Pastor Tom's Daily Devotional

1 Corinthians 6:19 (NKJV) Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? It always amazes me that God, by His Spirit, dwells in us.  In the Old Covenant, God’s Spirit came upon people, but never dwelled within them.  Yet here we are, born again, new creations in Christ, and the All-Powerful, Holy Spirit lives in us! In John 14, Jesus tells us that the Holy Spirit will be with us and in us.  The Amplified version shows us all the different things that He will do within us.  Look at this passage: John 14:16-17, “And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Comforter (Counselor, Helper, Intercessor, Advocate, Strengthener, and Standby), that He may remain with you forever— 17 the Spirit of Truth, Whom the world cannot receive (welcome, take to its heart), because it does not see Him or know and recognize Him. But you know and recognize Him, for He lives with yo...

John 15:7 (NKJV) If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. I love the way this verse is written in some different translations.  Check these out: John 15:7 (AMP) If you live in Me [abide vitally united to Me] and My words remain in you and continue to live in your hearts, ask whatever you will, and it shall be done for you. John 15:7 (NLT) But if you remain in me and my words remain in you, you may ask for anything you want, and it will be granted! John 15:7 (MSG) But if you make yourselves at home with me and my words are at home in you, you can be sure that whatever you ask will be listened to and acted upon. Powerful, right?  If we live and remain in His Word, the powerful Word of Almighty God, if we, as the Amplified Version says, stay “vitally united to Him,” we can ask what we will, and it will be done for us. So, as we live our lives, look to Him as your source, and believe Him e...

1 John 3:1 (NKJV) Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. Behold His love, that He would call us His children!  He did not have to.  He could have called us His servants, but no, not our Heavenly Father!  He calls us His children! Today, we can declare that we are children of the Most High God, the Creator of heaven and earth, the One who made all the good that we see.  He made us, and loves us, and wants to be a Father to us.  To me, this is truly amazing! The Creator of the Grand Canyon, the Creator of Niagara Falls, the Creator of the butterfly, and the Creator of the rose is my Creator, and He calls me His child.  I do not know if this is getting you excited today, but it has me jumping on the inside! So today, do not let a minute go by without talking to Him, your Heavenly Father, Who made you, loves you, an...

1 John 3:1 (NKJV) Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. Behold His love, that He would call us His children!  He did not have to.  He could have called us His servants, but no, not our Heavenly Father!  He calls us His children! Today, we can declare that we are children of the Most High God, the Creator of heaven and earth, the One who made all the good that we see.  He made us, and loves us, and wants to be a Father to us.  To me, this is truly amazing! The Creator of the Grand Canyon, the Creator of Niagara Falls, the Creator of the butterfly, and the Creator of the rose is my Creator, and He calls me His child.  I do not know if this is getting you excited today, but it has me jumping on the inside! So today, do not let a minute go by without talking to Him, your Heavenly Father, Who made you, loves you, an...

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 (NKJV) 16 Rejoice always, 17 pray without ceasing, 18 in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. The last two days, we have gone over verse 16: “Rejoice always,” and verse 17: “Pray without ceasing.”  Today, I want to look at the last part of this powerful trio, verse 18.  It says: “In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” Many people have taken this verse and made it say something that it was never intended to say, and that is, that no matter what comes against us in life, we are to give thanks for it.  Well, I do not think that is correct, because the Bible says in 1 Peter 5:8-9: “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. 9 Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world.” If we were not to re...

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 (NKJV) 16 Rejoice always, 17 pray without ceasing, 18 in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Yesterday, we looked at two small words that have so much power: "Rejoice Always."  Today, we are going to look at three words with a lot of power also, and they are: "Pray Without Ceasing." You might ask, “How can I do this?  How can I have a life of continuous prayer?” Well, the first thing that we need to get into our minds is that prayer is not just when we are on our knees.  We can pray while we are walking or driving or cooking or hunting.  Prayer is talking with our Heavenly Father.  We can do that anywhere, because God is a Spirit. John 4:24 says it like this: “God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”  So if God is ever present, then we can talk to Him at any time and in any place.  We can share with Him our victories, and al...

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 (NKJV) 16 Rejoice always, 17 pray without ceasing, 18 in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Here, we have three verses that have so much in them.  Let us take one each day for the next three days.  Verse 16 says, “Rejoice always.” Well, I do not know about you, but if you are living on planet earth and you are still breathing, to do this verse is not always easy.  To rejoice when things are not going our way, or when things are just going badly, is difficult.  Yet this verse tell us to do this, and one thing I have learned over the years is that if God gives us a word in the Bible to do, then He will give us the strength and power to do it. How do we rejoice always?  Well, I believe that we need to see the best in what is going on around us.  We need to be positive, and to know that even if the devil is bringing something against us, our Heavenly Father will get ...

Psalms 91:1 (NKJV) He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. There is no place like the secret place!  It is a place in Him; a place of His rest and His assurance.  It seems like we can never get there, but in this verse, it states that we can.  We can make a decision to get away from the rush of life, and dwell in His presence. I know that we do not always have those big God moments, but I have found that as I make decisions to get away and get with Him, those moments give me the strength to get through the hardest of times. When I talk about getting away, some might think that means I have to fast for 40 days, or go and live in a cave like a hermit.  No, sometimes that secret place can be on a pillow, or a walk, or even a drive.  Do not put restrictions on where God, your Father, can meet with you.  Remember, He is everywhere! This week, or even today when you lay down, talk to Him....

Nehemiah 8:10 (NKJV) Do not sorrow, for the joy of the LORD is your strength. The joy of our Father is our strength.  God wants us to be strong in Him.  True strength is not just muscle, or outward ability, but it is strength within us.  When we look at Samson, he had great strength on the outside, but inwardly he was very weak. As we look to the Word of God, we see that we can do all things through Christ Who strengthens us.  I want my life to be in His strength. Now, this is not to say that taking care of our physical man is not important; it is!  But what we do on the inside, what we do with our character, our true lives, is what is going to last.  So today, make a decision to put together a plan of action for what you can do every day to strengthen your inner man.  It might be to start each day with a devotional like this.  It might be to read a portion of the Bible every day.  It might be to have a quiet time with you...