Devotion
Joseph
Frances Taylor
Have you ever wondered how Joseph must have felt when he found out that Mary was pregnant? He had plans, he had found a woman he loved and was getting ready to welcome her into his home. But not like this! According to the law, she had committed adultery and the punishment for adultery was stoning. What was he going to do? Joseph believed the angel who appeared to him in that dream and welcomed Mary and Jesus into his home, raising Jesus as his own son. We can learn so much from Joseph. He believed that God had a plan for him and he was ready to accept it. How do we react when our plans don't work out the way we want them to? We can be like Joseph, in love planning our future with the one we love and boom! It could be that he/she decides he/she is not ready for marriage and backs out. Maybe he/she dies. Maybe the wedding takes place and a few years later, it just isn't working. Do we get angry with God thinking he has failed us? What do we do? Joseph is the perfect model. He was willing to accept that God had a better plan for him, trusting him to be father to his Son. God has a plan for us as well. If we are patient and pray, God will show us the path that will lead to happiness.
Prayer
Lord, sometimes we think we know what's best for us and are angry when things don't work out. Grace us with the patience and trust that you will lead us on our road to happiness. Amen.
See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven:
Inspiration
To reject the truths taught in God's Word, spoken by his prophets and apostles and by Jesus Christ his Son, is a grave offense. In the days when Hebrews was written, there were still true prophets in the Church, speaking from God. Today, we have his written Word as our "prophet. " If a preacher preaches truly according to the Book, we are in a grave sin if we reject it.
Prayer
Help me, O Lord, to discern when your Word is being taught correctly and when it is not. Teach me to embrace your truths and love them. Help me to walk in them and meditate on them. Let me not sin in rejecting the plain teachings of the Bible. Amen.
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 ...
