Pastor Tom's Daily Devotional

1 John 5:11-13 (NKJV) And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. 12 He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. 13 These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God. When we accepted Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, everything changed.  Before being born again we were living dead men.  We might have had breath and been able to walk around, but inside we were spiritually dead.  We did not have the life of God within us.  We were living, yet dead. But once we received God’s great gift of salvation, we received His life: the life of God, eternal life.  So many believe that we will receive eternal life when we get to heaven, but according to this verse, we have eternal life now!  The way we received it is by b...

Ephesians 2:10 (NLT) For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago. Have you ever been to a museum or an exhibit for a special work of art?  A few years ago I had the opportunity to go to Italy and see some of the great works of art.  One was the statue of David, and another was the Sistine Chapel.  As I stood there and looked at these great works of art, I was amazed that a person could do something like this.  The artwork had such amazing beauty! Well, guess what?  One day, God is going to eliminate all of these earthly works, but there is one work that He will not eliminate: US!  You see, this verse puts it so straight.  We are God’s masterpiece; we are God’s amazing work!  It is truly amazing that when God, our dear Father, looks at Himself, He sees us!  We are created in His image and His very likeness. There is nothing in the entire...

Ephesians 2:8-9 (NKJV) For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast. Our Father has given an amazing gift to us, and anyone who would believe.  That gift is Eternal Life!  So many are taught that you have to work to receive this gift, or you have to be good enough for God to give it to you, but in these verses we see that it is a gift of God .  I think to myself, “How good do I have to be to be accepted by a holy, righteous God?  How many good deeds do I have to do?”  I have found out that I cannot ever do enough!  What I need to do is trust God, and believe His Word that it is a gift from Him, and it is not of works. Now, if someone gives me a gift and then puts a bunch of requirements on that gift, it is not really a gift.  Why does religion put so many requirements on us for salvation?  According to this verse, and so many oth...

Acts 1:8 (NKJV) But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth. Thank God for the Holy Spirit!  In Him is all power, and He gives us the power to be victorious in this life.  Before Jesus left the earth, He promised us that He would send us another like Himself, and that is the Holy Spirit. In the John 15:26 in the Amplified Bible, it gives us seven names for the Holy Spirit.  It says, “But when the Comforter (Counselor, Helper, Advocate, Intercessor, Strengthener, Standby) comes, Whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of Truth Who comes (proceeds) from the Father, He [Himself] will testify regarding Me.” The Holy Spirit wants to have a big part in our lives, but it is up to us to let Him in.  You might say, “Well, I have the Holy Spirit once I get saved, right?”  Yes you do, but are you acknowledging ...

1 Samuel 30:6 (NKJV) Now David was greatly distressed, for the people spoke of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and his daughters. But David strengthened himself in the LORD his God. Have you ever felt like that?  Maybe you do right now.  It feels like everybody is against you.  It feels like nobody cares and no one would even listen.  Can you picture David here?  He had done so much for this group of people, and now there is a war and their children and wives have been taken captive, and the first thing that they want to do is stone David.  We can feel this way at times.  “I have done so much, and I have gone out of my way to help them, and all I get in return is this abuse.  I have tried my best to help and they took it all wrong, and now they are all mad at me.”  You see, we are all going to have days like this, when people take us wrong, or we know we gave it our best...

2 Timothy 1:6 (NKJV) Therefore I remind you to stir up the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands. In this verse, Paul is talking to his young friend Timothy, and he is telling him to stir himself up. He is telling him to get the fire within him going again.  Timothy, like any of us, needed to get his passion going again, and Paul is reminding him that sometimes you have to stir yourself up. When I used to go camping, one of the treats of being outside was to start a big campfire.  You know, you get that thing going and hang out there with the smell and the flickering of the flames.  But if you just left that fire to itself and did not stir it up, or shake it once in a while, it would go out. It is the same way in the spirit.  Just as you have to shake a fire so it does not go out, you need to shake yourself, also.  There have been times that I have gotten cold in my walk of faith.  It does not even mean ...

Jonah 4:2 (NLT) So he complained to the LORD about it: Didn’t I say before I left home that you would do this, LORD? That is why I ran away to Tarshish! I knew that you are a merciful and compassionate God, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love. You are eager to turn back from destroying people. So many people put the tag on God that He is out to get you.  They think if you make one mistake, He will bring some calamity on you to teach you.  I was taught growing up that God sits up in heaven on a big throne with a lightning-bolt in His hand, and He is just looking for someone to tick Him off and then, look out!  Even insurance companies call a disaster an, “Act of god.”  Well, that is not our God! Jesus told us so clearly in John 10:10 who the destroyer is, and it is not God!  Here it says, “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abun...

Joel 2:28-29 (NKJV) And it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions. 29 And also on my menservants and on my maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days. We are living in a great and wonderful day!  It is a day when God’s Spirit is being poured out like never before!  It is also a day when satan knows that the end is near, and he is trying to steal, kill and destroy like never before.  We can rest assured, however, that the Greater One has won and gives us the victory. God has promised us that His Spirit will be poured out on all flesh, and we are seeing many being saved from all nations.  Nations that would not even let the Gospel in before are now having great revival!  We are seeing this on every continent of the world.  It is a very exciting time to be alive and supporting work...

Galatians 5:16 (NKJV) I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. This is a verse that used to stump me.  How do I walk in the Spirit if I live in the flesh?  Is this some sort of twilight-zone type of walking?  Is this for people who just meditate and live in caves?  Then one day, as I was thinking about this and studying it, I saw that walking in the Spirit means staying occupied with spiritual things . Like a flash, it hit me!  When I am reading my Bible, I am walking in the Spirit.  When I am praying, I am walking in the Spirit.  When I am going to church, I am walking in the Spirit.  I am walking in the Spirit when I am doing what the Bible says, like loving my wife, taking care of my children, working as unto the Lord, and loving God and people. All of a sudden, it got out of the spooky and got to the normal.  I walk in the Spirit every day as I strive to live the way that Go...