Pastor Tom's Daily Devotional

Romans 14:10-13 (NKJV) But why do you judge your brother? Or why do you show contempt for your brother? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. 11 For it is written: "As I live, says the LORD, Every knee shall bow to Me, and every tongue shall confess to God." 12 So then each of us shall give account of himself to God. 13 Therefore let us not judge one another anymore, but rather resolve this, not to put a stumbling block or a cause to fall in our brother's way. Many look at these verses and say, “What a scary day that is going to be, to stand before Christ and give an account for our lives.”  But we need to remember one thing: All of our sins are washed away because of the blood of Jesus!  You see, when you received Jesus as your Lord and Savior, His blood, and His work on the cross, made you the righteousness of God, in Him. So what does this mean?  In the Greek, this word judgment seat is talking about the bema seat, or the ...

John 20:11-17 (NKJV) But Mary stood outside by the tomb weeping, and as she wept she stooped down and looked into the tomb. 12 And she saw two angels in white sitting, one at the head and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain. 13 Then they said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping?" She said to them, "Because they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid Him." 14 Now when she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, and did not know that it was Jesus. 15 Jesus said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?" She, supposing Him to be the gardener, said to Him, "Sir, if You have carried Him away, tell me where You have laid Him, and I will take Him away." 16 Jesus said to her, "Mary!" She turned and said to Him, "Rabboni!" (which is to say, Teacher). 17 Jesus said to her, "Do not cling to Me, for I have not yet ascended to My Father; ...

Colossians 1:15-18 (NKJV) 15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. 17 And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. 18 And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence. When we look at Jesus, do you know Who we see?  We see the Father God!  Jesus is Almighty God in the flesh.  It is so hard for us as humans to see God, because He is a Spirit, but when Jesus put on flesh and became like us, we could see God.  Now we could understand Him. So what is God like?  He is everything that Jesus is like.  Jesus never made one person sick.  He only went about doing good and healing all that were opp...

Matthew 27:50-51 (NKJV) And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and yielded up His spirit. 51 Then, behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth quaked, and the rocks were split. John 19:28-30 (NKJV) After this, Jesus, knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, said, "I thirst!" 29 Now a vessel full of sour wine was sitting there; and they filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on hyssop, and put it to His mouth. 30 So when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, "It is finished!" And bowing His head, He gave up His spirit. As Jesus was dying on the cross, at just the right moment, He yielded up His spirit.  He took all of our sins and shouted, “It is finished!”  What was going on?  Well at this moment, the high priest was in the temple killing the lamb for the Passover, and the true Lamb of God was being given for the world.  The high priest took this lamb, k...

Proverbs 3:5-6 (NLT) Trust in the LORD with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. 6 Seek His will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take. Trusting in our Father God should be as simple as a child trusting his father.  As Jesus said, except we become as little children, we will not see the kingdom of God.  But what happens in life is that we have many disappointments and let-downs, and with that comes a lack of trust. Our Father God will never let us down.  He is faithful and He is true.  This verse puts our relationship to our Father on a heart-to-heart level.  This verse states that we are to trust Him with all of our heart.  One thing that I have found out is that my mind can get in the way many times, but if I keep my heart on Him, all is going to come together. I love how verse 6 says to “Seek His will in all you do.”  Too often people say, “Well, I would do God’s will if I knew what it wa...

1 John 1:9 (NKJV) If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. I am always so amazed when I think of the complete work of our Heavenly Father.  He knew us so well, and He knew that even with all of our sins forgiven and washed under the blood of Jesus, we would still make mistakes and when we did, we would feel the guilt and condemnation of those sins. We need to understand that once we received Jesus as our Lord and Savior, all of our sins, past, present and future, have been washed in His blood and they are gone!  When we do sin, it can make us feel like we are separated from God, however, He does not separate Himself from us.  When we ask Him to forgive us, it gets us back into fellowship. God has taken care of everything for us and has made confession a way of saying, “Father, I am sorry.  I messed up again, and I ask you to forgive me.  I do not want this sin to h...

Deuteronomy 6:4-5 (NKJV) Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one! 5 You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. God wants you!  That is right.  God wants you to have an intimate relationship with Him.  He does not want just one part of you; He wants all of you.  Think of what you get in return.  You get a fellowship with the Creator, the One that made you and me!  He wants all of us so that we can have all of Him.  Now when I say all, I know that God is so huge that it is not possible for any of us to have all of Him, but He wants us to have all that we can handle of Him. This verse tells us that God wants us to love Him with all of our heart, and all of our soul, and all of our strength.  Well, that is all of us, so my Father wants all of me.  He loves me so dearly that He wants the complete person, and even with all of my shortcomings and all of my di...

John 13:34-35 (NKJV) A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. 35 By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another. Oh, the goodness of God!  When He laid aside the law and gave us a new commandment, it took away all of the guilt, the shame, and the condemnation.  You see, God has now given us the greatest commandment, and that is the commandment of love. I do not know about you, but I would rather have two commandments than hundreds.  And the amazing thing is that when I choose to walk and live in love, all of the rest just happens!  The law condemned us, but grace has lifted us up.  Grace gives me the empowerment to live out the entire Bible! So many people try to live the Bible standards in their own strength, and they fall flat on their face, and then feel like failures and leave the faith.  When we choose to do it the New Tes...

Romans 5:8 (NKJV) But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Think about this verse for just a minute.  While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.  If Christ would die for me while I was still a sinner, how amazing is His love for me now that I am redeemed and in Him?  The Bible shows us so clearly this great love of God, that no matter what, we cannot get God, our Father, to stop loving us. In John 3:16 it says, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”  Whoever!  Not perfect people, not people that do everything right, but people just like you and me; people that wake up and make a mess of their day.  These are the people that our Father loves. Now, do not get me wrong.  Each and every day we want to become more like Jesus.  We want to live a life of holiness....