Pastor Tom's Daily Devotional

Ephesians 6:13-14(NKJV) Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. 14 Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness. God wants us to put on His armor so that we are able to stand in the evil day.  When is the evil day?  Well, I would say it is today!  So let us get started by getting this armor on. There is an interesting statement here when it says, “Having done all, to stand.  Stand therefore…”  This is an old military phrase which means that after you have won a battle, be ready to go into battle again.  In other words, never let your guard down.  Always be ready for the enemy to come at you. The first piece of the armor that He talks about is to have our waist girded with truth.  To do this, I need to know what truth is, and the Bible makes that very clear.  Jesus said in John 17:...

Ephesians 6:10-18 (NKJV) Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. 11 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. 12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. 13 Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. 14 Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, 15 and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; 16 above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. 17 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God; 18 praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being ...

Revelation 19:11-16 (NKJV) Now I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse. And He who sat on him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and makes war. 12 His eyes were like a flame of fire, and on His head were many crowns. He had a name written that no one knew except Himself. 13 He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God. 14 And the armies in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, followed Him on white horses. 15 Now out of His mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it He should strike the nations. And He Himself will rule them with a rod of iron. He Himself treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. 16 And He has on His robe and on His thigh a name written: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS. What an amazing portion of scripture!  It gives us a little view of what is going to be happening soon.  Jesus Christ, the King of kings and Lord of lords (and we are those king...

Romans 5:16 (NKJV)  And the gift is not like that which came through the   one who sinned. For the judgment which came from one offense resulted in condemnation, but the free gift which came from many offenses resulted in justification. Romans 5:16 (NLT) And the result of God’s gracious gift is very different   from the result of that one man’s sin. For Adam’s sin led to condemnation,   but God’s free gift leads to our being made right with God, even though we   are guilty of many sins. Wow, what a verse!  Even though we are guilty of many sins, we have been justified because of what God has done through Jesus Christ!  This does not happen one day when we get to heaven.  We are justified now!  We are blameless and accepted in the beloved in God’s sight. Some people believe that when you say things like this, it makes people want to sin.  What I have found is that when you show people the freedom that God has give...

Romans 5:15 (NKJV) But the free gift is not like the offense. For if by the one man's offense many died, much more the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abounded to many. Here in Romans, Paul, by the Spirit of God, shows us the difference between Adam and Jesus.  We see how great the work of Jesus Christ is, and that, even with the fall of the human race, what Jesus did was so much greater! In this verse, we see that the free gift that God gave to us, Jesus, is not like the fall of Adam.  In fact, Paul goes right on to say that through Adam many die, but through the grace of our loving Father, His mercy and goodness abounds to many. Now I do not know about you, but I am sure glad that God’s grace, and not His judgment, is abounding to me.  You see, when a person receives Jesus as his personal Lord and Savior, the blood of the spotless Son of God washes all of his sins away.  God does not see us as poor old si...

Psalm 12:6-7 (NKJV) The words of the LORD are pure words, like silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times. 7 You shall keep them, O LORD, You shall preserve them from this generation forever. When we use the Word of God, we can have confidence that it will do what it says that it will do.  How can we know this?   Because His Word has been tried.  I like how this verse says it: It has been tried in a furnace, purified seven times.  We need to realize that God is not a man that He should lie.  In fact, it is impossible for God to lie!  There is no falseness in Him.  So when God gives us His Word, we can count on it like we would count on the word of a trusted friend.  So, you might ask, what is our part?  Our part is to believe it!  God wants us to take Him at His Word. We see in the book of Hebrews that God was upset with the children of Israel, because they did not believe Him.  They saw al...

Pastor Diane Feola Proverbs 31:28a (NKJV) Her children rise up and call her blessed. I believe God wants us to leave a legacy.  He wants our children to know more than we know, and to go farther than we went.  He wants our children to build on what we have established in our lifetime as parents.  They should be better off because of what we deposited into them! This is especially true spiritually.  When you look at Timothy, you see someone who was influenced by the faith of his mother and his grandmother.  2 Timothy 1:5 says, "...when I call to remembrance the genuine faith that is in you, which dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and I am persuaded is in you also."  Even though Timothy's father was a Gentile, he was strongly influenced by his mother and grandmother.  They deposited something very important in him! Parents and grandparents, you can make a profound influence on your children and grandc...

Romans 5:17  (NKJV) For if by the one man's offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ. Romans 5:17 (AMP) For if because one one man's trespass (lapse, offense) death reigned through that one, much more surely will those who receive [God's] overflowing grace (unmerited favor and the free gift of righteousness [putting them into right standing with Himself] reign as kings in life through the one Man, Jesus Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One). Wow!  Are you reading this?  Because of Adam, death reigned, yet because of Jesus, and His abundance of grace, and His gift of righteousness, we now reign in life!  I like the way the Amplified Bible says it, "We will reign as kings in life through the one Man Jesus Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One)." Jesus is our righteousness.  He is our holiness.  We are righteous, holy, redeemed, and b...

Romans 5:18 (NKJV) Therefore, as through one man's offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so through one Man's righteous act the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life. Romans 5:18 (MSG) Here it is in a nutshell: Just as one person did it wrong and got us in all this trouble with sin and death, another person did it right and got us out of it. But more than just getting us out of trouble, he got us into life! When Adam sinned, the whole world got messed up.  His sin was high treason: giving rulership of planet earth to the outlaw, satan.  We see what happened to the animal kingdom, the plants, and even humans.  Where there was once love one for another, now there is hate.  Where the lion once laid with the lamb, now the lion eats the lamb.  Where plants were once so full of beauty, now we have thorns.  We can dwell on this in life and get depressed, or we can look to Jesus. Adam brou...