

Personal Challenge

We are blessed by God, not for the things that we do, but for how we believe in Him. It is by our faith in Him that we receive His blessings. It is because of our love for Him and our appreciation of His blessings that we do works for Him. Living this way always puts God at the center of everything, which it should be. Glory be to God!

January 3, 2024

OVERSHADOWED AND ENCIRCLED

Psalms 91:4 (90:4)

He shall overshadow you with His shoulders,
And under His wings you shall hope;
His truth shall encircle you with a shield.

Encouraging Words

It is amazing, when you think about it, that the almighty God, who holds all of creation in the palm of His hand, chooses to overshadow, encircle, and protect each and every one of us. He loves us that much. The imagery of the protective mother hen covering up her brood to protect them from the storm or the predator is so appropriate. Thank you. Father, for your love and protection!

January 2, 2024

WE NEED JESUS

Romans 3:23

for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

Personal Challenge

No matter how you look at it, if we desire to someday see God in heaven, we need Jesus. He is the only one who ever lived a sinless life. He is the only one who, being God, became a human being in order to connect humanity to God. He is the only one who gave His life for those of us who will always fall short of the glory of God. Jesus is our salvation. Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, the sinner!

December 31, 2023

DWELLING IN GOD

Psalms 91:1 (90:1)

He who dwells in the help of the Most High Shall lodge in the shelter of the God of heaven.

Encouraging Words

Throughout the scriptures, especially the Psalms, we are reminded that we can dwell within the help and the presence of our God. This dwelling means living and resting in Him. By doing this we are blessed with His shelter, protection, and love. This is a choice that we must make every moment of our lives, for it is only us who can wander away from God. Praise be to God!

December 30, 2021

Saint of the Week

St. John Climacus