Pastor Tom's Daily Devotional

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...

1 John 1:1-4 (NKJV) That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, concerning the Word of life-- 2 the life was manifested, and we have seen, and bear witness, and declare to you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested to us-- 3 that which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. 4 And these things we write to you that your joy may be full. Our life, our fellowship with the Father, is all because of the Son.  When you make Jesus the Lord of your life and His power comes within you, it changes everything!  We can say that it is a “game changer.”  You see, when I try to do things on my own, I only have my own power to help me overcome.  But when I let His life live big within me, I am letting the life of the Eternal O...

Psalm 43:5 (MSG) Why are you down in the dumps, dear soul? Why are you crying the blues? Fix my eyes on God— soon I'll be praising again. He puts a smile on my face. He's my God. We all have days when we are down; days when it seems that no matter what the weather might be, it is just grey and raining inside of us.  But in this verse, the Psalmist is saying, “Hey mind, get out of the dumps!  It is sunny behind those clouds, and if God is for us, we know that everything is going to come together!” Many times, we could be doing well, but then we let a thought get into our mind, and we do not arrest it, and it starts controlling us.  I like what the psalmist says to do, FIX YOUR EYES ON GOD! When we see who God is, what He has, and what He can do, then we see who the devil is not, what he does not have, and what he cannot do.  You see, our God is the Creator of all good.  Jesus said it so well in John 10:10, “The thief does not come except ...