Pastor Tom's Daily Devotional

Pastor Diane Feola Psalms 91:14-16 (AMP) Because he has set his love upon Me, therefore will I deliver him; I will set him on high, because he knows and understands My name [has a personal knowledge of My mercy, love, and kindness—trusts and relies on Me, knowing I will never forsake him, no, never].  He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him.  With long life will I satisfy him and show him My salvation. We have come to the last few verses of Psalm 91.  These three verses are where God speaks to us.  He wants us to know that He has set His love upon us.  God loves us, not because we deserve it, but simply because He is love !  His love for us is received by grace, through faith.  When we realize His love is unconditional, unchanging, and eternal, we can rest in that love. It says in the next part of this passage that He will set us on high.  The interesting thing is...

Pastor Diane Feola Psalms 91:11-13 (AMP) For He will give His angels [especial] charge over you to accompany and defend and preserve you in all your ways [of obedience and service].  They shall bear you up on their hands, lest you dash your foot against a stone. You shall tread upon the lion and adder; the young lion and the serpent shall you trample underfoot. This is another amazing promise from God.  Angels accompany and defend and preserve us in all of our ways of obedience and service.  We do not see the spiritual realm where angels operate, but we sometimes see the results of their protection.  It is unexplainable in the natural realm, but cannot be denied. A friend of mine was at a stoplight, and when the light turned green his car stalled.  He looked down and he was in second gear.  As he started his car and put it into first gear, a car ran the red light.  He could have been killed if his car was not in the wrong gear.  Tha...

Pastor Diane Feola Psalms 91:9-10  (AMP) Because you have made the Lord your refuge, and the Most High your dwelling place, there shall no evil befall you, nor any plague or calamity come near your tent. Psalm 91 continues with its amazing promises.  No evil befalls me, no plague or calamity comes near my dwelling.  Notice though, you need to make the Most High your dwelling place.  Where are you dwelling today? The Israelites were not touched by the plagues that devastated Egypt.  They were living in the land of Goshen.  Exodus 9:26 says, "Only in the land of Goshen, where the Israelites were, was there no hail."  As long as they stayed in the place God had for them, which by the way was the choice part of Egypt (Genesis 47:6), they were safe from the plagues. If we stay close to God, stay in the refuge and fortress, we are safe from the plagues and calamities that are coming on this earth.  There are a lot of new and ...

Pastor Diane Feola Psalm 91:5-8  (AMP) You shall not be afraid of the terror of the night, nor of the arrow (the evil plots and slanders of the wicked) that flies by day, nor of the pestilence that stalks in darkness, nor of the destruction and sudden death that surprise and lay waste at noonday.  A thousand may fall at your side, and ten thousand at your right hand, but it shall not come near you.  Only a spectator shall you be [yourself inaccessible in the secret place of the Most High] as you witness the reward of the wicked. We are continuing with Psalm 91, and it just gets better and better.  In these verses, we learn that no matter what horrible plagues or calamities come on the earth, they will not touch us.  Verse 5 is a key.  Do not be afraid!  The enemy tries to make you afraid.  He wants you to look around at all that is going on around you.  Faith in God’s great love and grace will calm all those fears.  God is for ...

Pastor Diane Feola Psalms 91:3-4  (AMP) For [then] He will deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the deadly pestilence.  [Then] He will cover you with His pinions, and under His wings shall you trust and find refuge; His truth and His faithfulness are a shield and a buckler. To continue on from yesterday, when we dwell in the secret place of the Most High, when we say of the Lord, He is our Refuge and Fortress, THEN He delivers us!  He wants to deliver us from every trap of the enemy, and from everything the devil would like to ensnare us with.  1 Peter 5:8 says that the devil walks around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.  If we stay close to Father God, we stay in His protection.  And we learned yesterday, no foe can withstand Him.  Hallelujah! He also delivers us from the deadly pestilence.  There are so many new diseases and strains of diseases.  There are so many who become fearful of flu season,...

Pastor Diane Feola Psalms 91:1-2  (AMP) He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall remain stable and fixed under the shadow of the Almighty [Whose power no foe can withstand].   I will say of the Lord, He is my Refuge and my Fortress, my God; on Him I lean and rely, and in Him I [confidently] trust! For the next several days we are going to look at Psalm 91 from the Amplified Bible.  We need to see this Psalm of protection as very personal, and very relevant for us today.  We can grab a hold of this Psalm, and confess it for our families and ourselves. Right from verse one, we see where we need to stay if we want to be safe.  We need to stay in that secret place, so close to Father God that we are in His shadow!  That is where no foe can defeat us because no foe can withstand His power. Look at what happens if we remain very close to the Most High.  We are stable and fixed .  Our life becomes very consistent....

James 1:22-25 (NKJV) But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. 23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; 24 for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. 25 But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does. God does not want the Bible to become just a book of rules and regulations.  He wants His Word to be our life, to be our strength, and to be our everything.  That is why it is so important to not let the Bible be just a book we read , but a book that we live .  God’s Word is truth, and everything else in life has to bow to it. When I make a decision in my life to let God’s Word take first place and to do what it says, it changes everything!  It changes my attitude, it changes the way I see thi...

John 8:31-32 (NKJV) Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. 32 And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” When we take time each day to abide in the words of Jesus, it makes us a true disciple of His.  You see, if we call ourselves Christians, yet do not know what the Commander-in-Chief’s orders are, then how can we move in His will?  As we open the Bible and read the amazing Word of God, it truly sets us free! God's Word is a lamp to our feet; it is a compass throughout our lives.  It will guide us and lead us in all that we do.  We can call the Bible a roadmap for our lives here on earth.  There is no other book on planet earth like it.  So many have tried to destroy it, and many are still trying, but I can say with bold confidence that they, and we, will be gone one day, but God's Word will continue marching on! In today’s passage, Jesus is talk...

Hebrews 11:1-3 (NKJV) Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. 2 For by it the elders obtained a good testimony. 3 By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible. Our God is a NOW God.  He knows the past and the future, but He is a now God.  All that He is doing is in the now, because our God is a God of faith.  This is the way that God sees us also.  He sees us healed now .  He sees us set free now .  And this is the way that God wants us to see ourselves: through His Word.  He wants us to see it done now .  Not tomorrow.  Not in the sweet by-and-by.  NOW! Faith in the now gives substance to the things that we hope for.  If we always see it as future, than it is still in the hope realm, because hope is not substance.  Let me show you what I mean.  The Bible declar...