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Devotions
These devotions were originally posted on LovenGodLovenPastorsWives. The dates that they were posted are included with some of the devotions. We hope that you enjoy these devotions. They are free for your use, we do ask that you give us the credit for writing them, and also link back to this website. However, we cannot control, that and it is your own conscience that will have to govern that. ~Dave and Cindy~
Facing the Midnights
Acts 16:25 And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God: and the prisoners heard them. 26 And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken: and immediately all the doors were opened, and every one's bands were loosed.
I pray that you are never beaten, arrested, and thrown in prison for preaching the gospel in demonstration and power as Paul and Silas were, but I do know that you will face a "midnight" some time in your life. I feel that we can learn a very valuable lesson from these two men of God. What we do in our midnight, determins what happens in our suddenly. Paul and Silas could have done several things in their midnight, but as they prayed about their circumstance their trust in God caused them to break out into spontaneous praise. I call it free worship. It is a song of praise that is not written but simply flows from the heart of the believer. I am not taking away from the power of prayer, but we need to learn not only to pray when our midnight falls but, by faith, to praise God for the suddenly that is about to happen in our lives. Yes God has promised to answer our prayers, but He promised to inhabit our praise. When Paul and Silas began to praise God, He was bound by His word to show up and when God showed up He began to show out. He shook the place, loosed the bands of the prisoners, ministered to the physical needs of His servants, and even saved a household of people. And just think, just a finger snap before their suddenly there was absolutely no evidence that anything was about to change. Ain't God awsome?!!! Remember "weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning" and suddenly comes in a snap of the finger. Praise God. Pastor Dave.
Sowing
April 27th
Mark 4:3,14 Hearken; Behold, there went out a sower to sow: The sower soweth the word.
It is no accident that we can find scripture that deals with every aspect of life. When God inspired the Word to be written, He covered all the bases. Just as a farmer plants corn to get corn, the Word is sown into the soil of our hearts for the specific purpose of bringing forth fruit in our lives. But, have you ever done the math in this well known parable? Only one-fourth of the seed sown brought forth fruit that reamained. I have often wondered why that was. Could it be that we take the word of God too lightly? After all, shouldn't the infallible Word of God work more than twenty-five percent of the time? Well good news! It does!! The problem wasn't in the seed, but in the soil. The majority of the field was unprepared to receive the seed. It was unworked, thorny, and stoney. Now Cindy and I live in farming country and the farmers here prepare their fields for the seed before the first seed goes into the ground. The fields are unworked from the off season, so they plow as much of it as they can, leaving as little wayside as possible. This also takes care of much of the thorns and weeds that have grown during the offseason. They will also spray herbasides on the field to take care of the weed problem at the root. And if you are familiar with northern Arkansas at all, you will know that getting rocks out of fields is just a part of life. So as the farmers here determine the condition of their fields they are also determining the amount of their increase. The same is true with us. As we determine the condition of our hearts, we determine the amount of increase the word brings in our lives. Jeremiah 4:3 tells us to "Break up your fallow ground, and sow not among thorns." Paraphrased that is, "make sure the seed of the Word falls on good ground." Then give God all the glory as He begins "confirming the Word with signs following" in your life. Pastor Dave.
Coming into the Presence of God
Psalms 100:4 Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise: be thankful unto Him, and bless His name.
For years we have quoted this verse and we have sang this verse, but have we ever really considered this verse. In this one verse of scripture we are given the fool proof method of coming into the
very presence of God. Just at a glance we can see the abundance of praise contained here, but as we dig into the truth of this verse praise becomes overwhelming. "Come into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise:" both refer to praise that is not just confessed with the mouth but is sung. Remember the rusult of Paul and Silas' song of praise in the Philippian jail? The song is right when it says, "When the praises go up the glory comes down." We are told that God "inhabitest the praises of Israel" (Ps22:3) and it is the sung praise that He inhabits. Watch the transition of praise to worship when we get into the royal courts. "Be thankful unto Him" means to give thanks true enough, but it also means to cast down, refering to humility. When we get in the presence of God there comes a reverance that causes us to humble ourselves before a holy God and confess His greatness. Finally as we "bless His name" we kneel in our humility and the transition is complete. We've gone from praising God for what He has done, to worshiping Him for who He is. And this is what the Father is seeking, for His children to "worship Him in spirit and in truth." Oh let us "be thankful unto Him, and bless His name." Pastor Dave.
The Knowledge of His Will
May 12th
Colossians 1:9-11 For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work,and increasing in the knowledge of God; Strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness.
For years I have taught to pray scriptures, and what an awesome scripture this is to pray. It begins by asking to "be filled with the knowledge(Strong's #1922 precise and correct knowledge) of His will." Oh that we might know precisely what God wants to do in us and through us. How exciting to start a ministry and know that you know that you know, that is exactly what God wants done. Not only will God give you knowledge of His will, He will grant "all wisdom and spiritual understanding" to cause that knowledge to be accomplished. Verse 10 should be our hearts cry, "that we might walk worthy of the Lord" and constantly be "pleasing" to Him. That as His will is done in our lives we would be "fruitful in every good work," and that we should not only increase in the knowledge of His will but "increase in the knowledge of Him." Think of the confidence that comes with the knowledge that we are "strengthened with all might acccording to His glorious power." Man what a load off of our shoulders when we realize that it is God's will and that He will bring it to pass not by our power, or our might but by the power and might of His Spirit. And as we pray for God's will to be revealed and accomplished in our lives we should remember to pray for "all the patience and longsuffering" that God can pour on us, otherwise we will miss out on the "joyfulness" that comes as a result of this prayer of faith. So if you begin to feel that God is showing you new things He wants done, and begin to feel an increase of anointing on your life, know this. As Paul prayed for the Colossians, I'm praying for you this week, so hang on and let God be God! Pastor Dave
The Measure of Faith
May 26th
Luke 8:25 And he said unto them, Where is your faith? And they being afraid wondered, saying one to another, What manner of man is this! for he commandeth even the winds and water, and
they obey him.
God has "dealt to every man the measure of faith" we will need to face every circumstance of life. Whether physical, spiritual, financial, or imaginary we have all been given the faith to overcome the obstacle. Here in Luke we are made to face the question, when engaged in the battle, "where is your faith" I know that our immediate response is "Oh my faith is in the Lord." But is it really? When the rubber meets the road, and our ship is not just filling with water, but is taking on water and there is no storm in sight, "where is your faith?" As free moral agents God has given us the responsibility of deciding where we will place our faith. The thing we must realize is that faith is singular and we can only place it in one location. When Jesus taught on faith in Luke 17:6 He said it was "as A grain of mustard seed." So is our faith really in Jesus or is it in ourselves or our friends, or our church, or...... the possibilities are endless. If we are to see God manifest a miracle in our lives we are going to have to learn to trust solely in Him. We are told six times in the Bible that the Lord is a "jealous God" and the "jealous God" that we serve will not honor faith that is shared with another. So when the storm hits and our boats fill with water, just before we call out to Jesus, let us locate our faith and consciously and
decisively place all our faith in him.....
Pastor Dave
Holding Fast
Hbr 10:23 Let us hold fast the profession of [our] faith without wavering; (for he [is] faithful that promised;)
If one verse of scripture could sum up prayer it would
have to be this one. Everytime that we call on the
name of the Lord in prayer we are professing by faith
that God is able and willing to answer our request just
as He has promised in His Word. We are to make this
profession to God that He may cause the answer to mani-
fest itself in our lives, to ourselves to build our
faith in God for this request, to others that God would
receive glory as He answers the request, and even to the
devil that we might "overcome him by the blood of the
Lamb and the word of our testimony". Here the writter of
Hebrews is encouraging us to "hold fast to that profes-
sion of faith", and to remember that God who "promised"
is "faithful" to fulflill. When we couple this verse with
"Hbr 10:35 Cast not away therefore your confidence, which
hath great recompence of reward. Hbr 10:36 For ye have
need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of
God, ye might receive the promise." we may better
understand that the writter is encouraging us to (1) never
doubt God who is faithful, (2) don't question our faith
because God has given us "the measure of faith" needed
for the circumstance, and (3) dig our heels in for the
long haul and continue to submit to the will of God for
our lives. So let us hold fast the profession of our
faith without wavering; for He IS faithful that promised.
Pastor Dave.
Continually in Prayer
June 1
Acts 6:4 But we will give ourselves continually to prayer,and to the ministry of the word.
John Wesley said, "This is doubtless the proper business for a Christian
bishop: to speak to God in prayer; to men in preaching His word, as an
ambassador for Christ."
The word that we, as pastors, preach to men must be bathed in prayer.
By that I mean we must first of all pray to hear the word that God wants
preached at this time, this place, and for this people. Pray for a ''timely
word." We must pray that this "timely word" will come alive in us and
change our lives, as we study it and do the same in the lives of the congre-
gation as they hear it. All to oftenwe stop praying for a "truth" once we
have delivered it in a message. We mus be careful to better steward the
word God gives us for His people. Yes we need to pray for the next
word, but we must continue to pray that the word we have delivered will
affect the life of the hearer. Let us give ourselves to prayer and ministry of
the word, giving God the opportunity to confirm His word in our lives, and
the lives of those he has entrusted us with.
Pastor Dave
The Joy of Service
Psalms 92:4,5 For thou, LORD, hast made me glad
through thy work: I will triumph in the works of
thy hands. O LORD, how great are thy works!
and thy thoughts are very deep.
What a joy it is indeed to be in the service of
God doing the work He has called us to do.
However, all too often we get caught up in our
own agendas, or maybe someone else's agenda, and
the work of ministry becomes a drudge. Why is that?
Because we are then trying to triumph in the work
our hands and not His hands. As ministers and
leaders in the Church, we must make a conscious
effort in each season or stage of our lives to do
that which God wants accomplished in that season.
When God gives vision He will sometimes show us
what lies down the road but that is not what He
wants done right then. There are two things that
hinder us in this endeavor. (1) We tend to skip a
season and try to do things out of the timing of
God. For instance to get into my house I must
first walk through my yard. If I don't go through
that yard it doesn't matter what I want done in the
house, "it ain't gonna happen". (2) We often
busy ourselves doing what God hasn't called us to do.
When we learn to regularly bring forth fruit in it's
season we will then know what the psalmist meant to
be "made glad through THY work", and we will rejoice
as God gets the glory as we "triumph in the works of
HIS hands". And here is a little something to take
the pressure off. It is His work and He is the one
who is going to accomplish it, we are simply the
tool He has chosen to use. Be glad in His work and
God bless you. Pastor Dave.
August 10,2002
Possessing our Vessels
1Th 4:4 That every one of you should know how
to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour;
Vessel was a Greek synonym for body. We know
that God can "save our soul" and that our spirit
can be "born again", but we must realize that we
have to learn to "possess our vessels" or "control
our bodies or our flesh". Each day that we live
on this earth outside forces will try to effect
our lives and make deposits in us. After awhile
these deposits will "fill" our vessel with
whatever it may be, good or bad, and effect our
character and our actions. Here is the importance
of "possessing your vessel" or controling what you
allow to remain in you. Here are some examples
from Spripture of this truth: Luk 4:28 And all
they..were filled with wrath,; Luk 5:26 And they
...were filled with fear,; Luk 6:11 And they were
filled with madness; Act 13:45 But when the Jews
saw the multitudes, they were filled with envy,.
Let us learn to "possesa our vessels" and be filled
with: Act 13:52 And the disciples were filled with
joy, and with the Holy Ghost.; Eph 3:19 that ye
might be filled with all the fulness of God.;
Phl 1:11 Being filled with the fruits of righteousness,
Col 1:9 ye might be filled with the knowledge of
His will; Let's determine now what we will allow to
fill our vessels thereby molding our character and
actions to the glory of God. Pastor Dave
His Truth Endures to all Generations
Psa 100:5 For the LORD is good; his mercy is
everlasting; and his truth endureth to all
generations.
We are invited to praise the Lord in v4, and
given something to praise God for in v5. Praise
the Lord for His goodness, His mecy, and His
truth. As a child of God we know that the Lord
is good, and we continually thank Him that His
mercy is indeed everlasting, but notice what the
psalmist says about God's truth. His truth
endures to all generations. Just recently this
jumped out at me. God's truth endures. It
doesn't just continue to last, it holds up
under attack. For years, even centuries, the
truth of God's word has been attacked. It has
been attacked from without the Church by cults,
philosophers, and heathens, and from within the
Church by "liberal Christians". (That phrase is
kinda like "jumbo shrimp", I'm not sure there is
such a critter.) Despite the attacks, the truth of
God's word has endured. God's word is just as sure
and just a true today as it was when the Holy Ghost
first spoke it to those "holy men of God" (2Peter 1:21)
who then wrote it down for "all genreations". Yes
with each new generation there will rise those who
will dispute the word of God, but with each new
generation, God will raise up those who will know,
that they know, that they know, that the word of God
is not just true, it is truth. May we do a better
job of evangelizing each generation than the enemy,
and may we hold fast the truth of God's word.
Pastor Dave
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