Pastor Tom's Daily Devotional

Ephesians 6:15 (NKJV) And having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Our next piece of armor is for our feet.  This verse says to have our feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace.  The Gospel is GOOD NEWS.  We are to proclaim this good news that Jesus gave us to share.  Again, it is the Word of God that is good news. Jesus said in Luke 4:18-19, “The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed; 19 to proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD." Jesus brought out that the gospel was to heal the sick, help the poor, bring liberty to the captive, and to proclaim God’s “Year of Jubilee.”  The true Gospel of Jesus Christ must be a Gospel of good news.  In this great Gospel, we are to pray for the sick, p...

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. Yesterday, we looked at our waist being girded with truth. Today, let us look at the next piece of our armor, which is the breastplate of righteousness. The breastplate was the piece of armor that protected all of the vital organs. This piece of the armor protected the soldier’s heart, lungs, stomach, liver, etc. Without this piece of armor, the soldier was open to a quick hit by a sword, arrow, or stone, but with his breastplate on, when the enemy brought an attack to his chest area, it would bounce off. For us as Christians, when we have our breastplate on, we are protected from the enemy's attack. So what is this piece of armor for us? It is the righteousness of Jesus. The Scripture states in 1 Corinthians 1:30, “But ...

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...