Pastor Tom's Daily Devotional

Luke 13:16 (NKJV) So ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has bound—think of it—for eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath? As we look into the works of Jesus, we see here how the religious community did not care that this woman was bound.  They only cared about their religious order.  Well, Jesus shook up their order and showed where this sickness came from. Jesus puts it out pretty clearly who bound this woman.  Many would say "Well, God must be trying to teach her something through this sickness," but here Jesus says that it was satan that had bound up this woman, and that it was God’s will that she be free.  When things come against us (and things will come against us as long as we are in this fallen world), the first step to victory is to know where it is coming from. Jesus put the blame where the blame was due.  Satan had bound this woman, not God, our loving Heavenly Father.  There is no s...

Acts 10:38 (NKJV) …how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him. As we continue to look at the heart of God, we see in this verse that God was working, through Jesus, to bring healing and good to humanity.  Jesus was anointed by God, with the powerful Holy Spirit, to go and heal.  He also showed us that healing is good.  I do not know about you, but when sickness comes against me or someone I love, I never see it as a good thing.  I never say, “God must be trying to teach me something through this.” No!  We have an enemy of God who is coming against us, and God has given us His Word and the blood of Jesus to fight him and defeat him. In Revelation 12:11 it says, “And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death.”   We overcome the ...

James 1:17 (NKJV) Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. Yesterday, we looked at the verse in John where Jesus said, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father.”  We brought out that God, our Heavenly Father, is accused of doing many things that, according to what we see in the New Testament, do not line up to His way of acting. In this verse in James, it says that every good and perfect gift comes from God.  Well even I, with my little brain, can figure out that sickness and calamity is not good.  It is like when people lose their home through a tornado, or a flood, or whatever natural disaster, people try to tell us that this was God’s will.  Not according to what we read in the New Testament! When sickness invades us, we need to remember that Jesus said, “He who has seen me has seen the Father.”  I can never find Jesus putting sickness on...

John 14:7-9 (NKJV) “If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; and from now on you know Him and have seen Him.” 8 Philip said to Him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us.” 9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?” When we read the New Testament, it shows us a different picture than what the world, or religion, tells us.  In these verses, Philip asked Jesus a simple question, yet the answer should change the way we see God, and help us to better understand where bad things come from. Philip asked to see the Father that Jesus was always talking about, and then Jesus said, “He who has seen me has seen the Father.”  Well, by reading this, we can say that what Jesus did while He walked the earth, is the same thing that the Father does. I never saw Jesus put sickness on a person, so I ...

2 Samuel 22:29-30 (NKJV) For You are my lamp, O LORD; the LORD shall enlighten my darkness. 30 For by You I can run against a troop; by my God I can leap over a wall. Many times, we try to do things that are not possible to do in our own strength.  But when we put our trust in God, our Father, He gives us the power to run against the enemy, and to leap walls that are too high for us to leap over. When young David came against Goliath, he did not let Goliath run at him.  Instead, he ran against him.  Why was that?  Because he knew Who his God was, and what his God could do. He knew the covenant of his God, so he came with boldness against the enemy. We have a covenant with our God through Jesus Christ, and if He wants you to run at the enemy, you can!  If he wants you to leap over a high wall, you can! The Bible says in Philippians 4:13, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." Jesus is our strength, and He is our abi...

2 Samuel 22:18-20 (NKJV) He delivered me from my strong enemy, from those who hated me; for they were too strong for me.19 They confronted me in the day of my calamity, but the Lord was my support. 20 He also brought me out into a broad place; He delivered me because He delighted in me. God, our Heavenly Father, takes great delight in us.  Many times we do not believe this because of the mistakes we make, or because of our wrong self-image.  But here He states that, "He also brought me out into a broad place; He delivered me because He delighted in me." When we see ourselves the way our Father sees us, and change what we speak about ourselves, we will find out that God does delight in us, and that He created us for fellowship.  He created us to enjoy Him, and He to enjoy us. When there is a good relationship between a father and child, or a mother and child, there is nothing like it.  It is the same way with us and our Heavenly Father.  He wants t...

Psalms 55:12-14 (NKJV) For it is not an enemy who reproaches me; then I could bear it. Nor is it one who hates me who has exalted himself against me; then I could hide from him.  13 But it was you, a man my equal, my companion and my acquaintance.  14 We took sweet counsel together, and walked to the house of God in the throng. There are times in life when we are hurt by others.  We know that things like this happen.  Then there are times when we are hurt by a fellow brother or sister, and that is when it really hurts. In this portion of Scripture, we see that the Psalmist is hurt by someone who was close to him, and he felt the pain of it. This someone even worshiped with him.  Wow!  That hurts. So what are we to do?  As always, we must forgive, because forgiveness frees us and frees them.  When we live a life of forgiveness, it gives us the power to grow in God’s grace. Even on the cross of Calvary, Jesus, our Lord a...

Psalms 55:6-7 (NLTSE) Oh, that I had wings like a dove; then I would fly away and rest!  7 I would fly far away to the quiet of the wilderness. There are times in life when we want to do what this Psalm says, and that is to fly away from all our problems and be at rest.  But one thing that we find in life is that when we run from our problems, they seem to never go away.  We might get away from them for a few days, and sometimes even longer, but they always seem to come right back, and at times, worse than they were. So what are we to do if flying away is not the answer?  We need to face our fears and problems, not in our own strength or our own ability, but by God’s Spirit.  Zechariah 4:6 says, “’Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ says the LORD of hosts.” We need to face our problems in the strength of our God!  He knows the answer, and He wants to deliver us from all of our fears.  Jesus told us that in this world we wo...