Devotion
Is the end nigh? Who cares?
David Jacobs
In 70 A.D., the Jews saw their revolt against the Romans as the Battle of Armageddon. 300 years later, the Bishop of Tours claimed that the end times were going to be arriving any day now. 1,000 years later, The Black Plague was making its way around Europe, as the world proclaimed that this was certainly the end! 500 years down the line, hundreds of thousands of American Christians lined up for an event that would later be known as 'The Great Disappointment'.
Had they read 2 Peter 3, they would have realized that God takes no joy in destroying His creation, and is certainly not as fickle as the false prophecies like to imply.
Many have lived in their idea of 'end times', and have been convinced theirs will be the last. Yet God has stated that only He knows. Our job is not to be obsessed with Mayan calendars or British star maps. God has reserved the difficult task of judgment for Himself. All that is asked of us is that we come to repent. Everything else is but an egotistical distraction.
Prayer
Only God decides when this day will come; it could be tomorrow; it could be a thousand years later. But He has made His promise, and so He waits. 'For what?' We might ask. We do not know. We do not need to. But we know it will come, and we know God does not delight in denying His own children into His Kingdom, so make the Lord happy; repent! Repent while you still have today.
Night Prayer
Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.
Inspiration
Sin rules our lives until we accept Christ as our personal Lord and Savior. When we invite Him into our lives, our old sinful heart dies, and God creates within us a new one, where sin no longer rules our life; God does! Our thoughts and actions begin to change because we no longer desire a sinful lifestyle. We joyfully devote our lives to serving Him and inviting others to understand His promise of salvation.
Prayer
Dear Lord, we are sinners born again and recreated to live according to Your will. We are grateful for Your love and the peace we experience by abolishing our old sinful self. In Jesus' Name, Amen.
Devotion
Satan Has Been Defeated
Frances Taylor
Salvation and power have come with Christ and Satan has been defeated. Sin and death have been conquered by the actions of one man, Jesus the Christ, the Son of God, both human and divine who came into the world to bring the Good News of salvation by living, dying and rising for us. As Christians we claim to believe this but our actions sometimes deny it. Unfortunately, people seem to resurrect Satan all the time. We allow him to lead us away from God, forgetting the way to the Father that is love, and giving in to Satan's path of hatred, anger, pride, lust, chaos and destruction.
Satan, of course, doesn't present these as bad things, he makes them seem attractive. He presents sin as goods to be desired, as things to make us happy or give us pleasure. It can be hard to stay on the path that leads to God when the world seems to be crowding us and pushing us off of it. How easy it is to forget the sacrifice that bought our freedom! Which of us ...
Morning Prayer
Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep.
Inspiration
It is right for us to defer to others and to rejoice with others when they have cause to rejoice over some blessing in their life, instead of sorrowing before them over some problem in our life. It is right also to weep with those who weep, showing compassion and feeling for them in their grief instead of "dancing joyfully before those who mourn" as if insensitive to their sorrow.
Prayer
Give me a discerning spirit, Lord, to know when to rejoice and when to weep. Let me show concern for others and their situation and life events instead of just focusing only on my own. Let me show true compassion and genuine joy in the right way and time to others. Amen.
